Making Easter Eggs

April 14, 2017 | Allison

Hello hello!

Are you excited for Easter? I am! Easter is a wonderful time of year to meet with friends and family, enjoy good food, but most of all to remember what an amazing, astounding, and incredible thing our Lord and Savior has done for us by being crucified for our sake to take away our sins. ♥ I’m going to do another Easter post with more about that on Sunday, but for today I wanted to post about a much less important but fun aspect of Easter: dying Easter eggs.

Our family does this almost every year. Easter eggs make lovely colorful decorations for an Easter table, and they’re also super fun to make! I found this great post on Pinterest with tons of different ways to decorate Easter eggs. Some of them are absolutely gorgeous and creative! Click here to read the post.

A good set-up really helps the process to go smoother. Make sure to cover your working space with newspaper or an old tablecloth, and wear old clothes or aprons. We used this recipe to mix up our dye from scratch. It only takes food coloring, vinegar, and water, and makes a brilliant dye.

I cut the tips off of an egg flat to serve as egg holders. Like so:

Here’s a great tip I found from the egg decorating post I linked to above: put your egg inside a large whisk to make dipping easier and cleaner!

We had so much fun experimenting with different techniques! These were some of our favorites:

Draw with white or colored crayon on a clean egg, then dip it into dye. The crayon will resist the dye and make a really neat design, especially with white crayon.
Dribble rubber cement over an egg and allow to dry. Dip egg, then peel off the rubber cement and you have a fun abstract design.
When your eggs are still warm, draw on them with crayons to make a neat melted effect.
Dye your egg a light blue or turquoise, then speckle it with gold paint.
Pretty much anything with gold paint and dye turns out neat. XD

If you want more detailed instructions for those techniques, again, you can click here. (Can you tell I love that post? XD )

Now that you’re done, how are you going to display your masterpieces? I shredded brown paper bags in a paper shredder, put some of in a round vase, and placed three or so eggs in the cute little “nest.” Ta-daa!

Do you like making Easter eggs? What is your favorite technique?

Happy Good Friday and thanks for reading! 😀

***Allison***

P. S. You guys have GOT to read Madi’s amazing Good Friday/Easter post here. It’s so interesting and well written and… and GREAT! 😀

Farewell, 2016 { A Year in Review }

December 31, 2016January 16, 2017 | Allison

Wait what? Is 2016 really over?

Yeah yeah, I know everyone says that every year. But seriously! I guess we say it because it’s true. It’s hard to believe that though the days sometimes feel endless, the years race by so fast that you barely have time to welcome in one year before the next is banging at the door. Just when you’ve recovered from that New Year’s party, it’s somehow Christmas again. Of course I’m exaggerating, but doesn’t it feel that way sometimes?

Anyway, philosophical-ish discussions won’t change the facts – and besides, the facts are good! 2016 was a wonderful, really big year for me, both in real life as well as blog life. That’s why I made this post: to review some highlights of my year and also to give you something fun to read while you’re waiting for the clock to strike midnight. 😉

Shall we begin? I’ve divided the post into “Life” and “Blog” for easier reading, and I decided to put “Life” first. Heh heh, no pun intended – but actually maybe it was intended. XD

