hello, lovely. would you like to be friends?

proverbs 18 : 24

a man who has friends must himself be friendly...

 this topic has been on my heart for awhile now, but words could not be grasped to write about it until now...

popularity.seems our culture revolves around this single exciting word. the description of a girl being popular brings a thrilling chill down one's spine because 'common we all seek to be accepted and viewed as important by others.
popularity runs through blogging circles just as much as it does through real life.
 perhaps you struggle just like me with the thought, "well, I should like to very much have 25 comments per post, 1,000 followers," because in our eyes that's popularity. unfortunately, I was easily swept into the thinking of "being popular" I must do certain things to achieve it, instead of what blogging is truly about. attempting to gain an overwhelming amount of comments and followers, left me exhausted, greedy, and depressed because I had not met the standard of what I called, "popular." I had lost focus of my ultimate goal : to inspire, to bless, to c o n n e c t not compete. 

and i was left with nothing but complete and utter unrest and frustration and saying to myself, "I'm not good enough." once inspiration stopped, my stats began to reach and all-time low, comments dwindled, and I dove into the "depths of despair," scrambling to save everything that I had once "built" up by publishing things I knew in the back of my head never truly touched readers like I had hoped.

and then it hit me. after reading some of my archives to-day, I saw the lovely notes past readers left. eight, nine, ten comments became normal back then on posts I now I look back on as dull and incomplete. but then I realized why :: I had been myself. simply me. an old-fashion girl often randomly rambling about life through a thirteen-year-old's eyes at the time. 

now I see what the true blessings of blogging are :: friendships. 

  

so darling, stay for tea in this little garden o' mine. my photographs may not be perfect, nor my writing style the most clever you have ever read, but how lovely 'twould be if you stayed. 

^^ this is me ^^

hi, I'm Grace. I wear braces and glasses and am rambunctious {sometimes too rambunctious}, random, and somewhat of a klutz. I'm an outgoing 15-year-old social butterfly and often think I was born in the wrong time period. I'm a lover of lavender, lace, and letters, writing and reading, and anything whimsy. I love tea and books and my new owl journal as well as keeping my hands busy with knitting, sewing, crocheting, and card-making. oh, and I believe in good spelling and grammar but I think lower case letters are lovely too. this is simply me. 

hello, lovely! a pleasure to meet you. would you like to be friends? 

leave a note, and I'll return it.

love always,
the keeper of the garden.

[images via pinterest]