Black Friday Surprises!

November 29, 2016 | Allison

Guys, (or rather girls) I super excited to show you the things I bought for Black Friday! We went shopping late Thursday night and a little bit on Black Friday too. Did you go Black Friday shopping? Anyway, let me show you my goodies. 🙂

A cute backpack, a beautiful ESV Study Bible, and… (wait for it) a new camera! 😀 😀 😀 Woohoo!

The backpack: My old backpack has seen its better days, so I was really happy to find this pretty one at JCPenny. (And if you’re wondering why I need a backpack when I’m homeschooled – I use it to hold my co-op things. 😉 )

camera-2 — Yuck. Not a very good picture.

The Bible: Family Christian Bookstores had a 50% discount off of the whole line of ESV Study Bibles! My old Bible barely had any notes, so I really wanted a Study Bible. And I love this one! It’s beautiful and has lots of footnotes and cross-references and even a few illustrations. (Why why why didn’t I get any pictures of the inside? *facepalm*)

The cover is imprinted with swirly ivy designs that were quite fun to photograph…

And the camera! I’m really excited because it’s my first dSLR camera. 😀 It’s a Nikon d3400, and it came with two lenses – a standard lens and a zoom lens (I think). I might do a review of it later, but for now I’m still learning how to use it. 😉 There are several things I miss about my old camera (mostly ease-of-use), but I do like how this one has manual aperture and shutter speed options! I can’t wait to take some softened photos of a waterfall.

For the rest of the post I’m going to dump heaps and heaps of experimental photos on you, so take a deep breath and do some scrolling-finger exercises before we begin. XD

: Aww, Casey kitty!

: WILLOW FLUFFBALL!

: Oh my goodness this might be one of the cutest pictures I’ve ever taken of Willow. XD

: Can you see the improvement on photo quality here versus my last camera? (Snickers does not look impressed with my new equipment, but he DOES look cute. XD)

: I don’t know if it was the camera or what, but Lily was super scared when I took this picture. She was racing around like crazy!

: I love the blurred background and bokeh here! My new camera is good at that.

: Random chicken. XD (I think I was experimenting with aperture.)

: This photo looks dSLR-ish, doesn’t it? I love how the top is in focus and the bottom is blurred. That’s my favorite. 😀 *Happy sigh*

: Funny Fact: Casey loves this plant. As in, she loves to eat it. XD

: I got a few decent photos in the dark. (And heh heh, I kind of stole this photography idea from my sister who did a beautiful post about it here: https://abarefootgal.wordpress.com/2016/11/27/christmas-light-photography/

: We’re revamping our Schoolroom. This is the Nature Shelf, and more specifically, this is a duck egg in an I-don’t-know-what-kind-of-nest.

: The classic camera-with-its-human picture. XD

dsc_0100-1280x960 — When I turned on the flash it made these little rainbow-y circles appear.

: I really like how these drippy photos turned out. 🙂

: For some reason, I kinda like this one too. I guess it’s the reflection on the stone or something?

: BOKEH!

: In case you haven’t noticed, I l♥ve waterdrops.

dsc_0134-1280x853 — SUPER CREEPY PHOTO OF OLAF ALERT! She has some serious red eye (perhaps because her eyes are already pinkish-red XD). Yikes. That really is quite creepy. XD

dsc_0133-1280x853 — Aww, Liliputian again! I’m pretty pleased that this photo turned out pretty well even though I used flash. My old camera did’t take very good pictures with flash.

Oh my. That was a LOT of photos, wasn’t it? Yikes. Hee hee, I hope you enjoyed this post in spite of (or because of) that!

***Allison***

P. S. I always think of so many things to write for P. S.’s, but when it comes time to actually write them I can never remember what I was thinking… 😦 XD

Random Photography + Some Sad News :(

November 20, 2016 | Allison

Hey, guys. I was going to post about that mysterious thing I’ve been hinting at, but unfortunately I can’t really anymore. You see, what I was going to post was that Willow had baby bunnies! But… *SNIIIIIFFF* they aren’t alive anymore. 😦 😦 😦 😦 😦 They were doing just fine even though it was quite chilly, but I think the really windy day we had today was just too much for them. *Cries* Here is one picture to remember them by:

004 — This is a picture of one the day it was born (I think). There were five all black babies.

*Sigh*

Okay, now that’s over with. 😦 Let’s move on to happier subjects, right? I’ve collected several random photographs from my extensive collection.

