Bits & Pieces #1

September 25, 2017September 27, 2017 | Allison

Hello, my dears! Welcome to yet ANOTHER random photography post, where Allison dumps all the miscellaneous orphan photos that she couldn’t fit in any other post. XD I am waaay backed up with extra photos so I hope you’re ready for a lot of photography posts! 😀

Ahem. Let’s begin.

The Eclipse

I still haven’t shown you my pictures from the eclipse? Dear me, I AM behind. XD Anyway, I didn’t get any spectacular pictures, but I did get a few through welding glass to at least document what happened. The welding glass made everything look green, but I managed to edit out most of the color except that one green guy over there. XD As you can see, we weren’t in the path of totality.

I thought the eclipse looked really neat through clouds!

And here’s just a bonus picture I took that day. So pretty!

The Enormous Bonfire

We occasionally burn a heap of brush or extra wood piles and such on our farm, and I got these pictures from one of those times. Dad pushed the pile around with the telehandler which made the bonfire practically explode in a column of glittering orange sparks. It was breathtaking!

Bonus picture of the cows that watched the bonfire with us. XD There were a bit confused about what was happening, as cows usually seem to be.

There were actually a few bulls in the pasture, and one started sort of stomping and bellowing. O.o Thankfully nothing bad happened. Isn’t it funny how he has a heart on his forehead? You can’t see it too well in this picture, but he really does!

Megan’s Birthday Party

We had a lot of fun decorating the front porch and outside table for Megan’s party. Aren’t the colors pretty?

We used zinnias from our garden for some of the decorations, and I got some lovely pictures of the bouquets. ♥

Megan wanted to have doughnuts instead of cake, which was quite a good idea in my opinion. 😉 We made the doughnuts the previous day and I also made a little happy birthday banner for the top.

Yum, fresh lemonade!

Grandma brought Megan a beautiful rose from her house along with her gift.

We had a water balloon fight for one of the party games. It was so fun, AND I didn’t get very wet, which was good since it wasn’t that hot. XD

A bonus picture of the gorgeous spreading maple in our front yard…

Bonus picture #2 of an adorable fuzzy caterpillar we found before the party.

Isn’t it cute? 😛

Moving a Piano + Another Bonfire

One night we went to our grandparents’ house to help move their piano from the basement to their room. 🙂 It was quite hard work… well actually I didn’t do much but stay out of the way and document it for posterity, but it looked like hard work. When they finally brought it to my grandparents’ room, it wouldn’t fit through the door. But then they tried turning it on end and thankfully it just fit. Phew! The poor piano.

I also got some super neat pictures of the piano without its top on. I love them, especially after they were edited!

After we got the piano all figured out we had a bonfire and picnic. Fire is so fun to watch, isn’t it?

I got a really good picture of my grandpa smiling when he didn’t know I was taking a picture. I edited it a good bit, as you can tell, but isn’t it neat?

Freshly Picked

I took these photos for my sister’s photo contest, BIBPC. I think they turned out rather pretty!

Also isn’t this tomato HILARIOUS?! It looks like it’s sticking out its tongue at you.

The Rest of Them

THESE COOKIES ARE DELICIOUS! I took pictures of them because I wanted to submit the recipe to Olivia Bell’s wonderful magazine. Be sure to check it out (and make it) when the next issue comes out here soon! You can subscribe to her magazine through the contact form in this post.

Random picture of the details on one of my Sunday dresses…

I edited this one a LOT to get rid of the power lines crisscrossing it, but this is the view from one of our upstairs windows. 🙂

There we go! That was pretty much a whole bunch of mini posts smushed into one huge one. XD I hope you enjoyed! Which topic was your favorite?

***Allison***

Pink Flowers and Little Sisters

September 17, 2017 | Allison

The other day when we had our little Labor Day adventure I did a rather cute photoshoot with my little sister Carmen, if I do say so myself. 🙂 I just love how the pictures turned out, and I can’t wait to show you guys!

When I saw all the pretty pink smartweed flowers, I knew they were just begging to be in a photoshoot. Heh heh. I asked Carmen if I could take pictures of her and after a few tries she reluctantly agreed… and then once we got started she didn’t want to stop. XD If you love photography and have siblings, especially younger siblings, a photoshoot is a really fun thing to do with them!

Ahem. And now for the pictures (and there are a LOT). XD

DSC_2101 (853x1280) — Aww, isn’t this so cute?

“Oh, Carmen, you look creepy!”

*laughs* “Yeah, I meant to.”

I took a lot of pictures with Carmen in the background because I thought the lighting and bokeh made it look lovely. 🙂

Oh my goodness, isn’t the setting perfect for these? The lighting… the flowers… ahh!

DSC_2137 (853x1280) — Yikes, better watch out for the thistles! O.o

Carmen found a hollow stump and wanted me to take pictures of her in it.

