Moving On {Part 3}

July 12, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears!

It’s been AGES since I made the last “Moving On” post, but I wanted to wait until I could finish up this mini-series. And now I can! We are all moved in to the big house now, except for one room of unpacked boxes… yeah, that might take us a while. XD But now, enjoy this account of the most recent phase in our moving process! I can’t go over every single part in detail, so I’m just going to highlight some major chunks: packing and unpacking the house, packing up Dad’s shop, and taking down the old log cabin. Enjoy!

Packing the House

Packing up our old house was exhausting and kind of sad. I can’t remember the rooms ever being empty, since we moved there when I was one. However, it WAS exciting to finally be ready to move into the big house! One day while we were packing I saw this box which used to hold bittersweet vine found on our farm, and I had to get a picture. Moving really is…

Often when I got up in the mornings, I would step between this curtain and the window…

and look out at this view, to see what the weather was like, and wonder what would happen today.

The last evening at our old house was gorgeous. It was sad to think I’ll never see these views from the upstairs windows anymore. I’ll miss them. *sigh*

Some of our family as well as people from church helped us pack up, which was wonderful! Dad got a (not the most beautiful) trailer for our semi, to load up all our stuff. We fit practically our whole house into one trailer. It was strange to see all our familiar furniture stacked together in an unfamiliar place like that.

And then we left. We can come back again, of course, but it will never be the same since the house and the farm are no longer ours. *sigh*

Goodbye, old farm. ❤

Unpacking House Stuff

The semi trailer got to our new farm a couple days later, and since my Dad and brothers weren’t available to unpack as soon as we hoped, the girls decided to start in ourselves! We got probably 2/3 of the semi trailer unpacked with just my mom, my grandmother, us three girls. 😀 It was great. I didn’t get too many pictures of this, but I got a ton of videos! I want to make a fast-motion video of us unloading the trailer. 🙂 Here’s a picture of Logan helping us, at least:

It took us two days, I believe, to get to this: AN EMPTY TRAILER!

After we unpacked our dining room table + chairs, we sat down to the first “official” meal in the big house, with delicious food that some of our friends from church kindly brought us. ❤

HA HA, here’s one last bonus picture for this section. XD Gram was like, “Allison, where’s your camera? You need a picture of this!” And I hurried off to get it. 😛

In case you’re wondering, the package is a fridge. One of many, sadly. Dear me, the first fridge we got from Lowes wasn’t the right kind, the second one didn’t work, the third one leaked, the fourth was the wrong kind AGAIN, and we’re still waiting for Lowes to bring the fifth one and HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE RIGHT THIS TIME. Goodness gracious, WHAT ON EARTH IS WRONG WITH LOWES?

Packing the Shop

Once we got the house stuff moved, we went back to our old farm and packed up Dad’s entire shop (which he uses for fixing farm machinery). Let me tell you, that was a job! Over 40 years, the shop had accumulated enough nuts, bolts, screws, paint, ratchets, wrenches, etc. to seriously open their own hardware shop. XD Only it would be an extremely dusty hardware shop.

For some reason I think this looks really neat…

As you can see, Dad has SO many tools in all different sizes, particularly wrenches. I really like this picture. 😀

The best part of packing was having pizza for lunch. 😛

Taking Down the Log Cabin

Remember this old, fallen-down log cabin in our backyard?

Well just a few weeks ago, we took it down the rest of the way. I was hoping to find some more neat old letters or other interesting artifacts, but sadly we mostly found… a lot of junk. It was a bigger project to take it down than I expected, but it’s nice not to have to stare at it from half the windows now. 🙂

First, Dad and the boys pushed it over with the telehandler. Next we all clambered up on the roof with a couple of hammers and started extracting the nails so we could peel off the metal. The tar paper under the metal was covered with dead ladybugs and stinkbugs. O.o That was nice.

After we dragged away the roof skeleton, we had to pick out all the leftover boards and junk. That took quite a while.

Thankfully we had the skidloader to help!

Like I said, we didn’t find many valuable old things, but we did find some interesting junk! Including…

moving on 10 — Apologies for the awful picture. I was trying to make the junk look at least a BIT prettier but I think I made it worse…?

a rather sad-looking work boot
3-5 fire hoses
a crushed dog kennel
two rusty lawn chairs
a bent-up bike
two very nice terracotta flower pots
a rusty metal flamingo that Megan REALLY wants to restore XD
a blue plastic kiddie pool (which Carmen was EXTREMELY excited about XD)
a large, enormously thick slab of slate
an antique water pump

We are keeping the second half of the aforementioned items. Also some of the century-old heart pine wood.

It was finally cleared away about supper time. We were planning to make a patio around the chimney, but it’s not in the best shape so we might take the chimney down later after all.

And there you have it! A VERY abbreviated account of some moving-related things that we did recently. We are all enjoying living in the big house immensely. It’s just so huge and beautiful! Maybe once we get it decorated I can give you guys a tour. 😉

What was your favorite section of this post? Do you think Megan should fix up the flamingo? Ever have troubles like we did with our fridge? And what is your favorite kind of pizza?

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

***Allison***

Best Friends Photoshoot {Ft. Aria Photo}

July 9, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears!

Just recently I got to meet one of my dearest blogging friends, Aria. She and her family stayed at our farm for a weekend and we all had SUCH a great time together! We had never actually seen each other in real life, but we’d become super close through emailing, letter writing, phone calls, etc. It was almost surreal to finally meet her, but SO, SO EXCITING AHHHH.

