~ Hello, 2018 ~

January 1, 2018 | Allison

It is 2018. IT IS 2018!

Surprisingly, it feels right to say that. I’m usually amazed that the next year has come so fast, and I sort of am this year as well, but it doesn’t feel as weird as usual. 2018 doesn’t seem that strange to type or write, it feels good.

But before I delve into this new year, I wanted to recap the last. So here you go! 2017 in review.

Guys this has been quite the year…

~ Highlights of 2017 ~

We bought a new farm.
I started a new Etsy shop.
I reached over 3,000 followers on my blog.
I started my last year of school!
I took hundreds (probably over a thousand) photos, and better learned how to use my DSLR. You can find a lot of my favorite pictures from this year here, here, and here.)
I made so much art.
I (and my friends, of course) deepened friendships both in real life and through blogging. ♥ I especially enjoyed getting to know my blogging friends better – you guys are the BEST, and I love emailing/commenting/writing to you and reading your amazing posts!
My siblings and I raised and sold adorable baby bunnies.
My family went on trips to Assateague, Chincoteague, and Amelia Island. 😀
I played piano for church!
We went camping with family.
We creamed 150 quarts of corn. O.o
We watched the solar eclipse!
And so many more memories. ♥

I learned a lot this year, and I feel like God grew me as well (although not in size – I think I’m about done growing now XD). More and more often I found myself stepping back from the moment and seeing the big picture and the small blessings, and realizing that almost every worry loses its urgency and importance in light of eternity.

Ahem. Anyway, before we move on to the goals/resolutions, we must have the obligatory stats, right? XD

~ 2017 Stats ~

Views: 50,174
Visitors: 16,171
Likes: 10,656
Comments: 8,958
Total Posts (over all years): 456

~ Popular Posts from 2017 ~

Thoughts on… {Beauty} – I was blown away by how popular this got! (At least popular for my blog.) I’m hoping to do more “Thoughts on…” posts next year. 🙂
Books, Blooms, and Bales {Portrait Photography} – Oh yes, I love this post too! That was a great photoshoot. 🙂
Poems – I started writing some poetry this year, and I’m amazed at what kind comments you left me and how much you seem to like it. 😛
Drawings and Such + Why It’s Okay to Make Bad Art – I love this post, so I’m glad you guys do too!

So those are some of you guys’ favorite posts… here are some of my favorite posts. Actually these are just the posts with some of my favorite photos from 2017 in them. 😉

~ Best Photography Posts of 2017 ~

Summer 2017: basically summer memories + a selection of summer’s best pictures.

Bunnies in Autumn: One of my very favorite photoshoots of the entire year! EEEE THEY’RE SO CUTE!

My County Fair Entries for 2017: The end of this post has some of my favorite pictures from 2017 and maybe a few from 2016 too.

Pink Flowers and Little Sisters: This photoshoot with my youngest sister was SO fun and the pictures turned out great!

Golden Hour Sisters Photoshoot: A similar photoshoot, but with Megan and I. I adore the lighting. ♥

~ Resolutions ~

And now for last year’s goals… Let’s see how I did.

Meet at least one more of my blogger friends. Sort of not really? I got to video chat with one of my friends, which was SO fun, and I saw pictures/videos of many others, but sadly I did not meet any in real life. Oh well, there’s always next year!
Grow my Etsy shop. If I was talking about my clay Etsy shop… not exactly. If you’re talking about my new art Etsy shop, yes! (Since I have two sales compared to zero when I started. XD) I think this year was sort of a practice run and I’m looking forward to digging deeper into this business in the coming year.
Start a Bible journal and keep it going throughout the year. Check! So far I’m in 1 Samuel, and I’ve hand lettered my favorite verse from all the chapters I’ve read so far. I cannot WAIT to see all the journals when I’m done, and I’m definitely going to continue this goal into 2018.

So what is my New Year’s resolution for 2018? Well, it ties in to one of the most important things I’ve learned this year: I can’t do it.

You know on Disney movies how they’re always like, “Believe in yourself”? That’s true, to a point… but only to a point. I’m not saying self-doubt is good or you should hate yourself – not at all! That’s way too far in the other direction.