~{ Life }~

I started my Etsy shop, Wee Little Crafts, in January, and got 18 online sales over the year (plus a few more in person), 3,469 views, and 145 listing favorites, and 38 shop admirers! Woohoo! 😀
I turned 16 in May. O.o
And thus I got my driver’s license in October. And also a car. O.o again.
Oh, and I got a phone too! Yippee!
A less fun but still momentous milestone (wait, does that even make sense?) was getting my wisdom teeth pulled.
I’m not sure if this counts as “Life” or “Blog,” but I got to meet one of my blogger friends in real life! We had so much fun. *Happy sigh*
And I bought a new dSLR camera! It’s a Nikon d3400, and even though I’m not quite a pro at using it yet, I’m really enjoying it!
We redecorated our room, and I still love it! Ahh, it’s SO much prettier than it was.
I went to the theater and a concert for the first time. I know, I’m very weird. XD (Update: whoops, my sister reminded me that actually I went to that concert in 2015, not 2016.)
Our vacation this year took us to Niagara Falls, Macinac Island, the Great Lakes, and a bunch of other exciting places!
My fluffball of a bunny, Willow, had baby bunnies! SQUEEE! They were so adorable. *Sniff* We sold them all, but their legacy lives on in my jillions of pictures and blog posts. XD
Of the course of this year I became pen pals with three bloggers and email pals with another. 🙂 Thank you for your lovely letters and emails, guys! I’ve had such fun getting to know you better. ♥
We added two more pets to our collection: the adorable Holland Lop rabbit Snickers and the also adorable kitten Casey. Well actually she’s pretty much a cat now, but still adorable. 😉
We had an EPIC shaving cream fight that I posted about here. So. Much. Fun.

~{ Blog }~

Definitely the most major thing in my blog year was being featured on Discover. Oh my goodness guys: a year ago I had almost 60 followers. Now I have… 1,507. WHAT?! WHOA! EEK! And it’s all (well, mostly) because of Discover. I’m so, so thankful God gave me this incredible opportunity, and I hope I can use it for His glory. ♥
In other news: blog stats. This year I’ve published 198 posts, and received 7,980 comments, 6,543 likes, and 41,267 views. Just wow. *Faints* Oh my goodness, if I thought last year was a big year, look at this! Ha ha, my first year is just a teensy line. XD OH MY GOODNESS IT’S AMAZING!
I met or got to know so many amazing people this year, like Grace, Clara, Hayley, K. A., Rebekah, Christian Homeschooler, Aria, and soooo many more. I love you guys so much! ♥♥
I changed my blog around a LOT, several times, but I have hopefully settled down to a theme and a header I like. I can tell you that the current design is a million times better than it was at first, at least in my opinion. XD
Hayley and I started The Art Lab blog, along with Megan and Anika. (And in case you’re wondering, we’re taking a little break over the holidays, but we’ll get back to it in a jif!)
Aaand I started WordCrafters this year! You guys have done an amazing job with the stories, although it is taking a bit longer than I thought to complete WordCrafters 2. 😉 But don’t worry, hopefully we’ll finish it soon and we can start on WordCrafters 3! 😀 If you haven’t read the stories yet, click here to read WordCrafters 1 and here to read WordCrafters 2 so far.

Alrighty. Now that we’re done with the highlight reel or whatever, let’s get down to the good ol’ post reviews. 🙂 These are some of my favorite posts from 2016:

Favorite Posts from A Farm Girl’s Life: (click on the picture to visit the post)

These are some of my favorite snow pictures I’ve ever taken! Especially the last one. I’m still shocked I was able to get that!

Dewdrops are one of my favorite things to photograph ever. Ahh, so pretty!

Ohhhh my goodness Casey was ADORABLE!

AWWC Challenge 2: Waiting

I think “Waiting” might be one of the best things I’ve ever written. 😀 There was no picture in the post, so you’ll just have to click here to read it. 😉

This was the post featured on Discover before my whole blog was. And thus, heh heh, it is by FAR my most popular post, if you decide that by the likes and comments. O.o

Aaaaaahh! I love our room so much! ♥ It’s changed a little bit from this post, but for the most part it’s still the same. 🙂

This post is basically a collection of some of my best photos from January-August 2016. 😀 (By the way, I’m hoping you guys didn’t have the same problem as I did: the photos weren’t showing up on this post. PANIC! I hate it when that happens, so I’m just going to hope it was just a fluke that happened to me once… right?)

Pictures from our vacation to Niagara Falls. ♥

This is one of my favorite photoshoots because it’s so unique – and we were also on top of a barn roof. 😀 Hee hee!

All I can say is AHHHHHH THEY’RE ADORABLEEEEEE!

