Themed

Continueing the snapshot theme, I edited the pics I've taken this past Friday as polaroids also.

The "party" was held to celebrate our friend Hanneke for being selected to be this years bride for "Carnaval".

She's the bride of the "Boerenbruiloft" (farmerwedding literally translated) of our town, wich is part of the holidy "Carnaval".

EXPLANATION:

Carnaval is celebrated once every year around Febuary-March. The festivity was celebrated before it's actual set date nowadays and originated in the dark ages (13th-15th century) in the Netherlands. 

During the days prior to "Ash wednesday" 

(= a Christian holiday; the start of the 40 day abstinence/fast preceding "Easter") 

the community was completely indulged into mocking the hierachy of those days.

A temporary monarch ("Vorst" in Dutch), nowadays Prince Carnaval ("Prins Carnaval" in Dutch), will speak and/or mock staightforwardly and suggest the people to act unrestained. Wich was considered quite vulgar-obscene at the time.....haha. During the procession that's held straight through town, containing mostly the type of people the "common folks" love to to live without. 

Example of people joining the procession with the Prince at the front: 

* long-gone-nobles

* slackers

* gamblers

* drunks

* bossy women

* demons and savages

But also priests, monks and nuns joined in.

All in all, prior to the 40 days abstinence/fast, Carnaval allowed people to paint the town and do things they were normally prohibited to do. Their world was literally turned upside down in a good way....

Scattered polaroids of the evening in question

Digitally active

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, it's been a while again and I'm becoming more active on this digital highway called the internet.
Facebook has been a foe and friend of mine eversince I've signed on  in 2006 or so....and haven't done anything but accept a few friends and checked out some of their personal pages....
UP UNTIL a month ago.
Since then I've also posted stuff online. And even uploaded a few profile pics a week ago. LOL.

Just this tuesday I've received an email from a DiaryIs friend who has also disappeared from the diary radar haha. And so we've added one another on FB.


Just to note: I am one of those people who's quick to sign on to something new  BUT don't participate in the hype. I'm just curious by nature but also lose interest pretty fast if something doesn't hold my attention. Even if people lose themselves in the hype I'm more cautious and most of the time choose my own path in the end.

Tonight I'm visiting a friend of mine to celebrate a fake "hensnight" or bachlorette party.
We...."the people of this province in the Netherlands", celebrate this festivity called "Carnaval" (not comparable to the Brazilian one!) I'll post some pics on the next update.

Here are some pics I've taken with my phone during a little get-together I had with my friends a few weeks ago.

Fake coke on New Years Eve

Finally, after 2 years, I was able to recharge the battery of my digi cam!

And I've taken some pics with it for the first time during my "New Years Eve-get-together"

with a bunch of friends. They're all couples by the way. I am the only single person of the party, luckily they didn't make me feel like I am haha.

The first part of the evening started of with me and 4 of my friends having dinner, whilst cooking

it ourselfs on little pans/pots.

During the second part (chillin'-boozin'-chatting) two more friends joined the festivities (another couple). The third part consisted of champagne, fireworks watching, some more boozin', having a lot of fun and returning back home to get some shut eye.

Just keep in mind that I haven't touched my cam for over 2 years due to certain factors (and a low battery)....

So the images are quality wise pretty poor, if I say so myself.

That's the electrical pan/pot set.

Vectors & Typography

I've been working on some vectors like I've mentioned a few blogs ago.......  Well......they kinda s*ck haha.
And so I've been doodling with an emoticon tutorial instead. They're quite easy to make once you get the hang of the 'direct selection tool' options. I'll try some more icon designs later haha.

Vector EMOS created with Adobe Illustrator

The emo's are a creation I made a few weeks ago.
Here's something I started doodling with since this past Friday (12-02-'11). I wanted to try out this "stitching effect". After making the basic character style with Illustrator the rest was easy. I just had to assign that character style to whatever image, text or symbol I wanted and the program does the rest. Easy does it.

Icons in blue

Same icons but now in red

And here they are in yellow, just to give you a general idea

Close up, so you can get a better look @ the stitching effect 

Regal symbols with stitching added

I like this thingy

UBrand - ULabel

After playing around with lots of symbols, I decided to do something with my initial and turn it into a brand or label. Something that's stitched to clothing, jeans for instance HOOT!

Anywho......this ULabel stitch thingy made my interest turn to Typography. I love fonts and the things you can do with them! Here are the products of my imagination (and insprational tutorials) I made in Illustrator and PS for the past few days in chronological order.

U&D (Uma&Design) above the clouds

U&D glossy

U&D soft

"Seek not to know the answers but to understand the question" Old poster effect

"To reach perfection once must develop equally compassion and wisdom" Chinese proverb

Hue added, forgot the FONT name...jeez  - -" 

Another proverb ^^" 

Silly text making your eyes blurry, going to play around with layering and perhaps add some improvements some time again in the future

Added a color burn

Added a color blending option

Uma flowery initials

Uma flowery initials with a blue-ish light background

I was going for a dreamy atmosphere....... Anywho...I've done enough for today. My eyes are getting worse sitting behind the comp all this time. Reminds me of how I used to sit behind the comp doing stuff for school hahaha. I've had my share of all-nighters! Mostly just because I couldn't stop once I was in the flow of things.....not due to time deficiency LOL. But I also had some trouble with time management hehe..... Well, it's quite normal at that age I believe. Anything other than hitting the books is a better way to consume once time.

I rest my case for now.

Materialistic wishes

Lately I have been browsing for some goodies online, wishing to buy them one day for my own encouragement. I love electronical gadgets. I'm kind of a nerd in that department. Eventough the technical part can be a bit confusing. When it comes to cables, wires, connecting things and such....don't ask. I'm a fast learner when it comes to usage and getting an indept understanding of the equiptment.........just DON'T ask questions. lol

Anything related to photography, APPLE, Adobe or any sort of design grabs my interest too....haha.

Anywho, there's this funny item I once saw posted on a blog 2 years ago. I thought it would make a GREAT birthdaygift (FOR ME) haha, since I don't know a lot of people with the same quirky interest.

The item I'm talking about is a DSLR mug! There's also a vacuum insulated thermos shaped like a NIKON or CANON lens. It's SOOOOO realistic (I like that kinda stuff), people do mistake it for an actual lens haha.

Mug

Digital B-day gift

A friend of mine celebrated their birthday last month and due to the fact that he lives in Thailand, I of course couldn't congratulate him in person haha. So I created a birthday card for him in PS instead.

He once told me (a few years ago) that he loves candy.....but I apparently forgot because I asked him once more last month what he would like to have for a birthday present.
We have the kind of friendship where neither age, social status or heritage are important and so I truly value the little time we get to converse online (either by phone or comp hehe).
He'll always be silly Cyder to me haha.
Perhaps someday I get to congratulate him in person and treat him to a meal when I get to visit Thailand again.

Here's the result of my PS & AI work. The lollipop and flowery background are made in Ai and vector symbols found online. The rest is layered and finished up in PS.

Endless tears

Tears kept rolling from my eyes when I was listening to this song on my way back home from the hospital.
I don't know why but it reminded me of how I used to miss this special person in my life. The lyrics are literally telling my story. After ending my relationship with this person the feeling of missing became worse. The agony I went through lasted for 2 whole years. After which I promised myself to never fall that deep again.
But then again....you cannot control ones heart.
Nowadays I'm just cautious. When I even get the slightest inclination of leaning in too much, I'll stop myself midway.