BUT. The thing is, I’m a pretty poor thing to believe in. I’m broken and fallen and weak, and so are we all. But even though I know that, sometimes I forget, and think that I know best instead of God.

Considering moving and selling the farm and other things that are out of my control has shown me that I just can’t do this on my own. I’m not big enough, not strong enough to change the weather or the timing of plans or… well, anything.

But see, this is not depressing or sad for me – it’s a relief. Because even though I can’t do it, God can – and he will. Why would I want to believe in myself and my weakness, when I can believe in God and his strength? I wouldn’t. I don’t.

So one of my “New Year’s resolutions” is to believe less in myself and more in God. I’ll have to put it into practice to even complete it, because I certainly can’t do that on my own!

So yeah. Those are my thoughts (and some pictures) from this past year.

I can’t wait to see what God will do next year. Eeep, it’s so exciting just thinking about it! Happy New Year’s, guys. I hope it’s the best one so far.

Bring it on, 2018. I can’t do this… but God can.

***Allison***

Ahem. I Have an Announcement.

December 12, 2017December 13, 2018 | Allison

Warning: this is going to be a loooong post. Our cat Jinx is prepared to dive in with you if you’re ready to go with him. All set? Okay.

2 (1280x853) — POOR THING. This was not my doing. It was my siblings’ (but of course).

Ahem. GUYS. I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU. Something I have been waiting to announce for almost a year. I am super excited but also super sad to say…

Continue reading →

Out to Pasture

November 28, 2017 | Allison

Hello, dears? How goes life? I’ll bet you’re all having so much fun starting school again after Thanksgiving break, am I right? Ha. *sigh*

Anyway, a friend recently brought some of her cows to one of our pastures and they are SO CUTE. So much cuter than the boring ol’ Holstein cows in our barns. XD So the other day Megan and I decided to go do a little photoshoot of them, because how could we not? (Note: I did edit all these pictures (some more than others), which is unusual for me. But the lighting was kind of gray and gross, so they needed touching up. XD)

I shall start with the most adorable of the cows. ♥ We call her Rainbow because that’s the name in her ear tag, but I don’t know what her real name is (or if she has one).

SO ADORABLE! I love her eyes! ♥

Doesn’t she look so sweet?

I was trying to get a picture of her tongue out, and I… sort of did?

This enormous guy is the one bull in the pasture. Don’t worry, we didn’t get trampled on or anything like that; he actually seems pretty calm. But we stayed outside the fence anyway. XD

He is HUGE compared to the cows.

I love all the different variations in color and patterns. 🙂 (AND THE BOKEH in the background.)

Look at the marking on her forehead! ♥

This might be the one my cousin called “Einstein” because of her fuzzy white hair. XD

The spotted sisters. XD (Actually I don’t know that they’re sisters, but it’s, um… prosaic license, heh heh?)

Rainbow again. ♥ Her coloring and big, dark eyes remind me of my rabbit, Lily. XD

And this other random cow who was similar to Rainbow but not as pretty…

“HEY, careful with your words, there, person-with-the-black-clicking-thing. I happen to know my face is beautiful, and that you should really be focusing on ME, not those boring dried weeds.”

“There. Better. Although that fence…”

Sorry, cow, you’ll have to make do with barbed wire in your face. Or you could have just BACKED UP A BIT, ahem?

“*glares* Hmph. All the other cows were crowding around to see what you were doing, so how could I not? Peer pressure is a hard thing, you know. Especially if you’re a cow.”

Mmm, I suppose so. What with stampeding and all that…

“There, finally you’re sounding more reasona- HEY. YOU DID IT AGAIN.”

Well maybe sisters and red plaid shirts are more… shall we say, photogenic than angry cows?

“I AM NOT ANGRY. I mean… On the contrary, I am quite calm. See? NOW GET THAT GREEN STUFF OUT OF MY FACE.”

It’s vetch, my dear bovine. V-E-T-C-H. You know what, I think I’ll just end this conversation right here since you obviously won’t listen to anything I say anyway. Sheesh, cows can be so stubborn…

“WAIT-”

Goodbye.

****************

Heh heh, cow conversations are fun to write. XD I hope you enjoyed reading it and the rest of the post! Which cow or picture was your favorite?

