Life on the Farm + BIBPC

September 11, 2016September 11, 2016 | Allison

I thought I’d do a little post about what’s been going on around the farm lately. Heh heh, it kind of turned out to be a big post, but anyway…

The main thing that Dad has been doing is harvesting corn. Some of the corn grew almost 15 feet tall this year! That’s really tall, even for corn.

allisonbaby-bunnies-flowers-032-1280x960 — Ahh, so peaceful.

allisonbaby-bunnies-flowers-033-1280x960 — Dad uses a GPS system to plant his corn in nice straight rows.

allisonbaby-bunnies-flowers-038-1280x960 — The corn harvester (or chopper, as we call it) is on the left.

For Nature Study this week we learned about corn. Even though I already knew a lot about how it looked, it was neat to learn the reasons behind corn’s appearance. Here are a few fun facts:

If you break a corncob in half, supposedly there will always be an even number of kernels around the circumference!
Corn stalks look kind of like bamboo, with little “joints” at intervals. These joints are called “nodes” and they help strengthen the stalk while still keeping it elastic enough to survive strong winds.
Corn has the parts of a flower, even though you can’t see any pretty blossoms. The tassels are the stamen, and the silk is actually the pistil. Pollen falls from the tassels through the silk (yes, each piece of silk is actually a tiny tube!) to pollinate the seeds (corn kernels).
There is one piece of silk for each kernel! If a corncob isn’t fully filled out, it’s because the kernel wasn’t pollinated correctly.
When it’s really dry, the leaves of the corn roll up to preserve moisture.

Here are the two corn pages in my nature notebook:

Wow. How amazing is the attention to detail God has shown in this seemingly simple plant?!

So there’s your mini nature study for today. 😉

Now for BIBPC. This is the poster I made to get extra points. 😉

And this is my entry! The category was “Shiny.”

Story Behind the Photo: I took this picture of Violet, a barn cat, several months ago. She has super pretty green eyes! They’re also shiny (well, obviously), so you can see the reflection of me and my siblings on the other side of the wire.

These are some edits I made just for fun:

The original picture edited:

The cropped picture edited:

violet's eye 3.jpg — I LOVE THIS PICTURE!

I enjoyed BIBPC, Megan! Thanks for hosting it. 🙂

My my, this was quite a long post. XD Thanks for reading!

Did you learn anything new about corn or how we harvest it? Do you do Nature Study in your school/homeschool?

***Allison***

P. S. I’m sure you all know that today is the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11/01. Please take time to remember the heroes of that terrible day and to pray for those who lost loved ones . ♥♥♥

A VERY EXCITING DEVELOPEMENT!! + TIWC #1

September 8, 2016 | Allison

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY! *Gasp, wheeze, puff* I have… 1,002 FOLLOWERSSSSS!!!!! OH MY GOODNESS! HOW IS THIS HAPPENING? THANK YOU GUYS SO VERY, EXTREMELY, TERRIFICALLY, ETC. MUCH! *Takes a deep breath*

Phew. Guys. This is sooo amazing! I don’t know what else to say. Wheeeee!

Of course I’ll have to do something exciting for this, right?! Let me think… Ooh, maybe a giveaway! I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do yet, but trust me, I’ll do a celebratory post soon and tell you what I’ve decided then. Do you guys have any suggestions? It’s really hard to talk normally and not shout…

*Faints from excitement*

Maybe we’d better move on to the already planned part of the post or I’m going to explode.

Ahem. I’m participating in Grace’s lovely Think to Ink Writing Challenge! This is my first entry. Grace, I used all three prompts and included “pencil” in my story. 🙂 I bolded (is that even a word) the spots where I used the prompts.

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“Mae, get up! It’s round-up day!” My little sister stage-whispered into my ear. I groaned and buried further under my covers.

“Go away, Fiona,” I muttered. Why couldn’t she just leave me in peace… *snore*

“AHHHH! FIONAAAAA!” I leaped out of bed and frantically shook off the freezing cold water. Now I was wide awake and not in a good mood.

Fiona giggled and gave me a wicked grin. “Shhh! Don’t wake up Petre,” she whispered loudly.

“Fiona!” I whirled around to give her a good tongue lashing, but stopped when I noticed the calendar hanging on the wall. Today was marked with a big red circle and a conglomeration of smiley faces. “WHAT?! It’s round-up day? Why didn’t you just tell me?”

Fiona sighed and rolled her eyes.

I’d looked forward to round-up day all year. Petre had cried for days when he learned that at 4 years old he was still too young to come along, and Fiona was overjoyed to go on her first round-up trip as an early 10th birthday present.

