kazzy_cee's ramblings

Wow - 100kb limit for an icon... *drools*

( Click here to see! )

A few years ago my hubby had to move from working locally (literally 5 miles away - he used to take his bicycle to work), to working across in West London (Kew Bridge).

( hubby relocation rambles - cut to spare those not interested )

In other news - I'm really lazy about looking after my skin and having any kind of beauty routine, but the one thing I've always done is moisturise twice a day, and always wear a moisturising foundation that has a sunscreen in it (especially when I worked in London as I felt it protected my skin from the pollution). Max Factor is my favourite make-up range.

So as I'm getting older *sigh* I decided that I should treat my skin to something a little more suited to 'older skin' and I've been using Olay's Regenerist daily serum for the past two weeks.

It's amazing - my skin feels soft and really smooth! I rarely mention beauty products and I've been disappointed by many of them - but this one really suits my skin and I can see real improvements! I can't recommend it enough!

Anyone got any good recommendations for skin care?

Also - it's cold!! Where the heck is the summer? We've had torrential rain for over a week now, the wind is freezing and I've had to get out my shoes and put away my sandles!! No fair!!!!

Can be found here

Here at gen_icons

Lj header and matching icon - hope it's OK (click for bigger)

For the first time in 68 years Piccadilly Circus will be turning their lights out!

"Lights Out London aims to prove that we can all make a difference to the future of our planet. On Thursday 21st June - Midsummer's Night - we are inviting the whole of London to turn off all lights and non-essential appliances between 9 and 10pm."

It was started by Capital Radio as a small idea, and it's grown and grown with lots of celebrities joining in.

It's not only London - the smallest city in Wales (St Davids) is also turning out their lights, and many other cities across the UK are joining in.

Find out more here at 'Lights out London' and click on the banner to go to the information page direct.

Join in if you can! We can make a difference!

Something because I was in a silly mood, and there was a dress up competition at darker_spike

(click for bigger)



and then I felt the need for some Spuffy ( Read more... )

My husband left this morning for a meeting in Milan tomorrow morning. He won't return until tomorrow evening - it's such a waste of his time. Two days for a three hour meeting! Whatever happened to the internet conferences and no more travelling?? The client has asked to see him specifically which is very flattering, but he really should be working, not travelling as they are so short-staffed at work!

My children have been saving their allowances, and have bought themselves a Playstation 3. It's all sleek and black and shiny and plays blu-ray disks. It arrived today, and all I can hear at the moment is crashes, explosions and laughter...

My eldest has finished all his exams and it's now a matter of waiting until mid August for the results. He seems to have taken everything in his stride and as far as I can see has done no work for them! He said they were easy, and often he finished early. Ah well - we'll have to wait and see what happens I suppose! He is now allowed to stay home from school, so is on his summer break already, which is annoying my youngest son who still has to attend school until 20th July! *g*

My students at College have finished their scheduled lessons. They have a few extra courses to do such as First Aid , Food Hygiene and an IT exam. It's nice not to have to prepare lessons! They should have finished all their work by now, but many of them haven't! My tutor group are the first year students, and at this rate many of them are jeopardising their chances of going on to the second year. They have until 6h July to complete their work, but if they haven't they will not continue..... I'm having to do a LOT of nagging!!

On the upside - I have managed to get a lot of administrative work done, and it's lovely and quiet on our floor at College.

Two pimps while I'm here.... go and check out gen_icons (such pretties!) and go and take a look at the lovely prospective story banners at writerconuk. There are still places for the event in August. The event I'm looking forward to most there is the raffle - check out the prizes!!!!!

I do not think that I know everything by any stretch of the imagination regarding using these photo manipulation programs.  However there are a few simple things that I think really help to make something look convincing when doing head swaps or more complicated manips.  So here are my ....

10 simple rules:

1. Get the lighting right.  A face with the lighting on the left and a body with the lighting on the right will always look wrong.  Shadows on the correct sides will really help to make your figure look convincing.
2. If there's a problem with the face/body shadows, always flip the base and not the face.  People are familiar with the actors will spot something 'wrong' about a flipped face, and it won't look convincing.
   
3. Make sure you erase all of the 'old' head on a head shot - a person should have two ears, just not on the same side of their face!  Use the clone tool or duplicate a bit of background to cover over the area and blend it. At the same time make sure you erase all the edges of the 'new' head.  Fuzzy edges will give away that it's from a different picture. 
   
4. For a seamless blend, pick where old and new join carefully.  Sometimes a jaw line will work, other times you'll need to go down to necklaces or collars. 
   
5. Look at the structure of the neck - do the muscles match in (especially if the replacement head is at a slightly different angle)?  Don't feel you have to find the exact match for the original head - by using a head and neck you can change the angle of the face as long as the muscle structure looks OK.  Remember there's only so far someone's head will turn on their neck... impossible angles will just look odd.
   
