Wowa…I can’t believe we’re in a deepfreeze, I’ve got my heating pad out and it’s mid November.  I’m sorry, but where did fall go?  Oh right, I think I slept most of it away.  I was so beyond exhausted by the time we got back from dropping our stuff off in St. Albert (our new home!) and doing a whirlwind trip to Victoria that I completely neglected my poor old blog.

EXCEPT!  Did you notice anything different??  That’s right, I’ve changed from having a website and blog to having everything all neat and tidy in one place.  Poke around and let me know what you think!  I love how streamlined it is and I *hope* that you will find all of the photography galleries and information easy to access and view.

Until next time,

Shona xo

Man, oh man. I do have a love hate relationship with my iPhone…It is essential for me to run my business, yet it.is.so.slow. I’m still using a 3GS and it’s only an 8gb version, so at times I want to pitch it…especially when my 8 year old said it was too slow for her to look up a word for her homework. Gah!

So, I went to my best friend google and started to search as to why my phone is so slow and how I could improve the situation. Low and behold, I discovered a few things…this might be old news to most of you, but if I can help one person, then it was worth posting.

1. An 8gb iPhone ends up only being a 6.2gb phone because the operating system you need to run your phone takes up a crazy amount of space. I dunno, I guess I’m naive, but I thought the operating system wasn’t included in the usage… (I can see my brother shaking his head as we speak…).

2. I came across this fantastic article and it really helped explain things. I’ve listed some of the highlights below, but it is a good and quick read 🙂

3. I actually don’t have that many apps on my phone so I couldn’t figure out why they were taking up so much space…according to the article mentioned, it’s music and videos that are the killer…So, my sons pirate birthday party playlist got the axe! Tip: I thought you had to resync your phone to remove the songs that you don’t want. Nope, you just go to the song and swipe your finger right and magically a little delete button shows up! Ahhhh! The angels sang 🙂 Other apps may be small in size, but their documents and data take up a lot of space. For instance, my Ottawa Public Library app is only 3.5mb in size, but it’s documents and data is 279mb. This is the information that is stored on the app, but I can’t really see a way around that as I don’t want to delete anything or I’d forever be getting late charges! Just take a peak and this might explain why some apps are taking up more room than others and then delete the ones you don’t use.

4. Next up was my Safari app…if you’ve never cleared your history, cookies and data, DO IT! I think that cleared up 1GB on it’s own!!

5. And finally, since we all love taking a million and one photos with our phones (*raises hand* guilty!), spend a little time cleaning off your phone and backing up those photos. AND PRINT THEM. (Stepping off of soapbox now…) In addition, I took off photo stream…it was driving me bonkers as I’d have 3 versions of 1 image. One in the camera roll (where I took the photo), one in the library, where I sorted it too and then another in the photostream as it backs itself up there. I think I got that right. It messes with my brains. I miss film. That is all.

My phone definitely has more free space now, but, sadly it is still slow. I think that has more to do with running the latest operating system on an older phone than anything, but maybe I’m wrong. If you know the answer to this burning question or have any other cool tips and tricks, please feel free to comment below! I’d love to know if there’s something major I’m missing!

Hope this helped!
Shona xo

ps. The cool cover on my iPhone is a hard shell from getuncommon.com. It is AWEOME! I have dropped this phone more times than I care to admit, but that hard shell has protected it beautifully! Oh! And I miss my son’s baby surfer dude hair…sigh…

Forgive the mess, I’m trying to update/redo my blog…I’m a bit daft at this process, so bare with me if my blog goes a little wonky over the next little while. So far I’ve managed to delete my old blog…doh!

New and improved site will be sorted soon…I hope!

Shona xo

Yup! It’s that time of year again! Mini sessions are being offered October 13th at Mer Bleu and spots are going quickly (they were announced to my mail subscribers and Facebook followers)! Please contact me as soon as possible to ensure you get a spot!

Shona xo

Make sure you sign up for my newsletter (usually just comes out quarterly…’cuz I hate too much mail and I’m sure you do too!) HERE. I have a BIG announcement for a little something in October that I will be announcing to subscribers first.

Hope you survived yesterday’s monsoon and here’s to bright skies today!

Shona xo

I cannot stop watching this.  I hope they drop a record soon!!

