GIVEAWAY WINNER! + Random Photos

November 1, 2017November 3, 2017 | Allison

ARE YOU READY TO SEE WHO WON? Don’t worry, I won’t keep you in suspense for TOO long.

And the winner is…

CPC #4: ~ t h e c l o u d j o u r n a l ~

October 31, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

Heyyy, guys! I’m back with another CPC entry for Carol‘s writing challenge! I actually spent a rather long time on this (especially on the art and such) because I was determined to earn a lot of points for my team this time. XD SO YOU GUYS BETTER LIKE IT. Juuuust kidding. I do hope you enjoy, though! 🙂

Prompts used: 2

Photos submitted: 12

Art submitted: 6

Total points: 39

Callie’s Cloud Journal

Purpose: To record my cloud dreaming, for further analyzation in case I’m a famous scientist some day.

Materials: Pen and paper.

Hypothesis: You can do things two ways: the art way or the science way. I am a science child. Most of the time.

Data/Observations: I guess I should do a little introduction since this is an autobiography. You have probably already concluded two things from the data given: my name is Callie and I am a very scientifically-minded child. I have concluded that if I have a choice of doing something with the left side of my brain or the right side, approximately 97% of the time I will choose the left side.

Take baking for an example. Some people think of baking as a work of art: they can take a pinch of this and a dash of that and make a masterpiece. Art is not my strength. I excel in precision. I always weigh my ingredients to the tenth decimal place and make sure the cup of flour is perfectly level and the brownies are cut in exactly 2 inch by 2 inch squares. I follow instructions to the letter, and to the numbers and punctuation marks too.

Perhaps you’re wondering where the other 3% of right-minded-ness comes from. Well, that’s the subject of this entry – this entire journal, in fact. This data is super secret – it may or may not make it into my actual autobiography when and if I publish it in the distant future. But I guess this paper won’t spill any secrets because it cannot speak. (I meant that as a joke, in case you were wondering. Sometimes people aren’t sure whether I’m joking or not because in addition to being a very scientifically-minded child, I am also very serious.)

But back to the subject. Basically the only times I use my right brain for thinking involve clouds. I enjoy studying clouds – always have – but this is not studying. It is… well, daydreaming, as much as I hate to admit it.

I close my eyes and focus on sending false messages to my mechanoreceptors. All I do is imagine what I wish clouds would feel like so hard and so long that my nerves are tricked, and when I stretch out my hand, I feel it. (Now, I know clouds are actually made of water droplets and that I have in reality felt them many times when I walk in fog, but I told you – this is the 3%. The other 97% of the time I send my brain such accurate information that it’s easily fooled for cloud dreaming.)

I have a list of ten different clouds I choose from. If I’m really angry I’ll go with stratus or nimbostratus, and occasionally I’ll choose cirrus, but my favorite is cumulus.

Today I chose my favorite, Cloud Nine – a cumulus cloud tinged with lavender and coral pink. Cumulus clouds feel warm and silky soft and puffy, like sitting in a pile of memory foam covered with the fuzziest blanket ever, or on a giant, lightly toasted marshmallow without the stickiness.

What do I do on my cloud?

Related image — Prompt picture. (Not mine.)

I look out the window and observe. I take notes.

Miles. 16. Wearing a completely black suit. Independent, entrepreneurial.

Jayne. 15. Wearing a hot pink and cyan jumpsuit. Fashion-obsessed, talkative.

I have no facts, no data about the people I see, only observations and the hypotheses I come up with myself. It’s a good exercise, and sitting on clouds helps with it somehow. My theory is that after my brain gets started by imagining clouds, it’s easier to imagine how old a person is, what their name might be, etcetera. I’m not certain of this, though, and that’s another reason I want to start this journal.

Today after I observed those two aforementioned people, I heard a sound so loud it nearly vibrated the fluid in my cochlea right out of my ear.

I looked out the window again and nearly fell off Cloud Nine. Miles had met Jayne and I watched as he pulled his own cloud out of his briefcase and was offering it to her.

I’m serious. And the loud sound? It was Jayne shrieking. This was going to be interesting.

_____________________________________________

ISN’T THAT CLOUD SO CUTE? I’ll talk more about it in a minute, but hold on.

Anyway, heh heh, that was more of a character sketch than a short story – the plot never really got off the ground (pun intended). But it was quite interesting to write because Callie is basically the opposite of me in every way. I am definitely an art child, as you have probably picked up through my blog. 😉

Okay. Before you go, here are a few bonus pictures that I didn’t get to work into the story.

