New camera (a very belated birthday present)

Originally for my birthday I was very thoughtfully given tickets to see Fleetwood Mac at Perth Arena , as part of their Australian Tour. 
I LOVE this group, maybe its due to the fact that my parents played their vinyl Rumours and Tusk albums for at least the first decade of my life so it was ingrained into my music psyche, but whatever the reason actually seeing the band LIVE was going to be EPIC!  Nevermind the fact that this would be a child free outing with other grownups (and possibly much dancing/ out of tune singing by myself)- triple Woo-HOO!!!
So it was very sad when it was announced that John McVie was undergoing treatment for cancer, requiring the Australian tour to be cancelled.GET WELL JOHN!!!

The silver lining that I found in all this was the refunded concert tickets = some funds to replace my old (and recently rather unreliable) digital camera.

I knew after using my Iphone camera that I needed something with a bit more zoom options (and not just digital zoom, but a proper actual lens) and that I really liked being able to email images directly from my phone to my Blogger account. Very handy when you are a time poor blogger!
Also I knew it had to be fairly simple to operate. I did one semester of photography in highschool and another at Uni, but didn't really do well enough in either to warrant me buying anything a point-and-shoot camera now.

So a bit of research online introduced me to cameras with Wi-Fi and after a visit to a local store I came out with:

Which despite the salesperson telling me "they didn't think so" does in fact email pictures :) 


And a whole lot of other editing features that I am yet to play around with.

Here's to some better photography!

Kate x

Camera woes

I'm taking a lot of my photos on my iPhone these days. While not great quality (hubby has just got a Sony Experia thingy phone which totally blows mine out of the water) it IS handy...and a lot let tempermental than my digital camera.
I know my camera IS cheap AND fairly old, it was brought at Tennant Creek while on a bus tour through central Australia, after I dropped our "good" camera in a billabong (long story).  
Those of you with flash uber -smart cameras feel free to laugh at the following photos of the stoneage era "technology" I have to put up with (hey its the internet...like I'd ever know ;P....laugh away....).

First up my camera's crappy shutter that jams partly open/closed:

This is usually fixed by tapping with a finger one turning on/off again so no biggie, but it SUCKS if you are trying to get a pic of fast-moving objects...say like two toddlers in action! This is why the majority of my family pics are on my phone...

And the lovely bits-of-crap-trapped-in-lenses:

 Yeah OK actually this is mostly my fault- I did treat this camera rather badly in the first few years of my children's lives, shoving it in nappy bags without any cover whatsoever....
So when (if!) I get a new camera I guess had better look into making a case up for it ASAP!
On a side note did you know that there are now camera's with Wi-Fi capabilities? Meaning that you can upload/email your pics directly from your camera? Suppose they need to keep up with all the smart phone cameras coming out.
Something to think about anyway....

:) Kate

Why I suck at photography

It's true (if you haven't already garnered that from looking at my blog) I am a pretty blah photographer.
 Give me a pencil + paper and I can come up with a half decent sketch. A camera? Well lets just say that thank goodness we are now in the age of digital photography, as I think I would have wasted a lot of film trying to get half decent pics for my posts these years past.

Add actually being the model for the shots into the mix and my clumsiness factor behind the lens amps up to the max! 
I have decided, after trial and error, that a tripod and timer feature (on your camera) are indeed a bloggers best friend. Using both of these means I am able to take photos on my own (handy if you are doing it during toddler nap times) and it doesn't matter how many times I have to retake the shot (as I'm not taking up anyone else's time doing it). Also I may feel quite self conscious about having my picture taken...so being on my own means I can relax a little, and - most importantly- get rid of all those "unflattering" shots before anyone else sees them!! (ha ha vain much?).

So one thing I hadn't thought of much before signing up to be a pattern tester is that -if I am making the garment up for myself- I would be the one modelling said finished garment. OK not too unusual as after all I DO have a sewing blog BUT I totally forgot about the bit where maybe your pic might end up on someone else's blog or website- eek! Suddenly I'm thinking my crappy camera skills might not make the grade.
 Many pattern designers are now asking for "pro" (professional) quality shots from their testers. Having a very dilapidated (uh I have some unknown dust/grains stuck in my lens- probably due to being haphazardly shoved in a nappy bag without a case) digital camera and pretty basic skills I've not even bothered looking at being a tester anyone asking for "pro" level shots. So far so good I have managed to still test a few patterns while hanging on to my outdated digital camera and distinct lack of skills.
 However I think this will not be the case for much longer. As interest in home sewing increases (thank you British Sewing Bee) and pattern designers get a wider pool of  applicants for testing, it is more likely that sewists who are also good photographers will be selected for testing. Test garment shots that are of good enough quality to be used on websites and for promotional materials will always be an attractive added bonus for any pattern designer. 
So what does this mean for me? Well I'm guessing a new camera is on the cards, something a step up from a "point-n-click" but still not so $$$ as to break the bank, this is a hobby blog after all. Luckily this need for a new camera also coincides with a fall in the price of digital camera technology so yay for me- a small win ;)
I may possibly also borrow a book on photography from the local public library, or perhaps just google the web for some tips...who knows what option is better these days? It all depends on available time- or in my case lack of- so I would say the google option would be the most likely route for me.

