Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Staff Behind the Scenes - Allison

 Hannah and KyAnn, I think this is a marvelous idea. (I do have a blog, but it's an invite-only blog. I hope you don't mind if I put up my post here.) I look forward to getting to know my fellow staff members better.


1. My name is Allison. I'm thirteen, with a birthday in the middle of November. I live in Texas, and I'm a photographer on Staff 2.

2.  I have nine siblings - five sisters and four brothers, ages six months to seventeen years. They're fun. They're goofy. They're creative. They're blessings.

3. I have been homeschooled my whole life, and I'm thankful for it. When I grow up, I plan to homeschool my kids, as well.

4. My church is what is called "Reformed Baptist;" I am, too. Let me pull out some of my preacher's-daughter phrases for you. I believe in the complete sovereignty of God; in baptism of believers; that God chooses those He is to save, not us; that Christ Jesus was all God, all man, and our only hope of salvation.

5. I enjoy almost any sport, and I love to sing. I'm going to start piano lessons this Friday, something I had been wanting to do. I also want to learn the violin someday. I love to write, and, obviously, photography. I love to take unconventional pictures, especially of people, and to edit them.

6. I'm rather quiet - I tend to keep my thoughts to myself around most people - and quite shy. I'm very much a night person; I like to design things; my favorite board game is Clue and my favorite card game is Nerts. I love to be outside, especially in wide, empty spaces when it's windy and warm. I'm something of a perfectionist.

7. I'm a girly-girl. I like clothes, shoes, hairstyles, jewelry, the works. Sometimes I'm afraid I focus too much on those things; my beauty is to come from the inside - "a meek and quiet spirit" - and not from them. At the same time, it's built into girls to be feminine, and we should embrace that.

8. In ten years, I'll be twenty-three. (That's seeming really far away right now, but I know I'll be there before I know it.) Obviously I don't know what God's plans are for me, but I see myself getting married somewhere around that time. I want to have published a book by then - we'll see whether that happens or not! As for college, I'd like to look into online courses.

9. Some of my favorite books are The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Hiding Place, Mara, Daughter of the Nile, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Great and Terrible Quest.  I love the movie versions of The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Chronicles of Narnia. As for my favorite foods, I love almost any Mexican food, spaghetti with lots of cheese, supreme pizza, and chef salad.

10. I received an email forward sending out the news when Bloom! was just beginning last year. It included the website and KyAnn's email, if I'm remembering correctly. I applied for a position on the staff of either photographer or writer, and was accepted as a photographer. I was attracted to the project because I very much agree with the vision and goal of KyAnn and everyone else involved, and I wanted to be a part of it.

11. Through Bloom!, I have been convicted to be more active in my faith. I've also been challenged to achieve a greater excellence in my photography by seeing others' work, and learned lessons about deadlines and promises through dealing with sweet KyAnn each issue that I help with.

12. My favorite thing about Bloom!, quite frankly, is the finished product. That may be obvious, but it's really a great thing to see so much time, effort, creativity and faith come together in such a wonderful magazine. Each issue, I'm grateful for the work being done through this organization!

13. I'm inspired by the wind. Besides being amazing and beautiful in itself, it's a powerful example of God's ultimate control over every detail.

14. If I could travel anywhere in the world right now, I'd like to go to England. I would take about eight friends and three sisters, and stay out in the country for a while during the spring. So many books set in England describe the springs that it makes me want to see for myself, and then everything there is so old compared to things here in America.

15. My favorite dessert is vanilla Blue Bell ice cream. (*Faints.*) I also love homemade apple pie.

16. Coffee, tea or soda? - Well, soda, except that here we call it Coke. =)

17. My favorite color combination is dark pink, light pink, light blue, and white. I also like light green, light blue, pink, and black as a combination.

18. My favorite time of year is summer, although I love spring as well. My least favorite time is January. Cold. Gray. Uneventful.

19. I would rather have a very close "best" friend than a group of good friends, although I'd love to have both.

20. There are about four ladies in my church who are role models to me (one of whom is my mother). Together they make up the picture of who I'd like to be.

21. I think my all time favorite Bible verse is Hebrews 13:5, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." It's pretty obvious why - it's an explicit assurance of God's faithfulness and love. I also like some of the verses in Ecclesiastes which tell how it is for man (and woman) to work hard and enjoy his rest when he gets it.

22. In 2011 I've been trying to speak gently. I can't say I've had much success, but I'm trying. Maybe by the time I'm fifty I'll have it down completely. Until then, it's one of my New Year resolutions.

23. I'm trying to strengthen my relationship with Jesus by building up a habit of prayer. I usually pray for about fifteen minutes a day, and while that's good, I still try to do more, not because I think it's vital to my salvation or anything but because of what it does for me.

Thank you, girls! I had fun.

8 comments:

Hallie Jo said...

Hi Allison! I really enjoyed your answers. I know what you mean about having the same New Year's resolution till you're fifty... hard to make new habits!! :)
~Hallie Jo
(halliejophotography.blogspot.com)

hannah m said...

I enjoyed reading your answers, Allison! Ohh, have fun with piano lessons...and you should definitely learn to play violin sometime (learning is after piano is the way to go!). So fun!

Thank you for joining! Just one thing...could you add this post to the link-up, even though it's on the staff blog? It would be really lovely if we could have all of the posts together, so that would be awesome of ya!

with love,
--hannah m.

Allison said...

I'll do that, certainly. Thanks for the sweet comments. =)

Allison

devorelebeaumonstre. said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
All Things Lovely said...

Love this blog!!

We'd love for you to join the growing community at dwellonlovely.com. Blessings! =)

KyAnn said...

Hi, Allison! Thanks for joining! I really enjoyed reading your post! :) It is so great to get to know you better.

I agree, the wind is definitely a powerful example of God's power! Too bad it isn't a little easier to capture that in a photo! :)

KyAnn

Maria said...

Great answers! And I agree, the finished product of Bloom! magazine is the best part! :) Why didn't I think of that? :)

Reformed baptist...well, that's about the closest anyone has gotten to IRC (Independent Reformed) which is what I am. :) But you have us beat with the number of kid's in your family. :( We ONLY have 8, in all. :)

Maria

themajessty said...

You write very well.

And I'm home schooled too, so I can relate. (: