Etcetera #5

Hello, dears!

I’m back with another random photos post and BOY did I need to make one! I found over a hundred miscellaneous photos I wanted to use today. :O Heh heh, but don’t worry, I cut it down to about half that amount with much labor. 😛 Sit back, relax, and start scrolling!

New Blog Design!

First things first: if you haven’t noticed yet, I changed my blog design! (You’ll have to actually go to my website to see, if you’re reading this in WP Reader, Such hardships, I know.)

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What do you think? I drew all the design elements (a.k.a the fonts, header image, and watercolor background), but digitized them in PicMonkey. I’m really pleased with how it turned out, especially since I hadn’t updated the design for a while and it need to be refreshed and simplified, I thought.

Oh, and here’s my new button! I would be MOST appreciative if you updated it for me. If you want to trade for the first time, just let me know on my blog buttons page!

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Various Animals

Now for a little cuteness, namely Megan’s donkey, Eeyore! She got her (yep, it’s a female, despite the name XD) pretty recently. Now Megan randomly squeals about how cute she is or opens a window and shouts, “EEEEEEEEEYORE! OH GOOD DONKEY!” And sometimes Eeyore brays back. :’D Dear me. She IS pretty cute, though.

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Warning: for some reason there is a LOT of tall vertical pictures in this post. But sometimes you can’t fit everything in any other way… Like, I couldn’t crop out this pretty sun flare, could I?

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I find it amusing to take pictures of Eeyore in this position. :’D

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She ran up to me while I was trying to get pictures of her in the pasture. She usually does that, which makes it hard to get a picture from far away.

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Next we have a bit more refined cousin of Eeyore’s. (Heh heh, not really.) This horse’s name is Puzzle – isn’t he sweet? I took care of him and a couple of other horses when I stayed at a friend’s house with her coworker a couple of months ago. It’s too bad the lighting has to be so harsh, because it would be a great picture otherwise!

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This VERY energetic pup followed me around while I fed the horses. He looks so happy!

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My friend also had a beautiful bird (I believe it was a conure). He talks and does all sorts of tricks, and is also pretty cute. 😉

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She had a beautiful white cat as well, but I sadly didn’t get any good pictures. :/ You’ll have to make do with our slightly less beautiful but hilarious cat, Tom. Cats choose the STRANGEST places to sleep, don’t they? XD XD (Side note: Tom scared me by whacking a piece of bubble wrap in my studio while I was writing this post. 😛 )

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I shall end this section with BUNNIES, YAYYYY! Oh my word, isn’t Lavender the CUTEST?? Willow, her mother, provides an excellently fluffy backdrop as well. 😛

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Landscapes

This category is pretty self-explanatory (and also that rhymes!), so let’s hop right into it! Heh, I guess I’m still thinking about rabbits… Ahem. First, a couple of sunsets.

OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE THIS PICTURE. Because 1) it’s a sunset, so duh, 2) THE COLORS (I didn’t even edit this picture!), and 3) tiny moons make everything aesthetic. 😛

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This sunset isn’t QUITE as pretty, but it looked better in real life. I like the tree’s lacy silhouette against the clouds, though.

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Our neighbor generously made us a TON of birdhouses to replace the old, crumbling ones all over our farm. And it’s worked, too – we’ve seen many bluebirds this year, which I’m happy about indeed.

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Sometimes when the light from my studio window is too pretty but I don’t feel like going all the way outside, I take my camera to the upstairs balcony and get some pictures. 🙂 It’s a lovely view from there!

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Once I saw a double rainbow right outside my studio window, and instead of going to the balcony, I opened the window and climbed out onto the roof. XD This picture is rather weirdly edited, but at least you can see the beautiful colors.

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Clay Dog Figurines

Over the past year or two, I’ve gotten a fair amount of orders for custom clay pet figurines on my polymer clay Etsy shop. Just recently, though, I decided to deactivate the listing because phew, those orders wear me out! It’s always a struggle to get them to look right, and it takes up a lot of time that I’d rather be using toward my main Etsy shop, The Color Box Studio. But anyway, here are the last four figurines I made before I stopped the listing. Which is your favorite?

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BeFunky-collage

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Wow, that was a short section. XD

Softbox Photography

Even though softboxes are a pain to set up, I’ve been really enjoying them! Recently I started playing around with product/still life photography. Not really sure that’s what it’s called but HEY, that’ll work. XD Subject #1 was a bag of scrumptious Dutch licorice Aria sent me.

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Ever had Dutch licorice? It’s kind of salty (some kinds are VERY salty), which cuts the sweet and improves the taste, in my opinion. I don’t like normal licorice but I love this kind!

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Here’s a fun flat lay for you. I had already eaten a FEW pieces, but not too many. When I got them I knew right away I wanted to take pictures of them, so I held off on eating them for a while. XD Now the bag is empty. *sigh*

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Subject #2 was… SUCCULENTS! Yay for succulents and plants in general! This is my entire collection (of succulents) so far. Aren’t they cute? The smallest succulent used to be part of the one it’s touching on the right, but since it was growing a long stem, I snipped off the top and replanted it. Surprisingly, both pieces seem to be doing pretty well.

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I got all but one of my succulents as gifts, but this one I bought myself at our tiny farmer’s market. It’s supposed to be Hens and Chicks, but so far it’s just a chick. 😛 Also, doesn’t the bokeh on the background succulent look like snakeskin??

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Nature

Nature is one of my favorite things to photograph because it’s just… *happy sigh* SO PRETTY. This is before Megan‘s flower garden died in the frost. :/

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Who doesn’t love monarchs? (That’s a rhetorical question, by the way.) And even better, monarchs on zinnias! Also taken in Megan’s little flower garden. 🙂

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I found this butterfly on the mushroom path walk, but before I discovered the mushrooms. What an intricate design for such a tiny creature! God sprinkles beauty over us with overflowing generosity, does he not?

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I found this acorn then too, and LOOK, it has freckles! (By the way, I knew I wanted to say “LOOK, it has freckles!” when I posted this, as soon as I took the picture. :’D Blogging is part of my life, guys.)

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ALSO from the same walk. I absolutely love photographing foxtails in golden light. ❤

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I got this at the old corral where I took some pictures for the photo challenge I participated in a while ago. Even weeds and broken pallets look pretty at the golden hour. 🙂

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One last golden picture for now… I took THIS on one of the many walks we’ve gone on by a beautiful stream on our property. Ferns make a forest so much prettier. ❤

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Fall is the season for spiders, am I right? And while I don’t exactly want one crawling on me, I do think they’re fascinating. And spiderwebs with dewdrops are just plain STUNNING. I took these pictures with my macro extension tube lens kit and I adore how they turned out.

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AHHHH IT’S SO PRETTY! The clarity of the drops with the sun shining on them was breathtaking!

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Even those ugly tangled up webs look pretty with dewdrops. (Ahem, because bokeh.)

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Etcetera

And now for all the really miscellaneous of miscellaneous pictures. This looks like a writing prompt or something. It’s not foggy outside right now, but it sure is raining. And raining, and raining… Please go away, rain, and come again another day, after we harvest the corn.

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What do you know? More rain. I think this picture is really neat. The splashes on the sides of the picture are super clear, but the middle ones are obscured by a sort-of-rainbow.

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Ahh, our house looks so pretty in golden hour. ❤ Notice the little wooden acorns under the eves? Kind of random, but fun. (By the way, the top level is the balcony where I took some of the pictures in this post.)

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I think I took this picture the same day as the above. I LOVE it! The light is just too perfect. This was when we had the anniversary celebration, as you can tell by the croquet game in the background. 😛

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These pictures aren’t really in order, since I took this before the anniversary. After cutting down trees (more on that later), the yard was a mess, so the boys and Dad smoothed it out, and we all helped plant grass. Orange-gold rays of sun were shining through the dust in such a picturesque way that I had to run and get my camera… but I missed it. :/ Oh well.

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Heh heh, this picture makes me smile for some reason. In case you wondered, the rest of us were scattering straw to help the seeds germinate. The grass is up now – a little patchy, but better than it was.

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We drove by this old, old church one day when we went to visit our Canadian cousins who were staying at my grandparents’ for a few days. It was sad to see how crumbling and dilapidated it was… but at the same time, it had a humble, weathered beauty.

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I took this blurry picture through the car window, streaming with rain. I like it. 🙂

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These next several pictures were taken the day we cut down three or four trees behind our house. It always makes me sad to cut down grand, old trees, but they really were dangerously close to our house for how unhealthy they were. This tree was my favorite. ❤

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It’s enormousness made our house look small! But you can see how bad it would have been if it fell – and not too long ago it did drop a huge branch that barely missed the house.

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It was rather frightening to watch the tree fall, because it twisted toward me unexpectedly and came crashing down over the bulldozer. Phew! Thankfully no one got hurt and the bulldozer still works. It made an interesting picture, though! 😉

I took SO many pictures that day, but I narrowed it down to these three so the post wouldn’t get any longer. You can see another picture of the fallen tree here.

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Subject change! XD I took this one on the balcony again, because I loved how the setting sun made my hair look red. This was before I got my hair cut. 😉

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Let us end with an aesthetic tractor picture. XD XD I’ve always liked how the Allis Chalmers  almost shares my name. 😛 It’s an oldie-but-a-goodie, I guess. 😉

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*satisfied sigh* There we go! I’m now mostly caught up on my orphan pictures. I hoped you enjoyed browsing through!

Do you have a favorite picture or section of pictures? I’d love to hear so I can take more like that in the future! Isn’t Eeyore cute? Is it sopping wet where you live too? And do you think tractors can be aesthetic? XD

Thank you so much for reading, dears, and please have a lovely day!

***Allison***

51 thoughts on “Etcetera #5

  1. Ahh these are all so pretty! Yes, tractors can be aesthetic, especially at golden hour. I have one succulent, that I’m struggling to keep alive…..XD It seems to be doing better now though. XD XD

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    1. Aww, thanks, Hannah! I agree. 😉 Oh dear, why do succulents have to be so hard to take care of when they’re supposedly easy? *shakes head* But good, I hope it recovers. 😉

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  2. Oh my goodness!!! all the pictures are great!!! My favorite clay dog is the black one, it is soooooo adorable!!! (is that your dog?) I really do LOVE the horse picture even if the lighting is not perfect the horse is beautiful!!!!

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    1. Thank you so much, Lucy! ❤ No, all of the pictures beside the dog figurines are pictures my customers sent me. We do have a yellow lab, though! Aww, thank you! Puzzle is pretty cute. 😉

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  3. Ohh, those are all gorgeous!! You really did an awesome job with the clay dogs! I can see why that would be really time-consuming though. Your cat looks just like mine!! =D
    I love the palate picture and the spiderweb! I’m not a big fan of spiders, but I love their webs! Also, that tree was huge. O.o It’s sad that it had to come down. =(
    -Mikayla-

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    1. Ahh, thank you! Yeah, it really was. I think it took, like, 8-12 hours or something like that. O.o Really? Neat! What is your cat’s name?
      Thanks so much! I think spiderwebs are neat too. I know, it was. 😦
      Thanks for the comment, dear!

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  4. I really enjoyed this post!! 😀 I really loved the pictures of Eyore! HE IS SO CUTE!! And those bunnies are soooo adorable! And all of the other pictures are gorgeous as well! ❤ Are you excited for Thanksgiving?

    -Laura ❤ 😉

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    1. Yay, I’m so glad you did! Ahhh yes, Eeyore IS pretty cute, hee hee. Thanks, dear! YES, I’m super excited for Thanksgiving, because we get to stay at our old farm for a few days and visit our old church! 😀 Are you excited?

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  5. Allison this was lovely! Your new blog design is… *sniff* beautiful! Ooh, and yeah, can we swap buttons? 😀
    Do’h, Eeyore looks like a dear. And was Puzzle a reference to the last Narnia book? XD I’m Guessing it’s cause of his part black, part white complexion.
    It’s not raining where I live- It’s SNOWING. Snow. It’s just wuvely! I love that bit you wrote about God sprinkling His beauty (was it?)so generously. It’s so true!

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    1. Ha ha, AWWW, THANKS. Sure thing! I shall swap buttons with you after I finish replying to this comment. 😉 She IS pretty cute. Heh, I think his name is because of his coloring, but I don’t know… I’ll have to ask his owner. 😉 OH MY, SNOW ALREADY?? Wow! Are you all ready for a white Thanksgiving? XD Aww, thank you! I’m glad you liked it, because YES, I’m constantly amazed at God’s generosity to us!
      Thanks for the wonderful comment, dear!

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      1. Yippee!
        *nods* Yes, snow! Everywhere! And indeed I think we are. XD As long as the heater works, that is. 😉

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  6. I really enjoyed this post, Allison! 😀 All of the pictures were gorgeous, and listening to NEEDTOBREATHE’s new album while I read made it even better. XD
    As I said before, I looooove your new blog design! It’s gorgeous! ❤
    AHH EEYORE IS SO CUTE! She looks so sweet and funny! I love this photo of her and Megan:

    The light coming in the top is so neat! 😀
    I really love the last of the little dog figurines – it's adorable! You did such a great job on all of them. 🙂 I love my little Maude figure so much!
    AHH, I loved all of the nature photos! Here are a few of my top favorites:



    By the way, IT IS SO WET HERE TOO. Our pond is overflowing, streams are gushing everywhere, and our creek flooded. The sky is actually blue today for the first time in almost two weeks! Let's hope it finally stays that way. XD
    I can't wait for your next etcetera post! 🙂

    -Clara ❤

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    1. I’m so glad you liked it, dear! 😀 Aww, that’s great. ❤ 🙂 WAIT. *double take* NEEDTOBREATHE'S NEW ALBUM?? Why haven't we gotten this yet? XD
      Ahhh, thanks! I love the design too, hee hee.
      SHE ISSS! Ooh yes, I like that picture as well. 🙂
      Aww, thank you! The last is probably my favorite too. It was the grand finale. XD
      AHHHH THANK YOU! Thanks so much for showing me your favorites! I love those too. 🙂
      Oh my goodness, it sounds even more wet there than it does here, and that's saying something! XD Man, I feel you – it's finally sunny today for the first time in WAY too long. I agree. *nods*
      Thanks so much for the amazing comment, Clara! ❤

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  7. MEGAN GOT HER DONKEY YYYAAAAAASSSSSS
    okay, i’ll stop screaming now!
    I love all the pictures, and the clay figurines are adorable.

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  8. AHHH, I LOVE THIS POST! Donkey donkey. Megan is hilariously head-shaking and Eyeore is so cute. Tom. HA HA. (Also, have you noticed practically ALL of my pictures are vertical?) I LOVE that first sunset. and YOU CLIMBED ON THE ROOF? Okay, I’m doing that the next time I’m there. Hey, I didn’t know you took pictures of the Dutch Licorice, what do you know. I love your softbox pictures, but you know – I think as a rule, I much prefer natural light. It looks…softer? Ooh, butterflies, and OOH, I love all the nature pictures. But those last dew drops are SUPER pretty, AHH! And I love the picture of the ivy plant in your studio window. YECH, RAIN. Ooh, old churches! There’s an old one around here too, that’s dilapidated. AND OH NO, I DIDN’T KNOW THE TREE FELL ON THE DOZER. Good thing it still works.

    Lovely post, dear! I much enjoyed reading it. 🙂

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    1. YAYYYYYY I’M SO GLAD. Hee hee, indeed. (What? No, I haven’t.) AGGH ME TOO. Ha ha, what? Of course I did! It’s not flat like some of it was at our old house, but it’s not too steep. Yep, I sure did because they’re SO PRETTY. XD Yeah, I know what you mean. Softbox lighting is almost too… perfect. And yeah, not as soft. THANK YOUUUUU I think so too! Yeah, really.
      Thanks so much for your lovely comment, dear! I’m so happy you liked the post. 🙂 ❤

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  9. Yes, it is so wet here, too, Allison! I actually went outside in the gloomy cold to take some photos, and it was so wet in the grass! To answer your last question, yes of course tractors can be aesthetic. We have an old Ford tractor, and if it was in working condition and in a good place, I would take lots of pictures of it!
    I really like the pictures of Eeyore and the landscape photos, especially the rainbow one. I really like how you edited it. 🙂 I also love the spider web pictures with water droplets—so pretty!

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    1. Oh dear, really? *shakes head* Heh heh, I agree, even though I’m not one to think machinery is all that beautiful. XD Ooh, that sounds so neat! We have an old Ford too, but it’s not TERRIBLY aesthetic because for one thing, it’s not all that old.
      Thank you so much! Aww, really? I’m glad you liked how I edited it. I love the spider web pictures too!

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  10. I liked your old blog theme a little better, but that’s just because blue is my favorite color. 😛 But I really like your new one too, it’s so pretty! I still can’t believe you design everything yourself! You are SOOOO amazingly talented. ❤
    All of these pics are so great! I love acorns, they are so adorable! I wish we had them in Alaska, but the kind of tree they grow on doesn't grow up here. 😦
    And it's so sad that you had to cut that giant beautiful tree down! It looked so picturesque against your house. :,( Btw I LOVE your house! Your family's farm is so magical! I'm so glad I get to see you share it through your photos. 😀
    Well, it isn't sopping wet, but a couple weeks ago it dumped buckets of snow on us a couple days before halloween, but a couple of days ago it suddenly got really warm again and it all melted. :/
    And I think you can make ANYTHING aesthetic enough if you have the right setting and lighting and stuff. XD

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    1. Hee hee, well that makes sense to me! XD I like blue too, but purple’s my favorite. 😉 Thank you SO much for your honest feedback, Heather! I really appreciate it. 🙂 And I’m glad you still like the new theme! 😀 Aww, thank you, dear. ❤
      Acorns ARE adorable. Aww, it's sad you don't have oaks in Alaska – they're beautiful trees. *sigh* I know, right? Aww, thank you SO much! ❤ I'm so glad I can share the photos!
      Oh my, really?? Ugh, that's too bad. 😦 Hee hee, I agree! Lighting is key. 😛 Thanks for the wonderful comment, dear!

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  11. Great pictures, and I really like your new header!
    One of my favorite pictures is the one with the palette at golden hour. I also really liked the spider web ones, and I though the blurry/rainy one was neat–it looks like an impressionist painting!
    ~Gracie

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  12. Thats so cool 😁🤩 i love all God’s beautiful creatures except spiders and snakes but there still creatures. The donkey is so cute!-Autumn

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  13. Ahhh! Allison, I love your photography so, so much!!! They were all so beautiful, how can I choose a favorite?😱 But I think my favorite was the one of your hair in the sun…so pretty!😍

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    1. Aww, thank you SO much! I love you’re comments – they’re always so sweet! ❤ I like that one too, because I pretty much automatically love anything with golden hour light. XD Thanks again, dear!

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