Let’s start with some cuteness to cheer us up, shall we?

allisonsunset-schoolroom-012-1280x960 — Aww! Look at these two wittle cuties!

allisonsunset-schoolroom-013-1280x960 — It’s always fun to find a litter of barn kittens. 🙂 (You can tell this was a while ago by Megan’s shortsleeves. XD )

allisonfall-034-1280x960 — Why hello there, Lily! XD She cracks me up.

casey-2-1280x960 — Casey looks kind of… I don’t know what… startled? XD

And some miscellaneous pictures…

allisonart-bunnies-002-1280x960 — Watercolor is so fun. ♥

allisonart-bunnies-091-1280x960 — Ahh, a lovely sunset.

And last but not least, a few pictures from our uncle’s pond.

pond-2-1280x960 — Reflections are so pretty!

pond-4-1280x960 — This is Buster. He loves to swim in the pond, as you can tell from his muddy fur. 😉

pond-5-1280x960 — Megan was fishing (she didn’t catch anything), and Buster was chasing her hook. XD

pond-6-1280x960 — Isn’t this gorgeous? The reflection is almost perfect!

pond-8-1280x960 — Ripples are a fun abstract photo opportunity. It kinda reminds me of a Van Gogh painting, ya know?

I’m sorry about the sad news… but I hope you enjoyed the rest of the post. 🙂 Thank you, my loyal readers! ♥

***Allison***

Bunny Swap

November 15, 2016November 15, 2016 | Allison

I have some adorable news for you…

We got a new bunny! 😀 And we sold another bunny, which I realized I had never even posted about. O.o First, the “old” bunny. We got Pippin on the day we found Willow’s babies, so I guess he was kind of overshadowed in all the excitement, poor thing. He is a New Zealand/Silver Fox mix, and we got him to breed with Diamond, Lily, and Olaf (yes, Olaf is a girl XD ).

Sorry Pippin, I didn’t take many pictures of you.

I love this picture of his eye! You can see the reflection so clearly!

He loves to poke his nose into Snickers’ cage. XD

So why did we sell him? Well I didn’t think we needed him in the first place because we couldn’t sell his babies for as much money as we could with Snickers and Willow. But Megan and my brother Jeff both really wanted to get him, so we did. 😉 Once we got Snickers, we decided to sell him to help pay for Snickers – and also because that would be too many bunnies to keep at once!

Why did we get Snickers? Some of you know that he used to be my friend Mallory’s bunny, but she decided to sell him since she didn’t play with him much anymore. 😦 We bought him to breed with Willow because that was quite a success last time, and also possibly to breed with Clemmie. And also because he is ADORABLE! See what I mean?

SUCH CHUBBY CHEEKS! 😀

So squishy! 😀 Is your cuteness meter filled yet?

*Happy sigh* I love bunnies. ♥

***Allison***

P. S. Speaking of bunnies, did you know that Clemmie hurt her eye? One of the bunnies (we don’t know which one) bit her close to her eye, and now she probably won’t be able to see out of it anymore. *SNIFF* Poor Clemmie. 😦

P. P. S. On a happier note, Rebekah wrote an amazing chapter for WordCrafters! You can read it on the WordCrafters 2 page here. The story is getting so exciting!

Sisters Photoshoot

November 9, 2016November 26, 2016 | Allison

The other day Megan and I packed up our cameras and my bunny Lily and drove up to an alfalfa field to do a little photoshoot of each other. It was so much fun – but rather chilly. XD I hope you enjoy the pictures! (And you can see Megan’s pictures of me here.)

9-1280x960 — I ♥ this one! Megan decided to use it for her blog profile picture. 🙂 I might use one of hers for my profile picture eventually.

Megan experimented with no glasses… she couldn’t see me so it’s a good thing I could see her. XD

I had fun playing around with the next two pictures. 🙂

LILIPUTIAN! 😀

HA HA HA! Lily looks rather taken aback at Megan’s wild shrieks. XD XD Poor, poor bunny.

And now for a few bonus bunny pictures…

allisonsisters-photoshoot-007-1280x960 — Lily is trying to camouflage herself. Sorry Lily, your fur doesn’t really match the alfalfa. XD

allisonsisters-photoshoot-009-1280x960 — Aww, Lily dear!

Which picture was your favorite? Thanks for reading, my friends! 🙂

***Allison***

P. S. Thank you all for your sweet comments and prayers, and I’m happy to say I passed the driver’s test! HIP HIP HOORAY! 😀 😀 😀

P. P. S. The Story of Why I Didn’t Post This Sooner: I dropped my camera’s memory card and it pretty much vanished only it didn’t because it got wedged under the computer desk for a long time and I was bewildered and sad and frightened (not really) and then Dad lifted up the desk and at long last I found my beloved memory card and… The End. (Note: That was NOT a good example of a grammatically correct sentence. Just in case you were wondering.)

Golden Days

November 1, 2016 | Allison

The other day I went out to take some photos at “the golden hour” as we photographers call it. Heh heh. Maggie came along to protect me from sunburn or vicious groundhogs or something… or perhaps she was just bored. XD

We have a grand old maple in our front yard that’s usually the first to turn colors.

