I am one of those girls who, as J would often proclaim: “don’t seem to have sensible shoes”.

And it’s become even more apparent over the past few weeks that he is right! I get blisters from my Steve Maddens after a night out. I get knee/back aches from my DUO boots after an afternoon of shopping and most recently, I freeze my toes off in 5 minutes and slide all over the pavement regardless of which footwear I’ve got on.

Which brings me to the fact that I haven’t got good proper, warm & sturdy snow boots.

Surfing the web over the past few days brought me into a world of “Removable inner Thermoplus lining”, “Bonded felt frosted plugs” and “Seam-sealed waterproof construction”. Not forgetting “thick rubber midsoles” and “non-loading outsoles”

Woah! I bet they are warm.

I mean, some of these boots are rated to keep your precious little toes warm up to -40degs! However, they don’t come cheap. With the cheapest going at £74.95, you can be sure that this would be one purchase you won’t be taking lightly. However, based on the various reviews online, it would be a long-term investment as these boots were build to last. Now, I just gotta decide on which one….

All this snow we’ve been getting might be pretty but is an absolute nightmare to drive in. I was unfortunate enough to be stuck in the utter mayhem that hit Hampshire during the Christmas week last year and it took me 9 whole hours to get back (yes you heard it right, 25miles in 9 hours). At one point, I seriously thought I was going to spend the night in my car. It was horrific.

Needless to say, I was adamant not to be caught in such a situation again. Therefore, when the Met Office issued severe weather warnings early this week, I didn’t think twice about leaving work early and working from home for the rest of the week. Mind you, working from home for 3 consecutive days does have its perks.

For instance, you could pop out during your “lunch break” for a little photowalk in the snow…

While we were in London over New Years, we caught the much hyped about new movie by James Cameron – Avatar.

Like many, I had high expectations for this film. The media/publicity generated around this film was so intense, it was impossible not to expect anything less from Mr Cameron. I wasn’t a bit fan of Titanic (slept through half of it) and I’m not much into computer generated imagery (CGI) & heavily graphic dependent films. So really, all signs point to the fact that I probably will not like this film.

However, low and behold, I  was impressed! It was breath-taking! I managed to watch the entire film and was on the edge of my seat throughout.

If you like special effects and totally new computer generated graphics you have never seen before, go watch Avatar. We watched it in 3D but I’m sure the 2D version would be just as spectacular. The filmatography around the blending of the two worlds was very well executed. I mean, Cameron even created a brand new language from scratch just for this movie.

The only dissapointment I had didn’t even have anything to do with the movie. If you’re ever been to Odeon in Leicester Square, you would know what I mean. We were seated towards the very back and the screen was dissapointing tiny back where we were. Would I watch Avatar again? You bet! But this time in a regular size theatre and experience it on a big screen.

A few months ago, I bought a second-hand Nikon 85mm f1.8D lens off eBay. On doing some research, I discovered that this brilliant piece of kit outperforms the 1.4D in distortion & vignetting at its widest aperture. Therefore, rather than forking out 3 times as much money for the 1.4D, I settled for the rather easy-on-the-bank-balance 1.8D instead.

Aside from my favourite lens (50mm f1.8), this is now my second favourite. The only reason is because I use my 50mm a lot more than the 85mm. The 85mm produces the same brilliant result as the 50mm. It works really well in low-light & produces brilliant pleasing bokeh. However, it’s too ‘long’ to be used at a dinner party for example. But works brilliantly for indoor shots like concerts etc. I got some really lovely bokehed shots of the Christmas tree this winter

What really sents this lens apart from the other prime lenses is the quality of images when snapping outdoor portraits. Because of the longer focal length (it’s almost like a mini telephoto), I could easily capture candid moments from a distance rather than shoving the 50mm in the subjects’ faces which I feel instantly disintegrate the ‘candidness’ of a portrait. It’s sharp. It’s quick. I like it. It autofocuses really quickly on my D90. However, that it doesn’t autofocus on the D40 or D60 to bear that in mind.