In the meantime I have Instagram, which while being very un-blogger friendly at first appearances, does have the ability to take my Iphone pictures from "meh" to "quite passable" in a few deft finger swipes.

Here's a pic I took and edited on my Iphone of the "Eucalypt" tank dress that I pattern tested for Megan Nielsen (edited using the InstaCollageFree App and then uploaded to Instagram):

And here's a few out takes from today's shoot featuring the same dress and also the Cascade skirt (also pattern tested for Megan Nielsen), taken on my dodgy digital camera.

First up we have: Blurry

 Then I managed to get it in focus but chopped myself in half....

.....Not setting the timer long enough...

......Not setting the timer at all (yeah that's me still behind the camera)...

...OK lets chop off BOTH the top of my head and feet...

...and then how about this weird, slightly pained expression?

In the end (and after much swearing) I did manage to get a few shots that I think I can safely email off to the designer. 
If they pass muster I will post the resulting link lol!

In the meantime....

Happy Sewing (and may all you all have better luck at photography)!

Kate ;)

Facebook page news

Finally worked out how to merge my "Kate Sews" and "Sewing for Sanity" page on facebook! Now I just have the one page under "Sewing for Sanity", so no more having to double post - yay! 

If you had liked my
"Kate Sews" fb page you will have automatically been transferred over to the "Sewing for Sanity" one.

In the meantime...

Happy facebooking (if you do) and sewing!  

 

Bear with me ...or waiting for the search engines to reindex my blog

***WARNING boring IT/tech/nerdy talk ahead*****

Blog name change, again...

If you have been following this blog for a while you would have noticed that it had a name change a few months ago (from Sewing For Sanity to Kate Sews) along with a fancy new domain name (www.katesews.com).
Well call it a girl's prerogative but I'm changing it back to Sewing For Sanity. A lot of the reasons why I changed it in the first place can be found in this post here, but one of the biggest reasons is that the domain name magically came up as being available to buy- after me thinking that it was just never gonna happen. Goes to show you what you get for making assumptions!
Anyway I hope you all stay with me and tolerate this latest foible- I swear  this is the last name change ever!
 And as far as I see it it's not technically a name change but reverting back to my original blogspot name, albeit now with snazzy domain .com ;)
 So thanks for sticking with me so far but I understand if I might lose a few people along the way of my blog naming/renaming journey.
As this blog really is just a "hobby"/creative outlet I don't think I've got much to lose (I'm writing for love of it) and I'm really glad to be back with a name that for me has a lot of personal history.

Happy sewing!

Kate x

Confused? You're not the only one!

Ok I thought I might try and clear up a bit of the confusion that might be going around about the name of this blog and maybe explain why things have happened the way they have...

Sometimes it takes a spammer to get you blogging again ...

Or at least for me it has!
A big thank-you must go to the yahoo website  Babelfish, which was able to translate a block of Chinese text that had randomly popped up in several of my comment's fields in one day.
As it turned out the text was just a mish mash of "inappropriate" keywords and not a dinkum comment reposted by accident (which I was kinda hoping it had been..).
So I got to spend half an hour checking all my post's "comments" field and deleting the offending material late at night, which has led me to change my commenting process to now being moderated :(
I had really thought (or hoped) that a blog of my size might escape being spammed but it seems that size doesn't matter at all to the spamming community.
Most annoyingly given the nature of the words left in the comments I am pretty sure that several of my posts - or perhaps my whole blog- would have probably been blocked by various net nanny sites, if I had not been alerted to and removed the spamming! 
NOT what you want for a plain old unoffensive sewing/craft website!!!
Thank goodness for my email alerts which tell me when I get a new comment - they definately saved the day this time!

I could waste a lot of time on this...

I found this website when looking through one of the finished contest galleries on http://www.sewing.patternreview.com/ (I can't remember whose review it was that I first saw use of this web application on -I think it was an "Endless combinations" one - if it was you let me know and I will acknowledge you ! :) ):
http://www.scrapblog.com/default.aspx
If you have always wanted to scrapbook but have not have the $$$$ to fork out on all the trimmings give this a go! It's free to create your own "scrapbook" and the graphics program is quite sophisticated for a freebie IMHO!
There are lots of background, frames, "stickers" and fonts to play with, plus you can check out other peoples Scrapblog (if they are open to public) as well! This would be a wonderful way to keep in touch with loved ones far from home.
Some people have used this site to create visual diaries for art which I think is FANTASTIC- truly today's artist must be able to present their works in a variety of formats and marketplaces. Imagine being able to apply for art courses at universities around the world by having them access your virtual online diary? And maybe getting real-time feedback on said diary and presentation?
Anyway enough of a rave/ramble about Scrapblog- I just like it as it enables me to show my sketches (the few I have
scanned) in a book-like format (click on "Kates Visual Virtual Diary" if you are interested).
If someone was savvy enough they could do a online fashion shoot for free using this sort of web application - let me know if its you :)