Even though the year is going down in flames, you could say, there were still some bright, spring-like greens around.

Maggie trotted faithfully along beside me and guarded me while I sat and took pictures. ♥ She was on the lookout for those vicious groundhogs, I suppose. XD

The sun turned my hair really a bright red. It’s a little bit reddish-goldish like this in real life, but not this bright! (Yes, I know, rather random pictures. But it was fun!)

2016-10-12-allisonfallcalvesbuildings-106-1280x960 — Please excuse the photobombers (Maggie and my toes).

It’s kind of awkward when you’re trying to photograph your hair (for some reason) so you hold a strand in front of your face and then your dog comes over to make sure you’re not paralyzed or something since you haven’t gotten up for the past 30 seconds or so… *Sigh* XD

You can see the gorgeous sky peeking through the grass in this one. That was probably one of the prettiest skies I’ve seen not counting sunsets!

I love this picture because 1.) look at the bokeh and 2.) look at the cute wittle spiderweb garland hung on the grass! The spiders must have been having a welcome party for autumn.

And lastly but not leastly, I shall leave you with an extremely hilarious picture of Maggie trying to chase down an itch. XD XD XD

BWAHAHAHAHA! Sooo funny!

So there you go. Photos from the golden hour on a golden day in the golden season. Gold is nice, don’t you think?

***Allison***

P. S. Sometimes I don’t like fall because it’s too beautiful. 😛 But seriously, do you ever have that feeling when something’s so beautiful you can’t stand it so you whip out your camera in a frantic attempt to save some of the beauty and capture it forever and that helps a little bit but it’s still just too much? Or is that just me…

Autumn Photoshoot: “Undeniable”

October 26, 2016October 26, 2016 | Allison

Bonjour! (Or hola, since I’ve been studying Spanish…)

I’ve wanted to do a lyric photoshoot for a long time, and I finally got around to it! I love the song “Undeniable” by TobyMac because it’s so uplifting, and so true. Especially on these gorgeous autumn days it’s easy to see God’s “evidence piling up” in the beautiful world he created for us. Click the play button on the video below, then enjoy the rest of the post while listening!

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

There are moments that I doubt You.
Blind to the beauty that surrounds me,
I try to push away the need that I’m needin’ proof.
And this struggle that I have, it ain’t nothing new.

But the evidence is piling up, yup.
You change my heart isn’t that enough?

You give me life that I can’t take credit for;
Call me to walk through an open door.

Undeniable, You are, You are, You are;
Unmistakable, You are, You are.

You’re the bright and morning star,
But still You speak to my heart.
Undeniable, You are, You are.

Your work doesn’t stop with me –
Your signature’s on everything we see.

From the hills of Negril, Jamaica,
To the kid that the doctor said would never make it.
Which is harder to believe: that You don’t exist,
Or that You orchestrated all of this?

Living in the world that is so confusing,
You’re the argument I’m never losing.
‘Cause I believe.

Undeniable, You are, You are, You are;
Unmistakable, You are, You are.

You’re the bright and morning star,
But still You speak to my heart.
Undeniable, You are, You are.

From the hymns that my Daddy sang,
I know I was made to glorify Your name.

And from the prayers that my Momma prayed,
I know I was made to glorify Your name. [x3]

So undeniable, You are, You are, You are;
Unmistakable, You are, You are.

You’re the bright and morning star,
But still You speak to my heart.
Undeniable, You are, You are. [x2]

Which is harder to believe: that You don’t exist,

Or that you orchestrated all of this?

Living in the world that is so confusing,

You’re the passion that I’m never losing.

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

I love that line: Which is harder to believe: that You don’t exist/ Or that you orchestrated all of this? Seriously! Which makes more sense: that a Creator God designed our incredibly complex and beautiful world, or that God doesn’t exist and everything just happened to evolve this way?

Living in the world that is so confusing,/ You’re the passion that I’m never losing.

‘Cause I believe.

***Allison***

Old and Worn: A Photoshoot

October 17, 2016October 17, 2016 | Allison

After reading Rebekah’s post the other day, I was like, “Ooh, I want to do that!” So I did. 🙂 I went for a walk around our farm with Maggie and took looots of pictures. Thankfully none of our barns are falling down or anything, but some of them do look beautifully old and worn.