DSC_2148 (1280x853) — Her creepy face again…

DSC_2156 (1280x853) — HA HA! This one’s one of my favorites. XD She just looks so relaxed and nonchalant. I don’t think she even knew her feet were that dirty. XD

DSC_2159 (1280x853) — It looks like she’s in a wooden bathtub or something. 😛

Okay, now these next few pictures are some of my favorites from the shoot!

DSC_2175 (1280x853) — Dirt on her knee and a grin on her face. 🙂

DSC_2174 (1280x853) — I LOVE THIS ONE! Isn’t it so fun when you can capture a moment of genuine, candid laughter?

“Allison, you should take a picture of me bending down, like I’m finding something on the ground.”

Ha ha, so she wanted me to take a picture of her on that long, horizontal limb in the last picture, and I agreed. But we had quite the struggle to get her up there. XD I hung my camera on a branch and tried boosting her up, then letting her climb on top of me, and after several tries and much laughter we finally succeeded. XD

DSC_2213 (853x1280) — I love this one too!

I forget if Carmen or I had the idea for these next pictures… I think it was me. Anyway, they turned out so cute!

She was a bit uncertain of how to pose without jabbing herself on the barbed wire fence, but she figured it out. 😉

And we shall end with another of my favorites:

There we go! I hope you had as much fun looking through the pictures as I did taking them. 🙂 Which was your favorite (if you have one)? Have you ever done a photoshoot with a younger sibling? This one was quite fun and if I started to run out of ideas, Carmen gave me an ample supply. XD

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

***Allison***

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***

Thoughts on… {Beauty}

August 9, 2017August 9, 2017 | Allison

Imagine I give you a gift. It’s huge and beautifully wrapped in your favorite color of wrapping paper and topped with a perfect bow. It promises to be wonderful, but when you shred the paper and tear open the box, there is nothing inside. The box is empty.

Beauty is our wrapping paper. It can make a good present even better and add to our enjoyment, but beautiful wrapping paper alone is not worth anything.

Sadly, our culture seems to focus on our wrapping paper almost to the exclusion of the gift inside. The world whispers that if you are beautiful, everyone will love you, you will feel great, and life will be perfect.

And that’s certainly a handy way to get people to buy makeup, skin products, hair products, brand name clothes, and all the other things that the world says you simply must have in order to be beautiful.

But that is a lie. You do not need to have the perfect face or figure or clothes to be happy, hard as that might be to believe. Your Creator made you beautiful from the first, and He is the only one who will bring you ultimate joy.

My dear, you are beautiful even when you skip your makeup. Each and every one of us, boy or girl, man or woman, is beautiful because we are made in God’s image, and God is Beauty itself.

Here’s another story. A boy was born blind. Eventually he grew into a man and fell in love with a woman who was always kind to him. Though he could not see her face, he felt her heart, and she was beautiful to him.

One day, after they were married, the man was given a chance to get his vision back with a surgery. The surgery was successful, and at last the man could see! Everything was so bright and colorful it hurt his eyes. The first person he saw was his wife, who had been waiting for him all throughout the surgery.

What would he have thought? He wouldn’t mind if she weighed too much or didn’t have makeup on or didn’t have clear skin. He had only known her for her heart and her actions. He would think her beautiful.

Now I’m not saying beauty is a bad thing. In fact, God gave us a beautiful world to live in for our pleasure and his glory. Neither am I saying that you can only be either beautiful or good, because that’s not true. I’m just saying don’t lose the gift for the box. Don’t put so much store in your outward appearance that you don’t take care of your heart.

Think about it. What would the world be like if everyone took the time they spent getting the wrapping paper perfect and instead focused it on touching up the gift inside?

***Allison***

Pictures, Etc.

July 27, 2017 | Allison

Ugh, I really need better names for these posts. XD Suggestions?

Annnyway, since you guys seem to enjoy random photography posts I enjoy posting them, I figured – let’s do more! 😀

****************

It had just rained and there was an interesting orangish tint to everything outside, different than the golden hour usually looks because it was so cloudy.

Ahh, beautiful rain drops.

Maggie waded into the field, looking noble. XD

HA HA look at her expression.

Okay, this picture might be a bit startling… You have been warned. 😛 He looks pretty angry, doesn’t he (or she)? This snapping turtle appeared in our lane one day and Maggie nearly went crazy. Snapping turtles are weird, ugly creatures. Blech.

Ahem. Let’s move on to cuter pictures… LIKE BABY BUNNIES EEEEE! This is the photoshoot I did to get pictures for selling them. *Sniff* Anyone want to buy a baby bunny? 😉

AHHH THEY’RE SO CUTE I CAN’T STAND IT.

Here’s Mulberry…

And Ginger…

And Herbert Naninger. 🙂 SO. CUTE. (Also if you’re wondering why Basil isn’t on here, it’s because we’re keeping her! So I didn’t need pictures for the listing.)

ISN’T THIS THE CUTEST?!

