Liebster Blog Award 2014

During the past week, I'm so excited, happy, and thankful that I have been nominated for the Liebster Award by 3 wonderful bloggers! Yay! 

So I would like to thank Zuza, Lisa, and Billur, and their loveliest blogs (check them out!) thank you so much for the kind nominations, and here are the questions in order respectively. :D


Zuza's questions:
1) What's your favorite model?
I'm not quite sure, but generally anything clean, simple, and lean looking...? :)

2) Your best winter memory
Walking home from the train station after the last train around 12am with a special someone singing 'Lucky' outloud, trying not to wake the neighbours, trying to beat the cold. :P

3) When you'll start your winter break?
No winter break for me! Oh the things I miss from school.

4) Favorite t-shirt ;)
This one! :) 

 

Either that or any grey t-shirt. I love grey on t-shirts.

5) Names of your best friends
I need to ask yet whether I can put their names here, :) for the mean time; Princess S, D, and R.

6) For how long do you blog?
Since 2011, but much more regularly since August 2013. :))

7) Do you prefer shopping online or real?
Real. Unless I have a trusted online shop where I know the fabric and sewing will be always good.

 8) Favorite actor / actress and film they played :)
Vera Farmiga from 'Up in the Air', Joan Allen that Pamela Landy from the Bourne series, Julia Stiles, from '10 Things I Hate About You', and of course the current darling, Jennifer Lawrence. Her boyfriend is not so bad either, just saying, ;) calling out Nicholas Hoult.

9) Do you dance? If yes, what is your favorite style?? ;)
Used to! And I miss it badly. I used to dance in a marching band as a part of the Colour Guard team. So what kind of dance is that? I think weird, a mixture or modern dance sometimes, with elements from jazz and ballet thrown in. Also was in a dance student club in university with mostly hip hop style.


 Lisa's questions:
1) Do you already thought in make a youtube channel?
Many times! Seriously. Not that it might be any awesome or something, I just want to make one. Soon. Pretty soon. Hopefully. :)

2) What your family think about your Blog?
Okay, ... I guess... haha, either that or they don't care enough, I haven't bothered to show them though.

3)What is your favourite quote?
Ohhh too many! Last month it was this, 'Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.', said Oscar Wilde. I feel sneered by that quote, and I kind of like that. :P

4)What makes you smile?
Babies! :)) Children, tots, without fail.

5) Best trip you ever done!
I don't do trips much, but probably the ones I have every night,... my dreams... Crazy.

6) Favorite skirt!
Very full skirt! :)) Borrowed from mum's old collections.

7) Favourite food!
Too many! Pizza, pasta, green leafy vegetables, chocolate, cheese, berries, I can go on, ... --Oh I know! The answer to that is anything I know so far, except for papayas, carrots, and melons.

8) What you think about your channel?
Haha, I just hope it's entertaining enough. I think it's cute and soothing. Or I'd like to think it that way. Something people would come home to, and watch before bed, and put them to sleep, zzz... :P

9) How do you think about yourself in 7 years?
Absolutely no idea.I never really think about the future like that. Maybe I should.

10) What are your favourite blogs?
Jackie's, Emilie's, Noor's & Areeba's, ladyfaceblog (makes me want to eat or live in my screen EVERY TIME), and this one, inmyownstyle, makes me want to get up and fix my home. Which it needs. Badly.

11) One fashion guru?
MissGlamorazzi! The first (and maybe only one?) I ever subscribed to! She makes me feel like doing my nails, hairs, and eyebrows, etc. even on my laziest days. :)


 Billur's questions:
1. If you could change the place you live , where you would want to go ?
Somewhere in Europe... maybe? Haha, never tried, so I say maybe. But definitely somewhere quaint, but definitely near to modern city and facilities and vibrant lifestyle options, with cool weather (my hair needs that, please), and good abundant food and fresh produces.

2.One song that describes you ?
Oh, gosh! Haha, too many! On the top of my mind now, well, 'The End of the World' by Skeeter Davis and 'On My Own' from Les Misérables, a scream for the hopeless romantic in me, or... 'A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes', as I'm an utter perpetual dreamer. :S Pretty badly.