I won’t go tell you guys everything today or it would be as long as three posts, but one of the things we did together was a best friends photoshoot! We both love photography and Aria actually has a photography business over at Aria Photo! Some of these pictures Aria took herself, and some we asked my sister Megan to take (well, to press the button) for us. I basically did nothing with these pictures except be in them, heh heh.

Still, Aria gave me permission to post my favorites today along with some amusing behind-the-scenes tidbits, after which you can check out Aria’s post to see HER favorites, and read about how we became friends.

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The first night Aria came, we took the Mule (a brand of UTV, similar to an ATV, not a literal mule XD) and drove around our farm, looking for good photography sites. It was SO much fun and the land looked gorgeous in the golden light. The evening we started with this path leading into the woods.

We wanted to get coordinating outfits for the shoot, and then Aria came up with the idea to get matching skirts but in different colors. (You might remember mine from the barn dance pictures.)

It turned out so well! This skirt is SUPER twirly and fun to wear, although it’s a bit delicate and has to be handwashed. It also has like a bajillion color options. You can see the Amazon listing right here.

HA HA we had such troubles with this pose. XD Actually no, I had troubles with this pose… and several others, actually. XD Poor Aria. But in my defense, some poses are a LITTLE difficult when you’re very tall and your best friend is only an average height. It was hard for me to bend back far enough without pulling her with me. XD

I LOVE THIS PICTURE! I just think it’s so cute and sweet. ❤ Also Aria kept exclaiming over how much more tanned her arm was than mine in this picture, but I said IT WAS JUST THE LIGHT. XD Seriously though, in real life our skin tone looked the same. *nods emphatically*

Ahh, I love this photo location because of the stunning light! We tried to twirl each other, but… ahem, I kind of kept messing it up. *facepalm* Thank you so much for being patient with me, dear Aria. ❤ I’m not USUALLY so hard to pose. XD

Ahh, the backlighting is just… INCREDIBLE. I took some more golden hour photos of this location last night that I can’t wait to show you guys! In another post. 🙂

Now the third location. Megan thought we looked like midgets here, and also Aria kind of fell backwards while sitting down, but it was worth it. XD I love this picture.

Oh yes, Aria wanted to do my hair AND my makeup for me, and she did them both beautifully! I never use full makeup and don’t normally style my hair much, so that felt different. I wouldn’t want to go to all the trouble and time normally, but it WAS fun to just be stereotypical teenage girls for a little while. 🙂

❤ ❤ ❤ (Also SEE. Now MY arm is tanner than hers. It’s probably still the lighting. *nods wisely*)

This pose, the outfits, the lighting, the location… they all went together PERFECTLY on this one!

Now we’re into the photos Aria took with her remote. This is by an old, rustic shed we have by our driveway. It’s a great backdrop! By this point my hair was getting kind of frizzy from the humidity, but Aria’s still looks gorgeous, don’t you agree? ❤

The whole time she was there we were both like, “I keep wanting to email you about this trip but then I realize I can just TELL you!” XD It was so strange because we do tell each other anything and everything by email usually.

AHHH I LOVE THIS. Aria said she wants to get a print of this one. ❤ I think Aria is possibly my long-lost sister? Or maybe a long-lost cousin. Whatever she is, I’m awfully glad she’s not lost anymore. ❤

THIS WAS SURPRISINGLY HARD. For one thing, my fingers are a lot longer than Aria’s, so at first the heart was lopsided. XD And apparently even though Aria was more flexible than I was for, say, the bending-backwards photos, her fingers were not as flexible as mine. BUT WE GOT IT. SORT OF.

Now both of our curls were kind of disintegrating at this point. BAD HUMIDITY.

Next we tried some photos in the corn but it didn’t really work out. The corn leaves intruded into our faces too much. XD But it worked quite well to be in front of the field!

Isn’t this one so cute?

Lastly, we took (or re-took) this picture the day before she left. I like to tease Aria that her eyes are blue because she says they’re green. What do you think? I think we’re both right and they’re mint or aqua… or just beautiful. 🙂

Since this is the kind of picture that I think looks good when you can tell it’s edited, I took the liberty of editing it. Tell me if you would rather not, Aria, and I’ll take it off. 😉 I don’t know why I love eyes so much, but I sure do. ❤ They’re just so gorgeous and unique!

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Lessons learned:

Some poses are not as easy as they look on Pinterest. Particularly if your height differs significantly with the other person in the photoshoot. Do the photoshoot anyway. It is WELL WORTH IT.
Having matching/similar outfits for this type of photoshoot is super fun!
Aria tried to carry me piggyback but it FAILED. Well it worked, but it looked extremely odd because my legs were so long. Then I tried with her, but it STILL looked weird because she was wearing a skirt. IT WAS HILARIOUS. So: make sure the taller person carries the shorter person, and preferably don’t wear skirts.
Note to self: Don’t keep talking while someone is trying to get pictures of you. It ruins pictures. (Heh heh, Aria was like, “WOW my expression in this one…” and I was like, “You think THAT’S bad? Look at mine!” I can say with assurance that Aria is DEFINITELY more photogenic than I am. XD XD)
If you ever have a chance to meet one of your close blogger friends, do yourself a favor and MEET THEM. PLEASE. It is an amazing experience, and you’ll make memories you will never forget. ❤

Thanks SO much to my sister Megan for helping us with the photoshoot. We couldn’t have done (at least part of it) without you! Also thank you, Aria, for too many things to count, but especially for listening to anything I tell you, for the looooong and honest emails and letters about everything from faith to health to politics, and for being my best friend forever. ❤ PLEASE COME BACK SOON.

