Inspiration to Be Yourself {The Weekly Round-Up}

Somehow all of the posts I found this week for The Weekly Round-Up (big shout-out to my co-host Aubrey) had some sort of inspirational message about being yourself-whatever that may be!  I'm happy to share these with you, and hope you'll find some inspiration in them as well, because honey-you're perfect.

♥ As a wannabe artist I love watching other artists and hearing about their process.  I'm always inspired by Ashlie Blake and her transformations, and I love seeing her venturing off into new areas where she feels challenged and also more fulfilled-the new work is different, but oh so beautiful and unique!

♥ Patricia from Patricia Alexandra Creative started a new series of Creatsperation where she features artists who inspire her.  I love this idea, and I love even more that she started with herself, and learned valuable lessons about how worthy she is of spending time on.  It's beautiful and fantastic! 

♥ Erin at Living in Yellow wrote a post about why she didn't attend college and how she feels about that now and I think it's great.  College is a great thing, but not the thing for everyone.  It's nice to see another perspective, especially from someone who is so successful and happy-a reminder that you can do anything.

♥ Liz from Fitness Blondie wrote a great post about how exercise changed her life, and it wasn't even all about her body and looks.   There were great points on her confidence and self view.

♥ Ashley from The Shine Project wrote a letter to a contestant on The Bachelor called Dear Nikki (and to every other woman in a crappy relationship).  While I don't watch the show, this was an amazing read anyway!  I have been right there too-and I think we all need to keep these things in mind.

<a href="http://www.mysocalledchaos.com"><img src="http://i725.photobucket.com/albums/ww257/agofish/For%20Blog/MSCC%20Buttons/weeklyroundup_zps248cb375.jpg"></a>

Share your favorite reads this week!

The point of The Weekly Round-Up is to focus on other people instead of just another post about ourselves.  It's to build better community, share insight into what we love to read, and hopefully introduce you to a new blogger you'll love and adore!  Wanna play along?  Write a post with links to your favorite blog posts from others throughout the week, put the button in it, and link up with us on Sundays!

♥ ♥ ♥

Happy Birthday Mr. Bingo

I also want to take a minute to say a big Happy Birthday to Mr. Bingo today.  He's been important in my life for many reasons, some aren't always clear-but they're still there, and I am glad to know him.  If you missed our adventures together last week check them out: Eel Lake, Umpqua Lighthouse; Cape Arago, & Bandon.

Oregon Photo Dump pt 5: Mr. Bingo's Backyard

Mr. Bingo's Backyard sounds like it could be the name of a children's show-creepy or not, I'm not sure... But let me tell you this-Mr. Bingo has the most amazing yard.  It's like his very own forest, and it's lush and green with all of these gorgeous colorful accents-some natural, like blossoms, his cat Pepe, and Koi-and some placed there-like red benches and welcome signs.  It's gorgeous and it was the most perfect place for me to practice some of my photography skills as I wandered about. It's not only his back yard, his front yard is just amazing.  It's covered in clover and has this big beautiful tree right outside the main windows-and he gets to see that every. single. day.  Just see what I mean:

Did you know that Salamanders look just like little Pokemon in their faces?  Seriously, so cute and pretty friendly.  Those clear sacks up there?  Salamander egg sacks.  There are itty bitty baby Salamanders growing there in the pond along with the Koi and other creatures.  Amazing.  

If you missed my other Oregon photo dumps see Eel Lake, Umpqua Lighthouse, Cape Arago, and Bandon also.  There were lots of fun shots-great things to see and check out! 

Oregon Photo Dump pt. 4: Bandon

One day I got Mr. Bingo to drive me down to Bandon.  It was really windy there, but we stopped for some lunch (I was queasy from the curvy drive and needed some real food) at this adorable little place called Tony's Crab Shack and then we wandered over to the pier to take some shots of the murky brown water.

After that we drove out to get a better shot of the lighthouse, and then down to the beach where the sun was warm and rich on the horizon and the tide was starting to come in.  Aside from the wind being really chilly and freezing our faces and hands, it was a lovely little walk on the beach.  The rocks were fun to explore and waves crashing on and through them was wonderful.

If you missed my other photo dumps check out our picnic at Eel Lake, my visit to the Umpqua Lighthouse, and also my hike along Cape Arago in Coos Bay.  Lots of lovely images there too!