This might come close to my “Favorite. Photoshoot. Ever.” Seriously though, it might be my favorite photography post of the year, I don’t know. I can hardly believe I didn’t edit those pictures, even though I’m the one that took the pictures! Wow, Lord, you are the “Best. Artist. Ever.” Eeeee! ♥

I love how this little black and white photography experiment turned out! October was a really good photography month for me, it appears. XD

I’m pretty pleased with how this post turned out. And I’m so, so happy you guys found it helpful! That really makes my… um… day? Well more than a day but less than a year… Hmm… XD

Ohhhh my goodness how can fall be so beautiful? Eeek!

I’m honestly kind of proud of these moon pictures, especially the last one. 😛

This sisters’ photoshoot was a lot of fun, Megan! ♥ We should really do it again sometime.

And last but not least… THE CUTEST WITTLE FLUFFBALLS!

A Few Favorite 2016 Posts from the Blogisphere:

How to Be a Ninja by Loren – this is pretty hilarious. XD

Evening Photography Whatever #2 by Loren – and this is gorgeous!

Recent Photography: Moss Forests, Maude, and Little Brothers by Clara – so pretty!

Aaaand pretty much any photography posts by Clara. XD

A Trip to the Apple Orchard by Grace – I love this lovely life/photography post.

A Barn Full of Fluff by Hayley – SO FLUFFY PLEASE HELP ME!

And guys, that’s only a teensy bit of the goodness I read this year. But unfortunately I don’t have time to list all of the wondermous posts I read, so I guess you’ll have to check out the blogs I follow and find out yourself. 😉

Okay guys, bear with me – we’re almost done! I just need to show you some of my…

New Year’s Resolutions:

Meet at least one more of my blogger friends.
Grow my Etsy shop.
Start a Bible journal and keep it going throughout the year.

Well, after all that, all I can say is THANK YOU GUYS, for the bestest blog year so far. I have loved laughing and learning with you guys so incredibly much. Blogging is such a wonderful part of my life, a part I hope to hold onto for a very, very long time. ♥

I hope you enjoyed this rather lengthy end-of-the-year post, and have a lovely New Year, okay? I can’t wait to see what exciting things God has in store for me and for you guys this upcoming year. ♥♥♥

With all my love,

***Allison***

Christmas Things, 2016

December 30, 2016December 30, 2016 | Allison

I suppose you could say this is a Christmas haul post, but for some reason I don’t like the sound of “Christmas haul.” I don’t know why, really… I kind of have weird opinions. XD Anyway, I know I have fun looking at other blogger’s posts like this, so I decided to make one myself. 🙂 But it’s not only going to be a “haul” post: I wanted to show you the gifts I made as well as the ones I received. 🙂

Are you ready? Let’s do the former first and the latter later, shall we? Wow, that was fun to say.

~ Giving ~

I guess I’ll go youngest to oldest. For Carmen, my littlest sister, I didn’t exactly make her a gift. She got an American girl doll for Christmas, because to our delight and surprise, Megan won Maddi‘s amazing giveaway which Megan entered specifically with Carmen in mind!! (And yes, Carmen loves the Maryellen doll we chose for her. ♥) So my present to Carmen was letting her use any of my AG doll things she wanted. 🙂

For my brother Jeff, Megan and I picked out this hilarious book at Books-A-Million. XD He’s always a little… hmm, how shall I put it… rowdy with our cats, with the result being they kind of hate him, ( XD ) so Megan and I thought he would get a kick out of this book – and he did:

For my sister Megan, she asked me to make her some clip-art for her blog design “business” since she prefers the computer part to the drawing part. 😉 So I put together this binder for her.

