Instagram

Commissioned Digital Art

April 6, 2014 | By Heidi | Filed Under: Instagram, k9epilepsy, review, smile, zoo | Leave a Comment

I am so excited!! I commissioned an artist I found, quite by accident, on Instagram to create a digital portrait of two of our animals.

I definitely wanted Topaz and had her choose one of the cats. She chose Snorty!!

Here’s how they came out:

The photo used of Topaz was taken hours after he had a seizure and I took the one of Snorty today.

I love them both!! We will definitely be commissioning her to do the rest of the zoo. Gotta get them done in shifts though. I’d LOVE to get them printed and frame them for the living room. That would be sweet!

The artist’s Instagram pages are: @drawn_to_your_dog_kianaleilani and @drawn_to_your_cat_kianaleilani.

We commissioned her on her website: http://kianaleilani.weebly.com/ and we paid $30.00 for the two of them.

I am creative – not bragging, just a fact – but I cannot imagine being able to create something like that.

I love digital art!!!

I’m glad she posted these tonight. I was going to totally write about the crappy night I had and how I flipped out on my husband over dinner…

But sharing this is totally better!!

Maybe tomorrow I’ll tell the meltdown story.

Till next time…

Currently… (Also, Smash* Journal)

December 28, 2011 | By Heidi | Filed Under: Instagram | 1 Comment

I have a blog that I’ve tried to write a few times but I need some more time to get my thoughts together so that will have to wait. In the meantime, I saw something called a Smash* Journal on Instagram. It looks super cool, like a scrapbook without all the scrapbooking skills. Basically, you just throw stuff together! I can SO do that.

So I sent the husband looking for one at Barnes and Noble, but I think I’ll need to order one online…which I will be doing in the near future!

Anyway, when I was googling Smash* Journal I came across a link that had this page that simply said, “currently” on it and then had 10 categories and things written afterwards. Very similar to the 10 things I’m loving posts that I do, but a little different. So, I’ve decided to ~~steal~~ borrow this idea and write a blog about it. I may do this every now and then like I do the 10 things posts.

So here goes…

1. listening –

I’m not really listening to anything, but more like watching…and I’m watching the movie Julie and Julia on Lifetime. I have this movie on DVD. I really like it, I thought it was a cute movie! The Holiday is on next. Another movie I thought was cute! (I may need to change that to “watching” because I am usually not listening to anything.

2. eating –

Buitoni whole wheat 3 cheese tortellini pasta with butter

3. drinking –

Coke Zero

4. wearing –

Light blue t-shirt with Eeoyre on it (and is huge on me!), navy loungey pants, navy socks, slippers and a red really soft, warm jacket. I am always FREEZING!

5. feeling –

I am feeling pretty good, considering – more on this in a later blog. I’m definitely feeling full too!

6. weather –

It’s 25 degrees here in my part of the mitten. We don’t have any snow on the ground, but it is cold!!

7. wanting –

This can be ridiculous stuff right? LOL Like Easy Feet from the TV commercial I JUST saw? LOL Actually, I’d love a Smash* Journal in red since there is no purple. There are other things I want but again, we’ll get into that later. – sorry

8. needing –

Another one that I probably can’t get into right now. Material type things, I need new tennis shoes, a microwave, vacuum – asking me what it’s like not having a proper vacuum with 6 animals running around the house!!

9. thinking –

My mind is so full – again, don’t want to get into it right now, unfortunately – that I really don’t know where to start with this one.

10. enjoying –

I am enjoying all my new Christmas goodies, my new purse (in Plum Petals) – a Vera Bradley! And I am just enjoying life right now!

Instagram Alternatives for Android – Review

August 19, 2011 | By Heidi | Filed Under: Instagram, review | Leave a Comment

Like a posted a few weeks ago, there is no Instagram for Android and how this truly makes me sad because everybody who’s anyone is using Instagram on Twitter, Facebook and in their blogs.

My search for an alternative on Android pointed me to two main applications and another app that is a photo sharing site like Instagram.

I didn’t take as many photos as I wanted to, but I think I took enough for a good comparison.

If you go to the Android Market and look in the photography section, you’ll see that there are a number of different options. I like to check out reviews online of different apps or visit forums and see what people recommend before I download an application like a photo editor.

These reviews are strictly my opinion, I am not getting paid by anyone to review these applications. Carry on.

Most people recommended an app called Vignette, so that’s where I started. Vignette has a demo and a paid version. The paid version is $4.11. The difference between the two I believe is just the photo size, the paid version will save the photos as a larger file than the demo version will.

I first used the free version, but I did end up paying for the full app to be able to save larger photos. My phone has a 8mp camera, and I like to save larger files.

Vignette takes a few seconds to initialize and overall it is a bit slower than my phone’s regular camera. It only takes square photos and has a number of filters and frames to use.

As you can see, I like that frame and I am not sure what the filter is called. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep track of that. Sad smile

What I don’t like about the app is having to go back and forth to pick the filters and frames. You can’t scroll through them and instantly see the changes, you have to pick from a drop down and then go back to the photo each time. And for some reason when I take photos I have to rotate them or they are sideways. That’s annoying.

But, it does save your last filter/frame used and will automatically apply that. That is definitely a plus!

What I do like is that you can choose from different methods of taking photos, like instant, continuous, and then like a grid or filmstrip (or like those photo booth strips!) as shown below.

I like Vignette, but it’s not my first choice. I give Vignette

The other application I used is called Magic Hour – Camera. This application also has a free and a paid version. I didn’t even use the free version of this app, I jumped right into the paid version. The paid version is $1.99.

I like this app a lot. It’s a little slow on the start, but you can scroll through the filters easily and you can see the changes as you scroll. There’s also a button to see the original and the photo will switch over to the original.

There are a number of preset filters and frames, you can make and save your own, or you can download ones from other people. I really like the option to download filters! You can also put some in your favorites.

I’ll be honest and say I have played with this app more than I have Vignette and I downloaded Vignette before Magic Hour. I like the user friendly-ness of this app better.

The cons to this app is the speed. It is slow! Slower than I’d like, but tolerable. The other con is that you always start with the original photo in Magic Hour whereas Vignette will apply the last filter/frame that were used. I tend to like cutesy, animated apps and this is definitely one of them. Vignette is more business.

Magic Hour – Camera is my choice for the winner and I give it

If you’re still reading, the final application is a photo sharing site app similar to Instagram. It’s called picplz and it’s completely free!

I joined and only uploaded one photo and I also didn’t play around with this app much because I thought you could only upload regular photos without editing them. But, now that I’ve gone back and looked, you CAN apply a filter to the photos! Cool!!

I don’t know if it’s as popular as Instagram, but it’s definitely a workable option!

Oh, and I did hear back from the people at Instagram. Here was their response:

The Instagram Team

AUG 02, 2011 | 05:42PM PDT

Thanks for your interest in Instagram. We’re excited to expand to other platforms and understand the importance of making Instagram available to the millions of people without iOS devices. However, we have nothing official to announce at this time.

Hopefully one day Instagram will come to Android!!!

I will leave you with one more comparison: (Vignette on left, Magic Hour on right)

I even think that the Magic Hour camera takes better photos!!

Have you used one of the other Android cameras? How do you like it? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Commissioned Digital Art