Summer 2017 {Memories + Photos}

September 12, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

Heh heh, I know this is rather late for a summer post, but hey, we haven’t fallen too far into autumn yet, right? (See what I did there?) Anyway, I loved Clara’s summer recap post, so I decided to do one of my own!

Here’s a recap of this summer’s happenings in pictures.

Raising and selling a litter of darling baby bunnies. ♥

Taking a lovely trip to Assateague and Chincoteague Island.

Writing and illustrating letters.

Playing piano at the nursing home and filling in for the pianist at church. O.o

Finding barn kittens.

All the flowers.

Watching a cardboard boat race. XD

Working on a project I will hopefully reveal soon… (Here’s a sneak peek:)

Hayley’s ATC Trade.

Playing Gaga Ball on the trampoline with my siblings.

Swimming at our neighbor’s pool.

Re-designing a board game I created. (Sneak peek:)

Playing games with family and friends.

Saying goodbye to Clementine. 😦

Making lots and lots of art.

Taking lots and lots of pictures.

Pizza and movie nights.

Watching sunsets.

Helping out at a wedding.

Celebrating fourth of July with family. (Photo credit to my aunt.)

Going camping in tents with cousins and grandparents.

Meeting new people and making new friends.

Hatching swallowtail butterflies.

Cutting and creaming 150 quarts of corn from our sweet corn patch. O.o

Books.

Blogging.

Watching the eclipse (even though I got rather poor photos XD).

Having simply splendid time at Amelia Island with friends.

Finally watching Star Wars. 😛

The County Fair.

Starting WordCrafters 3.

Gardening and canning produce.

Consuming many 50 cent Frosties at Wendy’s.

Sewing class.

Video-chatting with a blogger friend.

Making decorations for our monthly church meals.

Emailing, writing to, and debating with blogger friends. 😀 ♥

CWWC (see my entries here) and BIBPC, (this my latest entry).

Nature Study with friends.

Bonfires, big and small.

Gathering eggs.

Megan’s birthday (which included a water balloon fight).

Family reunions.

Labor Day adventures.

Making memories. ♥

It was a lovely summer. 🙂 I had a lot of fun but I also learned a lot, I think more in practical knowledge than book knowledge. It’s been good.

How was your summer?

***Allison***

Labor Day Adventures

September 8, 2017September 8, 2017 | Allison

This Labor Day we did something a different than an ordinary picnic or cook-out. Since Dad and the boys were out harvesting corn, Mom suggested that we girls pack a lunch and just go out and walk around the farm. So we did! It was quite fun.

We packed some sandwiches, mint tea, chips, and a couple other things which I can’t remember (XD), and took along backpacks filled with books and cameras.

This is my cucumber sandwich. Say hello. I didn’t want to waste the bread crusts after I cut out the sandwich, so I flattened them with a rolling pin, spread some cream cheese on, and rolled them up into roses. 😛

First we headed past a place we call “The Sycamores” because… there are a lot of huge sycamore trees by the creek.

I found some lovely periwinkle morning glories along the path. Aren’t they charming?

We finally settled on a pretty, peaceful corner of the pasture filled with smartweed – a dainty little pink flower. We spread out a blanket, hung the hammock, and relaxed.

DSC_2055 (1280x853) — This looks kind of weird…

DSC_2049 (1280x853) — I love this one. ♥

I did a really fun, cute photoshoot with my little sister here, but this post would be insanely long if I included all those photos ~~oh wait it already is~~, so I’ll save it for later. Anyway, this was a great spot for taking pictures of little things. My favorite! 😀

DSC_2073 (1280x853) — In interesting twisty stick.

DSC_2076 (1280x853) — I love the bokeh in these pictures!

DSC_2077 (1280x853) — Have you ever tasted sourgrass, or wood sorrel? That’s what this is. It tastes, well, sour.

DSC_2247 (1280x853) — I found a beautifully shiny, polished nut.

The scenery was more scrubby here than the rest of our farm, but still pretty.

Trees are nice.

After we ate lunch and read for a while, we decided to move to a different spot. We crossed the barbwire fence (no easy feat in this pasture), walked over the field, up the hill, down a lane, and up another hill to a beautiful hidden spot behind a pasture. We’d never been there before, which is something rare since we’ve walked pretty much everywhere on our farm, and it was delightful to explore it.

