Monday, January 10, 2011

New Discovery! Hipstamatic Weekend and Week

We had a lovely snowstorm on Friday night/Saturday morning making for the perfect opportunity to not go anywhere. I love those kind of weekends, don't you? Especially after all the running around of the holidays. A quick visit to the library to pick up some movies and a mad dash to the grocery store.

Somehow, we here at the farm are catching up somewhat with the rest of you. With the arrival of the "air card" we all are feeling a little more connected with what most bloggers take for granted. It is good and it is bad. I got Julia an iPod Touch for Christmas knowing that she is going to have an extremely long bus ride to school next year. Some days though, I'm making "internet free" days to restore the balance.


This weekend I discovered the photo capabilities of Julia's gift. I downloaded the basic "Hipstamatic" camera app and have had a really good time exploring some of the possibilities. There was a lot of "Mommy, it isn't yours!" "Yes, I know Julia, but it is so much fun!"

This week, my photos are going
Hipstamatic. Anyone want to join in? You will need an iPhone or iPod Touch. The download is $1.99 and there are extra lenses and flashes available for $.99 each. Haven't bought any of them yet. (An aside, is the Hipstamatic available for other non-Apple devices?) I'm going to take photos of domestic scenes around the house and outdoors. Nothing groundbreaking. But it is just plain fun to see what happens because the camera is random. What a fabulous feeling - no f-stops, exposure, ISO, shutter speed. You can learn more about the development of the Hipstamatic here. (It is a fascinating story.)

Yesterday Julia and I baked our favorite Reine de Saba from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.


For the first time, it didn't work and I'm not sure why. I used cheap chocolate leftover from some Christmas baking. And the other thing was I was letting Julia do everything herself and the folding of the egg whites and mixing of the flour didn't go too smooth. She ended up mixing it with the mixer and I'm pretty sure that is where it failed. Good learning experience though I must say.


We will try again another day. What we got was a pretty thick chocolate/almond pancake that still tasted good. To tell you the truth, for us, it is just the process of making the cake - it isn't about the eating of it.


Back to the knitting.... And did you see the Op-Ed on KNITTING in the NYT on Saturday?

If you are going to join in the Hipstamatic Week, leave a note in the comments of the blog so we all can check out your photos. Thanks!

ADDED: Check out Alicia's gorgeous Hipstamatic Photos on her blog today!

3 comments:

Cathy said...

Thanks for the tip on Ann Hood's piece on knitting. Her book The Knitting Circle is a fictionalized version of her daughter's death & how knitting helped save her sanity.

AND how interesting that you & Julia are baking from Julia Child's cookbook. I just finished reading As Always, Julia...the letters between Julia Child & her friend Avis DeVoto. It's all about how they worked so hard to get that cookbook published.

Reading and knitting can & do go hand in hand....it's just that if I'm reading, I'm not knitting. And if I'm knitting...I'm not reading.

I thoroughly enjoy your blog...it inspires me to be a little adventuresome in my knitting.

Auntie Shan said...

Ahhh... *GIRLS* and **OUR** "Toys"!! :-D

I would have KILLED to have had Today's Techie-Toys back when I was Julia's age!! You know, in Ancient Times... when Dinosaurs roamed the Earth and an Abacus WAS "Rocket Science"! ...I could sooo be Ruling the Planet now...

gale (she shoots sheep shots) said...

Love this Hipstamatic week. Every week should be Hipstamatic week, if you ask me.
(Never one to believe less is more).

Kristin Is Now Writing Over on Substack

Hi All! A quick note to let you all know that I'm now writing a Newsletter over on Substack: Kristin Nicholas' Colorful Newsletter f...