12 Weeks to Better Photos Week 2

This week's lesson was on ISO and Shutter Speed. ISO is the film speed. "ISO, or film speed, is really just a setting to determine how quickly an image will be captured by either the film or digital sensor. The higher the ISO, the quicker the image will be captured and the less light that is required. The lower the ISO, the longer it takes for the image to be captured and the more light you will need. " "Your shutter speed is how quickly the shutter, or the little door that opens in front of your film or image sensor, operates. It can range from several seconds (or minutes on the Bulb setting) to 1/1600 of a second or faster. It might help to visualize your shutter literally as a door, with your shutter speed controlling how fast or how slow the door opens and closes" http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/class_pdfs/photocourse/weektwo.pdf

For the photographs this week, we were to take two pictures. One with a low shutter speed, such as 1/80 and one with a high shutter speed. Since I was inside with bad lighting, I set my ISO to 1600. The assignment was to take a picture of water flowing from a faucet over an object that would interrupt the flow. I was really excited about this project after seeing sample pictures. Unfortunately, I wasn't very happy with the end results of my pictures since, as I mentioned, I was dealing with bad lighting. The window over our kitchen sink is really small and the sun never really gave great light. I ended up going upstairs to our master bath. The problem there was the faucet is really close to the side of the tub, and thus didn't give a good flow of water over my cup. I ended up letting the water fill the cup and spill over. So, without further adieu (or excuses) here are my pictures...

 1/80

1/80

1/80

1/1000

For the high shutter speed photo (1/1000), I used picmonkey to lighten the picture because it came out too dark. 

Becoming a Momtographer!

Way back in the summer of 2011 after finding out I was pregnant with the dragon, I quickly jumped online to join The Bump and found a community in March Moms 2012. Not long after many of our little ones were born, some of us moved to a facebook group because it's a little easier to communicate there than on than the bump. Anywho...long story short, one of the moms has put together a 12 week online photography course. Santa was very good to me this year and brought a Nikon D3000. I've been wanting a fancy DSLR for FOREVER.  Now that I have one, I need to know what to do with it. I am going to try my hardest to blog each week's lesson, on time :)

Week One: Aperture. Basically, aperture size determines how much of the picture is in focus. The aperture number is the f/stop. I'll just link the lesson website rather than regurgitate it all here, but the gist of the lesson was this "Basically, when you use a low f/stop, less of your photo will be in focus. When
you use a higher f/stop, MORE of your photo will be in focus."
http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/class_pdfs/photocourse/weekone.pdf

Without further ado...here are my first attempts at using my camera as more than a point and shoot. The assignment was to take three pictures at different apertures of a fixed subject.

This was taken with f/3.5 (the lowest setting my lens will go)

This was taken with f/8

 This was taken with f/22

We also were to take a challenge photo, so I used my favorite subject...my little dragon!

I took this with f/8 because I liked the amount of blur in the background the best at this aperture. Please ignore the wet spot  on the couch. The dragon likes to bite it as he stands there. Honestly, I took a ton of pictures trying to get the challenge one just right. I'm not super happy with the results, but my "subject" doesn't really stay in one place for long anymore...

Here is the blog from the mom running the course. It's great...give it a look! http://christenheartspinterest.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/12-weeks-to-better-photos-course-week-one-aperture/

Nursing Necklace

So, the Dragon has become quite grabby while nursing. Before I got my hair cut last weekend, I was wearing it up in a clip most of the time so I was spared the ridiculous strength of my 7.5 month old. Now that it's shorter though, I wear it down more and well...let's just say I need to keep all the hair that post-partum hair loss didn't already steal from me. The dragon also is a lot more distracted these days and these necklaces are supposed to help with that. I've seen some super cute ones for sale on the interwebs, but I wanted to try making one for less money. One of the ones I really liked on Esty was $14 plus shipping. I spent about $14 at Michaels today and I'll be able to make five necklaces with these materials (with extra cord to spare).

Here are the materials I bought:

 

I cut off pieces of the green, blue, and gray cords (Bamboo) and braided them together.

 

Next I looped the cord around a Cabone Ring that I found in the crochet section. I figured wood would be friendly for the Dragon to chew on if he so desires.

Then I threaded a blue bead on the cord and tied a knot above it.

 

Next, I threaded on a light blue bead, but left this one with the ability to slide up and down.

I tied the two sides together at the top. We'll see in the morning how the dragon likes it! Now I just have to choose the color combinations for the next one :)





Homemade washing soaps: part 3

Fabric Softener!

I also got this recipe from the blog Building It On Pennies: http://www.buildingitonpennies.com/2011/12/homemade-laundry-soap-even-he-safe.html

 

I spent some time in the hair aisle at Walmart choosing my conditioner scent :) I went with Everlasting Sunshine...descriptive isn't it? It smells lovely though.

