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***

Setting Up My New Bullet Journal + Tips & Tricks

June 14, 2018November 12, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears!

I’ve been looking forward to posting this for quite a while! I recently used up my second bullet journal and bought a new one, which I absolutely LOVE so far! Today I’ll show you how I set it up, as well as some tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way.

For those of you who don’t know, bullet journaling is kind of like a planner, but it’s more of a system than a certain notebook you buy. Part of its appeal is the limitless options for customization, which makes the system pretty hard to define. But basically it’s a way to keep all your lists and notes and journals in one notebook. Click here to see the BuJo website for more information. And reading the rest of this post might help too. 😉

THE MATERIALS

To begin with: the actual journal itself. I got this Essentials grid dot journal from Amazon, and it’s my favorite bullet journal I’ve owned so far!

Its features include…

a hardcover, easy-to-manage size of 8 1/4″ X 5 3/4″
light, evenly spaced grid dots for writing/drawing guidelines
decently thick paper
an elastic strap to keep the notebook closed
a ribbon bookmark
a paper pocket on the inside back cover

The cover is kind of a boring black, but you can decorate it with washi tape, metallic Sharpies, paint pens, etc. So far I just put a strip of washi tape down the spine and wrote a title with a white gel pen.

SETTING IT UP

My supply list for setting up my bujo includes the following:

Essentials grid dot journal
washi tape
ruler
micron pens (sizes 04 & 08)
regular pencil
Pilot G-2 07 black ballpoint pen

Here’s my simple cover page. I’ve always kept my bullet journals pretty simple because I do most of my journaling in the evening before bed, when I don’t have a lot of time to make it fancy. This BuJo is very minimalistic, but I still think it’s pretty. 🙂

On the first spread I have a “Fonts” page on the left and a “Quotes” page on the right. (Well obviously. XD)

I do my Bible journal in the evening as well, where I copy down my favorite verse from the chapter I read. I added the “Fonts” page because I often run out of interesting font ideas. 😛 Do you guys have any handwritten font suggestions? I also like having a place to put quotes I find in the books I’m reading, hymns I’m singing, songs I’m listening to, etc.

bujo 8 — Ugh, you can tell there’s no more softbox lighting here. XD

I love this page! Maybe because it took forever. XD Seriously though, it was one of my most time-consuming spreads. :[] I allowed myself space to fill in 17 books each month, but sadly I don’t think I’ll fill them all up. In my last journal I did read 17 books in a month (in May), but I only read 4 books in January and March. *ashamed look*

Here we have “Birthdays” on the left and combination of a wishlist and prayer list on the right. I was so happy I thought of this 12-layer cake for the birthday page format, but… it didn’t turn out quite as cake-like as I’d hoped. XD Oh well, it still works fine. For the opposite page, I divided the page in two because in my past bullet journals I didn’t use a whole page for either subjects.

I kept this whole spread blank for writing down notes – ideas I thought of, questions to ask pen pals, blog posts I want to make… anything else that doesn’t fit in my other pages.

The left page is available for either more notes or a new list. The right page is a place for my goals, whether unrealistic or practical. 😉 It’s pretty much a long-term to-do list.

Now for my monthly set-up! I used my 08 micron to write the name of the month in a font that’s both simple and pretty (are you starting to see a theme here? XD). I’m also going to use the gorgeous navy washi tape for each new month. I thought about adding doodles of important happenings on each month’s cover page as I go along, but I’m not sure I want to ruin the nice clean page now. XD Maybe I can use the blank page to the left?

On the left I have a sort of monthly overview, and on the right I start in with my daily journaling. I’ve never used a calendar before, but I think it will be nice to see at a glance what important events are coming up. Monthly goals are pretty self explanatory, so…

The right page is the part of my bujo I use the most, and the only daily section I have. I don’t have habit trackers for everyday chores and such because, well, I do them every day anyway. 😛 Instead, I just write a few sentences about what I did/what happened that day, and then make a short to-do list for tomorrow.

And that about wraps it up! Before you go, here are a few things I’ve learned from bullet journaling so far:

TIPS & TRICKS

If you make your BuJo too complicated, chances are you just won’t use it. (Or if you’re like me you’ll still use it and just be frustrated. XD) The time it takes to set up a page should correspond with how long it will last. Time-consuming pages are just fine for spreads that will last all bullet journal long (like my “birthdays” page, for instance), but don’t go as all-out for pages you’ll have to remake each month. For daily things, I like to keep it as simple and easy as possible.
Make a halfway mark in pencil for ease-of-use. It’s nice to have things centered, but it’s sooo tedious to count the dots and divide them up each time you make a new page. Instead, do that just once, and mark the center on the edges of the pages for a great shortcut. Now you can check the mark before centering your titles.