For my brother Logan and my Dad (and actually for my aunt and uncle too), I made some candied pecans using this recipe. Our whole family loves them, and I don’t make them very often, so I like to use them as gifts. They are seriously SO GOOD! And super easy too! I wrapped them up in a decorative paper cone thingy for all of them, but unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the wrapping. 😦

For Mom, the four older kids gave her a coupon for 4 meals made by us, which she loved because she doesn’t enjoy cooking all that much. XD Annnd I didn’t get a picture of that either. 😦

For my grandparents, my siblings, my two cousins, and I drew them a calendar. Megan, Jeff, and Logan did that last year and they loved it, so we thought we’d do it again with all their grandchildren. 🙂

dsc_0787-1280x853 — March by my cousin Leisha.

dsc_0789-1280x853 — May by Carmen. Isn’t it so cute? She’s actually a really good artist for her age.

dsc_0790-1280x853 — June by my cousin Jianna. I LOVE THIS ONE!

dsc_0792-1280x853 — August by Yours Truly.

dsc_0793-1280x853 — September by Leisha. So pretty!

dsc_0794-1280x853 — October by Megan. I really like this one too!

dsc_0795-1280x853 — November by me again. This is definitely my favorite of mine.

dsc_0796-1280x853 — December by Jianna. Wow. Just wow. Everyone was amazed by this – isn’t it gorgeous?! She’s such an artist!

For my two cousins, I made them each little clinging earrings to look like their cats, Trixie and Roxy respectively. 😀

earrings-1-1280x1280 — Sorry about the bad picture. 😦 Anyway, this is Trixie…

earrings-2-1280x853 — And these are Roxys. 🙂

~ Receiving ~

Now for the “haul” part! 😀

My parents gave me an amazing Windsor and Newton watercolor set, Pentel waterbrushes, and Arches watercolor paper! I’m sooo excited to use it all! I’ve used the watercolor set and brushes just a tiny bit so far, and I’m really happy with them. 😀 It’s especially nice to have good quality, fine tip brushes.

watercolors-3-1280x853 — I really like this picture for some reason. 🙂 This set is really neat because each little cake of paint is in a removable compartment, so if you run out of one color, you can replace just that instead of the whole set! It also comes with a paintbrush and an expandable palette that you cans store in the container.

My aunt and uncle and cousins gave me this pretty washi tape! ♥

dsc_0840-1280x960 — I love the lighting for this picture! My aunt figured out how to get my camera off auto-ISO, and now I can truly be on the Maunual setting! Hooray!

My grandparents gave me this handy camera bag. It’s really neat because the compartments are attached with Velcro, so you can readjust them however you like!

They also gave me… The Keeper of the Lost Cities series! YAYAYAYAY! 😀 (Well actually Megan got half and I got half.) I’ve finished the first three so far, and they’re sooo exciting! Thank you, Clara, for introducing them to us. 🙂

And they gave me this cute little blank journal for Bible journaling. (I wrote the words with my erasable gel pen – more on that later.)

My cousins gave me even more lovely watercolor paper! (The Arches pad is from my parents, and the rest are from my cousins.) It’s so nice to have good watercolor paper to work with. *Happy sigh*

These next two things are from my stocking: One is this pair of cozy Cabin socks. My friend also gave me some fuzzy socks, and I am quite pleased. 😀 I LOVE FUZZY THINGS!

dsc_0836-1280x853 — Purple + Fuzzy = ♥ Oh, and the cozy pajamas are from my parents too. 😉

The other is a couple of erasable gel pens I showed you in this post. And guess what? They really do work! It’s pretty amazing. See?

dsc_0891-1280x960 — It does leave a little bit of a mark behind if you press down hard. But when you just write with it lightly, it erases almost perfectly!

Phew, that was quite a long post, but I hope you enjoyed it! What was your favorite thing you got for Christmas? I hope you all had a wonderful Christmastime enjoying being with your family and opening gifts and thanking God for the greatest gift of all: Jesus. ♥

***Allison***

P. S. Be watching for my end-of-the-year post! I hope to schedule it for 12:00 tomorrow night. 🙂 I can’t believe it’s almost 2017!!

Merry Christmas to All! :D

December 24, 2016December 24, 2016 | Allison

OH MY GOODNESS IT’S CHRISTMAS TOMORROW! How can that BE?!

I hope you guys had a great Christmas Eve! We sure did. 😀 We went to a Christmas celebration at my grandparent’s house where we ate tons of delicious food and played so many fun games. Then we visited my great grandma who sadly is in the hospital right now (nothing life-threatening though, thankfully). And after that we went home where we put on our new pajamas, made some popcorn and hot cocoa, and drove around looking at Christmas lights. So fun!

