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22/12/2014

Update!

Hey!
So im just letting you all know that im currently writing the post for my holiday, which I am still on.
I get home at 8am on Tuesday, so I will finish writing it then and post it christmas eve.
I  hope you  all have a wonderful christmas, and a happy new year!

Ciao!!!
(I wont leave links because im not on my computer and I dont know what I´m doing haha)

28/09/2014

iPhone 6 Plus

Hi all! Just to let you know I’m still getting used to college and all that jazz, but the work load isn’t that bad yet and I’ve got some time for a post, so here you go! I was going to do an Autumn/Winter Haul but I’m going to save that for the October break when I can actually get some good photo opportunities for this, so I’m going to inform you of my newest purchase, my iPhone 6 Plus.

Now I know loads of people are like, ‘why did you get one? They’re huge and they bend!’ honestly, mine hasn’t done anything yet, maybe it’s because I got a case too, but I’ve had no problems with mine, and I’m so happy with it. So when you see someone with an iPhone 6, or iPhone 6 Plus, don’t be like, ‘Oh my god you actually got it? Does it bend? That’s huge it’s the size of my face.’ Just don’t… the only reason I got the 6 Plus is because my eye sight is quite bad, and honestly, I had to hold my 4 next to my face to see it.

So I’m a proud owner of an iPhone 6 Plus, and I see people buying them to try and bend them and its literally so expensive to do that I wouldn’t bother if I were you. This became a bit of a rant, I’m sorry.

But back to what I was going to talk about and that’s my Haul! I am buying summer clothes still because I need new stuff for my holiday in December, but I was so cold waiting for my bus I had my coat on and a jumper. Some of the stuff that will be in my haul is things from last winter, so they might not be available any more, but I’m sure you will be able to find ones like them. Anyway this is about all I have time for as I have photography work to do, so I will post again later in the half term, which is about 5 weeks away :( sadness. Its nearly been four weeks in now at college and I love it.

I will probably post before my haul but I’ll have to plan it out and everything!

Catch you later!

02/09/2014

Back to School

So it’s that time of the year again, all the autumn colours are coming into fashion and if you are aged 3-17 then you’ll be going back to school or college. I’m actually starting my first year of college this year and I’m super excited to be moving away from my old school and into a new place with new faces, and some old ones but it’s going to be the start of a new time for me! This part of my life is going to get super hectic and posts on here will slow right down to maybe 1 or 2 a month but I’m still here, I’ll be writing posts when I can and planning things and hopefully, when I have time, I can kick start my YouTube Channel, links are still below but im sure youre not even bothered about that right now.

I’m also going to Mexico in December so I will post some pictures from there when I’m back, I get back just before Christmas day!

Anyway I need to go to bed so I will post soon!

Ciao! xxx


30/08/2014

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

So yesterday I did the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, I would put a link but I’m too lazy. I’m going to donate £5 because I really don’t have enough money to donate any more than that.

I thought I was going to die of shock. It was not very pleasant, but it’s all for a good cause nonetheless, and if I can do it, so can you so I’m nominating all of you who read my blog to take part in this to raise awareness for ALS and the problems people who suffer from this have.

ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease which affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. It basically effects the motor neurones which send electrical messages to every part of your body.

Also, having the ice water dumped over your head is supposed to be how it feels to have this awful disease, so get your ice ready, get your old clothes out and get donating!


Thank you if you actually do this from here, also make sure you let me know too! Comment on this post if you take part or have taken part in this!

Sorry its short and sweet but my Uncle is home from Germany and we're all going out for a meal so, there should be a post sometime next week! 

Ciao! xxx

17/08/2014

15 Facts About Me!

Well hello everyone! (I know there is people I see you in my statistics)

So I was stuck for an idea for a blog post and decided to tell you a bit more about me, because all you know is my name, age and where I’m from.

Here are 15 facts about me for you all to read and laugh at.

1.  My full name is Emily Wheelhouse. I don’t really know the origins of my name but I know I’m named after my parents grandparents but I’m not entirely sure…

2.  I was born 5th December 1997, so I’m 16 years old.

3.  My best friends name is Hannah and I love her to pieces and we became best friends by sharing crayons or something stupid in nursery and we’ve been best friends since.