While I’m introducing my siblings, I’d better introduce myself too. I’m Mae Lyra, and I’m 13 years old. Oh, and one other little thing you should know about me:

I’m a dust pixie.

Dozens of us, sometimes hundreds, live in every house. We live mainly under beds, sofas, and in the jillions of unnoticed crevices around your home. Dust pixies are good at many things, but my family carries on the tradition of one of the dust pixies’ most time-honored occupations: raising dust bunnies.

At the beginning of every spring we release our herds out into the wide world (a.k.a. our humans’ house) to feed upon dirt and grime and to grow bigger and fluffier each month. By wintertime the herds are majorly fluffy and ready to be sheared. There are always a few casualties (and once I saw the mother human wipe out my friend’s whole herd of dust bunnies in one fell swoop when she vacuumed under a bed), but for the most part it’s a profitable business. Dust bunny wool is highly valued in the dust pixie world. It can be spun into thread or yarn, woven to make traditional wool bed covers, and sewn to make the warmest, fluffiest coats and garments available.

Everything in our house is dusty – and that’s just the way we like it. It’s considered unhealthy to wash our natural dust off (that’s why I was so mad at Fiona for dumping water on me). Since we’re pixies, we obviously have wings, but in most other ways we’re like tiny versions of the humans we live with. We build homes and furniture (from the humans’ trash) and eat three meals a day (from the humans’ dropped crumbs). We have jobs, families, and friends. But even though we’re so similar, even though our very lives depend on them, dust pixies are mortally afraid of humans. Who wouldn’t be afraid of huge, lumbering giants that can crush your whole world beneath one foot?

Humans were our main concern as Fiona, my father, and I flew off through the dim light, leaving Mother to fix breakfast for Petre when he awoke. It wasn’t even 5:00 a.m. We still had plenty of time before the humans usually got up, but with humans you could never be sure of anything.

Our first stop was the sofa. Goodness, those dust bunnies had multiplied fast! We herded about 100 bunnies of all sizes into a makeshift corral made from broken popsicle sticks, pencil stubs, and Superglue. One little bunny escaped the herd and hopped off to explore.

“I’ll get it!” I yelled. The baby bunny twitched its dusty nose ferociously as if daring me to catch it, and so the chase began.

“Come back here you little fluffball!” I panted as I flew this way and that. The little rascal had scampered all the way into one of the humans’ bedrooms. Should I go in? The bunny was so close I could practically touch it. Surely I would get it this time! I flew softly over to the bunny, who padded over to the window sill and sat on its haunches, nose quivering, whiskers twitching.

Slowly, gently, I held out my hand for the bunny to sniff, then grabbed it. It was so soft, like a stuffed animal! Petre would have loved it – but he would have had a coughing fit for sure. My brother was one of the very few dust pixies who were actually allergic to dust. Yeah, kind of unfortunate when dust is your life.

I cuddled the ball of fuzz close and prepared to fly back to the corral when I heard a rustling noise coming from the bed.

Oh no. Not now. Please don’t wake up now!

But she did. This human was a quiet, dark haired young woman of about twenty, but that was all I knew about her. We dust pixies didn’t stick around for such juicy facts – it was too dangerous.

The girl sighed and sat up in bed.

No! No, don’t get up!

She got up. And what’s more she came over to the windowsill. The bunny and I dropped low, using our dustiness as a natural camouflage. Unfortunately, the girl was a good housekeeper – the windowsill was spotless. She propped her elbows on the windowsill and stared out at the fading night sky. Perhaps I could have escaped had not the bunny chosen that moment to scramble out of my grasp. She looked down with a dreamy expression on her face when she heard the scuffle. The girl saw the “clump of dust,” and bent down, frowning, to flick it off. Her eyes widened when she saw that we were no mere clump of dust.

We both sat there, staring at each other in fear and surprise. She didn’t speak, she didn’t make a sound, but the wild look in her eyes told me exactly what she was thinking. Am I still dreaming? She bent down even closer and stared at me with huge blue-gray eyes. When she blinked, her eyelashes brushed my face.

“Please,” I whispered, “please don’t hurt me.”

When she heard my voice, the girl jumped back and clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. Nope, she wasn’t dreaming. She stood there, breathing hard, then answered in a slow whisper.

“I would never hurt you… whatever you are. I’ll just close my eyes and you can go back to wherever you live – I won’t peek, I promise.” The girl squeezed her eyes tightly shut.

I was amazed. This human was actually kind! I whispered a heartfelt “Thank you,” caught up the baby dust bunny, and flew out of the room as fast as I could.

Boy, would I have a story to tell my father.

