Cotton Daydream

Happy Birthday Curtis

September 12, 2015

CURTIS TURNS ONE; MICHELLE AND I GOT TO BE THE PARTY PLANNERS

BTS

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I have to say, organising a party (almost) from the nitty gritty plans to managing the actual party can get pretty exhausting considering the amount of DIYs you'd have to go through to get to these pretty Pinterest-worthy (I hope) pictures. I went for the unconventional illustration for the invite poster on this one, because well, baby birthday posters are usually too 'fun & cheer' in my opinion. Let me add a touch of manlihood for baby Curtis- He's one, he should have it. He should. Which also explains the color scheme I chose; it's not too grunge for a baby's party but it's not too happy and bright and rainbows and unicorns either. Perfect balance, I'd like to think. Also did some themed poster signage for gift bags area which is aptly named 'baggage claim' and food labeled as 'in-flight meals'. We're so funny. More on the actual party, Michelle and I DIY those decorative treats — Lolli-propellers, airplane garland, propeller straws (of course the straws are store bought), pin the propeller game, the gift bags; and one of my favourite, the cupcake toppers— based on the airplane themed.

Also, I got to practice photography with fast moving objects i.e. kids, and semi-bad lighting. The photos turned out great! Better than I expected. My ISO was bump up to 1600, crazy high considering the venue was near the window with natural afternoon sunlight. A little grainy for some but I'm learning. Although... I do actually like the grain on some of the pictures. Maybe I'm just biased. So good job, me.

Michelle and I are planning to pursue this event planning thing. We don't know where are we heading with this but 'Budget Event Planning' comes to mind. Best believe we did all of that DIY in less than MYR100. That's the business model we're talking about. I believe we need a budget planner for small to medium size scale parties.

1. Contact these *ahem* awesome budget planners via venturebanana(at)gmail(dot)com — Tell us your details and we'll quote you a good price!
2. If you'd like the airplane cake, find the awesome baker here.
3. Want the files to these printable (and editable!) visuals (ie. cupcake topper & posters)? Email me at tracywee93(at)gmail(dot)com

VIEW THE FULL ALBUM HERE

Photo post-processing with Adobe Photoshop CS3

Labels: advertisement, art, Birthdays, photography

BY TRACY | 12:54 AM · 1 comments

Travel: Koh Samui

July 31, 2015

5 - 8 July 2015

THIS IS PROBABLY MY 234837TH TIME TO THAILAND

But who's complaining? When you thought you couldn't love Thailand any more than you already have, and Koh Samui proves you wrong. Of course, the water looks straight out of Google Images, it is that beautiful. Pretty sure I made you want to jump into that picture right there. Don't is my advice. This was taken during the boat ride from Surat Thani to Koh Samui island during Day 1 (Yes, it takes almost the whole day to travel from Malaysia > Koh Samui)... So, we're talkin' x amount of depth here. Who knows what's lurking behind that? Cannibalistic mermaids, maybe?

I strapped on my DSLR for the whole trip; One, for fear someone might rob me off it and two, pictures can't take themselves.

One of many things that still amazes me is that everywhere in Thailand, these scary lookin' wires hang just right above your head. And slowly you start to imagine the unknown... I actually saw one sparked so, that one particularly wasn't my 'bright' imagination (ba dum tss). These were Day 2 whilst walking around our chalet along Chaweng Beach Road in Chaweng Noi. I have to say though, this is a tourist-infested island — More than half the time I didn't feel like I was in Thailand if it wasn't for the street and vendor signs; beauty/spa parlors, malls, the streets, the beach, are filled with white folks from the US, UK, Australia, France, etc. (observing from their accent, of course). Actually, come to think of it, I felt we were the odd ones out lol. Pro-tip: Noi is 'small', according to our cab driver.

The one thing that's on the top of my checklist was to lay in the bright, blue water... which I didn't get to that much. It's partly my fault for wanting to take pictures and by the time I had my fill of candids, ~~the rain~~ the storm decided to crash the party. I literally was in the water for less than 2 minutes and I'm not exaggerating on that one. Bummer. Lesson learned, Tracy.

Day 3 started off with me waking up at the crack of dawn to watch the sunrise, walk along the water and of course, have a go at nature's practice ground for cartwheels. Bugged Michelle on this and we got ourselves great photos as well (who's complaining?). Food was uhmazing — the cool part was we couldn't speak thai (obviously) and the local thai food vendor couldn't speak english. We kinda sign language'd our way to ordering food. It was so worth it. I love Thailand's local street food.

We hired a cab guy for a half-day trip around the island. Yeah, who would've thought you could tour the island in just one day? If you ever find yourself in Koh Samui, I beg you to go to Lad Koh or Zenith Viewpoint... the view is so breathtaking you would actually forget to breathe. You will question the meaning of life. You will gaze at the beauty that is before you. You may also start running plans in your head on moving not to Thailand, but to this exact spot so you could wake up to it every morning. Beautiful doesn't even cover it.

One of the tour stops was at rocks aptly named Grandfather and Grandmother rock... You might wonder why, but then again, you don't question that instead you wonder why is this an attraction. Literally, a rock that's shaped like a penis and a vulva... Why. But, you go along with it anyway and take 39843 pictures in different angles on your iPhone. Or at least I did. Some guy actually took a pic lying down with the penis rock perfectly positioned on his body for the photo, it was hilarious lol. We went over to Nathon Town market, the oldest town/market, and apparently it's suppose to be really crowded. The total opposite happened when we got there; about 80% of the stores were closed and little to no one walked the streets. Though, I had a white folk pass me by and said 'Ni hao'. Damn was I offended! Especially because of the fact that I probably look 110% Chinese. Or, that he probably somehow thinks that I can't speak English. I brushed it off with a smile and said 'Hi' in return, but his daughter replied me this time. Still contemplating on replying 'Sorry, could you repeat that in English?' if it ever happens to me again.

Nathon Town's right beside a port and it had a beautiful panoramic view, too. Had to squeeze some time in and run to the port before our cab driver calls on us to get back in the van because it's almost half the day. I was genuinely surprised though, that the strong wind was ice cold, even the water. Am I missing something here? Being a tiny human, it almost felt like I was going to fly off and I didn't dare stand near the edge of the bridge. Survival instinct tells me that it is about 99% a near death choice if I would to do so... Or, I'm a wuss.

Also, I'm currently compiling the best photos from this trip for a 6x6 40-page Photobook. Should be fun! *dread*