I often take pictures of random things that make me smile. Bright colors, vintage finds, flowers, chocolate, coffee, doughnuts and penguins on top of buildings are few things that captured my attention the month of August. I shared all of these pictures on my Instagram account. I know many people don’t have an Instagram account and that’s okay. Don’t let it give you #FOMO ( the fear of missing out). I think our society has enough forms of social media competing for our attention that we often miss out on life.
As a blogger I struggle with where to put my time and efforts. I’m a visual person and have always loved photography so I choose to spend most of my free time on Instagram pursuing photos and being inspired by the images I see. At the end of each month I’ll be sharing a collection of a few things that caught my eye. I hope you enjoy them as well.
The first photo is of the 21c Hotel Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. The iconic green penguins are found throughout this boutique hotel which houses a contemporary art museum free of charge. You can read more about the hotel here. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the vintage car parked in front of the hotel is covered in coins so I’ve included a few more pictures.
There’s also a lovely suitcase bench sculpture by the front door to the hotel, but I wasn’t quite sure if we could sit on it.
The bicycle wheel in the second picture is from an Electra bike we spotted in a bike shop in downtown Bentonville, Arkansas.
Fresh flowers and chocolate always make me smile. The blueberry and cranberry almond dark chocolate bar from Brookside is one of my favorites right now. The combination of the fruit and almonds helps sweeten the dark chocolate and dark chocolate is good for you so it’s a win/win in my book.
We brought my son back to K-State University in August and stopped by Varsity Donuts. It’s very well-known on campus and I’ve heard the grilled mac and cheese sandwich is out of this world. They offer an interesting variety of donuts and I absolutely love their slogan and decor. It’s just as cute on the inside as the outside.
The final picture is from my post I shared of my 12 Hour Adventure with Caribou Coffee. I had a lot of fun sipping my Crafted Press Iced Coffee while strolling through the Overland Park Arboretum. There is so much beauty to be seen at the Arboretum. In the words of Confucius himself, “Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
I dare you to get out and capture a picture of something beautiful today! If you’re on Instagram tag me in your photo so I can check out what you find and use the #joyfulinstasmiles.
I love how you take pictures. For some reason I always think a person needs to be in the picture but it’s not necessary. My family will be soooo happy:)
I gave up on taking as many pictures of my family because everyone always complained. It’s much more fun taking pictures of random things that make me smile.
That car covered in coins is CRAZY! You definitely have an eye. I sometimes have a camera with me when I’m out (well, I always have my phone…) but I haven’t taken to capturing images and haven’t yet gotten onto Instagram. Looks pretty fun, though, I have to admit!