Use washi tape for easy pops of color, and to mark important pages. Washi tape is a nearly fool-proof way to add color and interest to your bujo. If you wrap the tape over the edge of the page like I did with my “June” page, you can see it even when you close the journal.
Get a bullet grid journal and one with a pocket for random lists. I suppose I’m a bit biased since I’ve only used a bullet grid journal, but I HIGHLY recommend them over just a regular lined notebook. It makes measuring and writing things a whole lot easier, plus it looks prettier! I’m also really enjoying the paper pocket at the back of the Essentials journal. It’s great for holding lists that I thought of after I already set everything up, or temporary lists that I don’t need to put in the BuJo anyway.

Hopefully this post was enjoyable and helpful! Do you have a bullet journal, and if so, do you have any tips for me? What lists/page is your favorite in YOUR BuJo? What was your favorite of my pages?

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

***Allison***

Introducing… The Summer Bored Games!

June 11, 2018June 11, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears!

I’M BACK! And I’m SO happy to be back, because I have some very exciting news! Clara, Megan, K. A., and I have been working on a secret project for months now, and we are FINALLY ready to show it to you guys! *grins* Ahem. I am proud to present… The Summer Bored Games!

The Summer Bored Games is a fun and creative way to bust boredom this summer, with dozens of wacky challenges, from thoughtful missions to completely random activities. Collect points by completing challenges, and enter to win an awesome prize!

CHALLENGE HOSTS:

Clara // Clara & Co.

Megan // A Barefoot Gal

Allison // A Farm Girl’s Life

K. A. // Cuddly Critters Blog

CHALLENGE RULES:

We four hosts (Clara, K. A., Megan, and I) will take turns posting a challenge post, one a week, for the month of July.

Each post will include 35 challenges, ranging from 1-4 points each – the harder the challenge, the more points you earn! Super hard or courageous challenges earn you Mega Points, which means 10 points instead of 1-4.

Participants collect points by successfully completing challenges. You don’t have to do the challenges in the order we list them, and you obviously don’t have to do them all (but then you won’t get as many points). However, you must complete any weekly challenges in that week alone for those points to count. If you miss a week, feel free to do the challenges just for fun, but they won’t earn you any points toward the giveaway.

HOW TO REDEEM POINTS:

In each of the challenge posts, a survey will be provided that participants can use to send their points from the completed challenges to a host blogger for a chance to win a prize (host bloggers are not eligible for the prize). However, if a participant would rather conquer the challenges just for fun and not win a prize, they can simply complete the challenges however they wish and not worry about keeping track of points.

PRIZES:

Prizes come in a three-tier winner system. Participants are entered for a chance to win the prize corresponding to their point range.

If, at the end of the challenge, you have 0-50 points, you are not eligible to win a prize. If you are in the lowest prize tier, which is for participants with 51-250 points, you have a chance of winning a $5 Amazon gift card. If you are in the middle prize tier, which is for participants with 251-400 points, you have a chance of winning a $10 Amazon gift card. If you are in the top prize tier, which is for participants with 401+ points, you have a chance of winning a $15 Amazon gift card.

At the end of the challenge, we’ll tally up each participant’s total points, fit them into the proper point tier, and random-generate the winners. If you work hard, you can earn yourself more of a chance for more of a prize!

DATES:

Challenge Post #1: Clara & Co. on July 2nd

Challenge Post #2: A Barefoot Gal on July 9th

Challenge Post #3: A Farm Girl’s Life on July 16th

Challenge Post #4: Cuddly Critters Blog on July 23rd

Challenge Winners: Clara & Co., A Barefoot Gal, A Farm Girl’s Life, and Cuddly Critters Blog on July 30^th

HOW TO SIGN UP:

The challenge is open to participants worldwide, and to ages 10-18.
Please get a parent’s permission before signing up.
Please sign up just once, on any one (but not more than one) of the hosts’ blogs.
Sign up to participate in the Summer Bored Games 2018 with the contact form below! (If you’re on WordPress Reader, the contact form probably won’t show up until you visit my actual blog.)

