Of course I had my Sony NEX 6 with me and I am super happy with it! It is so light, I sometimes even forgot I had it with me. My mum also has a new mirrorless camera (an Olympus EL-5) and we played a lot with our cameras. Here is a glimpse of the result :)
I went to Venice for a couple of days with my mum, and it was lovely! We spent a day at the Biennale and got totally oversaturated with art, and the other days we enjoyed ourselves wandering through the Castello, Cannaregio, San Polo and Santa Croce neighborhoods. We also made a trip to Murano and Burano, two little islands known for their glass and lace crafts. I loved being in Italy again, the food, the weather, and Venice is just so jawdroppingly beautiful... Of course I had my Sony NEX 6 with me and I am super happy with it! It is so light, I sometimes even forgot I had it with me. My mum also has a new mirrorless camera (an Olympus EL-5) and we played a lot with our cameras. Here is a glimpse of the result :)
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Quite recently I made a dramatic decision that will change my life a lot: I bought a mirrorless camera, which will very probably replace my dear old DSLR (a Canon 30D). The decision was hard, as I can only know for sure that I like this new kind of camera by buying one and start playing with it. My new baby is a Sony NEX 6 and I just got
to know him/her! These are the reasons (or a combination of them) I made the switch: The moments I will use the Sony (and I don’t use my Canon now) My husband and I spend 3-4 weeks a year backpacking in countries all over the world. I only bring my camera on these trips. Because that’s the only time I bring a bag that is large enough to fit it. I, so to speak, ‘organize’ everything around the camera. Because, for the type of photography I want, you need good lenses, that have a lot of glass in them, and I would never forgive myself standing in a beautiful spot in country X and I left them at home (there’s always my husband carrying his 5D Mark II, but sadly that doesn’t count). So that was a choice: good photography = a bigger bag that I normally would not dare showing myself with in daily life (ugly bulky trekker backpack) = only this kind of photography when I travel. But when I travel, I also do my best to bring the lightest of the lightest (small toothpaste tubes, tiny bottles of shampoo that always run out after two weeks etc). This seems a little contradictory right? True: you don’t need a heavy toothpaste tube for anything. But still. With a little Sony NEX and lenses that I can fit into the pocket of my wind stopper, or slides easily into a normal sized (more feminine) backpack OR handbag, I would definitely bring my camera on more occasions. To anything: a party, dinner, on the way to work, doing groceries. And the best camera is the camera you have with you, or so I heard. The Pleasure of (Photographing while) Traveling Another important moment was the three days in Ankor Wat, Cambodia with 1.5 kgs of camera hanging around my neck (I am a small woman), taking a million pictures (what else is there to do) and finally using only 3-4 of them in my book. Was it really worth it carrying all this weight? Did it maybe even make the visit less enjoyable? Do I travel for photography only? You wouldn’t believe the number of people that we passed during the 10-day Annapurna Sanctuary trek in Nepal sporting small mirrorless cameras. They laughed at us and said “Why on earth are you both carrying such a heavy camera!” We shaked our heads at that time because mirrorless cameras weren’t that good yet. But they are starting to get better and better… The quality Nowadays the possibilities of the lighter, nifty mirrorless cams have been enhanced so much, that I started to be interested. I needed a new camera anyway, my 30D getting a little old. The reviews are still not as convincing as in saying ‘Mirrorless can replace DSLR’, but I think that what I want to do with a camera is possible, i.e. portraits, taking sharp pictures in low light settings, street photography, bokeh. Especially with a couple of nice primes, such as the 35mm f1.8 (that I still need to save up for) I doubt my Canon 30d can beat what I can do with this one. First experience My Sony NEX 6 just came and it’s so cool and small and nifty, but still so serious-looking! I started it up pretty fast and shooting and operating it is quite easy. I will need to get used to a few things: - Zooming in at the pictures while you are viewing them: you have to push the OK button and then the scrolling wheel around it will allow you to zoom in and out. But you start fully zoomed in. Why? And why can’t you switch between photos while zoomed in? - One thing I would immediately like to replace is the neck strap. What a stupid, scratchy plastic thingy. Guys, I paid almost 1000 euros, could the strap please be a little softer? - Of course, the electronic viewfinder. This is very, very different from a DSLR. It makes me use the LCD screen a lot. But wait till have used it more. To be continued (in my next blog entry which will be about Venice)! I am a huge fan of the series New Girl, and especially of the style of Jess Day, the main character. The story is like this: young woman discovers her boyfriend with another girl, and goes living with 3 guys in a loft. She is quirky/adorkable, and I love her style. She mostly wears full, pleated skirts, stripey shirts, black tights with ballerina flats in contrasting colours, or dresses with a tight body and wide skirts (also called skater dresses or fit and flare dresses). For a better understanding you can take a look at this website:) Not all of what she's wearing I can wear. I've been analysing my colour type lately and I think I am definitely an autumn, which Jess (Zooey Dechanel) definitely is not. She looks fabulous in bright red and fuchsia, and I don't. Must have something to do with my reddish hair colour and freckles. Navy and black, which she also wears often, are another story. Because I have a pretty straight figure, I think my waist could use some more defining, which is accomplished with the Jess Dress, as I will call it. So, on to the sewing machine! ( Laurel no. 2 will have to wait for a bit:)) I was inspired by the Dulcie Dress faketorial and this lace example of Cation Designs. She made it look so easy to attach a ruffled skirt to an existing bodice, that I immediately starting looking for a bodice pattern and a piece of fabric in the stash. At first I tried to draft a bodice with this Burda style tute, but failed hopelessly in doing so. There must be something wrong with some of the standard calculations (e.g. 'draw a line 1.5 cm from line CD') when using them in small persons, because the arm hole was only 3 cm wide... Then I found a pattern in an old Burda magazine, and didn't want to lose more time so I just started. I only had a white 40 cm invisible zipper which I put on the side, to discover later that my head didn't fit through the
