Re-Embracing My Love of Photography with the Fuji X-A3

This is the story of my love of photography, my biggest physical struggle to date, and a camera that allowed me to re-embrace my love of photography.

I started to love photography when I got my first point & shoot film camera at 12 years old. In high school and university I took photography classes, working in dark rooms to develop my own film. Ten years ago I bought my first DSLR camera. I dove into that hobby and learned everything I could soak up about photography and began doing photo sessions for families, babies, couples, and events like weddings, and other parties. I loved it!

His & Hers Wood Watches (& Giveaway)

This year for his birthday, I gave Ken a wood watch from JORD that he had his eye on. That watch has been a big conversation starter; everyone is interested when they notice it's made of wood! I can tell it was definitely a successful gift because he will often make a comment to me (even 6 months later) about how much he really likes it. As you can tell from the photo below, JORD makes men's watches AND women's watches and we now have "His & Hers" watches!

I was really excited to find the Cora Zebrawood & Turquoise watch because the face is one of my favourite colours! I think the grain of the zebrawood is really unique as well and I love the Swarovski crystal markers because they add an extra touch of femininity to it.

MOSAÏCANADA 150 and Cirque Du Soleil Volta (Gatineau & Toronto)

The final stop on our road trip across eastern Canada was in the Gatineau area of Québec. We drove around 10 hours from Saint Andrews, New Brunswick to Ken's cousin's house in Ottawa where we stayed overnight (Gatineau is the part of Québec that borders Ottawa).

MOSAÏCANADA 150

While we were in Gatineau, we visited the MOSAÏCANADA 150/Gatineau 2017 exhibit in Jacques-Cartier park. It was absolutely beautiful!

There are 40 different arrangements and they are all pretty amazing! One of the first that we saw was this Anne of Green Gables one- perfect after a trip to Prince Edward Island! :)

The Printer Ink Solution!

We use our printer a lot in this house! We've gone through several printers, each with their own special features, but the one thing that has always been a big nuisance, no matter the printer, is ink! Buying replacement ink cartridges can be just as expensive as the printer itself!

Our Printer Ink Problem

This was a big issue with our last printer, which wouldn't let us print with black ink unless all of the colour cartridges were working. That printer was designed so that ink was being used up even when we weren't printing things, to keep the nozzle clear and wet. We went through so many colour cartridges each year, that we finally decided it would just be cheaper to get a new printer!

Cartridge-Free Printer

It was at this point that Ken's parents told him about their new printer with Epson's new "Eco Tank" technology. These Eco Tank printers are designed to work without cartridges! When Ken told me about it, we knew this was the ink solution we had been searching for- NO MORE CARTRIDGES! The printer has refillable tanks on the side of it that you simply top up any time they get low.

Enough Ink for 2 Years

The printer we got was the Epson ET-3600 and it has everything we need in a printer. It comes with two sets of ink bottles (one to fill your printer with, and one to refill it with later). The ink that comes in the box is enough for up to 2 years of printing (up to 8500 pages). To put this in perspective, that's equivalent to about 50 ink cartridge sets!!

5 Ways to Prepare for Smoother School Mornings

We had a whirlwind first school morning and after just one school day, I'm reminded of the huge difference a little preparation can make for smoother school mornings!

Yesterday was the first day of grade 4 for Katrina and grade 6 for Talia. I usually like to take nice "1st day of school" photos in the morning and drive them to school so I can help them find their new classes and be there to offer any reassurance, comfort, or pep talks that may be needed.

Disclaimer: This calm photo was not taken on the first day of school.

This year however, we were in a hurry because I received a court summons for jury selection for yesterday. I was just as nervous about that as the girls were for school yesterday morning! We only have one car so I grabbed a quick cell phone shot of each girl before jumping in the car and we all drove to the courthouse where I said goodbye and Ken took the girls to school.

The Algonquin Resort & Saint Andrews New Brunswick

Although heading toward home from Nova Scotia was a bit of a sad thought for us after such a wonderful trip eastward, we were excited to get to see more of New Brunswick. New Brunswick is a beautiful province, full of lush forests, fields, and breathtaking vistas. We loved all the little towns that we passed through, but one of our favorites was St. Andrews where we stayed the night at the incredible Algonquin Resort.

The building is breathtaking and the grounds, the interior and amenities are no less impressive.

The room we stayed in was charming and nicely decorated. It was a small room with two double beds, a desk, a closet, a dresser and T.V. as well as a very nice bathroom. Our youngest daughter described it as: "Amazing, awesome, super comfy bed, stunning," and..."kapow!" (I'm not too sure what to think about that last one - but she sure was excited talking about it!)