Hello, dears!
The other day I went out with my camera before breakfast to take some pictures of the Canadian geese on our pond. It was a lovely sunny morning with blue sky, blue water, and a shy tinge of green starting to show through winter. I spent quite a while down there and got MANY pictures, a few of which I’ll be posting today. 🙂
I hope you enjoy “birdwatching” with me!
Hello, dears!
I’m back with another collection of miscellaneous photos! I’m not too far behind this time, so it will be a little shorter than usual Etcetera posts. I hope you enjoy some of my favorite recent pictures of nature, people, landscapes, etc. 😉
Sit back, relax, and start scrolling!
Hello, dears!
Welcome to another Art Lab post. 🙂 Today I’ll be showing you how to paint some lovely watercolor clouds in candy-like colors, and at the end of the post I’ll announce which two artists we have selected to join our team!
But first, the art inspiration for today. Continue reading
Eeeeek, I’m so excited to show you guys these pictures! 😀 It snowed 6 or 7 inches while we were up at the new farm, and it was GORGEOUS. ♥ Good thing I brought my camera, heh heh. I also brought the macro extension tube set I got for Christmas and it worked splendidly for taking pictures of individual snowflakes! Sooo pretty.
Anyway, I guess I’ll let you see for yourselves now, huh?
I love this little snowdrift sculpture on the roof. 😛
Isn’t this neat? It’s kind of hard to tell, but it’s snow on a wooden staircase.
Dripping icicles are great fun to take pictures of. 🙂
I think this one’s neat too. ♥ It kind of looks vintage to me – does it to you?
There were some cute birds by the hay rebaling barn and I got some… okay pictures. They wouldn’t let me get too close, and I was only wearing tennis shoes in the snow so I didn’t WANT to get too close or my feet would get completely soaked. XD
Ohhhh for some reason I love this picture. ♥ REMEMBER THOSE DOUGHNUTS?
Snow + Cows = Photogenicness. Sadly I took this out the car window so it isn’t as photogenic as it could be.
I quite like how you can see the snow falling so clearly in these pictures!
The falling snow… the wooden fences… the covered trees… ahh, I think I can safely say snow looks even prettier down there than up here, and that’s saying something. XD
Alright, now for my favorite part – the close-ups!
Look, you can see the invidual snowflake(s)!
Snowflakes are incredibly beautiful. ♥
And now for my pride and joy… ta-daa!
Isn’t it so beautifully delicate? I just LOVE zooming in and being able to see the intricacy of each snowflake. ♥ So far this is definitely my favorite part about that lens set. I’ll hopefully do a review of them once I take more photos with them and figure them out a bit more, but they’re quite neat so far!
One thing I will say – you have to use manual focus which is difficult when taking such close-up pictures. Even a tiny movement can make the subject blurry. But other than that, I love them!
I hope you enjoyed these pictures, dears. 😀 Which ones were your favorites? Did you get snow where you live too?
***Allison***
P. S. Guys, if you love photography too, you should definitely check out Roxanne’s photography challenge! I probably won’t be doing it since, as I keep saying, we’re pretty busy with the move, but it looks super neat and I’ll bet it will be great fun!
Hello hello! I’m back with part two of my pictures from our vacation with friends. 😀 (See part one here.) I love these photos, and I hope you do too!
Let’s start with the crabbing photos. We went out to a marsh to catch blue crabs with some crab traps, chicken pieces for bait, and some coolers. It was SO much fun and we ended up catching quite a few crabs – around 8! They didn’t amount to much once we cooked them, but the few crumbs we had tasted good. XD
We drove around everywhere in golf carts, which allowed you to take in all the beautiful scenery. ♥ Isn’t it gorgeous?
Besides crabs, we also caught some various other water creatures like fish and shrimp. (But we didn’t keep them.)
We caught two of these fish, I believe, and the second made a weird grunting/clicking sound. O.o It was so odd and funny!
Doesn’t this look like a tropical angelfish or something? We were all amazed to catch it.
Shrimp look hilarious with their long antennae. XD
And of course, the crabs. Look how blue they are underneath – so pretty!
Now for more beach pictures. 🙂
Shore birds…
I absolutely LOVE these pictures of my little sister Carmen! (I seem to be saying “I love this picture” to almost every picture, huh? XD)
The sunset over the beach was gorgeous! Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of it at the peak, but I did get these.
Lastly, I took a bunch of pictures on the way home, especially of the enormously, voluminously puffy clouds (wow that was fun to say).
And that’s about it! I hope you enjoyed the huge conglomeration of photos, dears. 🙂 Do you have a favorite(s) or is it too overwhelming to pick?
Also, HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY to my sister Megan! If you haven’t already done so, hop on over to her blog and send her a belated birthday note. 🙂 (By the way, she also posted the pictures that I took of her on the sister’s photoshoot here.)
***Allison***
My extra photos are piling up again, so I guess that means it’s time for another random photography post! 🙂 YAY! I hope you enjoy!
Aren’t these clouds lovely? ♥
We found this rather odd-looking bird and figured out it was a chimney swift. I think he’s quite weird. XD
I got these next few photos when we all went for a ride in Dad’s pickup to go check some fields and see how the soybeans were growing. (Sadly, they weren’t coming along very well, but Dad replanted them – twice – and now they’re doing fine, I think. 🙂 )
I love the view of our farm from this hill. ♥ Sooooooo pretty!
Aren’t mountains beautiful?
My little sister Carmen, holding a barn kitten we named Truffle:
This is a pretty edit I did of a huge, puffy pink cloud.
One day we studied ladybugs in Nature Study and went out to search for them in an alfalfa field. It was kind of hard to get pictures, but I got a few neat ones. My friend got an amazing one of a ladybug eating an aphid! But sadly, I did not. 😦 😉
I really like ladybugs, but I have to admit – they look a little creepy when you put dozens of them in a jar. XD
These are the kind of bouquets I made to decorate tables for a church potluck in May. It was supposed to be a “Farmer’s Market” theme, so I used a bunch of different stuff from our farm and garden. I think they turned out pretty well, and I love how this picture turned out too!
Hee hee, well this is random. XD We made the BEST playdough ever (seriously – it is!), just for fun one day when my friend came over. It hardly feels like playdough at all, it’s so soft and silky and stretchy. (Wow, alliteration skills. XD ) You can see the recipe here.
Another VERY random photo. 😛 I was going to do a mystery picture of a clementine, but it didn’t turn out. I decided to keep the photo, though, because for some reason I like it.
Lilies are gorgeous, and so photogenic, aren’t they?!
Okay guys, you are going to LOVE this! We’ve been feeding our neighbors’ kittens while they’re on vacation, and they are the sweetest, prettiest little things!
Look at those eyes! ♥♥
XD
Our neighbor has a wonderful in-ground pool that she so generously lets us use pretty much whenever we want! I thought the clouds looked really neat that day, so logically, I took pictures. XD
Ahh, I LOVE this picture! The water looks so bright and clear and… almost plastic-y. XD
Mimosa tree photography…
It looks like someone climbed the tree and threw a rope into the clouds so they could climb up. 😀
Hee hee, Megan jumping:
We shall end with one hilarious picture. My cousin said this looked like a whale farting. XD XD XD
Well, I hope you enjoyed scrolling through those pictures, my dears! Do you have a favorite?
Thanks for reading!
***Allison***
P. S. Guess what?! My sister Megan wrote the next part of WordCrafters, and it’s GREAT! You can read it on the WordCrafters 3 page here.
Okay, maybe I can finally get on top of my extra photos here! I decided to be brave and just heap them all into one post. XD
Fishing
The kids love going fishing at our uncle’s pond where I got some rather funny pictures. XD
HA HA!
This rather formidable looking fish is a bass I caught. 🙂
This dog always follows us around, trying to catch our hooks and stuff. But he is rather cute in pictures, wouldn’t you say?
Dandelions
I know, even more dandelions. XD But I found out that they actually look really pretty in a bouquet if you pick the nicest, roundest ones. See?
Whipped Cream Fight
We had a whipped cream fight with our friends, but I mostly stayed back and took pictures because it looked really sticky. Heh heh. Shaving cream fights are SUPER fun, but the whipped cream fights… not quite as much.
Birthday Cake
My mom always makes birthday cakes for the kids, customized to their request. I had sort of an art themed party so I wanted an art themed cake. We looked up some things on Pinterest and found an idea for a watercolor cake! It’s actually pretty simple: just dab some blobs of different colored icing on the side and smear them together. (Of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that in practice, but you know… 😛 ) I helped finish it off with the pearls. Isn’t it GORGEOUS! This is probably my favorite of all the cakes I’ve had!
Bunnies
Hee hee, we like to take our bunnies out and play with them outside sometimes. That night we all got in a circle and let some of the bunnies hop around. So much fun!
Oh, and I have some very sad news. Clementine, that little brown bunny down there, is gone. Somehow Maggie, our dog, got her and killed her. NOOOOOO! *SNIFF* Rest in peace, little Clemmie. ♥
Flowers
I do the decorations for our church’s tables, and I thought these bouquets turned out really pretty. 🙂
I especially love these floating peonies! Sooo pretty and fluffy!
Little Felted Rabbit
I recently just discovered needle felting. I think it’s really neat, but I haven’t made much yet besides this tiny bunny. 🙂
Baby Killdeer
They hatched! Aww, look at the fluffy things!
We also found another nest. (The mother laid more eggs after this.)
Farm Photography
I saved the best for last. 🙂 I just LOVE these pictures!
This is kind of an abstract (a.k.a blurry) photo, but the BOKEH. The sun was shining off the windows of a little church on the hill and it looked really neat!
AHH I LOVE THIS ONE!!
Aww, Maggie.
Spring is a great time to photograph birds, so I’ve gotten several neat pictures of both birds themselves and nests which I wanted to show you today. 🙂
The first subject is this ADORABLE little golden-crowned kinglet we found! It knocked into a window and we brought it inside while it recuperated. It was so sweet and tiny!
Ahh I love these pictures of Megan holding it in her hand! Don’t worry, she wasn’t squeezing it, even though it might look like that. 🙂
Well hello, cutie! I was so excited to be able to get pictures up close like this. The bird just kinda sat there calmly and posed. (It did finally fly away. 😉 )
And last but not least, we found two killdeer nests! In case you’re not familiar with killdeer, here’s a little information about them. 🙂 Killdeer are long-legged brown, black and white birds, and no, they do not kill deer. XD They’re named that because of their loud, screeching call which doesn’t actually sound much like “Kill deer” to me, but oh well… XD
I think the most amazing thing about killdeer is that they often lay their eggs right in the middle of the road! I’m serious! They just scrape a shallow hole in the gravel or grass, maybe toss in a few twigs, and lay 4-6 eggs right there on the ground. It’s amazing they ever survive… that is, until you try to find the eggs. They are so well camouflaged! Ugh, I know it is NOT a great picture, but I just wanted to get an overhead view to show you how well disguised the eggs are. They’re even more so in real life. 🙂
I think the speckled design is pretty neat looking, don’t you?
These next few pictures are of a nest we found in the grass in a pasture near the road.
Well there we are! Which was your favorite, the kinglet, the geese, or the eggs?
Before you leave, can I ask your honest opinion? Are you getting tired of photography posts all in a row like this, or do you like them? Photography is one of my favorites, if not my favorite thing to post, but I do like a bit of variety in the blogs I read. I have a lot more photography to post, but a lot more of other things too, so please tell me what you think. It certainly won’t hurt my feelings if you’d rather see something else now, and if you’re loving these, that’s great too!
Thanks for reading, my friends!
***Allison***
P. S. OH. MY. GOODNESS. LOOOOKEEEE! I cannot BELIEVE I have over 2,000 followers!! WOAH THANK YOUUUUU! I’m sure I’ll mention it again in my blogiversary post at the end of May, but for now, just thank you guys so incredibly much. ♥♥♥ I am much more excited than that sounded, but I don’t want to go on about it forever. XD
Guys, buckle up for a TON of pictures! This may be one of my longest posts to date. XD
It snowed last Monday/Tuesday, and I just went photo-wild. XD I got a few neat pictures of the snow, but most of the pictures were actually of icicles or ice. So anyway, have a seat and take a peek, won’t you?
Phew, I don’t know where to start! Let’s see. I guess I’ll start with some pretty, icy pictures.
Ice:
Next up…
Snow:
My three youngest siblings made this hilarious but cute snowman. XD After I took these pictures, they made him a “Snow Cool” sign.
After most of that snow had melted, what do you know? It snowed AGAIN! (And then melted super quickly but oh well.) The most amazing thing about this snow was the snowflakes. I mean, they weren’t even snowflakes, they were more like snowballs! They were the biggest flakes I have ever seen – a whole bunch of snowflakes bunched into a clump, some of which were quarter-sized or bigger. I tried frantically to get a good picture that showed how big they were, but I didn’t really get any. 😦 I did get some pretty pictures, though!
Ooh, yay! Now I get to show you the…
Icicles
After we finished gathering eggs, I ran back to the house to get my camera. I noticed the lovely icicles hanging from the chicken house roofs, and I just HAD to get some pictures. 😉 I’m so glad I did! It took quite a bit of patience and a high shutter speed setting to capture the drops falling, but I had SO much fun experimenting!
These icicles are on our house, and I took this picture at sunset.
And that leads us to…
Water Drops
After I had taken quite a few icicle photos, I noticed that the drops sliding off of them were splashing into a puddle. I decided it would be fun to take pictures of that too! Instead of kneeling down in the wet snow, though, I got a (rather dirty) measuring pitcher from the chicken house, brought out something to sit on, and started taking pictures. This also took quite a bit of patience, like the icicles. I got a whole bunch of blurry or boring pictures for every good one. But again, it was so exciting when I DID get a good one! Hee hee!
(Note: I edited these pictures a good bit – they didn’t look like this straight from the camera. 😉 )
And now for my very favorite one. ♥ Ohhh my goodness I love it so much!
And last but not least, we have…
Everything Else
I took several not-so-snowy pictures that I wanted to include too.
Quite a few robins were hopping around this puddle, waiting for spring to come, I guess. 🙂
I was pretty tickled to get this next picture. I saw two robins fighting in the puddle all of a sudden and quick pressed the button – and it actually worked! I love it when that happens. 🙂
I shall end with this promise of spring. This poor little beauty was stuck face down in the snow when I rescued her, but she’s still so bright and cheery for all that! Daffodils are such incredibly hardy, resilient flowers that can spring back after even such cold trials as this snow. Sometimes it’s hard to be a daffodil, isn’t it? It is for me…
Aaaaannnd I’m finished! Maybe it wasn’t so wise to put all those pictures in one post, but I just wanted to try and see how it worked. XD What do you think? Was that way too much or did you heartily enjoy seeing all those photos at once? Or are you indifferent? XD
If you actually got through the whole thing, which category or picture was your favorite?
Thanks for reading (and persevering)!
***Allison***
Allison Marie 