Well, I thought I’d post a little Christmas photoshoot to get you extra much in the Christmas mood. 🙂 And also because I LOVE these colored Christmas lights! Enjoy!

Ohhh I love Christmas bokeh so much. ♥♥♥ 😀 Did you have a favorite picture? My favorites were the 7th and 8th and the last two . 😀

WAIT. Before you go, I really want to show you this amazing, inspiring video Dad found last night. This girl is ten years old, and she has autism and ADHD. She also has a beautiful, beautiful voice. The article said she started singing to build her confidence at school. She sings the song “Broken Hallelujah”, but it’s a Christian version with different lyrics. I think it might be my new favorite Christmas song. ♥ Oh it’s sooo pretty! Listen for yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvUMDp-snTI&feature=youtu.be

Wasn’t that gorgeous? *Happy sigh*

Did you have a good Christmas Eve? Are you excited for Christmas? (Or did you have a good Christmas, if you’re reading this post after Sunday?)

***Allison***

P. S. My aunt who is a professional photographer came over the other day to give us our family pictures, and she helped me figure out my camera a bit more. It turns out my camera was on manual focus instead of auto focus, which was really annoying – it takes forever to focus using the focus ring, and for some reason it came that way when I bought it! Boy am I glad she fixed that for me. XD It’s weird because I knew my way around my old camera really, really well, and now I feel like a beginner again with my new dSLR. XD Oh well, it’s exciting!

Art Lab, Episode 18: Bring on the Christmas Lights!

December 16, 2016November 12, 2018 | Allison

Are you guys excited for Christmas? I sure am! Today I have a fun Christmasy way to decorate an envelope for your pen pal or friend or family. Grab an envelope, fine-tip markers or gel pens, and colored pencils, and here we go…

Idea: Christmasy envelope

Set the stage.
Hang up the strands.
String on the lights.
Turn the lights on.
Add the lyrics of a favorite Christmas carol.
CHRISTMAS BOKEH!
Send it off to make someone happy!

Ahh, I love Christmas lights. They’re so cheery, and really make Christmas feel cozy. Don’t you agree? Do you string lights up around your house? We don’t usually, but this year we strung some on our front porch, and it looks beautiful! 😀

If you made some art inspired by this post, we’d love to see it! Visit our “Art Gallery” page here to see the details. Thanks for reading! 😀

***Allison***

P. S. I have some fun sidebar changes planned… *rubs hands*. XD

DIY Pallet Christmas Tree

December 13, 2016December 14, 2016 | Allison

The kids made this little tree for our mom’s birthday. It wasn’t that hard (well, we made it ourselves!) and it turned out great! I put together a little tutorial for you guys. 🙂

Pick your pallet. We have a huge pile of pallets behind one of our barns, so we had plenty of options. You don’t want the boards to be too far apart or it looks odd. This is the one we chose: (*Shudder* I know these next few pictures are terrible quality, but I can only say that the lighting in Dad’s shop is also rather terrible. XD )
Draw the line. We simply set a board on the pallet at the angle we wanted, and traced a line with a pencil. You might want to use a carpenter’s pencil or Sharpie so you can see the line better. You can measure and all that boring stuff if you want to be more precise, but we just traced. 😉
Cut it out. We – meaning my brothers – used a Sawzall to cut along the lines. This was definitely the trickiest part of the process, and my brother accidentally broke one of the branches when he stepped on it. O.o (We fixed it by first tracing the broken pieces onto an extra pallet board, then cutting it out, and then screwing it back to the tree’s “trunk”.) Make sure to saw the boards at the right angle so you don’t hit the back boards while you’re cutting the top ones.
Trim it up. You’ll have to cut or break off the back boards so they don’t stick out in front. We did this by a combination of cutting them off with a Sawzall and whacking them off with a hammer. (Be as careful as possible, though – don’t want to break any limbs (human or tree)! XD ) Lookin’ good!
Sand it smooth. We didn’t actually sand it completely smooth because we wanted it to have a rustic look, but it’s a good idea to at least sand the sawed off edges a bit.
Secure the branches. Some of the pallet boards were a little loose after all that, so we put in a few extra screws to secure them.
Paint it. Yay, now for the fun part! We painted ours all green, but you could also do red and green stripes, or leave stripes of raw pallet wood for a more rustic look.
Bring on the lights. This is optional, but we strung some pretty Christmas lights on it to make it more interesting. We used white, but you could also use colored lights.
Display it proudly. Ta-daa! You’re finished! You may want to stop at that, but on the other hand I think it would look neat to make a forest of trees in different sizes and colors. So fun!

