Cranberry pants

Shirt and pants: Stitch Fix, 

Shoes: c/o Minnetonka, 

Necklace: c/o T&J Designs

You know, it's the weirdest thing. These photos were actually shot this morning, during about the two hour window when it was still sunny, breezy, and calm outside. Then in a matter of about 30 minutes, something wild blew in, and it's straight up winter out now. Grey skies, strong winds, and COLD. I absolutely love it. Looking forward to a day of warm flannel, hot coffee, and editing, editing, editing.  Seriously, my favorite kind of day. :)

In other news, I haven't talked much about Stitch Fix lately, but can I just say my fixes have been blowing my mind? This whole outfit arrived in my box yesterday, and not only is it my style, but it fits to a T. I really think you have to give them a few tries to really nail your style, and lots of feedback. I've been getting 2-4 items I absolutely love in every box lately! So much fun. 

(this post is in no way sponsored by Stitch Fix, but I do get referral credit if you sign up through my link!)

Anyway, have a beautiful day, you guys! 

Shirt and pants: Stitch Fix, 

Shoes: c/o Minnetonka, 

Necklace: c/o T&J Designs

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I found fall

Pirouetting Autumn

The tree blushed - a rude blast of air


Betrayed a shapely bough. 


My saddened heart aware


That Nature's clock was chiming, 


I froze upon the twelfth 


Clanging tone, caught alone, 


Staring at a creaking door -


Left ajar for dancing, coloured Autumn, 


Pirouetting in her leaves, 


While agitated summer creatures


Backed away resignedly, 


Sighing in protracted breves.


I turned; gave company; 


We stood together, watching


Summer slowly blow away.

~ Mark R. Slaughter

The one thing I'll never come to terms with about Austin is our lack of a consistent Autumn. In September, when it seems like the rest of the world is buzzing about the dropping temperatures and changing leaves and sweater weather and hot lattes, it's still a bazillion degrees here, and I begin to become extremely perturbed by our location within the hemisphere. Fall is just my favorite season, and we get ripped off a bit here in Texas. Teased with a few chilly days before the temps hike back up for a week. Teased for a few more chilly days, before the temps hike back up for a week. And so on and so forth. It may or may not even be cold on Thanksgiving and Christmas. So annoying!

But the conditions here this fall have made for a bit more leaf-changing, most especially at a little park where I held a photo session over the weekend (Old Settlers Park, for you curious Austinites). It was a hazy, chilly morning, and I drove up to scope out the lay of the land before my clients arrived and was so happily surprised by the beautiful colors I found. Damnit if they didn't make me want to run straight home for a hot bath and some spiced cider.

Enjoy your Monday, whatever part of the world you're in... :)

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A few recent favorites

Hey hey, happy Friday! Today I thought I'd share a handful of my favorite photos from recent sessions. Maybe I'll do this once a month-ish...? These images sure do impact the "story of my life" at the moment. ;) Visit the j. noel photography website, blog, or Facebook page to see more, if you so desire! Happy Friday!

Please take a moment to check out today's featured SOML sponsors, as well! Some really fantastic bloggers here today....

Hello there, I'm Katie! I blog over at Hope Engaged. A few years ago, my handsome husband Kevin and I began to ask ourselves if our marriage was making the world a lovelier place. This led us to move into an immigrant neighborhood in our native Orange County and open our home and hearts to the families there. It changed our lives. This past year, we were asked to move to Nepal to work at an aftercare home for girls rescued out of sex trafficking. It was an incredible experience to serve together with my best friend (a few thoughts on marriage here), and was equally amazing to watch God use my husband to redeem the view of men for the girls in the home! We just recently got back! Kev and I love to travel and have lived/backpacked/visited friends in almost 40 countries. A few recent travel posts from Thailand can be found here.  I also host aphoto-shoot link-up on the 15th of each month which I'd love to invite you to join! Mostly, I'm just a girl that loves Jesus, people, and a good adventure (like the time we almost died)! Excited to meet you! 

