I tell ya, ever since she turned six (yes six!! pics coming!!), her inner, interior designer, skills have EXPLODED!!

It started with this...creating her very own 'art' wall in her room.

She sat down to color the blue masterpiece that you can see hanging (this is based on a painting that I painted that she loves, because she says it's the lantern's from Rapunzel...something I didn't even think about when I was painting...it was just circles over a blue background, so I absolutely LOVE that she saw this in my painting! So fun!) and then she asked me if she could hang it.

Of course, I said, "Of course!!" Ha!

Well, once she hung the first one up, she was jolted with inner creativity inspiration and she colored 20 pages in total and hung each one up.

She colored, then hung it up. Colored. Hung it up. Colored and hung it up, in like 10 minutes.

I was in absolute awe watching her do this.

Her joy, her excitement...it was incredible and so, so heart warming.

It started with a few (and a filled 'stuffed animal' bed)...

Then it continued with a SUPER giddy moment because she hung Harry Potter up (she LOVES him!!!) and then Lil' Bro came to see all her creative inspiration.

Oh yeah...gotta show the bro Harry!! Ha!

Then, before we knew it, we had to clear the way on her bed because she was adding SO many beautiful pictures.

She was counting them all because she was determined to have 20! Almost there!

Once she got to 19, she stopped and then let Lil' Bro look at the one she drew for him.

He enjoyed looking at them all with her. So cute!!

Then they were JUMPING for JOY with excitement that her wall was filled. Again, so cute!!

Then she left, and he stayed around for a bit longer. Awweee...I wonder if he's gonna make his own art wall when he's six. I can't wait to see what comes through him at this age!!

And, like I said, this was just the beginning!! She has since, hung up her princess dresses on her blinds as curtains, moved the couch cushion under her window for a cozy seat, the hubs made her canopy over bed with a sliding curtain that now includes hanging lights AND she's moved her book bins to a different place in her room (guess she didn't like where I had them...ha!).

I think it's SO amazing to be able to witness this and words can't even express how grateful I am for iPhone camera.

It's moments like this that fill my heart with SO much JOY and have me wanting to stop and savor it for as long as I can, and that's where my camera comes in.

Instead of just walking by her room and noticing what she was doing real quick and then getting back to my to-do list right away, grabbing my camera allows me to truly STOP and move in closer to the moment, stand, sit, watch and then snap EVERYTHING that's making me smile.

I LOVE having beautiful DSLR pictures, but for me, I can't always pull out my DSLR...and honestly, for me, snapping these everyday moments, editing them real quick (edited these in the PicTapGo app) after the moment happened, is SO much more important to me.

Sure, some are blurry and the lighting can be off, but years down the road, I'm not gonna look at these and say, "Wow, the light is SO awesome in this picture OR, "Wow, look at how crisp those photos look!" Nope!!

I'm gonna look at them and then I'm gonna immediately remember the FEELING that this moment brought me and my kids are going to look at them and they're going to remember WHO they are and how they FELT in this moment, too!

Which, for all of us, is and will be JOY!!

It's this JOY that I want to ALWAYS remember!!

And, my camera, be it my iPhone or DSLR, helps me be 100% present in the moment and helps me truly SAVOR the feeling I always wanna remember!!

So, yeah, the technical rules are GREAT, but for me...

capturing the FEELing of the moment comes first.

It's the JOY that comes first...and, if you really LOVE photography, then the technical rules are GREAT to learn, but, please, ALWAYS remember, it's the moment that matters most!!

It's too easy to get pulled into making the "perfect" picture, which, in the end, causes you to miss the FEELING of the moment that's making YOU smile (and trust me, I know this first hand...especially when I was first learning photography!)

But, what's really cool, and has happened for me, is that once you learn those technical rules, you won't even have to think much about them and you'll be well on your way back to capturing what lights UP your heart with love!!

But even if you don't learn the "rules" of photography and continue to take pictures with your iPhone (which has been me for over a year), having any camera, without knowing any rules, is so GREAT, too, because, again, it's all about SAVORING the FEELING of moments that LIGHT UP your heart with LOVE, so when you look back at them, you'll immediately remember all the JOY that filled your heart in that moment!!

And that's the most awesome gift that camera's bring to us all and the main reason why I'm SO passionate about photography and taking pictures!

Until next time,

Slow down to savor what YOU love (through the lens)....even if it's crappy lighting or with your iphone...because it's the moment that matters most!! ;)