Using Bottle Caps, Beer Labels And Wine Corks As Art

When Thomas and I first moved in together, two things were facts: We drank a lot of wine and beer and we needed art for our apartment that was cheap or free. So we figured out how to combine the two, and now are proud owners of some pretty cool looking art.

UPDATE: See our followup post explaining how to peel a label off a beer bottle.

Beer Cap Art
We used to always have beer stocked in our fridge and we always had people over to drink it. We would constantly find bottle caps around the house, and we started to see that we had a lot of different varieties and some of the caps were very cool looking. Thomas got the idea to make them into art. So we bought a large cork board, some super glue and some push pins. We spent months gathering beer bottle caps, gluing the push pins to the back of the caps and then pushing them into the cork board. All the effort was worth it though to have this unique piece hanging on our walls!

Beer Label Art
As we were collecting all different types of beer for the bottle cap project, we started to wonder if there wasn't something that we could do with the beer labels as well. Thomas' mom had left us a huge canvas when she moved, so we started using white glue to stick the beer labels on to it. It took us a long time to cover the front, and we found that some beer's labels do not come off easily, but the outcome is awesome. It is my favorite of the three projects. We still have to work on the edge of the canvas, and so it should be finished soon!

Wine Cork Art
We originally had bigger and grander plans for the wine corks that we saved, but in the end, I like what we ended up with a lot. We were already saving our bottle caps when I went to a house where someone had an entire barrel of wine corks in the dining room. A barrel! So we started collecting wine corks along with our bottle caps, and eventually we had enough to attempt to display them. I bought a cheap vase from Target and poured our mix of bottle caps and wine corks in, and it was instant art! Now we just throw in the caps or corks when we have beer or wine, so the art is slowly improving itself.





These art ideas make us sound like we are alcoholics, and I swear that we are not. It has take us years to collect the pieces required, but it has proven to be worth the wait for relatively cheap, unique art!

Does anyone have any other ideas on how to use beer or wine for art? We were saving wine bottles for a while, but they started taking up too much room, but would happily start again if someone had a great idea!

Photography For Beginners: Which Lens To Buy

Not long after you buy a DSLR camera, the desire to buy accessories will undoubtedly arise. The first thing people often want is a new lens. As a beginner, it can be hard and sometimes frustrating to pick your next lens. In this post I'm going to take you through what I know about lenses to help you make a decision on what to buy.

The Kit Lens
The lens your camera came with is often referred to as the 'Kit Lens' because it came with the camera body when you purchased it. Most of the time, this is a lens that has the ability to zoom in and out, which gives you a lot of flexibility in what you can shoot with your camera.

You may read advice from a people suggesting you ditch the kit lens as soon as possible. I'm going to caution you against this. To me, it makes the most sense for your hobby, and for your wallet, to get comfortable with what you've got right now and only move up once you're ready.

I also use the kit lens as the inspiration for a mental exercise. I start by figuring out what it does really well and pretend that its the best lens I can get for that particular role. For example, my 18-55mm kit lens has performed very well outdoors and in good sunlight. It's been great for travel photography specifically. Then I think about what situations it hasn't performed very well for me. Shooting conditions such as low light or indoor photography have been disappointing with my kit lens. Knowing these traits,  I can focus only on a lens that will help me out in low light and indoor photography.

The Numbers
We're going to use my equipment as an example again. My kit lens is an 18-55mm zoom lens. The 18 refers to the widest (zoomed out) view it can give, and the 55 indicates how zoomed in it will go. To give some perspective on what these numbers really mean, I learned a neat trick to compare these numbers to what your eye can see. Look at a stationary object, and note its size. Then put your camera to your face and look through the viewfinder. Play around with the zoom and notice that the object will "get bigger" or "get smaller" as you slide the zoom around. On my lens, the 50mm mark is just about exactly how my eye sees the world. Anything wider than 50mm gives a wider field of view than my eye does.

Some lenses will have a range such as 18-55mm. Other lenses won't. They'll simply list their focal length as, 35mm, 50mm, 80mm, etc. These are called prime lenses and they do not zoom. To get closer or farther away from a subject, you actually have to move your body. "Whats the point?" you might be asking. Well, prime lenses are often VERY good at the focal length they shoot in. So good in fact, that they'll often blow your zoom capable lens out of the water in terms of picture quality at that focal length. Generally, a zoom capable lens is a great all around lens but a prime lens is the best for its given focal length.

