Building Community

I've been thinking a lot about community lately. My husband and I talk often about the benefits of belonging to solid community, and how the community we build will affect the lives of our children.

I grew up in a place out of a fairy tale- I lived in a neighborhood full of children, with my cousins and aunts and uncles just across the street from me. All of my friends from school lived within a minute's walk, and my parents knew everyone in our neighborhood. It was a wonderful place to be a kid, and the sense of community was so great for my parents as well.

Now that I'm a mother, building a life far away from my own family, I want that same sense of community for my children. One of the things (besides my husband, of course) that drew me to Arizona was the community I stumbled into and immediately became a part of. I had really good friends, encouraging, loving, fun friends who made me a better person through their friendships. They all come from strong families and I felt drawn in to these families, which really made up for being away from mine. A lot has changed in a few years- all of those friends are still around and still wonderful, but I've married and had Emmett and my life has changed.

So now I'm working hard to rebuild that sense of community. I'm working on building new friendships within my neighborhood, and with mothers of young children. I love to bake things and walk them to my neighbors. I love to bring meals to families with brand new babies. I take Emmett for walks around the neighborhood, waving hello and often stopping to chat with friends along the way. These are some of the ways I like to build relationships and community in our daily life here in Arizona.

I used to throw baby showers for my friends whenever I could. I love to host parties and celebrate my friends that way. I hope to do that again when I have a house big enough for hosting. I really love creating a menu and gathering the perfect decorations to make the party beautiful for my friends. It's one of my love languages I think.

Lately I've also been thinking about finding ways to grow and build community online. I've stumbled across a few girls who are working hard to do just that. Mary Beth from Annapolis and Company (I wrote about her here!) has created a wonderful little community through her blog and Instagram through the hashtag #theeverdayproject, where she teaches and encourages people to find and capture beauty in everyday things and to share them on Instagram. Nicole over at Today Is My Favorite is working to create community through her blog (I especially loved this idea!), just by really trying to connect with her readers and sponsors. She also created the hashtag #todayismyfavorite on Instagram (inspired by The Every Day Project) as a place where people can share the special moments from their day to day.

These ladies, and many others, have inspired me to find ways to build community through my blogging and my day to day dealings with others through social media. So today I decided to branch out and try a couple of new things, and I want to share them with you.

The first is a blog hop geared towards mama bloggers like me, hosted by Hannah of Joyful Life. This is just a place for bloggers to link up, find each other, and become friends! I've never done this type of link-up before, but so far it's been really fun!

The second is pretty cool- it's called The Great Christmas Exchange, hosted by Elizabeth from Oak & Oats. It's basically a big gift exchange, open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike! You sign up with your contact info and some things you like, and in a few weeks you'll be matched up with a total stranger, who you'll send a Christmas gift to. You'll receive a gift from another stranger, and hopefully make some friends in the process! Isn't that awesome? What a great idea. I'm really excited to try it!

How do you build community in your life, either online or in your neighborhood? I'd love to hear your ideas!

Inspiration: The Everyday Project by Annapolis & Co

I found Annapolis & Co a few months back (through Casey Leigh- if you don't already read this one, start. Now!) and instantly fell in love with her blog. The photography is so striking, I found myself pouring over her posts to see more of her beautiful photos. I found myself wanting to pick up my camera and work harder at my own photography. I wanted to learn! Isn't it amazing when you come across a blog or IG feed that really inspire you to be better? So great.

I've spent some time the last few days reading Mary Beth's posts from her series The Everyday Project. Have you seen this movement on IG yet? You can check it out by searching the hashtag #theeverydayproject. I've been seeing that hashtag everywhere for weeks now, and finally found time to check it out. Mary Beth is an iPhone photography genius! She's writing weekly posts with incredible tips for iPhone photography, giving you simple and brilliant instructions on everything from basics like lighting and perspective, to how to capture movement, and how to add typography to your photos. She gives you the inside scoop on the best apps to use for editing, and even gives really wonderful advice on Instagram etiquette- things like how to grow a following, where she talks about the right ways to connect with others on IG. Really great stuff.

The post she did on how to capture a Silhouette was my favorite- I learned so much from that post about how to use your iPhone's tap-to-focus feature to change the lighting and depth of field in your photos. This is basic stuff, but I never would have figured it out without Mary Beth's help. She is able to take her beautiful photos and break them down to show you exactly how she captures them, and each post leaves me feeling more inspired and more excited to go out and experiment with my own photography. I only wish I'd taken the time to read them sooner!

The purpose behind this series is to inspire readers to go out and play with their cameras, to take better photos, and to share them on Instagram. Spend a little bit of time going through #theeverydayproject hashtag on IG and you'll see that she's done it! She has created a community of people, learning and sharing and helping eachother to grow. As I come across images I love I've been liking and commenting on them, and I've discovered some really beautiful feeds, while getting great feedback on my own images. People are doing amazing things on Instagram. I'm already a huge fan (#overgram much?), but this new community of IGers has really renewed my love for Instagram.

I'm inspired, empowered. Each day I can't wait to take photos, to play with my iPhone camera, to mess with my photos and create beautiful images. I'm rethinking the way I Instagram- I want my feed to be beautiful, to tell my story, and to welcome others and inspire them. I am so grateful to Mary Beth for taking the time to share her knowledge, and can't wait to learn more!