A bit on the side

Postcards is my bit on the side.

Before coming to the UK P and I set up Paul and Mel's UK which was our way of keeping in touch with our friends and family in Australia from London. It's a rather successful little blog and one of the best things we've done as we are generally pretty bad at staying in touch with people but really really good at spending hours on end in front of the PC each day. All of our friends and family log on to our blog almost daily and some have even said that it's almost like we haven't even left Australia.


That kind of blog had its restrictions though so I decided to set up Postcards which is my bit on the side. A small creative outlet aside from Paul and Mel's UK. I'm getting greedy now though as my bit on the side now has a bit on the side. Say hello to Food for ... I love to cook and most people know this about me. Most of my recipes have a bit of a story to them. A while back I wanted to write a recipe book but never got around to it. Well this new blog is my way of getting around to it.

On the right hand side of this blog under my recipes is my permanent link to my recipe blog. Happy cooking.

The devil is in the detail

I have a thing for macro mode on my camera ... or so P says. I think he might be right. Especially when it comes to taking close ups of flowers. I love how you can see the detail in this one.

Thursday evening before a long weekend ... heaven. Nothing much planned this weekend other than some typically good London touristy things such as visiting a museum or two and possibly the theatre. I won't want it to end.

 

Iconic

This is what I used to think of when I thought of London (amongst the usual things like Big Ben). This was taken whilst walking around Covent Garden last weekend. Unfortunately, although spring has sprung it really wasn't that warm on this day, and me being in denial refused to dress for winter in the spring time so I ended up really cold and calling it a day somewhat earlier than I would have liked.

Portebello Rd, Nottinghill

Five good things:

• Coffee at Portebello Market
• Spring has finally sprung
• Kronenberg Blanc (the only beer I like)
• A new haircut
• 80's funk on the radio

From the archives ...

I recently came back from a trip back home to Australia. I visited my parents for a week in Country NSW and during this time rummaged through some old family photos and discovered this great shot of me with my dad when I was about 5 years old. We were dancing at my cousin's engagement party. A typical shot of daddy and his little girl. I love this photo.

Elements

I've downloaded the trial version of photoshop elements so tried this effect on another self-portrait of mine - geez, two self-portraits in a row. How vain is that?

I know it's not a great photo - actually a little blurry, but I managed to remove my devil eyes, give my hair some highlights and add the little polaroid affect to it and ... oh, it only took about an hour! Okay, so I'm a photoshop novice. But one has to start somewhere.

Self Portrait

One of my favourite things to do is walk. Usually it's me, my i-pod and my camera and we hit the road for a couple of hours enjoying the scenery. Walking in winter is particularly refreshing (especially when I'm rugged up like an eskimo). Today I spent about 2.5 hours out walking and managed to take some really good photos. So much so that I have inspired P, who has stated that he would like to join me on one of my walks.

Frosty

I took this whilst out on a walk today. It was in the middle of the pathway of a large Common. Not so sure how it got there.

Bienvenue ...

... to my new blog.

My name is Melissa and I'm a 31 year old Australian who has packed it all in & moved to the UK for a 3+ year stint of living, working, travelling, experiencing and pretty much doing what most Australian's do when they come to London (minus the drunken debauchery!)

I'm slowly getting into photography and love the thought of having my own photoblog ... hence this site.

I love clothing, movies, fashion, pop-culture, music, cooking, wine, good books and basically anything girly so be prepared to see the odd pink thing and maybe a flower or two on this site. But, as my photography improves, hopefully the odd spectacular photo will also be uploaded, (I'll let you be the judge of that).

For me, the glass is always half full. A cock-eyed optimist, most would say. I'm not overly opinionated, generally only see the best in people and believe that a little kindness goes a long long way. At the same time ... give me a good RnB/Hip Hop beat and I can dance my butt off for hours on end, not that I get to do that much these days.

So please, sit back and enjoy the visual feast that hopefully will be, Meli Melikin's Postcards.