Oh, and before you go, check out the two interviews I did recently! Rebecca did one with me and Buttercup did the other. Both girls’ questions were great and fun to answer, and I think you guys would have fun reading them too. 😉

***Allison***

P. S. I updated my sidebar a bit. What think thee?

~Etcetera~

November 21, 2017November 21, 2017 | Allison

Guys, I have SO many extra photos. And that happens pretty much all the time. So I decided to make a new little series: these “Etcetera” posts will have random photography as well as recent life, thoughts… etc. XD (kind of like monthly wrap-ups, but different). I hope you enjoy reading them!

Now, where to begin? I have SO much to cover. Aha, Maggie is a good subject to start with.

Maggie

I was trying to take a picture of Maggie’s eye but she kept MOVING. XD I did get this one good one, though:

I also got some other, less close-up shots of her. I just love all of Maggie’s expressions, hee hee. It looks like she’s saying, “Aww, you shouldn’t have,” don’t you think?

Such a pretty pup. ♥

It looks like she’s praying. 😛

Dad just finished combining (harvesting corn) for the year. WOOHOO! Now maybe we can jump in the grain bins…

Mini Sister’s Photoshoot

Speaking of fields, Megan and I (and Maggie) did a little mini photoshoot in the soybean field while it was golden green and brown. Isn’t the lighting AMAZING?

If you guys like my photography/lifestyle posts, you should totally check out Emmaline Figura’s blogs, Lucillian Photography and Crystal Ice Studio! Her photography is AMAZING – she deserves so many more followers!

I love this picture, but it sure took a while to clone out the soybean that so rudely butted in front of Megan’s chin. XD Humph, I shouldn’t have said that. Now you’re all probably inspecting Megan’s chin…

Megan got a few pictures of me but most of them didn’t turn out or I had a weird expression, heh heh. This is probably the best one. Still have a weird expression. XD

Guess what? My younger brother and I were driving to piano lessons today, and when we got there we found that one of my car’s tires was completely flat. O.o But guess what again? My brother changed it himself, while I was having my lesson! I really want to learn stuff like that – I’m much better at art than mechanics. XD

Sunset Bokeh

The sunset did capture well on my camera, but it did make for some neat silhouettes and bokeh!

Singing hymns is one of my favorite things at our church. The congregation sings beautifully, and it’s glorious when we do an a capella verse. ♥ I like singing for things like that, but not enough to take voice lessons or anything. I usually just hum and whistle at home. 🙂

Do you guys have any special plans for Thanksgiving? We’re having three different celebrations because we have a rather large extended family. 😉 Are you traveling? We aren’t – most of our family lives quite close by. But if you are, here’s a tip: salty snacks like chips really take carsickness away. Well, I mean they help if you eat them. They won’t do much good just sitting there by your seat.

Flowers

Dad and the kids always pick out a hanging flower basket for Mom for Mother’s Day, and it lasted all the way into late fall this year! Isn’t it pretty?

Ugh, I have to write a 15-30 page research paper for school. *Long sigh* At least we’re taking this week off for Thanksgiving!

We also have a rose bush (well more like a rose vine) by our door, and it’s a weird mix of knockout-type roses and “real” roses, as we like to call them. There are usually only a few “real” roses a year and this was one of them. ♥

To find the rose you must first get past the thorns. To find the rainbow you must first walk through the storm. Bad things make the good more beautiful. And always remember, my dear, there is beauty even in brokenness.

GUYS. LOOK AT THIS PHOTO! I just pressed the button and the moth behind just happened to fly in at the right moment. I LOVE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS.

Pretty butterflies + pretty zinnias – my photobombing car = a mildly pretty picture.

The Big Apple

We have one very old apple tree that usually produces nothing but food for worms. XD However, this year it actually grew real apples and they were DELICIOUS! I don’t know what kind they were, but they were stupendous. And I found this one extremely large apple – see? (The one on the right is a more normal-size one.)

It weighed 15 OUNCES. ALMOST A POUND.

Golden Garden

These might be some of my favorite pictures ever! I just love the golden lighting so, so much, especially with the golden tones of the flowers. ♥

Sometimes I feel wise and knowledgeable, and then I wonder if that simply means I still have so much to learn. I guess that happens when you’re a teenager, huh? 😛

(Side note: I rather dislike the word “teenager” for some reason. Don’t exactly know why.)

