The bedroom is where my heart lies

Lately, (as you can tell from my previous posts) I’ve found comfort, relaxation and most importantly reflection time in my bedroom.

Just recently, I have also tried to keep my room -clean- (Yes, I admit, I’m not one of those neat freaky girls) and try to make it more of a personal space, that is what a bedroom is meant to be, yes?

I’m a person who loves;

1. Simplicity

Yes, although my room has had cluttered times, due to lazyness or rather, I’m a hoarder, bad habit. I dislike throwing things away, even if its course notes I know I wouldn’t ever read again, I feel bad for throwing it away (even if it gets recycled). Same goes to Magazines, which I only throw away when they are more than 2 years old. I have found, when my room is cluttered, I’m at my laziest, but when my room is clean, I’m most productive. I guess that is easy to understand. I’ve never seen my desk so free of ‘stashes’ in the longest time.

My room is small, but I try my best to hide the clutter, be it in my wardrobe, or in a corner where it won’t be visible to people passing my room. I hate wall shelves; ever since we moved in here about 5 years ago, my dad keeps suggesting that he builds some shelves on my wall (he love’s em). I refuse to! Whenever I detect seriousness in his voice, I lock my room just to prevent it from happening, hence my walls are shelves/hole-free 5 years later My belief is wall shelves will only make rooms smaller. I try to keep my walls clean anyways.

2. Subtle patterns

I love, love, love, French and the occasional Victorian patterns. You know the whole floral thing? Especially if its really subtle, it is just enough to add character to a room

3. Hint of colour(s)

Regardless of my passion for reds, does not depict my future home will be drowned in shades of red. Nah ah. Refer to point #1. Simplicity. White walls (or other bright colours) with a hint of colour is the way to go. It’s the easiest foundation to work with, especially when you want to change the look of your room, you don’t need to throw away your whole couch just because its red, instead just decor here and there. Much more, flexible and achievable on a budget.

You may wonder, why the sudden interior decorating post? I’m not sure myself too. I think it all started with my Google Image search for bed frames (I desperately need a new one, for the last few months I’ve been using a trundle bed base with my new mattress, I don’t think it’s doing the new mattress and myself any justice =/)

I’ve always wanted something like a daybed, that has double uses as a bed and a sofa, I don’t even know if I’d use it as a sofa, but… they’re so pretty! Especially the ones with nice floral patterns in the frame.

And then suddenly the thought of fairy lights hanging around the bed frame hit me, which I proposed to the boyfriend and got shut off straight away boo! Sorry bf, you ain’t stopping me!

More pretty fairy light decor…

I want to see stars in the sky too…

I’ve also been contemplating to get some white letters for my room, as cliche as it sounds, I want to ‘DREAM’ too

Then the search for bedroom furnishing began.

I stumbled on Samantha’s blog, Walnut & Ivory, a project she has started since purchasing her first home. She blogs about the process of refurbishing her place, the before & after’s are just amazing! What got me hooked is the similarities of her place (before), with what my appartment looks like at the moment.

(The above isn’t my place!) credits: walnut & ivory

What I have? Ugly minty green carpet, cream coloured walls, and white ceilings. OK, well the latter 2 ain’t so bad, I’m just sick of seeing green carpet, its so hard to decor too (my room anyways), how I’d love my parents to get cream coloured floor boards in near future would be so good…. Imagine how much bigger the apartment would feel. But anyway, I love her style! Low budget, with the smallest things can make a big difference!

I’ve already decided for my future home, white walls and cream-yellow coloured floor boards. I asked the bf today, “if we had our own place, what colour walls/floorboards would you have?”, his response? exactly what I wanted. I was like, awesome, that’s most of our house interior decided

But anyway, the point of this post is, I really want to try work on my room a bit this holidays, make it more comfortable for winter esp, when semester 2 begins, I’ll needa get productive!

Some bedroom decor inspirations… (not that much of them are possible for my little room )

The bed looks so pretty, even though it wouldn’t be so comfortable

this is somewhat Alice in Wonderland

Such a neat idea, I wish I had a door in my room to do this on, hm behind my bedroom door ain’t so good.

Sorry to disappoint you, no photos of my bedroom haha… it’s not in the best viewable condition yet. IT IS clean though

Totally looking forward to the IKEA trip with daddy & the boyfriend later in the week!

Happy Monday!

Scenes in Two

For my 21st Birthday, I was given a new toy camera, the Golden Half from Jeff & CT. I was delighted! Way unexpected to get one for my birthday It’s been on my wishlist for some time and glad I finally got to tick it off!

As you guys know, the thing about Golden Half is as the name suggests, its a half frame camera hence two photos in one shot. (I learned that they are actually 3 x 4 and not half of 6 x 4.. odd.. )

So you would think, you’re saving money from developing, since you’re getting like 48 photos from 24 exposures (I got 51 from my roll of 24) in fact you’re not.

I only just found out from my boyfriend today, that its more costly than I think it is, mainly due to labour.

Not a lot of photo printing machines accept half frames, so the print shop would need to have purchased an extra attachment for their machine that costs about $10,000 alone :O

Other than that, you have to manually feed it into the machine, it took my boyfriend about 20minutes just feeding it in. (Thank god he did it hence I didn’t have to pay for his labour haha, I would’ve felt bad if his parents did it ) And usually they would charge you $1/frame… hence it would’ve costed me $51!!

Maybe only because my boyfriends’ parent’s machines are newer, however if you find a photo shop with older machines that already has that half frame facility, then it would be cheaper… like half the price… I guess you are almost paying for developing 2 rolls of 24 anyways though, or rather getting more out of your one roll of film, so its not -too- bad, just, you’re not saving money by having half frame cameras heh.

Otherwise… in terms of usability…

- I love the size of it, small and compact, easy to hold.

- Build of the camera is really good, the one I have has a rubber exterior, I would say it’s the best built toy camera I own.

- The shutter release button is so small, in a corner, sometimes you gotta be careful you don’t shake when you click it. Such a cute click sound… it’s so subtle haha.

- Has a flash mount on the side of the camera, so you can slip one on I didn’t get around to trying it with flash.

Photo Quality

Hmm I have mixed feelings.

- It’s not as consistent as I’d hope for it to be.

- Some shots are slightly blurry, not sure if I might’ve shook just a bit. But otherwise it is quite sharp.

- I find that the corner has slight blurring

- Vignetting? Not so much… barely.

- Colours are quite nice, not as contrasted as my White Slim Angel,l I had a roll of Kodak 400 in there (came with it).

I won’t even comment on colour, since apparently my bf colour corrected it (which most private photo shops would do anyways), but he didn’t do it for all of them, lazy butt!

Here are a few sets I manually put together with Photoshop, yeah the half frame thing on the machine actually processed each shot as a single frame rather than 2-in-1. If you were to scan your negatives with a film scanner, it would come out as 2-in-1. I’m not sure what happened with mine actually heh. You can judge the photos for yourself I’ve got more to come! I don’t wanna bomb my posts with photos

Seasons of Randwick

Autumn to Winter

One of the first shots I took in Randwick and One of the last shots I took in Randwick

Portraiture

Candids of Lydia I took during UNSW Photo Club‘s Portraiture Workshop

Biennale 2010 @ Cockatoo Island

Yeah indoor shots turned out a bit grainy

How do you guys like what you see so far?

Regardless of how long it took to finish a roll of film, it was nice to use for those ‘Kodak Moments’, capturing candids etc

It’s hard to keep note of what you took last, so you don’t know if you’ll manage to put 2 same scenes next to each other in a photo. Try your luck I guess?

Part 2 will follow tomorrow perhaps

Summer and its smile of light

So I’ve captured Summer, my goal is to capture Winter on Film these holidays.

Can you imagine how beautiful it would be on film? The  muted colours mmm

I took my Canon AE-1 and my Golden half out for a play yesterday at sunset, strolling around parts of Centennial Park (since I live so close to it).

Snapped a few shots, it was lovely because the trees there were a little bare, and some still had leaves on it.. so I guess its ‘just the end of Autumn’.

It was frustrating though, my Canon AE-1 failed to work on some shots I assume the batteries running low so its taking forever for it to ‘recharge’. I might go out again today though, I’m so close to finishing a roll.