Ugh this cloud painting didn’t exactly turn out how I imagined. I’ve never seen such strange, wobbly sun rays. Oh well… let’s call it artistic license. *Sigh* Except for that one pink “Cloud Nine” picture, I am terrible at drawing realistic clouds, so this was great practice!

I got the gorgeous warm cumulus cloud pictures coming back from a vacation.

And now for the fluzzy cloud. THIS LITTLE GUY IS WAY TOO CUTE. I simply bunched up a piece of felting wool in my hand, took these pictures, and then added the face on PicMonkey.

For some reason I LOVE IT. Also help, I need name suggestions. Yes I am going to name a blob of felting wool. I mean, I’m a teenage girl, what do you expect? 😛 XD

♥♥♥ SO. SQUISHY.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the story and the pictures and art, dears. 🙂 Oh, and if you’re interested in reading more of my CPC entries, you can see my first entry here and my 2nd and 3rd entries here, on my CWWC page. I didn’t make a separate post for the two on the page, but I’d love to hear what you think!

Do you have a favorite photo/piece of art? Are you a science child or an art child? Any name suggestions for Mr. Fluzzy? (Hey, there’s an idea…)

***Allison***

P. S. Tomorrow I will announce the winner of my giveaway! I’M SO EXCITED. Also I apologize for all the outbursts in this post. O.o Heh.

Golden Hour Sisters Photoshoot

October 25, 2017October 25, 2017 | Allison

I’m SO excited to show you this photoshoot, guys! (Hmm, I seem to start all my posts this way, don’t I?) Anyway, Megan and I love doing impromptu photoshoots and we recently did two photoshoots at the golden hour. I have to say, they turned out GORGEOUS! I think these are my favorite of the sisters photoshoots so far!

Megan took all the pictures of me and I took all the pictures of her (well, obviously). Sometimes the “model” chose her own poses and sometimes the photographer did. All pictures in this post were edited by me, if they were edited at all.

I hope you guys have as much fun looking through these pictures as we did taking them!

We still have a beautiful tangled jungle of marigolds and zinnias which is perfect for photoshoots. Don’t you think?

I love the next one! Aren’t the marigolds gigantic?

Heh heh, I like this one too. XD

I told Megan to hold the marigold so it looks like she’s blowing a bubble, and then she PUT IT IN HER MOUTH. *Sigh* She said it tasted bad, but I didn’t feel real sorry for her. XD

I LOVE THIS PICTURE. IT’S SO FUNNY.

HA HA IS THIS NOT HILARIOUS? Megan thought of this – don’t blame me.

It looks like she’s yanking the flower out by the roots. O.o

Okay so Megan’s expression is just a tad odd, BUT THE LIGHTING. Ohhhh my goodness, I love it so much!

I loooove this next one! Doesn’t it look kind of Pinterest-y? (And maybe even aesthetic? Maybe?)

Oh look, I’m Ophelia. I actually love these photos though! I came up with the idea (although I’ve seen it before), and Megan arranged the flowers and took the pictures.

Here we have a classic, somewhat cliché picture. But it’s still pretty. 🙂

Wow my hair looks super long here. O.o

It was quite hard to get good, clear pictures of someone swinging, but I finally figured out that manual focus really helps for this because you can preset it.

Annnnd that’s all for today, folks! Which pictures were your favorite? Which photo idea was your favorite?

I hope you enjoyed these, dears, and thanks so much for reading!

***Allison***

P. S. Only a few more days to enter my giveaway! I’ll announce the winner November 1st. YAY I’m so excited!

The Art Lab, Episode 31: Erase Artist’s Block

October 21, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

WOOHOO Art Lab is back! I’m so excited to show you guys the post for today: 20 simple art prompts to help you erase artist’s block. 😀

Alright. So I’m going to give you the art prompts, explain each one a bit, and show you some of the art I’ve made using the prompts. Quite a few of these work especially well for ATCs, but you can use your sketchbook, a canvas, whatever! Ready?

Go.

Draw a colorful black and white animal. Because art is great for showing things you never see. Paint a colorful panda, zebra, penguin… skunk. Have fun. I made this ATC ages ago…
Draw your favorite music. Put on your playlist and draw what you hear. What color is the song? Blue, yellow, black, pink? Is it a soft, wavy line or an angry spiky one? Draw three or five of your favorite songs stacked on top of each other and frame it.
Paint a pretty background and write a word/quote on top. Super simple, super pretty. I like to use watercolor and black or white gel pen. Look up pretty fonts on Pinterest if you like.
Use a white gel pen to doodle on black paper. This is SO satisfying and fun! I did another (rather short) Art Lab post about it here.
Draw a huge picture of a tiny thing, and vice versa. A crumb, a bug, a part of your fingerprint… fill the whole page and draw in lots of detail. On the other hand, how small can you draw an elephant that still looks like an elephant? I know cats aren’t exactly huge, but I did draw them tiny.
Pick three markers without looking and only use those for a drawing. If you watch art videos on YouTube, you may know this as the Three Marker Challenge. 🙂 Somehow only having limited colors seems to kickstarts your creativity.
Draw a close-up of a tiny detail of something. The stitching on your jeans, your dog’s nose, the center of a flower… I’ll bet a collage of several close-ups would look really neat! Like those mystery pictures in the backs of magazines. It’s also fun to draw several close-up views of one object: your cat’s eye, paw, nose, ear, whiskers, and put them together.
Paint something by not painting. Negative space is fun to play with. I think watercolor is especially neat for this technique. It works well to paint the whole page with water except the silhouette of what you’re drawing, then swirl on some paint. What do you know, another cat.
Draw your dream house and decorate it. Or your dream bedroom, or craft studio, or kitchen. Who knows, this drawing might come in handy when you get a chance to build it!
Close your eyes and scribble. Turn it into a drawing. This is a super fun and simple prompt, which I also made a post about here.
Draw a silhouette with a galaxy behind it. Actually draw the galaxy first, but you know. And guess what? I ALSO made posts about how to draw galaxies! What do you know. There’s one here and one here. Once you’ve made the galaxy, draw a silhouette of a wolf, a person, a tree – the possibilities are endless (maybe)! Or you could draw a galaxy silhouette.
Draw on something unusual. A leaf, a crumpled brown paper bag, yesterday’s newspaper, an old book page, etc.
Use words instead of lines to draw. Draw yourself a story. Instead of drawing lines, write tiny words. Instead of coloring something in, color it in with different colors of words.
Draw a picture of what nothing would look like if it was something. I… don’t even know if this is possible. If you do it, I WANT TO SEE IT!
Draw what smiling and crying feels like. Don’t actually draw someone smiling or crying. Use colors and lines (and objects besides people or facial features) to convey the feeling.
Fill up a page with different versions of the same thing. Draw a hedgehog twenty different ways. Draw ten different cats. Fifteen different trees. It’s fun.
Draw with a non-art supply. Try using coffee, makeup, dirt, nail polish, smashed berries, food coloring, or whatever else you can find.
Cover a page in lines, circles, or patterns, and watercolor on top. Another super simple but super pretty prompt! Just keep in mind that if you draw with a pen, you’ll need to let the ink dry before watercoloring over it.
Paint yourself without using lines – only colors that describe you. Go for sort of an impressionistic style here I guess. Use blotches of color instead of smooth lines, just for interesting.
Fill a page with watercolor swatches and doodle on top. SO FUN! I got this idea from Pinterest here. And this is mine:

That was fun! I hope these ideas inspired you, dears. Which one was your favorite? Would you like to see more art prompt posts like this?

If you drew something inspired by these prompts, I’d love to see it! Click here to see how to send in a picture of your art and help us fill our gallery over at the Art Lab blog.

Also, here’s an image especially made for pinning if you want to save this to Pinterest for future reference. 😉

Thanks for reading, and have fun! 😀

***Allison***

Falling Again

October 19, 2017 | Allison

Heh heh. Aren’t my puns great? *Sigh* Yes, I know they’re awful. ANYWAY, I’m super excited to show you guys these fall pictures! I’ve been saving them up for a while now and I finally get to post them. 🙂

First I want to show you our beautiful ombre maple tree. 😀 Well actually the leaves are all fallen from it now, but this is how it used to look. Isn’t it lovely?

One of the other maples beside our lane was absolutely gorgeous this year! Especially with the sun shining through the leaves… ah, it was beautiful.

I LOVE these pumpkin pictures! 😀

And back to the tree again. This bokeh… OH MY GOODNESS! ♥

I really like the composition of the next one. (Wow, I’m doing a lot of portrait, vertical photos aren’t I? Here’s a question: Should I make them smaller so you can see them without scrolling, or do you like them full size as they are?)

Leaves can make even dusty black trucks pretty. 🙂

I promise I didn’t put the leaf there. Isn’t the position so neat and funny?

