A Very Merry 2013 Christmas

I apologize for collecting too much dust on this blog for more than a month already. My silly-willy hobbies have taken complete control over my life that I have 0 time to blog. 

While I'm reviving the blog, I might as well give it a make over! I felt I didn't really want to concentrate on color, hence removing the blue background. Now it looks super girly, oops! To my other blogmates, if you guys have any problems, I can fix it, hehe. I'm too lazy to fix other things, so I'll keep the rest as it is, until I find more motivation <><>

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Merry Christmas! It's that time of year again, where the atmosphere seems extra jolly and your whole neighborhood is drowning in blinding Christmas lights (haha). I love Christmas because I have more time with myself and away from stress and pressure. This also means more time with my beloved wifi-- I mean family (and friends??).

Here are some photos of the wonderful gifts I received for Christmas 2013. My favorite gifts always come from my parents, and this year, they really surprised me. I've got my own laptop (a lenovo ideapad) and the pixiv almanac (which is basically an artbook from different artists in pixiv)! There are a few more I missed out, since I got a bit lazy setting things up (including the two special gifts :c). I mean, hanging them in hangers or laying them down on tables take a lot of effort! 

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I love the pattern of this one!

Owls are always very cute. :")

I've been wanting a sweatshirt for Christmas, and just what I wanted!

I handpicked this one from Forever 21, then just get paid from person and ta-da, Christmas gift! Haha, it's more fun this way.

Just right on time, since my old watch broke down during our school's Christmas party (amazing, right?). It may be a little tricky to read the time, but it wasn't like my old watch had number too, haha.

This one is probably the most interesting design for me! Now I have a handbag, instead of borrowing one from my mom.

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What did you get for Christmas? :)

- Keik

Tuesdays are new film days

Which makes sense since I was supposed to post these yesterday (but then I decided to ask permission from my lovely model first). Anyway, the shop I go to only process film on Tuesdays, hence the title (and this makes me look forward to Tuesdays, that is, when I have film to develop)

Anyway, remember how I said that I took more photos after the nostalgia + fairy tales peg? Well, here they are. Originally, we weren't supposed to have a photo taking session- whatever you call it. Our plan was to make a cover, but instead we searched polly pockets on google and reminisced on them and took lots of photos and watched game of thrones. (an afternoon well spent, indeed)

I think you're lovely

Because this is one very beautiful cat on a very beautiful staircase with very beautiful plants.

One of the 374289054686 close up photos of Cat's beautiful face.

I love how it looks like green is gushing above like a waterfall

Probably my dream photo taking venue (love it)

On the way to the poolside, there was this house with the most adorable birdhouse. Of course I took a photo (there was a cctv too, I made sure to wave)

I used different settings on these to see the effects, but then I ended up forgetting which settings I used on which.. whoopz

hey there, she says

The last five photos on film was of Keik- we were supposed to try levitating photos but I ran out before that could be accomplished. Thus, next time's peg shall be levitating photos. I hope you enjoyed!

*Catch Cat on her tumblr!

-Cara

Typography Unfolded

Introducing my latest obsession...typography! I've been inspired by many artists (actually most of them are my super artistic friends) and decided to try it out myself! And once I started, I honestly couldn't stop. (sounds weird, but totally true)

For most of my works, I use various quotes that I randomly found in books and the Internet, most especially through Facebook and Instagram. I know that quotes can be too mainstream, BUT I must say, they're really really inspiring. And I also mustn't forget to give credits and show gratitude to the pens/markers of Sharpie, Muji, and Uni Pin, which have been all used in at least one of my projects. These pens/markers are absolutely amazing!

I'd like to share two of my works, which can both be seen below. Hopefully, as time passes by, I'll be able to share more of my typography and improve my skills as well.

One of my favorite quotes by Helen Keller

A quote by the great Vince Lombardi

For me, typography's just one of those unique things that captivates one's mind and creativity, and lets one's true self be more defined. :) A creation of art, indeed.

-lanieblu

REAL or UNREAL?

      Was there a time when you were able to meet someone you never thought you could ever see? I have, and it felt like the lines  of our lives that were once parallel bent to intersect at some point. (haha from math class) :) Everything felt so surreal when I finally saw my long time idols, Infinite!

   An hour before the concert, I was in my car just casually talking to my sisters like nothing extravagant was going to happen next. But once I reached the venue, I felt the so nervous that I needed to pee (I pee a lot when I get nervous). The venue was painted with white (looked like heaven) and Infinite songs resounded throughout the whole venue. Even just hearing their songs being played in a building filled with happy and lively fans made my heart flutter.