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This was so much fun to write! I love creating alternate worlds like this. 🙂 I’m probably going to continue this story as TIWC progresses.

Oh, and I combined and edited this picture and this picture to make the photo of Mae and the dust bunny. I love how it turned out! The bunny in the actual photo looked like an real life dust bunny – kind of like Willow! XD

Did you like the “dust pixies”?

***Allison***

P. S. I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE I HAVE 1,000 FOLLOWERS! AAHHHHHHH!

Fairly Fun! {{Fair Entries 2016}}

September 7, 2016November 12, 2018 | Allison

For those of you (like Christian Homeschooler*wink*) who wanted to know how our county fair turned out and if we won any ribbons, behold, a fair post. 😀

First of all, these are the things I entered in the fair:

Cross stitch cousins (from this post)
Blue jay painting
Clay dragon (see the Etsy listing here)
Miniature clay doughnuts (from this post)
Dorothy the doll (from this post)
Clay fawn (I made this for my sister’s birthday a couple of years ago.)
Clay rose earrings
Clay rose necklace
Painted rocks (from our room makeover)
Quillow (Megan, my cousins, and I all took a sewing class for this!)
Casey drawing

Sorry some of the things are kind of hard to see.

And of course I entered all the photos from this post. (Good gracious I use a lot of links in my posts.)

Here’s another picture of the quillow. Have you ever heard of a quillow? It’s basically a 2-in-1 blanket and quilt. You can unfold it to make a blanket, stuff the quilt into the pillowcase to make a pillow, or display it like this. It’s super neat! Thanks so much, Gram, for bringing us to the classes and helping me fix my quilt. ♥♥♥

This year was really fun and successful for me! I always love entering things in the fair, even though I don’t win ribbons for all my entries. It’s so exciting to search for your entries and look at other kids’ (and adults’) creations in the Exhibit Hall!

So, now for the ribbons I did win:

054-1024x768 — Sheesh, Allison, what a mess. XD

I won a ribbon (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) for every entry except for my drawings and the baseball photo! Woohoo! I also won a sweepstakes ribbon for the clay category (mostly since I entered so many things and sometimes they were the only entries in their category XD ). That was really fun.

All together I won:

12 first place ribbons, 3 second place ribbons, 6 third place ribbons, 1 sweepstake ribbon, aaaannd a total of $72.00! That’s one great thing about our fair – they don’t just give you ribbons, they pay you too! What could be better than that? XD

What is your fair like (if you have one)? Did you enter anything this year? (I’d love to see a picture, if you did!) Did you win any prizes?

**Allison***

P. S. GUYS THE BABY BUNNIES ARE SO CUTE I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE. Random truth.

Beauty from Ashes, Part 2

September 6, 2016November 12, 2018 | Allison

Beauty from Ashes is a short story I’m working on. It’s kind of a hybrid story between Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast because fairy tale medleys are fun. 😀

I’m so glad you guys liked the last part! (Click here to read it if you haven’t yet.) Thanks for all of your sweet comments. ♥ Are you ready for Part 2?

Just to refresh your memory, here’s an excerpt from the end of Part 1:

But the worst part was, I had promised, and my promise was backed by the terrifying threat of the Beast’s roar. I had to go back tomorrow, like it or not.

Oh. No.

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Beauty from Ashes

Part 2.

Furious rage could not even begin to describe Druscilla and Lady Tremaine’s feelings toward me when I returned home single-shoed with only Anastasia’s roses in hand. I thought they would explode into tiny pieces. Even my frantic, tearful excuses and description of the Beast did little to calm them. I was sent to bed without dinner (though I had barely had lunch), and given twice as many chores for the next day.

When I awoke the following morning, I was more exhausted than when I went to sleep – Beast had tormented my dreams all night. By late afternoon it was nearly time to meet the Beast and I still had chores to do. I whirled the duster up and down the banister, polished the table in 30 seconds flat, and shooed a herd of dust bunnies frantically out the door. I could hear feet clumping down the stairs, but I didn’t wait for further instructions. I was out the door and in the forest in the time it takes Anastasia and Druscilla to pick out their cereal bowls.

I had one last chore – gathering those twenty white roses for Druscilla. This was the chore I dreaded most, for to complete it I had to meet the Beast once again.

I timidly entered the clearing, glancing this way and that for signs of the Beast. Nothing. I breathed a sigh of relief and started picking white roses, much faster this time. But just like the day before, I had only barely finished when I heard twigs crackling.

The Beast was here.

“I’m here. I came,” I managed to gasp as I cringed under his imposing glare.

“I see you succeeded in snatching a few more of my roses,” Beast frowned impressively. “I thought I had taught you a lesson the first time, but apparently you are slow to learn. WHY are you STEALING my ROSES?” Beast bellowed.

