Hello, dears!
We recently went back to where we used to live for some family reunions and a trip to the county fair! Even though I didn’t enter anything this year (see P. S. at end of post), we still had a ton of fun and made some great memories. 🙂 Also I got some good pictures, which is what I’ll be showing you today. 😉 Continue reading
Hello, dears!
This is a sad subject to talk about, but the truth is… we are in our last month of summer. *SNIIIIFF* As everyone knows, summer is for swimming, but as not everyone knows, we have sadly only gone swimming three times this year. The only pools we have are ponds and streams at our new farm, and one of those ponds is a mudhole while the other is usually covered in duckweed. Yay. However, we still managed to get wet and have fun!
So, in case you ever thought about going swimming in a pond or lake but simply didn’t know how to go about it, NEVER FEAR. I have gleaned much wisdom from the past three swimmings that I’m sure will come in handy. *nods gravely* XD XD XD Ahem. Continue reading
Hello, dears!
I’m SO excited to post this photoshoot, because I think it’s one of my favorites ever! The evening was certainly wonderful. ❤ Plus, the lighting was so perfect I didn’t have to edit most of these at all! Definitely a bonus. Continue reading
Hello, dears!
Just a few weeks ago, we had the privilege of hosting a barn dance in celebration of our friend Sam’s (Samantha’s) birthday! It took a while to prepare for, but we all absolutely LOVED the dance. 😀 It was the first one our family had been to.
Sam wanted Megan and I to take some pictures, and of course we happily obliged. 😉 Today I’m going to show you a few of my favorite photos, from decorations to dancing. Enjoy!
I got to help with the decorating, which was super fun. 🙂 At first we tried hanging streamers from the loft, but it was too damp and humid and they just sort of hung there limply. So we took them down. But while we were hanging them we found this gorgeous moth! Isn’t it striking?
Don’t these blue gingham tablecloths go perfectly with the barn dance/birthday/picnic atmosphere?
Our magnolia tree is blooming, so Megan suggested we use some of the flowers for the table. I’m so glad we did, because I had no idea they’d be this beautiful! And they smell amazing.
Unfortunately they are rather prone to closing up into buds, but they’re still pretty that way too. 🙂
We also had bouquets of ferns from our woods, chamomile daisies from our pastures, and larger daisies that Sam brought, which they had dyed blue with food coloring! 😀
I enjoyed making “place cards” for the food, even if I didn’t get around to labeling everything. 😉
Sam brought these lovely stamped paper fans (because boy was it hot that day!).
She also brought a bunch of paper medallions and some balloons to hang from the loft. They looked so pretty!
They set the speakers and such on haybales, which made it seem more like a barn dance. 😀
Hee hee, I quite like this picture of Sam’s sister Jesse. 😀
And this one of Sam. 🙂
Oh, and it was so funny – Sam and I wore almost the EXACT same outfit! Identical shirts and only a tiny bit different skirts. XD She was going to do my hair to match hers too, but we ran out of time, so it kind of looks like an octopus in these pictures. O.o Next time I shall remember to put it back before the dance. XD
Megan took the picture before and this picture from the loft. Aren’t they so neat?
Okay, now we’re finally ready for the barn dance part! One of the ladies from church was the “caller,” who patiently instructed all the dozens of people in how to do each dance. We learned the dance slowly first, without music, and then did it once or twice with music before learning a new dance.
For each dance, we lined (or circled) up in the middle of the shop floor and usually did a short sequence of steps that ended in being whirled off to the next partner, where you repeated the process until the music stopped.
We learned quite a few dances including the Virginia Reel, the Caroline Promenade, the Spanish Waltz, the Basket Weave, the Snowball Reel, the Patty-Cake Polka, the Posties’ Jig, and one or two more which I don’t remember the names of.
I think my favorites were the Basket Weave and the Spanish Waltz, although they were all fun.
I didn’t get pictures of the Posties’ Jig, but HA HA WOW. It was a 10-years-and-up dance for good reason: it had a lot of steps. Our group kind of epically failed at it since we got so mixed up and confused, but it was HILARIOUS. We laughed at ourselves so much. XD
My brother Logan was my partner for a couple of the dances, which was nice because our heights are a good match. 😀
One thing I really like about barn dancing is how changeable it is. You don’t stay with one partner for long, which adds to the excitement (and confusion, but XD). It’s also very fast-paced, which makes it feel like a game.