And would you look at all that bokeh? AHHHHH.

This picture seems relaxing, like you can feel the sun and hear the breeze through the willow branches. 🙂 I can sort of remember planting this willow tree, even though it’s quite a good sized tree now – it’s a curly willow so it grew SUPER fast.

This isn’t really a garden, but it’s golden. Even dust is beautiful when the sun shines through it.

I think cameras can make anything beautiful. In fact, here’s a challenge: find three things you think are ugly and try to take a beautiful picture of them.

Etcetera

We also have two black and two English walnut trees in our yard. I strongly dislike the bitter taste of black walnuts, but English walnuts taste great! (They’re the kind you get in stores.) We don’t usually shell these though, because it’s a lot of work for not much result. Have you tried black walnuts?

This is rather random, but I wanted to take a picture of a begonia blossom from my grandmother’s hanging flower pot because I noticed the beautiful, intricate curlicues in the center of the blossoms. I love the little things like this. 🙂

I got a picture of my youngest brother pressure-washing one of the wagons. 🙂 His birthday was today, actually! The frame was supposed to be transparent but it’s showing up black here…? I hope it works once I publish the post, but I’m doubtful.

I like the way shadows look on this barn. 🙂

And now we have come to the end of this post. Wow, Allison, what a moving conclusion. *clap, clap*

ANYWAY, I hope you enjoyed reading this gathering of orphaned thoughts and photos. 😛 I know it was an enormous post, but I’m only half-sorry because phew, I now have a large chunk of my random photos squared away. XD I don’t think Etcetera posts will usually be this long, though, if I do them in the future. Which category/picture/random thingy was your favorite? Do you think Etcetera posts would make a good series or are they too random and scattered (because I would kind of agree with you on that XD)?

Have a wonderful day, dears, and thanks so much for reading. ♥

***Allison***

Bunnies in Autumn

October 3, 2017 | Allison

EXTREME CUTENESS ALERT: If you are not able to cope with impossibly adorable animals, perhaps you should skip this post.

Okay, everyone’s still here. Good. BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO CUTE TO MISS, EEP! This is definitely my favorite bunny photoshoot I’ve ever done and it turned out gorgeous, if I do say so myself! 😀 Special thanks to my sister Megan who posed and calmed the bunnies throughout this traumatizing time of sitting on white foamboard and being bombarded by flowers and shot by cameras.

And now let’s just get to the pictures. I CAN’T WAIT ANY LONGER. (Actually I can wait long enough to give you a warning that there will probably be a lot of caps in this post. Obviously.)

Let’s start with the one and only Olaf. Olaf’s prop was a rosebud from our bush, and it was perfect! Also sorry for all the weird different shades of white in the backgrounds. The original pictures were rather bluish and they were hard to adjust properly since Olaf’s a different color of white. Anyway, just ignore that part and hopefully enjoy them anyway.

Wait. That… wasn’t a rabbit. Oh well.

I dub thee, Princess Olaf. (Yes, Olaf is a girl. We thought she was a boy and had already named her by the time we figured out that the seller had given us the wrong one. XD)

BWAHAHAHA isn’t this picture hilarious? Olaf kept winking for some reason.

AGAIN WITH THE WINK.

Ugh the white is so off on this one but I love it otherwise! Isn’t it so pretty?

And now for my dear fluffy Willow. She actually had recently gotten a trim when I took these pictures so she’s not as fluffy as normal. Also Willow gets more pictures because I didn’t need to edit them as much, heh heh. AND BECAUSE SHE’S FLUFFY.

Here we have a behind-the-scenes picture. My little sister Carmen also wanted to help (but just briefly), and poor Willow was a bit befuddled with all the chaos, I think. We chose marigolds because they’re pretty, but I think they may actually be poisonous to rabbits? I’m not sure. Anyway, we made sure she didn’t so much as nibble one, and she’s still alive to tell the story.

I’m pretty sure that’s an orange teardrop of stress on her cheek.

Good JOB, Willow! You stayed!

HA HA. I don’t even know what her expression is but it’s funny.