Blog/Facebook/Pinterest

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Hello dear friends. Like Ordinary Life is the lifestyle blog of me, Tina, believer in ordinary miracles and cat whisperer extraordinaire (I like dogs, too, promise). I am a first time wife, pr professional and social media guru by day, former pre-k teacher, curator of ordinary moments (here's a recent good one), and an okay friend. Though, I hope you can see past that because I love making new friends. Anyway, I'd love for you to visit and say hello. I blog about my rather ordinary adventures with my husband, my nail polish obsession, oh, and Christmas. I'm a Christmas freak so stick around because that's going to be happening sooner than we realize, isn't it? So, anyway, while I plug away at life over here in the DC area (I work in Alexandria, commute through DC, and live in Annapolis- yikes), I'd love to "meet" you online. Come say hello. :)

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Josephine House

I haven't been getting out much lately, but yesterday I met a friend at a new-ish little spot downtown called Josephine House. The cuteness factor was out of this world, so of course I had to document it a bit. What a great spot for lunch, snacks, or an evening drink with a date. Perfection.

house-made vanilla-cherry soda (I'll try cucumber next!) ^ 

My friend Kate's baby is the cutest and sweetest baby on the planet...

Sweet potato beignets with serrano & honey glaze... I was skeptical at first, but they were to die for. Complete savory sweet awesomeness....

Check out more around-Austin posts HERE

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A thank you + a sweet Minnetonka giveaway

Checkered shirt and pants: J. Crew, Blue shirt: Banana Republic, Shoes: c/o Minnetonka Moccasins

You guys! Can I just say a humongous thank you for your response to yesterday's post? 

It's funny, because it took me like an hour and half to crank out those three little paragraphs... that's how uninspired and verbally constipated I've been feeling lately, when it comes to blogging. And I had a very "meh" attitude about what the response would be. I thought there would be a few nice comments and maybe a lot of radio silence from all those who would be thinking to themselves, "yeah, time to retire the blog now, Jenni, you kind of do suck." I really didn't count on such thoughtful and insightful comments from so many of you, and they really lifted my spirits and reminded me exactly why I fell in love with blogging in the first place. So thank you. That really, really means a lot to me. I can't promise this blog won't be marginally sucky in November, since my ass is literally glued to my chair editing photos and generally running a business all week, but I do feel a lot more motivated going forward, to bring this blog back to something that I'm really proud of. 

Switching gears here, one thing I can say I AM proud of is that the advertisers I have on board this month are really top notch and I am so happy to be working with them. Today concludes my three styled Minnetonka moccasins, and with that conclusion comes a giveaway of one of the three said pairs, to one happy reader! Scroll down for your chance to win. :) Happy Tuesday, and again, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Checkered shirt and pants: J. Crew, Blue shirt: Banana Republic, Shoes: c/o Minnetonka Moccasins

Win one of these three pairs of mocs! Enter in the Rafflecopter below. And check out the SOML Q&A feature on the Minnetonka blog here! :)

one | two | three

*OPEN TO U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY*

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pardon my French.

I've seen some interesting comments come through recently on my blog. In full disclosure, I absolutely moderate comments because it's my blog and I can. Unfortunately, there are people who choose to write hurtful things about our open adoption. I know there is tremendous hurt and pain for anyone who has had a negative experience with adoption - whether an adoptee, a birthmother or an adoptive parent - and I would never want to diminish that or cause more hurt to someone already hurting, but I do want to address a comment from someone who asked for me to respond publicly on my blog.  



The writer says this: 

"How wonderful. I can see how poverty prevented you from raising your fist daughter. You really seem to have a hard time making ends meet. How do you explain to your daughter why you gave her away? I'd love for you to share that with your readers." 



Sure, I'd love to share my response with my readers. First of all, I think it's poor judgement to make an assessment of someone's ability to make ends meet based solely on reading their blog. Nevertheless, at this point in my life I'm not having a difficult time making ends meet. And the reason is because I had the opportunity to earn my college degree, to complete multiple unpaid internships, and to serve as a leader with several student organizations on campus - all of this while supporting myself financially for four years - so that when I finally did graduate, I had the education and experience necessary to land a great job that enables me to pay my bills each month. Yes, there was a time when I had trouble making ends meet - and that time was when I was 18-years-old and pregnant. Since that time, I have worked really, really hard to get to the point where I am today, and I'm not ashamed of the hard work I've put in or any of the things I have accomplished. 


I'm not saying that I couldn't have earned a college degree or accomplished great things while raising a child singlehandedly - I know plenty of capable single parents who have done it and done it phenomenally. But I sure as heck am saying that I would not be where I am today, and more importantly, Deanna would not have had the quality of life or opportunities she has been provided with either.  Not to mention having two parents who have been fully committed to her well-being and emotional growth since before she was born, and too-many-to-count people who love her and have positively impacted her life in some way. 