4.  I can play various musical instruments such as clarinet to grade 6 standard, guitar, drums and I sing a lot too (even though I can’t sing doesn’t mean I won’t sing)

5.  I’m getting bored of talking about myself already…. I’m so boring!

6.  I’m waiting on my GCSE results which are coming in on Thursday and I’m super nervous…

7.  I want to be a music teacher, musician or a YouTuber I haven’t decided.

8.  My music collection needs a huge update.

9.  I have no siblings, only child me!

10.              My phone is breaking.

11.              My favourite place to be is either the garden or walking in country parks, I just feel so relaxed.

12.              I have pyjama days on a weekly/daily basis.
13.              My favourite food is pizza.

14.              My nickname is Mycroft.

15.              I get really tired really quickly and then I get angry…

So I hope you feel like you know me better after this, I hope that you like this little filler post kind of thing…

I don’t know whats going on with the numbers from 10 onwards…

Anyway I will post again later this month with an update on my GCSE grades… probably… if I do well…


Ciao!

11/08/2014

Summer Favourites 2014

So this is something a little different…

Here are some of my summer favourites! This is literally everything that I’ve liked and bought this summer! This isn’t just make up or beauty items, mainly because I don’t own much or even use it unless I have to, so this will include clothes, books, and TV and movies

Clothing and Beauty

Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Nail Polish

I’ve used Barry M nail polish before but I’ve only recently fell in love with this! I don’t have many, but the shades I have are lovely and I plan on buying so many more so I can have a complete collection. My nails right now are white, done with the Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Coconut. They look fab and when they look better (meaning I don’t have polish on my hands and fingers) I’ll take a photo for the post! I was so sure I had more than four of these but obviously not! I have GNP 8 ‘Grapefruit’, GNP 15 ‘Guava’ GNP 11 ‘Dragon’ and GNP 23 ‘Coconut’. I know there are many different shades as I’ve borrowed a family friends, who had a blue one but I’m not sure on the colour name.

Using my computer as a backdrop might not work…

Yours Clothing



This shop. Oh my god I love it so much! Its sizes 14 – 32 so it’s mainly plus sized clothes, and that’s perfect as in my area there is nothing for the ‘bigger teenager’ like me. I recently fell in love with a kimono in our store, which was £30, and I couldn’t afford it, so when I saw it in my size and in the sale I was not leaving it on the shelf. And if my outfit applies, I wear it constantly. I tend to wear it with a black vest top from Asda, just a plain one, and some grey leggings which I don’t know where they are from. I don’t really have shoes to go with this outfit as it’s usually a stay in day outfit but I do wear my vans with this, which are denim look, so they don’t really fit in with it but they’re comfy and cute so I wear them anyway.

I have many clothes from here, including a really cute dress which I wore for a wedding in June just before prom, (like the weekend before) the only problem I had with it was how low cut it was, but I managed for the day in Warwick Castle… what I really liked about this dress was the length, it was short but not overly short, and the pockets, yes, the pockets. They were hidden pockets so there was always somewhere to hide my phone! (That’s not me in the photo. I will have to post a full length picture of me at some point.) I wore this with navy heels from next, which I wore for prom, and a navy bag from eBay, which I also used for prom.

Another item I’ve bought from here is a black top with red pansies on, the collar tops, if you know what I mean by that. Again not me in the photo. I tend to wear this with black ripped jeans (I’ll come onto those later) and a pair of Converse, depending on the occasion. If it’s a party or reception I’d wear leggings and black wedges, but for day to day wear its ripped jeans all the way.

Asda Clothing

I don’t generally shop in supermarkets for clothes but this is a place I can rely on. I bought a maxi dress earlier this year, I don’t think it was during the summer but I’m including it anyway. And it was so comfy. You could wear it with heels or sandals and was perfect for day or night wear. I wore it to a wedding reception of a band member of mine, who I’ve known since I was small so he had to invite me. I wore it with nude heels and my hair in natural waves. I don’t have a picture of it, nor can I find one on the internet, but it was, I say fluorescent, but I was slightly paler than fluorescent pink with white patterning. And sadly I can’t find it anywhere, so I can’t take a picture of it for you to see.