THIS. IS. HILARIOUS. It looks like she’s directing a plane coming in for landing or helping someone try to parallel park. “Okay a little to the right. Nope, your other right. There, you got it. Keep on a-coming, beep, beep, beep.”

We actually did get some good photos in the midst of all the funny ones, though! While it may look like she sat there innocently staring at me, she did not. She took every chance to meander away from where she was supposed to be in hopes of greener grass. (But this grass is pretty green, so…)

Ha ha, she looks like a scared little fluffy pancake. But a cute one. ♥

Aww, so sweet! That’s it, your getting the hang of it now, Willow!

Mmpf, maybe not. SOOOORRY.

Aww I love this one! Isn’t it so beautiful and adorable? You are a lovely Queen of Summer, Willow.

Next we have Diamond. I think she’s very noble-looking and handsomely beautiful, don’t you? I love the colors in these pictures!

Whoops, I think I over-edited this one…

Next we went to the soybean field, which is mostly featured in these pictures as a yellow glow.

I LOVE this one!

Ha ha, her dewlap. XD (A dewlap is the big floppy thingy around their neck that some adult female rabbits have. It’s normal, don’t worry. 😉 )

Now for Snickers. GUYS, HIS CHUBBY CHEEKS HELP ME. Is he not the cutest?

AHHH THIS PICTURE THOUGH.

I LOVE HIS SQUISHY FACE.

And lastly but not leastly, a picture of the three compadres, Diamond, Olaf, and Lily. They are similar breeds (Diamond’s a Silver Fox and the other two are New Zealands), but they’re different colors, which makes for a lovely group shot. (And again I have kind of a weird white balance thing going on. Sorry ’bout that!)

Lily: Let me just move up a little bit so you can see me better. Is this a good angle?

Olaf: Mmph. You’re squishing me.

In which three frightened rabbits cower under the… oh, it’s just a camera.

HA HA WHAT IS UP WITH THE WINKING AGAIN, OLAF?! XD It cracks me up.

And that’s about it! I took tons more photos than that but those were the best. What did you think, guys? Guys? Oh dear, perhaps that was a little too much cuteness for one post…

If anyone survived, which bunny’s shoot was your favorite?

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

***Allison***

P. S. OOPS. Nearly forgot about the Caption It contest! Here’s the photo:

And my favorite caption was by Zielle.

Maggie: Wait, wait, I think I got it! I can wink!
Allison: That’s blinking, Maggie.

HA HA IT’S PERFECT! Thanks, Zielle, and everyone else who participated! I loved reading your captions.

Bits & Pieces #1

September 25, 2017September 27, 2017 | Allison

Hello, my dears! Welcome to yet ANOTHER random photography post, where Allison dumps all the miscellaneous orphan photos that she couldn’t fit in any other post. XD I am waaay backed up with extra photos so I hope you’re ready for a lot of photography posts! 😀

Ahem. Let’s begin.

The Eclipse

I still haven’t shown you my pictures from the eclipse? Dear me, I AM behind. XD Anyway, I didn’t get any spectacular pictures, but I did get a few through welding glass to at least document what happened. The welding glass made everything look green, but I managed to edit out most of the color except that one green guy over there. XD As you can see, we weren’t in the path of totality.

I thought the eclipse looked really neat through clouds!

And here’s just a bonus picture I took that day. So pretty!

The Enormous Bonfire

We occasionally burn a heap of brush or extra wood piles and such on our farm, and I got these pictures from one of those times. Dad pushed the pile around with the telehandler which made the bonfire practically explode in a column of glittering orange sparks. It was breathtaking!

Bonus picture of the cows that watched the bonfire with us. XD There were a bit confused about what was happening, as cows usually seem to be.

There were actually a few bulls in the pasture, and one started sort of stomping and bellowing. O.o Thankfully nothing bad happened. Isn’t it funny how he has a heart on his forehead? You can’t see it too well in this picture, but he really does!

Megan’s Birthday Party

We had a lot of fun decorating the front porch and outside table for Megan’s party. Aren’t the colors pretty?

We used zinnias from our garden for some of the decorations, and I got some lovely pictures of the bouquets. ♥

Megan wanted to have doughnuts instead of cake, which was quite a good idea in my opinion. 😉 We made the doughnuts the previous day and I also made a little happy birthday banner for the top.

