Art of Mothering Photo Contest: Cast Your Vote!

Oh, you guys! We love hosting these photo contests. But we also hate it...because it is so hard to choose finalists. So, so hard! Next time we're going to have you do it, ok?

Thank you for your beautiful submissions. We loved them; we'll share them all in the near future so you can see them, too. It was particularly hard to narrow it down this time because every submitted photo represented something so tender and dear - your relationship with your children, your love for them, the sacrifices you make for them, the little rituals that make up your shared life. Each one was lovely. Even if your photo was not chosen as a finalist, please know that we looked at it, we loved it, we considered it. Hopefully this little contest will encourage you to keep your cameras close, learn how to use the self-timer feature, and put someone else on photog duty to make sure you're capturing some of the beautiful moments of motherhood.

Here are the finalists:



Melissa & Lucy at the park; a photo of the never-ending act of "shoe-ing"


Cara and all three of her darling girls


Liz, just home from a morning run feeds baby Pearl her first bites of rice cereal...with a little "help" from three year old George :)


Tysha & Sawyer - naptime stories. (A beautiful mothering self-portrait -- see what you can capture with the self-timer!)


Upon returning to the van, Natalie and her boys discover a stow-away (a little green inchworm!) who rode in on a leaf gathered from the hike


This photo (submitted by Trina) captures a dear friend playing with her youngest just four months after a mother-to-daughter kidney transplant.


Abbie teaching her babes something she loves


Sarah savoring a snuggle with baby Owen


Rae gets "a squishy kiss from her squishy girl. Soul food."


Submitted by Avalon Marsh - a photo of her sister-in-law. There is just something so serene and genuine about this photo - we love it.


Christina calms a fussy Eliza

There is a poll at the top of our sidebar - please vote for your favorite photo. The winner, who will receive a one year subscription to Country Living, will be announced Monday.

Thank you so much for participating. One last thing: If you didn't have a chance to submit to the contest, we'd still love for you to send along a photo - we'd want to see it. And share it. We'll display it along with the others when we post all of the entries - there is just something so sweet about this kind of photo.
So keep your cameras clicking...and send us a photo!
(aplacetobloom at gmail dot com)