And of course we musn’t forget the classic holding-a-leaf-up picture, am I right?

Ooh, and then I got several adorable pictures of Maggie looking all dejected. 😛

HA HA Maggie looks like she’s havng an intent conversation with a leaf or something and the leaf just said something shocking. XD What would you caption this photo? (No winners this time – just for fun. 😉 )

Here’s a fun fall photography prompt: try to find fall leaves in a half-rainbow, from red to green. Arrange them in an ombre pattern and snap away! 🙂 I had a lot of fun with this, but it also took FOREVER to collect the leaves.

Huh, what do you know. I’m wearing the same skirt as in this post. (I promise I don’t wear it every Sunday. XD )

I rather like this edit.

And lastly, just a few edited photos. I spent SUCH a long time trying to capture a leaf falling. XD

And we end with a photo featuring a picturesque (?) four-wheeler? Okay…

Alright, you got to the end. *applause* Actually, you didn’t. Let me talk for a bit first.

Ahem. Some people mentioned in the survey that they don’t love scrolling through so many pictures in my photography posts, and I definitely understand that. I always try to cram a ton in. XD So I shall attempt to be a little more picky and not burden you with so many at once. What do you think? More photos, which might contain some less quality photos, or less photos, but more quality ones?

Also it seems like I kind of failed my goal with this post, but let me tell you, I was much more selective than normal. IT WAS SO HARD. THERE ARE SO MANY PICTURES TO SORT THROUGH.

Thank you guys so, so much for taking my survey, by the way! I can’t please everyone nor am I going to try, but it really is helpful to hear your thoughts. ♥ Thus, my goals are…

Condense my photography posts a little. And post more people and pet photography rather than mostly random nature photos like I just did.
Keep my header but maybe change the theme and clean up the sidebar. (Question: do you ever use the category pictures on my sidebar? If not, I’ll just delete them.)
Make more art posts and start up with Art Lab again! The thing is, it’s a little hard to do a collab art blog with just me posting… heh heh. I want to get that figured out too. Anyway, I already have a fun Art Lab post in mind which I will hopefully post maybe Saturday or Sunday.
Make featured images for all my posts, not just some, for more cohesiveness.

Okay, I am FINALLY done with this post. Thank you so much for bearing with me, dears, and listening to my many questions! Do you have a favorite photo? What do you think of my four goals?

Have a lovely fall day!

***Allison***

P. S. GUYS. I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING ELSE. If you type this: :{), it looks like an emoji with a mustache. WHY IS THAT NOT A THING? Oh, right. Probably because it’s completely useless. True. BUT STILL. Okay, I’m actually done now.

3,000 Followers GIVEAWAY!

October 16, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

(Despite what the title seems to proclaim, no, I am not giving away three thousand followers. Sorry about that.)

AHEM. I am very excited to announce a pretty…. um, exciting giveaway in honor of reaching over 3,000 followers! AHH I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE IT! You guys are even more amazing than the giveaway. 😀 ♥ I expounded your wonderfulness at greater length in my last post, along with some blogging tips, so be sure to check it out if you haven’t yet. 😉

Anyway, let’s proceed. Are you ready to see what I’m giving away?

OKAY.

What You’ll Win

This is mostly an arts/crafts type of giveaway because I love that sort of thing and I know a lot of you guys do too. Plus, I post about arts and crafts sometimes on my blog, so I thought that would make sense. 🙂 Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll receive if you win:

one super fine-tip pen
a pack of six adorable little fox metal clips
three cute rolls of washi tape
a pack of six fun, wooden mechanical pencils
twenty blank ATCs
a miniature polymer clay snowy owl, made by me
a custom piece of art, to be drawn by me as well
a 20% off coupon for The Color Box Studio, my art Etsy shop
a paperback copy of the excellent book, Do Hard Things, by Alex and Brett Harris
and maybe a little surprise gift – who knows?

TEN DIFFERENT PRIZES FOR ONE WINNER. IS THAT NOT EXCITING? Goodness, I’m getting so excited and I’m not even entering (though I kinda wish I could). XD Okay, now that you saw an overview of each thing, let me tell you a little bit more about them.

This pen is AMAZING. I know because I have one just like it. It has an incredibly fine tip, perfect for intricate details. (I used this pen for my elephant drawing, a print of which you can buy here at my art Etsy shop.)

