I got a Fujifilm X-E1, which I have nicknamed "Ewan," specifically to take nice pictures of my growing family with shallow DOF. But when it came to choosing which camera to lend to the hospital staff who will document my baby's delivery, I figured that Fiji (my trusty Fuji X10) would still be the better camera, since Fiji’s EXR mode is absolutely awesome. It turned out to be a good move! This my tender moment with Nate captured by the hospital staff.

I am his first kiss!

IP Shot: Who owns the copyright over this photo? Here, the general rule applies: the author owns the work. So the hospital staff who took the photo owns the copyright over the photo. Why do I have the right to use it? If not implied consent, then I would argue fair use. :)

I wanted to purchase a red Gordy lug-mount wrist strap for Ewan (Fuji X-E1). But it was out-of-stock at the affordable online reseller that I contacted, while the other reseller was selling it for a premium (she said Gordy had also raised his prices). By some happy accident, I saw that Mr. Sparks threw away his old leather belt and I also found two metal rings which fitted Ewan’s lug-mount. So I decided to make my own Gordy lug-mount wrist strap, minus the O-ring. I really love crafts and DIY, so this was right up my alley.

First, I made a red lug-mount wrist strap for Ewan, which matched the super steal red softie I got from ebay. Since I had an extra metal ring, I made a funky orange and blue lug-mount wrist strap for Fiji (Fuji X10). The wrist straps ended up just the way I wanted, and I saved PhP2,000 (PhP1,000 per strap) in the process!

DIY red lug-mount wrist strap for Ewan

DIY orange and blue lug-mount wrist strap for Fiji

I had a lot of left-over leather material. Since Mr. Sparks and I had a circle of friends who also liked taking photos, I decided to make more wrist straps to give out as Christmas gifts. I didn’t have any more metal rings to make lug-mount straps, so I just made string wrist straps in our friends’ favorite colors.

DIY wrist straps for our friends

DIY gift boxes & gift tags

Since I was on a crafting spree, I also made gift boxes & gift tags from discarded brown envelopes from my office. I finished the gift packages off with brown ribbon which I kept from a gift which we received last year. Hope our friends like our hand-made gifts!

When I found out Mike and I were expecting our first baby, I knew I had to get a camera that would let me take nice portrait photos.

Fiji (Fujifilm X10) and Ewan (Fujifilm X-E1)

Enter my second camera, a Fujifilm X-E1, which I have nicknamed "Ewan." It came with Fujinon XF 35mmF1.4 R lens which comes up with really crisp shots with shallow enough depth of field for environmental portraits.

More from our Christmas vacay spent in Bohol.

Dolphins in the wild

On our third day in Panglao, Bohol, we had a sea tour which included waking up really early to chase dolphins. I didn't think I'd be so ecstatic to see dolphins. It's not like I have never seen one. But when we finally saw the pack of dolphins, I went nuts! It's incredible to see them in the wild! And there were so many of them too! We were pretty lucky, we were told, since others would only catch 3 or 5, or some have been unable to see any dolphins on their scheduled sea tour. In our case, we saw at least 11 and in several sightings too!

When we spent Christmas at Bohol, we stayed in Dumaluan Beach, Panglao Island.

My niece and Panglao's fine fine sand.

The beach is really beautiful and the sand was lovely--almost comparable to Boracay. My niece loved playing with the fine cream sand, but she refused to sit on the sand. She's a little obsessive compulsive like that.

More from our Christmas vacay spent in Bohol.

Chocolate Hills not looking too chocolate-y.

Of course the country-side tour would not have been complete without stopping by the Chocolate Hills observatory/viewing deck. The viewing deck is actually one of the hills which the government has converted into an observatory.

The hills appear green here because the limestone formations are covered with grass. But during the dry season, the grass dries up and the hills appear more brown than green.