Three Good Things - Week One

We're moving house soon (if all goes according to plan). This means I've been extremely busy recently. In amongst having too much to do, I want to note some good things as they happen. I've been wondering how best to do this. 

Then I spotted that one of my favourite bloggers, Liz from Margot and Barbara, has started a new weekly series of blog posts called 'Three Good Things' and she has encouraged her readers to do the same. So, without further ado, here are my 'three good things' from the last week or so.

1. New phone case

My new Harris Tweed phone case made by LifeCovers is utterly gorgeous and very practical. 

I bought it as a present for myself after getting rid of my iPhone contract and downgrading to a Nokia Asha 300 contract that will cost me £400 less a year. 

If you want to find out more about what I've done to reduce my annual outgoings, listen to this audioboo about How I've reduced my outgoings by £1000 per year.

listen to ‘How I've reduced my outgoings by £1000 per year!’ on Audioboo

2. Nearly finished '21st Century Boy' cross stitch

This Jolly Red '21st Century Boy' cross stitch kit is wonderful - I love the bright colours. I am very excited now the end is in sight and so is my little boy.

This is how it looked last September, when I first blogged about it:

3. Despicable Me

A couple of people recommended this film to me, so I bought it on DVD. We have all enjoyed watching it together, and my son was particularly impressed with the minions. Here is a snapshot of him wearing the free cardboard 'minion' glasses that came with the DVD.

New Camera!

Aled June 2013, a photo by nyssapod on Flickr.

This is one of the first photos taken with my new camera, which is a Canon EOS 100D.

The reason for buying this new camera is that I have grown increasingly frustrated with the results I've been getting with my compact camera. In particular, it is a real challenge to get photographs of my fast-moving four-year-old son. Low light levels are another challenge.

I know that good photographers can get impressive results with compact cameras, or even mobile phone cameras. But I am not a particularly good photographer, so I need all the help I can get.

On Saturday I went to John Lewis and Jessops to hold a few 'high end' compact cameras in my hand and see what they were like, and they didn't feel like proper cameras. I couldn't get a proper grip on the Sony RX100 for example, and disliked the fact there was no viewfinder.

As with any big purchase, I discussed this with my husband, and he suggested I should consider a DSLR. He argued that even an entry level DSLR would produce better results than a compact camera, no matter how 'high end'. This is because compact cameras tend to be inherently slower than DSLRs, and they have smaller lenses and smaller sensors.

The main reason I hadn't considered buying a DSLR before was because I assumed that they would be too heavy for me. I already have access to my husband's Canon EOS 300D, which was the first sub-£1000 DSLR, released in 2003. When I have used the Canon EOS 300D in the recent past, the results have been better than with my compact camera. But the weight of it has put me off taking it with me on overnight trips.

The Jessops catalogue featured the Canon EOS 100D, which claims to be the smallest and lightest DSLR, so on Sunday I went to Jessops and had a look at it. And it felt amazingly light. Even better than that, the controls and the kit lens seemed to be very intuitive. This is probably partly because I'm already used to the Canon EOS 300D.

So I bought it. And on Sunday afternoon I took the above photo of my fast-moving four-year-old. It is fair to say I'm thrilled with both the camera and the photo.

My husband is very impressed too, which is good because it means that both of us will get lots of use out of our new camera. And we have it just in time for my sister's wedding.

I've recorded a short audioboo about my new camera.

listen to ‘New camera!’ on Audioboo

Playful parenting

This weekend I made a den for my son out of a couple of bedspreads and a blanket (originally purchased from charity shops). It was a big hit with my little boy, so I took the photo above and recorded an audioboo about it.


If the Audioboo player below doesn't work, please click here to listen to it on the Audioboo website.

listen to ‘Playful parenting’ on Audioboo