I also love their summer range this year. I’ve got so much stuff from that, from family members thinking I’d like them. And I always do. So my next thing from asda are these vest tops. While writing this I am wearing the elephant one. I love these because you can really dress them up, or dress them down. My grandma bought these thinking I wouldn’t like them and that she could have them but HA! I wear them all the time and they’re fab. They can be worn with leggings, a kimono and heels, or jeans and converse or vans. I know not many summer favourites are from supermarkets but this is where most of my clothing comes from and I do love their stuff. The only problem with George is sizing. You need to have a size bigger when buying clothes from here.

Entertainment

TV

My current favourite TV shows are Sherlock and Game of Thrones. I don’t really watch much TV because I’m either planning YouTube videos for when they channel is up, writing blog posts or playing Sims, so I don’t get much chance to watch shows, also because I don’t get left alone often enough to watch things like Supernatural or Teen Wolf.

For those of you who don’t know, which I would be very upset if you didn’t, Sherlock is a modern take on the Arthur Conan Doyle series, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The main characters of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson take on the crimes around London with Sherlock being the centre of attention most of the time. It was in Sherlock where I first fell in love with the one and only Benedict Cumberbatch.

Game of Thrones is a complete contrast. It is a fantasy show, taken from the George R. R. Martin series A Song Of Ice and Fire, which I most definitely want to read but haven’t got round to buying it. It follows the story of the seven kingdoms of Westeros, and the many families living there. The Starks, Lannisters, Baratheons, Tulleys, Martells, Tyrells and plenty more. I bet people who watch this are going ‘WHAT ABOUT DAENAREYS?’ I’m coming to her now. It also follows the Targareans, who were once the kings and queens of the seven kingdoms. (I’m explaining this more than Sherlock because there is more in this than Sherlock.) They had dragons, and lots of them.

I’m not going to give away too much of this I definitely think you all should go and watch both shows because they’re fab and I love them!

Movies

My favourite movies right now, and there are more here than TV shows so I’m just going to list them for now, and I’ll do a Movies blog post.
  • ·       The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug.
  • ·        About Time
  • ·        Guardians of the Galaxy
  • ·        Wreck It Ralph
  • ·        Monsters University
  • ·        The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (I cried and no one warned me I would cry)
  • ·        Lilo and Stitch
  • ·        The Croods
  • ·        Star Trek – both of them
  • ·        Turbo (I don’t even know why I just liked it)
  • ·        Grease
  • ·        Percy Jackson – Lightning Thief and Sea Of Monsters
  • ·        Were The Millers
  • ·        Love Actually

And I’m going to leave that there.

Books

Well. I’m currently reading nothing, but I’ve started the Hobbit and can’t get past the first few pages because I tend to read in bed and fall asleep on my book. But I do read teen fiction, such as The Hunger Games and Divergent. I cant really give many books as I cant remember what I have and haven’t read, but I can talk about John Green.

As some of you may know, John Green wrote, and almost starred in, The Fault in Our Stars. A book which tells the story of Hazel Grace Lancaster, a teenage cancer sufferer who meets Augustus Waters at a cancer group. They go on many adventures together before the end of the book, this is a huge spoiler alert so skip to the end of the brackets if you don’t want to know (Where Gus eventually gets his cancer back and it kills him)

I cried for nearly an hour after the end of that book.

I think this is about it for today, my summer favourites has come to a close. I chose to do this now because I know I’d probably forget to do it at the end of August and its nearly the end of summer here anyway. I dont know whats going on with the bullet points, theres nothing I can do to change them so, sorry.

Speak soon! xxx

29/07/2014

Photography Essentials and Techniques

Hi again!

So I’m going to be giving you the low down on things you will need to take incredible photos. I’m not really a great photographer but I know enough to be able to give you pointers on what you need and different techniques.