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

If you’re excited for The Summer Bored Games and want to let others in on the fun, we’d quite appreciate if you could share this post to Pinterest, Facebook, or other social media, repost it on your blog, or tell your family and friends! Even if you don’t win a prize, you can still have fun competing with your siblings or friends to see who can get the most points. 🙂

IN CONCLUSION:

Here’s a helpful (and pin-able) infographic to sum up the information above. 😀

SBG (15)

So. Are you usually bored during summer? Do you think the Summer Bored Games sounds fun? Will you sign up? ARE YOU EXCITED?!

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*

__________________

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***

Birthday Harvest {2018}

May 20, 2018May 20, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears!

Today I am excited to FINALLY show you guys some of the gifts I got for my birthday! It took me a while to get this all prepared, but I’m pretty pleased with the pictures because… well, I shall tell you in a bit. 😉

Anyway, first the obligatory disclaimer about how this is the obligatory disclaimer that no, for those of you who have a nagging doubt, I am NOT trying to brag about my gifts (I never saw any posts like these that were, but oh well), I am simply making one of the practically useless but quite entertaining birthday posts that I enjoy reading for some reason. XD So hopefully you enjoy it too!

Now that that confusing paragraph is out of the way, let us move onto…. another disclaimer: these gifts are in no particular order. 😉 Also for the background I used a white sheet (that took a while to iron) and some confetti from Clara’s amazing birthday box.

NOW! First, some super cute succulents from my sister Megan! (Also I REALLY REALLY LIKE THIS PICTURE. 😀 )

These succulents are really fuzzy and soft – kind of like Lamb’s Quarter.

She got these succulents from Leaf & Clay, by the way, which I think is a great site!

Sweet Laura sent me this adorable pot – I actually had seen it before on Amazon and loved it. 😀 (Fun fact: I was obsessed with pandas when I was little, and I still like them.) Doesn’t it look SO CUTE holding a succulent?

My Grandma and Grandpa gave me this lovely dish. I believe it was my great-great-grandmother’s. O.o So that’s pretty neat. 🙂

My dear friend Aria gave me this bath bomb, which I can’t wait to use! I always take showers, but Megan and I actually have a jacuzzi ( :O ) in our new bathroom at the big house, so I shall use it when we move in to celebrate. 😀

I don’t wear very much makeup at all, so my makeup collection is pretty sad. XD Aria sent me this and I think it’s so pretty!

I was so happy to get this paper because my other scrapbook paper isn’t cardstock, and I love the thicker paper. Plus this is so cute! The amazing Clara gave me this gift. ❤ (Psst, if you like this, you should check out Megan’s giveaway to have a chance of winning it!)

I love the metallic accents on this journal from Aria! Also it’s good to have new notebooks since I use mine up for school, like *cough, cough* CHEMISTRY. Eh.

Stickers! I actually have very few stickers, so yayyyy! Also I love these colors. One that cracks me up says “buy more stickers.” XD

Clara gave me this really fun washi tape crafts book! I got a lot of good ideas from this, heh heh. I really want to do some sort of washi tape wallpaper in our new bedroom like in the second picture.

Clara also gave me this fun doodle prompt book! I was originally going to do one every week but decided that probably wasn’t realistic, so. XD It has some neat ideas in it, like…

Aria also gave me this very pretty and dainty best friends’ necklace. ❤ (The blurry spots have cutouts of the states where we live under them.) I’m trying not to wear it every day… 😉

Aria found me this other giraffe thingy… not quite sure what it’s called, but it’s SPARKLY, and it’s PURPLE! Particularly PURPLE! 😀 It’s also quite fun to shake up.

My grandparents gave me this camera remote, which will be SO nice for using instead of the self-timer. YAY!

Megan gave me these super cute and pretty washi tapes. ❤ I love them, particularly the gold succulent one! 😀

Aria gave me several pretty tapes too. I figured out that the plain white ones are great for painting, like with watercolors, and the gold ones are actually shaped cutouts instead of your regular rectangular tape! Pretty neat. 🙂

Also I took all of the above pictures with my next present: softbox lighting from my Gram and Grandaddy! 😀 Ironically the softboxes themselves are rather hard to take pictures of, so I’ll just use one from Amazon. 😉 Their lights are super bright and especially good for indoor and project photography, which is not my strong suite. Let me know if you guys would be interested in a full-scale review sometime!