Yum, fresh lemonade!

Grandma brought Megan a beautiful rose from her house along with her gift.

We had a water balloon fight for one of the party games. It was so fun, AND I didn’t get very wet, which was good since it wasn’t that hot. XD

A bonus picture of the gorgeous spreading maple in our front yard…

Bonus picture #2 of an adorable fuzzy caterpillar we found before the party.

Isn’t it cute? 😛

Moving a Piano + Another Bonfire

One night we went to our grandparents’ house to help move their piano from the basement to their room. 🙂 It was quite hard work… well actually I didn’t do much but stay out of the way and document it for posterity, but it looked like hard work. When they finally brought it to my grandparents’ room, it wouldn’t fit through the door. But then they tried turning it on end and thankfully it just fit. Phew! The poor piano.

I also got some super neat pictures of the piano without its top on. I love them, especially after they were edited!

After we got the piano all figured out we had a bonfire and picnic. Fire is so fun to watch, isn’t it?

I got a really good picture of my grandpa smiling when he didn’t know I was taking a picture. I edited it a good bit, as you can tell, but isn’t it neat?

Freshly Picked

I took these photos for my sister’s photo contest, BIBPC. I think they turned out rather pretty!

Also isn’t this tomato HILARIOUS?! It looks like it’s sticking out its tongue at you.

The Rest of Them

THESE COOKIES ARE DELICIOUS! I took pictures of them because I wanted to submit the recipe to Olivia Bell’s wonderful magazine. Be sure to check it out (and make it) when the next issue comes out here soon! You can subscribe to her magazine through the contact form in this post.

Random picture of the details on one of my Sunday dresses…

I edited this one a LOT to get rid of the power lines crisscrossing it, but this is the view from one of our upstairs windows. 🙂

There we go! That was pretty much a whole bunch of mini posts smushed into one huge one. XD I hope you enjoyed! Which topic was your favorite?

***Allison***

Pink Flowers and Little Sisters

September 17, 2017 | Allison

The other day when we had our little Labor Day adventure I did a rather cute photoshoot with my little sister Carmen, if I do say so myself. 🙂 I just love how the pictures turned out, and I can’t wait to show you guys!

When I saw all the pretty pink smartweed flowers, I knew they were just begging to be in a photoshoot. Heh heh. I asked Carmen if I could take pictures of her and after a few tries she reluctantly agreed… and then once we got started she didn’t want to stop. XD If you love photography and have siblings, especially younger siblings, a photoshoot is a really fun thing to do with them!

Ahem. And now for the pictures (and there are a LOT). XD

DSC_2101 (853x1280) — Aww, isn’t this so cute?

“Oh, Carmen, you look creepy!”

*laughs* “Yeah, I meant to.”

I took a lot of pictures with Carmen in the background because I thought the lighting and bokeh made it look lovely. 🙂

Oh my goodness, isn’t the setting perfect for these? The lighting… the flowers… ahh!

DSC_2137 (853x1280) — Yikes, better watch out for the thistles! O.o

Carmen found a hollow stump and wanted me to take pictures of her in it.

DSC_2148 (1280x853) — Her creepy face again…

DSC_2156 (1280x853) — HA HA! This one’s one of my favorites. XD She just looks so relaxed and nonchalant. I don’t think she even knew her feet were that dirty. XD

DSC_2159 (1280x853) — It looks like she’s in a wooden bathtub or something. 😛

Okay, now these next few pictures are some of my favorites from the shoot!

DSC_2175 (1280x853) — Dirt on her knee and a grin on her face. 🙂

DSC_2174 (1280x853) — I LOVE THIS ONE! Isn’t it so fun when you can capture a moment of genuine, candid laughter?

“Allison, you should take a picture of me bending down, like I’m finding something on the ground.”

Ha ha, so she wanted me to take a picture of her on that long, horizontal limb in the last picture, and I agreed. But we had quite the struggle to get her up there. XD I hung my camera on a branch and tried boosting her up, then letting her climb on top of me, and after several tries and much laughter we finally succeeded. XD

DSC_2213 (853x1280) — I love this one too!