Equipment


First, the best camera for a photographer is a DSLR. I use a Nikon D3000 camera and it is brilliant, I would highly recommend this or just a good quality digital camera. This Nikon has plenty of features on it, including shutter speeds and aperture, you can use this as a point and shoot camera but it is mainly a photographer’s camera.

Also depending on the type of photography you are wanting to do, you should have a dark room or studio. My school literally had a deep cupboard with a table and a couple of chairs and lights. If you want to do portraiture, then a room like this would be useful. Make sure it’s an area with nothing on the walls, as that is picked up in the picture when using the lights in the room or even torch lights or other things like that.

You may also need a light box. This allows you to take still life images like this one, (I didn’t want to use my own photo here because they’re not great but I’m going to have to.) This wasn’t a great light box, you can actually make your own, and the best thing to do to find a tutorial is Google ‘Light box tutorial’ because they can be expensive.

If you plan on doing portraiture, you will need a white background for them, especially for low light photos. Something for low light photos you will need is a light, you can use a lamp, but the best thing would be one of these, I’m not sure what they are called but I’m sure if you search ‘photographer lights for sale’ you should see some on amazon or something. We used these at school, but now I just use a lamp, it’s cheaper and easier.

One absolute essential no matter what type of photography you are doing is a tripod. It’s a must have for a photographer. It basically keeps your camera still and you can level out a landscape by using one. If you’re stood on a hill you can make two legs of the tripod longer and level out the camera to make it easier to take the photo. Tripods are a godsend, make sure you have one. That’s all the equipment I've ever used.

Techniques

Rule Of Thirds

The rule of thirds is literally a three by three grid on your camera which allows you to position your photo to make it interesting. In this photo, the bee is in the middle third of the photo and the flower is in the end third, this positioning draws your eye to the flower rather than the centre of the photo, and then you catch the bee in the centre.

Another way of using the rule of thirds is to get a good sky/land ratio in your photo. If you have a photograph with an interesting sky, you want to use the top third and the centre third of your photo on sky and the bottom on land, but if the landscape is more interesting than the sky, then you need the top third sky and the centre and bottom thirds land.

You can find a rule of thirds grid on most cameras, there should be settings for them and it’s all about positioning, to get a really good quality photo. The landscape is one of my photos which uses the rule both ways, as the path is slightly positioned to one side, and there is more land that sky. If you imagine a grid on my photo like the one on the bee photograph, then everything becomes a bit clearer.

This is a really easy rule that many photographers rely on and it allows you to take some brilliant photos.

Macro
Macro allows you to take extremely close up photos of absolutely anything. You will probably need another lens for this for the zoom but I never used one and mine turned out fine, it depends how close you want to get. I took this from about three metres with a macro lens, because I was worried about scaring the butterfly off. I’m not really sure what else I can say about macro photos except they are fantastic and do make you think.

If you get too close to the object you want to photograph your camera may not take the picture so be careful.


Shutter Speeds

Shutter speeds are one of the most diverse things on your DSLR camera. A shutter speed literally changes the time you have your cameras shutter open, and it allows more light into the lens. You can do so much. I’ll put some examples and explain them. For any of the shutter speed photos you will absolutely need a tripod, or it won’t work at all.

This was taken by photography teacher while I held a small torch covered by pink tissue paper, and walked around my subject pointing it at the floor. The camera takes in all the light it receives, so you get this effect of the light around the subject. This is actually called light painting because you can draw with the light and although it will be gone to your eyes, it’s still in a camera and looks like a painting.

The possibilities are endless with light painting, you can do things with a subject or free hand like the infinity sign. You can write words, you just need to make sure you have a good positioning in your camera and as much space as you can get.
The best shutter speeds to use are between 5-8 seconds for light painting.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the photos of the car headlights on the roads? This also uses shutter speeds! The best place for these is motorways. You need a tripod and a sturdy surface and for it to not be too windy, because if it’s windy you will get shaky lines. Its best if you don’t do this during rush hour as the headlights wont match up and it will have breaks and look weird. Rule of thirds comes into play here, you definitely need more land that sky, or equal if the sky looks great.
The more twisting the road are the more interesting the image, but this was the best I could do in the time I had.
This is also what happens when it goes wrong and the camera moves. I turned to talk to my mum with the camera strap around my neck and it spun, but it was very funny. You need about a 13-15 second shutter for these, or you wont get the effect right and the lights wont meet up.

