Spring Flowers + A Few Things on my Mind

Happy First day of SPRING!

Although the weather sure isn’t vibing with our welcomed new season, I’m sure it will catch on pretty quickly! btw, if you’re new around here, I live in Sacramento, CA. So, yes, I’m from “Cali” 😉 (even though the only people who call it that are those who don’t live in “Cali” – I always think that’s so funny), but I’m about 1.5 hours from the nearest beach and it isn’t sunny all of the time like you may picture California being. We get all four seasons here. Although the coldest we really see at Wintertime is about 30ish degrees. So no snow for us here.

I’m not the biggest fan of cold weather, I’m a Summer girl at heart. So I’m ready to see some sunshine and throw on a tank and some shorts {see last post for some denim shorts finds}.

These pictures were taken by my beautiful and talented friend Ashley Maxwell (un.freakin.believable wedding photographer if you’re getting married) who I’ve had the pleasure of “working” with for quite some time now. She helped me out in the beginning stages of my blogging days before my husband took over the shooting side of things and I can’t thank her enough.

She just redid her website and was needing some pictures for marketing, so she threw all of her talents together and created this shoot! So girly & fun & whimsical, huh?!

Something currently on my mind…

There’s been a lot of talk recently surrounding cyber bullying and how it plays effect in the blogging world. I’ve seen a lot of bloggers stand up for themselves and that side of me is happy and proud for them. Proud that they feel empowered to have a voice and proud that they stand for justice. The other side of me hurts. Hurts because hurt people hurt people and that’s ultimately what this comes down to. Unfortunately I think there will always be this type of negativity surrounding the blogging/social media world as it’s just apart of life, specifically when it comes to the picture perfect and comparison side of things. But what matters most is how we decide to react to the negativity. Are we the bigger person or will we allow it to bring us down to their level?

There was an instance recently on my Instagram where I had a few people chime in about being unhappy with the way I go about advertising products. Without going into the full blown story, I reacted immediately and was more harsh than I typically am with my response. You know sometimes when you stuff things down and then one little incident happens and it blows you over the edge? Yeah, that’s what happened here. I could have ignored it (typically what I try to do), moved on, or maybe even replied a little bit nicer, but instead my emotions got to me. I’m 100% okay with people giving their opinion, as long as it’s done in a respectful manner (example: doing what I do, I have lots of people DM telling me they don’t agree with something I said or did. IF it is said in a respectful manner, it almost always ends in a healthy conversation and mutual respect for another even if we still don’t see eye to eye on an issue). When they don’t, that’s when I tend to lose my cool. However, thinking back, I wish I had either ignored it or responded with a little bit more respect. Because how we respond to situations says everything. Sure, we all make mistakes, and maybe they were having a bad day? But I don’t ever want to let someones emotions dictate mine. We are ultimately in control of how we respond to every situation in life. And how we respond says a lot about how we are doing internally. Stressed? You’ll probably lash out. At your wits end? You’ll probably say something you’ll regret later. Just got the best news everrrr? You could probably care less that your son just spilt milk on the floor.

A takeaway I’m learning? Always respond to a negative situation with the upmost respect for the other person. Is it hard? FOR SURE. Guys, I’m sassy. Like, if you met me in real life, you’d understand 😉 Which is why I can and do lose my cool at times. But I’m learning. That doesn’t mean that I can’t respect and love people for right where they are at. After all, those are the ones who probably need to be loved on the most. Hurt people hurt people.

XOXO