I’ve got a few cameras loaded with film, and I’m just slowly trying to finish it all… I’m sure there are alot of old photos on them

On a positive note, I’ve finally gone through the somewhat never ending roll in my Golden Half (the toy camera that splits a 6×4 shot in half, hence you get 2 shots!). I only had a roll of 24 in there, and it took forever! Luckily though, I felt a little urge to do more candid shots with it rather than more composed shots.

I’m going to take it to the boyfriends’ parent’s photo shop to get it processed tomorrow So excited to see results from a new toy camera

I think my affair with film is growing <3 or even with my iphone camera I’m starting to be lazy taking the big baby out (

Happy Sunday, Kiddos!

Kinnokuniya Design books haul

Oh, Anxiety, Where did You Come From?!

Currently feel like I’m experiencing an anxiety attack of some sort…

Why?

Just when I thought I’m on holidays, I suddenly got reminded I’ve got another stupid report to hand in ;(

Suddenly, a lot of overdue works started ringing its bells. omg. omg. !

Summary of these holidays; Photography & Web Design. Hopefully I can squeeze in some handicraft work *excited* need to go supplies shopping again and also try get rid of my whole cupboard full of fabrics…

After handing in my -last- essay, I set off on a mini shopping trip with my sister.

First stop, Ichi-ban boshi!

This is one of the places I get my ramen fix from. I never really noticed their separate laminated page that says ‘TONKOTSU RAMEN *blabblahblah* 10 BOWLS ONLY EACH DAY’.

Decided.

The thought of rich pork bone broth… nomnom. flavourful fat…. @_@

*poor iPhone pics, as usual -sigh- I better learn to lug my DSLR around, even if its with just a 50mm 1.4*

Ichiban-boshi; Tonkotsu Ramen & Iced green tea cappuccino

Result? it was quite nice! Could almost compare to the ones in Japan I reckon… It was just missing the perfect soft-boiled egg

I’m craving another bowl as I type. grr.

Oh, and best accompanied with a glass of Ice Green Tea Cappuccino! So Nice <3

Then we headed into Kinnokuniya, because this month only, ART & DESIGN books are all 20% off! This doesn’t occur often right? so, had to be there!

We set ourselves $100 budget each, and ended up blowing it, so instead of spending $200 together, we spent $252. We got about 5-6 books though, good, bad?

My sister got mainly illustration books, and iDn magazines.

I, on the other hand, splurged on

1. Web Design Handbook

2. LOS LOGOS 4 (I call it the golden book of logos, lol, because it has a gold fabric cover haha)

(2. was the most expensive =.= $125 before discount… but its so good!)

I have a lot of ‘studying’ to do! I’m so tempted to go back for a second trip, its so hard to decide what to get exactly…

I want to revamp my shelf! start design books collection!

Yeah, these holidays I -hope- to finally launch my main website/portfolio: www.clarzzique.com

& refurbish this blog ,yes new blog design that is more ‘clarzzy’!

I hope to get around to it… a month will seriously disappear in a flash

Happy holidays & studies!

<3 Clar.

~* Spring in April *~

A week into being 21!

So… in a blink of an eye, it’s already been a week since I turned 21.

For a fact, there is no difference between being 21 or younger.. perhaps I’ve felt about 25 for the longest time.

I’ve look (1) forwarded, and (2) dreaded my 21st birthday celebrations.

1) I’ve been so eager to put together a dream birthday party, which much inspirations gathered from wedding blogs (yes, desperate much?), wanting to see all my friends together … i’ve never had a big birthday party before.. so this was a first

2) because I’ve never had a big party before, I’ve never imagined myself to manage hosting so many people! and scared I’d make a bad host… I probably have a fear of crowds or something haha ;( but yeah, the weather was so 50/50… i was studying the 48 hour forecasts leading up to the day!… because it could make a difference between celebrating at a park (ideal), and hiring a function room (expensive and boring )..

Fingers crossed with the weather forecast yesterday, with a chance of storm around midday – 3pm. Thank God it did not happen!