I forget if Carmen or I had the idea for these next pictures… I think it was me. Anyway, they turned out so cute!

She was a bit uncertain of how to pose without jabbing herself on the barbed wire fence, but she figured it out. 😉

And we shall end with another of my favorites:

There we go! I hope you had as much fun looking through the pictures as I did taking them. 🙂 Which was your favorite (if you have one)? Have you ever done a photoshoot with a younger sibling? This one was quite fun and if I started to run out of ideas, Carmen gave me an ample supply. XD

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

***Allison***

Summer 2017 {Memories + Photos}

September 12, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

Heh heh, I know this is rather late for a summer post, but hey, we haven’t fallen too far into autumn yet, right? (See what I did there?) Anyway, I loved Clara’s summer recap post, so I decided to do one of my own!

Here’s a recap of this summer’s happenings in pictures.

Raising and selling a litter of darling baby bunnies. ♥

Taking a lovely trip to Assateague and Chincoteague Island.

Writing and illustrating letters.

Playing piano at the nursing home and filling in for the pianist at church. O.o

Finding barn kittens.

All the flowers.

Watching a cardboard boat race. XD

Working on a project I will hopefully reveal soon… (Here’s a sneak peek:)

Hayley’s ATC Trade.

Playing Gaga Ball on the trampoline with my siblings.

Swimming at our neighbor’s pool.

Re-designing a board game I created. (Sneak peek:)

Playing games with family and friends.

Saying goodbye to Clementine. 😦

Making lots and lots of art.

Taking lots and lots of pictures.

Pizza and movie nights.

Watching sunsets.

Helping out at a wedding.

Celebrating fourth of July with family. (Photo credit to my aunt.)

Going camping in tents with cousins and grandparents.

Meeting new people and making new friends.

Hatching swallowtail butterflies.

Cutting and creaming 150 quarts of corn from our sweet corn patch. O.o

Books.

Blogging.

Watching the eclipse (even though I got rather poor photos XD).

Having simply splendid time at Amelia Island with friends.

Finally watching Star Wars. 😛

The County Fair.

Starting WordCrafters 3.

Gardening and canning produce.

Consuming many 50 cent Frosties at Wendy’s.

Sewing class.

Video-chatting with a blogger friend.

Making decorations for our monthly church meals.

Emailing, writing to, and debating with blogger friends. 😀 ♥

CWWC (see my entries here) and BIBPC, (this my latest entry).

Nature Study with friends.

Bonfires, big and small.

Gathering eggs.

Megan’s birthday (which included a water balloon fight).

Family reunions.

Labor Day adventures.

Making memories. ♥

It was a lovely summer. 🙂 I had a lot of fun but I also learned a lot, I think more in practical knowledge than book knowledge. It’s been good.

How was your summer?

***Allison***

Labor Day Adventures

September 8, 2017September 8, 2017 | Allison

This Labor Day we did something a different than an ordinary picnic or cook-out. Since Dad and the boys were out harvesting corn, Mom suggested that we girls pack a lunch and just go out and walk around the farm. So we did! It was quite fun.

We packed some sandwiches, mint tea, chips, and a couple other things which I can’t remember (XD), and took along backpacks filled with books and cameras.

This is my cucumber sandwich. Say hello. I didn’t want to waste the bread crusts after I cut out the sandwich, so I flattened them with a rolling pin, spread some cream cheese on, and rolled them up into roses. 😛

First we headed past a place we call “The Sycamores” because… there are a lot of huge sycamore trees by the creek.

I found some lovely periwinkle morning glories along the path. Aren’t they charming?

We finally settled on a pretty, peaceful corner of the pasture filled with smartweed – a dainty little pink flower. We spread out a blanket, hung the hammock, and relaxed.

DSC_2055 (1280x853) — This looks kind of weird…

DSC_2049 (1280x853) — I love this one. ♥

I did a really fun, cute photoshoot with my little sister here, but this post would be insanely long if I included all those photos ~~oh wait it already is~~, so I’ll save it for later. Anyway, this was a great spot for taking pictures of little things. My favorite! 😀

DSC_2073 (1280x853) — In interesting twisty stick.

DSC_2076 (1280x853) — I love the bokeh in these pictures!

