Monday, January 4, 2010

Happy New Year: Photography, Scrapbooking and Back to the Grind

Well, it's only January 4th, so perhaps it's not too late to still be wishing everyone a Happy New Year.

We had a nice holiday, and today is the first real day back to the old grind. We survived the high-teen temps at the bus stop this morning to get my first-grader back to school, and I even managed to take our Springer Spaniel for a quick one-mile walk. Any more than that, and I'm sure he would've started limping; even dogs can't take the cold--and salt--on their poor paw pads.





I've been busily taking photos since I last posted. I got my early combo Christmas/birthday gift in mid-December and have been loving it! I ended up with the Canon Rebel XSi. I found the best deal at B and H Photo. I got the body with a kit lens for $564.95. 

I'm still far from manual mode, but this is my first foray into SLR photography and even some of the creative zone modes have been giving me results far above and beyond what I expected this early in the game. I've mostly been shooting in Canon's "P" mode with no flash and auto focus. Here are some initial attempts.








My new-found photography inspiration has got me busy digital scrapbooking to showcase some of these photos. I had gotten addicted to Ikea Goddess' blog of digital scrapbooking freebies, just a few months ago to recently find out she retired. Thank goodness Digital Daisy is taking over. This is a great resource for any digi scrapper. Why pay when you can download all kinds of digital goodness for free?!

Here's my new January desktop design, thanks to the Shabby Princess' free download.