New Photo Design!

Lately, you may have noticed on this website, I have started to develop a new style for my photos & images. Now the borders are different and the editing is different. I like the whole new look thing, hopefully you do too! The image below is a family friend and was my first ever trial edit for the new design which I did a few weeks ago and I realise now it looks a bit off! What I edited- Added frame to picture, drew black outline, blurred out background, sharpened image on him, changed colour-refocused colour impact etc. The problems are very apparent now I’m looking back at it- like the new image has farrrrr too much blue in it which I should have changed. Blurring out the background has made him look way scarier (even though he was looking quite scary to begin with!) because the picture centres on him. The black outline doesn’t look too great. I’ve seen it on other sites and they pulled it off but I guess I just can’t! Well hey, There’s always a start! I guess it does look better though on the whole!

Before

.

After

This was taken in Mt Manganui on our camping trip! Remember all those upcoming photo/image editors : Keep experimenting!

Happy editing!

Bubble me Yummy!

Ah…tonight’s sky looks a little sad.

Quick Weekend update!

On Saturday, we went to the Westlife Concert! It was a blast! Westlife used to be my favourite boy band back in its Hey Day! and all those memories of singing their songs came screeching back to me on Saturday. The boys sang a mix of old and new songs with “ahem”, killer dance moves! All the songs I thought I had forgotten flew back to me, those lost lyrics, lost melodies. The crowd at the Vector Arena stadium were brimming with enthusiasm. Everyone sang along to their songs and we did many Mexican waves! The Westlife boys were just as good as they were 10 years ago when their band began. They had cool clothes changes and came back for an encore. We waved our hands up in the air and boogied to the classics. My throat is dead sore (even though it was already before the concert!) and I’m sure everyone had an amazing time! This was my first concert! Afterward, believe it or not, we went out for supper! Another first in NZ! We settled at Meadowlands to the only store left open and had some porridge and noodles. It wasn’t too fantastic but hey! another first! Twice in a night!

By Sunday (Mother’s Day), us Westlife Diehards were exhausted! For dinner we went to Uncle Tung’s in Meadowlands as well. After a pretty comme ci comme ca dinner, us kiddos craved bubble tea/pearl milk tea! (zhun zhe lye char) [?translation] haha. AND Colin told us there was a shop selling it around the corner! So we huddled off in the cold to find the shop lot and hip hip hooray! There it was in all its cool blue glory! EasyWay Tea ! We ordered some mouthwatering drinks, two bowls of flavoured ice shaving (soooo fine it melts in your mouth! Honestly I want one of those machines!) and this savoury taro-type dish. Everything was B-E-A-U-Ti-ful!

You gotta try it out next time you’re in Meadowlands!

Totes!

 

I Love this Billabong Tote! Discovered it by flicking through fashion sites and stumbled across a web page dedicated to blogging on bags! I’m not into bags much, but I love Totes! This one is very chic and a good one for all occasions

 

 

 

 

These totes here are oh-so-cool! Each one is so unique and I love the designer’s style. The brand, Rootote is a funky Australian brand which specializes in totes of every size! They come in [tall], [medium], [shoppe] [shopper mini], and [A-quatre]. Personally, my favourites are the tall and medium. Check them out!

Snap happy!

This is the view from my room at about 5:15pm this evening.

Lately, I’ve been having little bursts of creative thoughts. I’ve been thinking more along the lines of photography. Or more specifically, ideas for the subject of photographs. I have been thinking of taking scenic photos, interesting subjects and the most random bits and pieces. I’ve compiled a little list of photograph subjects to be captured in the coming year:

• An Autumn tree- (the one/s at my school)
• A reflection from a puddle (also school— school, inspirational? haha)
• The crystal hanging charm on my window – to be taken on a sunny day
• Objects on a white background, to practice brightening up pictures on Paint Shop Pro- (see older works…even older) This is what I intend to do! e.g.

Gum nuts!

 

Turning this…

 

 

Into this!

• Shadow play – white wall upstairs, hallway
• An interesting picture from my Tintin comic book (Don’t ask where these ideas come from)
• Something glittery
• A reflection from the car’s side mirror

As the year wears away, I will be constantly updating this list, adding & removing ideas- checking off photos that have been taken & adding the photos to my blog posts. I will keep you informed of this little “project” of mine & hopefully you will be a little more inspired to pick up your camera! If you have any cool/random ideas, please tell me- I am in need of photo subjects!

Remember, SNAP HAPPY!

4 Things you never knew your mobile phone could do!

I thought these tips were really cool and useful! I haven’t tried all of them before, but hopefully if you’re stuck in a sticky situation with your mobile phone, you might be able to try these things out. Remember, your mobile phone can be a lifesaver! These tips were sent to my mum from a friend so I just typed them up. The comments I added are in Blue.

Tip #1 : Emergency

The Emergency number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and this number can be dialled even if the keypad is locked.

I’ve actually heard about this one before, so I guess this one is safe tested and tried! My sister just punched “112″ into her phone with its keypad locked so that part of it works.

Tip #2 : Have you locked your keys in the car?

Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy one day. Good reason to own a cellphone : If you lock your keys in the car, and left you spare keys at home, call someone at home on their mobile from yours. Hold your mobile about a foot from your car door and have the person at hour home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you.

This tip REALLY amazed me. I mean seriously, it sounds almost impossible. I got a tip from the instructor at the gym about a car too! It works, so try it out next time~

Megan’s Tip: If you find your car’s remote is not working (probably because there isn’t any battery left) rub it against your hair/head. I think it provides static of starting to get your batteries working. Cool tip? Totally!