This is somewhat of an experimental post. I don’t usually do B&W (black and white) or architecture photography, but today I’m doing both! Let’s see how the experiment turned out…

2016-10-12-allisonfallcalvesbuildings-165-1280x960 — AHH I LOVE THIS PICTURE SO MUCH! 😀

file-oct-17-2-01-12-pm-960x1280 — Lots of straw!

file-oct-17-2-01-29-pm-1280x960 — Barn siding…

file-oct-17-2-02-48-pm-1280x960 — Maggie had to stop for a drink. 😛

file-oct-17-2-04-59-pm-1280x960 — Look at the “candlestick”! The moon really lit up this post. 😉

file-oct-17-2-06-04-pm-1280x960 — I love this picture as well!

file-oct-17-2-06-27-pm-1280x960 — This is a broken window on our “Pighouse.” We don’t use it anymore except as a machine shed, but it used to be a pig barn (thus the name). I always thought the broken part of the window looked like a pig. 🙂 Can you see it?

2016-10-12-allisonfallcalvesbuildings-168-1280x960 — Isn’t this neat? Vines (I think they’re Virginia Creeper vines) climbed quite a way up this old grain silo.

I think the experiment was a success! At least it was fun to conduct. 🙂

Do you like B&W or architecture photography? What is your favorite thing to photograph?

***Allison***

P. S. Thank you guys sooo much for entering my giveaway and taking my survey! I enjoyed reading your suggestions and opinions. I’m going to do a post soon that Clara suggested in the survey!

Casey the Cute

October 7, 2016 | Allison

The other day I felt like taking pictures of Casey, so I did. I took a lot of pictures. (Somehow that seems to be a recurring theme… XD )And since I know how much my dear readers like pet pictures, it follows from simple logic that I should post a few of the aforementioned pictures on my blog.

Sooo… I present…

CASEY THE CUTE!

allisonbaby-bunnies-009-1280x960 — AWWW!

-Allison(puppies, creaming corn) 010 (1280x960).jpg — My cousin said Casey was praying. XD

allisonpets-walk-skidloader-043-1280x960 — Aww! Casey sleeps in the weirdest places. XD She sleeping on top of our computer desk in this picture. (By the way, that black thing with numbers on it is our Weather Center. 😉 )

allisonbaby-bunnies-003-1280x960 — I love this picture! I just kind of got it by accident.

-Allison(garden game) 048 (1280x960).jpg — Casey acts like a dog sometimes. She loves to be around people, and she eats almost *anything*! XD She apparently loves corncobs that someone unwisely put on the floor for her to eat. XD

allisonbaby-bunnies-011-1280x960 — Her eyes… ♥

allisonbaby-bunnies-029-1280x960 — I love how cats eyes look from the side – like glass marbles.

allisonbaby-bunnies-032-1280x960 — Selfie! XD

Do you agree with me? Is she not ADORABLE?!

***Allison***

Random Photography Part 1

October 1, 2016 | Allison

I had so many random, homeless photos I had to divide them into two posts! I’m going to do two sections today: pet photos and completely random photos.

Let’s do the completely random photos first. 🙂

Really, Allison? You took a picture of your ice cream cone? Yeah but it looks so pretty! XD

Here’s a (super hard) mystery photo for you. Guess what it is in the comments, and I’ll tell you if you were right or not. (Hint: this substance is not in its natural state. I modified it before taking the picture.)

One warm day I took pictures of the hose. XD

allisongarden-game-045-1280x960 — The reflection is me trying awkwardly to hold the hose and take a picture at the same time. XD

I also took a bunch of photos of one of my aunt’s old sheds. I was going to enter it in BIBPC, but I ended up entering a baby bunny photo. 🙂

dscn9244-1280x960 — GAHHH I LOVE THIS ONE!

And now for a few pet pictures. YESSS!

allisonon-the-roof-reunion-cats-and-bunnies-019-1280x960 — Ohhhh I love this picture so much! Lily looks so beautiful and stately next to the flowers. ♥

allisonon-the-roof-reunion-cats-and-bunnies-024-1280x960 — Ha ha! Olaf was washing herself after we gave her a bath, and I got a picture of her flinging water everywhere. XD

018-1280x960 — I love this picture too! Look at the neat reflection in Lily’s eye – not to mention *bokeh* in the background!

allisonpets-walk-skidloader-051-1280x960 — “Oh, hello human? Can I help you?” *Wag, wag* HA HA HA ISN’T THIS HILARIOUS?! Maggie, you are a funny puppy. XD

And that wasn’t even half of the random photography. ~~Oops.~~

What photo(s) did you like the best?

***Allison***

P. S. Speaking of pets… we sold all our baby bunnies. *SNIFF!* It’s so sad, but thankfully we sold them all to very good, loving homes. We sold two of them (Lilac and Hank) to my aunt’s family, and the three others (Blackberry, Higgledy Piggledy, and Drover) to a lady who owns a petting zoo. Drover (renamed Pearl) already got to be in the petting zoo, and everyone loved her because she was soooo friendly! That’s our baby bunny. XD ♥ So now we are baby bunny-less. 😦 Oh well, I suppose we’ll just have to do it again!