FAQ

It appears I've reached a 100 entries on this blog (unless there's a long forgotten draft somewhere). Hurray! So in some sort of celebration, I decided I wanted to post a list of frequently asked questions that I tend to receive on my Formspring account. And also, I would like to show my appreciation for anybody who takes time out of their busy lives to actually read my blog. It feels weird to think about the fact that you're all living human beings, who find interest in whatever rubbish I post here. So thank you all very much!

1. Where do you live?
Born, raised and currently still live in Stavanger, Norway.

2. What ethnicity are you?
Half Norwegian (mother), half Malaysian Chinese (father).

3. What/where are you studying?
I'm studying international marketing at BI Norwegian Business School.

4. What camera do you use?
Canon 600D EOS and I edit my pictures with Photoshop CS5. Normally I use a standard Canon 18-55mm lens, but sometimes I'll use a Sigma 10-20mm lens.

6. How tall are you/how much to you weigh?
I am 171cm and usually between 52-54kg. It fluctuates.

7. What is your diet like / do you exercise?
My diet is no different from normal people, besides the fact that I'm a lacto ovo vegetarian. Some periods I'll work out (usually short jogging sessions every day), but it's easy to fall into laziness.

8. What languages do you speak?
I speak Norwegian and English fluently, with the former being my mother tongue. Despite having French for 5 years in school, I don't remember much. One of my lifelong goals include learning myself Mandarin Chinese.

9. Can you make a X tutorial?
So far I've made a Photoshop tutorial and a makeup tutorial. You could also try checking out the tutorial label.

TGIS

(Jumper: Just female, necklace: Gina Tricot, ear studs: CMYK, pants: Acne, suede jacket: Gestuz, scarf: Acne).

Random snippets from yesterday's date with Roger. It was also my first time wearing my new present out, the neon/grey knit jumper, which he gifted me with earlier this week. Lucky gal. I think this is the most colourful piece of clothing I've worn in a long time, but I guess since spring is "nearing" (ignore the snow please) I better get used to it. Not sure how I plan on dressing during the warmer  months, because I've gotten so used to wearing practically only grey and black, which looks out of place when the sun is blazing. Since I am pretty much broke at the moment (trying to scrape together some money for a much needed haircut), I didn't buy anything besides a gift for a friend of mine. But regardless of me not buying anything, it was still nice to get out of the house for a change!

team eurasian

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures during Sophie's visit, but we managed to snap some quick photos before heading out one night. The title is just a joke really, because I hashtagged a picture I posted of us on Instagram with #teameurasian, since we both happen to be half European half Asian. Considered #bestofbothworlds but decided against as this seemed a bit too much. Anyways, it was a great pleasure having her as a guest! Haven't had a proper sleepover in a while, so it was fun staying up late (I usually go to bed around 11PM, very uncool) chatting about girly nonsensical things and issues, as one usually does during slumber parties. Other than that, we went on a "cruise" through Lysefjorden, Sophie shopped a bit/lot while I complained about the quality of the clothes, went to a rave with way too spaced out music, introduced her to traditional Norwegian Christmas food, enjoyed wearing heels together as we're both over 170cm and I taught her one of my favourite dance moves.

Overall, I'd say the visit was a success, and hopefully I managed to leave her with an impression of Norway as a more fun and happening country than I usually let on.

oslo adventures

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera charger with me to Oslo, so when my battery gave in (which happened on the first day) I was left with just my iPhone. Bad luck, I guess. But I did managed to snap two quick pictures, the first one in Zara's dressing room, and the second one of the only two things I bought. They're both by the Swedish brand Weekday, and not terribly exciting if I'm being perfectly honest. One thing that's very exciting though, is the fact that daddy is going away for a 3 months long holiday in India, and I'm left here, eating my heart out. 

This visit we avoided the outdoors as much as possible, as the thermostat hit -13 this weekend. Not cool. We did manage to brave the cold for some hours though, which included enough time for me to go shopping for an hour while daddy did some errands, went for a class in bikram yoga in a room heated to 40 degrees (where daddy did an awesome job, while I nearly passed out) renting Kung Fu Hustle, and going to the movies to watch Life of Pi. Not really sure about how I feel about the movie, but I guess I can say I believe the story (kind of spoiler alert) without the lion. 

photoshop tutorial

After a year of putting this off, I finally got around to completing my Photoshop tutorial. It was requested on my Formspring ages ago, but I just kept putting it off. Honestly my technique is no special, and it changes from picture to picture (usually depending in how lazy I'm feeling). But hopefully this tutorial can serve as a guide to help someone who's just starting out, and feel overwhelmed by it all.

Most of the times I just edit the brightness and the colour tones of the picture, and rarely will I bother with removing spots, making my hair bigger, making my nose slimmer, eyes bigger, etc. I used to, but I guess I grew out of it. If I don't like how I look in a certain picture, let's say I think it's an unflattering angle for my nose, I'll just pick another one rather than spending ages editing it.

With that being said, I hope someone out there finds this tutorial helpful!

1. Size

Here you have the original picture. It was taken in Singapore last summer, but I never uploaded it. The first thing I'll do is resize it to 800 x 533, to suit my blog layout.

Image -> Image Size

2. Screen (brightening)

Normally people brighten their images using the Brightness/Contrast tool, but I prefer duplicating my layers and setting the layer to Screen. To duplicate your layer you could either right click on top of the original layer or just drag it down to the small square symbol beside the trash can in the bottom right corner. After that have your new layer selected, and click on the drop down bar where it says Normal, and set it to Screen. Then just adjust the opacity (strength) to suit your liking, which is located right beside the down bar. In this case I set mine to 71%.

4. Curves

One of the things you could to to change the colour tone of your picture, is to use Curves. Go to the down bar, and change between the four different options; RBG will affect the contrast, while Red, Green and Blue will change the tone. Just click on the graph looking thing, and small dots will appear. Just play around with it, and you can always adjust the opacity to your new Curves layer if you feel that the effect is too strong. 

Layer -> New adjustment layer -> Curves

5. Fill layer (solid colour)

Most of the times I will change the colours using different fill layers. After selecting a new fill layer in solid colour, click on the down bar where it is now set to Normal, and change to whatever mode you like. Normally I'll alternate between Soft light, Linear light, Pin light, Difference and Exclusion. Just select one, and then play around with the colours. Usually I'll edit the opacity as well, and I'll go back to edit the opacity on the Screen layer if it turns out too dark. For this case added three different layers; Soft light, Difference and Exclusion. 

Layer -> New fill layer -> Solid colour

6. Selective colour

Then you can use something called selective colour, which will allow you to edit one particular colour at the time (I'm terrible at explaining this). Just select whatever colour you like in the down bar. Normally I'll just edit the black colours in the picture, but if you like you can edit the intensity of different colours rather editing the contrast (which normally ends up looking very tacky if you overdo it). 

Image -> Adjustments -> Selective colour

7. Sharpening

Now just go back and duplicate the original layer again (the one at the very bottom), select all your layers expect the original one, and merge them together by pressing Command + E. Then you can do stuff like blur out the background, sharpen the picture or add another screen layer of you still feel that your image is still too dark. For this picture I sharpened it, and added a new screen layer. And remember, you can always edit the opacity if the effect is too strong. 

Filter -> Sharpen -> Sharpen

And after that you're done! On occasion I'll do other things, but this should at least get you started if you're just starting out. Good luck.

hair talk

1. 2. 3. 4.

For as long as I can remember I have always been infatuated with shoulder length hair, especially if there is no fringe action involved, and all the hair is at the same length. (I know Alexa Chung has bangs in that picture, but I was on a roll and she always looks gorgeous bangs or not). There's just something about shoulder length hair that looks very juvenile, in a very flattering and feminine way of course. And for some time now I've been kind of frustrated with my dry mess of a hair. It's basically just the boring, generic long hair length, that the majority of females on this planet are sporting, and I think it would be refreshing to try something new. Last summer I did get it cut noticeably shorter, but this time I'm contemplating if I want to go even shorter. Not quite sure what I'll do, but I can say I'm feeling very, very tempted.

logo disc stud earrings

I might have mentioned that mummy got me a set of Marc by Marc Jacobs ear studs for Christmas, and they're the Logo Disc Stud Earrings in the colour cream. To be honest I find all their jewellery equally gorgeous, and considering the price isn't half bad, I wouldn't mind purchasing a new pair soon. Since I'm not a big fan of huge statement accessories, these ear studs are just perfect. Somehow they make me feel all proper and adult like when I wear them, but I'm not sure if that's just me.

thanks daddy

(Jumper: Lindex, dress: old, shoes: Aldo).

It is probably difficult to see, but I am actually wearing a dress in this picture. Daddy bought it as a present from Asia back when I was around 12 or something, meaning I have had this little 90's/early 00's beauty for about 10 years. Not sure if I was just a massive 12 year old, or a skinny 22 year old. Either way I am very happy I am still able to wear this dress, and digging it out from the back of my closet really brought back memories. It felt like revisiting a piece of history.