“I’m so terribly, terribly sorry, Sir Beast, Sir. I – I didn’t know they were your roses. You never told me!” I whimpered. “It’s just that… my sister needs these roses, I – I mean she wants these roses, very badly, and if I don’t bring them my mother is likely to shut me up in the house. Which means I can’t come back to see you.” I looked hopefully up at his face, searching for any signs of relent. Though his expression was harder than a stone chopping block, his words surprised me.

“Very well. You may take them on one condition: you must serve me for twenty days – one day for each rose. Meet me here each evening and I will put you to work. Or, if you would rather not…” Beast shrugged, “leave the roses – and your other shoe – with me.”

This was hard. Would I face the fury of my stepsister and stepmother and go barefoot for who knows how long, or face the Beast every day for twenty days? I buried my face in my hands in agony. I knew what I had to do, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.

“I will serve you for twenty days,” I whispered at last.

A tiny spark glimmered in Beast’s eyes. It looked almost like… hope, or gladness. But he only grunted and said, “Very well. Your service starts today.”

My shoulders sagged. I was far too tired to do anything properly, much less to serve the demanding Beast. But all I said was, “As you say. What is my task?”

******

Half an hour later I dragged myself home, picking bits of moss and leaves from my dirty dress and clinging to a handful of limp white roses. The Beast had ordered me to make a couch from wood, leaves, and moss. It was backbreaking work that he could have accomplished far easier than I, but he never lifted a finger to help. All he did was stare at me – or more like stare through me – the entire time, as if he were prying open my heart and searching for secrets. The Beast was a strange creature.

He only got stranger the next day. He sat on his couch and asked me question after question – who were my parents? Where did I live? Did I have any siblings? Was I good at sewing? Dancing? Painting? And many other questions, some normal and some unsettling. When I asked him why he wanted to know all this, he only shrugged and said that if I were to be his slave, he had better know some of my background. Secretly I wasn’t so sure. The Beast didn’t seem like one to care where I came from or who I was, as long as I did the things he required.

Instead of voicing my doubts, I began to question him. What was he anyway – a huge, hairy human or a talking animal? And if an animal, what kind, and how did he learn to speak? Where did he live? What was he doing here? How could I be sure that those rosebushes were really his? But though I bombarded him with questions, he remained stubbornly silent.

“Go on,” I prompted him, “it’s only fair that a slave should know something about her master. Why aren’t you answering my questions?”

Beast answered soberly. “Ella, girl, I do not answer because you would not believe me. The time has not yet come for you to know these things. I shall tell you soon enough, when the time is right and not before.”

I cocked my head in puzzlement. This was strange. It was like my father was talking to me. The Beast sounded almost wise, almost kind… Almost, but not quite. I shook my head. Would I ever understand this creature?

In the days that followed, I did a variety of tasks for the Beast. I brought him mushrooms, nuts, and other good things to eat from the forest; I tended his rosebushes; I entertained him with stories and sang to him songs from my childhood; and sometimes I simply walked through the trees with him, answering his questions and talking with him.

A strange thing began to happen. Each day Beast seemed to soften, each day he seemed more like my friend and less like my master, until finally we walked and talked and laughed together as naturally as a brother and sister. I could not fathom how this astonishing change came about or whether it was on his part or mine; I only knew that instead of dreading the daily meetings, I soon looked forward to them eagerly.

My eyes were bright with tears as I walked the familiar path to meet the Beast for the last time. Oddly enough, I would miss him very, very much. Who else could I pour out my troubles to? Who else would cheer me up when I was weary of life?

Who else would be my friend, the best friend I had ever had?

Beast looked sad and nervous too. There was an uncomfortable pause, then Beast said softly, “I have one last question and one last task for you, Ella, my dear. They will be the hardest of all.” Beast lowered his eyes and took a deep breath to steady himself. “I want you to answer honestly – you know me well enough to know that I will see through a lie.”

Beast reached out and held my trembling hands in his. My mind was racing. Why was he so anxious? He was frightening me. What was he going to ask me? I could think of nothing that qualified as “the hardest question of all.” He’d asked me everything, everything already. What was there left to ask?

Beast swallowed hard and looked me straight in the eye.

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Mega-cliffhanger! Mwahahaha, I’m so cruel. XD It’s too bad you already know the background fairytales, or it would be super suspenseful. 😛

Oh, and since I couldn’t quite find a picture of Ella as I imagine her, I drew one. I think it turned out pretty well – except that her eyes are a little too big. XD I meant them to be big, but not that big. XD Also, this is not how Ella looks in her normal daily life. She looks like this when… well, you’ll see. 😉

I hope you enjoyed this rather long second part of Beauty from Ashes. There’s more to come!

