Hello, dears!
Today I have something a little different for you. Usually when I post my writing, I post poems, but this time I’m going to show you guys four of my sketches. Not as in light pencil drawings, but as in small scenes from my life written as a cross between a long poem and a short story. I really like writing sketches, but I’ve never posted them before, so I’d love to hear your thoughts! Continue reading
Hello, dears!
I’ve been half dreading this post and half eagerly anticipating it, because it is SO much work to sort through over six months of photographs and edit and organize the best ones for a post. O.o But it’s always so satisfying to know I’m “up to date” once I finish Etcetera posts, so yay! 🙂
Anyway, today I have for you quite a lot of pictures about quite a lot of things. I’ll attempt to organize this post a bit more than I have previously so it’s not overwhelming. XD I hope you enjoy browsing through the sunsets, farm landscapes, portraits, etc!
When it hasn’t been raining (which is rarely XD), there have been some beautiful sunsets, clouds, and other skyscapes recently.
Ahhh, big, fluffy cumulus clouds just make me happy when I see them. 😀
Isn’t this gorgeous? Sun rays through clouds also make me happy. 🙂
We’ve gotten so many rainbows recently (and so much rain too)! I don’t think I even noticed this one was a double rainbow until I edited the picture. O.o XD What a beautiful promise a rainbow is. ❤
I love how calm and soft this picture is!
The moon looks HUGE beside the miniscule airplane and tiny cloud, doesn’t it?
Does this count as “skies”? I don’t know. But this strange, neat limb broke off one day and it was sad. 😦 Now there’s just a stump left.
I actually combined a couple of pictures to make this one, because I wanted more birds in it. 😛
I thought it was so neat how you can faintly see the entire moon!
Sunsets + reflections? OH YES!
A e s t h e t i c. ❤
This spring there were buttercups EVERYWHERE! It was so pretty! One day Maggie was conveniently laying in a highly-concentrated area of flowers which went perfectly with her sunny, buttercup personality. 😀
BUNNIESSSS! My brothers built new rabbit pens for them, and the next two pictures are when we first put them in. I love how Basil’s ears are always one up and one down. XD
OLAF IS JUST WEIRD. XD
And here’s Lavender! SHE IS ADORABLE. And she’s also grown since I took this picture.
Well this isn’t exactly a pet, but… WARNING, SNAKE AHEAD! We found this black snake one morning while we were cleaning out the raised beds. I don’t particularly like snakes, but it was so neat to get such close-up photographs! It didn’t slither away for quite a while; it just posed. 😛 I got a bunch of good pictures, but I’ll be considerate and only show you guys two. XD
This was a looong time ago, but here’s a pretty picture of blossoms on our what we thought was an apple tree but is actually a pear tree.
In early spring, there were violets EVERYWHERE! There was one row beside a small, white shed in our backyard that was overflowing with blooms. ❤
Such a cute, tiny flower! (Actually it’s a weed, but it’s still cute.)
I LOVE THIS PICTURE! It’s just so CUTE!
Ahh, this is so creamy and gorgeous!
We always pass this on the way to my grandparents’ house and I always want to get a picture of it. This time Mom kindly stopped to let me take some, and I’m SO glad she did! I just love the scenery here, and the rolling hills that seem almost too perfect to be natural. The tractor baling hay adds a nice touch too. 😉
Dad planted corn or soybeans in most of the pastures this year, and it looks GREAT! He got the crops in a little late because of the immense amount of rain we got, but now that they’re in they’re looking gorgeous. I took this picture a while ago; the corn is a lot bigger now.
The cows are gone now. *sniff*
Carmen got absolutely SOAKED (on purpose) one day when it was raining, which made for some pretty neat pictures.
Carmen wondered if I wanted to take a picture of her glasses, and I said, “Sure!”
I took this picture after we finished unloading the tractor-trailer load of our house belongings, and I was all sweaty and dusty. And then I had heaps of fun editing it later. XD I don’t know why I like taking pictures of eyes so much, but I DO!