   After about 40 minutes of waiting, the guards finally let the frantic girls inside the venue. As I walked inside, screams of girls never stopped and I felt like I was going to go deaf anytime, but I bore the loud screams to see what I came there for, INFINITE~ Waiting for 10 more minutes in the venue made me very anxious, and so I took pictures of the bare stage. (this may sound useless but those pictures are precious to me:) The stage looked so awesome with the High quality backdrop with the big logo of infinite rotating. I was so happy because I felt so proud of  Infinite, who so not long ago, was just an unknown band to the K-pop world, then becoming so famous and adored.

sorry for the low quality photo.. my itouch's camera is not very nice.

        Even without seeing the boys, fans were already cheering and screaming the members' names while only watching the infinite music videos. I thought they were just a little OA (over acting) but I guess they were just too excited :). At last, the concert started and the boys started dancing and singing their second to the latest song, Destiny. But because I sat at the far back, I just felt like I was watching their video on Youtube and so with  that idea, I was just sitting on my seat quietly watching their synchronized choreography but it suddenly hit me that I was in the same room as them and this is a once in a lifetime experience which I should appreciate.

You can see how small they looked like so I ended up just watching from the big screen.

         

    Despite feeling down because of the distance of the stage from my seat, I  still enjoyed the concert. You would feel the same when it comes to someone you care about. I didn't care if I didn't see them, the most important thing was their presence and their voice which were heard throughout the whole venue :) They performed my favorite songs and I sang along with the fans.

    My favorite part was MYUNGSOO's solo! He sang "Love U, Like U" with such a cute giant teddy bear while playing guitar. His deep unique voice made the audience scream really loud that it almost made my eardrums pop! I was too shy to scream with them so I just smiled really widely from ear to ear. :) 

 A link of a photo of Myungsoo's performance http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/XgYEnDEgnA0/maxresdefault.jpg

* I have to admit, his voice is not the best voice to hear but his face and personality make people feel attracted to him :)) HAHAHA

    The fans in the concert were so much crazier than me. I even saw a fan who was wearing a Hello Kitty costume and another standing and jumping on top of a chair. Well, everyone has their own way to show their support, right? :)) Something which amazed me about the fans were their synchronization and unity in singing  and chanting the names of the idols. In one song, like someone was conducting the audience, the whole audience chanted the names of the members together in specific parts  of the song. 

Photo of the fans with glow sticks,glow ears and all the other glowing things! (It was too sad I wasn't able to buy one.. I really wanted one..)

      Some other memorable experiences where the interaction between the Infinite members and the audience. Their effort to talk in English so we could understand better made me feel special! Woohooo special special girl~~ (lyrics to their song) Although I should have felt touched, I felt more like laughing when I couldn't  understand anything they were saying because of their mispronunciations :)) Their constant effort to make us feel special and loved made the concert worth paying for :).(Even if they were just trying to flatter us) Their closing remarks was what broke the hearts of all the fans as they bowed to leave. I guess there will always be a goodbye... This almost made me cry but what stayed in my heart was what the Infinite members said, "We'll always stay in your hearts". (I know it's so cheesy :) but it's also sweet, right?) hehehe

Infinite waving goodbye~

                                                         


their 90 degree bow -  to show their respect

    If you are interested in knowing about Infinite, I recommend you listen to their songs by visiting their company's official channel, at http://www.youtube.com/user/woolliment. For more questions about infinite, you are free to ask me!~ To help you memorize each member, you can watch their variety shows too :) My personal favorites are ''Sesame Player'' and ''Ranking King''. BECOME AN INSPIRIT (what you call infinite fans) LIKE ME!~

I hope you enjoyed reading my post! I'll try to make all my posts as interesting as possible! :)  

                                                                                                                          - Yeollie

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Nostalgic Childhood

This will be the second update of my photo shooting week! The theme decided on was a serene nostalgic fairy-tale in a child's imagination.

This photo shoot was taken along with one of our lovely blog members, Christella, who took hers with a film camera. You can find her photos of the same theme over here.

All photos below belong to me, Keik. Enjoy! Not much shots, but these are my favorite. Hopefully, there will be more decent photos to share next time!

Yummm...

Due to my everlasting love for food and cooking, I present to you...dundundun...last Sunday's meal!

(I sound too dramatic but I've always wanted to make an entrance like that.) 

The meal contains the creamy mashed potatoes, the tender steak, and the nutritious okra, with the organic red rice. 