F2.8, F3.5, F1.4, ... What The F?
Along with the focal length (or "zoom") will be another number that usually has an "F" with it. This is how wide open the aperture will go. I haven't discussed aperture yet and I'll get into it further in a later post. For the purposes of this article though, just think of aperture like your eye's pupil. The wider it gets, the more light gets in. When a lens lists its widest aperture number, its telling you just how much light its capable of letting in to your camera body. The aperture can of course be decreased (F number gets higher) but they generally only list how wide it will go.

OK Seriously... Which Lens Do I Buy?
Back to my example. I need a lens that is better in low light conditions. I'm going to go with a lens capable of opening its aperture nice and wide. I also like the idea of a prime lens because I've already got a lens with zoom. I've narrowed my search to a 50mm 1.8 by Canon. 1.8 is how wide the aperture will go, and 50mm is the focal length the lens shoots in. Simple right? Don't worry if it doesn't make sense. The more you read and research (my post shouldn't be the only thing you read) the more these numbers will make sense.

Lets say your desires are completely opposite of mine and you want a lens that's capable of big wide-angle shots. A 10-22mm lens might be a good solution for you. 10mm is the widest angle the camera can shoot at, and 22mm is the closest you can pull in. With this lens you can shoot anywhere between 10 and 22mm.

Thomas You Didn't Help Me
I know. Trust me, you can read everything on the Internet including posts better than mine on places like Photography On The Net, but you may never feel completely confident in which lens you want next. My advice is to find a way to try out lenses you are interested in. Find out if any of your friends own lenses similar to what you're looking for or rent one to try out for a few days. You read that right, you can rent camera lenses and its a great way to try out new lenses without a huge financial commitment.

The best advice I can give you is to do your homework. There are a lot of resources on the Internet, especially on photography forums and camera manufacturer websites. I got a lot of help by asking questions and reading conversations started by amateurs like myself.

Are you looking for a new lens? Have you already purchased one (or more)? Let me know how your experience was.

How To Make My Grandmother's Pie (Or, The Best Pie Ever!)

I come from a family of bakers. My great-grandfather owned a bakery in Escondido and my grandmother learned everything she knows from him, but I feel that the baking gene may have skipped over me. This is my attempt to learn how to bake like my namesake and carry on the skill of baking delicious treats for future generations.

My grandmother is the queen of baking. I have never had a single thing she has baked that did not taste like the best thing I have ever had in my life. I, on the other hand, can't manage to cook anything appropriately in the oven. I asked my grandma to show me how to make a cherry pie, since I figured that should be easy enough, but boy was I wrong. Making pie is extremely easy, yet extremely difficult.

We started out by making the dough from scratch. I expected my grandma to pull out a recipe, but she had the whole thing memorized because she does this so often. She used to be on a cooking show when she was younger, and she still has that very easy to follow teaching style. While I watched her combine the ingredients for the dough, I thought it would be easy to duplicate because she made it look so easy. If only!

We combined flour, salt and Crisco (or shortening) in a bowl, and then slowly added ice cold water until the dough formed into a ball. Then, we split the dough in half, and rolled one half of the dough into a circle for the base of the pie. My grandmother was able to role her half in about 5 seconds, and it would be round and the perfect size. Mine took me 5 minutes, was a bit oval shaped and still too small. This process obviously takes some skill! I cut small holes in my half of the dough for the pie top design, which allowed the cherries to have some room to breathe while baking. We filled the base of the pie with pre-made cherry pie filling and then topped that with my pretty hole-cut pie topper. We cut all the edges off around the pie pan and popped the pie in the oven for 45 minutes.




In the meantime, we made a second pie (an apricot one, which you can see in the pictures) and my grandma had me test my dough making skills again. I feel like I may have improved slightly, but I walked away having a whole new appreciation for her baking skills. She makes it look so much easier than it is.

When the pie was done, we let it cool for a few hours and then dove in. It was, of course, delicious! In the end, I realized that making a pie is very simple, but it requires skills that I hope I one day will develop. Thanks for teaching me grandma!




Bonus: With the extra dough scraps we had, we made 3 apple tarts! It was quite the baking day.

Dough Recipe
For every one cup of flour, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/3 cup of shortening, mix by hand. Then add 2-3 tablespoons of ice cold water slowly until dough is correct consistency. For our pies, we made a double batch so there was crust for the top and the bottom of the pie.

Questions or Comments? Post them below!

Book Review: LEGO A Love Story

LEGO: A Love Story is written by Jonathan Bender and it chronicles his reconnection with the beloved childhood toy, LEGO. Readers get to witness his journey into the world of Adult Fans Of LEGO (AFOLs), the community surrounding the brand, and the company that started it all.

I was given this book on Christmas by a coworker who had remembered me casually mentioning my LEGO project. I say casual because I probably tried to downplay it as much as possible once I realized how weird it sounded to admit it out loud. The funny thing is, her reaction wasn't of scorn or ridicule and her gift was a perfect example of the positive responses I receive when I mention my own rediscovery of LEGO to others.

Like Bender, and so many other people, I went through the Dark Ages; that time when you give up LEGO bricks (usually when being "cool" is the most important thing). As an adult, you never want to throw the bricks away because they represent A LOT of time and money. The bricks and pieces look as new as the day they were torn out of their box so it would feel strange to throw them away. LEGO bricks have always been known for their superior quality. This just isn't a toy you can get rid of.

Jonathan Bender dives deep into the world of AFOLs by attending conventions and events centered around LEGO. He travels to Billund, Denmark where the company is headquartered and interviews employees overseas and here in the United States. In the midst of his rediscovery, the elephant in the room is that Bender's building room should really be a nursery. Looming in the background of the story is the fact that he and his wife are struggling to conceive. A child's room fills up with toys while the key ingredient, a son or daughter, is missing.

I had no idea what to expect with this book. I figured it would be more like a text book with facts, figures, and stats. It has all those, but in addition to numbers, there is a real story. A personal journey of a man and his wife that uncovers emotions that were just under the surface. Through play and brick stacking, Bender and his wife connect with each other in a way that they may have not been able to before.

LEGO: A Love Story is one of the best surprise books I've read in a long time. Not only is it about a hobby of mine, but - as cliche as it is to say - it has a lot of heart. The love story exists between Bender and his bricks, but its also between him and his wife. I think that added layer of story telling really sold me on this book. As much as I love LEGO, I don't think I could sit and read an entire book about the company if it were just trivia. However, with the very human elements thrown in, LEGO: A Love Story is easily one of the best reads I've ever had. I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone whether you're a former builder, a current fan, or just curious.

Work Out Update/Injured Foot Update

Well, it has been two weeks since I sprained my foot, and it is finally starting to feel somewhat normal. I still have to walk slowly, and some movements still hurt, but the pain is nowhere near what it was when this first happened.

My workouts have greatly suffered these past two weeks, as have my eating habits. The first week, my body was in so much pain from having to use new muscles to get around, and the two days of using crutches gave my arms a work out like I have never had. I mostly stayed on the couch with a heating pad wrapped around my foot and tried to keep it as elevated as possible as soon as I got home from work. Week two started and with it came my annoyance and depression about the injury. I felt it should have healed quicker and that I should be back to normal. I was sick of walking weird, taking forever to get from place to place and most of all, sick of being helpless when it came to driving myself to and from work (Thomas was a sweetheart and drove me the whole time). With the start of the second week came the start of my horrible food cravings to make me feel better. If I couldn't go for a walk around the block, then an order of loaded mashed potatoes from Friday's is what would feel good. I did give into some of the bad cravings, but not as much as I had in the past, and that, at least, I am happy about.

Saturday was the first day I managed to walk without struggling. I tested out driving my car on Sunday and am thrilled that I can drive myself around again.

Today I am going to start my New Year's Resolution from scratch again. I am going to start slow on the cardio, but I have decided that it's ok as long as I'm trying. I don't want to re-injure or push myself because I am annoyed. Instead, I am just going to start at the beginning and not just pick up where I left off.

I also have a new goal to shoot towards, which I hope I can keep my eye on. Thomas and I have decided to take a beach vacation (destination to be determined) for our anniversary this year, and I want to look awesome in a bathing suit. I know I have plenty of time to take it slow and still meet my goal, so I am not worried, but really excited instead.

Now for the advice, have any of you started working out again after an injury? What are some things I should keep in mind to make sure I don't re-injure?

Thanks for the support everyone!

Meme Monday: Meanwhile...

Meme Monday brings you a weekly Internet Meme that we have found. Internet Memes are described as something that catches on like wildfire with Internet communities with no outside source of promotion. They exist purely for enjoyment and laughs.