Etcetera #8

| Allison

Hello, dears!

Oh my, it has been MONTHS since my last “etcetera” post! My extra photos have been piling up and nagging me like an itch in the back of my mind, so I finally sat down and sorted them all out for my blog. 😉 I hope you enjoy these many random pictures ranging from lightning to rope swings to disgruntled cats. Have fun browsing!

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People Photography

We shall start with this hilarious photo documenting why Jinx the cat is so grumpy. :’D Poor thing. Especially when he and my siblings were little, he was loved a little too enthusiastically. I don’t think he’s ever quite recovered; he still stalks about glaring at the world.

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My grandmother, an amazing seamstress, taught Megan and I how to use a sewing machine when we were around seven or eight. I made my first quilt around that time as well, and still have it! She taught Carmen how to sew too, and last time she came to visit, Gram brought sewing supplies to help Carmen make some AG Doll skirts. 🙂 I love this picture!

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My family and I like to hop in the Mule (a vehicle, not an animal) on Sundays or nice evenings and explore our land. Jeff likes to drive when he can. 😉

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Back in May, the girls and Mom repainted the rental house on our land so we could lease it to new people. I got, like, 25 hours of painting in, and now feel very experienced in cutting in (painting around trim and corners and such). XD I really like doing detail work, but Mom prefers to cover big areas with rollers or sprayers. It worked out great!

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We picked a big bouquet of hydrangeas from a bush outside the rental house and brought it back. It was too pretty to just leave inside, so Megan and I took pictures with it. 😉

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Heh heh, isn’t this one great? XD

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LANDSCAPES

This was the sunset on my birthday, way back at the beginning of May. Isn’t it GORGEOUS?

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I took this one during another drive around the farm with my family. 🙂

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I love the soft yet bright “candy colors” here!

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I think it’s neat how this whole photo has a very limited, silvery color scheme.

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Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE living where I do – but whenever we visit our old farm, I realize how much I miss the mountains. You certainly don’t see scenes like this out the car window here…

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This photo pretty much sums up the countryside of where I used to live. ❤ Isn’t it gorgeous?

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ROPE SWING

Right before we had the barn dance at our farm, Dad hung up the rope swing in our big hay barn. (The lighting is pretty bad down there, so I had to do some creative editing, heh.) We hung it in between these two stacks of bales so we could swing from one side to another.

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This, my friends, is the proper way to hang a rope swing. You will need one brother, one dad, one telehandler, a tall barn, a long rope with a knot on the bottom, and a chain and tools to hang it with. Use the brother to lift the dad up in the telehandler bucket so he can hang the swing securely to a rafter. Ta-daa!

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We offered Dad the honors of trying it out first, since he did most of the work. 😉

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The swing held up quite well, although it creaked dreadfully. The difficult part was that you kind of have to jump off the bales while jumping onto the swing, since it doesn’t reach very far up on the bale pile. This causes a lot of shrieking. XD

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I’m not going to post pictures of everyone swinging, but here’s one last blurry action shot for you. I took a turn too, and it was exhilarating! Also extremely painful because a large knot doesn’t make for the most comfortable seat. Heh heh. It was great to have it up again, though! I have fond memories of swinging at our old shop on this same rope.

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fLOWERS

Now for some prettier pictures. This is the same bouquet as earlier – SO PRETTY! I think hydrangeas are some of my favorite “domesticated” flowers because… those colors! ❤

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The front of the rental house was overgrown with massive knockout rosebushes. Mom pruned them back, but not before we got bouquets from them too. 😉

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Mom planted these tiger lilies beside the crumbling steps of an old shed behind our farmhouse. I love the pop of color against the white siding.

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Tiger lilies are extremely photogenic, aren’t they? Photographing them reminds me of my old lily photoshoots, like this one. I was so proud of those photos, my my. XD SHEESH, I’ve sure come a long way since 2015. XD I’ll bet in four years I’ll be saying the same thing about 2019…

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Guess what? This is obviously a spring picture (from way back in April), but I also took this with my phone! I don’t use my phone camera a lot since the quality is terrible when I’m used to a DSLR, but I actually really like how this one looks after editing!

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Last week was SO much fun, but also super crazy: our grandparents visited for a couple days, then my pen pal and her family came the same day they left, then my cousins came the same day THEY left, and then we drove to a family reunion two hours away with my cousins. XD So yeah, it was quite the week. Our guest house got a lot of use. I love to spruce it up with fresh bouquets when I can, and I think this bouquet turned out beautiful!

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LIGHTNING

Ooh, I like these! I took them the night of the barn dance, snapping hundreds of photos to get just a few decent ones. XD Most of the lightning I captured was sheet lightning like this. But it’s still pretty neat!

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I’m not sure how this one got so purple, but I’ll take it! I did enhance the color a tad when I edited it, but the original photo really was tinged with violet.

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AHA! Bingo! I managed to capture a little streak of actual lightning.

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OOH, and another one! This is my favorite, although it annoys me how the lightning is so far to the side.

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ETCETERA

Now for all the REALLY random photos. I quite like this first one! We wandered around this HUGE furniture warehouse with our friends when they visited a couple of months ago. The sheer amount of furniture overwhelms you: literally one MILLION square feet of tables, sofas, rugs, etc. crammed into 13 different buildings. O.o

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I made this tasty black forest cake for my brother’s birthday in May. Well, Mom baked the two layers of cake and wanted me to put it together. 😉 I turned out pretty well if I do say so myself!