3.The best movie you've ever watched.
THE BEST??? Wow, I really love watching sooo many movies, but I have a constant few favourites so far. :) I love Tim Burton's 'Big Fish', 'Mona Lisa Smile', 'La Vita è Bella', 'Amélie', 'The Blind Side', and 'Fight Club'.

4.When you open your wardrobe which colour caughts your eye ?
Depends on the time of the day or occasion; in the morning, BLACK, the blackest black ever, --after noon or for a day out, light flowery patterned ones, --for special occasions, ALWAYS white or gold. Bling!

5.What is the most important thing in your room (except your bed ) ?
My quilt. *hugs my quilt By quilt I mean a thick duvet one.

6.What color is your room , would you like to change it?
Blue! Has always been blue. :) I added some creamy ivory a few years ago, and changed the previously periwinkle blue (my favourite colour) to a very light powdery blue, which apparently is also referred to as Ghost White in Wikipedia. :S I ... hope... the name does not attract some other entity with similar quality... ...
If I ever change it again I think I'd love it to be perfectly bright white and maybe a little bit of light blue. :))

7.If you could master any instrument on earth, what would it be?
You mean musical instrument only? :D Alright, ... cello! And the guitar, and the piano, and the violin. :D

8. Ever fantasize about being in a rock band? What would your group be called?
Haha, not really, going solo though, multiple times. ;) But bands are cool, haven't think of a decent name yet though. I think I'll leave it to the group's decision. My entry would be something like, 'The Shines'. But maybe that name is patented. I just think it would be funny, remembering, 'people throw rocks at things that shines'. :P There's a Taylor Swift song is playing on my mind typing this.

 

9.Have you ever won an award? What was it for?
Some small competition drama trophy! :P It was a group effort of around 3 people or so, but they 'let' me take care of the trophy.

10. How long can you (comfortably) go without checking your emails or texts? How do you feel about that?
Sometimes for days, but some other time, every hour or so, and in between those hours --MISERABLE!

11. What’s your guiltiest of guilty pleasures?
This one's easy! Crunching ice and sleeping waaaay past midnight. :S Are you annoyed by ice crunchers? Ooh, and also, senselessly watching YouTube videos and obsessing over celebrities senselessly. Futile.



Phew! That was a mighty long post! :) Maybe I could've just selected either one, or either 3 or 4 questions of each, but I didn't feel that would do your questions justice. :S Also, since I don't have any proper 'About' page yet, probably this can make up for that for the time being. :)


 Now, as of mine, here are my nominees and questions! :))


My nominees:
Jess, Victoria, Kara, Gracy,  Poppy, Lydia, Sumitra, Emme, Clarie, Xang, I'll add up 1 more soon. :)


My questions:

1. 5 words that define you! :) 
2. Why did you start blogging?
3. What is your favourite type of post (to write and read)?
4.  Did blogging change you? --How have blogging influenced you?  
5. As of now, what do you think of your blog, and is there anything you would like to change from it? :)
6. Your style icon.
7. Do you watch YouTube? --What do you go to YouTube for?  
8. Your current favourite song? --When you listen to it, do you listen to the music, or the lyrics?
9. Last movie you watch and how was it?
10. Best kind of cake, ever!
11. Lastly, what do you think of Valentine's Day? (Errh-- haha, sorry, kind of forced thought, but considering it's so near... ...).

• Link the blog that nominated you for the award

• Choose 11 bloggers to nominate who have less than 200 followers

• Answer the 11 questions given to you

• Let the people you have nominated know that you have done so

• You can't nominate the person that nominated you

• Create 11 questions for the people you nominate to answer

Feel free to copy, paste, and save the button if you want to. :D It has semi transparent flowers.

