Friday, 28 January 2011
Huckleberry Grapevine
I'm sure you're wondering what the heck "Huckleberry Grapevine" even means, and to be quite honest, I'm pondering the same thing as I'm typing this. I'm sitting on the couch in the living room and I was trying to think of what to call this outfit post when Mike chimed in with just that... Huckleberry Grapevine. So it goes! But when I think about it, Huckleberry really is a perfect name for it... being the quintessential American tale of youth and adventure. The grapevine part is all subject to your imagination, but we're going to roll with it.
If you've followed my blog for any amount of time you're probably well aware of my love for all things nautical. I'm not huge on "patriotic" Americanized things, but give me some red, white and blue, and maybe a dash of gold, and I'm sold! This dress was picked up earlier this week at Forever 21 in Cool Springs. It was under $20, lightweight, and also came in red! Of course I bought both, but the red will have to wait for another day. The red belt is my all-time favorite (I'm pretty sure I say that every single time I write about it) but it was scored for well under 50 cents at Goodwill a long long time ago. The tights are super torn and ripped all over but they're from Target as are the black flats. The purse is a total knockoff (and yes, I have learned my lesson, let's not preach!) but I had yet to pair it with anything so I figured I should show it some sunshine.
Today's weather was incredible. Incredible! Though the weather widget claims the high was only supposed to be 46 degrees I know for a fact it hit 55 today! Both Mike and I abandoned our coats and frolicked in the sun while exploring the town. We drove way out on Darbytown Road past the residential areas and we ended up at a low-water bridge. We decided to play with our toys (read: all of our cameras) and shoot some outfit photos as well.
We have a million and one rolls of film to develop this weekend and many more instax photos to scan, but I promise to share all of those soon! For now we're going to go play on the Kinect before I have to get ready for work!
By the way, tonight is the last night to enter the Diana Mini Giveaway! I'll be announcing the winner tomorrow so stay tuned! And get pumped for February's giveaway!
Dress: Forever 21
Belt: Thrifted
Tights: Target
Flats: Target
Purse: NYC
Headband: c/o Sunshine & Carousels
Installing Hard Wood Floors in Real Time: Final for Today
With the sanding complete...
It was time to evaluate the stain. The wood I always have installed is white oak (not red oak) so I can get a nice amber or yellow sunshine color. Last time a mix of equal parts Natural and Puritan Pine stain worked well to get the color I like. (These are Minwax colors, I believe.) This is the view standing in the hallway looking into the room. The Natural and PP combo is on the left and natural alone is on the right.
Look how different they look standing inside the room looking toward the door with the windows to my back. The direction of the grain of the wood really makes a difference. I went with just the natural stain because the floors always naturally amber a bit over time. We didn't want to go too dark or amber right now.
Unfortunately, they finished staining and putting on the first coat of polyurethane and sealed up the door before I realized it, so I missed getting a finished picture. I can unseal the door tomorrow morning and walk on it by 1:00 PM, so I'll share some pics tomorrow. Final coats of poly will go down on Monday and Tuesday. If you missed them, you can view Part 1, HERE and Part 2, HERE and Part 3, HERE.
Mr. Max listened to all the noise today but never acted scared. Brave kitty. :) Hope you enjoyed following the process of having wood flooring installed. See you tomorrow with a final photo. Have a wonderful weekend!
It was time to evaluate the stain. The wood I always have installed is white oak (not red oak) so I can get a nice amber or yellow sunshine color. Last time a mix of equal parts Natural and Puritan Pine stain worked well to get the color I like. (These are Minwax colors, I believe.) This is the view standing in the hallway looking into the room. The Natural and PP combo is on the left and natural alone is on the right.
Look how different they look standing inside the room looking toward the door with the windows to my back. The direction of the grain of the wood really makes a difference. I went with just the natural stain because the floors always naturally amber a bit over time. We didn't want to go too dark or amber right now.
Unfortunately, they finished staining and putting on the first coat of polyurethane and sealed up the door before I realized it, so I missed getting a finished picture. I can unseal the door tomorrow morning and walk on it by 1:00 PM, so I'll share some pics tomorrow. Final coats of poly will go down on Monday and Tuesday. If you missed them, you can view Part 1, HERE and Part 2, HERE and Part 3, HERE.
Mr. Max listened to all the noise today but never acted scared. Brave kitty. :) Hope you enjoyed following the process of having wood flooring installed. See you tomorrow with a final photo. Have a wonderful weekend!
Installing Hard Wood Floors in Real Time: Part 3
Floor is in...
Closet is done, too. Sanding has begun. If you missed them, you can view Part 1, HERE and Part 2, HERE.
