ALY ALLEN | THE BLOG

your story matters, your story is relevant, and it was meant to be shared. you may feel it's so terrible or so far-fetched that nobody could ever relate to it?  but it's not, and they can. in sharing your story you may be ministering to someone who's right in the thick of it, or someone who has been keeping the same secret and it's eating them alive. in sharing your story, you bring glory to God because the thing about your story is that it's really His story. we have no idea the ripple effects that can go forth and bless others, change them, heal them, lead them to a Savior. it may be big, it may be overwhelming, it may be messy. but God intends to be glorified and exalted and made known through it. He intends to refine you and bring it about for your good. it might be small. it might seem insignificant or not that special. but that's a lie, and God is still glorified in the small stuff as long as we allow Him to be. the thing is, we're...

well this is a fun announcement for me: i'll be closing the shop on saturday, in preparation for a huge re-launch in February. i cannot wait to share my new designs with you! we're talking fancy new paper, a fancy new printer, and lots of work on the new designs. you guys, i'm so excited to reveal it all! but in the meantime, i'll be selling all existing prints at a good discount, just in case you've had your eye on something. you'll want to snag it ASAP! everything the shop is on sale right now at 30% off using that little coupon code up there and it will be until friday night at midnight. then it's closing. of course i'll announce the grand re-opening, so stay tuned for that in a few weeks! thank you for all your support, friends! now head over and shop ...

one of my very worst qualities, or biggest struggles, or whatever you want to call it? i'm terrible at prioritizing, i get distracted easily, and quite frankly i like doing things that i like doing. the only problem is that being a grown up means you have to do things you don't like sometimes, too. and sometimes you have to do more stuff you don't like than stuff you do like. if i get to doing too many chores in a row i end up feeling like my head might explode if i don't sit down and write, or design, or browse etsy, or scroll through instagram, or do something uplifting or fun. you could call me lazy, you could call me a dreamer, but what i'm not is "on top of things." and when i say "things", i mean the house, mostly. it's what my husband cares about most, and really it's his love language. if the house is messy when he walks in the door, i haven't loved him well that day. which is terrible because i'm worst at that ...

yep. laundry. the endless hamster-wheel and revolving door of laundry. it keeps turning and just when we feel like we've conquered it, there's more. it will never end. [yet we buy more clothes, the epitome of irony, right?] my husband's grandma once told me that she stayed somewhat on top of the laundry by switching it every morning, first thing... and every night, last thing. somewhere in the day she'd fold and put away the one she took out in the morning. now, she also hung up what needed ironing, and carved out an entire day at a friend's house to iron it all, but i'm not quite there yet. sounds fun, but i'm not there yet. i've had friends tell me that they just commit to one load. every day. and that seems to keep it under control. so i'm going to implement a little rule like this for myself until it becomes as normal as brushing my teeth, drinking coffee, all those things that i just do out of habit?  because thing about being ...

i had something different scheduled for today. but i was reminded that today is a special day. today is a day on which Americans remember a remarkable and courageous man. a man who risked his life, his reputation, his family's safety to ignite a fire in his people: an insatiable thirst and demand for  real freedom. i'm not here today to comment on the current state of things, our success or failure in this area. i know that some of you would suggest we have much further to go, and others of you are completely ignorant of what i could possibly mean by that. that's not why i'm here today. i'm simply here to remind us of the one who started it all. can you imagine the courage and resolve that it took to face the American landscape of segregation and discrimination and brutality and disgusting racism? i can't really fathom it. Martin Luther King Jr., in my humble opinion, is a hero of our Christian faith, quite simply. a man who advocated non violence, even ...

i'll be the first to admit that zazzle.com has a lot of cheesy stuff for sale. like suuuuper ugly. but i also know there are tons and tons of cute things too! so i did a little scouring and wanted to bring you some things i love, and thought you might love too.   red floral       |       woodland        |       elephants       |       black floral       |       rainbow   black & red     |        pink & lime       |           aqua & black          |           lavender & aqua    okay, how much do you love these vintage hot air balloon posters? i'm a little bit obsessed right now, and  pretty sure i want to do an entire wall of them in different sizes. what do ...