I hope you enjoyed that post, guys! Be sure to check out Aria’s post to see a few different photos (and some photos of just me that I didn’t put on here), and follow her blog to see more posts about her visit in upcoming weeks. And tell me…

Isn’t Aria’s/Megan’s photography gorgeous? Have you ever had a friends photoshoot? Which pose or picture was your favorite? Have you ever met an internet friend?

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

***Allison***

P. S. Also, a big thank you to guys for participating in the first week of The Summer Bored Games! We LOVED hearing your feedback and seeing your photos from those challenges – I can’t wait to show you guys the pictures too. 🙂 Ready for some new boredom busters? Check out Megan’s post here!

Etcetera #3

June 24, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears!

I’ve been half dreading this post and half eagerly anticipating it, because it is SO much work to sort through over six months of photographs and edit and organize the best ones for a post. O.o But it’s always so satisfying to know I’m “up to date” once I finish Etcetera posts, so yay! 🙂

Anyway, today I have for you quite a lot of pictures about quite a lot of things. I’ll attempt to organize this post a bit more than I have previously so it’s not overwhelming. XD I hope you enjoy browsing through the sunsets, farm landscapes, portraits, etc!

~ Skies ~

When it hasn’t been raining (which is rarely XD), there have been some beautiful sunsets, clouds, and other skyscapes recently.

etcetera (1)

Ahhh, big, fluffy cumulus clouds just make me happy when I see them. 😀

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Isn’t this gorgeous? Sun rays through clouds also make me happy. 🙂

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We’ve gotten so many rainbows recently (and so much rain too)! I don’t think I even noticed this one was a double rainbow until I edited the picture. O.o XD What a beautiful promise a rainbow is. ❤

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I love how calm and soft this picture is!

The moon looks HUGE beside the miniscule airplane and tiny cloud, doesn’t it?

Does this count as “skies”? I don’t know. But this strange, neat limb broke off one day and it was sad. 😦 Now there’s just a stump left.

I actually combined a couple of pictures to make this one, because I wanted more birds in it. 😛

I thought it was so neat how you can faintly see the entire moon!

Sunsets + reflections? OH YES!

A e s t h e t i c. ❤

~ Pets ~

This spring there were buttercups EVERYWHERE! It was so pretty! One day Maggie was conveniently laying in a highly-concentrated area of flowers which went perfectly with her sunny, buttercup personality. 😀

BUNNIESSSS! My brothers built new rabbit pens for them, and the next two pictures are when we first put them in. I love how Basil’s ears are always one up and one down. XD

OLAF IS JUST WEIRD. XD

And here’s Lavender! SHE IS ADORABLE. And she’s also grown since I took this picture.

Well this isn’t exactly a pet, but… WARNING, SNAKE AHEAD! We found this black snake one morning while we were cleaning out the raised beds. I don’t particularly like snakes, but it was so neat to get such close-up photographs! It didn’t slither away for quite a while; it just posed. 😛 I got a bunch of good pictures, but I’ll be considerate and only show you guys two. XD

~ Flowers ~

This was a looong time ago, but here’s a pretty picture of blossoms on our what we thought was an apple tree but is actually a pear tree.

In early spring, there were violets EVERYWHERE! There was one row beside a small, white shed in our backyard that was overflowing with blooms. ❤

Such a cute, tiny flower! (Actually it’s a weed, but it’s still cute.)

I LOVE THIS PICTURE! It’s just so CUTE!

Ahh, this is so creamy and gorgeous!

~ Farm Landscapes ~

We always pass this on the way to my grandparents’ house and I always want to get a picture of it. This time Mom kindly stopped to let me take some, and I’m SO glad she did! I just love the scenery here, and the rolling hills that seem almost too perfect to be natural. The tractor baling hay adds a nice touch too. 😉

Dad planted corn or soybeans in most of the pastures this year, and it looks GREAT! He got the crops in a little late because of the immense amount of rain we got, but now that they’re in they’re looking gorgeous. I took this picture a while ago; the corn is a lot bigger now.

The cows are gone now. *sniff*

~ People ~

Carmen got absolutely SOAKED (on purpose) one day when it was raining, which made for some pretty neat pictures.

Carmen wondered if I wanted to take a picture of her glasses, and I said, “Sure!”

I took this picture after we finished unloading the tractor-trailer load of our house belongings, and I was all sweaty and dusty. And then I had heaps of fun editing it later. XD I don’t know why I like taking pictures of eyes so much, but I DO!

Carmen wanted me to take a picture of her swinging. 🙂

It was a BIT scary to balance my camera on a fence post on a windy day, which is maybe why I have a slightly strange expression… XD

Oh look, it’s me leaning up agains the fence again! What do you know. XD Carmen took this picture for me, because a friend wanted a photo of the dress I got.

~ Etcetera ~

Okay, this is really random, but… did you know you can use a mixture of about half coconut oil and half baking soda to repair worn wood? If you scrub the mixture into scratches or places where the varnish doesn’t look good, it will magically look like new after you wipe it away with soap and water! Trust me, it is amazing. O.o I don’t know exactly how it works, but I think the oil stains and darkens the wood and the baking soda kind of sands it down a little. However it does it, IT WORKS. We’ve used this a lot to “refinish” worn furniture, floors, and trim lately.

We don’t have a huge garden this year, but we are growing a few things in the raised beds behind the big house. One of those things are (or were) radishes! I thought these baby radishes that we thinned out were so cute, hee hee.

GUYS. I FOUND A FIVE LEAF CLOVER. AND MEGAN FOUND A SIX LEAF ONE. We found a lot of mutant clovers around the Cedar House, actually. XD And no, I did not photoshop an extra leaf on. Promise.

This almost looks abstract if you unfocus your eyes.

I love photographing water drops. 😀 Don’t they look like crystal?

Phew, that was a TON of pictures! Not nearly all the good ones, though. *sniff* This post was a great (but hard) exercise in only keeping the best of the best, or else the most interesting. Hopefully I succeeded. 🙂

So, which category was your favorite? Have you ever found a more-than-four-leaf clover? Have you tried the coconut oil trick?

Thank you so much for reading this lengthy epistle, dears, and please have a lovely day!

***Allison***

Summer Barn Dance

June 19, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears!

Just a few weeks ago, we had the privilege of hosting a barn dance in celebration of our friend Sam’s (Samantha’s) birthday! It took a while to prepare for, but we all absolutely LOVED the dance. 😀 It was the first one our family had been to.

Sam wanted Megan and I to take some pictures, and of course we happily obliged. 😉 Today I’m going to show you a few of my favorite photos, from decorations to dancing. Enjoy!

I got to help with the decorating, which was super fun. 🙂 At first we tried hanging streamers from the loft, but it was too damp and humid and they just sort of hung there limply. So we took them down. But while we were hanging them we found this gorgeous moth! Isn’t it striking?

Don’t these blue gingham tablecloths go perfectly with the barn dance/birthday/picnic atmosphere?

Our magnolia tree is blooming, so Megan suggested we use some of the flowers for the table. I’m so glad we did, because I had no idea they’d be this beautiful! And they smell amazing.

Unfortunately they are rather prone to closing up into buds, but they’re still pretty that way too. 🙂

We also had bouquets of ferns from our woods, chamomile daisies from our pastures, and larger daisies that Sam brought, which they had dyed blue with food coloring! 😀

I enjoyed making “place cards” for the food, even if I didn’t get around to labeling everything. 😉

Sam brought these lovely stamped paper fans (because boy was it hot that day!).

She also brought a bunch of paper medallions and some balloons to hang from the loft. They looked so pretty!

They set the speakers and such on haybales, which made it seem more like a barn dance. 😀

Hee hee, I quite like this picture of Sam’s sister Jesse. 😀

And this one of Sam. 🙂

Oh, and it was so funny – Sam and I wore almost the EXACT same outfit! Identical shirts and only a tiny bit different skirts. XD She was going to do my hair to match hers too, but we ran out of time, so it kind of looks like an octopus in these pictures. O.o Next time I shall remember to put it back before the dance. XD

Megan took the picture before and this picture from the loft. Aren’t they so neat?

Okay, now we’re finally ready for the barn dance part! One of the ladies from church was the “caller,” who patiently instructed all the dozens of people in how to do each dance. We learned the dance slowly first, without music, and then did it once or twice with music before learning a new dance.

For each dance, we lined (or circled) up in the middle of the shop floor and usually did a short sequence of steps that ended in being whirled off to the next partner, where you repeated the process until the music stopped.

We learned quite a few dances including the Virginia Reel, the Caroline Promenade, the Spanish Waltz, the Basket Weave, the Snowball Reel, the Patty-Cake Polka, the Posties’ Jig, and one or two more which I don’t remember the names of.

I think my favorites were the Basket Weave and the Spanish Waltz, although they were all fun.

I didn’t get pictures of the Posties’ Jig, but HA HA WOW. It was a 10-years-and-up dance for good reason: it had a lot of steps. Our group kind of epically failed at it since we got so mixed up and confused, but it was HILARIOUS. We laughed at ourselves so much. XD

My brother Logan was my partner for a couple of the dances, which was nice because our heights are a good match. 😀

One thing I really like about barn dancing is how changeable it is. You don’t stay with one partner for long, which adds to the excitement (and confusion, but XD). It’s also very fast-paced, which makes it feel like a game.

And I think it’s great that whole families, even younger kids, can participate in most of the dances.

I’m so glad Sam chose to have a barn dance for her party, and that we got to come. 🙂 Hopefully we can do one again soon!

So there you have it! At the end of the dance I was EXTREMELY hot and sweaty, and my feet were so sore from going barefoot on concrete for a whole day that I could hardly walk, but it was definitely worth it. XD XD Next time I shall 1) put my hair up and 2) wear shoes. *nods*

Have you ever been to a barn dance? What dance is your favorite (the Virginia Reel, Spanish Waltz, etc.)? Do you have a favorite picture?

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

***Allison***

Cuteness Overload + A Mysterious Tale

May 28, 2018May 28, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears!

Before reading this post, BEWARE. Extreme cuteness ahead. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Heh heh, anyway, these little fuzzballs grew SO much since my last baby bunny post, and as anticipated, THEY GOT EVEN MORE ADORABLE.

Megan and I did a photoshoot of the bunnies a while ago and it turned out ADORABLE.