DSC_2077 (1280x853) — Have you ever tasted sourgrass, or wood sorrel? That’s what this is. It tastes, well, sour.

DSC_2247 (1280x853) — I found a beautifully shiny, polished nut.

The scenery was more scrubby here than the rest of our farm, but still pretty.

Trees are nice.

After we ate lunch and read for a while, we decided to move to a different spot. We crossed the barbwire fence (no easy feat in this pasture), walked over the field, up the hill, down a lane, and up another hill to a beautiful hidden spot behind a pasture. We’d never been there before, which is something rare since we’ve walked pretty much everywhere on our farm, and it was delightful to explore it.

Unfortunately I didn’t get many pictures with my camera because it ran out of battery, but Megan lent me hers.

HA HA cows are such funny creatures. XD

DSCN3264 (1280x960) — I think this picture is so neat but I don’t know why – it’s rather cluttered.

I had the idea to play mancala while we were there. (Have you ever played that? It’s really fun!) I dug out some holes in the dirt with a stick and used corn kernels for the marbles. It actually worked!

It’s really hard to see on camera, but Carmen and I built a great fort around this perfect square of trees. There were huge logs scattered everywhere (one pile was in a huge sinkhole O.o ). They made great walls but were exhausting to carry. We didn’t finish the fort, but we did make a good start.

Mom and Carmen and I also built this little campfire area in a pretty shaded nook. We stacked stones for a firepit, hauled in some rocks and stumps for chairs, and made benches from logs and rocks. 🙂 It was fun.

Mom also found this really odd-looking spider. O.o (She’s for you, Clara. 😉 )

In the evening our whole family came up and had a picnic with us, and a bonfire too.

So that’s what we did for Labor Day! It was great fun, even though the mosquitoes practically devoured me. I got over 40 mosquito bites (yes, I counted XD). O.o Anyway, the memories will last for much longer than the bites will, so it’s all good.

I hope you enjoyed this loooong post, my dears! Which was your favorite picture? Which was your least favorite? What did you do for Labor Day?

***Allison***

Allison Marie

Photography, Artsy Things, & Lifestyle Inspiration

Farm Life

~ Hello, 2018 ~

~ Highlights of 2017 ~

~ 2017 Stats ~

~ Popular Posts from 2017 ~

~ Best Photography Posts of 2017 ~

~ Resolutions ~

Ahem. I Have an Announcement.

Out to Pasture

~Etcetera~

Maggie

Mini Sister’s Photoshoot

Sunset Bokeh

Flowers

The Big Apple

Golden Garden

Etcetera

Bunnies in Autumn

Pink Flowers and Little Sisters

Summer 2017 {Memories + Photos}

Writing and illustrating letters.

Watching a cardboard boat race. XD

Playing Gaga Ball on the trampoline with my siblings.

Playing games with family and friends.

Pizza and movie nights.

Helping out at a wedding.

Meeting new people and making new friends.

Blogging.

Finally watching Star Wars. 😛

Consuming many 50 cent Frosties at Wendy’s.

Video-chatting with a blogger friend.

Emailing, writing to, and debating with blogger friends. 😀 ♥

Gathering eggs.

Family reunions.

Making memories. ♥

Labor Day Adventures

~ Highlights of 2017 ~

~ 2017 Stats ~

~ Popular Posts from 2017 ~

~ Best Photography Posts of 2017 ~

~ Resolutions ~

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Maggie

Mini Sister’s Photoshoot

Sunset Bokeh

Flowers

The Big Apple

Golden Garden

Etcetera

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The Eclipse

The Enormous Bonfire

Megan’s Birthday Party

Moving a Piano + Another Bonfire

Freshly Picked

The Rest of Them

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Writing and illustrating letters.

Watching a cardboard boat race. XD

Playing Gaga Ball on the trampoline with my siblings.

Playing games with family and friends.

Pizza and movie nights.

Helping out at a wedding.

Meeting new people and making new friends.

Blogging.

Finally watching Star Wars. 😛

Consuming many 50 cent Frosties at Wendy’s.

Video-chatting with a blogger friend.

Emailing, writing to, and debating with blogger friends. 😀 ♥

Gathering eggs.

Family reunions.

Making memories. ♥

Share this on:

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