Don’t forget to enter to win the cute “Latchy Catchy” 🙂
Shona

Well, I’m a few days late on this…confession time…I have this really bad tendency to put things away for “safe keeping”…only to never find them again…Ugh. The amount of time I spend looking for things is atrocious! However, all is good now! 😉

Remember THIS post? Well the lovely ladies at Rosefields Market sent me a Latchy Catchy to give away to you! All you have to do is “like” their Facebook Page and “like” Shona Reid Photography’s Facebook page, come back and comment here and you’re golden! I love these little babies as they help even with older kids’ doors slamming from cross drafts etc. Yay!

I’ll draw on Tuesday, so get liking!
Shona xox

Hey Y’all!

Just wanted to write a quick post as I haven’t done so in a while.

Do you ever fight with your husband (sorry guys, but it always seems to be the dudes who want to hang pictures super high!) about where your image should hang? Well, I found this great “How To” on Apartment Therapy about where your art should hang. There’s an actual formula that completely proved my natural sense and sensibilities correct! (ha! Take that hubby!). Click HERE to read about what it means to hang an image 57″ from centre.

Then there’s the inevitable, how do I actually figure out where to put the nail/screw etc. when hanging images with a wire hanging thingy (yup, all technical on ya today…). Click HERE to see a brilliant way this woman hangs unruly Ikea frames using a screw and paint stir stick. I *strongly* recommend holding the image at the bottom when doing this as I almost ripped the screw out of the stir stick due to the weight of the image. Yes she says to do this with someone and yes I did it on my own and yes I’m impatient. 😉

And finally, if you just want to hang an image that needs a nail, use toothpaste to mark the spot on the wall that the nail should go. Check out THIS post from The Industrial Cottage to see what I mean. It worked like a charm!!

I’ve been painting pretty much our whole home (whoopee) and printed up some images from our family session last year (2 16x20s; 1 16×16 and a 10×20). I love them! BUT, I gotta say finding frames was a chore and I didn’t get them custom framed so they don’t have antiglare glass. Boo to reflections. I’m hoping that once I get some new window treatments up, it won’t be so bad, but honestly, it just made me love canvases more. Ready to hang and no glare. Amen. Here’s the final product (forgive the iPhone snap and the mess):

I hope that helps!  Make sure you check out the blog tomorrow as I have another great giveaway!

Shona xox

Wowa, for all you people out there that are obsessed with lists (like me), have I got a cool thing for you!  My colleague out in Calgary (Fresh Sugar’s Brandy Anderson), posted about this online list ap last week so I thought I’d give it a try (although I make lists, I also loose them…then become frustrated because I can’t remember what was on them and waste time like a hamster on a wheel – how’s that for a Friday morning visual!?).  It’s called TeuxDeux;  Isn’t the title just brilliant?

Here’s what I like about it:
-It’s online, so even I can’t lose it!
-You still get the satisfaction of crossing something off by double clicking (tapping) on it.
-You can leave your crossed off items on there or remove them.
-It’s for your desk top (free program), but you can purchase the ap for you’re iphone for $2.99 and the two are synced…booyah!
-If you don’t complete something that day, it automatically moves it over to the next day for you. Or, you can drag and drop it to the new completion day.
-There’s a “someday” list at the bottom. So you know stuff needs to get done, but you’re not sure exactly when you’re going to be able to do it? Put it there and you can move it up to a day when you’re ready 🙂

There’s tonnes of other nifty little things, but those are the highlights for me. Love it! I was using Google Tasks before and I liked it, but this is just so much more simple for me. Love, love, love!

Happy Friday & don’t forget to add Maternity in the Market to your TeuxDeux list! ~ Check out the 411 HERE 🙂

Shona xo

EDIT:  Oh!  Just figured out that if you need to edit something already on your list, you simply drag it up to the entry window, add/change what you need and then hit enter!  Is it sad that I’m THIS excited about a list making ap??

This is one of those ideas that are so simple, but so cool…I wish I had thought of it, but:

a.  my head is non-stop photography, kids and home reno’s;

b. my Mom did my grade 8 sewing project as she was disgusted by my inadequacies…we got an A 😉

Check out these cute “Door Jammers” via Rosefields Market on Etsy!  They’re designed to open and close doors quietly so as not to wake baby.  Super cute and practical!  They’re only $8 USD with free shipping in the States (or $3 to Canada) and they come in a bunch of colours/styles.  Love ’em!

Till next time,

Shona