one of my favorite things to do in december is to drive around to see the lights. our neighborhood is huge, and we have some seriously awesome houses. one of them is our next-door neighbor, so we don't have to look very far it we don't want to. but at least five or six times in december i would stick the girls in the car and drive around our neighborhood to spot the best-decorated houses. one particular evening, as we were driving, i asked my three-year old if she remembered what was so special about Christmas. "it's when Jesus came to see all my presents!" that's when you know you're doing a good job, right? yeah, so i gently reminded her that Jesus came, in fact, to wipe away our sins. after a thirty second pause, she wondered out loud: "He came to wipe away your yelling?" straight.to.the.heart. "Because when you yell, that's your sin. and when i don't listen to you, that's my sin." yes, right again. i found...

It recently occurred to me that fear dictates much of what I do and don't do . When I feel God has placed something on my heart, I dismiss it because I'm not good enough and surely He didn't mean for me to do that? I think that I have to achieve some level of discipline or spiritual maturity before I'm qualified for the job,  so I simply never move. It's pure defeat, allowing my mind to go there. I'll never have mastery here, and I'll never have discipline there. When will I just do what I know I'm supposed to do? I'm convicted of the ways in which I fall short , or I read through the passages in Matthew that shine a piercing spotlight into the areas of my life that are lacking tremendously. I wonder when I'll ever be different than I used to be? When will it click, and when will I finally be that faithful and fearless woman I desire to be? I chew on it long enough until it finally hits me:  this sanctification process is just that --  ...

'tis the season for sickness and germs. i guess you've gathered, if you've been around for very long, that i don't really do traditional medicine? special occasions do call for it, but most of the time i prefer natural remedies and vitamins, and i honestly believe they work better. people ask me all the time what i do when i'm sick. well, here it is: 1. gargle with half hydrogen peroxide/ half water as soon as i feel it coming on. about 4 or 5 times a day or until the sore throat eases away, which is usually within a day, if i catch it soon enough. i think it just kills all those germs that are waiting to attack you. [photo credit] 2. bombard my system with vitamin D and vitamin C .  vitamin D is a miracle, i believe. it comes right from the sun, just the way God designed it... but if you think about it, flu season is always during the winter months when there's not a lot of sun to be had. so, i take it in softgel form daily. but if i feel i'm g...

so it's a new year. and i purposely didn't write out my "resolutions" or "goals" on january 1st. i have a couple reasons/excuses for why. 1) it's hard for me to set anything in stone. i'm afraid of failing, and you knowing about it , quite honestly. but i'm over that today. my life is not all buttoned up with a bow on top. not even close. i'm not organized and i'm kinda lazy and i start a lot of things without ever finishing. but the things is?  i think some of you might be that way too, so why should i try to hide that part of myself? we're all in this together, right? 2) i don't like arbitrarily writing things down like i do my christmas list . that's not what a new year is for. i do view it as a fresh start, but not to accomplish all the things i think i want to accomplish . it's not in my nature to finish everything i start anyway, so that's just setting myself up for failure. the last few years i've deci...

i don't know if you remember this post ? where i outlined my natural lifestyle and all the crazy things i do/don't do? i also mentioned how for me, everything is a gradual process. i can't change my entire life all at once or it won't stick. so i take on a few changes at a time until they become habit and then add on something else until that sticks. i had a few goals at the end of that post. some things i wanted to try or switch over to, and one of those was deodorant   a sweet gal commented that she had tried making her own deodorant and she emailed me  the link to the recipe . there's even a video. i promptly made some and i store it in this little jar and i use it every day. so i know you're thinking it totally doesn't work, right? and i'll admit i was very skeptical at first. i'm naturally a sweater, and since this isn't "anti-perspirant" i assumed i'd be sweating non-stop. more than usual, anyway. the truth is, i h...