Carmen wanted me to take a picture of her swinging. 🙂
It was a BIT scary to balance my camera on a fence post on a windy day, which is maybe why I have a slightly strange expression… XD
Oh look, it’s me leaning up agains the fence again! What do you know. XD Carmen took this picture for me, because a friend wanted a photo of the dress I got.
Okay, this is really random, but… did you know you can use a mixture of about half coconut oil and half baking soda to repair worn wood? If you scrub the mixture into scratches or places where the varnish doesn’t look good, it will magically look like new after you wipe it away with soap and water! Trust me, it is amazing. O.o I don’t know exactly how it works, but I think the oil stains and darkens the wood and the baking soda kind of sands it down a little. However it does it, IT WORKS. We’ve used this a lot to “refinish” worn furniture, floors, and trim lately.
We don’t have a huge garden this year, but we are growing a few things in the raised beds behind the big house. One of those things are (or were) radishes! I thought these baby radishes that we thinned out were so cute, hee hee.
GUYS. I FOUND A FIVE LEAF CLOVER. AND MEGAN FOUND A SIX LEAF ONE. We found a lot of mutant clovers around the Cedar House, actually. XD And no, I did not photoshop an extra leaf on. Promise.
This almost looks abstract if you unfocus your eyes.
I love photographing water drops. 😀 Don’t they look like crystal?
Phew, that was a TON of pictures! Not nearly all the good ones, though. *sniff* This post was a great (but hard) exercise in only keeping the best of the best, or else the most interesting. Hopefully I succeeded. 🙂
So, which category was your favorite? Have you ever found a more-than-four-leaf clover? Have you tried the coconut oil trick?
Thank you so much for reading this lengthy epistle, dears, and please have a lovely day!
***Allison***
Imagine there were once two small stones who lay near one another in the streambed of a rushing river. As the years went by, dashing water and larger rocks both tumbled over them, and eventually the relentless conditions ground the first into smaller and smaller pieces until it was an unrecognizable heap of sand. But something different happened to the second stone.
Instead of getting worn down by the surging flood, it simply stood fast and let the water polish it into a smooth, gleaming pebble. Instead of getting crushed by the grinding force of the other rocks, it simply rolled past, moving slowly down the river. One day, it arrived at the sea, and all was gloriously calm.
Now, dears, you can probably see where I’m going with this, but let me ask you a question: as the river of life passes by, do you let the hardships polish you or shatter you?
It’s so much easier to shatter, isn’t it? It feels like the constant trials and pressures of life cannot help but grind us into sand. It’s not hard to just give up and give in to self-pity. In fact, it’s far too easy, for me at least. And sometimes it almost feels good, in a miserable way.
But we’re missing the point – or rather becoming bristling full of points instead of allowing them to be smoothed away. How we react to adversity profoundly influences how others perceive us, and this is especially important for Christians. Since we put our identity in Christ, it influences how others perceive Him. If we act like God’s not strong enough to carry us through everyday life, it begs the question, how in the world could He carry us through death? We’ve got to show the world that trials don’t define us – God does.
Here’s another way to look at it. The other week in small group, one of the men was talking about how problems can come between us and God, and he compared it to an eclipse. I thought that was a really good analogy. Our worries are like the moon orbiting the earth, until one day they eclipse everything else. Did you guys watch the last eclipse? Do you remember how the moon hid the sun? Its dark circle looked just as big as the light, even though you knew it was really many times smaller.
So when it’s dusk in daytime and everything slips sideways and you are falling off the edge of the world, don’t forget, dear, the sun will come out again. It’s still there, shining and shining, and however big and dark the moon’s shadow seems, the sun is infinitely bigger and infinitely brighter, and in its blazing light, all shadows fade away.
So when hardships surround us and we do not break, when people wonder why we’re still fighting, we tell them, we persevere because we have a hope beyond this world. We tell them, because when we hit rock bottom, the Lord is polishing this rough stone into a diamond of such brilliance that it will reflect his glory far brighter than before. And we tell them, it takes harsh sand to grow a pearl.
Grow a pearl, dear. Be a diamond. Shine, don’t shatter. And when adversity threatens to eclipse all, hold fast to the Son.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4
***Allison***
Hello, my friends!