Unfortunately I didn’t get many pictures with my camera because it ran out of battery, but Megan lent me hers.

HA HA cows are such funny creatures. XD

DSCN3264 (1280x960) — I think this picture is so neat but I don’t know why – it’s rather cluttered.

I had the idea to play mancala while we were there. (Have you ever played that? It’s really fun!) I dug out some holes in the dirt with a stick and used corn kernels for the marbles. It actually worked!

It’s really hard to see on camera, but Carmen and I built a great fort around this perfect square of trees. There were huge logs scattered everywhere (one pile was in a huge sinkhole O.o ). They made great walls but were exhausting to carry. We didn’t finish the fort, but we did make a good start.

Mom and Carmen and I also built this little campfire area in a pretty shaded nook. We stacked stones for a firepit, hauled in some rocks and stumps for chairs, and made benches from logs and rocks. 🙂 It was fun.

Mom also found this really odd-looking spider. O.o (She’s for you, Clara. 😉 )

In the evening our whole family came up and had a picnic with us, and a bonfire too.

So that’s what we did for Labor Day! It was great fun, even though the mosquitoes practically devoured me. I got over 40 mosquito bites (yes, I counted XD). O.o Anyway, the memories will last for much longer than the bites will, so it’s all good.

I hope you enjoyed this loooong post, my dears! Which was your favorite picture? Which was your least favorite? What did you do for Labor Day?

***Allison***

My County Fair Entries for 2017

September 5, 2017November 12, 2018 | Allison

Hello, my friends! 😀

I know some of your were looking forward to seeing my fair entries and what prizes I won, so here you go! This is for you. 🙂

Here’s a picture of all my entries except the photos. It’s… kind of hard to tell what’s what, so let me show you a little more clearly…

A strange little octopus. 🙂

I like this one! Two little gnomes in a flower house. 🙂

Look how tiny he is!

A doughnut turtle! She’s so cute. 😀 (Also note you can find this and the previous three clay things at my Etsy shop.)

This is a lil’ hippo I made for my little sister’s birthday to hold trinkets and such. She said, “No, Allison, do you have to enter it? I need it to hold my things!” XD 😀

I also won a sweepstakes ribbon for ceramics, so that was really exciting!

I made this tissue paper flower from a DIY book.

These didn’t win a prize because I accidentally grabbed a falling-apart one from my collection. XD Oops.

I made this cute little elephant in a sewing class. It was rather hard to make, but I love how it turned out!

Just a bonus picture of a butterfly that was passing through. 😀

Here’s the picture of my friend Aria from the last post. Sadly, it didn’t win a prize. Oh well! I like it anyway. 🙂

Strangely enough, this won third prize, even though I think the portrait was a lot better. Perhaps they were judging by creativity?

Okay, now for the photos I entered. I entered this in “Abstract,” but it didn’t win a prize.

This was for “Action.” It also didn’t win a prize.

I entered this in “Close-Up,” and it won first prize!

“Architecture,” and no prize.

“Artistic,” and it won third prize! 😀

“People,” and no prize.

“Pets” – isn’t Clemmy so cute? Sadly, no prize.

“Landscape” – no prize.

“Rural _____,” with third prize!

“Wildlife,” and no prize.

“Humor,” and first prize! Heh heh, isn’t it funny? XD

And that’s all for this year! Altogether I believe I got 12 prize ribbons out of 21 things entered, plus one sweepstakes ribbon. Not too bad!

Well, I hope you enjoyed looking over a summary of the stuff I made and photos I took in a year’s time. 🙂 Do you like to enter things in your fair? Did you win any prizes?

Thanks for reading, my dears, and have a lovely day. ♥

***Allison***

P. S. Guys, please pray for the people in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and the ones possibly in the path of Hurricane Irma. I can’t even imagine how hard it must be. We’ll keep you in our thoughts and prayers, friends! ♥

Return of the Random Photos

July 6, 2017July 7, 2017 | 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! ♥♥

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.

