Back in Japan - Kansai Tour (Image Heavy)

I went back to Japan as a gift for myself on my birthday~! This time I went to Kyoto and Osaka with some friends. I initially planned to go alone but I am really thankful that they tagged along because I wouldn't have survived without them. Going around Tokyo was easier for me.

Day 1: Kyoto - Fushimi Inari and Philosopher's Path

Rare shot of the torii without people =_=

The grandmother who was stronger than me...

1000 paper cranes

My First Gachapons - Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan

I did mention how much of a fangirl I became while I was playing Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan on my 3DS, right? I even pre-ordered some gachapons online last October because there were no Nendoroids for Hakuouki T^T. The Hakuouki gachapons are the only figures I have that are not Nendoroids. If they release Nendoroids for Hakuouki, I would probably buy Saito, Sano, and Hijikata.

Kirino was excited too!

Nendoroid: Ui is Spazzing Out

I recently discovered that the Sylvanian Families sets were a better match for Nendoroids than Re-ment. I love Re-ment because of their food miniatures but I was always frustrated about the scale of their furnitures.

It never really crossed my mind to use the Sylvanian Family sets I impulsively bought last year until I saw pictures kixkillradio and Nodoka. They have so many gorgeous pictures and kixkillradio shares how she sets up her photos. Her blog is totally worth a visit!

I decided to try it out and I was really happy with the outcome. Unfortunately, I couldn't really go all out and set up an elaborate room since I had little time. Next time, I'll take better shots.

UI is Spazzing out while cooking

Monday Arwork: Strawberry Shortcakes and Bonus Shots

In my last post, my camera died on me so I wasn't able to take the rest of the photos I wanted. Here's the continuation... ^_^

If the clay wasn't too soft I would have made a square one instead

Monday Artwork: Finished Sweets

I finally finished the cakes and other miniatures for the classes I was supposed to attend last month. I was cramming to finish them because I was too busy at work I hardly had a whole day to finish them. I really thought I wouldn't be able to take pictures of the finished miniatures so I posted a picture of the unbaked gradient cake a couple of weeks ago.

Since the classes were canceled and rescheduled to a later date, I had a chance to take pictures of the items... until my camera battery died after 3 pictures. T__T I only had one more piece to take though but I'll make a separate entry for it instead.

I really tried to plan out what miniatures to make ^__^

Dainty Photo Dump

Such a waste not to post. I edited these pictures for this post but decided not to include them. Since I felt like practicing my editing skills =_= I tried to make them more presentable at least. 

Handmade earrings, dunno what stone though

Wednesday's Color is Blue

Okay, cheesy blog title... Sorry. I was trying to think of a good blog title so I checked what blue meant. Apparently it's the color choice of  conservative people, specifically dark blue and it's the color of Wednesday. ^__^

Here's another attempt at making a collage... It still looks dull and lifeless to me rather than the light and airy look I was going for.

Chaotic collage

Practice: Basic Beading and A Failed Attempt

Last week, I went to a magical place called "Divisoria" to buy some beads and jewelry components for my new found hobby, resin casting. Though I didn't find everything I needed, I still got a lot of interesting things which, unfortunately are not for resin jewelry. =_=

Bought a whole lot of faux pearls

A Not-So-Figure-Shoot

Last month, I met up with Bryan (Thought Bubbles) and John (Pixel Barrage) for a figure shoot. Unfortunately, no pictures of Nendoroids, Figmas or Scale figures can be found in this post. I was distracted by Bryan's macro lens. Bryan brought it (for me to try) as a gift for my birthday. So I ended up looking for creepy crawlies and some flowers... and then I met Skull...

He.. She... =_= Well... What is it?! A grasshopper? A grasshopper with Punisher's symbol on its head! Hahaha I love Skull~! Isn't he cute?

Skull is not your average creepy crawly...

Photo practice at Watami

Once again, Madz of pigoutsessions.com, and myself went out to eat. We were supposed to eat at a different place so she can review one of our favorite Japanese restaurants (and for me to practice taking pictures) but the line was too long and we both were lacking sleep and I was getting grumpy... Although were were already third in line, we still decided to give our spot away to a colleague and went to off to look for a different place to eat at. We ended up at Watami (@SM Mall of Asia)~!

I did say I was planning to practice my photography but I got lazy and left SLR in the car. =_= If I knew that we'd change locations, I would've brought it with me! I was only able to take pictures using my phone camera... T_T No photography practice this week... BUT! I was still able to play around with Photoshop for a bit...

Salmon and Flying Fish Roe Stone Pot

Tonpeiyaki

O_o I have two food related blog posts this week... Oh no.. there goes my diet!

A Few More Things I Learned Recently

Aside from the free basic photography lessons I got, I also was introduced to using "curves" in Photoshop. I'm usually conservative when it comes to editing my pictures, but when my friend said it was like applying filters on your photos using Photoshop, I got curious and I tried it out.

I've only watched a couple of tutorials on YouTube and I plan on reading about it a little more, for now I'll share my initial edits. I'll try to post more pictures in the future to gauge my improvement after more practice.