I’ve been collecting some poems in a draft for a while now, and today I thought it’s about time to share them. 😉 I quite enjoy writing poems, and I’m so glad that you guys have enjoyed reading them so far! Hopefully that trend shall continue. 😛
Ahem, shall we begin?
moon hammock
the moon through
bare black branches
becomes a lacy hammock,
spun with delicate glowing threads,
and suspended from stars.
cradled inside,
the man in the moon
watches the people below
hurrying and worrying
about their day,
and smiles softly.
for he knows how big a problem is
in a universe
millions and millions of miles wide.
he looks at the stars and knows –
not big at all.
home
we’re back again,
back to our memory foam house
that remembers how we sat
and laid our heads
and walked the floors
and made the beds.
it welcomes us back again,
back into the old nooks and
comfortable crannies.
we slip back into
the familiar grooves,
take our old places
in hearts and homes,
and smile the smile of
back again.
we were trying to carve out
new places for ourselves,
new dips in new pillows,
new ruts in new roads,
new places in new hearts,
but carving is hard work,
you know.
so for now we snap
back into place
like a seven-piece puzzle,
and breathe a sigh of relief.
we’re home again.
wildflower
they called her
brown-eyed Susan.
she was a wildflower,
her beauty fresh and pure
as sun rays and raindrops, with
wind-blown hair
and dewdrop eyes,
poppy petal lips
and a bright daisy smile.
she lit up her meadow
and spread her heart wide.
but wildflowers stay
only for a season
and then they
…
f a d e a w a y.
first world problems
this page won’t load,
the internet is slow,
and my tv only covers half the wall.
they’re out of organic,
i ate too much,
and i had to make that crust from scratch.
my purse must weigh ten pounds in coins,
they only take cash,
but no one has change for a $100 bill.
i have nothing to do but sleep,
but there’s not enough time in the day,
and i need to get away from all this stress.
maybe i’ll go to africa.
roses
once i wandered through
an old abandoned house
whose bones had broken long ago.
and in the cellar,
hanging in the dark,
i found roses.
they were tied to the ancient rafters
with brittle, yellowed thread,
fragrant with the soft, crumbling scent
of nostalgia.
i touched a faded petal and wondered
how something so old and fragile
could still be beautiful.
and i wished
to grow older
with all the grace of
dying roses.
the voiceless
we are the voiceless;
hear our silent cry.
our eyes have never opened,
our ears have never heard,
our lips have never spoken,
but if we could, we would say…
why do the ones who gave us life,
bring us death?
what have we done
that we should die?
_
people say,
the color of your skin
doesn’t matter –
it is who you are inside.
but does your size matter?
if your heart is too small,
perhaps it does not matter
what it holds,
if it will never get a chance
to tell.
_
we are the voiceless;
hear our silent cry:
we are innocent.
you cannot prove us guilty,
but we still die –
helpless.
hopeless.
voiceless.
**********
*sniff* Why is it so satisfying to write sad poems? :’) What do you think – do you like writing sad or happy poems/stories best? Which do you like reading best? Regardless, I hope you enjoyed these and I’d love to know which poem was your favorite!
Also, before you go, could I ask a favor of you? I have sooo many post ideas and not enough time (and data XD) to post them, so would you help me choose which ones to post first?
Thank you so much for your feedback, dear readers. ♥ Have a simply lovely day. 🙂
***Allison***
Hello, my friends and readers! How are you all today? Good, I hope!
Since I just posted some wintry photos, I wanted to post some springy photos today. 🙂 March is so flighty…
I actually got a several photos in the afternoon, not just at twilight… but hey, I had to name this post something! XD
I love how emerald green the triticale fields look in the sun! ♥ It makes me happy. 😀
Maggie explored happily beside me while I took pictures. 😀
And NOW we get to the twilight pictures. 😉
Megan and I did a little mini Sister’s Photoshoot, but I didn’t get very many good pictures because it was a bit too dark. 😦
Megan and I also had fun taking forced perspective photos of the moon. 😀
See you later, my friends! I hope you enjoyed this post!
