Thompson Family-Life

instagram it

So, yeh! I'm on IG, how about you? I'm "kitschydigitals" if you're interested. Let me know what your IG name is in the comments section, I'd love to follow! I know I've complained about my 'Droid here but once I heard that they had a new app for Droids for Instagram I was all "well, I guess I'll try it out" all non-chalant-like (you know, secretly thinking "YES! i've GOT to try this thing out that all those iphone-ers are always yapping about!"

I was hesitant to at first because I don't know about you, but who needs another time-sucker! Lord, I can't keep up with it all AND get work done! I honestly got hooked when I had access to Ethan's work iphone for a week or two. That kind of spoiled me. Then he went and changed jobs and now has a Blackberry (booooo). So, most of these pics are from my 'Droid, some from his iphone. My camera takes the worst pics and I can't tell if it's my phone/model/megapixels or what. I see other 'Droid user's pics and a lot of them look better. I'm thinking they have a better model. Mine is cheap and my bill is like $25 a month. Ha! Good on the pocketbook, not so good for photo quality. 

As a person that has spent the better part of the past 8 years or so perfecting my photography, it's hurts me a little inside having to upload my crap-tastic pictures. But hey, they are what they are, so go with it, baby. : )

As you can see, most of my photos are of things I left behind at thrift stores and antique malls... some things I brought home with me... random family stuff and other happenings going on around the Thompson household... me considering dying my hair pink (!!!)... molding eggs into rabbit faces... weekend trips to Birmingham, Alabama... margaritas... Ramona the Rat!... and exciting photos of me in my bathroom mirror.

I don't post photos a lot on IG and honestly, I prefer Twitter (i know they're different, but some people seem to hang out on one more than the other). I don't always have a pretty or interesting photo to upload with my thoughts, so that is why I love Twitter. I've seen a lot of IG accounts where the person always has a gorgeous photo to upload of their perfect home, with their perfect children, while they're homeschooling and making meals with ingredients from their homegrown garden... and I quickly start feeling like "wow. My life feels pretty dang boring. I'm sitting here getting an oil change and my kid is having a meltdown."

I moaned about this a bit on said Twitter this week, about the need to broadcast everything we do... that feeling that it's only validated if we take a pic and broadcast it across the internet. (and when you're in the Creative world that I'm in, everyone is trying to out-do each other with their perfectness.)

To think that there was a time that we didn't need to do that (broadcast everything). Even folks that aren't on Twitter, or IG, or that don't blog, most people are at a minimum on Facebook.

It's hard to remember a time when we didn't feel the need to tell everyone everything... instantly!

To think we just went about our lives, living it. Not worrying about who you could tell or show. The world really is a big Show-and-Tell game. But I get that it's just the way it is.

I seem to be a good 5-10 years older than most people I encounter in my little neck-of-the-internet-woods. We were just starting to use email when I was in college. So growing up, for me, was just normal, you know? I wasn't glued to my phone or e-mail. Or texting. I was just living my life.

It's all very perplexing if I think about it too much. Online social networking can be fun, but it's also just a bit MUCH. I can immediately feel myself getting in a bad mood if I get too immersed in it all and that says a lot to me. I'm most happy when I'm oblivious. When I'm working hard on building my business and making my time count. When I'm in the moment with my family. 

When I'm not broadcasting a damn thing about it. That is when I'm happiest.

It's a weird, sometimes fun, but always perplexing thing.

How do you feel about it all? Our constant need to have our face glued to the internet and our phones? The need to tell everyone about everything, every hour of the day. 

I have friends that aren't even part of this world. One of these friends and I were talking about it a few weekends ago. She doesn't even do Facebook.

Honestly? I envied her. A lot. We were saying that the difference between these two kinds of people, you see it immediately in their body language. For example, you're at a park. One person takes it all in. Breathes it in. People watches. The other person might do that for a little while, but swiftly becomes bored, yanks out his or her phone and starts tap, tap, tapping. It's like everyone has ADD. It's like you can't spend FIVE minutes just relaxing.

I see that in myself a lot. That restlessness. But I think it's just been conditioned in me, you know? If my business and other things didn't depend on the internet, and my connection to people around the world, the idea of totally unplugging from it would sound perty daggum awesome.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Please share!

my life in Droid pics

1,4 - Kudzu Antiques // 2,3,9 - Decatur Estate // 5 - Highland Row Antiques // 6 - Thrift // 7 - Classy Flea 
8 - My Studio (tour to come!)

I started this feature a while back and I realized I've only done it once! I know lots of you own iphones and you're all over Instagram... well, pffft. I'm a Droid girl. (kidding, I would love to be an iphone girl, but it ain't in the budget!)

I loooove having a phone that I can take pictures with. Yes, I was probably the last person on Earth without a smart phone, but I got my first last year. I especially love having my phone with me when I'm out thrifting or going to local Atlanta vintage shops. I use it to "claim" items that I can't take home with me. You know how that is. There's something about taking a photo of something, or blogging about it, or pinning it on Pinterest to make you feel like it's "your's" even though it's not. Know what I mean?

As you can see we have quite a lot of great vintage to be seen in this city!

10,11,14,18 - Cobb Antiques // 12 - Heliotrope // Moi at my new fav vintage clothing store Rag 'o Rama
 15,16 - Thrifts // 17 - My Studio

Let's also take note at how phone cameras make you look about 20 lbs thinner.

Mmm-hmmm. You know it's true.

19,23,25 - Cobb Antiques // 18 - Buford Highway (Atlanta's closest thing to Chinatown) //
21 - Kudzu Antiques // 22 - Me in my bathroom // 24 - Highland Row Antiques // 26 - My bike! Pannier bag from Cycle Chic

So if you're ever in Atlanta and are looking for great vintage, be sure to check out some of the shops I linked to. Thrifting is great here, too. I use this awesome website while I'm out (viewed on my Droid of course!) called The Thrift Shopper. You just put in a zip code and all of the nearby thrifts come up. I've spent the past six months or so traveling all over Atlanta (Atlanta is VERY big and very spread out) scouting out all of the great thrifts. It's been quite an adventure.

Do you use a Droid? Do you like it?

New feature: a little 'droid ditty

View Full Size Here

Photo descriptions, what we've been up to 7/11: 1. Gorgeous vintage couch I found at a thrift in Birmingham, AL. Alas it was too dusty/stinky to take home with me. // 2. Our favorite pesto pasta from one of the great classic restaurants here in Atlanta: Eats // 3. Me at a huge flea market in between Birmingham, AL & Atlanta // 4. Vintage horse show ribbons I took down from this room to put in storage. Keeping them in case we have any grand-daughters in 20 yrs, haha // 5. Vintage Bob Newhart comedy record I thrifted in Florida. He is seriously so cute. Total crush. Listened to this last week while I cleaned the house // 6. New/old couch - Craigslist find from a couple months ago, plus a new/old coffee table from same Craigslist seller - more photos to come // 7. new vintage/thrifted end table & original pastel drawing from flea market // 8. My feet & a pretty flower from our humble garden // 9. Random vintage Bluegrass album thrifted // 10. Mr. Elvis Has Left The Building cutie // 11. Ethan's original smurf figurines that he got out for the boys after they saw the new movie together // 12. Amazing calamari from Leon's in Decatur // 13. Holly & Heather on our Palm Springs vacation.

So, I have to admit, I've been fighting the phone photo trend for a loooong time. The internet has been so saturated with smart phone photos for so long now, and then they started seaping into blog posts. As an avid photographer, a lot of them made me cringe with the poor quality and the overuse of crazy photo effects (not the cool ones).

Fast forward to the future, a month or so ago, and I get my first smart phone.

An Android to be exact. (SWOON! No iphone you say!? the horror, I know.)

When I was a graphic artist working in the corporate world before the boys were born, I always always always worked on Macs. I mean, if you're in graphic art, that is just what you use. Period.

But then I stopped working for other people and started working for myself and making more time for the kids, and we just couldn't justify the price tag that came with Apple products, and I was totally fine with that. I learned to like the PC, learned how to use the different keyboard commands and that was that. I've never had any issues with PCs.

We are just cheap when it comes to electronics. ha.

I was also an anti-phone girl. Even though I was a talky teenager always on the phone in high school, somewhere along the way, I just came to hate talking on the phone. I think it was the advent of e-mail. I'm not big on small talk. I like to get to the point. E-mail has always suited me.

But then we had kids and having a phone for emergencies was something I needed to have. Especially in the car, you know, if it broke down or something. Well, I never charged that thing up. Cooper is now almost 8 years old and I have never carried a cell phone on me for all that time. (I know, most people couldn't even imagine that!)

 I think Ethan had had enough a month or two ago and he told me he was going to buy me a smart phone because he thought I'd actually use it (he worried about me not having a phone on me!). Yes, an Android (cheaper). And honestly a lot of his friends are big advocates of the Droid. Me? I honestly didn't care. If I could access the internet, be able to take some decent photos, make phone calls for emergencies - I was good. iphone? droid? all the same to me. I feel the same way about cars. If a car can get me from point A to B, that's all I care about. (although I would of course jump at the chance to own a vintage car from the 50's or 60's... but that's pretty far down on my Ultimate Vintage Wish List.)

So, back to the Droid.

Yes, I'm totally addicted to my phone now. Do I talk on it? No. Do I jack into the net? Oh hell yeah. Do I take photos of every random thing I see? Uh-huh, you betcha.

Heather called me the other day and I thought the ringing sound was coming from the TV. The next thing I knew she emailed me, knowing we had just seconds before chatted online, saying that she had just called me, kind of a "why didn't you pick up?" email. Can you tell I don't use the phone for chatting much? (Heather, I still owe you that call. ; )

One major thing I've realized is how WONDERFUL it is having a phone to take photos, of all the everyday stuff. The little bits that go undocumented with your actual camera. Even if I had a small point and shoot with me that I could bring in my purse, I don't think I would use it as much as the phone, don't you agree? The phone is just a lot more discreet and EVERYONE takes pictures with their phones.

I haven't had a lot of time to use any cool photo filter apps. These are straight from my phone and then I added a vintage-y action to the photo collage in Photoshop. Some of the photos are blurry, but if you have good light, they can come out quite nice! And the lens is very wide, and I don't own a really wide angle lens on my regular camera, so I like the wide effect. And hey, it makes you look thinner for some reason. ; )

So I'm going to try and put together these little vignettes once a month of phone photos. I think they are great way to get more "personal" with your blog readers.. getting a feel for their real, everyday life. 

If you own a Droid I would LOVE to hear any recs for cool apps that you like. Please share in the comments! Thanks in advance!