Posted on 6 Comments

TWiP: Insta-addict

This Week in Pictures

I’ve never been willing to pay much for cell phone service. We’ve had pay-as-you-go phones for as long as the concept has existed. $15 flip phones for everyone, and $26/month for service for the four of us, and more minutes than we could possibly use in a lifetime.

I was so thrilled when our pay-as-you-go company introduced Android phones into their lineup last year, and I eagerly jumped on that bandwagon. Unfortunately, the phones they had available were truly bottom-of-the-line, and mine was fraught with minor (and a few major) frustrations.

One of the minor disappointments was the 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera. It was for the birds. I might be able to take a decent picture outdoors on a sunny day, but that was about it.

Happily, the phone company’s Android offerings are much improved now, and I found a shiny new phone under the tree this year. It’s still an inexpensive model, but I’m kinda in love with it. It runs like a dream, and as long as nobody shows me what a top-of-the-line model is like, I won’t even know what I’m missing.

The camera has a whole 5 megapixels, which these days is not particularly impressive, but it’s more than twice what I had, and it has the ability to auto-focus, plus it has a flash, and probably some other features I have yet to explore.

Being able to take phone pictures that aren’t completely terrible has given me a new interest in Instagram. And that’s putting it kind of mildly. I should probably apologize now for the amount of images you are going to have to scroll through this week. And trust me when I tell you, I was actually holding myself back a bit.

I’m trying not to go TOO crazy here. I mean, really. It’s still not the most amazing camera in the world, but I am enjoying the challenge of making it look good.

So, what is This Week in Pictures?

It’s a roundup of the photos I shot for my Project 365 (one image each day for all of 2015), plus some everyday-life snapshots I posted on Instagram during the previous week.

Ready? Cast your mind back to this time last week…

Saturday

View this post on Instagram

I saw the snow, I wanted coffee. So here I am 🙂

A post shared by Lisa Clarke (@lclarke522) on

365: 2015 3/365 – Because simply *having* a goal hasn’t been enough lately, I am doing a Fitbit challenge today, the object of which is to actually reach my goal. Hence, a walk in the snow.

Sunday

View this post on Instagram

This afternoon, a walk alongside the woods.

A post shared by Lisa Clarke (@lclarke522) on

365: 2015 4/365 – My new LG Tracfone. It’s cheap, but it’s running Android, it’s got a 5mp camera, and it hasn’t crashed on me once in the week and a half I’ve had it. (By this time last year, my first Android Tracfone had already blown up on me several times.) Hooray for cheap smartphones that don’t feel cheap! P.S. My last phone had a fixed-focus 2mp camera, so this one feels like a dream in comparison – I can’t seem to stay off of instagram…

Monday

365: 2015 5/365 – Well, hello, Early Morning. I can’t really say that I’ve missed you these last few weeks…

Tuesday

365: 2015 6/365 – It’s 15 degrees and the snow is starting to stick. Maybe I’ll scrap my plan to leave the house. I *think* I can put off food shopping for one more day. Maybe.

Wednesday

365: 2015 7/365 – Neil gave me these lights for Christmas, and I’m getting to use them tonight. I’m still playing around with the best way to set them up for the most natural-looking light, but this worked pretty well for a first try.

Thursday

2015 8/365

365: 2015 8/365 – If he thinks that he can snuggle up to me and sweet talk me into leaving my cozy nest, bundling up, and driving him to school on a 5-degree day, well, he’d be right. That kid has my number, darnit.

View this post on Instagram

I thought I ought to warn the others.

A post shared by Lisa Clarke (@lclarke522) on

Friday

365: 2015 9/365 – It was a snowy morning, and I was going out anyway, so I gave him a lift to school.

Thanks for taking a peek at this week’s photos! If you want to see this stuff as it happens, please feel free to follow me on Flickr. (Or Instagram, too!)

I may already have plans to blog about some of these things in greater detail over the coming week, but be sure to leave a comment if there’s something in particular you want to know about!

LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH!

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Posted on 6 Comments

6 thoughts on “TWiP: Insta-addict

  1. hi lisa it Angie here (angiemackers on instagram).

    ha i know exactly what you mean be falling down the instagram hole!

    just wanted to say how much i really enjoy your newsletters theyre great!

    1. Thanks, Angie 🙂

  2. That was a pretty funny week. you just may have inspired me to get on Instagram . . .

    1. It can be fun!

  3. I love seeing your week in review! Despite all the pics and talk of snow I felt warm and cozy at the end of the week!
    I’m quite interested how your tidying up book goes. I’ve long thought that tidying up was some magic key in the universe, but never had enough ‘upnatem’ to test out my theory! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts. My first speculation is related to figuring out the connection between ‘Tidy’ and the huge number of ‘rabbit holes” in the Internet…yours being one of them!!
    So glad you have a fun new phone & happy camera!
    Until next week….
    Virginia

    1. I’d apologizing for being one of your Internet rabbit holes, but I’m not even a little bit sorry 😉
      I am almost finished with the book, but I may not get to the end. It’s due at the library today. Still, it inspired me to purge my clothes earlier this week, and I ended up disposing of three giant garbage bags. My closet looks amazing, and there are actually empty drawers in my dresser. Imagine that. My next trick will be to get the rest of the family to do the same with their clothes… preferably before the donation truck gets here on Monday!

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