Mystery Pictures #9

June 7, 2017 | Allison

Oh my goodness, it’s been almost a year since I did one of these! I guess it’s high time for another one, huh? Eep, I’m so excited! In case you’re not familiar with these posts, here’s how they work.

I’m going to show you 10 super close-up pictures of ordinary objects, and you guys just guess what they are. Comment below with your guesses, and I’ll reveal the answers and the winners next Wednesday the 14th. Oh, and I don’t approve these comments until I reveal the mystery, just so no one gets ideas from another guesser, so don’t panic if your comment isn’t showing up. 😉 And lastly, to see my previous mystery pictures posts, click here.

Alrighty! Let’s begin!

#1.

#2.

#3.

#4.

#5.

#6.

#7.

#8.

#9.

#10.

And that’s it!

YAY I’m so excited to read your guesses! I hope you enjoyed this little post, and thanks for reading, dears!

***Allison***

Miscellaneous Photography

May 31, 2017 | Allison

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.

Ahhh, it feels good to clean out my photo stash, for a little while at least. 🙂 I hope you enjoyed these pictures! Which category was your favorite?

***Allison***

I Got a New Camera Lens! {+Photo Dump}

May 6, 2017May 6, 2017 | Allison

Hmm, I’ve made better titles. *Wince* You know you’re a photographer when you’re that excited over a new camera lens. XD BUT SERIOUSLY! I AM EXCITED!

I just ordered a new lens for my camera, and I am loving it! It’s a Nikkor 50 mm f/1.8 lens (see it here on Amazon), in case you were wondering. 🙂 *Update: Whoops, I accidentally said “zoom lens” at first, but I don’t think it’s actually a zoom lens. O.o* I love all the beautiful blur and bokeh it makes in the background with the subject in sharp focus. The one thing I don’t like is that I can’t get super close-up pictures unless I crop them smaller. But anyway, I’ll keep experimenting, and in the meantime, how would you like to see about a million or so pictures? Okay, maybe closer to a thousand, but still. 😉 😛

First I want to show you the difference between my old lens and my new lens. The next (awful) picture was taken with my old lens at ISO 800.

TERRIBLE! But the next picture was taken with my new lens at ISO 800. It’s so much brighter because it goes down to an aperture of 1.8 instead of 4 something, which means it lets in a ton more light and thus makes the entire picture brighter. Ta-daa! (Okay, I know it still isn’t a beautiful picture, but my youngest brother kindly brought the iris in for me to take pictures of with my new lens and I decided to experiment. 🙂 ) So in conclusion, this new lens is way better for indoor photography and other low-light situations.

Now for the actually pretty pictures. 🙂 Get ready for lots of raindrops, snails, and flowers!

I had to up the ISO quite a bit here so it’s kind of grainy, but I still like it. 🙂

Ohhhh this next one is one of my favorites!

As you can see, it was getting pretty dark when I took this picture. I think it looks kind of neat that way though!

I got quite a few pictures of this cute little snail meandering over a bush. 🙂

AWWWWW he’s so cute! 😀

↓This poor guy’s shell looks a bit shattered.

The next two photos are a little different. For the first one I shined (or is it shone?) a flashlight close to the drops, and for the second one I used flash. *GASP*, she used flash?! I know it does look a bit flash-y, but I thought it was worth it to capture the neat glittery effect.

Moss pink are such adorable, bright flowers!

Yep, it’s a fly. 🙂

Lily of the Valley flowers are such charming little things, but goodness gracious, their perfume is so strong it nearly knocks you over! (Ha ha, I guess it can be that way with humans too. XD )

I really like the next picture for some reason. It’s so crisp in the foreground and beautifully blurred in the background.

Ahh, so pretty!

I love this next picture! The blur makes it look so much more professional! 😀

Taking pictures of clouds and landscapes isn’t really what this lens is made for (you can’t zoom out far enough), but I did get a decent picture of part of a cloud.

PHEW! Are you still here? If you are, congratulations on making it through all those pictures. XD I hope you liked them!

Do you think snails are cute? Do you love raindrops on things as much as I do?

Have a lovely day, dear readers!

***Allison***

{Field and Flower}

April 26, 2017 | Allison

Last Sunday we had a lovely afternoon.

