{Giveaway} Seasons with Soul captures truth

I'm welcoming my God-sized dreaming friend Elizabeth Anne May here today. She captures beauty and truth in the pictures she takes with her camera and the ones she creates with her words. More than once, she's summed up the condition of my heart when I didn't even know how to put my own thoughts into words. 

Today, I had my first Artist Date.

{I've just started The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. It prescribes a two-hour Artist Date every week as part of a creative recovery or discovery process.}

According to my new guru, Julia, I'm supposed to be feeding my inner artist-child -- i.e., not doing anything boring or practical -- so I choose ice cream, sunshine, and flowers.

We've had a long, hard winter, so the appearance of sunshine and 50-something temps is cause for celebration. And, I've recently come off a food challenge that mandated no dairy, grains, or sugar. {If you knew me, you would know cheese, bread, and chocolate are my dietary holy trinity, making this no small feat.}

So, I pick up a novel, a Drumstick, and my camera {as well as technical necessities -- my mobile phone, baby monitor, notepad, and pen}. First, I head to the new spot my husband's cleared just outside our chain-link fence, a few feet from the creek bank.

I revel in cream and caramel and crunch. I listen to creek-shush. I'm pleasantly startled when a mallard skitters up and away. I contemplate the delicate beauty of sycamore tree-tops against pale-blue sky. I read fiction {something I haven't allowed myself in far too long, being too busy with a huge stack of non-fiction tomes that counsel me on improving myself, my marriage, my parenting skills, my prayer habits, my artistic habits, and more}.

I probably only sit still for a half hour or so. Play is hard work for me, and I opt to move on.

I head to the patch of crocus under our hydrangea bush. They're a positive riot of white, violet, and orangey-yellow that I must try to capture.

I throw down an old towel and stretch all the way out, getting level with the beauteous bulbs. I play with angles and point of focus and depth of field. I am no expert, no trained photographer, but I find that I increasingly search out beauty through my lens. I seek out nature's glory, and find that I can uncover loveliness in the most unlikely places, have even done so in the dead of winter.

I particularly enjoy pairing my photos {of flowers, moss, seed pods, bark, or ice droplets}with scripture. It seems an especially apt marriage. I believe God's creativity shines brightest through his handiwork in nature; it's his ultimate art project. <—Tweet This!

In mid-February, I opened an Etsy shop, selling original photo prints, enhanced with scripture typography.

While, most days, my focus is on writing and blogging, I love playing with photography. {Here's an area where play is easy for this busy, Type-A mom.} I relish the opportunity to take off into my yard and explore, finding unexpected treasure.

When my sweet friend here, Kristin, asked if I'd like to write a guest post about my Etsy shop/photography and host a giveaway, I was thrilled to do so. This week I'm giving away a 5x7 print of your choice from the shop. You can enter by checking out the prints and then commenting below about which one you like best. Kristin will randomly select a winner on Friday.

There's more! I'm also offering a 20% off coupon for Kristin's readers this week. Simply enter code GRANDOPENING at checkout.
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Elizabeth grew up on a small, 220-acre farm in the Midwest and lives today in the suburbs with her three littles (10,8, and 3), her husband, and their ditsy but lovable English Springer Spaniel. She's a food freak, lover of all things DIY, and a reformed perfectionist  She also has a habit of training for and running a half-marathon in the spring and then eating chocolate the rest of the year and avoiding exercise. 

A professional writer who’s worked in higher education and health care for the past 15 years, Elizabeth gave up her paying clients in September to work for a new boss. {She's says He's divine.}

You can find her writing about faith, family, and nature at Seasons with Soul or follow her on Twitter.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link. If you click through the link and make a purchase, Elizabeth will earn a small percentage. It's clicks like these that help keep her site up and running, so thanks!