Thursday, January 23, 2014

Kicking Start with Self-Motivation

Thursday, January 23, 2014


I have been tied up with work and meetings for the past 3 days. So I would have to do a quick one on today's post. A simple one if you don't mind, just so you know that I still have all you and your reading needs in my heart.

Getting caught in a web of busy-ness isn't easy. There are times I wish I could split myself into 3 mini-me's just so I can do everything. I told myself that this year, it will be a great year ahead to start new and fresh. For starters, I am giving myself a couple of interesting projects and affirmations to stay motivated and make sure that no matter how busy I am, I will continue to stay inspired and manifest a great life ahead. After all, I want to create life, not just making a living in it.

1. To be centered in my goals, I am using Leonie Dawson's Create an Amazing Year Workbook and Calendar (Life + Biz)

2. My affirmation this year is "BE FREE and Be Authentic"

3. My goal this year is to "Learn to say Yes to opportunities that will help me grow and learn to say No to things that exploit me and my well-being"

4. I want to retire at age 40. To do that, I will showcase my portfolio more and build a legacy.

5. To manifest a string of happiness, I gave myself a project; a 365 Gratitude Days photo project

6. To be compassionate and loving with myself, I am going to check out Headspace

7. To be an inspiration, I am working on Divine Art Soul and a mini PDF/Book (I promise its coming soon, I am finding time to design it)

8. To live creativity is to create. I have been doing handmade goodies again

9. Blogging has helped me reflect. So I am staying on track with The Artsy Craftsy!

10. What else? Well, nothing beats making art, writing, reading, listening to music and more! It makes life damn interesting! I want to bring my creative tribe to a higher level. Do join me there!

11. Taking more pictures to share on Instagram. Pinning more on Pinterest. Sharing more creative love and joy on Facebook and Twitter. The usual that keeps me going.


What about you? Do you have a kick-start method to self-motivate? Do share!


Monday, January 20, 2014

A Visit to Photo Crafts, The Cafe (Food + Film)

Monday, January 20, 2014


When I discovered my new found passion in film photography, it led me to blog about my visit to Photo Crafts, Sunway Pyramid. I first came to know about Lomography back in college. I was always fascinated with photography, and knowing that there was such craft that made pictures look like an accidental-art amazed me. It was so artistic and authentic! When I knew that we had a local Lomo-community, I wanted to be part of this art. So coming back to my interest in analogue, this time it took me to Photo Crafts The Cafe, to spread the word about their artistic 'analogue lifestyle FOOD and FILM concept store'.

Concept: Creative




Photo Crafts The Cafe in Kota Damansara is a cozy concept F&B space/store cater to those who enjoy living their creative lifestyle (like me, for instance). Even though it is an analogue concept store, you don't have to be a photographer to go there, because it is not only a place for photographers to gather and hang out. The concept is a place perfect for families and friends who enjoy getting together chatting over a cup of coffee or individuals who want to spend quality time alone. 

I am here to recommend you a restaurant/cafe with an artsy-theme, especially if you want something creative to inspire you as you eat, then Photo Crafts The Cafe is really a place to be. 

Atmosphere/Interior: Earthly & Artistic




When I walked in the space, it's dimmed lights wasn't even gloomy but instantly gave me a relaxing feeling that made me excited to begin my experience. The room was filled with jazz, bluesy/folk music that gave a bliss for young couples like me and my love to enjoy our afternoon.

If you enjoy absorbing the ambiance of your surroundings like me, then I think you will enjoy Photo Crafts The Cafe's interior. Have you heard of the term "Simplicity makes Complex"? That is that for Photo Crafts The Cafe; it is wholesome with earthly-theme decorations and colours including its furniture. I can tell you this for sure that I couldn't take my eyes off the cameras on the shelves neither can I stop smiling and gleefully eating while I bask in the warm ambiance. Wall decorations are filled with inspiring photographs, posters, film canisters, more vintage decos and books for your reading pleasure as you wait for your food.

Menu & Food: Deliciously Healthy & Wholesome

Photo Crafts Cafe isn't one of those cafes which focuses only on its interior and not on the food. When it comes to food, I always say this to others, "There's a difference between enjoying food and enjoy eating; I enjoy food because I appreciate how it tastes and how it is prepared". Since my love and I share similar interest, he came along to become my food/environment critic. 

I know you must be thinking, "It sounds too good to be true", but you see my friend, it really is "Good to be True". I actually enjoyed my experience there with the ambiance-food combination and I know you would feel the same!


I found out later on on my own that Photo Crafts The Cafe's coffee range is one of their highlights. Thanks to founder Adam's barista experience, coffee is an ideal selection on the menu if you are there not just for the food.

Hats off to the chef! Justin and I ordered their popular choices on the menu. We ordered the 120 Burger, the Roast Chicken and the creamy-unforgettable-Mushroom Soup!
120 Burger

The 120 Burger is the one with a creative ring on it. Like the 120mm film, the 120 burger is slight larger compared to the 135 Burger (like the 35mm film). It is an 'open face' burger, which means it doesn't have a 'top bun' but it comes with a nicely cooked egg banjo on top, with sliced mushrooms, tomatoes and pineapple, and my favourite part- the homemade beef patty! Each bite I took was a mouth-watering moment!
Roast chicken


The roast chicken is a delight! It is not oily, well-roasted with a hint of herb. On the side served potato salad that goes well with a little Tabasco sauce, some salad and watercress. 
Creamy mushroom soup


Did I mentioned creamy? Even though it was piping hot, I was eager to put the next spoonful in my mouth! It has mushroom bits in it and after finishing the entire bowl of soup, I didn't even feel unpleasantly satiated. It was lip smacking! The bowl of mushroom soup comes with thinly cut garlic bread. 

It is so good that Justin and I are tempted to go back just for the soup!

We both agreed that the Potato Salad was wonderful! It is delicious without making you feel as if you over ate. This restaurant-styled potato salad was properly prepared and was not overwhelmed with mayonnaise or vinegar. It is good to even eat it on its own. The potato salad was served alongside the chicken and the burger.

Food price range: Between RM12++ - RM16++

Lifestyle Store: Gallery-like


Photo Crafts Cafe has 2 floors; the first is a cafe, and the second is an analogue lifestyle store just like the one in Sunway Pyramid. Items for sale are: Lomograph & Instax cameras and films, vintage (durable) camera bags ranged from RM400-600 and even vintage (workable) Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) Cameras priced from RM500-1K and above. The Kota Damansara outlet also provides photo-processing service and occasional workshops/sharing too. Upstairs is a gallery-like shop that makes every young analogue enthusiasts' heart skip a beat!


Over all, I think they did an impressive job with providing a comfortable yet inspiring lifestyle cafe experience for their customers.
Met Eva from Photo Crafts too






Rating:
Food: 9/10
Atmosphere: 9/10
Interior/Decoration: 9/10
Customers Service/Efficiency: 9/10 
(I really like how humble and polite the Photo Crafts team are)

Address:
26-2 & 3, PJU 5/15,
Dataran Sunway, Kota Damansara,
47810, Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, M'sia

Telephone: 03-6140 5527

Opening Hours:
Tuesdays to Thursdays: 12.30pm - 10.30pm
Fridays and Saturdays: 12.30pm - 11pm
Sundays: 12.30pm - 10pm
Mondays: Close

Website:





*All photos are photographed with permission by Photo Crafts
*All images are edited to meet blog post requirements

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Sponsored video: 8th Toyota Dream Car Art Contest

Thursday, January 9, 2014

I am a firm believer when it comes to having a Dream. When it comes to making sure your dreams come true, I always emphasized on 2 things:

1. Having a dream means having a passion
2. Never turn down an opportunity to pursue your dreams.

You might already know this from one of my previous blog posts entitled 'Stay Creative because Dreams do Come True'. As a child, I was always encouraged to be creative and growing up, I earned myself the nickname 'the Artist' among my friends. I never had a chance to pursue art as my career, and also experienced a fair share of put-downs from others who didn't believe in my creative ability and didn't believe in careers in the creative field. 

Nonetheless, these remarks didn't stop me. 

Thanks to my mother's encouragement who always believed that I was artistic, I became a self-taught artist and crafter, and as an adult, I finally broke free from creative boundaries and saw that creativity is not a technique. Being creative is not about being artistic, and you don't need to be an artist to be creative. Everyone is an artist when you use your creative imagination to paint your future!

There's no science in it; creativity starts from us as children and unveils itself when we get in touch with our inner-child.

Likewise with our children, the future of our world who are the next generation of creative believers and passionate individuals with strong imaginations that will take them far for pursuing what they Love to do most in life. It is never too late to nurture the children of our future to start believing in their dreams and empower them to pursue their creative passion. When you nurture their creativity, you are already building the next big step towards a future with hope; these children, the ones with vast imaginations are the ones that will transform this world.







For starters, inspire your children to participate in the 8th Toyota Dream Car Art Contest. 

TOYOTA Global, an internationally-renowned brand often believes that to see the future is to see through our children's eyes. It all starts with having a dream. So why not allow the children to showcase their creative intuitive in their works of art? For 7 years, TOYOTA Global has been organizing the ultimate art contest for children from around the world to submit their masterpieces on how they create the future using their most creative imagination.
'Conservation Environment Car' by Lim Xin Ying, age 11, Malaysia- Gold Award Winner
Children from Asia, Europe, Africa, America and Middle East  participated to become part of the Next Young Creative Aspirants of the Future! The contest received more than 600, 000 submissions from 70 over different countries and regions. 
This time in its 8th contest, TOYOTA Global comes back again with another round of seeking out the next range of young creators to continue on the legacy of creating a bright future with imaginations and creativity.
Details on Participation:

There are 3 categories to participate in the contest:
  • Category One: 7 years old and under
  • Category Two: 8-11 years old
  • Category Three: 12-15 years old
Art Theme:
  • Young artists are required to draw an art piece of their future 'Dream Car'
  • Please include your visualization on how future transportation would be
  • Please include your visualization on how society will live in harmony in a harmonious environment.

Choice of Materials and Artwork Size
  • Kids may use standard drawing mediums such as watercolours, acrylic paints and/or colouring pencils
  • Please use A3 size paper for artworks. (A3 measurement: 420 x 297mm). OR you can also opt for a 420-450mm (16.5 -18 inch) and 270-300mm (11-12 inch)

Contest Do's & Don'ts:
  • TOYOTA Global encourages hand-drawn artworks
  • Please do not use digital tools to create artworks
  • Artworks should include backgrounds to support your ideas
  • All submitted artworks will be viewed by people from all over the world therefore please make sure your artwork can be understood from people of different cultures

For more information and full entry requirements, log on to Toyota Dream Car Art Contest

Be inspired by the children of our future at Inside Dreams a compilation of all young artists.

Closing date:
End of March 2014











*This post has been sponsored by TOYOTA, but all thoughts are my own


Sunday, January 5, 2014

Easy-peasy DIY Toy Jar

Sunday, January 5, 2014


I used to have a lot of toy figurines as a child. Sometimes I don't know where they come from, others are mostly from Mc Donalds Happy Meal or some random places. For those who know me well, they would know that my mother is a particular person and would never ever allow me to giveaway or upcycle childhood toys. And for those who know me would also know that I have this tendency to keep some things (recyclable ya, not junk) like glass jars because I know someday I will use it to store stuff.

Anyways, I had this idea in mind sometime ago, I came across it somewhere on the net and wanted so much to try and DIY my own Toy Jar. I know how useful this is especially for children's birthday parties (too bad I don't have kids yet) or just have it as part of the goodie bag for special occasions. Or as handmade gifts!

So I grabbed my love's younger brother's toy (which he grew out of it), and took one of my glass jars and turn it into a Toy Jar! Check out below for my step-by-step picture tutorial or go straight to my tutorial video. Have fun!


Thursday, January 2, 2014

A Mermaid Painting on Mounting Board

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Outlining and enhancing the mermaid image with a white pencil
Layering the surface with colours
Background blended with soft pastels. For finishing, outline with black marker or pen.

This mermaid painting was done on a mounting board, combined with Gesso and a picture of a girl, cut out from a magazine. It is a pretty easy project actually, plus, I have done something quite similar here, inspired by artist, Tamara Laporte. This is one of the funnest art project I've done; though there is a lot of detailing to focus on, but what I like most about it being able to use a template cut out from magazines and turn it into any character you want without having to draw from scratch.


Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Watch: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Image by waltermitty.com

The two things that inspired me after watching this movie:

1. It is okay to dream, and it is even better if you kick start living your dreams. Fear is just an emotion; its existence relies on your imagination.

If Fear can be brought to life, so can your Dreams. Dreams do come true, so live it. It is time to remove those rose-tinted glasses and live the Now. Even if you still fear, it is okay, because you are entitled to take your time and be prepared, whatever makes you feel comfortable. After all it is your Life.

2. Whenever I see a beautiful scene, I struggle for my camera, eager to quickly capture the moment for it to be timeless. But what I didn't know is, sometimes, it is okay to not be able to take that picture.

Sometimes, just breathing, looking and witnessing its wonder is all that matters. The only camera I need are my eyes and my mind and my heart; that's all that matters.

A beautiful movie to watch.

2013 Blog Round Up


Happy New Year awesome readers!

Finally the new year has kicked in, and it's another year for me to continue what I have started 6 years ago. I told myself that this year, instead of the common new year resolution that everyone is making a list of, I would do something different instead. NO LIST. Instead of making new goals, I want to continue working on my goals, which I have already thought of 5 years ago. After all, we are all a work in progress. =)

Today also made me realized how far I have come with The Artsy Craftsy blog. It has grown so much since the first time I blogged on it. 

You might noticed that in my archive my blog posts are listed from 2009, even though I always mentioned that I started in 2008. Here's a fun fact, The Artsy Craftsy was originally called Knick-Knacks, and I first created this blog account 2-3 years before 2008. After that, in 2008, I came back to it, and stopped, and returned to it again in 2009. When I finally kicked off to do this blogging thing, I experienced one of the most challenging experience in my life in attempting to create a healthy creative & spiritual lifestyle for myself. There's was a lot of inner battle I'd say. Anyways, when the blog went through revamp, I had to clear off a lot of blog posts that was irrelevant and plus a lot of the pictures were damaged and unable to retrieve it back. I am still working on fixing old blog posts, however, most of it would have to be removed.

The Artsy Craftsy blog has gone through a lot of ups and downs. Even though it is just 'a blog', but it has one helluva' journey because it has changed my life so much. Blogging has helped me pick myself up and helped me recover from anxiety, and certainly has helped me cope with many personal challenges in life, work and self-esteem.

But thanks to my readers and new visitors from all over the world, it has pushed me to keep going strong, and learned to improve my blog. 

So, for the 1st day of 2014, I have decided to round up some of my favourite blog posts from past year. For old time's sake, enjoy!
Blog post How to Remind yourself to be proud of who you are in April 2013
Blog post Draw a Mandala in Feb 2012
Blog post How to Deal with Blogging Challenges in November 2013


Blog post Stay Creative because Dreams do Come True in May 2013
Blog post Pursuing my Passion and Being Practical in July 2013
Blog post Being Authentic in  August 2013
Blog post 10 Things to do When you Don't know What to do in August 2013
Blog post Draw a Mandala in Feb 2012