I unusually didn't have such a hard time grilling the steak because unlike the regular thick steaks you order from the restaurants, this steak was quite thin, but still has the right dose of juiciness and tenderness. Butter, milk, sour cream, salt, and of course the potatoes all add up to the most amazing mashed potatoes, with endurance and perseverance to smoothly mash the potatoes. HAHA. The okra was just sautéed with garlic and onion which adds more flavor to the vegetables. And lastly, the red rice was, well,  steamed in a rice cooker. Although compared to white rice, the red rice proves to be a lot more expensive, it still contains many many healthy benefits!-laineblu

Of Film Cameras and Filters

No, not the filters used for aquariums. Not the kind used to separate nonexistent specks out of tap water, either. (you know, when you try to deem it suitable for consumption. whatever.) Rather, it's more of those instagram-esque looking filters (i.e. those used to make photos look old and aging and.. cool, in some way)

*A short history of the life of cara in the past x days/weeks/months/years*

And by that I mean how my sister told me that my mother dearest had an ancient film slr camera that she never used and how I ended up looking for it and turning the living room upside down until I told my eldest sister about it who then promptly told me that it was in her possession after all and in her desk drawer since she found it oops and how she was planning to bring it with her to the long lost isles where she now resides in and how I never really knew if it had film inside of it, and also how I was too afraid to check and unknowledgeable about film slrs to operate it and how I ended up finishing the frames it had and how I ended up exposing it to light and how I felt sad and how afterwards, I read the newly found manual and how I bought new film and how Keik and I arranged for us to have a photo-taking session and how I felt not so amateur for about two hours and how it feels really good to have developed photos even though they're in a cd and how they look pretty vintage and how I love the feel.

(And to think I found out about the camera around two years ago............)

Anyway, on with the post- here are a bunch of pictures taken last October 28, Monday, with my pretty trusty Nikon FG-20 that I now love + Keik. Our peg was something like nostalgia + fairy tales, but I'm not sure if I succeeded with that. (I took more photos two days after that, will post when I get them developed)

But first-

Her name's Penelo-P, just because I can break it with a hyphen and feel cool.

Nada.

By now I hope I'm not boring you, dear/undear reader. Here are some of the photos-

A supposed picnic

One of my favorite shots, for some reason

According Girl-in-the-Photo, it looked heavily filtered-- I'm quite happy to say it's not.

because it pays to have different views..

...and angles.

This house looked cuter and more vintage than the rest; although that's not very evident. (first off, you can't see the rest)

An attempt to use a low ISO and high shutter speed to capture the moment, and succeeded only in taking dark photos.

Another one of my favorite shots, not very sure why. Beautiful legs, perhaps?

Special thanks to- 

Neil Gaiman for the book "Fortunately, the Milk", featured in several photos (HAHA)
My mother, for the beautiful film slr
Keik, for the venue and the model
The model, for her beautiful presence and clothes
Penelo-p, for not giving up on me and capturing actual photos
Girl-in-the-photo, for being (and I quote) "Totes useful in the photoshoot"

In relation to my title, I realized that filters didn't quite amount to much/wasn't explained exactly- but what I meant was probably how the photos looked filtered even though they weren't, and how I'm happy my film camera managed to do that. That's it. In total, 29 photos survived-- the rest succumbed to wrong settings and a relatively dark environment. 

To sum it up, dear reader (or undear.... yep), I hope you enjoyed my (quite lengthy) post ++++ pictures. 

-Cara

The Park We Grew Up with

(I obviously don't have the creativity for titles, but I tried.)

This week has truly been a photo-taking extravaganza with the DSLR!

In fact, I actually don't own the camera. Instead, I'm just borrowing it from someone else, but nevertheless I try to make every moment I have with it memorable (and I mean, take memorable photos, haha).



Happy (not really) Halloween, everyone!

I spent this year's halloween with my cosplay team in the park, and we had loads of fun. Everyone was dressed up as their favorite character running around and posing for the camera. Of course, I wasn't dressed up that day, but instead took the photos and laughed at some of their wacky face (although you won't be seeing them right now).

Not to mention, I was really tempted to take photos of the little kids in costumes running around, but I decided to control my thoughts just now.

Here are the few decent pictures I got to capture.

                       

She's doing a wonderful job advertising those blue colored chips.

Honestly love this shot! She truly looks like a magical girl.

Not in a particular costume for this one.

Last but not the least, Ed approves of The Jelly Bean Factory! Nah, we just picked it up from one of our house-to-house halloween trips.

Be ready to see more photos soon from this week!
- Keik

Living Life

living life     

      Sometimes we tend to wonder why everything happens the way it does in our life, especially questioning all of challenges and hardships we face. We constantly ask ourselves, "Why is life so hard?" or "Why can't life be more simple?". Because of these realizations, we may be led to frustration, anger, and sorrow.

      But we should keep in mind that all of the happenings in life have a reason or certain explanations for their existence. We may not fully understand the meanings of them, but as the saying goes, "life goes on".

      Life is full of pairs of ups and downs, and without either one of them, life would never be as fulfilling and complete as we experience it today. Therefore, we should not be merely hindered by the rough, strong waves from reaching our goals, but at the same time, we shouldn't carry a big, fat head when we somehow soar high. One cannot forever stay down below nor forever keep themselves on the top of the mountain. 

      So therefore, let's learn how to face and deal with the daily happenings in our lives with growing strength and humility along with the endless rope of love, for this kind of attitude and willpower will lead us into true happiness. 

-lanieblu