Have fun, guys! :)


Love,

Blogger Blogging Revelations

Many of you will probably laugh at these points *blushes*, I'm not sure, but should it ever be useful to anyone (most probably me in the near future, as a reminder :S) here are some more of the things that I found in the so far so short blogging path of mine which I found quite interesting anyway! :)

1. We can put links in the comment sections!
   Who knew?! Well I didn't! :D The ones that I know work perfectly are in Blogger and Disqus comments.
   To add links, copy and paste the following to our comments:
   <a href="http://www.yourblog.com/">My Blog</a>
   Just replace the your blog and my blog with your blog address and preferred text! :))
   
   
2. We can reply comments directly through emails!
   Yep, I din't know this until perhaps mid December last year! Previously I thought comments can only be done through the comment section, haha, oh yes, such a smart cookie I am.
   Well, but oh hey, I actually find this quite nice because:
   a. it can be more personal,
   b. we don't have to go back to the post for the comment,
   c. we don't have to tick that 'Notify Me for Further Responses' box which can sometimes come with literally ALL other responses for that post! :S
   
   
3. All those unless we are no-reply blogger.
   Yep, apparently there is such a thing too as a no-reply blogger. :S Which means our comments will have a reply address of noreply-comment@blogger.com, and if we try to reply to this (apparently we can, no bouncing back and such, eep!), but Godzilla knows where it will be sent, definitely not to us! :S
   
   
   
   I accidentally set mine not as a no-reply blogger when I first set up this blog without knowing what it does, and I didn't realise it until I read about it in another blog. :S Apparently it has something to do with linked Google Plus profile as well. Personally I think being a no-reply blogger has its own perks as in if we want to keep our email address private even after leaving comments. But if you want to check whether you are a no-reply blogger or not and how to set to not a no-reply, here are some quick Google searches! :D
4. There is such thing as a blogger button which we can swap with each other.
   This might seem quite obvious, but I never noticed them until very recently. :S Here's how we can insert our own blog buttons, and some simple image editing for it.
5. Lastly, I feel blogging is more about socialising, really.
   It's like finding ourselves in a community in which little by little we start to meet more and more new people and start to think what we can bring for the community, because everyone is contributing something wonderful. I think that is the most endearing part of it too, though, meeting more people while at the same time learning more about ourselves. :)

So there are mine, did you have any... at all?? Or was it just me who got all too excited? :D


In another note, I accidentally deleted the original finished draft for this post! I blame the lagged browser. Hahaha, oh dearrrrr, made me quite panicky for a bit (---I'm clearly not fully sane yet :S)! So for our future references and prevention, here is another blog which outlines how to deal with accidentally deleted blog post. I would also like to add that I noticed the maximum for undo is 25 times. :) I couldn't find mine, so I completely rewrote this post, whoa!


Virtual, blogger hugs and Happy Friday! :D

Simple Image Editing with Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

A comparison of after (top) and before (bottom) there. :)

Not such a long time ago, I was wondering how sometimes people achieve that 'vintage' looking photo look. You know, the one which make us seem to live in a world where shadows are either pink, or blue, or yellow, and our midtones can be sephia. I think most of them are the Instagram effect, but since I don't have any Instagram account (living happily under some purple rock :D), and most of my photos are taken without any effects, I was thinking of some other way to achieve some similar look. Well, definitely NOT the same, but kind of, vaguely. :P

As the saying goes, 'all roads lead to Rome'. :P Well, maybe not really for this, but should anything calls for it, hopefully this might work for an alternative.

So in the very simplified version in my mind, it's basically broken down into 3 steps; contrast, shadows, and gradient map.

Here's how to use Ms. PowerPoint 2010, for a very very simple photo editing, should we ever need any. :)

1. 'Insert' tab --> 'Picture'
   
   
   
   
2. Right click in the image --> 'Format Picture...' --> then select 'Picture Corrections' and add the brightness and contrast there, adjust as you like, say +5% and +21% respectively for mine.
   
   
3. Then select 'Shadow' and add inner shadow as shown here. Adjust the 'Transparency' to say 90%, and the 'Blur' to 100pt.
   
4. Create a new box on top of the picture. 'Insert' tab --> 'Shapes', then add a plain regular rectangle exactly on top of the picture by dragging the mouse diagonally.
   
