Are you ready to start your weekend with some amazing cat photos?
They boys are still getting a lot of enjoyment out of the computer monitor packaging.
What? My brother is fine in there.
Checking out the pictures on the wall while balancing on some notebooks and the back of my desk chair.
Apollo pulls off the balancing on the back of the chair act much more gracefully than Ares.
Ares has been fully embracing the awesomeness of the laundry baskets lately.
Apollo spent a solid half an hour hanging out in the empty laundry basket on the dryer during part of the washer and dryer cycles.
Ares sleeping with us tongue sticking out. Priceless.
Last weekend Jake bought our kitty clan an S toy. It's already been well worth every dollar.
The possibilities are endless.
Recently after Apollo watched part of a Boardwalk Empire episode with us, we decided to find a video on YouTube that he might like. We settled on this one. To say that it's been a big hit is an understatement. I feel like the bad parent letting them stare at the TV for a half an hour at a time while I'm working, but they love it so much.
I didn't want to get closer to Ares to take the picture because he most likely would have moved before I snapped the shot, but he's too adorable sitting on the S like that.
Back on the computer monitor Styrofoam. It makes a great kitty bed.
Are you ready to start your weekend with some amazing cat photos?
Laundry baskets have been one of the most popular toys around here lately. They are featured heavily in this edition of Caturday.
Ares is such a spaz that he doesn't pull off moves like this very often. I was impressed that he managed to stay up there for more than a couple seconds.
It's rare that they both pile into the basket. Usually one does a good job holding his ground in there. As such, it's probably not a surprise that they were fighting in there.
Hanging out while watching TV and eating lunch.
Classic.
Computer work is so tough.
It took me a minute to figure out why Ares was so excited about the couch.
Surprise, right?
It's fun coming out from under the couch and having someone push on your head.
Another popular hang out / play spot these days.
This was a popular kitten activity. They hadn't done it in quite a while.
Isn't someone going to clean that up already?
Too adorable for words.
What? Don't you hang out in the laundry basket?
Some of you know that Jake's computer monitor quit working earlier this week. We still have some hope of getting it fixed, but for now, we had to get him a new one because we don't have a spare. The packing materials have already been worth every dollar.
They literally got well over an hour's worth of entertainment out of it during the first 12 hours that we had it.
Apollo got his turn hanging out in the big Styrofoam pieces the next morning.
As many of you know, I recently joined Instagram. I resisted joining for a very long time because I didn't see the point in browsing bad photos of every tiny detail of people's lives that we don't really need to see. I still believe that a lot of the Instagram content is not so great and that you have to be careful about who you follow. However, there are a lot of really talented photographers who put together regular posts that are interesting and meaningful.
The following video is what finally convinced me to join.
I have been following this YouTube channel for at least a few months and think highly of pretty much all of his photography advice. If you've been on the fence about Instagram for the same reason as me, watch the video or at the very least, go check out his Instagram. I think you'll come away convinced that you can take and post great Instagram photos. So how do you do that? Here's my two cents on the topic.
(photo taken by my friend Steve)
Use a Good Camera
If you have an SLR and are serious about sharing high quality photography, use it for your Instagram photos. I know that this doesn't apply to a lot of people reading this post, and that's fine. Learn the settings for whatever camera you have, even if it's only your phone camera, so that you can maximize its potential. It's amazing what you can do with a high quality phone camera these days, such as an iPhone 5 or the newer Samsung Galaxy phones. Don't settle for shooting mediocre photos on the auto settings. You can do so much better than that!
Crop Your Photos to a 1:1 Ratio
It is really easy to crop photos to a 1x1 ratio in virtually any photo editing program. Cropping in a dedicated program ensures that you'll get a properly proportioned photo for Instagram every time. I choose to do this on my computer, but there are a lot of photo editing apps, such as Snapseed, that work just fine, too.
Add Text, Borders, Etc. in Photo Editing Programs
There are a lot of other professional touches that you can make to your photos in photo editing programs before you ever head to Instagram. There are a ridiculous number of apps for any number of different photo editing techniques, such as Photo Grid, which allows you to make collages for your phone photos. It's not hard to add these details.
Limit the Number of Photos You Post
Resist the temptation to Instagram entire events. You can take as many pictures as you want, but don't post all of them. Pick and choose your favorite photos when you have to the time to edit before you post.