collar... I solved this by making it slightly wider. I finished the armholes and neckline with bias binding, folded to the inside and sewn in with invisible stitches. The skirt is actually too short for hemming (fabric was about a yard/meter), I am thinking about adding a band of black fabric with a different texture. Not sure yet. I HAVE to go to a fabric store soonish. This was only my muslin, now thinking of making a lace one, in taupe or teal.... :) It's the Pentecost weekend so plenty of time for baking, visiting a wedding party and doing my first attempt at nail art. Oh and eating the baked goods of course:) The recipe for the (banana) cupcakes is a proper American one with honey-cinnamon buttercream frosting, they did certainly remind me those we had in LA last year, yay! I prefer these over the pastel coloured stylish cupcakes you come across these days.
I just came up with this idea, to post pictures of some of our trips, but in a way related to colours, fabrics and sewing. And even in line with the late 'ethnic' trend. Here you can see the dresses the Flower H'mong women in the North of Vietnam wear. The fabric they use are such a beautiful, colourful mix of embroidery and sewn on ribbons. I think the skirts that are now mainly of a printed fabric were embroidered in the old days, too. I was lucky enough to visit the Coc Ly market, which is a relatively tourist free area, and purchase one of the authentic purses the women wear. By the way, it's not that I'm only interested in the women, it's just that the men wear western, less interesting clothes :). In another village I saw blankets with this pattern, made by the Black H'mong. I wanted to print a photo of it on fabric so I could make cushions for the couch, but eventually made this design on Spoonflower.com. I am not too happy with the way it turned out on a test swatch (too faded), so I am still on the lookout for a way to print photos on fabric, if anyone knows a way please tell!
For this salad I grilled the fennel in our brand new griddle pan, it looked all nice and stripey, though for more tenderness I could have parboiled the slices. But I liked the light crunch too!
In line with my new blog resolution I'll give you the recipe here: (modified from Home Made by Yvette van Boven) 1 fennel, tops removed and finely sliced Watercress, a handfull Rocket, a handfull Fresh dill, small bunch, roughly chopped Roasted pistachios, about 30 grams Mozzarella or goats cheese Dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, salt&pepper Grill the fennel slices on both sides and arrange on a large plate. Mix the watercress, rocket and dill and put in the middle of the fennel. Sprinkle with the dressing, pistachios and torn or crumbled cheese. I mixed some of the leaves with 300 grams cooked pasta and used mozzarella, for a happier husband, but of course you could combine this with bread or a nice piece of meat (grilled pork chops?). Made this garlic bread for Mother's Day. It was a recipe which involved 200 grams (!) of butter mixed with garlic and fresh mint, and a lot of it ended up dripping out the sides of my baking tin in my precious oven... (the result: a house smelling of burnt butter). Anyway, after draining some of the butter the bread came out allright, as you can see in the pic. My mum and I spent the rest of the day sewing blouses, both our sewing machines set up on the dinner table, a lovely day!
A few weeks (months?) ago Colette patterns unleashed their newest dress pattern, Laurel. They even made a sew-along contest out of it in which you could win awesome things like a gift certificate for Spoonflower and other online fabric stores I had never heard of... I immediately fell in love with this pattern, because it is so simple and versatile (ánd resembles those nice LaDress ones I cannot afford). I also spotted a cool fabric of Tomotake (see photo, it's the dark blue one on the right), that I eventually bought online and is waiting patiently in the stash. Because I wanted to try it out first on a less precious fabric I made this zipperless, jersey, burgundy version, which is lovely to wear. I adjusted it a little on the sides
and made it a little shorter. Also I made bias tape myself for the first time, which was quite easy. Not sure though if if I can still enter it in the contest... I just discovered a nice iPhone app, named Room for thought, which tells you to take a picture a day at random moments. The result so far in my case (at least in dark days like these) is blurry pics of the christmas tree, breakfast, and candle lights. You can also watch an overview of other peoples posts, and it is quite funny to see that they come up with more or less the same thing..:)
I loved the past two weekends, however busy they were I managed to do fun stuff (like go to a festival nearby and finally watch Selah Sue perform, do shopping) and spend some time in the kitchen (which is fun too)! I made this wonderful foccacia and melon jam. Also labneh (a Libanese cheese), which is actually a sort of salty 'hangop', yoghurt that was drained over a sieve. And the weather is still so good!
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