Are these not the CUTEST THINGS? I found them at Hobby Lobby and I love them! I believe they’re supposed to be paper clips, but I think they would also make great bookmarks. 🙂

What more can I say? It’s washi tape. You can never have too much washi tape, right? I love these colors and patterns together! ♥

I have never used these particular pencils before but I really wanted to steal a couple out of the package and give you guys the rest. (Don’t worry, I didn’t.) The package says these mechanical pencils actually have a wood case instead of plastic? Also each pencil comes with three leads, so they should last you a while. 🙂 I also like the cute designs.

(If you don’t know what an artist trading card is, go here. They’re so much fun!) It’s much more enjoyable to make ATCs when they’re already cut for you, in my experience anyway. Perhaps you could use a few to test out some new art supplies? 😉

Aww, those eyes! ♥ I really like this little guy, but it’s time for him to go to a new home. *Sniff* I made this tiny owl from polymer clay. He comes with a “stone” nest, also made out of polymer clay. See his wistful expression? He wants to come live with you.

The picture is kind of misleading, but I had to take a photo of something. XD The giveaway prizes include a free custom 8X10″ portrait of your pet, drawn by me, in Prismacolor colored pencil unless you specify otherwise. If you don’t have a pet or you’d rather me draw something else, I can certainly do that (though I reserve the right to refuse anything I think inappropriate, etc.)!

And as a little bonus, you get a 20% coupon for The Color Box Studio! (You can also use it if you order a custom order.) It will be a code, like a promo code, that I’ll include either when I notify you of winning or else in the package.

And lastly but not leastly, we have this great book by Alex and Brett Harris called Do Hard Things. My brother and I got a copy of this for our birthdays and it was so good. It’s written to teenagers and is explicitly Christian, but the message is still relevant to everyone, whatever your age or religion. Basically the authors argue that our culture today has pitifully low expectations for teenagers and show how we can overcome the stereotype, so to speak, and use this time to “do hard things” that make a difference both in our lives and the lives of others. Not just randomly do hard things like try to mountain climb without a rope or something, but meaningful challenges that take us out of our comfort zone and into a whole new world. It was a super thought-provoking while still easy-to-read book and really impacted me, in a good way.

And that’s that! NOW. Are you ready to learn the rules for entering?

How To Enter

This giveaway is only open to people in the United States. I’m sooo sorry about that, guys, but otherwise the shipping cost gets pretty scary, you know?
You must be following my blog to enter. Ideally I’d like for this giveaway to be only for the followers I already have, but that would be too hard to monitor. I don’t want you guys to follow my blog solely so you can enter this giveaway, but I can’t think of a better way to do it and still have it only be for my followers, so…
As usual, if you’re under 18 years of age, get a parent’s permission before entering. But I’m sure you already knew that. 😉
To enter, comment on this post saying that you’d like to enter, and tell me which of these items you’d be most excited to win.

For Bonus Entries…

Take my survey for 2 bonus entries. NOTE: This is option is only for my current followers because it’s not going to work very well for you or for me if you fill out a survey for a blog you just found. 😉
Share on social media for 1 bonus entry. Choose Pinterest, Facebook, whatever. NOTE: You can only get one bonus entry for this, even if you share several times or on different social media platforms. Of course I’ll be quite happy if you want to share it more than once, but you’ll still earn just one extra entry. Otherwise things could get WAY too complicated. XD
Share on your blog for 1 bonus entry. You can add a link to my giveaway to your post or reblog this post – your choice.

Giveaway Deadline

The giveaway starts today, October 16th, 2017, and ends October 31st, 2017, the end of this month. That gives you just over two weeks to enter. I’ll post the winner on November 1st!

I’ll notify you by email and comment if you win, but if you don’t respond within a week, I will have to pick someone else. 😦

_____________________

OKAY, I think that’s it! Ahhhh yay, I’m finally done! That took forever to write. XD I hope you guys are as excited about the giveaway as I am! If you have any questions, just drop me a comment below.

Have a lovely day, and thanks for reading, dears. ♥

***Allison***

3,000 Followers! {Part 1: THANK YOU +Blogging Tips}

October 11, 2017 | Allison

GUYS. I NOW HAVE OVER 3,000 FOLLOWERS.

AHHHH HELP I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? WHAT EVEN- Okay, breathe, Allison. Caaaalm yourself.

Ahem. I’m good now.