After church we had a belated but absolutely delicious Easter lunch at my grandparent’s house with our cousins.

Afterwards the kids went down to play with Marigold, a sweet, tame cat who lives in the barn.

We got distracted from the cat by a game of “Who Can Find the Tallest Dandelion.” If you have never played that game, I highly recommend it. 🙂 Sometimes the simplest, happy things are the best things.

We have hundreds and thousands of dandelions around our farm, and some of them grow over two feet tall in the fields. Seriously.

I won the contest that day, but today my brother found what could be the record breaker: a whopping 27 inch tall dandelion.

We graciously fed our dear rabbits some of the losing dandelions. Lily sat there contentedly, not moving except for her mouth and nose, slurping up dandelion stems like spaghetti. We tried not to let the dandelions run out, but eventually they did. Until they stopped she just nibbled away one after another, looking mildly disinterested and rather sleepy.

Then we gathered eggs – a not very lovely part of the afternoon, because they were extremely dirty and it took forever. The good thing is, it didn’t actually take forever, because we finished eventually.

When we were doing the dandelion contest earlier, I had noticed the beautiful crimson clover and vetch blooms in the fields. After eggs, I ran down to the house and grabbed my camera straight away.

And so here are the photos. I love the peaceful, beautiful, serene atmosphere of them. ♥

And I love that little things like dew drops and triticale and even weeds like dandelions can be so pretty and graceful.

*Happy sigh* I really enjoyed this photoshoot and I hope you did too! Thank you for persevering through allllll of those pictures. 🙂 Do you have a favorite or favorites?

Have a wonderful day! ♥

***Allison***

Beautiful Things {Part 3}

April 24, 2017April 24, 2017 | Allison

Are you ready for a ton of spring-y pictures? Good gracious, the trees all look very different now, even though I didn’t take these pictures that long ago. Our one maple tree has pretty much full-blown leaves now. Spring moves rather quickly, doesn’t it?

The curly willow tree beside our rabbit hutch is pretty in spring… actually it’s usually pretty. 😀

This old tree isn’t exactly the springiest, but it’s still neat. 🙂 I love the bumps and fine texture of the wood.

This is the view from one of my bedroom windows. 🙂 The triticale field is so much taller now.

Oh my goodness, how beauteous are these apple blossoms? ♥ AND LOOK AT THAT BOKEH! XD

You don’t usually think of maple trees as flowering trees, but I guess they kind of are – only the flowers are green instead of pink or yellow or something.

There! I’m catching up with my photos, except I just took about 100 pictures yesterday… Oops. XD I’ll probably post those next! (Don’t worry, not all 100 of them. XD )

Are your trees getting leafy too? Or have the leaves never left to begin with?

Have a lovely day!

***Allison***

Allison Marie

Photography, Artsy Things, & Lifestyle Inspiration

close-up

Summer 2017 {Memories + Photos}

Writing and illustrating letters.

Watching a cardboard boat race. XD

Playing Gaga Ball on the trampoline with my siblings.

Playing games with family and friends.

Pizza and movie nights.

Helping out at a wedding.

Meeting new people and making new friends.

Blogging.

Finally watching Star Wars. 😛

Consuming many 50 cent Frosties at Wendy’s.

Video-chatting with a blogger friend.

Emailing, writing to, and debating with blogger friends. 😀 ♥

Gathering eggs.

Family reunions.

Making memories. ♥

Labor Day Adventures

My County Fair Entries for 2017

Mystery Pictures #9

Miscellaneous Photography

I Got a New Camera Lens! {+Photo Dump}

{Field and Flower}

Beautiful Things {Part 3}

Writing and illustrating letters.

Watching a cardboard boat race. XD

Playing Gaga Ball on the trampoline with my siblings.

Playing games with family and friends.

Pizza and movie nights.

Helping out at a wedding.

Meeting new people and making new friends.

Blogging.

Finally watching Star Wars. 😛

Consuming many 50 cent Frosties at Wendy’s.

Video-chatting with a blogger friend.

Emailing, writing to, and debating with blogger friends. 😀 ♥

Gathering eggs.

Family reunions.

Making memories. ♥

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