Use a Select Number of Relevant Hashtags
If you've spent any time on Twitter or Instagram, you know that I mean. Do not clutter your post with an excessive number of hashtags, especially when they aren't relevant. I feel silly explaining this, but I see a lot of photos on Instagram for specific places that have hashtags for additional places just to get views (i.e. a photo of the Chicago skyline with tags for New York and Los Angeles). A few relevant hashtags will bring in views from non-followers. A large number of irrelevant tags will send everyone running the other way.
Finally, the winners of my photo giveaway have been chosen. They are as follows: 1st Place - Edi 2nd Place - Paige 3rd Place - Natasha
Congrats, ladies! I will be in touch shortly about getting your prizes together.
Do you use Instagram? If so, do you have tips for creating and sharing great photos? Leave them in the comments!
As evidenced by my Scavenger Hunt photos this past week, I've been working on a handful of brand new projects the past couple weeks. The first one is a photo collage. I thought that with the plethora of Mod Podge tutorials out there, I would find a great tutorial for what I wanted to do, but I didn't. I found a couple similar tutorials and put together my own plan of action. I'm pretty pleased with the result so I'm sharing it with you today.
Before I get into the tutorial, I'm going to give you a little back story about why I developed this collage.
This is what the frame looked like originally, except that it had photos from Jake's med school graduation and my little sister-in-law's high school graduation. I know that I'll get questions about this so I'll say it: The photos in this frame are from one of my cousin's bachelorette party and wedding a couple years ago. We haven't hung this up yet and now I'm afraid to because of what happened.
A month ago or so, the graduation frame fell off the wall in the middle of the night. It was scary and then was upsetting when I saw what had happened to the frame.
The good news is that the rest of the frame was fine. All of the glass, matte backings, and photos were fine. Any ideas for what I can do with these mattes and glass?
I had spent $20 on the collage frame not 6 months ago and wasn't really interested in shelling that out again. I was determined to find a cheaper way to make a collage that was just as aesthetically pleasing. This is what I did.
Supply List
One 16x20 canvas (I used Artist's Loft)
One can of black (or the color of your choosing) acrylic paint (I bought a 16 oz. can of Apple Barrel paint. You won't need nearly that much. Spray paint will probably work just fine, too.)
One small foam paintbrush
Matte finish Mod Podge
Matte acrylic spray (I used Krylon)
Nine 4x6 photos
Hanging materials of your choosing (I used two sawtooths)
I bet that many of you who work with Mod Podge frequently have a lot of these materials on hand already. If you do need to buy supplies, you can find everything at Michael's except for the hanging materials. You may find them there, but I got mine at Target so I can't vouch for that. Glossy finishes for Mod Podge and acrylic spray will work, too. That's completely your preference.
The first thing that I did was arrange my photos to make sure that they would fit okay on this sized canvas. I took a picture in case my memory escaped me later.
Paint your canvas black. Make sure that you paint the sides. I did two coats over everything and then had to touch up a few areas. It was not uniform, and I obsessed about this for a while, but once you get the photos on there, you won't notice.
Use your foam brush to paint the back of each photo with a thin, even coat of Mod Podge. Glue the photos on your canvas. Make sure to smooth them down evenly so there are no bubbles. Touch up any corners that need extra glue. Leave the Mod Podge to dry for at least an hour.
Cover the entire top and sides of the canvas with Mod Podge. I layered this pretty thin. It's up to you how thick you want it. Either way, make sure that you're applying it evenly with long strokes. I decided to use two layers. Allow at least one hour of drying time between layers and an hour afterward.
I do not have a picture of this, but I finished the collage with a couple layers of spray acrylic. Follow the instructions on the acrylic.
When everything had dried, I attached the sawtooths on the back and hung it up. Here it is finished.
I know that I'll get questions about this if I don't show it. I had trouble finding a good angle for this shot, but this is where we're hanging the collage in our dining room. I know that it looks tiny. I promise that it isn't.
If you make this project yourself, please leave me a link to a blog post or send me pictures (randomcreative28@gmail.com). If you do write a blog post, please link back to my post in it somewhere. Thanks!
What new projects have you been working on lately?
