The Splice of Life - Easy Video Editing

Since having kids I've become a big video and picture taker. Like so many parents, I want to document so many of their experiences. Now add I have kind of a bad memory, and that I am a very visual person, and that makes the pictures and videos that much more important to me.

The problem is that I amass all these images and they they pretty much just sit on my computer. Our pictures gallery is the screen saver to our computers, so I'll catch the snapshots that way. But the videos in particular just tend to pile up. Here and there I've tried a bit of video editing. But it's so time consuming and the software is just complicated enough that every time I do I am relearning the whole process. So we have very little videos that are actually edited and compiled in a meaningful way.

Now with child number two, my iPhone has actually become my main source of taking videos and pictures on a daily basis. I pull out our Canon Vixia for more important events, but the iPhone is my workhorse.

I recently was about to transfer over some videos onto my computer where they'd sit untouched until who-knows-when. But these were precious videos of my little guy learning to walk. I decided to do a search of video editing apps for my iPhone.

Voila! There were so many to choose from! I tried out just a couple, but literally within about 2 minutes I could figure out which were too complicated, too limited in features, or just plain not easy to work with.

I ended up using a video editing program called "Splice." It's a great little program that allows for compiling pictures and videos. It has several options for transitions, and you can add titles and text in between pics/videos. You can also add your own music and voice recordings. You can adjust the volume of music and videos individually. The app allows for editing the length of the audio and pics/videos. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles you may have when using some of the popular computer programs (you can't pick the font for your title for example). But, it offers much of what you'd need to easily put together videos on your iPhone. I was able to put together a video of him walking in under 10 minutes, nice!

I wishfully think that "someday" I'll have time to go back on my computer and put together videos into lovely, meaningful movies. But in reality, that's not likely to happen- at least not anytime soon. Spending 10 minutes quickly putting together a video with a theme while the kids are taking naps... now that's doable!

Bloggin about not bloggin

So, I've realized that my blogging has considerably slowed down and thought I'd take a moment to reflect on that. So, what's been up? Really one main reason the blogging has slowed is that I haven't been so creative in the kitchen area lately. But that's a good thing! The summer months have brought some amazing fresh produce in our weekly delivery. We've been enjoying some very simple meals, with little (or nothing) done to fresh produce. I love making simple dishes that taste fresh and pure. Of course I love my rich, creamy, saucy, savory dishes as well. But something about the summer just makes simple dishes taste that much better.

What have we been eating? Well, last night it was a simple pan-seared chicken breast with zucchini, yellow squash, fresh garlic, and new potatoes. All cooked together in a large skillet with olive oil, fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper. Another favorite is grilled steak or tri-tip, with grilled corn. Mmmm, and seared salmon with blanched green beans. Simple, simple.

So, hence the need to not record my recipes in the usual manner. The big number 2 reason is that my baby is no longer a baby. At 14 months, little man pretty much eats what the rest of us does. He remains a good eater and shows a clear preference for fruit and vegetables. My fingers are crossed, I hope he remains the veggie lover that he is today!

And finally, I started this blog after being asked numerous times about how I make baby food for my kiddos. While starting it, I decided it would be nice to use it to catalogue some other aspects of my stay-at-home journey too- from logging my non-baby recipes, to little projects we work on. So here's to future blogs, whatever they may hold, even if I'm just bloggin' about not bloggin.'