Hi! I’m Alayna.

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about the blog

 

The name Lilac & Ramble comes from two things this blog is full of: flowers and words that may or may not mean anything. It also kind of makes me think of a vintage printing company, which is fun! 

 

Lilac & Ramble was created partially to be another creative outlet for myself, and partially to act as a tiny window into my life. I write about stories, creativity, other things I like to do or think about, and what God has been teaching me. If you have an idea for a post you'd like to see, drop me a line! I'm always open to suggestions :)

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about the blogger

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I’m Alayna (obviously), a 16-year-old daughter of God. I seek to glorify my Creator and Savior with my whole  being and to point others to the love of Jesus. I am nothing apart from the grace of God, and it is He who has been shaping me into the person that I am. I could write pages and pages about what He has done for me, but sadly that won’t fit in an About page, so we’ll have to save the rest for another time. ;)

 

I am also...

 

• A proud homeschooler. Although being homeschooled often makes it hard to fit in and I sometimes get looked down upon, I wouldn’t trade our school days for the world. I LOVE LEARNING! I love what I get to learn and how I get to learn it, I love being filled with awe at God’s creation and seeing His hand at work throughout history. Learning is fun, and homeschooling has helped me realize that.​​

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• A member of the Stephens family, which besides me consists of my two amazing parents, three younger siblings, a large dog, two tiny turtles, and an extremely fluffy bunny. We adopted my little sister Talitha (or TES, her initials) after about six years of being a foster family. We’ve got a large-ish property (4 ½ acres, to be more precise), with enough woods and water and space to run and climb and get dirty to our heart’s content, and it’s lovely!

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• A very serious bookworm. I like classic literature the best, as they’re the ones that have stood the test of time and are so deeply beautiful. Some of my favorite authors are Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery, C.S. Lewis, and David McCullogh. (he’s actually still alive *gasp*, and he wrote my favorite biography of all time.) I think stories, historical or fictional, have a huge impact on how we navigate our own realities, and I think the best characters resonate so deeply with us because in them we all see bits of ourselves… but that’s a ramble for another time. Speaking of rambling…

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• A writer-of-sorts. (of course, I wouldn’t have a blog if I didn’t like writing!) I do write some fiction, perhaps I’ll eventually share some of it with you all. I also have been really getting into simply writing about my thoughts on movies or society or the Gospel... I’ve been sending blog post-sized messages on these subjects to one close friend -then copying and pasting them to send to others- for so long that I decided I’d better save some trouble and just type my rambles out once and send the blog post link to everyone. :P I love thinking deeply about the world and then talking about it with people I’m close to, and a blog seemed like the perfect way to do just that!​

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• An aspiring artist. I like most ways of creating things, really! I love trying new techniques and mediums, although what I keep coming back to is watercolor painting. I love how the colors bloom together, and how soft or vibrant the finished piece can be. I actually have an Etsy shop (there's a link somewhere up by the menu) where I sell my pieces.

 

Here are some other things I love, in no particular order: 

• Trees

• England (if someone could buy me a plane ticket that would be great, thank youuu)

• The sky

• Hugs (there isn’t much that can cheer me up as well as a really good hug from a friend)

• Old things

• Rain (there’s actually a gorgeous rain outside as I’m writing this… perhaps I’ll take a walk when I’m finished, hmmm...)

• Olive green

• Laughing (I mean, who doesn’t?)

• Worshiping with my church family

• Flowers

• Personalities (I’m a type 4 on the enneagram, probably a MBTI type INFP)

• Fairy tales

• Making people smile

• God's creatures, great and small (although I don't particularly care for the creepy-crawly ones)

• Words

• History (Particularly the American Revolutionary period)

• Daydreaming

• Horses (I'm a volunteer staff member at one of my favorite places in the world- a therapy barn called Whispering Grace Horses!)

• Spiced chai lattes

• Photography

• Romance ;D (at least, the un-cheesy kind)

• The way the sun shines through the trees on summer evenings

• Music (Folksy/Christian music is usually my favorite, although I have been known to listen to other genres at times)

• Taking walks with my doggo

• The Bible (It’s living and active to this day!) 

 

Apparently, I’m also a fan of long lists with orderly bullet points and disorderly parentheses! I have a tendency to favor run-on sentences that just keep going and going and going... but ahem, let’s stay on topic. *tugs naughty train of thought out of the clouds* 

 

So, that’s me! What about you? Feel free to email me or comment on one of my blog posts to introduce yourself if I don’t know you already, or to just say hey if I do. Have a lovely day, my dears!