Several folks have emailed and asked what company I am using for my flooring. I love A.L. Thomas out of Buford, GA. (678-546-6970) They have installed/finished flooring in my home before and always do a wonderful job. Plus, they have been in business 65 years! Wow!
Closet is done, too. Sanding has begun. If you missed them, you can view Part 1, HERE and Part 2, HERE.
Several folks have emailed and asked what company I am using for my flooring. I love A.L. Thomas out of Buford, GA. (678-546-6970) They have installed/finished flooring in my home before and always do a wonderful job. Plus, they have been in business 65 years! Wow!
Installing Hardwood Floors in Real Time: Part 1
Come along for the journey. :)
Here's the room this morning.
This was my son's baseball-themed bedroom and I removed all the furniture recently to create a home office since he's all grown up and has flown the nest.
Bye-bye old carpet...
Wish blogs had sound and smell-a-vision. Imagine the sound of saws, air compressors and the smell of fresh wood. Sounds and smells like progress. :) See you a little later with an update...
Here's the room this morning.
This was my son's baseball-themed bedroom and I removed all the furniture recently to create a home office since he's all grown up and has flown the nest.
Bye-bye old carpet...
Wish blogs had sound and smell-a-vision. Imagine the sound of saws, air compressors and the smell of fresh wood. Sounds and smells like progress. :) See you a little later with an update...
Instax Mini vs. Instax 210
One of the questions I get very very often is which FujiFilm Instax camera I prefer over the other. Of course I welcome them with open arms because I'm pretty passionate about both of them, but I felt like maybe it was time to dish it all out in the form of a blog update and also to open up the comments to your personal reviews and opinions, too! Because this is just that... my opinion! I'd love to hear what others think! I'll forewarn you that this will be image heavy!
So we'll start with the Instax Mini since that was the first one I purchased back in November 2009! I wanted to treat myself to something nice and that cute little brown camera was just smiling at me! Let me preface these by saying this: If you want to buy them for the cheapest price, buy via Amazon.com! At least in my experience! I purchased my Mini for $70 + tax and film and I purchased my 210 for $80! I saw them at Urban Outfitters earlier this week for $105 and $135 respectively! Yikes!
Pros:
Cons:
But I'm interested in what you think! Do you own either camera? Which do you prefer? Are there things about each of them that would make it/break it for you? Let me hear about them in the comments!
Click through the jump below to see a whole heck of a lot of instax images! I scanned them in yesterday so why not share them?! (Note: I could've scanned them at a higher resolution so they're a bit blurry! Whoops!) Seriously... there are a lot of pictures after this jump! Haha
So we'll start with the Instax Mini since that was the first one I purchased back in November 2009! I wanted to treat myself to something nice and that cute little brown camera was just smiling at me! Let me preface these by saying this: If you want to buy them for the cheapest price, buy via Amazon.com! At least in my experience! I purchased my Mini for $70 + tax and film and I purchased my 210 for $80! I saw them at Urban Outfitters earlier this week for $105 and $135 respectively! Yikes!
Instax Mini - Choco
Pros:
- Convenient size. Easy to fit in a bag and carry out.
- Credit card size photos fit nicely in wallet.
- Photo size makes for great Christmas ornaments!
- Takes great photos indoors with low-light!
- Takes even better photos outside.
- The aperture settings are easy to understand and sensible.
- They make great impromptu business cards! (Try it!)
- Comes in different colors.
Cons:
- The picture size is half the size of the 210 yet roughly the same price.
- It is very aperture-sensitive. Easy to over and under expose!
- Really only "work" vertically. Horizontal photos are hard to compose.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Instax Wide 210
- Larger picture size makes more of an impact.
- Comes with a close-up adapter for self shot portraits.
- Takes nice outdoor photos with decent lighting.
- Works both vertically and horizontally without appearing "odd".
Cons:
- Far from the best at indoor photos.
- Blurry shots produced if you forget the close-up adapter at times.
- Heavy and large! The 210 is very very bulky and makes it hard to carry around.
Verdict
My personal opinion is so very very torn. Mike and I have had the conversation multiple times and it's hard to really choose between the two. I love the size of the pictures from the 210, but I guess if I had to choose just one (like, life or death situation here!) then I'd go with the Mini because it's small enough for me to carry around, I can use the pictures for so many things, and it really handles low light situations well. Plus who can deny the cute and quirky personality of an alien-looking brown camera?!But I'm interested in what you think! Do you own either camera? Which do you prefer? Are there things about each of them that would make it/break it for you? Let me hear about them in the comments!
Click through the jump below to see a whole heck of a lot of instax images! I scanned them in yesterday so why not share them?! (Note: I could've scanned them at a higher resolution so they're a bit blurry! Whoops!) Seriously... there are a lot of pictures after this jump! Haha
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