And I think it’s great that whole families, even younger kids, can participate in most of the dances.
I’m so glad Sam chose to have a barn dance for her party, and that we got to come. 🙂 Hopefully we can do one again soon!
So there you have it! At the end of the dance I was EXTREMELY hot and sweaty, and my feet were so sore from going barefoot on concrete for a whole day that I could hardly walk, but it was definitely worth it. XD XD Next time I shall 1) put my hair up and 2) wear shoes. *nods*
Have you ever been to a barn dance? What dance is your favorite (the Virginia Reel, Spanish Waltz, etc.)? Do you have a favorite picture?
Thanks so much for reading, dears, and have a lovely day!
***Allison***
Hello, dears!
Today I’m excited to post these sisters photoshoots Megan and I did a couple of weeks ago! The woods and flowers were so gorgeous! I think they really made the photoshoots.
As always, Megan took the pictures of me, I took the pictures of her, and I edited all of the above. I am running out of interesting introductory sentences, so shall we begin? XD Ahem.
Megan wanted to do a photoshoot with the wild poppies blooming near the Cedar House, and I wanted to do it with the buttercups too. So we did both!
Poppies are Megan’s favorite wildflower, and while they aren’t quite my favorite I quite like them too. 🙂
Hee hee, I really like this one. 😀
Eventually the chain broke so I was like, “Aha, I’ll just wear it this way!” XD
I also found an adorable purple flower in the woods. I remember learning the name but I have now forgotten. :[] Anyone know?
I quite like this one too. 🙂 ❤
Oh, ha ha! So Megan was just sitting on this log…
When she saw this feather and picked it up. She was like, “Ew, this smells bad.” AND THEN WE FOUND AN ANIMAL SKELETON IN THE CREEK IT WAS SO GROSS.
I love this little stone waterfall at the spot where you come down to the creek! ❤ (And also this picture.)
We found a lovely patch of ferns that served quite well as a backdrop/setting.
I don’t know what’s on my pants…?
A couple of days after the first photoshoot we decided to redo some of the photos. This time we made a daisy (well, chamomile daisy) crown that worked a bit better. 🙂
I like this one a lot for some reason…?
HA HA this is one of my favorites. XD I don’t THINK I usually laugh like this, but I guess I don’t know…
❤
And THIS one too! Although I’m not too happy with the editing. Oh well.
Annnd that’s all for today! I hope you enjoyed looking at those pictures. 🙂 I would love to hear your favorites! Have you ever made a flower crown?
Thanks so much for reading, dears, and have a lovely day!
***Allison***
Hello, dears!
We’ve been going on exploratory walks around our farm almost every Sunday lately and it is SO much fun! Also I’ve taken SO many pictures! XD I seriously have way too many post ideas to keep up, so I’m going to combine a few walks into one post. Enjoy the virtual sunshine! 😀
On the first walk, we explored the woods beside Dad’s shop. Fern fiddleheads were unrolling everywhere and bright little violets popped up by tree roots covered in moss… ahh, I loved it. ❤ There were also carpets of mayapple plants, which I’d never seen before. Interesting.
This was about a month ago, when leaves and buds were just starting to come out.
Aren’t fiddleheads adorable? 😀
HA HA for some reason this just looks really funny to me. XD It’s like the tree has a tiny nose. Maybe I should draw a face around it. 😛
I LOVE MOSS. ❤
Ooh, I really like this picture, particularly the lighting! The violet is a little blurry, but I love the golden light. I don’t exactly know how I got this one, but I do know I didn’t edit it.
The roots are so neat, don’t you think?
As you can see, the leaves were DEFINITELY not out yet.
While walking back we saw a deep puddle that was literally TEEMING with tadpoles! There were hundreds if not a thousand. O.o I have never seen so many tadpoles in one place in my life!
The puddle nearly dried up a while ago and left a lot of dead tadpoles in the sun, but it rained just in time to save the rest. 😛 I should go check them again… last time I saw them they looked pretty much like this:
Next we have the walk in which we went down to our bigger stream and Carmen, Jeff, and Megan all swam even though they had regular clothes on and it wasn’t exactly hot. XD
HA HA I love this. XD
They seemed to be having a pretty good time, but I decided against joining them. 😛
Wow, that was a short walk. Anyway, the next one is at our smaller pond. We got a canoe at the auction after we bought the new farm, but it kinda leaked. So Dad and the boys patched it up, we got oars, and ta-daa!