For most of the first few years after placing, I was consumed with guilt and depression. I cried often (in private), wondering how Deanna would feel about her adoption. Would she hate me? Would she want to have a relationship with me when she got older? What questions would she have about her placement and how would I answer them? My faith has gotten me through those difficult times. When I made the choice to follow Christ, I realized that there was a bigger plan and purpose for my life and that sharing my experience with open adoption could help others. Because of Christ, I know that I have been forgiven, redeemed, restored, and made new. Sitting around and feeling sorry for myself was no longer an option. Philippians 4:13 says "I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." That verse gave me strength in those hard times.



To suggest that placing my daughter would only be justified if I weren't able to "make ends meet" - eight years later - makes no sense to me. If someone is truly curious and wants to gain insight about something, by all means, please ask questions. Ask, ask away. I encourage it, and I appreciate an open and honest discussion. But please don't (try) to post anonymous comments with the purposeful intent of making someone feel bad about the choices I have made. By the way, I do have a personal email address that is published on my blog, so you don't have to remain anonymous.   



Something that really bothers me is the public's perception of birthmothers. We're not poverty-stricken, uneducated morons. We're smart, courageous women who made a selfless choice to give our children something we could not provide at the time. We each have our own unique set of not-so-pretty circumstances that played a role in our decisions to place. And our decisions are not always based solely on finances. Society tells us: If you have the finances to raise a child, but you decide to place, then you must be really selfish. Yes, finances are an important factor in deciding whether or not to place a child for adoption because let's face it... you have to be able to support yourself and another human being, but there is so much more to it than that. So much more. There are plenty of people who have more than enough money, but may not be capable of parenting. I can tell you that at 18, I was not financially or emotionally capable of being responsible for the wellbeing of not just myself, but another human being. An incredibly precious one at that. And that's the bottom line. 



So to answer the question, what will I say to my daughter to explain my decision?  To be honest, I'm really not sure.  Will I say the perfect words to make it all better?  No, probably not. But will the words I say come from the depths of my heart and be the complete and honest truth?  You bet. Because of open adoption, I have the privilege of being able to answer any of Deanna's questions at any time. Whenever she wants. Or maybe never if she doesn't want to talk about it. But that choice is ultimately hers now.



That's the beauty of open adoption.  

When a blog starts to suck

Shirt: c/o Lulu's, Leggings: gifted, Bag: Ruche, Shoes: c/o Minnetonka

Last week I received a comment from a reader about how much my blog is sucking lately, and I must say, I have to agree with her. 

When I started this blog three years ago, I was 23 years old and a housewife. I had almost no other responsibilities, so I decided to treat blogging like my full time job. I poured myself into it, and I don't regret that one single bit. I owe this blog and my wonderful readers so much. It has honestly been such a fun ride, and has taught me so much.

But I am an all or nothing kind of girl. I'm not very good at being awesome at more than one thing at a time, and lately, my all has gone to my photography business. Because I truly love it, yes, but also due to pure necessity. We need my business to pay our bills until Matthew finishes school and finds a job, which won't be for another 6+ months. So naturally, I have been investing a great deal of time, energy, and creativity into the biz (which, I'm happy to say, is booming), leaving very little for this blog. In turn, there's been too much sponsor stuff because I lack inspiration and don't have enough time to create great content in between advertorial posts, and I just feel like the authenticity and FUN is gone. For the first time, blogging has felt like an annoying chore, like scrubbing a toilet, but I've continued doing it because it provides a little bit of income that we need. But I've been frustrated and annoyed by all of the trying too hard, and all of the curated realities... and mine is one of them. 

So what am I saying here? To be perfectly honest, I don't even really know myself. I don't want to shut this blog down completely. That would feel like cutting off an appendage, actually. It's become such a part of who I am. But I know that when you do something half-heardedly, when it no longer brings you joy, it starts to show. So I am in the process of majorly rethinking how I want blogging to fit into my life, and I guess I just ask for your patience while I do so. In the future, probably starting in December or January, I see a lot less advertorial stuff and probably a bit less posting, in general. The old phrase, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" comes to mind. I'd love to blog when I have something I really want to share, not because I'm trying to fit in a certain number of posts in between sponsor-related posts. 

Blogging is weird.