We were going to put them on grass, but they started eating it and baby rabbits aren’t supposed to eat greens for a few weeks. Just to be safe, we took them to a gravelly spot in front of the big house. I LOVE THIS PICTURE.

THE FRONT VIEW IS JUST SO…

The siblings behaved very well around each other, heh heh.

OKAY I LOVE THIS PICTURE. I can’t believe I got a photo of one of them yawning! AHHHH IT’S SO CUTE.

This little one was always sleepy. You could pretty much put her anywhere and she’d just start falling asleep on the spot. XD ❤

OH MY, TRIPLE CUTENESS.

Since they insisted on finding weeds even in the pebbles and nibbling them, we decided to go inside. And we lined them up on the floor and AHHHH I’M MELTING.

I couldn’t decide which version is better, so here are both. 🙂 Which one is your favorite?

They are just so sleepy and cuddly! ❤

I love all the variety of colors!

The peonies were blooming and this one made a great prop… until the bunnies started eating it. XD

They love licking each other… and you. ❤ It’s adorable.

GUYS. Look at that pile of sleeping fluff. LOOK AT IT!

SEE? AREN’T THEY THE CUTEST EVER?

But now that the photoshoot is over, I have a story to tell you. *deep breath*

A Mysterious Tragedy

One afternoon Megan came in from feeding the rabbits and said, “I can’t find the baby bunnies. They’re not in their cage, and I saw a black snake go into the garage [where we kept the bunnies].” We tried not to panic and decided maybe they had just hopped out of the cage (Megan said it had a hole) and were hiding. So we went to look, in the rain.

We all kind of held our breath and tiptoed through the door, hoping we wouldn’t see a snake eating… well anyway, we opened the door and saw nothing. No snake, no bunnies. The cage was empty except for Willow, who appeared calm enough. The top had been skewed so there was a hole just big enough for baby bunnies to squeeze through.

We swept the flashlight under the shelves and stuff in the dimness until HURRAH! I FOUND A BABY BUNNY! The little silver one! We caught her and continued our search, much cheered.

Well, we opened cabinets and peered in holes and generally went over the whole garage about three times. No baby bunnies. No black snake. They disappeared without a trace. Except… then Logan remembered that the door to the garage had been open a little while ago and our dog was around. Maggie is a hunter, and the cage was right in plain sight.

Maybe she nosed the cage and enough for the bunnies to get out, and came back later… then again, maybe she made the hole and the bunnies got out and escaped outside through a space by the garage door! So we looked outside, a bit half-heartedly through the drizzling rain, and then, just as we were about to give up hope…

Nothing happened. *sigh* They were just nowhere to be found. And it was still raining.

We went back, and decided to take Willow and Lavender (the silver one) into our basement so nothing would happen to them. And we still don’t know what happened to the rest. Was it the snake? Was it Maggie? Did the babies escape and someday we’ll see an spotted rabbit hopping out of the woods? Who knows. Only God, I suppose.

And that, my friends, is that mysterious, tragic end of all but one of the remaining baby bunnies. *bows head sadly*

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Since that’s kind of an awful note to end on, let me give you some good news. Carmen is keeping Lavender, the one bunny left! She’s getting so big and is SO cute and tame and sweet. Since she’s the only baby for us to handle now, she is extra well-loved and I think she’ll be a wonderful pet even when she grows up. And now, let me end this post with a hilarious picture of our one and only baby bunny:

ISN’T THAT ADORABLE?! She just stayed there quietly, for quite a few minutes. XD

Well I hope you enjoyed the photoshoot, if not the story. At least we had enough time to get a good dose of cuteness before they disappeared… Which photo was your favorite?OH, and before you go, I have two announcements.

#1: I FINISHED SCHOOL! FOREVER! I AM SO EXCITED. It feels kind of unreal, actually. O.o I feel like I learned a lot, especially in my last year, but it’s so good to be done. And so, so STRANGE. When are you guys getting done for the year (or forever)?

#2: This will probably be the last post for a couple of weeks because we’re moving into the big house! YAAAY! It’s going to be a considerable process to clean basically the whole big house (it is a BIG house), go up and pack and load up our old house in a week or less, and then come down and move in, amongst other (exciting!) plans, but I CAN’T WAIT.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you so my disappearance online and on email won’t be as mysterious as the baby bunnies’. Even though I’m done with school, I’m still keeping busy, don’t you worry. And get ready for some exciting stuff when I come back!

NOW, you are finally released from this post. XD Thank you ever so much for reading, dears, and please have a lovely day!

***Allison***

Spring Sisters Photoshoot

May 23, 2018May 23, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears!

Today I’m excited to post these sisters photoshoots Megan and I did a couple of weeks ago! The woods and flowers were so gorgeous! I think they really made the photoshoots.

As always, Megan took the pictures of me, I took the pictures of her, and I edited all of the above. I am running out of interesting introductory sentences, so shall we begin? XD Ahem.

Megan wanted to do a photoshoot with the wild poppies blooming near the Cedar House, and I wanted to do it with the buttercups too. So we did both!

Poppies are Megan’s favorite wildflower, and while they aren’t quite my favorite I quite like them too. 🙂

Hee hee, I really like this one. 😀

Eventually the chain broke so I was like, “Aha, I’ll just wear it this way!” XD

I also found an adorable purple flower in the woods. I remember learning the name but I have now forgotten. :[] Anyone know?