Tip #3 : Hidden Battery Power!

Imagine your mobile battery is very low. To activate, press the keys

*3370#

Your mobile will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your mobile phone next time.

I’m definitely gonna try this tip next time my phone battery’s dead! Code is probably too long to remember anyway

Tip #3 : How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone!

To check your mobile phone’s serial number, key in the following digits on your phone : *#06#

A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone gets stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won’t get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can’t use it either.

My sister got her phone stolen last year and this tip would have defO come in handy, guess it’s a bit late now aye? Well she tried the code for the serial number and it worked! So, write it down when you try it!

This post wasn’t too creative, but hopefully you’ve learned a few tips! You never know when they might come in handy!

5, 6 – 5, 6 ,7 ,8!

 

Note: Get up & boogey!

Okay, if you remember to THIS post, did you read the P.S. note? It said ‘watch for more dancing news’. And here it is! Today, my sister and I had our first introductory dance lesson! I wanted to start contemporary, but there were no classes near our house that offered this genre, so we decided on BALLROOM!

We went to the Let’s Dance Studio and joined the beginners’ class to which we found we were surrounded by middle aged couples! We had missed the first week, but had to fall in line and catch up with the others. Today’s dances were the :

FOX TROT and ROCK’N'ROLL!

it was pretty cool, Bronwyn danced with this really good dancer assistant, while I danced with the instructor. It was fun with all the 1, 2 – 3 & 4 beats. I’m always ahead of the beat but I guess these little issues will improve. We’re just trying out the different styles of dancing at the moment and seeing which one is to our liking. The course finishes in another 2 weeks because we missed the first one and it’s a short 4 week course.

Love Dancing! Got the dancing fever!!

Upcoming… Very Excited because on Tuesday I will have the opportunity to watch Temepara George dance at Westfield Albany. I will be collecting donations for Autism NZ (which was her charity in Dancing with the Stars) with Aunty Swee and will hopefully take a few photos for all of you to see. Temepara is one of the world’s best Netball Centres (a position on the netball court) and winner of Dancing with the Stars 2008!

MacBook Pro

Note: Dick Smith Electronics … L O V E

Dick Smith!

So…. yesterday was late night shopping at Botany Town Centre, so we did a bit of shopping at Valleygirl and then went to Dick Smith Electronics to have a play with their gadgets!

  

And what we bee-lined to was their laptops! and straight to the biggest one! MacBook Pro! Love A P P L E! it was on special for like NZD$3000 something and we were like WOAH! but hey, free to play right? So we clicked on Camera Booth & discovered our faces on the screen! Because the MacBook had an awesome camera feature! Check it out!

 

In all its full glory!

 

See that little black dot? Yea that’s the camera and it’s pretty clear too!

So…. we decided to play around with the feature and DICK SMITH is the best! It has Internet connected to all the computers, so I sent the few shots to my email & bron’s email from hotmail!

Presenting…

the Sepia effect/function!

 

This cool MacBook has the most amazing effects, you can put yourself in a different backgrounds (like in the clouds or infront of the Eiffel Tower) You can stretch your faces… I sorta deleted it though, but that was a funny shot! etc.

 

 

Thanks Dick Smith for not kicking us out for spending ages on your laptop!

 

Avocado Choc Shake!

Note: Yummy treat! Featured Drink of the week!!!

After lunch, we got home and started talking about a yummy avocado shake we had at a Vietnamese restaurant a couple weeks back, and with the abundance of Avocado we had at home, we decided to re-make the shake! BUT with a twist! a veeeerrrrrrrryyyyyyy good twist! Add chocolate ice-cream –> kindly suggested by my aunt (thank you!!!) who had tried an avo-choc shake in Indonesia! So, out came our Shimono blender (a.k.a Magic Bullet) a couple of avocados, sugar syrup, ice and Double-Choc Ice Cream! We whipped everything together and behold the beautiful sight!

The one and only SHIMONO!

Avocados in the garden!

 

Working hard in the kitchen to make the mouth-watering shake!

yummy!

More avo? Yes please!

Double Choc Ice cream!!! mmm…

Okay, to be serious, it doesn’t look all that appetizing anymore but believe me, it more-than-makes-up for in taste than for looks! Sensational! If I could post a taste-tester application on the Internet I would!

 

– Yummy!

 

Is that my stomach again?

Yan Yan sticks and Panda bear biscuits!

Note: Flash to the past!

Today, was a day for celebrating the success of my sister who just passed her driving restricted test! Congrats Bron! Now you can drive me around where I want to go! well, she did well and I’m happy for you! So, we decided what to have for dinner and went to the lot of shops near my house to get some things prepared for dinner. We went to the Mad Butcher and then to the Tofu Shop next door. And I chose out one of my absolute favourite kiddy snacks to eat! Yan yan sticks and panda bear bikkies! Yummy! These snacks always give me flashbacks of the not so long-ago past when I was a 7/8 yr old kid picking out these scrummy chocolatey bites to eat at the chinese supermarket.

I always knew my mum would never buy me these supposed unhealthy, expensive snacks so I turned to my godmother who willingly donated to Megan’s Snack-feed Charity. I’m forever grateful and as I sit merrily crunching on my sticks and my sister on her biscuits today, I cherish these little dips into heaven. These products are oh-so cleverly designed to tempt the weak, or the snack-crazy like me! But they’re so cutely designed and on my yan yan sticks, there are little messages to the eater. Like… SQUIRREL- a best friend or FOX- beware of lies…. who could resist?

 

Certainly not me!

Ticker Timer