january 2013 | project 52

(pre-posted, i don’t blog at work.

I spent my first minute of February 1st, 2012 looking for my promise rings. Love & Hope; I had them as a promise to myself that I will always remember, to have faith, to accept and to believe. I thought I lost them, but then again, you don’t lose Love or Hope. Then, I spent the next 15 minutes lying on the floor, something I love to do after a long day. Having spend 16 hours outside and at work, it pretty damn well was a long day. That pretty much happens everyday, such is the nature of my job.

Before I know, 31 days in January have passed. I knew, I would feel this way and this was bound to happen. How not to, when you spent 6 days working and then with that precious other day, you squeeze as much as you do in that day? And so, my life becomes a somewhat predictable routine. I don’t mind, in fact in some ways I am thankful to be able to concentrate my time and energy into something better than what that could drive me crazy.

Of course, I have insane days and days that gets too overwhelming. But the first step is always much harder, so is the first few months on the job. And to pretty much stay sane and keep my creative juices flowing, I decided to commit myself to a | project 52, which a year-long weekly photo challenge. There are websites that sets a theme for every week that goes by, but I personally prefer to pick my own theme. I won’t say what my theme is but I think it’ll be pretty obvious from the pictures.

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[#1] Headshot

[#2] Monotone

[#3] Graphic + Print

[#4] Inversion

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Starting this project have been pretty amazing for me, pushing my boundaries and having to come up with a picture for every week. I have been really happy with #1, #2 and the best of all would have to be #4. For #4, it’s one thing to have an idea in your mind, to imagine it how the picture would or should turn out to be and having to go and shoot with the result being just as you have imagined if not better. But then again, not every picture or shot will be just like that. There will be a photographer’s block, when what you imagined no matter what wouldn’t turn out as you wished. So, #5 ended up being the picture I didn’t visualize or imagined. I don’t like it because it doesn’t match the set. But this doesn’t matter, the process of taking the pictures was what is important.

[#5] Red Filter.

When I took #5, I had a horrible day before that and also after that. I was so mind screwed, in fact the whole day should be called the day-we-screw-Carmen’s-mind-day. I hope next week will be better. It will, I have faith. The pictures are also up in Facebook and uploaded into that album, with captions and lyrics that I feel most when I took the picture.

About: Project etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really haven’t been able to work out a schedule or a way to balance my work with blogging (and about every other things I love to do), yet. Hence, updates can be really rare at the moment until I manage to balance between that both. Actually work hasn’t started for me yet, because I am still in training. But I’m caught up with something else, I call it my project and it’s known as etc. 

So what is this project about anyway? If that picture looks familiar to you, chances are you already know what etc. is about. etc. was started purely based on my passion for fashion, also dressing up, and my love for shopping. I was an avid online shopper, always browsing for clothes from the many many blogshops they are available on the Internet. And then, I realized that it’s kind of difficult to find unique pieces online anymore because everyone is selling the same sh*t. Seriously, it can get so boring and I even know of a blog set up purposely just to compare the prices. Link here.

This was when I started sourcing for items, really unique piece of clothing where you basically don’t see them anywhere. And I’ve been able to find some interesting pieces, fall madly in love with them and made them mine. Then, I somehow came to a realization that I’ve actually harboured a secret desire to become a shopper/buyer for fashion companies all this while. It hit me, one day but I was contemplating on whether I should open up a blogshop; especially when the market is too saturated with so much competition.

However, if I didn’t start it now, I’ll never be able to do so… I’ll be so pre-occupied with work and I just won’t have time. I did end up setting up etc. (only in September, where midways I start on my full-time job) and since then, we have done about four batches of pre-orders. :) 

If anything, I do hope that etc. does take off successfully (in time) and gain more popularity amongst the online shopping community. Of course, that would be my dream for this humble little project of mine. But at the moment, I quite like how it is turning out. etc. is slowly building up its base, (I hardly publicise or promote it, although I ought to. I’m just relying on the review sites now.), and at the moment I can still juggle it between everything else.

If you like what you see here, do hop over to etc. at http://etc-etcetera.blogspot.com/. There are a lot more lovely pieces there, (didn’t want to spam my blog with more pictures + driving traffic there, heh). I update it almost every week, so do pop by there and email me at etc-etcetera@live.com.my to order.

And best part of this whole project etc. is, (since I’m the boss, hee) I can give you, my readers and my friends a discount of 5% on your orders (excluding postage). All you need to do is just include the keyword; “itsmylife” when you place your order. :) So, shop away?! :D

Project: Theme Pink!

Woots! The pink themed photography project is finally done. Yay for me, because I procrastinated so much, it dragged on to weeks just to finish up the project. And now, looking back, I realised I could have finished them in a flash if I wanted it. Blah. And suddenly I wished I took more pictures for the project because four pictures seem so little now! AH.

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1. Aurora, The Sleeping Beauty

2. Pink Halter Top, mentioned in the I See Pink! post

3. Pink Capri Pants

4. Elianto’s Hot Pink + OPI Shatter Polish

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This project was inspired after the Pink Halter top I wore in the I See Pink! post. I went home, did some self portrait shots using Cammy, my Canon S90’s Colour Accent feature. I wanted only the pink in every picture to stand out, and that feature really helped me a lot. Of course, the pictures were then post-processed using a few photo editing software. I hope you enjoyed this post. I’m already working on another photography project already. :) Do keep a look out for that.

I See Pink!

About a few weeks ago, I decided to pull off a vintage sheer blouse with a pink lace halter top beneath it. I paired those up with a black skinnies and red belt. I thought it looked okay, until I went to college and my (guy) friends was like, “Err, what are you wearing?” or “It would have looked good without the pink top”.  Even, my lecturer gave me the O.o look and asked me what and why I am wearing such an outfit. In case I got you curious enough about the outfit, here is a snapshot of it. Very impromptu, I shall forewarn you.

 

I know, you can’t really see the actual pink colour of the top here since I edited the picture.

 

  So, the actual pink colour should be around this colour. Though, it is actually much softer in shade. I hope you get what I mean.

 

So, anyway, since the pink was such the big no-no in that outfit, I decided to swap it with a plain black spaghetti strap. I didn’t try it on, but instead I did take a picture of it.

 

 So, this is how it would have looked like if I wore a black top on the inside instead of the pink one. And yes, I paired my earlier outfit with my patented snakeskin shoe. Hehe.

 

I got a feeling that if we do a vote, maybe you guys will still pick the black over the pink. I don’t know what you guys do that but I really want to know;

 

“what’s wrong with pink?”

 

Look out for a upcoming Project Pink. :P