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

Most excellent marble run

Most excellent marble run - only £2 from charity shop, a photo by nyssapod on Flickr.

This marble run was only £2 from the local Treetops Hospice charity shop. 

It is probably the best £2 I have ever spent, because my 4 year son and I have enjoyed playing with it together.

I love the colours too - orange, black, silver and red. Much more sophisticated and stylish than the usual colours of children's toys.

Linking up with Magpie Monday at Me and My Shadow and the Op-Shop Show-Off at Blackbird has Spoken.

Why it's never wine o'clock for me

I got out the habit of drinking alcohol in the evenings when I was pregnant and then breastfeeding. I acquired a taste for Beck's Blue Alcohol-Free Lager and have continued to drink it ever since. It's particularly nice on a sunny evening like yesterday.

There are some advantages of not drinking wine in the evenings any more. I sleep more consistently, and am less likely to snore. Plus it is nice not to have hangovers. I think my skin looks better. And drinking fewer calories means I can eat more cake and chocolate without getting fat.

Linking up with this week's Photo Gallery at Sticky Fingers - check it out if you want to see what other people are drinking.

How to find good gifts in charity shops

This vintage camera was a birthday present for my husband. It was made the same year that he was born. I bought the camera from the local Oxfam shop. 

Some people think it is a bit weird to buy secondhand presents, but I love finding gifts for people in charity shops, for the following reasons:

• you can choose something really special, rather than a standard present
• no wasteful packaging
• your money goes further
• a contribution to the charity

The trick is to buy presents when you spot them, and then stash them away until the next birthday or Christmas. 

I have even managed to find gifts for the 'hard to shop for' men in my life. The chess books shown above were for Dad. He was delighted with them.

The casserole dish shown below was a housewarming present for my youngest sister Hannah (who has recently started an excellent blog called Hannah and Her Thriftiness).

I also enjoy receiving gifts from charity shops. When I was about to go to university for the first time, my mum gathered up various pre-loved kitchenware items to get me started. The Pyrex dish shown below is still going strong 24 years later!

If you enjoyed reading this, you might also like how to find good stuff in charity shops.

Linking up with this week's Magpie Monday at Me and My Shadow, The Op-Shop Show-Off at Blackbird Has Spoken and The Nifty Thrifty at A Living Space.

Decluttering and buying less

I've been working hard on decluttering my house recently, because we need to move to another city in time for me to start a new job at the beginning of August. The photo above shows the latest bag of clothes destined for a local charity shop.

I am also trying really hard to buy less stuff. We can't afford to keep wasting money on things we don't really need.

It's fun to find bargains. But I also think that thriftiness involves buying less stuff. So every time I spot something I fancy buying, I ask myself the following questions:

1. do I really want this item?
2. will I still want the item by this time next week?
3. do I actually need this item?
4. is there room for it in my life and home?
5. do I already have something that will serve a similar purpose?
6. can I justify the purchase to my husband?
7. can we actually afford it?
8. what else will I have to not buy so that I can pay for this?
9. is there any chance that I will want to get rid of the item 6 months after I've bought it?

Here are three examples of how these questions work in practice:

Example 1: I've been coveting Pandora and Troll bracelets. They look so pretty on other people's wrists. But they are also expensive, even if you take time to shop around and get the best deal. So questions 7 and 8 are the really significant ones in this case. Question 5 also comes into play - I already have bracelets that are pretty and don't get worn very often.

Example 2: I spotted an Ercol Windsor sideboard in a charity shop recently for a bargain price. It was gorgeous, just my kind of thing. But I had to admit that we didn't actually need a sideboard, and there isn't room for one in our current house. Also, there was no way I would have been able to justify the purchase to my husband, not least because it would be yet another large item to find space for and possibly have to put in storage when we move house. So with a regretful sigh I left the sideboard where it was.

Example 3: When it comes to clothes and handbags I tend to gravitate towards particular styles and end up with too many similar items. But now I am really strict about asking myself questions 1, 2, 3, 5 and 9 from the above list and this has helped to stem the flow of new stuff into the house.

Posted with Blogsy

Megson - When I Was A Lad...

Over the last couple of months, my little boy and I have really enjoyed listening to When I Was A Lad... by Megson after we received a free copy to review. 

In fact, we haven't just been listening, we have been singing along and dancing around the living room.

Megson are Stu and Debbie Hanna. They recorded this album of children's folk songs after having a daughter. The mix of traditional and new songs is lovely and makes good use of how Stu and Debbie's voices work together.

Here is a YouTube video of the first track on the album, which is a traditional Yorkshire Lullaby called Bee-o (where "go to bee'o's" means "go to sleep").

My favourite bit from Bee-o is 

I love my little laddy, he's just like his daddy

I love him, I love him, I love him cause he's mine

Another song I really love from the album is Jenny Jenkins. My maiden name is Jenkins and it is the first time I've had a song to sing with my family name in it!  

The album When I was a Lad is available to purchase from Megson's website for £10, along with all their other CDs.

I received a free copy of this CD for the purposes of writing this review. All my reviews are completely honest.

Bedside reading

I thought you might be interested to see the current pile of books on my bedside table. 

Three of the books are recent charity shop finds:

• Appetite by Nigel Slater - spotted for £4.99 in the Beeston Oxfam Books & Music shop. I'm amazed I didn't already have this in my cookbook collection because I am a big Nigel Slater fan. His books are always very readable, and I'm really enjoying this one.
• The Bad Mother's Handbook by Kate Long - only 80p in the Treetops Hospice shop on Bramcote Lane. I've previously read Swallowing Grandma by the same author, so I'm really looking forward to reading this.
• Just My Type by Simon Garfield - £1.50 in the Loughborough British Heart Foundation shop. This is a fascinating cultural history of fonts, with lots of photos showing how different fonts are used and what connotations they have.

The other book I'm currently reading is Angels by Marian Keyes. I read The Mystery of Mercy Close in December and have been inspired to go back and re-read all the other Marian Keyes books featuring the Walsh sisters. I started with Watermelon and recently finished Rachel's Holiday. If anything, these have been even more enjoyable the second time around because I am taking my time and savouring every paragraph.

As well as the books I also have some hand cream, a mug and a magazine on my bedside table. The mug is my favourite Twitter Addict mug from Name Art which is customised with my @nyssapod twittername.

Thanks to RedHead Beauty Diaries for alerting me to the fact that the latest issue of Marie Claire magazine comes with a free Bee Lovely hand cream from Neal's Yard. This cream smells really gorgeous and has a lovely texture, so I will definitely be replacing it when the free one runs out. I've already spotted the mag has a discount code for Neal's Yard, which could be very dangerous...

What reading material do you have on your bedside table? Has any of it come from charity shops?

Linking up with this week's Magpie Monday at Me and My Shadow.

It's World Book Day later this week, so I'm also linking up with the World Book Day Blog Hop at Catch a Single Thought.



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