Mother's Day

This year on Mother's Day I was made a breakfast of crepes with bananas and strawberries and nutella and whipped cream and all kinds of amazing goodness.  The coffee was hot and the hugs were plentiful.  After breakfast we packed for the lake and spent the afternoon sailing in near perfect weather.  The winds were light and Emma Jane had a full lesson on sailing the boat.  She is already really good at sailing the boat but they went over terminology...what does it mean when we say "head up" or "fall off" or "sheet in".

As a storm was rolling in we docked the boat and cleaned in the sprinkling rain.  I have photos of Emma cleaning the boat on Father's day at four years old too!  I have to find them.  

We have been going non-stop this spring.  I am looking forward to a slower pace this summer.  On Mother's day I re-read my letter to Emma Jane, and my letter to Lucy.  It gave me back my focus.  

My most important job is being their mother.  When I get too tired and start to get short with them, I need to remember that they are only little for a very short while.  I already miss the cuddly stage of Lucy.  She is too busy to cuddle anymore.  I must slow down.  Reading books before bed is more important than the laundry or the dishes.

This summer I am going to slow down.  Read more books (both with and without kids).  Snuggle more.  Sail more.  Enjoy my house more.  I am getting off this merry-go-round and going to sit on the swing for a bit.

Happy Mother's day to all you moms out there who go and go and go.  Let's model for our children that there are choices to be made and that the precious time we have should be used wisely.

The Einstein Quilt

Because many of you have asked how it turned out, I thought I would post pictures of the Einstein quilt I made for the auction.  I still really wish I had it as a keepsake.  But I am getting over it.  I realize that I can teach my girls a great lesson by getting past this.  I also realize that Emma Jane already learned a valuable lesson.

One night when I was cutting and piecing the quilt together she said, "Mom, I love watching you accomplish something you have never done before.  It makes me think I can do anything.  It makes me think that nothing is beyond my abilities."

That is all I needed.  At the beginning of April I had never made a quilt before and by the third week I had one.  And I had a little girl who was inspired to be creative and never stop learning.

Busy Busy

Since returning from Emma Jane's field trip, we have not stopped.  Things are crazy at our house.  Among all the other things I am doing, I am making a quilt for the Mayo Auction.  Did I mention I don't quilt?  Someone I know said "that is like trying to throw a dinner party for 200 when you don't cook!"  Yup!

But the first step was to take pictures of Lucy's classmates.  You see this quilt needs to have photos of her class on it.  I went to the school yesterday and took pictures of her class.  Among the "real" photos I captured a series of shots of a little boy named Simon.  He was not going to smile for me.  Nope.  Not gonna.

Here are his out takes...

Party Collage from Lisa's House

Last night we had a little soiree at another Mayo Mom's house.  It was for the Einstein Mom's (Einsteins are what the pre-k and Kindergarteners are called.)  It was a fantastic evening filled with good food, adult libations and great conversation.  It was so good to get together with the other mommy's and unwind.

Thank you Lisa for sharing your lovely home with us...

iPhone Photography

I have had quite a lot of interest in how I take my photos using my iPhone.  First of all, I have an iPhone 4S.  It has an 8 megapixel camera on it and I always have it with me.  And since I do ALL of my editing on my phone, it has become my first choice in photography.

When I do take pictures with my DSLR, which is a Canon Digital Rebel, I end up putting the best pictures on my phone so I can edit with either Instagram or use them in a collage with PicFrame.  So it saves me a step if I can just take the photos with my camera.  I love my rebel, but for now I will stick to my iphone photography tips.

I recently posted this picture on facebook.

I took the photos on our boat while sailing (with my iphone) and edited them using instagram and then collaged them together using Pic Frame.  The entire process took about 2 minutes.

Here are two photos I took with my iphone.  The first picture was taken without any adjustments.  I just opened the camera and took the shot. The sail and the lake are in focus but the winch in the foreground is not.

For the second picture I touched my finger to the winch (the cylinder wrapped with rope) on the screen.  When I held my finger down on the screen on top of what I wanted in focus, it refocused the camera to what was in the foreground and automatically blurred the background.

This works for adjusting the aperture too.  If you have a particularly bright afternoon and the camera is closing the aperture down too small your picture will turn out dark.  But if you touch the darkest part of the photo with your finger the camera will adjust the aperture to brighten the darkest parts of the picture.  The sky might get blown out white instead of blue, but the trade off is that you get the shot.  This works well if your subject is back lit and all you see is their outline.  Touch and hold your finger on the faces on your screen and it will brighten the faces.

Another iphone secret is that the shutter releases when you let up, as well as when you tap it.  So you can hold your finger on the shutter button until the moment you want to snap the shot.  The instant you release the button, it takes the shot.  This is a great technique if you are watching a thunderstorm over Kansas through your passenger window.

After I take my photos I start to edit.  I almost always use Instagram.  I have a more detailed tutorial on editing with Instagram posted here.

Inside of Instagram there is a button on the bottom right that takes you to your profile.  Then tap on the gear icon in the upper right hand corner.  That will take you to the screen below.

Make sure you have both of these selected to on.  This will save both your original and your filtered photos to your camera library.  I want the original in case I want to edit it with several different filters.  And I want the filtered photo so I can email, text or upload it.

Next I open Pic Frame.  I select a frame that will hold the number of photos I want to collage.

I tap on it to select it and then tap on a square (or rectangle) to select a photo from my camera roll.  You can zoom in or out and drag the photo around inside this frame to highlight the area you want.

I make sure that if I used a frame in instagram it is not showing in picframe.  (It just looks weird)  You can also drag the borders of the frames to change how wide or tall they are.

You can also select the color of the frame.

Then click share on the bottom right.  Make sure your resolution is set the way you want.  I always have mine at the highest resolution...hmmm that could be why I am constantly running out of hard drive space...

Clicking Save will save the photo to your camera roll.  I know that some people collage first and instagram second so that the entire collage has the same filter.  That works too!

This blog post took about 60 times as long to write as this entire process takes to execute.  Try it.  Play with it.  You will love it!

PS.  If you did not know this already, you can take screenshots of your iphone by pressing both the home button and the sleep button at the same time.  That is how I created these screenshots.

(I look forward to seeing your instagram collage Cynthia!)

If you want to follow me on Instagram, my name is fontsavant.  You can search for me under the explore button which looks like a compass.

I will leave you with a quote from Emily Lim in 2001.  "Why would I EVER want a camera in my phone?"  Oops...now I know...