***Allison***

P. S. You only have until September 10th to submit questions for the Sisters Q&A! I’m sooo excited to answer them. 🙂

P. P. S. I have a good idea for my first entry for Grace‘s TIWC! 😀 The deadline is the 8th, so I’ll post that soon.

Moon Photography (+ BIBPC)

September 4, 2016September 5, 2016 | Allison

Greetings and salutations, my friends! XD

I recently got some really neat photos of the moon that I thought I’d share. I love moon photography, but it can hard to get a moon instead of just getting a picture of a white blob in the sky. This time it worked out pretty well, though!

I had fun making the moon look like a marble on a marble track… (aka a barn roof)

Or a bead on a necklace (the moon behind a power line). 😀 Have you ever done this kind of moon photography? It’s really fun!

And of course, I took plenty of “normal” pictures of the moon.

-Allison(BABY BUNNIES!) 022 (1024x768) — This is probably the best moon photo I’ve gotten so far! 😀 You can even see little craters and details!

I got this next, rather strange photo by using a higher exposure (more on that in just a minute). The lighting is really weird! It looks kind of like a mini moon-set. XD

I figured out that it really helps to capture detail on the moon if you set your camera to a lower exposure.Here’s a little chart of how exposure affected my pictures:

Kind of neat, huh?

Lower exposure is helpful for a lot of things – from making roses redder to fixing bright photo conditions. I’m sure some of you already knew this, but it was helpful for me, so I thought I’d share it! 😀

Do you have any tips for moon photography? Isn’t the moon such a beautiful thing? 🙂

And now for my BIBPC entry. The category this time was “Weeds.”

Story Behind the Photo: I took this picture several months ago in spring (I love spring!). This is a picture of speedwell – that little weed with blue flowers that grows everywhere. The tiny flowers are so cute and pretty to me! When I was little, I used to collect a bunch of blossoms and float them in a blue bowl full of water. 🙂 It was actually really pretty.

Before I leave, I’ll give you a little sneak peek of future posts: I’m hoping to write the second chapter of Beauty from Ashes and do a post about my fair entries soon! 😀

Bye for now!

***Allison***

How About That Bucket List? {Summer Review}

September 2, 2016September 2, 2016 | Allison

(Note: Sorry for any complications with this post. I accidentally hit “Publish” before it was ready, so I had to revert it to draft and finish it. Oops!)

At the beginning of summer, I posted a Summer Bucket List, aka some of the things I hoped to do this summer. Are you ready to see how I did?

Key:

Green = Check!

Yellow = Sort of

Red = Nope

(Thanks for the “key” idea, Loren!)

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1. Read the Bible every day. I did pretty well with this! I didn’t read it every single day, but definitely most days. I read through Revelation, Romans, Galatians, and I’m almost done with 1st Corinthians. I’m going to try and continue this goal throughout the year.

2. Go to a movie theater. Yes! We did go to the movie theater for one of the special $1 days. (We saw The Peanuts Movie.) It was a fun experience. 🙂

3. Get more sleep. Heh heh. Probably not. XD I did pretty much stick to my goal of reading my Bible every night before bed and not reading any other books unless it was before 10:30… but I still went to bed late a lot. 😛 So the sleep part, I don’t think so, but the reading schedule, yep!

4. Do stretches more often. Yep! I can just barely touch my toes now. XD I know, that’s pitiful. XD But at least it’s better than at the beginning of summer.

5. Paint and redecorate my room. YES! This was one of the highlights of my summer! You can see my post about the room makeover here. It looks soooo much better now!

6. Improve my swimming. Weeell, I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to tell for sure. I’m not super fast, but I feel like maybe I’m more confident and at home in the water. I love just being underwater – it’s so peaceful and beautiful! I also got a little better at diving… but my flips aren’t too polished yet. XD So I’m going to say I DID improve my swimming, if for no other reason than I swam a lot this summer and feel more comfortable in the water.

7. Watch the Olympics! That was so much fun! I really loved the Olympics. It felt like this year especially I was witnessing history being made: Michael Phelps’ last Olympics, Katie Ledecky smashing the world record, Team USA grabbing another gold for Women’s Gymnastics (not to mention the talented Simone Biles collecting a few more for herself!), Team USA winning the most medals in the Olympics overall, and so much more. Way to go America! 😀

8. Cook something weird. If Turkish Delight counts as weird, then yes, yes I did. (See the recipe here.)

9. Decorate cupcakes with friends. Sadly, we did not get to do this. 😦 Maybe we can make some fall-themed ones this season.