I honestly don’t know where to start… I guess with the obvious: THANK YOU! You guys make my day so many days with your sweet comments and hilarious chats in the comment section, and I love reading and commenting on your lovely posts too. ♥

I’m really, really glad I started blogging. For me, blogging isn’t a frustrating, stressful chore – it’s something I love to do! So much so, in fact, that I usually don’t have trouble thinking of things to post or posting often enough – the harder thing is not letting blogging take over my life. XD

My favorite part about blogging is, by far, the people. I love chatting with and getting to know you guys through comments, long emails and even longer handwritten letters (my record is 17 pages XD). I have met so many incredible people in these 3+ years that I am proud to call my friends (truly they are, even if I’ve never met them in real life): Charis, Aria, Clara, K. A., Sassafras, Enni, Josie… I could go on and on, but I won’t overwhelm you with links. XD AHH I keep thinking of more people! Anyway, you know who you are: ♥♥♥.

The point is, I’ve absolutely loved blogging so far, and I have you guys to thank for that. ♥ SO THANK YOU. AGAIN.

Alright, now that we’re past the sentimental stuff, let’s get to the other part of the post. 🙂 You may have noticed that the title said something about a Part 1. That’s because…

I’M DOING A GIVEAWAY!

AND A BIG ONE TOO. I’m sooo excited for it and I think you guys will be too, but since it’s going to take quite a while to get the post up and I still haven’t gotten one of the things I ordered, I’m going to do the giveaway post next. In the meantime, I’ll post some hopefully helpful blogging tips and tricks I picked up from my approximately three years of blogging. Yeah, I know, I’m an expert, a veritable blogging veteran. ~~You know I’m being sarcastic, right?~~

Nope, I’m not a professional blogger and I’m definitely not a famous one or anything, but I guess if you 3,000 of guys liked my blog enough to click follow, I’ve got to be doing something right. Hmm, now to figure out what it is… XD But seriously, what is my trick? I don’t really have one over-arching Blogging Truth actually, except maybe that I try to write posts I would love to read, but maybe these 15 little bits of advice will help. I dunno, let’s give it a try.