Just downside the weather was very indecisive the whole time, sunny blue skies, cloudy gloomy, sunny, gloomy etc. and yeah it worked out well… it started pouring when we packed up haha

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Theme: Spring in April~

Dress code: Florals, Pastels, Smart casual

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Anyways I shall let the photos do the talking *sorry if my colours/photos hurt your eyes… with my tweety-ness + snow white look haha Alannah Hill <3

i brought home this little friend the night before, knowing that he wouldn’t be going home with me after the party..

beautiful bunch of flowers; hot pink and green combo is so pretty! yes its in a tall tea pot

my handmade pom-poms, really added to the ‘spring’ theme, so much nicer than balloons!

a closer look at my photo frame section (where my friends took instax with me and pegged it on the frame ) hanging on the trees are also my baby/childhood photos – just for some laughs/eye candy.

oh and do you spot tiffany & co. ?

my 21 key, with the red kikki.k photo/guestbook my sister bought for my bday

strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing cupcake bouquet!

on the cupcake stand…. don’t you just lovee the cupcake cases? they fitted in really nicely with the theme…

this was totally eye candy for me! love love loved it, my 2 friends managed to collaborate their decorations and their cupcakes to this theme really well… love it so so much! i regret for not personally snapping more photos of it

me in my alice in wonderland-like dress slash tweety slash snow white look

the best party stylist & cake maker!

tehe special occasion faux lashes

my beloved boyfriend

my little half, my favourite cousin – claire bear

clarzzy and claire bear!

beautiful girlfriends

it’s Clarzzy Trivia time! (no the bat wasn’t for punishments!)

everyone’s getting psyched for the prizes haha

everyone so eager to win

so who know’s me best?

boyfriend didn’t play of course, cos he would be such a big advantage!

speech time!

i get a little emotional when it comes to appreciating my loving family ;(

everyone gathered here for me

my best friends have put together this magazine for me! it’s soooo amazing *more on this later*

checking it out on the spot, with claire bear

my sisters ~

grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins

loving boyfriend, again

best-est friends in the whole world!!

the boyfriend’s highschool crew

& their girlfriends

uni friends! international business & media communications unite

and we got restless with the categories.. soo all the unique friends who don’t need a category!

& milo

i scored a kiss! jealous?

love him so so very muchie <3

this must be the customary air-chair haha, thanks love & martina told you i gained weight! aiyah.

loved the cupcakes.

thank you to everyone who came along to celebrate my birthday with me!! i was a very, very, very happy, lucky girl.

will never forget such a special day.

Stay tuned…. for more

life so far

Hello blogosphere,

After days of getting spammed with my twitter updates, here I am, late at night, munching on the boyfriend’s mum’s home made cookies <3 and watching TVB series (Stupid Cupid 戀愛星求人) and just reminiscing on life so far.

cr; impatienss, Just Don’t Be Late

It’s only less than 3 weeks away until I hit twenty ONE, and at this point of my life its depressing just thinking what will happen beyond this year. Especially, people* occasionally nudge/ask me about what I plan to do.. and what I should do… During the last 2 weeks, I had about 5 friends graduate; it gives me mixed emotiohttp://blog.clarzzique.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpns; happy for my friends they are about to take on a new path in life. Sad, for myself that from this point I’m not sure which path I want to/will take. We’re almost half way through the year…

Main incentives of this year:

• Put together my portfolio
• Find internship/job in the industry (graphic/web design)

If all fails, how about taking on honours? or rather, part time tafe next year.

On a brighter note;

I’ve made alot of new friends, during my time being involved in UNSW Photo club;  its amazing how we’ve managed revive a club to its former glory, with over 200 members. It’ll be a tad sad to leave it at the end of the year… Many members who are so interested in learning and experiencing new things, it made me realise how much I don’t know myself, so its always a learning experience for me. Being vice president it makes me feel as though I’m ‘obliged’ to know more than everyone else i’m trying…

I haven’t bothered picking up my dslr much these days, mainly trying to be creative, manually using my Canon AE-1, I have yet to finish my roll of film

I have realized, there are paths of photography which I haven’t gotten myself into; such as landscapes and macro (nature).

cr; impatienss ‘distrussful’

I wish I had too much money that I can impulsively purchase a 100mm macro 2.8 L .