   
   
5. Adjust the fill for that rectangle, right click 'Format Object...' --> 'Fill' --> 'Gradient Fill' --> I'm using preset colour here, the one highlighted with the 'Direction' highlighted --> adjust the 'Transparency' of each point, say to 80%, then, ... that can be all really! :)
   
   
   
6. But if you want to, play with the border. I'm adding some 'frame' here, 'Format Object...' --> 'Solid Line', in white. Step 12 is missing because I didn't realise it was missing, sorry. :P So step 13, adjust the 'Width', say to 15 pt.
   
   
7. Then adjust the shadow for it, 'Shadow' --> 'Outer', with 75% 'Transparency' and say 15pt 'Blur'.
   
   
   
8. Select all then group. Then right click and 'Save as Picture', choose .png, for example.
   
   
   

That's it! 
That... actually seems more complicated than I intended, haha, but oh well.
Here are some more edited pictures of my nails last festive season, --which might not be the best thing to adjust any colour to show some nail polish swatch :S, also don't worry about the uneven surface, I often fall asleep waiting for it to dry, so cotton or bedside-table-end patterns are pretty common on my nails, anyhow, just for another example. :P

Of course we can then also add some text onto it, which can be used as some simple blog buttons we talked about, or for some other very simple image editing; e.g. cropping, picture colour temperature, etc. 

Yay! 

Even thoughhh, if you want something FREE but a little more specific, and more options, you might want to try GIMP. It basically feels like some earlier version of Adobe Photoshop, so it feels quite familiar and intuitive too! :) Pretty good tool, if you ask me. Let me clarify though, it is GIMP, not Gimp, or gimp, so here, let me direct you to the correct one before you find some other rather interesting references. The link to their website where you can download the tool is on the very bottom line of the right information slash general description box. 


Have fun!

How to Insert Your Blog Button in Blogger (for Real)

So, to insert your blog button, in Blogger :

1. Go to the menu --> 'Layout' --> 'Add a Gadget' (anywhere you want to put it) --> 'HTML/Javascript'
   
   
   
   
   
2. Simply copy and paste the following, then 'Save'! You can completely ignore the 'Title' if you want to.
   I mean, ... just fill in the following details and it will show you the code to copy and paste. :D
   
   
   
   Your blog address :
   
   Your image address :
   
   Display image width : Display image height :
   
   Target image width : Target image height :
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   - Your blog address is your preferred landing page, e.g. http://emdemillia.blogspot.com.
   - Your image address is the direct link to your image. Usually it is whatever that is in the address bar, I mean where we usually type the www(dot) something, when we double click on the image. But when you do that and the links seems too long, try to find something link 'direct link to this image' or something like that then try to copy and paste that into a new browser window to see whether that directs you to the image.
   - Wherever you put your image, make sure it is not made private. Meaning, anyone can view it without needing to sign in as you.
   - Display image width and height is the preferred image width and height of the picture in pixels, e.g. 100, 900, etc. As a depiction, here is how 100 pixels looks like. Here, to here.
   - Target image width and height is your preferred width and height of the image should someone copy the code in your box! :))
   
   It should look something like this:
   
   
   <a href="www.emdemillia.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgznIsqqJRnd6s3Nx6_CHN5r0VEsTqgL3Uwgt1gyUeljTfvP89gtECf9G6_jqCvyh9iyBIDtuA7SEOCugimdh_6exD32qIFJ3-kNDB5b-ffsJrXZLO6dk9iNiICBs6WF4taCXHWvBDAorA/s800/doodleandstories_button0.png" height="221" width="221"></a><br />
   
   
   
3. Now you can rearange where the order of your sidebar by dragging and dropping each item (items with the grey mini left bar) and then 'Save Arrangement' on the right top corner.
   
   

Anddd... done! Please do let me know how it goes if you try it. :)



I wanted to post something a bit out of my usual track today (what is even my track), --I updated my blog template, yay! New year, new template! :P

Some of the links haven't properly worked yet, some texts are still swirly whirly (read: harder to read), and I disabled right click once one time a long long time ago, and now I can't remember where I put that piece of script :S, so, sorry for that, and,... I'm still building pages here and there, but it's updating! :D



...