Running out of space for your pictures? THIS IS A BLOG-SAVER. If your WordPress media space is running out (or already has) when you try to upload your pictures, never fear, my dears! I have come to rescue you. 😛 Simply start a random new blog (like blogtouploadpics.wordpress.com or something), and upload your photos to there. Publish the post, and then just copy and paste the photos from the random blog into the actual post you’re working on. That’s what I’ve been doing for quite a while now and it really works! It’s a little more time consuming than normal, but honestly I don’t think about it much anymore. Also, it’s a good idea to resize your photos before putting them on any blog. They upload much faster and take up a ton less space.
Benefit your readers. Your goal is to leave the reader with something more than they came with – it can be practical knowledge, inspiration, or even a smile on their face, but make it something. You have to earn your reader’s patronage, so to speak. Write posts that you want to read, and most likely, your readers will like them too! Another part of this point is posting long enough posts. If you post, like, one picture (like I used to, *cringe*), it’s hardly worth the time for you or your reader.
Use proper spelling and grammar. This is so important that you’ve probably already heard it about a million times and wonder why I even bother. But seriously, if a blog post goes like this: “hi guys so here i am again sorry for not posting in so long i don’t know what to post lol srsly tho i need ideas anyway i just came back from a exiting day of school yea lol it was great (not) ok bye,” it is VERY unlikely that I’ll follow it, unless the content is superb. But honestly, if the writing is like that, chances are, their content isn’t going to be that great either. See, using proper spelling and grammar shows that you put time and effort into your blog posts, and readers appreciate that. Bad grammar is like having messy hair and wearing sloppy clothes – it just doesn’t make a good impression.
Your blog design is important. We’ve all heard not to judge a book by its cover, but we do anyway, right? Same with blogs. If you have an ugly background or a cluttered theme, it distracts readers from your post and really just lowers your blog-quality in general. Besides, it’s much more fun to own a clean, pretty website on which to show off your posts. You can use PicMonkey.com, Canva.com, or other online graphic design websites to create headers, buttons, etc. If you’re not into design, there are plenty of bloggers who would be happy to help (like my sister Megan)! This is something I still need to work on. What do you think, should I update my blog design? I think that might be a good idea…
Skip the apology posts. I know you feel bad for not posting, and that’s definitely understandable, but you really don’t have to do a whole post about how you’re such a bad blogger and then end up by saying you still don’t know what to post. Readers don’t want to read a whole post of “I’m sorry,” they want you to just go ahead and post some good content! Also, here’s a secret: most of the time no one notices your absence, especially if they already follow, like, a hundred other blogs. As hard as it might seem, the blogosphere will survive just fine for a few days, weeks, or months, without you (or me). *Gasp*
You don’t have to have a schedule. This kind of ties into the last point. You don’t have to force yourself to post, say, three times a week, especially if you don’t have anything to post. If you don’t have anything to post, don’t post! (And see tip #10.) Unless you’re a professional blogger who blogs as a job, you don’t have to have a blog schedule. Now true, it’s good to post regularly. Readers likely will lose interest if you post for two days in a row, then next month, then once a week for three weeks, then a year from then… yeah, try to keep your posting pretty consistent, but don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t get around to posting as soon as you’d hoped.
Thou shall not steal. Plagiarism is a pretty big no-no with bloggers. Do not take content from another blog without asking them first, and even then, be sure to add a link back to the original author. Especially don’t take pictures or writing from someone else and then pass it off as your own work. It’s fine to use pictures from free photo websites like unsplash.com without linking back, but I like to add a link anyway on the rare occasions I use them, just so people know I didn’t take those amazingly perfect pictures myself. XD
Use lots of photos. Photos are great attention-grabbers. Readers are much more likely to just skim the post if it’s all a huge chunk of writing with no photos in sight to give their eyes a break from all the words. Besides, photos also add beauty and originality to your blog and make wonderful posts on their own. After all, you have the opportunity to take pictures that no one else can! And here’s another little secret: photography posts are probably my favorite kind to read. 😀
Format your writing. This goes along with the last point. Headings and paragraphs break your writing into manageable chunks that are just more pleasing to a reader’s eye. If you don’t, people are more likely to think, “Wow, I still have to read all that?” and to just skim through. Make use of (but don’t overuse) the Enter key, and use different font sizes, bolding, or italics to separate your writing into slightly more bite-sized pieces rather than an enormous mouthful.
Don’t beg for followers. Guys, this is honestly a pet peeve of mine. XD Please, please do not beg people to follow your blog. It’s not very considerate of the other person because it’s really hard for them to say no without sounding rude, even if they’d rather not follow your blog. Besides, you might end up with a whole bunch of followers, but none who really like your posts, so what’s the use? I’m not saying you’re a bad person if you do this – in fact, I’ve found at least one of my favorite blogs/bloggers this way – but in general it’s just better blogging etiquette to ask people if they could check out your blog rather than demanding they follow it.
Make worthwhile posts. Good content is (obviously) the most important thing for your blog. But what does “good content” mean? Unfortunately, I can’t say, because it differs with each reader’s preference. BUT, I think it involves keeping tags, challenges, interviews, and other kinds of abstract posts to a minimum, while focusing on actual, concrete content, like photography, DIY, writing, practical advice, lifestyle, etc. Basically, try to keep your posts original. Tags can be fun to read, but if that’s all you post, they get old really fast. Plus, anyone and everyone can (and does) post tags. Be unique! Post something that not everyone can – post about crafts you’ve made, photos you’ve taken, recipes you love, even your life.
Don’t know what to post? Look through your recent pictures (this almost always helps me). Post some of your recent writing. Check your stats to see what your most popular posts are, and make more of those. Look at your favorite blogs for inspiration. But if you still don’t know what to post, don’t post. It’s better to post a little less often than to post poor quality posts about nothing.
Format your links. Okay, this is a very minor point, but it rather annoys me. XD When you add a link, check the “Open link in a new window/tab” box. That way when you click on it, it will open a new tab on your computer and you can still see the post you’re reading on your previous tab. So you don’t have to click the back arrow multiple times to get back to the post you were on. I know, such a hardship. XD
Want more blog traffic? One of the main ways to do this is to comment on other people’s blogs. But be sincere. Please don’t comment just for the purpose of getting the person to check out your blog. If all you provide in a comment is a link to your blog, I’ll most likely delete it. There are so many wonderful people to “meet” out there. Go find someone who loves the same things you do, and chances are, they’ll be interested in your blog too! Also, blog buttons act like mini advertisements for your blog, which is a great way to spread yourself around. Visit my buttons page for more details.
Have fun. This is important. Have fun with your blog and be yourself! Don’t feel like you have to follow a certain formula or blog calendar to be a good blogger. If you have fun writing your posts and let that authentic joy shine through your writing, readers will appreciate that. In fact, maybe that’s my secret. Maybe you guys enjoy my blog (or at least seem to) because I so enjoy writing it. Whatever the reason, I’m so grateful you do read my blog. I couldn’t do it without you. ♥

So there you have it. Fifteen hopefully helpful tips on how to improve your blog, along with some chrysanthemum pictures I took recently. 🙂

And that’s it for today, folks! Thanks for reading (and following)! Did you enjoy this post? Did you find my tips helpful? What are YOUR tips for blogging? Also, are you looking forward to my giveaway? I’M SO EXCITED.