i have a little habit. when life starts getting out of hand, i like to make it worse. i'm honestly not sure if it's my own mind, or the enemy planting lies [probably a combination of both], but i will grab onto a tiny little lie and grow it and twist and chew on it until i'm caught up in a full on stronghold. a spiraling episode , i call it. in high school, when i wasn't as aware of what was actually happening, i called it "letting my imagine run wild". i'd come up with scenarios and play out the entire thing to its logical, or illogical, bitter end. a disaster really. a crisis of the mind. a crisis of belief. lately i'd been doing really well when it comes to these episodes, meaning they were becoming fewer and further between. but recently life started feeling heavy. for awhile, i put one foot in front of the other and waded through it. but then i got blindsided. you can call me crazy, but i believe the enemy gives me dreams sometimes. terrible...

yes, i redesigned it again. i just couldn't deal with the gigantic header and menu buttons. now it's much simpler which is much more my style. thanks for bearing with me ;)

i talk about natural living a lot here. i've mentioned the 80/20 rule a few times, too. you know, eat really healthy 80% of the time, and then not-so-healthy the other 20% confession: the holidays completely kicked my butt. i would say on a good day i was doing 50/50 and on more days i was doing 20/80. yuck. and i was absolutely floored when i stepped on the scale last night and weighed about 10 pounds more than i was expecting. and i had already figured i was about 15 pounds over my healthy weight. i know you're thinking, 10 pounds? what's the big deal? but add that to 15, and you've got 25 pounds. and for all of us normal women, we know how hard it is to get rid of 25 pounds. enter: #alittletoofluffy my friend Danielle is awesome. and she and a group of gals were already planning to shed some of their extra fluff this new year, and asked if anyone else wanted to join in. well i did, obviously. the best part? we each put in $10 and the winner [highest percent...

if you follow me on instagram , you've seen this a few times: looks yummy, right? well those are sardines mixed with avocado and black bean, served on toast with spinach, tomato and mustard. seriously good. and crazy good for you. sardines are a superfood, basically. they pack a crazy amount of omega-3s that we barely get enough of in our american diet, but they don't have all that mercury that's a danger in pretty much every other fish. that's because they aren't alive long enough to soak it all up. add in the fact that they can be stored for years in those little tins, and you've got yourself an amazing food. now i know what everyone is thinking: sardines are gross. and sure, they look a little strange when you open up the tin. they might smell fishy, it's true. but it's really a mind-over-matter kinda thing, until you get everything mixed up. if it's your first time, just start small. use 1/3 of the tin with a whole avocado. ...

some of my favorite things on zazzle.com right now [use code MAKEYOURYEAR for 50% off the price you see listed here]     found here             |           found here            |           found here            |           found here [first three are some of my new designs, the fourth one isn't mine but i loved it] found here              |            found here             |            found here             |            found here [none of my designs, just thought they were super cute] and then use the same MAKEYOURYEAR code for 30% off iPhone cases! here are my faves: ...

Well friends, it's a new year! Another chance to reinvent ourselves, try new things, make commitments that we really intend to keep. In junior high and high school, I used to make a list of resolutions before each school year. They would always look something like this: 1. Curl your hair everyday 2. Be on time 3. Don't be so awkward and shy 4. Dress cuter The only trouble is that I could write them out today and they'd still apply. Late everywhere, not that cool and not that fashionable, a hopeless procrastinator, painfully slow at getting things done, a perfectionist to a fault: you know,  human . As the years have gone by and countless lists of resolutions have remained unconquered, I've started to wonder if maybe God made me this way? Maybe He had a perfect plan for all those imperfections? Maybe they would serve to unlock a creativity and an introspection and a compassion in me? Maybe they would reveal an overwhelming need for Grace, for a Savior, f...