10. Go fishing. Uh… does holding a fishing pole over water for, like, five minutes count? XD We went fishing a tiny bit with some friends while on vacation, but I didn’t catch anything.

11. Make “masterpieces” from my three [or four] favorite mediums. I think so! I made this dragon from polymer clay, sewed a quillow in sewing class, drew Casey (in this post), and took lots of pretty pictures, many of which I posted on this blog.

12. Have a shaving cream fight. This. Was. So. Fun. Ahhh! We should definitely do it again. (See my post about it here.)

13. Do a photoshoot with friends. I did this photoshoot with our friends when they came over and played on the barn roofs with us. 😀 Those are some of my all time favorite photos!

14. Add more things to my Etsy shop. I sold several custom orders over the summer, like this owl, and this German Shepherd dog. I also added some necklace pendants and this dragon to my shop. I sold… let me see, 5 things this summer! Yay! 😀

15. Take lots of pictures on our vacation. I guess it depends on what you mean by “lots.” I took 260 pictures, not counting the ones I deleted. Would you say that’s a lot? I think so. 😀 I did two posts so far (here and here) with some of the pictures.

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So out of 15 goals, I completed 11, sort of completed 3, and didn’t complete 1. Pretty good!

This summer was quite eventful. Besides doing the things on my bucket list…

I met a blogger (Rebekah) in real life! Sooo fun!
I got my wisdom teeth pulled. Youch!
My blog got featured on Discover (which you probably already know by now). That also was one of the highlights of my summer.
Megan and I entered lots of stuff in the fair, and we won several ribbons! (I’ll probably do a post about my entries…)
And Willow, my rabbit, had baby bunnieeeeees! (Another highlight.) They’re SOOOO CUTE I CAN’T STAND IT! See pictures of them here (when they were first born) and here (much fuzzier).

Phew! That was a lot of links. XD

So yeah! That was a short review of my summer. 🙂 What were some of the highlights of your summer? Did you complete your bucket list if you had one?

***Allison***

P. S. Thank you for your prayers for my cousin Leisha. 🙂 Her surgery went very well – thank you, Lord! ♥ She has had some pain, though, so please continue to pray for her recovery. 🙂 ♥♥♥

The Warm and the Fuzzy: Part 5

August 31, 2016August 31, 2016 | Allison

Are you ready for yet another cuteness overload? Baby bunnies, here we come!

These little guys have grown so fast – they’re now about 2 1/2 weeks old. (Click here to see the first post about them.) I have no words to describe how cute they are except PRECIOUS BALLS OF FLUZZINESS. That’s as close as I can get. But they say pictures are worth a thousand words, so maybe the pictures will help. 😉

I’m going to go in approximately chronological order. The farther you scroll, the cuter they get! But first, I need to tell you their names.

From left to right we have Hank, Higgledy Piggledy (my brother named him – don’t look at me), Blackberry, Lilac, and Drover. Hank is Megan’s, Higgledy Piggledy is Logan’s, Blackberry is Carmen’s, Lilac is mine, and Drover is Jefferson’s.

OKAY, ARE THEY NOT ADORABLE?

Now we can proceed to watch those balls of fluff grow.

baby bunnies (1) (1024x768) — Sort of cute but sort of ugly…

baby bunnies (2) (1024x768) — Still pretty pink.

baby bunnies (3) (1024x768) — This is Lilac (the silver one) when she was tiny. Look how black she is! You can already see the lighter hairs coming in.

baby bunnies (4) (1024x768) — Blackberry is on the left, and Lilac is on the right.

baby bunnies (7) (1024x768) — Whoa! Compare this picture to the 4th picture. They’re the same rabbits, but Lilac is now silver instead of black!

baby bunnies (8) (1024x768) — GAAH I LOVE THIS PICTURE!

baby bunnies (10) (1024x768) — Sometimes the bunnies sleep in odd positions, like this…

baby bunnies (11) (1024x768) — OR THIS! She was snuggled down in my lap! AWWWWWWWWWWW!

Now for the finale. Here are all of the bunnies as they look today:

Hank is definitely one of the cutest (in my opinion). He is super snuggly, very fuzzy, and just plain adorable! He might turn out to be long-haired like Willow. I hope so!

Drover’s fur is really silky – it looks and feels like milkweed fluff. 😀 His eyes are blueish, which is neat because the rest of the bunnies have black eyes. I really hope they’re still blue when he grows up.

Higgledy Piggledy is the most explorative, I think. Also, I love the cross pattern on his back and his adorable wittle black ears!

Lilac is “my” bunny, so of course I LOVE her. 🙂 While all of the bunnies are simply adorable, I think Hank and Lilac are the cutest and Lilac is the prettiest. Her fur color (it’s technically called “chinchilla”) is definitely the most unique of the babies. She’s also super cuddly – she usually falls asleep when you hold her. OH. MY GOODNESS. I can’t even…

Blackberry might be the biggest of all the babies. She’s oh-so-squishy and chubby and fluzzy! She’s completely black – her fur, her eyes, even her claws! Okay, maybe her paws are a teensy bit lighter on the bottom but still… Her dark fur makes her hard to take pictures of, so trust me, she’s cuter in real life! 😀

AAAAAHHHH ARE THEY NOT THE CUTEST THINGS YOU HAVE EVER SEEN? Ahem. Sorry for all the screaming, it’s just… *Sigh* They’re too cute for they’re own good. Also a side note: we don’t actually know their gender yet, we just named them whatever we wanted. 😉

Holding a sleeping baby bunny is seriously one of the best things that could happen to your life. My heart is melting in the blaze of cuteness… XD

Now that you’ve seen them all, you can vote for your favorite bunny, right down there. ↓ Who will win the cutest bunny award? 😀

It looks like we have come to the end. XD

I hope you enjoyed this post! I did. 🙂

***Allison***

P. S. Do you like my new background?

Sisters Q&A!

August 30, 2016September 2, 2016 | Allison

Guess what? Megan and I are going to host a Q&A to celebrate two things: one, Megan’s birthday was August 29th (Happy Birthday to Megan! ♥ ), but also because I HAVE 919 FOLLOWERS OH MY GOODNESS COULD I ACTUALLY GET 1,000 THIS YEAR??? *Takes a deep breath*

Ahem.

But this isn’t just a normal Q&A. This is going to be – *dun duh dun* – a Sisters Q&A!

Say What?

A Sisters Q&A is like a regular Q&A, except we will answer the question for the other person instead of for ourselves. This is Megan’s example question:

Q #1: What is your favorite color?

Megan: Allison’s favorite color is purple.

Allison: Megan’s favorite color is yellow.

Megan and I get a point for each question we answer correctly. If we didn’t answer correctly…

Megan: Um, Allison, my favorite color is hot pink. You didn’t know that? Yellow was my favorite color a long time ago! Like, last week or something.

Allison: Yeah right. You just changed your favorite color RIGHT NOW to make me lose a point! I happen to know that you do NOT like hot pink. Like at all.

Whoever answers the most questions correctly wins the best sister award. (Heh heh, just kidding on that last part. XD )

Let the Battle Begin!

You can ask classic questions (like what is your favorite food) or funny questions (like would you rather wear a little kid princess dress or a striped tie). If you ask questions that depend on the time, like “what are you wearing right now”, that may not work so well. XD

Also, we decided to set a limit of 10 questions per commenter because that could get really long. 😉

Is There a Deadline?

Yes. You have until September the 10th to submit questions via the comments below.

***Allison***

P. S. I have a big prayer request for you guys. My cousin/best friend Leisha is going to have major heart surgery on Thursday. *GULP* Please, please pray for the surgery to go really well and for the recovery to be quick. ♥

Beauty from Ashes, Part 1 (+BIBPC)

August 27, 2016September 6, 2016 | Allison

Hello, hello! How are you lovely people doing? (Isn’t that sort of a rhetorical question though?)

I have some writing and photos for you today.

First up, Beauty from Ashes. Beauty from Ashes is a short story I’m working on. It’s basically a medley of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, ’cause you’re never too old for fairy tales, right?

I’m still looking for a picture that fits my idea of Cinderella. Hopefully next time I’ll have it.

Enjoy the first part!

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Beauty from Ashes

Part 1.

“Cinderella!” a whiny voice rang out from upstairs, “Come up here at once!”

I sighed. It was all I could do not to run out the door; not to run, run, run, and never come back. I would never have to answer to my stepsisters again. But I wouldn’t survive and I knew it. Even though my life was miserable here, at least I had a life, if you could call it that. I heaved my tired body up the winding staircase. With every step, the arguing voices grew louder.

“I said I wanted roses first!”

“Did not! You stole my idea!”

“Oh no I didn’t. You just won’t give me credit for anything, Anastasia!”

“That’s because you never have any good ideas! I’m going to have roses, whether you want me to or not. So there!”

“Motherrr!”

I could hear Lady Tremaine shushing her daughters. “Now girls. If you are ever to impress the Prince, you absolutely must control your tempers. Anastasia, you will have red roses, and Druscilla, you will have white ones. Listen to Mother, dears. Don’t be like that nasty Cinderella who never obeys anyone.” Lady Tremaine directed this last remark at me as I entered the room. Anastasia and Druscilla instantly forgot their enmity in their mutual delight at my poor, embarrassed face.

Lady Tremaine didn’t lose a beat. “Cinderella, go fetch twenty red roses and twenty white roses for your sisters. If they are to have dried flower crowns for the ball, we must start preparing them now. Go, child! Don’t just stand there looking stupid! Away with you!”

The girls snickered and turned back to their preparations. Oh how I wished I could join them! As the date of the Prince’s ball drew ever nearer, our household was in an uproar over the various preparations necessary to present Anastasia and Druscilla at their finest (which wasn’t saying much). But though I had begged and pleaded, Lady Tremaine refused to let me go to the ball. It was an unnecessary expense, she said. But the King had ordered all eligible maidens to come, I protested. She only scoffed at this, saying I was hardly “eligible” with my dusty, ash-stained face and dingy clothes. I chose not to point out that all that could be fixed with a bath and a new gown. I knew when I had lost. I knew because I always did lose and always had lost, ever since the day my father died.

I stomped outside, gritting my teeth to keep from exploding. At least I got to visit the forest. I picked my way sluggishly to the two lush rosebushes in the middle of our woods, trying to drag out my freedom. When I arrived, I plucked the roses as slowly as possible, carefully avoiding thorns. I had only gathered the red roses when a crackling noise made me freeze in mid-pluck. Some great animal was snuffling and stomping its way through the woods. It drew nearer and nearer to me, but I was afraid to turn around. My heart pounded madly in my chest like a captive bird desperate to escape. Finally the crackling stopped. The beast was so close I could feel its hot breath on my back.

I just had to turn around.

Immediately I wished I hadn’t. I was face to face with an enormous beast – what looked like a cross between a bear and a lion.

It was by far the most terrifying thing I had ever seen. My breath came in ragged gasps; my sweaty hands clutched the roses as if to protect them.

Then the beast spoke.

“Who are you?” it questioned in a deep, growling, voice. If I hadn’t been terrified out of my wits before, I was now. A talking bear?

I gulped. “M-my name is Ella, Sir… Sir…”

“Call me Beast,” it snarled.

“My n-name is Ella, Beast.”

Beast growled menacingly. “Very well, Ella, give me one of your shoes.”

I blinked. “Excuse me? But, Sir – I mean, Beast, these are my only pair! My mother will be furious! Please, may I give you my hair ribbon or-”

“Your shoe. Give it to me.” His voice left no room for doubt. I passed him one of my forlorn slippers with trembling hands. He nodded and continued, “If you want this back, you must return to this place tomorrow at this time. Or else-” he opened wide his mouth and roared like a lion.

I shielded my face with my arm. Sweat plastered my yellow-gold hair to my head, and tears streamed down my dusty face. “Yes, yes Sir – I mean Beast. I will do that. I promise I will. Please, please may I go now?” Beast nodded his huge head.

I lost no time in racing back to the safety of home, sobbing with terror all the time. When I was halfway there it occurred to me that I hadn’t picked any white roses. Nevermind. I was NOT going back there, no matter how angry Druscilla would be.

But the worst part was, I had promised, and my promise was backed by the terrifying threat of the Beast’s roar. I had to go back tomorrow, like it or not.

Oh. No.

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There! I hope you liked that! It was a lot of fun to write. 🙂 More parts are coming up soon!

And now for my BIBPC entries. I know the first one is late, but since Megan is my sister, she’s already seen my photo. Yay for sisters! (Unless the sisters in question are Anastasia and Druscilla.)

BIBPC #4 – Category: Broken

OH MY GOODNES IS HE NOT ADORABLE?! Oh. Right. Perhaps I should explain that the bunny isn’t “broken” like that. It’s just a technical way of saying “spotted.” And you thought… Shame on you! XD

This is one of our five baby bunnies, a. k. a. cuteness itself. I believe my brother Logan chose this one. He named it “Higgledy Piggledy” for some strange reason. Don’t look at me! XD Never fear, a bunny post is coming up soon with lots more juicy details and fluzzy pictures.

BIBPC #5 – Category: Old Things

Last night we acquired a few lovely, ancient books from my great-grandma. One is called “Human Use Geography.” I find that quite funny. Human Use? As opposed to what, penguin use? XD But seriously, it’s a really neat book! There are notes and names and scribbles all throughout the book, and some pages are practically falling out.

This would also have been a good photo for the “Broken” category. Broken is often quite beautiful, isn’t it? We’re all like old books in that way, I guess – broken but beautiful. 🙂

***Allison***