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This is another phone photo, illustrating the drastic editing needed to make those pictures look decent and true to life. O.o

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Aww, bunny! I haven’t posted rabbit photos for a LONG time, have I? To be honest, we don’t play with our rabbits nearly as much as we used to. We’ve actually talked about selling them… Not that we will necessarily, but I think we should either get a male so we can breed them again… or else maybe sell them. 😦

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Is it strange that I like this picture? I don’t know, I just love the openness and minimalism of it! Again, this is another painting day photo. 😉

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One of my siblings found this shy little turtle in our backyard. His face looks somewhat amusing and somewhat creepy, but overall I think turtles are cute. What is your opinion?

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Sometimes it’s just fun to take pictures of taking pictures. XD Megan is photographing some delicious black raspberries we picked a while ago on one of our Mule rides.

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Isn’t this clover leaf perfect? :O I found it on a walk we took on my birthday, and had to take a picture because WOW. It’s a masterpiece!

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I took this photo when we were filming clips for the SBG video in this post. Megan’s outfit looks so summery with the green and flowery surroundings!

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I will refrain from apologizing about the length of this post, heh heh. XD Instead, I hope you enjoyed all those photos! Let me know…

Which photo or category was your favorite? Do you like painting houses? Does the rope swing look fun or scary? If you have a DSLR, do you hate taking pictures with your phone too? 😛

Thanks so much for reading, dears, and have a lovely day!

***Allison***

P. S. Photos taken with my Nikon D3400 and various lenses (either 50mm or 35mm), or my phone where specified. Edited with picmonkey.com

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72 thoughts on “Etcetera #8”

  4. The rope swing looks like so much fun! Great pics-I don’t really have a favorite category I don’t think, but I love the picture of your mom on painting day 😀

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  5. AGGHHHH I LOVE THIS. Woah, that clover is WOW. *blinks* And oh look, there’s ffolliott I! Hee hee, we had the same turtle once. XD And the lightning and flowers and life and painting and yeah, I just love these posts. ❤

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    1. I KNOW RIGHT? Amazing! Heh. Heh. Really? XD Well I’m guessing it wasn’t the SAME turtle, but you know. I’m so happy you liked the post, dear. ❤

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  6. Ahhhh, Allison, I love these etcetera post so much! Those pictures of the night sky were stunning 😍, sadly my camera doesn’t take very good pictures of the night sky. And, ooooh, I absolutely love the sunset!!!

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  7. Allison, your photography never ceases to amaze me! My favorite photos of this bunch have to be the sunset and tiger lily photos! Anyways, I hope y’all are having a great day. 🙂

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  12. agg your photography is always amazing!! ❤ I’ve always wanted to live on a farm, but I live in the city 😦

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  15. Thank you Allison for these lovely photos. My favorite is your Grandmother teaching Carmen to sew. I want to learn to sew. This picture is precious to me. It is so sweet and loving to see two generations together on a project. God Bless you and your family.
    Marilyn

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    1. My pleasure, Marilyn! That’s one of my favorites as well. ❤ I hope you learn how to sew one day! It's a nice skill to know. Thanks for your sweet comment!

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  16. Allison I like all the pictures but the one with your grandma teaching Carmen how to sew. is the best.
    Marion

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  18. I don’t think that photo of the lightning is annoying as i really found it as an interesting highlight of a black photo! 🙈 loved all pictures and hope to see more soon 💖

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  29. YAY!! I am always SO excited when I see and Etcetera post! 😀 And none have ever disappointed! 🙂 Jinx does look rather grumpy. XD That rope swing looks SO EPIC. Your photography is SO amazing. I can never think of a different way to say your photography is AWESOME so I just end up saying it is really amazing. XD I really enjoyed this post!! 😀

    -Laura ❤ 🙂

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    1. Aww, you’re so sweet! I’m so glad you enjoy them! HEH HEH, he does. XD YESSS, it was great! Aww, I’m running out of ways to say “thank you,” but THANK YOU JUST THE SAME for a wonderful comment! 🙂

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  30. Yay, an etcetera post! So fun and such pretty pictures! 😁 I’m going on a trip to DC and Virginia soon and I’m going to have to use my phone camera since I’m not allowed to take my dad’s good camera. 😆😅

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  32. I loooove your Etcetera posts, Allison! All the random photos are so interesting to look through, and it’s fun that I never know what to expect next. XD That rope swing looks SO fun, oh my goodness! I really loved all the photos in this post, but here are a few favorites:

    Lightning is something I REALLY want to try photographing, and your photos are making me want to try it even more!

    PRETTY! DSLRs are so photogenic. 😀

    BEAUTIFUL, Megan. :’) XD I loved this post, despite my late commenting, but you’re probably used to that by now, heh heh. XD *waves farewell*

    -Clara ❤

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    1. HURRAH! 😀 That’s just the way I feel about yours! Hee hee, YES, the rope swing is pretty neat. I LOVED seeing your favorite pictures, dear! I’m sure you could get some BEAUTIFUL lightning pictures because your night photography is always gorgeous! Yesss, DSLRS ARE so photogenic. XD And HEH HEH, I agree. 🙂 😀
      Thank you for the wonderful comment, as always! ❤

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