During last weeks tutorial, and photo sharing night, it had sparked interest in me. I actually had started more into portraiture than anything else, which could explain why I lack creativity in everything else

cr; Alexkcl

Landscapes and such are peaceful and admirable to look at. Now, in accomplishing this… I need to find picturesque places to capture, there are only so many places in Sydney sadly, I wish I was traveling right now….

I miss Japan…

MDCM2003 – Reflection Paper: Inspiration Cluster 1

We decided upon wabi sabi as our group inspiration because of the uniqueness of the concept itself, being able to think in a different mindset that is unfamiliar to a western framework. It never occurred to me that Japanese had a particular design sense. After reading the texts, it has highlighted the similarities of design in Japanese society – what appears to us as ‘weird’ but interesting. The idea of wabi sabi or also referred to as a ‘make shift’ phenomenon, as suggested in Juniper; ‘is a quest for the unique and unconventional’. My understanding of this concept overall is to discover the beauty in ugliness in its simplest, natural form.

Juniper has stated the 8 elements of wabi sabi expression; organic, freedom of form, texture, ugliness & beauty, colour, simplicity, space and balance. Through understanding these, I have realized there are many limitations or rather avoidances for my wabi sabi inspired projects. These limitations I will use to my advantage, as it will allow me to further think of other options rather than the norm.

Concepts that inspire me;

I am inspired by the freedom of form; in that you are able to express yourself freely and not have to be mindful of rules as long as there is ‘balance’ in the piece. Texture will be interesting to work with, as the reading suggests – textures can be expressive in it-self. Most of all I am inspired by the notion of beauty in ugliness. Designing accessories in my spare time; I challenge myself to give new life and meaning to a certain material, now it is a chance to translate that into the digital work I am doing. It will be a challenge just trying to understand the conventions of beauty and to surpass it through the little unappealing details which others may have not noticed before.  I’m a fan of simplicity and will try to portray these aesthetics in the simplest ways, highlighting another element of simplicity and use of space.

Translation of ideas;

For the first individual project, some brief ideas I have in mind include a situation of a ‘natural process’, whereby the user is able to experience and interact with it as it occurs. For example, it could be witnessing the change of seasons (represented by textures). Each season will be a different layer which the user will have to pass/interact with, and this layer will tear away showing another. This idea is inspired by the Japanese’ fascination of using layers, and natural processes. The use of layers in architecture is portrayed in the Louis Vuitton building that featured layers to portray suitcases in the Make Shift text.

The colours I consider using include the muted colours you would find on a Japanese scroll/painting on rice paper. I find muted tones are less distracting to the eye, which would keep a simple palette. Another idea is to pair up murky colours with a contrasted colour to see what sort of effect it could create, perhaps the murkier colour will be more interesting in this light. But I will mostly stick to ‘organic’ shades.

More ideas in development…

femme

Today, the bf and I headed out to Borders – we go there once in a while, take  a sip into our hot chocolate (or whatever we fancy from Gloria Jeans), and flickr through local and international magazines. Nothing wrong with that right? How I’d love to buy those magazines! I could probably easily spend $100 a month on them.. but haha realistically I won’t have that much time to waste on reading magazines … (I’m into the Graphic Design/Photography ones usually)

Then I saw a copy of this year’s semi-permanent book; an annual creatives exhibition I missed out on this year. Flicked through the book; although I have to admit it wasn’t a great compilation to me until I came across to a familiar style … of Bec Winnel! of MyCharlieGirl. I’ve admired her works for the last year or so… she does such beautiful, feminine, dreamy pencil sketches. Its interesting though that her art style has slowly changed since I last saw her work some months ago. But – still as beautiful!

Admire away…

(This is my absolute favourite! I’m waiting for her to release it on her etsy shop )

Beautiful? Yes! I’d love to do a moodboard for future photoshoots that is inspired by Bec’s artworks – mainly the mood, the colour scheme (usually pink and soft), .. very, very feminine…

I am often envious of people with such amazing talents… I wish I had the passion/dedication to aspire in that field too… I’d like to believe I’m more of a digital artist.. even though the last time i’ve done something digital was LONG LONG ago. About time to spice up that side?

Keep up with Bec’s artwork @ her blog!

Or if you’re interested in purchasing prints of her artwork, head over to her etsy store~!