I quite like this one too. 🙂 ❤

Oh, ha ha! So Megan was just sitting on this log…

When she saw this feather and picked it up. She was like, “Ew, this smells bad.” AND THEN WE FOUND AN ANIMAL SKELETON IN THE CREEK IT WAS SO GROSS.

I love this little stone waterfall at the spot where you come down to the creek! ❤ (And also this picture.)

We found a lovely patch of ferns that served quite well as a backdrop/setting.

I don’t know what’s on my pants…?

A couple of days after the first photoshoot we decided to redo some of the photos. This time we made a daisy (well, chamomile daisy) crown that worked a bit better. 🙂

I like this one a lot for some reason…?

HA HA this is one of my favorites. XD I don’t THINK I usually laugh like this, but I guess I don’t know…

❤

And THIS one too! Although I’m not too happy with the editing. Oh well.

Annnd that’s all for today! I hope you enjoyed looking at those pictures. 🙂 I would love to hear your favorites! Have you ever made a flower crown?

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

***Allison***

Expeditions & Discoveries {Spring Walks}

May 15, 2018May 15, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears!

We’ve been going on exploratory walks around our farm almost every Sunday lately and it is SO much fun! Also I’ve taken SO many pictures! XD I seriously have way too many post ideas to keep up, so I’m going to combine a few walks into one post. Enjoy the virtual sunshine! 😀

On the first walk, we explored the woods beside Dad’s shop. Fern fiddleheads were unrolling everywhere and bright little violets popped up by tree roots covered in moss… ahh, I loved it. ❤ There were also carpets of mayapple plants, which I’d never seen before. Interesting.

This was about a month ago, when leaves and buds were just starting to come out.

Aren’t fiddleheads adorable? 😀

HA HA for some reason this just looks really funny to me. XD It’s like the tree has a tiny nose. Maybe I should draw a face around it. 😛

I LOVE MOSS. ❤

Ooh, I really like this picture, particularly the lighting! The violet is a little blurry, but I love the golden light. I don’t exactly know how I got this one, but I do know I didn’t edit it.

The roots are so neat, don’t you think?

As you can see, the leaves were DEFINITELY not out yet.

While walking back we saw a deep puddle that was literally TEEMING with tadpoles! There were hundreds if not a thousand. O.o I have never seen so many tadpoles in one place in my life!

The puddle nearly dried up a while ago and left a lot of dead tadpoles in the sun, but it rained just in time to save the rest. 😛 I should go check them again… last time I saw them they looked pretty much like this:

Next we have the walk in which we went down to our bigger stream and Carmen, Jeff, and Megan all swam even though they had regular clothes on and it wasn’t exactly hot. XD

HA HA I love this. XD

They seemed to be having a pretty good time, but I decided against joining them. 😛

Wow, that was a short walk. Anyway, the next one is at our smaller pond. We got a canoe at the auction after we bought the new farm, but it kinda leaked. So Dad and the boys patched it up, we got oars, and ta-daa!

This woods had some lovely beeches, and everything was SO GREEN!

This tree was huge and gorgeous. ❤ We came back to this spot for my birthday and had a dessert picnic with chocolate pecan pie. 😀 Yep, it was DELICIOUS. And then Carmen and I worked on a fairy house in these roots because I’d told her I would. 🙂 It was fun, but got dark really quickly. (Also I don’t have any pictures of that night, sorry. )

We also want to make a fairy house here sometime. 🙂

Now, onto the next walk! This is the most recent. Last Sunday, in fact. I think these flowers are called phlox, but whatever they are, they certainly made the side of the trail pretty! ❤

I brought my sketchbook and some drawing utensils along but didn’t end up using them that much. I did get a little sketch done, though. (Also this picture was super hard to get, but I like how it turned out.)

I’m fascinated with reflections and light and water, together or separate. 😀

Mom and Carmen and I (and later Dad) wandered along the smaller creek that we call Little Runny. The air was hot and muggy, so the shade and water felt amazing.

Mom found a few tulip-tree blooms and wanted me to take a picture of it for our house. I was quite happy to oblige, of course! 😀 Tulip-tree flowers are strange: green and orange and lily-shaped, with maple-like leaves. Certainly unique.

Carmen wanted to show me a “swimming hole” she’d found, which wasn’t actually quite deep enough to swim in. XD

While we were there, I saw a little water strider and the ripples it made looked neat, so obviously I had to take a picture. 😛

Ooh, I love this one!

This stretch of Little Runny has sand instead of rocks! The riverbed is a mixture of sand and mud, which feels so good to bare feet. There are also random sandbars scattered like tiny beaches by the creek. The first time I saw them I was really surprised that they weren’t manmade.

Anyway, Carmen and I decided to try and build a sandcastle on one of the “beaches.” I think it turned out pretty cute for only having our hands to work with. (Thanks to my mom for taking this picture!)

(Heh heh, once I started using this filter it was hard to stop. Oops.) I love this picture too! Isn’t it so cute and aesthetic? It looks like a summer beach photo instead of a spring creek photo. 😛

Maggie also came along with us. She loves to wade in the streams and puddles, even though she never swims in deep ponds and stuff. Isn’t she so cute?

And now let me end with this cool, refreshing picture. 😀 I love the colors in this one!

And there you have a small sampling of my many spring pictures. Going outside at this time of the year is quite dangerous for me if I intend the pictures for my blog because I JUST CAN’T. KEEP. UP. But you know, I think that’s rather a good problem to have. 😉

Do you always take an excessive amount of pictures in spring too? Which is your most photographed season? And do you have a favorite or favorites of these pictures? I’d love to hear!

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

***Allison***

Bunny News {A Fuzzy Announcement}

May 6, 2018May 15, 2018 | Allison

GUYSSSSSS WILLOW HAD BABIESSSSSS!

My rabbit had EIGHT babies, in fact! Well, she had eight babies but then one died. 😦 Anyway, the remaining fuzzballs are absolutely adorable, and getting cuter every day. 😀

I will show you picture in a moment, don’t worry, but before we meet them I wanted to show you guys this pretty mini-photoshoot of Willow, the fluffy mother.

LOOK AT THAT FLUFF.

I think this shot looks quite glamorous. 😛 It looks like she has white eyeliner on, doesn’t it?

Awwww she’s just so adorable and FLUZZY.

I think she needs brushing, though…

Hee hee, gotta love those ear tufts, right? Also she kind of looks fierce in this one.

❤ ❤ ❤

Alright. HERE WE GO. This is all eight of them the day they were born. Pretty pink. 😛

Okay, I guess they aren’t QUITE as cute when they’re first born, but still… I love seeing all the different patterns and how many there are and EEP, it’s so exciting!

Their fur grows super fast, though! This is just a few days after they were born.

This is about how they looked last time I saw them (which was yesterday). LOOK AT THAT CUTE LITTLE NOSE.

They always snuggle together and it’s just adorable. ❤

This is one of my favorite babies. 🙂 I think it’s going to get grayer as it grows up, because we had another one like this in a past litter.

We haven’t named them all yet, but we named this one Bo because Carmen thought he looked like a cow (he did more when he was little), and of course bovine means cow. 😛

This one is also ADORABLE, and really uniquely colored!

I think this guy might be the biggest, though he doesn’t look like it here.

Kind of blurry but too cuddly to delete. ❤

It’s hard to get a picture where you can see all of them clearly, but you can MOSTLY tell who’s who in this one. There’s a lovely variety of patterns!

AHHH, I absolutely LOVE having baby bunnies, especially when they get a few weeks older. ❤ My little sister Carmen is going to keep one to replace Diamond, her previous rabbit, but she hasn’t chosen which one for sure. She’s thinking either the solid brown-gray rabbit or the black/silver one.

Which one do YOU think she should keep? Don’t you think the babies have an extremely squishable mother? XD And if you have any baby bunny name suggestions, I’d love to hear them!

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

***Allison***

P. S. Ugh, I AM SO ANNOYED AT MYSELF. A little more than a month ago (*facepalm* ) Bekah from Questionable Tortoise Couture interviewed me, which was extremely fun, and I didn’t remember to link it UNTIL NOW. -_- But NO MORE. Click here to read the post! Once again, Bekah, I am incredibly sorry I haven’t linked it before – I kept remembering in between posts and then forgetting once I actually made them. Anyway, I’ll stop apologizing now and let you guys get on with your day. XD I hope it’s a great one!

Old Letters and Other Artifacts

May 1, 2018May 1, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears!

I’m super excited to finally show you guys this post! I must warn you, though, it’s quite lengthy. I recommend getting something tasty to eat or drink, finding a comfortable spot, and reading on. 🙂

Ahem. Our new farm was founded in approximately 1777 (so it’s not exactly new, ha), and we’ve found some really neat old things while exploring it. These include but are not limited to a very old graveyard, a fairly old house + schoolhouse/cabin, and approximately 100-year-old postcards, books, and handwritten letters, one of which was written in Germany in 1922, and which I laboriously (and not so skillfully) translated. ARE YOU EXCITED? I AM.

First, the graveyard. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s not far from the big house, as you can see. And no, that doesn’t really creep me out, in case you wondered. XD I hope you guys don’t mind it… 😉

This one is from 1777, approximately when this farm (and country) was founded! :O At the bottom it says “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.”

Wow, a soldier that fought in the Civil War… O.o (Those blurred out spots are place names. 😉 )

This one is so sad. 😦

Is it weird that I like this picture?

And this one too…

Some gravestones aren’t even marked, which is also sad.

Let’s move on to a… nicer topic, perhaps. 😉 I don’t know how old this tree is, but it’s huge and GORGEOUS.

I love this picture, maybe because it looks estate-ly to me. XD

Next we have an old broken down log cabin. So exciting. XD But this was most likely the original house! After that it may have been the kitchen, then it was a school, then a garage, and that’s where it fell down – the guy that made it into a garage a long time ago just chopped a large door in the side of the wall, which weakened it so that it finally fell down completely about the time we bought the farm. I can’t wait to clear it away because it’s kind of an eyesore. :[] We’re hoping to clean off and keep the chimney and make a patio with a pagoda there!

One day Mom and I went inside the rubble and found a dilapidated cardboard box full of old letters and pamphlets and envelopes and such! It was SO neat! Here are a few of the more interesting things we found.

A vintage postcard from 1922…

And one from 1940…

Look at that little typewritten note at the top… XD XD IT WOULD BE GOOD TO KNOW YOUR RETURN ADDRESS FOR SURE, AHEM. 😛 Also oh my goodness, I just now noticed something – the stamp is a one cent stamp! And now it costs 50 times that… for a letter, at least.

And look, some neat old pictures! This was had “Dan, Walter, and Myself” written on the back.

BAHAHA I don’t think this guy liked to have his picture taken, do you? XD

The last sentence… 😦 Still so true.

Sickness and suffering seems to be a common theme in these letters, actually.

Okay, this is tragic. It’s some school paper or other but I don’t know if the student wrote it or just copied it. Nevertheless…

What?! They used triple exclamation points back in 1897? I thought it was a modern thing…

We also found some later typewritten letters. Read the second line up from the horizontal crease in this picture. O.o

The typewritten letter was addressed to “My Dear Darling Sweetheart” or something like that. I thought it was a love letter at first too, but look how it’s addressed:

We even found some old checks! Too bad we can’t cash them in. XD

I believe this is a bank statement. The writing is so pretty, isn’t it? We’re hoping to frame some of the nicer-looking letters. 🙂

And now… *drum roll* I’m proud to present the old German letter! It was SO much harder to translate than I thought, because some letters like the r’s and s’s looked practically the same, there were ink blots and faded parts, etc. I’m sure I made tons of mistakes, but at least you can get the gist of what it says.

Since this post is long already, I took out a few of the most boring/badly-translated/unnecessary parts, re-formatted it just a bit to make it easier to read, and added notes in brackets. Ahem.

Dear Aunt! Wednesday, March 16th, 1922 // Marburg/Lahn, Germany

We have received your letter from February. Brother Heinrich is now quite healthy; he has already gained 12 pounds and is very rosy in the face. [HA HA. XD] We have cared for him well, even in winter, and every evening we warm the bed because he gets very cold. His things are all in good condition – I have washed and mended everything. […]

It was a nice sight when Heinrich arrived here. Crooked, half-tied shoes, old blankets over his arm, frozen through and through, and then the dirty rags of a poor soldier. [Goodness gracious! Also I don’t know if I translated “soldier” right, but isn’t that intriguing? Maybe he fought in WWI!] […]

Before the brother came, I had a family of tailors do the work. But when they saw him, they said, “No, no, we don’t need that, we must take care that nothing happens to him, and we have no time for that.” [I think the writer means she used to have tailors make new clothes, but for some mysterious reason, they didn’t want to work for Brother Heinrich. Do you think maybe his being an American soldier had something to do with it?] […]

And now he [Heinrich] thinks that if he had enough money, he would buy a greenhouse in Charlottesville and sell flowers. The houses here are so high in price that we can’t buy even one for a few dollars, not to mention the high taxes. […]

We cannot keep the brother, I’m sorry to write to you. […] It is better that he goes back to Charlottesville again, where he is used to, and where they sing to him in his old age, and care for him. Here in Germany that is not possible because only locals are admitted [to nursing homes] and he is an American. He has now had his way and has been to Germany. […]

My people do not want me to take on such a burden again as I bore for 40 years – I fed my father for 40 years, and the brothers lived freely and didn’t care about him. [she mentioned how hard it was to care for her father several times. It must have been quite a job.] […]

You meant very well, but now you’ll understand we cannot keep him [Heinrich] here. I am always bound to him and cannot go my own way, which I should and must. So, dearest aunt and cousins, I would like to politely and urgently ask you to send Brother H. a ship ticket very soon, […]

[Okay guys, the next part is where things get interesting:]

The cost of living is almost impossibly high here. The meat is reduced by 2 marks each week: it costs 50 marks per pound. [I researched how much this would be in U. S. dollars today, and it would be $240,806. *horrified look*.] Butter costs 42 marks [$202,193] all winter. A feather bed costs 5000 marks [GUYS. THAT’S $1,600,000. :O :O :O]. You can now imagine how trying it is to have the brother in my house, and once again I ask you to release me soon from this burden. I knew in advance how everything would come about and that was why I was against it. […]

The constantly rising inflation has an appalling effect on the minds. You wrote that you wanted to do something for the brother, so I would like to ask you once more to put him in a retirement home, where he has care and company – here he knows no one.

Dear Aunt, I hope you’ll soon help me sort out this matter and send the ship’s ticket to the brother, because our stock of potatoes will only last until August and there are no new ones to be found. […]

In the hope that this letter finds you in good health, […]

Auguste Hoof Schwaner

_______________________________________

So I looked it up, and in the first half of 1922, when this letter was written, the German mark was worth 320 marks per U. S. dollar. O.o In the SECOND half of 1922, the mark went into hyperinflation and plummeted to $7,400 MARKS PER DOLLAR: you had to use 7,400 German dollars to buy something worth ONE American dollar! Oh my goodness.

Auguste, unfortunately you haven’t seen anything yet. I sure hope they got Brother Heinrich out of there before Auguste’s family ran out of money or potatoes, don’t you?

We’re actually planning to take down the log cabin at some indeterminate but hopefully soon date, and I’m sure we’ll find a bunch more fascinating things underneath the floorboards! Did you enjoy this post enough to be interested in another on what we find when we take down the log cabin or is this stuff kinda boring in your opinion? Do tell!

Also. What was your favorite “old thing” in this post? Have you ever found neat artifacts like these? Thanks for reading this long-winded post, my dears, and please have a lovely day!

***Allison***

P. S. GUYS, GUESS WHAT? WE HAVE FAST INTERNET NOW! (*Update* Okay so it’s supposedly unlimited, but after we use up our high-speed data it cuts us back to slower internet. Not as bad as before, but still…) That means I don’t have to drive 10-30 minutes to a library to use their Wi-Fi, and therefore I can make posts more often! *grins hugely*