LimoStudio 700W Photography Softbox Light Lighting Kit Photo Equipment Soft Studio Light Softbox 24"X24", AGG814

{via}

I had these next two presents on the table, but for some reason forgot to take pictures of them with the rest, so that’s why they don’t have the same background. Anyway, Aria gave me these pretty paint pens! They’re very opaque so you can color over printed words and such – it’s basically like paint in a marker.

She also gave me this mug, which I love. XD Isn’t it so cute and funny? (She calls me a giraffe since I’m tall (5’10”), by the way. That’s why she got me giraffe presents. ❤ 😉 )

And one last present… A DESK FOR MY ART STUDIO! My parents let me pick out a desk I liked and they bought it for me, which I was so happy about! I picked this lovely desk from Ikea:

{via}

Here it is in my art studio! Except… we accidentally ordered the wrong (larger) size, so we’re going to get a new table top that should fit better soon. But otherwise, I LOVE it! I think it’s perfect for the space. 😀

gift 23

Welp, I suppose that’s it. 🙂 So many other people gave me the sweetest cards and envelopes and little birthday packages, but I didn’t have enough space in this already very long post to show everything. 😦 If I didn’t show something you gave, please know that I still truly and honestly loved it and you made my day by sending it. ❤ THANK YOU SO MUCH, EVERYONE, for a great birthday! I felt incredibly loved – my family, and myfriends online and offline were so, so sweet! I am now officially 18 – strange but true. Yikes. 😛 Am I too old to use emojis now? I hope not, because they’re very helpful…

Before you go… what is one thing on your birthday list? Did you find anything here to add? 😉 And isn’t the softbox lighting great?

Thanks so much for reading, dears, and please 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***

The Art Lab, Episode 44: Gel Pen String Art

May 11, 2018November 12, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears!

I absolutely LOVE the art we’re going to do today, but first of all… THANK YOU THANK YOU, GUYS, for all of the splendid birthday wishes. Whether it was a gift, a card, an email, or a comment, whatever it was – IT MADE MY DAY! MANY TIMES! You guys are SO SO SWEET and I am beyond blessed to call you my friends. ❤ (And yes, I am going to do a post about my gifts. 😉 But you’ll just have to wait for that, hee hee.) That thank you was way too short and small, but I’m guessing you want to see the rest of the post so I’ll stop now. BUT thank you one last time for making my birthday a wonderful day. 🙂 ❤ ❤

AHEM. Time for the art! I think this might be my favorite piece of art I’ve done for Art Lab, or at least one of my favorites! Here’s the stunning art inspiration for today:

{via}

HOW NEAT IS THAT? :O After pondering for a while, I came up with the idea of making the design into a constellation-type doodle with a watercolor background. I think the finished result looks gorgeous! Ready to start? Alright!

1. Selecting a canvas depends on your supply of both patience and time. You’ll need both for this project. 😉 If you have a limited supply of the aforementioned, I would suggest making this an ATC. If you’re bored and want to spend a while just making art, use a sketchbook page.

If you like clean white borders as much as I do, put strips of washi tape around the edge of your paper.

2. Paint a graded wash of watercolor, starting with dark blue at the top and fading into purple and then pink at the bottom.

3. Using a white gel pen, make a diagonal band of densely clustered dots across the top of the page.

4. Fill the rest of the page with dots, spreading them further and further apart from each other as you move away from the first band of stars.

5. Now for the fun (but tedious) part! Connect the dots. You don’t have to connect every dot to every other, but that’s what I did. For maximum impact, you’re going for a bunch of triangles – if an area has more than three sides, you missed a dot. Don’t cross over any lines or it will get too muddled.

6. Once you near the right bottom corner, take a break and sketch in the outline of a tree on a hill. (I should have done this before I started the stars, but I didn’t. I recommend learning from my mistake. 😉 ) Make an elongated cloud shape on a trunk, and “cut out” a few holes in the leaves and branches for extra realism.

7. Mark the sketch with a bunch of dots to connect later. Don’t do them too close together, but the fewer dots you use, the more geometric your tree will be.

8. Connect the rest of the dots.

9. Now take a black brush pen or Sharpie and color in between the lines. 😉

10. Ta-daa! Now for the great reveal…

SOOOO PRETTY!

I really love how this turned out, and I hope you guys do too! Do you think you’ll make this? If you do, I’d love to see it! Click here to see how to send it in and add it to our Art Lab gallery.

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

***Allison***

P. S. Not all the pictures are showing up on my computer, but I THINK that’s just the slow internet. Can you guys see everything alright?

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!