 

This recipe is SUPER SIMPLE. Just mix together 2 cups of conditioner (pretty much the whole bottle), 3 cups of vinegar, and 10 cups of water. The blog says not to shake the mixture as it creates a lot of foam. I stirred it together in the big 5 gallon bucket and then poured it into another gallon pitcher.

 

Here are my 3 gallons of laundry detergent and fabric softener...all made for super cheap! I just recently ran out of Gain Fabric Softener, but so far I like my homemade one fine.



Homemade washing soaps: part 2

Laundry Detergent!

To give credit where credit is due, this is the site I got the laundry detergent recipe from: http://www.buildingitonpennies.com/2011/12/homemade-laundry-soap-even-he-safe.html

Ingredients:
1/3 bar of Fels-Naptha soap (found in the laundry aisle)
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda

To start, I grated the Fels-Naptha using a grater I bought specifically for this project (so, not for food consumption).

Next, I melted the Fels-Naptha in a large pot of a 1/2 gallon of water.

 

Once that melted, I added the Borax and washing soda. This boiled for five minutes for the soaps to combine while I stirred occasionally.

Then, in a large 5 gallon bucket, I added 1.5 gallons of cold water. To this I added the melted soap concoction. Using the immersion blender, I stirred the mixture, let it sit for 30 minutes, then stirred again.



Once gelled together, I poured the detergent into two gallon containers. Let the laundry-ing begin!

Review: While I do believe this detergent cleans well, it separated a lot which I don't love. I keep a spatula (the one pictured actually) in the laundry room to stir occasionally. When I run out of this stuff, I think I will try a powdered detergent recipe.

Homemade washing soaps: part 1

Many months ago my DIY cleaning product journey began in the kitchen via pinterest (of course). Homemade dishwasher detergent. I won't lie; what first drew my eye to this project was the cute jar. It seemed like such a neat way to make something super cheap but vital to the kitchen. I don't have step by step pics, but I do have the finished jar (which I got to use my Cricut for...yippee!).

 

 

I will admit, the results are not that professional looking ;) It was very hard to fit all the words on the jar with the limited Cricut fonts I own. However, that is not the most disappointing part of this project. While the website I got the recipe from ( http://simplydesigning.blogspot.com/2011/05/hard-water-stains-dishwasher-detergent.html) claims it cleans very well, this was not the case in our dishwasher. I used the detergent faithfully for several months until I finally had to admit to myself that is just doesn't clean well enough. Absolutely no food could be left on the dishes, and even though I used vinegar as a rinse aid every time, there was always a streaky feeling left on the glassware. I have since gone back to my trusted Cascade pouches. Now, I will say that our dishwasher is not of the highest quality and I would replace it if the money tree in the backyard wasn't barren but alas, at this point in time, I'll have to rely on Cascade to do the job. 

Game Day Onesies!

As I've mentioned, we are an SEC house divided. Go Dawgs!!! (And Roll Tide too) Ever since finding out the dragon was a boy, I've been thinking about how to make house divided game day attire. At first, I thought I would take identical team onesies and try to take them apart and sew them back together (like the front of one to the back of the other). However, upon further thought this didn't seem like it would show each team's "spirit" the best. Then I happened upon DIY tie onesies on pinterest and I was hooked! I love the little ties on baby boys. I have stickers to celebrate each month for the dragon. I searched around to find the tutorial that made the most sense to me. This is it: http://www.crapivemade.com/2009/03/appliqued-tie-onesie.html

To start I bought a pack of short sleeve onesies and a pack of long sleeve onesies. Then I went off to my favorite store, Hobby Lobby, and bought UGA and Alabama fabric. I also got some fusible webbing.

1) I cut out a piece of fabric slightly bigger than the piece of webbing.

 

 

2) With this webbing, I took off the loose piece of paper and stuck it to the "wrong" side of the fabric.

 



 

3) Then I ironed the webbing to the fabric.

 

4) Next, I used the pattern from the afore mentioned site and cut out the knot and tie.

 

 

 

5) Then I cut the two different fabrics at the same time so that I could get matching halves.

 

 

 

6) Next, I ironed the pieces onto the onesies.



 

7) The next step is optional. Sew the tie onto the onesie. The fusible webbing is supposed to be washable, but sewing secures it. I sewed the two short-sleeved onesies. But my sewing skills are still new, so I held off sewing the long-sleeved onesies for now. 

 

 

And a picture of the long-sleeved, unsewn onesies.

I also made a shirt for my adorable nephew. His is all Georgia :) I used a different site's tutorial and I don't like the finished product as much. I might have to make him another ;)