This woods had some lovely beeches, and everything was SO GREEN!
This tree was huge and gorgeous. ❤ We came back to this spot for my birthday and had a dessert picnic with chocolate pecan pie. 😀 Yep, it was DELICIOUS. And then Carmen and I worked on a fairy house in these roots because I’d told her I would. 🙂 It was fun, but got dark really quickly. (Also I don’t have any pictures of that night, sorry. 
)
We also want to make a fairy house here sometime. 🙂
Now, onto the next walk! This is the most recent. Last Sunday, in fact. I think these flowers are called phlox, but whatever they are, they certainly made the side of the trail pretty! ❤
I brought my sketchbook and some drawing utensils along but didn’t end up using them that much. I did get a little sketch done, though. (Also this picture was super hard to get, but I like how it turned out.)
I’m fascinated with reflections and light and water, together or separate. 😀
Mom and Carmen and I (and later Dad) wandered along the smaller creek that we call Little Runny. The air was hot and muggy, so the shade and water felt amazing.
Mom found a few tulip-tree blooms and wanted me to take a picture of it for our house. I was quite happy to oblige, of course! 😀 Tulip-tree flowers are strange: green and orange and lily-shaped, with maple-like leaves. Certainly unique.
Carmen wanted to show me a “swimming hole” she’d found, which wasn’t actually quite deep enough to swim in. XD
While we were there, I saw a little water strider and the ripples it made looked neat, so obviously I had to take a picture. 😛
Ooh, I love this one!
This stretch of Little Runny has sand instead of rocks! The riverbed is a mixture of sand and mud, which feels so good to bare feet. There are also random sandbars scattered like tiny beaches by the creek. The first time I saw them I was really surprised that they weren’t manmade.
Anyway, Carmen and I decided to try and build a sandcastle on one of the “beaches.” I think it turned out pretty cute for only having our hands to work with. (Thanks to my mom for taking this picture!)
(Heh heh, once I started using this filter it was hard to stop. Oops.) I love this picture too! Isn’t it so cute and aesthetic? It looks like a summer beach photo instead of a spring creek photo. 😛
Maggie also came along with us. She loves to wade in the streams and puddles, even though she never swims in deep ponds and stuff. Isn’t she so cute?
And now let me end with this cool, refreshing picture. 😀 I love the colors in this one!
And there you have a small sampling of my many spring pictures. Going outside at this time of the year is quite dangerous for me if I intend the pictures for my blog because I JUST CAN’T. KEEP. UP. But you know, I think that’s rather a good problem to have. 😉
Do you always take an excessive amount of pictures in spring too? Which is your most photographed season? And do you have a favorite or favorites of these pictures? I’d love to hear!
Thanks so much for reading, dears, and have a lovely day! ❤
***Allison***
Hello, dears!
I was originally going to post a “Moving On” episode, but I’ve been doing a lot of complicated, less lifestyle-ish posts lately and I felt in the mood for a good ol’ photography post – one of my favorite kinds to read AND write. 🙂 So I’ll save the moving post for a later date, and hopefully you enjoy these various portrait photoshoots in the meantime! 😀
One day when the sun was setting and it was lovely and golden outside, I asked my littlest sister Carmen if she wanted to do a bubble photoshoot with me. She agreed somewhat reluctantly, but started having fun once we commenced, as usual. XD
It was fun, but VERY difficult. The hardest part was getting the bubbles in focus. I could have used a higher f-stop, but I wanted the nice blurred background and… anyway, these are only a fraction of the photos I actually took. XD
Another difficulty was that the bubble wand handle was broken and we kept having to fish the rest of it out with a, um, small scissors. Why didn’t we use a tweezers? You know, I’m not really sure. XD Maybe we couldn’t find it, I forget. Anyway, it worked… sort of. 😛
After Carmen got too cold and went in, I attempted to take pictures of just bubbles by myself. IT WAS EXTRAORDINARILY HARD. The wind always blew the wrong way at the wrong time, just as I clicked the button, of course. *sigh* Oh well, out of perhaps at least a hundred, I DID get a few good ones. Two, in fact. *weak smile* I do love the color, though! (They aren’t edited.)
Guys, I practically NEVER take selfies (although I do use the self-timer occasionally). Why? Probably mostly because it’s such a stereotypical teenager thing to do, and thus I don’t (XD). Anyway, the other day I found a charming patch of speedwell, a weed with adorable tiny blue flowers, and decided hey, why not. 😛
Oooops, didn’t exactly point my camera at the right spot… but it works! XD
An edited one just for fun…
Hee hee. XD This might be my favorite.
My sister Megan and her friend MacRae do very strange things together. Trust me on this – VERY strange. Like taking rocks for a walk or racing earthworms. I don’t know if Megan wants me to tell the reason behind these pictures yet or not, so for now let’s just say it’s another of their interesting ideas which they wanted me to photograph. Heh.
That blob of fur in MacRae’s lap is my rabbit Willow. XD
BAHAHA, poor Willow is a little alarmed at their antics…
GOOD JOB, WILLOW. Escape is obviously the best option here. I don’t know what Megan’s doing here… contemplating the taste of a spoonful of mayonnaise? XD
And then Willow, who was obviously the star of the show, got some headshots…
What do you say, does Willow look good in a mustache? True, she kind of already has one… XD
Since you never really saw her eyes, I had to include one last one so you can tell that she is actually a living creature. Hee hee.
And that’s it for today! I have another sisters photoshoot but it’s pretty long, so I’ll save it for its own post. 🙂 I hope you enjoyed these! Which was your favorite photoshoot, and which was your favorite picture? Do you feel sorry for Willow? XD
***Allison***
P. S. Speaking of bunnies, I have some sad news… Diamond and Lily are gone. 😦 Lily was got really sick so we had to put her down, and I don’t know what happened to Diamond – maybe she just died of old age or something. *sad sigh* I’m really glad we still have the other four bunnies, though, and hopefully we can have baby bunnies again soon! But… RIP Lily and Diamond. 😦
Hello, dears!
*sigh* I’m getting rather tired of the freezing weather we’ve had here lately. Winter is kind of boring and cold and hard to photograph, am I right? But I DID get a few good non-snow winter photos here recently that I thought I’d show you! Winter is hard for photography, but not impossible.
One recent Sunday we took a family walk after church to explore our new farm a bit. Well, it was more like a walk/drive/ride combined because we took the truck and the fourwheeler too.
I love this picture because of the pink and purple shirts. XD Jeff’s shirt used to be more blue but it got kind of faded.
♥
Maggie adores going on rides with us. 😀 She’s so cute and happy and smiley!
For some reason what looked like a bunch of old tuna cans were nailed up to the wall in one of the sheds? We were puzzled. It’s kind of funny though.
I love this picture for its rustic character and texture. (Don’t worry, this isn’t the house we’re moving into or anything. XD XD It’s just an old shed.)
More rust, and more neat-ness in an abstract kind of way! This stuff went under the concrete they poured in Dad’s “new” shop.
Isn’t the bark on this tree super strange? It’s all flaky and weird – even on the twigs. It kind of looks like lichen, except completely covering the whole thing.
The kids wandered down to the pond while Mom and Dad drove around another part of the farm. Jeff was trying to convince Maggie to take a swim, but she only likes water she can wade in, not swim in, for some reason.
This is Carmen and her prize feather. XD
I absolutely LOVE the pattern the sky and clouds make on the water! It looks so neat, don’t you agree? It would make a neat painting too.
I love the cattails all around the pond!
The light was gorgeous. ♥
The boys went crazy with the fourwheeler – spinning around doing burn outs and driving through puddles and over tiny trees and stuff. -_- Boys, boys… *shakes head* XD Ah well, it is pretty fun to drive.
For some reason I really like this picture too. Probably because it’s winter and I’m eager for green and sunshine like this. Ahhh, so pretty! 
LOOK AT THE LIGHTING! *happy sigh* It was sooo gorgeous up there, but really hard to capture too. It didn’t look quite like this, but you can imagine how pretty the sun looked on the golden grass.
The fun thing about moving to a new farm is that we now have hundreds of acres to explore for the first time, and I LOVE it. The sun was out and it was such a lovely day for winter and we got to wander down paths we’d never been too… ahh, it was great. 🙂 *happy sigh* Walks like these are some of my favorite things!