6. When resizing make sure you keep the proportions of the head even - stretching it to make it wider or longer will make it look wrong.
7. The tone/hue between old and new is as important as the light and shadow.  Adjust using hue/brightness/contrast etc.  If you really can't get it to match - desaturate!  Sometimes it's easier to work in black and white and only have to focus on brightness and contrast!  It also can look much more effective and arty...
   
8. Use good quality photographs, especially if you're trying to make something bigger.  If in doubt make something smaller rather than trying to stretch it - a poor quality photograph will start to look grainy.  You can use the smudge tool to work on grainy photos, and then sharpen key areas (irises make a huge difference) - adding and removing noise will also help, but try not to go too far otherwise you can end up with 'plastic' faces (unless that's the look you're going for!).
9. Match hairlines if possible.  Some people have very distinctive hairlines, and it's another clue that something isn't right.  When cutting out a face, try to include the hair line and blend it in.  If you can't do that convincingly, then move the hairline of the base picture to approximate the actor's hairline.  It's a small detail, but one that can make a lot of difference to the overall manip.
10. Have fun, make mistakes, ask for constructive criticism or help if you need it.  There are a lot of people out there who will give you pointers if you ask.  Practice makes perfect!

Hope those were helpful.... keep manipping!

Having just seen POTC3 I had to try a Pirate!Spike ..

( worksafe )

Today we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

( in case of spoilers )

In other news it was my Dad's 79th birthday yesterday, and it's Father's Day tomorrow here in the UK, so the family are coming over for lunch tomorrow (my brother, sister-in-law and their two children and my Mum and Dad). I hope my Dad will not be all 'gloom and doom' as he was when we called him last week to invite him over. He is NOT growing old gracefully and is already saying that his next birthday is the 'beginning of the end'!!. *sigh* He's in good health for his age, so I don't know why he's so gloomy, but I suppose I don't know what I'll feel like when I see 80 heading my way ;)

We're hoping to have a barbecue, although we've had torrential rain showers all day today, so we may end up cooking inside. As we'd been into town to see the film, we have Crispy Creme doughnuts!!!!! We bought 2 dozen, and hopefully they will last until tomorrow.. *eyes teenagers*

.....mmmmmmm doughnuts!

In other news - I've changed my layout again, but given up my extra icons (I didn't think they were worth the extra expense). I really miss having over 100 to choose from though. I only have 39 now - it's not enough!

Assorted flower icons posted here at gen_icons

My eldest cat is 11 years old and every time we take him down to the vet they say something along the lines of "he's a big boy isn't he!" because he IS a large cat. They've assured us he's not fat, but we have to keep any eye on him as he gets older 'just in case'.

Over the last 3 months he's seemed a lot more active than he used to be. Which is good, because he was quite a lazy cat.

We let Patch and my younger cat, Tiger, go outside if they want to (they have a cat flap in the kitchen door). We didn't used to do that when we only had one cat, but my youngest cat worked out how to open the cat flap when it was locked, so it seemed silly to risk him breaking it, and decided to leave it open. They often prefer to stay inside and sleep in their beds if the weather isn't very good and they're safe and warm in the kitchen, and aren't allowed into the house during the night (otherwise they'd be on our beds!).

Over the last month or so Patch has been loosing weight quite noticeably. He's frisky, happy and eating really well, so I'm not that worried... except I am a bit because he's really so much thinner.

Any cat people got any ideas about what I should do? I'm reluctant to take him to the vet as he's so happy and doesn't seem unwell.

Posted here at gen_icons

Want a 'general icon' - one that's not related to a fandom particularly? Just for those days when you don't want a celebrity or a character on your icon?

Well look no further and join *ta dah!* gen_icons

Go now.....

I'll wait....

Found this again... Summer Glau is so good in this. Icon is snaggable if anyone wants it.

Thought I'd bring my entries over here too. These are the banners I've made for authors to claim (if they want to) and write a drabble/fictlet or longer fic if they have time.

( Read more... )

The writerconuk Midimeet 2007 art/fic challenge has started off spectacularly well with lots of wonderful entries.

Check out the lovelies!

Just me making a list so feel free to ignore.


Sooo - that shouldn't take too long then..... *makes coffee and sits down to decide what one I should start*

The little plus signs that appear next to a cut have turned out to be very interesting and useful.  They are a Firefox add on, and allow you to see how many things are under a cut (each item has a plus sign), and if you just click on the sign you get what is under the cut shown on your f-list instead of being redirected to the person's Lj.  It's been really handy when I've not had a lot of time just lately.

Have been skimming through f-list, but haven't got time to comment at the moment (sorry), and I'm way behind on replying to comments (sorry again!!!!)