***Allison***
P. S. Eeee! Guess what my next post (hopefully) will be about? The last chapter of WordCrafters 2! YAAAAAY! I’m so excited to show it to you guys!
I’m SUPER excited to show you some pictures I got of the SUPER SUPERMOON! 😀 Heh heh. But yes, I can’t wait for you to see them! I guess it would help if I stopped talking and showed you the pictures…
These first two are rather bad quality, but still neat because they show the size of the supermoon. (Well actually it didn’t look quite that big in real life – but pretty sizable! 🙂 )
I had a lot of fun playing around with silhouettes. They turned out pretty neat, if I do say so myself! XD
Twigs…
I loooove this next one – it looks so lacy!
Powerlines…
And of course I took a few plain moon pictures.
Are you wondering how I cut the moon in half? Simple: position yourself so half of the moon is hidden behind the barn and voila!
And for the finally, a really neat super-close-up-supermoon!
Did you have a favorite picture or did they all just look the same? XD Did you see the supermoon? Wasn’t it BEAUTIFUL?! Did you get pictures?
I hope you enjoyed this post!
***Allison***
P. S. I braved a cold night and the frustration of a tripod to take this pictures… all for you. Well actually, no, it was mostly for me. XD
Greetings and salutations, my friends! XD
I recently got some really neat photos of the moon that I thought I’d share. I love moon photography, but it can hard to get a moon instead of just getting a picture of a white blob in the sky. 
This time it worked out pretty well, though!
I had fun making the moon look like a marble on a marble track… (aka a barn roof)
Or a bead on a necklace (the moon behind a power line). 😀 Have you ever done this kind of moon photography? It’s really fun!
And of course, I took plenty of “normal” pictures of the moon.
I got this next, rather strange photo by using a higher exposure (more on that in just a minute). The lighting is really weird! It looks kind of like a mini moon-set. XD
I figured out that it really helps to capture detail on the moon if you set your camera to a lower exposure.Here’s a little chart of how exposure affected my pictures:
Kind of neat, huh?
Lower exposure is helpful for a lot of things – from making roses redder to fixing bright photo conditions. I’m sure some of you already knew this, but it was helpful for me, so I thought I’d share it! 😀
Do you have any tips for moon photography? Isn’t the moon such a beautiful thing? 🙂
And now for my BIBPC entry. The category this time was “Weeds.”
Story Behind the Photo: I took this picture several months ago in spring (I love spring!). This is a picture of speedwell – that little weed with blue flowers that grows everywhere. The tiny flowers are so cute and pretty to me! When I was little, I used to collect a bunch of blossoms and float them in a blue bowl full of water. 🙂 It was actually really pretty.
Before I leave, I’ll give you a little sneak peek of future posts: I’m hoping to write the second chapter of Beauty from Ashes and do a post about my fair entries soon! 😀
Bye for now!
***Allison***
Hey, guys!
I snapped several pretty pictures of the moon a couple of nights ago. They might be my best moon pictures yet! I also took a video of a firefly, then made some stills from the video. Although the pictures aren’t the best quality, I still think they’re neat.
Have a wonderful night – or day. 🙂
***Allison***
We went over to our friends’ house last Sunday, and I took my camera along. 😉
They just got an adorable Miniature Schnauzer puppy named Snoopy. GAAH! He’s so cute!
I also got the best moon pictures I have ever taken. XD It really helped that it was still light when I took the pictures.
I edited this picture of their neighborhood on my camera with the “Miniature Effect” setting. I really like how it turned out! It almost looks like a fall evening instead of a spring one.
My friend kindly let me take some pictures of her. 🙂 ♥ The first picture is not edited, but the rest are. (The third picture I actually took last summer.)
I had so much fun editing the pictures. 🙂 Hmm… maybe I should do some PicMonkey tutorials! What do you think?
Little friends. 🙂 ♥
My friend’s little sister blowing bubbles:
It was fun to get some people-pictures which I don’t normally do. Which picture was your favorite?
Have a nice, warm, spring day!
***Allison***
P. S. Do you like my new profile picture?
Allison Marie 