This is probably my fave out of the bunch...

Swensen's Strawberry In Love

Last March 5, I accompanied my friend, Madz of Pig Out Sessions, to Swensen's food tasting event for bloggers at their MOA branch. It was my first time going to a blogger event, despite my blog being 3 years old, I still am a nobody in the blogging circle since I kept this blog very "random" and personal haha.

I love the lights at Swensen's.

Anyway, the food tasting event at Swensen's was great. Although, my introverted self kicked in and I couldn't take pictures because I was too shy. Even though someone (I didn't get his name) tried to encourage me to take more pictures. >_<

Stupid Awkward little girl~

Water Droplet photos

I totally loving the glass and rainx trick I learned... I took more water droplet shots but this time using a glass sheet, from a picture frame and a black microwavable container (lol).

Hope you like the photos, The red pictures came out nice, I used my red laptop sleeve for the back ground teehee... For the multicolored ones, I used my blanket LOL!

More practice shots

Double post for today, I think I got what I wanted today. While browsing some macro photos of beads I came across this site: Photographing Water Droplets. The first part of the explained how the photographer used a piece of glass and rain.x to get a stunning water droplet shot and I happened to have rain.x for my car~! I immediately took out my rain.x and tried it on my mirror, here are the shots I got ^__^

A beady day :)

After that stressful lunch, I lost interest in watching my K-dramas or my Anime series but I was really bored so I decided to practice my photography. I recently revived my ear piercings, thanks to my friend who gave me pearl earrings that magically rid me of my allergies. I couldn't wear any type of earring because my ears somehow became sensitive, even hypoallergenic earrings for babies would make my ears burn and itch. Can you imagine how happy I was when the pearl earrings didn't give me rashes on my ears? After several days of wearing the earrings I tried wearing some of the earrings I had since high school, and yes, I kept all my earrings even though they weren't valuable. Just like my mom who kept my first pair of earrings in her jewelry box, which was kept in a safety deposit box until the day she died ^__^

Oh no, I was emotionally side tracked hahaha, but it's such a touching thing for my mom to do, right? I'll post about it some other time ^__^

So before I get sidetracked again, here are some pictures I took, they aren't exactly what I wanted but the pictures at least made my day.

Nail Polish Haul After Math

After buying 7 new shades of nail polishes I ended up using an old nail polish instead. It's actually my bad habit when I buy go on a mall rage for nail polishes. I buy two or more colors and I get overwhelmed so I use an old nail polish =_= It always happens even if I am really excited about my new nail polish.

I won first place!

I won!

Remember my last post? I entered a photo contest in our company and won first place for the minimalist category and second place for the digital art category.

Remember my macro shot of a syringe? I also entered it in the contest~! Unfortunately my Alice in Wonderland digital art only won 2nd place... BUT

I'm still happy ^__^

Levitation Photography

I don't usually feature other blogs here but I'm totally in love with the photos by Natsumi Hayashi in her webpage yowayowacamera.com.

Quote from her webpage:

Natsumi Hayashi
Lives in Tokyo with two cats.
Photographs mainly levitating self-portraits (and cats not levitating).
yowayowa is a Japanese term meaning "weak" or "feeble."
Since I'm yowayowa, it's really heavy to carry SLR cameras around.

She takes beautiful shots. Considering the photographs are "self portraits" I'm totally amazed by her photographs. Other levitation shots are done by taking a shot of the background, a shot of the person standing on something and then Photoshop comes in. Natsumi Hayashi shares how she takes these amazing self portraits in her website: first, with a self timer and second with a friend. ^_^ Jump Jump Jump until you get a great shot!

At the Parking Lot

I've been driving for a few weeks now, it isn't as life changing as I thought it would be. I still have a lot to learn like parking or driving at steep roads...

I think I'm reverting to my old apathetic self. Not caring about issues and losing interest in a lot of stuff/people. Or maybe this is the side effect of my 1 month shopping ban challenge? I don't feel 'empty' if that's what it seems like... It's more of being too lazy to care.

I haven't had any art related posts since my last digital artwork, which I haven't even finished. I haven't had the time to do any art related activities... I practically forced myself to do some nail art this week...

I'm currently adjusting my sleep, I've been sleeping late (any time past 12 mn) for the past three years because of video games and an unhealthy relationship. This time I'm trying to sleep before 10:30 pm. I've been sleeping well since I started. Although I feel like my time for myself is limited to Driving to work, working, driving home and sleeping. I just need to adjust.

I've been waking up early as well. I'm able to choose the easiest parking slot to park every morning because I wake up early. I still need to move to a different slot though, so that my car wont be exposed to the heat of summer.

Photography: Sunsets

I think I'm getting better at taking sunset photos using my Satio (Camera Phone)... I wish I could bring my DSLR all the time to capture the great view out my office.

Everyday there's a great picture out our office windows... If it weren't too much of an effort to bring my camera everyday, I would.

Anyway here are some pictures I took while walking around with my officemate Lieo.