Instagram Frame

Hello all, Salt here!

Like most other people on the planet Earth, I am a bit obsessed with instagram. In fact, after iPhone-gate (an unfortunate series of events involving two iphones, a theft, and a washing machine), the thing I missed most about having a smartphone, was instagram.

Sure, its slowly getting crowded with pictures of food, which is especially annoying when I'm on a fasting day! And yes, every so often you get spam messages as you would have seen on myspace circa 2007 ("PC 4 PC? - No, I think not!).

But, it makes my mediocre little snaps look lovely, and has given a whole new definition to the word 'Selfie' - shameless, I know.

So when it came around to Laurie and I's first year anniversary, I wanted to find a way of documenting our first year together in a not too girly sort of way. At uni i lived with a boy, whose girlfriend constantly sent him canvases that she'd made, adorned with pictures of the two of them kissing, surrounded by song lyrics, sequins and love hearts. Cute, but in no way is this my style, let alone Laurie's!

It just so happened that Laurie had just moved into his flat in London too, so I wanted to try and incorporate something that he could use to liven up his room, but wouldn't be embarassing and too coupley to display.

Luckily, if there's anyone who loves instagram as much as I do, its Mr Beamont. Admittedly, he mostly takes pictures of his feet and/or tube trains, but occassionally there's nice ones of us on our adventures. Even having not had Instagram for four months of the year, I had plenty of pictures to choose from.

I found the website Printstagram, logged in with my instagram password, and voila, our photos were there for printing! They offer all sorts of products, but I just picked up a set of small square prints. They're 2.5 x 2.5 inches and you can buy 48 of them for $12. In English money, it turned out to be around £15 with shipping added on too.

They warned there could be a three week wait for them, so I left plenty of time, but the little FedEx box arrived on my desk eight days later!

They arrived beautifully packaged, and wrapped up really carefully, so they didn't get bent on the journey. But despite this, I couldn't help opening the packaging there and then and flicking through them at my desk!

They were all perfectly printed and have a really nice matte finish to them. It made my creative juices flare and I thought up so many different things I could do with them, that I nearly ordered another batch there and then!

Next stop was IKEA, to find a frame. I took my time trying to find something that suited the pictures, as well as Laurie's style. I decided on the 'Ribba', which was a bargain at £9.

Then came the tricky part - the actual construction.
I used the white backing paper that came with the frame as a background and removed the cardboard mount altogether.

I then did a quick bit of maths, and worked out that in a 15 x 17.5 inch rectangle, I could fit 42 of my 48 prints.

I drew the rectangle on the backing paper in pencil, and starte sifting through the photos to find my favourites, and put them in a nice order. I tried not to put too many with the same filter together, but thats just me being picky! Have a play and see what works! 

Once I decided on the order of the photos, it was time to stick them down. In hindsight, spray mount would have been more effective, but a good quality Pritt Stick worked well for me.

And voila - the finished product! I'm really chuffed with how this worked out, and will definitely be making one for myself when I'm not moving house every six months! Laurie loved it too, and it looks lovely and homely hanging on his new wall!

Bestie Bucket List Update #2

Salt: Hello one and all! We're now well into our fifth month of 2013, so I thought we were due a Bucket List update...mainly, because unlike last time, I now actually have something to report.

First thing I can cross off (kind of) is 'Makeover'. By which I mean, I had a haircut. And that haircut is the same as it has been for the last two years.
So, by definition not a makeover, in the slightest. However, as Satch can confirm, I have had many hair makeovers over the years, and not many have been successful. Ladies and Gents, I present to you the worst haircuts I've ever had.

The full fringe that slowly became curtains...

















The bob, that stayed a nice stylish length for all of about a week....











And who could forget, the black hair that permanently looked greasy?!







I've had my fair share of makeovers, and I don't want anymore. If this doesn't count, I'll let Satch do my make-up sometime instead.

Satch: Man, is she going to regret saying that! 

Salt: More excitingly, I tried my hand at drawing and came up with this little picture of me and my good friend Rogfog at a New Years Eve Party at Satchs:

I can guaranttee that I looked a lot less passionate in the original photo, and that Rogfog looked a lot less manic. Also, despite common opinion, my hands are not THAT big.

My final progression on the Bucket List is a sneaky entry - I passed my driving test!!

 

I didn't tell anyone when my test was, and very few people even knew I was learning, but SO pleased to be able to tick this one off of the list.

It took 5 years, 2 theory tests and 4 practical tests, but I FINALLY got there.

Satch: I am well jealous/proud of that one! 

With my bucket listy exploits there's not a great deal to report. Been working on learning a new song or two (which I am DEFINITELY not ready to unveil to the world just yet!) and my cousin Harvey is on his way back to England in two month's time so that's definitely the saga-in-one-sitting covered (Tim Burton's Batmans, if you were wondering). Also, Salt-face and I have booked our tattoos for June 1st - AAAAAAH! 

I was going to cross putting on a meal for my friends off the list, but Salt said it doesn't count - bucket list nazi. However, I have baked something I've never baked before :) I thought I invented this as an idea, but it turned out Mary Berry beat me to it (is there anything that woman hasn't done?). I'm still so proud of it it definitely deserves it's own blog post but let me just say this: Lemon Drizzle Sponge Squares. Intrigued? I know you are! 

We'll let you know how our ink turns out :) 

Until next time, 

Satch and Salt