***Allison***

CPC #1: ~ t i m e ~

October 7, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

Hey, guys! I’m participating in Carol‘s lovely Cameras and Pens writing challenge, so I wanted to show you the first story I wrote for it. What makes this particular writing challenge special is that you can make art to illustrate your story or take photos that pertain to it for bonus points, as well as earning points by using the prompts! So I did all three.

***All photos are mine except the first one, which is a prompt photo. All artwork is mine period. ;)***

Prompts used: 2.

Photos submitted: 7

Artwork submitted: 3

Total points earned: 22

~ t i m e ~

Maybe it was just one minute. Or one second. Or one microsecond. It whipped past my memory WAY too fast.

I’d been looking forward to summer – the laughter, the friends, the pool, the freedom – for practically the whole year, and now here I was, sitting on the edge of the lake, absently spinning my bike pedals with my fingers and thinking about how school started in three days. Where had time gone?

Where had Time gone? I dangled my feet in the water and thought about it.

Maybe he was taking a vacation after all the hard work of making summer go by so fast. Maybe that’s why everything seemed to suddenly slow down – Time was tired.

CPC 10 (1280x1280) — I used a long exposure (about 8 seconds) to show the second hand moving. 🙂

Or maybe he’s just contrary. When you’re bored, he creeps past you with an evil smirk on his face, an when you’re having fun, he flies past so quickly you can’t even catch a glimpse of him.

Perhaps he has rheumatism. I mean, he is pretty old after all. Maybe sunlight and happy times put a spring in his step and he races along with the best of them; but when it rains and everything is gloomy, his rheumatism holds him back from going at more than a painful crawl.

Wherever he went and whatever the reason, I wished he would have taken a few steps backward before he took his vacation – or even just stopped altogether.

But though he is ancient, he has not retired – nor will he until his Maker comes and sets Infinity in his place. He is so popular that that everyone plans their lives around his schedule, they beg for more of him as if he is a celebrity, and yet he is elusive, the hardest to grasp when you need him most.

But he is a good healer, binding up wounds and soothing them without any medicine. He takes a long time to do his healing, but he does it.

Try as we might, no one except Time’s Creator has ever been able to stop him from marching on. Day after day, night after night, he passes by, faithfully following his schedule.

He is close friends with the sun and the moon and has seen their rise and fall countless times in his life.

We have made many faces for Time – some square, some round, some oval, some hardly a shape at all, with skin imprinted with numbers and evenly creased with lines.

But I think his real face is filled with thousands of wrinkles, one from each year he has seen.

Sometimes his eyes are greenish-yellow slits as they peer at you from the alarm clock on your bedside stand and wait, ready to shriek at you to get up, get up, to not waste anymore of him than you already have.

If that doesn’t work, he uses the sharp cane he carries to jab those who think they can waste him away.

He has one long hand and one short hand. He was born with a sort of nervous tick that he can’t seem to get rid of.

His clothing style is rather eccentric; a mish-mash of fashions picked up from many eras.

Fickle, wayward, unaccountable… and yet what would we do without him? You have to admit, he’s pretty diligent at his job, and there’s really no one that could replace him.

CPC 1 (967x1280) — Yes, I am aware that this is a SUPER creepy and kind of awful drawing, but I like the idea, so… Just don’t look at his face. XD

I sighed. I guess Time did deserve a break after all that work, and besides, summer would get old if that’s all we ever had. And how would I learn all of the stories Time has collected over the years without History class?

I stretched and stood up. The sun was setting like an egg the moon had cracked for breakfast, the deep orange-yellow yolk spilling all over the sky. The moon ate it all up and then began its long night’s work.

It was right on Time.

_____________________________

The End. 😀

I had a lot of fun with that, as you can probably tell. 😉 I hope you had fun reading it!

What artwork or photo was your favorite? Would you like to read my future CPC entries or would you rather me post normal stuff? I’d love to hear your honest (but courteous) opinion!

Thank you for reading, dears, and have a lovely day filled with plenty of Time. 😉

***Allison***

P. S. Oh. My goodness. I ALMOST HAVE THREE THOUSAND FOLLOWERS?! Eeeee! I’d probably better start planning something, which will probably include a giveaway. Any suggestions?

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: