Birthday Hike

May 29, 2016May 29, 2016 | Allison

Hey guys! I took gobs of pictures on the hike I went on for my birthday. Lots. Of. Pictures. I’m going to be showing you only some, but still a ginormous amount. 😀 Are you ready for this? Okay. Blastoff in 3… 2… 1… 1/2… 1/4… 1/187,990… okay, okay. XD Now!

When we went on the first trail, it was really foggy and rainy. We decided to come back to it later when it was sunny, but I got some neat pictures before we left.

hike (2) (1024x768) — Ooh, spooky. Just kidding! 😀

Doesn’t the next one seem sort of like a writing prompt? (I edited it.)

Next we went on a hike that was lovely and beautiful on the way down, but exhausting on the way up.

Flower pictures. 🙂

I love this dewdrop picture:

I have no idea what these weird corncobby fungi things are, but they’re neat looking!

One tree had all kinds of different fungi on it.

Millipede!

The next trail was really rocky and mossy. I love rocks and moss! 😀

hike (53) (1024x768) — This looks like an action shot even though it isn’t.

Sometimes you had to climb over boulders like this:

I made collages of the many pictures of moss and fungus I took, because otherwise you would be here all day. XD

Aren’t they so pretty? (And sometimes weird?)

Views from an overlook beside the path:

I really like the rocky ones.

At the top it was kind of scary because there were drop-offs on every side of you, and the path was really narrow. You had to climb over boulders that were less than two feet away from the edge to get to the top! *Shiver* 😛 But the view was amazing!

On the way down we made a little fairy house, or rather fairy bedroom.

My friend spotted these perfect, tiny spiderwebs. She got way better pictures than me. 😉

Are you photo-weary yet? XD Did you have a favorite picture?

***Allison***

A Walk in the Woods

March 8, 2016March 8, 2016 | Allison

Yesterday we had Nature Study with our friends, and we went for a walk in the woods after our lesson. There were so many interesting and pretty things to take pictures of!

We drove to the woods in our truck, and I snapped this funny picture of Maggie while on the ride. It makes her look quite wide, doesn’t it? XD XD XD (You can see that she’s shedding for spring. 😀 )

There was several lovely mosses that I just had to take pictures of – heh heh. 🙂 (Click on any picture to enlarge it.)

I like these pictures below of moss on a rock.

A downy feather, stranded in moss…

I also found a feather by the roadside. Isn’t it amazing how delicate and beautiful feathers are? Actually, this feather is not exactly as delicate or beautiful as some. 😀 (Click to enlarge, again.)

Megan found a little salamander and put him on a leaf to take a picture of him. I slipped in to get a few pictures too. ;D (Cli… – eh, you already know. XD )

Fungus on a branch…

Henbit… I love looking at the little purple flowerets up close.

And last but not least, here are three galls my sister spotted for me. Another gall necklace, anyone? XD XD XD

***Allison***

P. S. It feels super warm today – it’s 72 degrees (Fahrenheit)! When it’s warm in summer and spring sometimes our family will eat a meal on the little flat roof just beside our room. We listen to music, or watch the cars go by, and it’s really fun. 🙂 Have you ever done that?

Quote Edits

February 20, 2016February 22, 2016 | Allison

I’ve been using this great photo-editing site (PicMonkey) to make quote edits recently. It is SO much fun! PicMonkey has some great fonts, but my sister told me about another website (1,001 Free Fonts), that has gazillions more free fonts, so I also used some of those.

All of these edits were made by me, from pictures taken and edited by me. The quotes are either verses from the Bible, quotes from Pinterest, or part of the lyrics songs or hymns.

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#1. This is one of my favorites of the edits I made. When the world is storm-tossed all around you, cling to the Rock that stands strong above the storm.

#2. Stop and smell the roses – take time to enjoy the little pleasures around you. (Picture from this photoshoot.)

#3. I love this verse, and the ones that go with it. Why should we worry when God holds all of creation in his hand? The third and fourth edit are consecutive verses, so they go together.

#4. (Picture from this post.)

#5. Always look on the bright side. Find the blessings in disguise.

#6. Kind words are as pleasing as honey. Or more so! (This picture was from my “Bee Tree” post.)

#7. From the Doxology…

#8. Great things can come from small deeds.

#9. From the song “Waterfall,” by Chris Tomlin.

#10. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made the whole wide world.

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I hope you enjoyed reading those quotes – I enjoyed making them! Which was your favorite?

A lot of those pictures came from a big Western trip my family made in 2013 – some more of those pictures may show up in a “Photos from of Old” post. 🙂

***Allison***

P. S. The first WordCrafters story is finally finished! (At almost 10,000 words o.O :D) You can read it here. It’s a wonderful story – thank you SO much everyone, for participating!!

P. P. S. I know I haven’t been posting much about Farm Life, but the fact is, not many post-worthy farm things happen in winter. I suppose you’ll have to make do with photoshoots and stories and tutorials until spring. 🙂 There’s a clay tutorial coming up soon!

Recent Clay Creations

January 27, 2016February 9, 2016 | Allison

Hi, folks! How be-est thou? XD

I really like making things out of polymer clay (some of which I sell at my Etsy shop), so I’m going to show you a few little creations I made recently. Let’s start with a few fairies, shall we? They are super tiny – the littlest one, as you can see, feels quite comfortable on a penny.

Next up is a clay custom pet I made for my grandmother. It’s of her dog, Duke. I made him from a few pictures my sister Megan took (like the picture on the bottom right.) (You can click on the pictures to make them bigger.)

-Megan(snow, sleeping bag, Duke, clay stuff) 053 (1280x960)

And then we have this lil’ gal. Her name is Alice, and you can buy her here at my Etsy shop. Isn’t she so cute? 🙂 Here she is shown standing on the top of the gnomes’ house (more on that later) and the fairies’ toadstool.

-Allison(clay stuff, sunset) 015 (1280x960)

-Allison(clay stuff, sunset) 016 (1280x960)

I made a game called Pebbles a little while ago, so I made some polymer clay pebbles for the playing pieces. I really like how they turned out! They are really shiny because I glazed them with a really nice glossy glaze. The granite looking one was a lot easier than it looks, because the clay already came like that. 🙂 The purple one has little translucent spots on it, and the rest are marbled clay.

Now for my masterpiece – the gnomes! 😀 I also made a gnome-house and table set for them.

Here are the two little gnomes…

And here are more details of their house. I made this by first forming a skeleton of 6-8 sticks, draping it over a tinfoil ball, and baking them. Then I wove a green log through those sticks for a vine, and filled in some of the gaps with more sticks in different colors. I added a sprinkling of tiny pink flowers for more color.

I made and baked the top yellow flower separately. I started with the inner layers and progressed outwards, adding the texturing details after I put the flower together. After it was baked, I glued it to the stick-part with this Sculpey glue which bonds as it bakes. And that’s it!

Here is the table set. I might sell this on Etsy sometime soon, but I’m too attached to my gnomes and gnome house to sell them. XD

And that’s it! I’m not an expert, but I still really enjoy playing with polymer clay. Do you feel like “claying” now? If you do make something, I’d love to see it! (Here is a link to the kind of clay I use. I highly recommend it!: Premo Polymer Clay.) Have you ever worked with polymer clay before?

Thanks for reading!

***Allison***

P. S. We still have snow here, but it’s at that messy state between slush and snow. It’s kind of like the last remnants of nail polish that seem to stay on your nails for weeks after most of it has worn off. I always wish both snow and nail polish would last longer, and then just go away all at once. At least the snow still looks pretty nice, although I don’t know if I can say the same thing for my fingernails. 🙂 Do you still have snow?