On the other hand, it can also be used to create interesting indoor shots:

I have to say, it’s only been a couple of months but I can safely say that it is a brilliant buy and I’m loving it more each time I use it. Considering I only paid £100 for it, it’s exceptional value for money for the quality of images I’m getting. Can’t often say that for many lenses…

This year, I knew I got THE gift for J – a MARSHALL MG50DFX.

However, it took 2 men to load it into the boot of my car when I picked it up and an extremely exhausted me to sneak it into the 3rd bedroom. The snow & ice between my car and the front door made the what would have otherwise been just a 30 sec journey…a lifetime.

Furthermore, we were spending Christmas day at his Dad’s – which meant me having to risk breaking my back once again to move it. After much contemplation, I was fairly confident that since it was such a great present anyway, maybe a picture of it will do. It was a gamble. It was risky. But I took it.

I placed the amp in a good spot. Dressed it up a little. Snapped. Tweaked it a little with Photoshop. Popped into Jessops and got it printed within the hour, wrapped it an envelope and voila! Under the tree it went.

And this was what greeted him on Christmas Day.

And it paid off! The huge smile on his face was all I needed. He loved it! (And totally understood why I had to do what I did).

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and best wishes for 2010!! xxx

December is such a busy period for everyone. On top of the Christmas parties, cooking Christmas dinners, sending out cards, visiting friends and family and shopping for gifts, it’s no wonder why most people don’t try to make Christmas a little bit more personal and intimate. This year, I thought I would buy the girls a little something for Xmas. I bought them each a ring and a pair of earrings and decided to wrap it up in a unique little parcel all cut, pasted and wrapped by me, myself and I. And this was the final result (see image on the left):

Side Note: On uploading it onto my computer, I decided to play around with the image and inserted a simple text “Merry Christmas” at the top left hand corner and thought it looked very much like a Christmas card! I just might have these printed out as our Christmas cards this year…(2 birds…1 stone!)

Anyway, creating these little delightful cone shaped parcels were dead easy. All the materials I needed were:

1) Metallic card

2) Organza paper (Mine from last year had little sparkle dots on them which made them look even better)

3) Shredded paper (to fill the cone up inside)

4) Ribbon (had some leftover from last year)

Instructions:

Cut out a semi-circle from the metallic card.

Wrap the semi-circle round till it formed a cone and secure with tape.

Stuff the cone with shredded paper.

Insert gifts

Cut the organza paper into a square 40×40cm in size.

Wrap the cone in the organza paper and finish off with the ribbons.

Voila!

With the recent streak of DIY that’s been going around the house lately, I’ve decided to induce some colour into the living room by deciding to get some wallpaper up on one of the walls. The biggest disadvantage to wallpaper is not only is it such a pain to put up, it’s bloody difficult to decide on! You can get rid of a bad decision in paintcolour by painting over it but wallpaper is a whole different ball game. It’s looks totally different once up and you can’t really change your mind once it is up which is why it’s making me extremely nervous to pick one. *yikes* .

Coupled with the fact that 1) J isn’t keen on wallpapers and 2) even if he had to choose something, we simply cannot decide on one we both liked is starting to make it look like a ‘wallpapered wall’ before Christmas is highly unlikely….

I ordered some samples from Graham & Brown last night and hopefully, with the samples infront of us, we might be able to come to a decision…

Having a house is not so fun in times like these…

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of research on the best compact camera to get. Besides the usual pre-requisites like size, weight and LCD screen, I was adamant that I was going to try to get the best mini-DSLR possible (if there is such a thing).

Having caught the DSLR bug, I couldn’t possibly settle for a crappy little compact which would take mediocre images. I needed something small enough to fit into my clutch bag on a dinner date but yet have the ability to great pretty damn good images.

I googled extensively until I came across the Canon Ixus 980 IS. My sis had an older IXUS and I have heard good reviews about it from her. In addition, a lot of the photographers I know said that this particular camera is pretty much a “photographers compact camera”. I was intrigued. The one bonus feature about the Canon Ixus 980 was the Manual control capability it offered.