Okay, after all that cuteness you might need an antidote so you don’t get too overwhelmed. Ready for another slightly creepy picture? Here we go.

XD Praying mantises are so weird. I got this interesting picture of one cleaning itself when we were studying them in Nature Study.

While we’re on the subject of bugs, Megan found three black swallowtail caterpillars outside and we took them inside to watch. We both got some neat pictures of the first one that hatched! 😀 Aren’t butterflies delightful creatures?

And that’s it for today, dears! What was your favorite picture or category? Thanks for reading and have a lovely day. ♥

***Allison***

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.

Assateague Island {Photo Dump}

June 23, 2017June 26, 2017 | Allison

On Monday we left for a vacation at Assateague Island, and so far it’s been a ton of fun! If you know me, you’re probably guessing that I took, like, hundreds of pictures. And you’d be right. XD This is going to be one serious photo dump, guys.

I was trying to figure out how to organize the pictures, but I ended up pretty much just keeping them in the order they uploaded, and hoping that it’s not too jumbled. XD

I’ll start with some flowers. We’re staying in a cozy little Air B&B house with a moss lawn and gorgeous periwinkle hydrangeas in the front yard. I love how these photos turned out!

Some of our funniest adventures happened while driving. One time my littlest sister Carmen came up with… um, rather creative “Would You Rather” questions like, “Would you rather have all your hair pulled out or all your teeth?” and “Would you rather pour honey or glue over your head?” and lots more that were too gross to tell. We nearly died laughing but it was so GROSS. XD XD XD

I don’t pictures marshes as being exactly beautiful, but the marsh at the entrance to Assateague was really pretty.

If you’ve ever read Misty of Chincoteague, you probably already know that there are wild ponies roaming all over Assateague and Chincoteague Islands. It’s so funny because they walk right up to you and wander around the beaches and parking lots where people are, but they can still bite and kick like wild animals, so you’re not supposed to pet them.

I love this next picture! I spent a long time trying to get this to turn out. XD

When I was taking these footprint pictures I remembered a little poem/story thingy that I love. You can read it here.

My sister Megan took these pictures of me with my camera. The next one looks like my elbow is lighting up. XD

As you can see, the waves make me happy. 😛 🙂

Heh heh, I forgot to put sunscreen on my back that day and now it’s bright pink. YOUCH.

My parents taking a walk on the beach…

We barely found any shells the first day, but the second and third days we found a bunch!

I took sooooo many pictures of waves, but I just couldn’t help it – they’re so beautiful! We hardly ever take beach vacations so I have to take what I can get. XD

My brothers built a sandcastle every time we went to the beach, and the last one was QUITE impressive. But we’ll get to that in a moment… This is just the beginning of a moat or something.

Aww, isn’t that picture sweet? My little sister, Carmen, loved the waves too. 🙂

I don’t know what Megan is looking for… shells, maybe?

I got some pretty funny pictures of my brothers’ expressions while they were jumping waves. XD

This is one of my favorite pictures out of all of the beach photos! Just look at their smiles! 😀 Logan is the one with the black shirt and Jeff has the white shirt.

Hee hee, look at Megan’s hair!

I got some neat silhouette pictures of my parents on the beach.

I like the seagull silhouettes in this one.

Isn’t this so CUTE?!

HA HA!

Hoof prints…

And footprints.

I got some really neat pictures of two wild ponies meandering over the beach.

Oh my goodness, isn’t this hilarious? The horses were investigating these peoples’ bags. XD

Going down the boardwalk…

More flower pictures. ♥

Ahhh, I LOVE the next one!

Here’s the first sandcastle my brothers made. Neat, but nothing compared to their later ones. 🙂

This is the second sandcastle. (I took this picture quick with Megan’s camera, so of course it won’t be as good of quality as my wonderful camera would be. Heh heh. 😛 )

And this is their last one! It looks pretty similar to the second one, but it’s more impressive in real life. (Megan took these pictures.)

And back to the ocean… It looks like Carmen is Moana. XD

More wave action pictures!

His expression… XD XD XD

I like this one because the wave looks huge! (Actually they were pretty big.)

Seagulls!

I got some more neat (but blurry) action photos of the wild ponies galloping.

And lastly we shall end with a sunset. These are the last beach pictures I got before my camera stopped working. *Sniff* I’m not exactly sure what’s wrong with it. It might be that the battery isn’t good anymore, or maybe it’s something else. It still takes pictures but the screen doesn’t work. We might be able to fix it when we get home, but for now… 😦 Any advice?

PHEW! You made it through almost 100 pictures! I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. 😀 Have you been to Assateague or Chincoteague? Do I even dare ask what your favorite picture was? Nah, there were too many. XD

Thank you so much for reading, my friends!

***Allison***

P. S. AHHH YAY! Hayley is doing another ATC trade! For all the details, check out her post here. You should totally go see – the past two ATC trades were SO much fun!

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!