I hope that wasn’t too confusing. Anyway, do you like how it turned out? I think it’s pretty cute! You can click here to see my sister’s post which has a bunch more pictures of us making the tree. Thank you, brothers, for doing a lot of the hard work for us. 😀 ♥

Merry Almost-Christmas! (HOW CAN IT BE SO CLOSE ALREADY?!)

***Allison***

A Thankful Post

November 24, 2016November 24, 2016 | Allison

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

How was your Thanksgiving, dear readers? Mine was good so far. We already went to two Thanksgiving dinners this week, and we’re going to another one tonight – with shrimp instead of turkey! Mmmmm! And then we’re going Black Friday shopping! So anyway, I decided to make a thankful post, in case you haven’t noticed. 😉

I’m thankful for…

Jesus
Family
Friends
Pets
Our farm
Our house
Homeschooling
Nature
Seasons
Beautiful days
Sunsets
Colors
Electricity
Phones and computers
Blogging
My camera/Photography
Movies
Art
Good books
Yummy food
Soft things
Surprises
Laughter
Sunshine
Beauty
And countless other blessings

I’m so thankful for each and every one of those things, especially the first 6, but this year I have been especially thankful for all my blogger friends as well. I’ve gotten to know so many wonderful girls including (but definitely not limited to) Grace, Clara, K. A., Hayley, Rebekah, Aria, Christian Homeschooler, Misty, and Josie. I’ve loved reading your sweet comments and posts and letters and emails, having hilarious conversations about ferocious purple hippos and whatever-it’s-called-where-a-word-is-spelled-the-same-backwards-and-forwards, and even meeting one of you in real life! I’ve made so many wonderful memories with you guys, and I’m sure we’ll make so many more. ♥ Thank you as well to each of my dear readers for all your lovely feedback and, well, for reading my blog. 😀 I love you guys! ♥

Have a lovely day, dear readers!

***Allison***

Boom, Crackle, Bang!

July 5, 2016July 5, 2016 | Allison

Did you have a good 4th of July (if you live in the USA)? I did! I watched fireworks twice and took pictures of them once. 😀 I used a tripod this time which helped SO much. Enjoy some pretty explosions!

-Allison(fireworks) 004 (1280x960) — I love this one! You can see the mountain and fireworks coming from it.

Did you like them? I think they might be my best firework photos yet. A tripod really helps!

***Allison***

P. S. I might just keep my blog design how it is. I like my header and the background so yeah. 😀 I also made a new button that looks kind of like my header. You can update it if you want! (It’s on my Buttons page.)

P. P. S. It’s Nicole’s turn for WordCrafters!

P. P. P. S. Whoa this is a lot of P. S.’s! We are nearly finished redecorating our room and it looks so PRETTY!!

Happy Easter! + Spring Photos

March 27, 2016March 27, 2016 | Allison

Happy Easter, everyone! Christ has risen!

I thought I’d show you a few Easter-y springy pictures too. 🙂 Spring is like the year’s resurrection – the old bare trees and brown grass come to life again. Christ’s resurrection is infinitely more amazing and wondrous than spring is or ever will be, but in the new birth of spring perhaps we have a miniscule, faint taste of the joy which we will experience at Christ’s return!

So with that, enjoy this humongous spring collage. 🙂 (Click on any photo to bring up an enlarged slideshow thingy of all of the photos.)