Monday, January 4, 2010

Two Things (Wait, Make That Three)

1. Legwarmers are BACK! And, since it's been below zero for days on end around here, have the actual added benefit of keeping legs, you know, warm!



2. Yesterday, our family took the day off from life. We stayed in pj's all day, we played board games, ate Swedish pancakes for lunch, had a Wii boxing tourny, procured "Up" from Redbox, took a Family Nap (in which only Marin and I slept...). David taught the girls how to play Skipbo while I worked on our Christmas New Years cards. You know, quiet, relaxing things.


The past 2 weeks, we went so hard, and saw so many people/went to so many family gatherings, that this was just what we all needed. It was the perfect way to end Christmas Vacation. Sure, there were plenty of squabbles, pouting, tears, etc throughout the day, but there was also contentedness of being together, doing nothing.

We missed a ice skating birthday party, which would have been fun FOR SURE. David and I are learning, though, that sometimes we just need to STAY HOME.

And honestly? I wasn't ready for the girls to go back to school today. (And now I'm off to sit in a corner, heavily petting Pollyanna.)

Oh, wait. I have one more thing!

3. I WON $100 Visa gift card from Swistle's contest!!!!!! On December 31st, Year Of Our Lord 2009, I was discussing with a friend how I NEVER EVER win ANYTHING. And then I won!

With my "holiday bonus" (BooYah!) that I'm getting from work, and now this, my DSLR fund is growing quite nicely. I've nearly convinced David that we should just BUY a camera...

So tell me. What should I buy? Canon? Nikon? Model? Is knows nothings.

6 comments:

Lawyerish said...

I have a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, and I lurrrrve it. I am not interested in learning a great deal about f-stops and so forth, and this camera is great in the many auto modes for various settings (landscape, portraits, still-life, etc). But if you're wanting to get into the nitty-gritty technical stuff, there are also lots of custom settings to play with!

For accessories, I have a Speedlite flash, which is essential for getting good indoor photos with a DSLR, and a really good 50mm lens (great for close-ups and portraits).

Have fun shopping! I can't wait to hear what you get.

Erin said...

OH! BUY IT!

I've got a Nikon, but I probably would have looked more seriously at the Canon if I knew then what I do now.

Nikon is GREAT. I have nothing bad to say except the COST. GEEZ! It is pricey. Canon is also pricey, but it is a larger company and the products, which are still fabulous, are *slightly* less expensive, which adds up to savings when you consider all the potential accessories (lenses, flashes, filters).

I also highly recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements if you're going all the way with and SLR. It will allow you to really work with your photos withough having to spend several hundred on the full-blown Photoshop. We bought Elements back in 2005, and I think it cost $90 then.

LoriD said...

I know nothing about cameras, but I'm with you on the legwarmers. My 4-year-old refuses to wear anything but dresses to school. I saw legwarmers in the Dollar Store (of all places) and picked up a pair. She loved them and I went back to get all the colours they had. She wears them every day and they are adorable!

Trish {Pink Preppy Lilly Lover} said...

3 things :)

YAY for Legwarmers!

CONGRATS on winning Swistle's contest!

I have a Nikon D60 and it works perfect for me. Takes great shots and is easy to use. I've bought two additional lenses and am slowly working on learning how to use them :) Also, I second Erin on purchasing Elements - it's the best!

Happy New Year!

Michelle said...

I'm going to be contrary and recommend the Pentax.

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras/pentax-k20d-body-only/4505-6501_7-32825568.html

We got ours a couple years ago and LOVE it. It's less expensive than the Nikon or the Canon out of the gate, plus because the image stabilization is built into the camera body the lens are WAY less expensive than its counterparts. And Pentax lens ever made works on this body while still allowing the stabilization to work. This was important to us because we took memory cards and sticks to the store and tried the Nikon, Canon, and Pentax. Came home and actually looked at the images we took. Pentax won, hands down, for pictures taken without the use of flash or tripod. Hands down.

Which ever way you decide I recommend taking memory into the store with you as you play with the cameras. Images that look FANTASTIC on the wee little screen can be completely blurry and totally unusable once you get them on a computer or a piece of paper.

Good luck and yay for new cameras!!!!

Krista M said...

Hello matee nice blog