The lighting here was SO pretty again, and again so hard to capture! I also didn’t want to tell them to stop walking because I wanted to get a candid picture, so most of them turned out blurry. XD At least this one is alright!
I have no idea what kind of tree produces these strange flower thingies. 
HEH HEH. Megan and I were doing photos like in movies when the characters are barely holding onto the edge of the cliff, and then she actually almost fell into the water. XD XD 
A sturdy fallen tree over a creek is basically irresistible to young boys (and girls). 
Heh heh, see here? Maggie doesn’t mind wading. Her expression… XD 
I love the smooth, curved edges on this ice!
OH I LOVE THIS PHOTO. For some reason I just find it really neat. 😉 I saw this little exposed knob on a tree and had to stop for a picture! Also it really reminds me of an avocado seed somehow? Don’t exactly know why… XD
Oh, funny story. I often randomly spot hawks when we drive somewhere or go on walks. I don’t know why I see them so much more than the rest of my family, but I do, and it’s gotten to be a sort of joke. I’m always like, “HAWK” when I see one, and Megan groans. XD She gets annoyed because I say, “It’s really strange how I always see hawks,” almost every time I see one. Well that’s what she says, but I don’t say it every time… *shakes head* XD
ANYWAY. I found a hawk that day too (it’s in the tree if you look close), so I took a picture for Megan as evidence. 😛
And I shall end on that note. I hope you enjoyed coming along with us on our winter stroll and seeing for yourself that there ARE things to photograph in winter after all, if you look close enough. 🙂
What was your favorite picture? What was your least favorite? (I want to know! Don’t worry about hurting my feelings – as long as you’re not intentionally mean or rude you won’t. Constructive criticism really helps!)
Do you enjoy winter (or spring or summer or fall) strolls? Do fourwheelers look fun, and have you driven one?
***Allison***
Heyyy, guys!
Megan and I (and my little sister Carmen) have been doing quite a few photoshoots recently, so I thought I’d combine them all into one post for you today! I shall go in roughly chronological order because that’s how I uploaded the pictures. 😉 Also, Megan took all the pictures of me except the “selfie” ones, using my Nikon D3400. Alright, onwards and… upwards? XD
I did this photoshoot back in December when I went to the “island” (a patch of trees in a field) to collect greenery for wreaths. For some reason I decided to do a photoshoot of myself while I was there? I’m trying to get better at “selfies” because GOODNESS they are hard, especially without a tripod. Thus I only have two of those pictures to show you. XD
(This caption thingy is NOT cooperating so I guess I’ll have to use it instead of deleting it.) Thankfully these two pictures turned out alright at least!
Ooh, I love this next photoshoot! Megan and I went down to the pond at our new farm one day (see more in this post) and it was absolutely breathtaking! The snow on the trees, the crystal-clear reflections… ahh, isn’t it beautiful? The perfect backdrop. 🙂
HEH HEH. And then we have this. XD Here’s an at using the self-timer, but it failed so hard it actually worked. XD I turned around just at the wrong time and IT CRACKS ME UP.
Here’s another little “selfie” photoshoot. When no one else is available to take pictures of, at least I have myself. 😛 It… still didn’t work out the best. It was really hard to stay in focus with self-timer, not to mention getting to the right place at the right time! Morale of the story: SELFIES ARE HARD. Find a sibling if possible. XD
Anyway. I was trying to go for one of those stock photo, Pinterest-y pictures but it turned out blurry. -_- Other than that I think it looks kinda neat, though. I do kind of blend in with the fence post… XD
AHA! An in-focus picture! Way to go, Allison. And I even jumped at the right time! Wow. *shakes head in wonder*
This doesn’t exactly fit since it’s just a hand (in case you thought it was a face…?), but oh well, it was in the same photoshoot. AND IT’S NOT BLURRY. SO. Plus you can see how crooked my fingers are. XD This perspective makes them look shorter than they are, though.
Ooh yes, this photoshoot was probably the most successful in terms of quantity. 🙂 We went for a walk at our new farm and found that the smaller pond was frozen enough to walk on! It was soooo fun, and I’ll have more pictures in a later post. This time Carmen obliged me and we did a little photoshoot. 😀 I love how you can see her reflection in the shallow puddles of water on the ice!
Once we start she always gets really into it and has all sorts of ideas about how she should pose and stuff. 😉
Allison Marie 