And Ehouse continues to march
Jun. 20th, 2011 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feng_shui_houseWell, if you count the ants. Yesterday it rained. Yay, thought I, looking at crispy bare lawn what used to have grass. Boo, thought I, listening to the plumber calling this morning to say he couldn't finish until the ground had dried because he's got to do a lot of work outside.
Yay, yesterday after the plumber had gone I assembled the new camera and took it for a trial run. Boo, it's not at all an intuitive camera- had to *READ the quickstart guide, horrors!* to find out how to get a live view through the monitor instead of the viewfinder what my bum eyes can't use worth shucks. Yay, it does seem to function (haven't tried uploading yet). Boo, the supplied 'kit lens' can't zoom worth beans. To get a photo of sunflower blooms (each about the size of my spread fingers) to fill the view, I had to max out the pathetic zoom (which you have to manually do by rotating the lens instead of flicking a lever- oh, how I wish I could have just got another Canon S5IS) and stand arms' length away! Not going to work for butterflies.
I went back to all the references/reviews I'd checked before getting the camera to refresh my memory on the consensus for the best multi-use zoom for a beginner with this camera. Found the lens on Amazon, YAY.. Didn't like the price, Boo.
Kept googling- found the lens along with several useful accessories for $30 less than the lens alone Amazon price, from the Amazon vendor who had sold me the camera, YAY. But... there were two letters different in the description. IF was in the Amazon lens name, but not the other. What is IF? Is it IMPORTANT FACTOR? Have no idea. Boo. Found contact email for vendor and asked them before I went to bed. In the morning email answer said 'phone us'. Phoned after Plumber called. Went through only 3 detours before routed to someone who could help. He said the IF was 'internal focus' but he didn't think the lens listed by Amazon *has it* and anyway, it wouldn't make much difference for my purposes. So, I spent yet more moola buying the lens. Sheesh (which makes this a Yayboo). If you have a Canon S5IS in good working condition DO NOT 'upgrade'- there's nothing half as convenient & easy & good photo quality currently on the market. At any price.
Yay, Dover publications has two offers I liked on a $40 order of books (either get a free $17 value book & CD of Vector designs [infinitely smoothly scalable in photoshop] or get $15 off) and today's the last day to get them so spent an hour yesterday looking at books. Got through, and realized Boo, I really, really would be an idiot to buy $40 worth of stuff I hadn't felt I needed up until I saw the offers. Shut that browser window.
Yay, Spoonflower has a NO SHIPPING charges TODAY only.
Any amount of fabric.ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. They specifically mention Australia. It's standard shipping only, but no other restrictions. So if you like fabric, you might want to check out Spoonflower today. Their search tag dealie will show you many, many designs, *quite a few MUCH MUCH better than my experiments*.
Speaking of my experiments, I've added a bunch more (48 all told) http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/eclectic_house I think some of them are pretty.
I tossed 30 of them into a 'collection' so I can bulk order a 8 inch square swatch of each for $35. Yay. Ok, so I don't NEED them and it's greedy, Boo. But YAY, I'll add them to my stash and someday make a little sampler quilt maybe.
Ok, I've procrastinated enough. Shall order swatches & then go to work on Sekrit Project. EEE, running out of time. Need coffeeeee.
Oh, if you were wondering, I couldn't find out how my Goldfish fabric design did in the contest. They no longer list every entry votes. You get to see the winner, and the next 9 most popular. I wasn't among the top 10, BUT someone did like it enough to 'favorite' and someone else did comment on liking it.
The Laundry Sorting fabric contest is still going on. Around half a dozen people liked that enough to either favorite it, or comment on how much they like it. I'm improving!
The next contest theme is fireworks. Not sure what I can do, but I hope I come up with something. These contests are fun.
Yay, yesterday after the plumber had gone I assembled the new camera and took it for a trial run. Boo, it's not at all an intuitive camera- had to *READ the quickstart guide, horrors!* to find out how to get a live view through the monitor instead of the viewfinder what my bum eyes can't use worth shucks. Yay, it does seem to function (haven't tried uploading yet). Boo, the supplied 'kit lens' can't zoom worth beans. To get a photo of sunflower blooms (each about the size of my spread fingers) to fill the view, I had to max out the pathetic zoom (which you have to manually do by rotating the lens instead of flicking a lever- oh, how I wish I could have just got another Canon S5IS) and stand arms' length away! Not going to work for butterflies.
I went back to all the references/reviews I'd checked before getting the camera to refresh my memory on the consensus for the best multi-use zoom for a beginner with this camera. Found the lens on Amazon, YAY.. Didn't like the price, Boo.
Kept googling- found the lens along with several useful accessories for $30 less than the lens alone Amazon price, from the Amazon vendor who had sold me the camera, YAY. But... there were two letters different in the description. IF was in the Amazon lens name, but not the other. What is IF? Is it IMPORTANT FACTOR? Have no idea. Boo. Found contact email for vendor and asked them before I went to bed. In the morning email answer said 'phone us'. Phoned after Plumber called. Went through only 3 detours before routed to someone who could help. He said the IF was 'internal focus' but he didn't think the lens listed by Amazon *has it* and anyway, it wouldn't make much difference for my purposes. So, I spent yet more moola buying the lens. Sheesh (which makes this a Yayboo). If you have a Canon S5IS in good working condition DO NOT 'upgrade'- there's nothing half as convenient & easy & good photo quality currently on the market. At any price.
Yay, Dover publications has two offers I liked on a $40 order of books (either get a free $17 value book & CD of Vector designs [infinitely smoothly scalable in photoshop] or get $15 off) and today's the last day to get them so spent an hour yesterday looking at books. Got through, and realized Boo, I really, really would be an idiot to buy $40 worth of stuff I hadn't felt I needed up until I saw the offers. Shut that browser window.
Yay, Spoonflower has a NO SHIPPING charges TODAY only.
Any amount of fabric.ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. They specifically mention Australia. It's standard shipping only, but no other restrictions. So if you like fabric, you might want to check out Spoonflower today. Their search tag dealie will show you many, many designs, *quite a few MUCH MUCH better than my experiments*.
Speaking of my experiments, I've added a bunch more (48 all told) http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/eclectic_house I think some of them are pretty.
I tossed 30 of them into a 'collection' so I can bulk order a 8 inch square swatch of each for $35. Yay. Ok, so I don't NEED them and it's greedy, Boo. But YAY, I'll add them to my stash and someday make a little sampler quilt maybe.
Ok, I've procrastinated enough. Shall order swatches & then go to work on Sekrit Project. EEE, running out of time. Need coffeeeee.
Oh, if you were wondering, I couldn't find out how my Goldfish fabric design did in the contest. They no longer list every entry votes. You get to see the winner, and the next 9 most popular. I wasn't among the top 10, BUT someone did like it enough to 'favorite' and someone else did comment on liking it.
The Laundry Sorting fabric contest is still going on. Around half a dozen people liked that enough to either favorite it, or comment on how much they like it. I'm improving!
The next contest theme is fireworks. Not sure what I can do, but I hope I come up with something. These contests are fun.