*crickets -- None of you cares ---



...



Haha, :P aaanyway! :D So what I really mean is that, with those tweaking, I found out several things that I would like to 'share'. Well, share feels like a bit overrated, but I mean, should anyone ever need it, it will be documented here (and MANY other resources all over the internet, :S but also here! :D). Hopefully broken down pretty well as well, as I don't wish to further confuse anyone, eep!

Whereas, if you don't need the above, then I'm sorry, this post is probably useless for you. --But wishing you a LOVELY day today, and thanks for visiting! :D



Cheers!

Fireworks in the Neighbourhood

I know it is quite a stretch to still be talking about the new year since it's already almost mid January, so let me just tell you this this once and then let's be done with it for the year. :)
Every New Year's Eve, there is this fireworks in my neighbourhood. Or at least there has been for the past 3 years or so. My neighbours would buy some fireworks on their own funds and colour the sky mostly right after midnight all at the same time. Side note, this might also means, k-ching, what rich neighbours! :o
Anyway, so every New Year's Eve, all I need to do, is to go outside to my front yard, in my pyjamas, and just look up for the colourful sky!
This comes with some other things though.
I don't know if anyone can relate to this, but I strive to give you a depiction of how it feels having some fireworks in your very own neighbourhood.

I can say it was generally all good fun though. :))

My New Year's Resolutions

So after several days, of having my first ever new year's resolution as 'set some new year's resolutions', here is my list for this year! I think they are pretty doable, and so I'm quite happy with them! :D

1. GET FIT!
   And by fit, I refer to my fitness goals here.
   Why: Because health is very fragile and youth is fleeting. Enough said. We better take that Kim K selfie while our bums are still 'up there'.
   
2. Rate our days!
   Each and every day. From 1 being down, to 3 being happy.
   Why: Because researches say that people who write about their negative emotions are more likely to have a longer life, -- huh, what?? --Why, what? ... :|
   I mean, because of course it will be fun to vent our frustrations at the end of each day, and to track our goals in life per day! Besides, at the end of the year, we'll be able to average them all and measure whether the average rate from each day equals the overall impression in our memory! :D
   E.g. here was one of mine.
   
   
   
   Oop! Censored, :|, sorry. But really, mine's in a simple spreadsheet. :)
   
   
3. Do more DIY and cook more.
   Yeah, right, these actually sound really great, that I'd wish for them every year, but let's be realistic, I'll NEVER do them. :S
   Instead, I will, ...
   
4. --CARPE DIEM!!! :D
   I mean, generally less procrastinations, and try to max out the use of each day, as in setting out goals in the morning and try to attain them all by the end of the day.
   It sounds hard, but I think during the past 3 days or so, it has been surprisingly quite doable! :))
   Why: It has that feel good factor of being active and give me a sense of accomplishment each day, which then of course is mood-improving, and leads to less things to think about before bed, thus better sleepy time! :) Well, so long as the goals are pretty realistic for a day. :S It's not like I have a goal 'to buy a Lamborgini!' or something (--with what, Emm...? :S).
   
   
   
   
   
5. Despite them all, also to ENJOY EACH MOMENT.
   Every little small, each individual moment.
   
   
   
   Why: When I thought back of 2013, I realised that I have been spending most of it in auto-mode for whatever that I was doing or whatever thought I was immersing myself in. Then I realised and looked at my family members and my friends, and myself in the mirror of course, --and I thought, 'We are all a year older, we cannot go back to the past and relive any moment. They were there, but I didn't take them in. Now they are all gone and I have the faintest idea of anything that happened.'
   So with that in mind, this year, I'm going to try to take each moment and SAVOUR EACH MILLISECOND of it!!! If only I can sense what a millisecond is like. :S

Now for the, maybe generic, blogging stuff, but I really do mean every single one of them; I want to have a more regular posting schedule, better and better posts (I kind of feel I don't know what to write sometimes :S), and to meet more blogger friends. Hello! :)

Let start with those! --Link up yours in the comments, I would love to read them!


May we all have a wonderful 2014!