I was sold.

Until of course, I discovered the price.

Currently retailing at £329.99, it is a hefty price to pay for a compact camera. I could get another lens/flash for my D90 with that amount of money. The surprising thing however was that even with the latest Ixus (Canon Ixus 990 IS) which was released as its successor, the 980 is still a favourite choice amongst consumers (particularly photographers). What baffled me even more was the fact that Canon totally abolished the Manual controls on the 990 even though they knew how popular its predecessor (the 980) was because of its Manual controls capabilities and knocked down the resolution from 14MP to 12MP.

The Ixus 980 was a clear choice for me but I soon resounded to the fact that I was going to have to wait for a little while longer in order to save up for it.

Until one evening after work…

I was passing by a local second-hand electronics store only to discover an immaculate looking Canon Ixus 980 sitting in the shop window. On further scrutiny, I realised it was going for £150! I immediately went in to have a look and low and behold, it was pretty much brand new. I mean, this guy (I’m guessing it was a guy…) hadn’t even taken the wrist band out of its packet and tied it to the camera. Neither did he even remove the film over the LCD screen.

Now, what would someone do when faced with a bargain like this…
You grab it! And that was exactly what I did.

And I have to say, it is a brilliant piece of kit. With its 14Megapixel resolution and full control over aperture, shutter speeds and ISO settings, it’s almost like a mini-D90. The Auto mode works a treat as well (for J).

Exactly what I was looking for. I’m pleased.

I bought a few ultra huge rings a few days ago and because they looked so pretty, I decided to try photographing them to see if I could take a good enough picture.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I’m not particularly good at still-life photography (as you could probably see in my first attempt at using off-camera flash a few months back). Now, these were especially difficult for me due to the reflective nature of the surface finish of the rings coupled with the jewels etc.

At first, I was using my 50mm f1.8 for the job. However, the built-in flash on my D90 triggering the SB-800 interfered with the final exposure mainly due to the fact that I was positioning the camera way too close to rings and getting huge reflections off them. The white balance wasn’t quite right either.

I therefore, switched off all the lights in the room (yes…I was shooting in complete darkness), swapped to the 18-105mm and zoomed out considerably. ISO set to 640, Aperture f5.6, Shutter Speed: 3″ (D90 mounted on tripod). The images now were turning out to be pretty good. I was reasonably happy with them when I reviewed them on the computer and and didn’t bother with any post-processing and this was my best shot :

I’m fairly pleased with them actually. But an expert might disagree. Anyway, iIf you’re interested in the set-up (taken with iPhone):

When I blogged about our recent DIY project, I remember mentioning how quickly I felt things were progressing. How fast it seemed to be coming together with J working on it all week rather than just on weekend. I also remember being so excited to get my hoover out and get cracking on cleaning the mess up once this was all over.

Truth is…it took a little longer than I thought it would. 2 whole months. My fingers were itching to get rid of the utter mess J caused during those 2 months but it’s finally over and I’m so pleased with the result. We now longer have to live with a hole in the wall. I finally have some space to store my shoes!

I would have been satisfied with an understairs which, bluntly speaking, would simply be a hole in the wall with a door to make it look pretty and normal on the outside. I wasn’t particularly bothered what it looked like on the inside.

However, being ever such a perfectionist, J insisted on “doing it once and doing it right” (his quote not mine). He painstakingly boarded up the entire cavity (including the walls and floors) – making sure to leave a removable plank for the toilet plumping adjacent to it.

Filled all the gaps between the boards and filed them down – twice.

He painted them – twice.

Laid the floor with carpet tiles ( I would have been satisfied with the cement floor).

And got white shelves to go with the now white cupboard. Not to mention the amount of time and effort he took to source for the exact same skirting board just to make it blend better with the rest of the skirting board in the hallway only to end up ripping the ones off our master bathroom instead (he’s just created another DIY project for him there…).

But I’m ecstatic with the end result! It’s perfect! I was amazed how much space we’ve gained.

1 DIY project down…a gazillion others left to do…It’s fun having a house!