Steel wool is very dangerous and you need to make sure you have water near by.

For this I will do a separate blog post for but here is the outlines of this because it uses shutter speeds and its my favourite thing ever. 

You definitely need more than one person for this. My dad took me down to his works yard to do these and they make brilliant effects with the sparks flying off the wool as it is spun.

As I said, I will do a separate post for this because it’s a little more complicated than the others.

There is only one more I can think of for shutter speeds, and that’s using glow sticks.I was experimenting with the glow sticks and found that they don’t actually come up on the photo unless they are directly in front of the camera lens.

I thought I’d share this with you guys, holding the glow stick to the lens gives this acid burn effect which hopefully got me some good grades because it was abstract and ‘out of the box’.
This needs shutter speeds about about 5 seconds, because you’re close to the camera and don’t want to over expose the photo.

I hope this helped! There are so many more techniques, and I will keep doing more photography tutorials if you want them.

Until later, ciao! 

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28/07/2014

Things To Do This Summer!

Hello again!

So! Here’s a few things that you all could do this summer! This will mainly apply to people living in England, but this also works for people on holiday here.

Camping – If this is your thing then I definitely recommend the Shrewsbury Steam Fair, I go almost every year with my family, and the only reason I can’t this year is because of my enrolment to college.
If you get the right place to pitch your tent, you’re set. They allow campers to stay on the site from Thursday until Tuesday, so we always make the most of the time we can stay, but if camping isn’t your thing, on the Saturday and Sunday, you can go onto the field for the day with many different things going on such as a falconry show, a small market, and another field with ploughing horses, tractors and cider testing.

It’s a brilliant weekend with many different activities going on, there is definitely something for everyone, and keeps people returning year after year. You might not be able to get a camping space this year, but you can book up a year in advance I think so the best thing to do is to contact them. This weekend always falls on the August Bank Holiday weekend, which this year is the 24th and 25th.

Theme Parks – I can only really recommend theme parks I’ve been too, so there wont be many here, only two, one is in the Midlands, the other is in Cornwall.

I’ll start with Drayton Manor. The park itself is just off the A5 near Tamworth and Burton on Trent. There are a few dates that you either won’t be able to book or have to call to book, but the park itself is incredible. Rides include Apocalypse, Shockwave and Stormforce 10. Apocalypse is a standing drop tower with a drop of 48m, I haven’t personally been on this ride but it looks awesome, it was also rated 
The UK’s Scariest Ride by The Gadget Show.
Shockwave is a big, blue, standing rollercoaster, the UK’s only stand up rollercoaster. I haven’t been on this either but again it looks fab.

Stormforce 10 is the UK’s first reverse chute water coaster, which I have experienced. I went on this ride with my mum, my dad, my uncle and his wife at the time and a family friend. We had gone down the first chute and survived, gone down the backwards drop and survived and then the whole thing stopped at the bottom and the entire ride halted, and because our boat was the closest they had to move ours to start the ride again. I turned around while the ride had stopped and noticed that there was a boat on the edge of the backwards drop off, and I suddenly felt awful that the ride had stopped but it was a funny experience for us and I’m sure it was for the people in the other boats. You get extremely wet, so make sure it’s the last one you go on, not the first.

There is also another theme park on site called Thomas Land, so there’s plenty to do with younger members of the family too! There’s a zoo on site too so I advise you spend as much time there as you can. :)

You can check out the website here!

Flambards is a theme park in Helston, Cornwall. There’s plenty of child friendly activities and rides, but one that I’ve experienced personally is The Hornet. Its capable of 42.1 km an hour speeds and has many twists and turns, it’s a great ride and comes with a height restriction.
Flambards also has a Victorian village full of accurate representations of Victorian life, including sweet shops and rooms decorated as houses. When I visited, there was a complete section on the World Wars, there were fake air raids and a bombed house that had moving flooring you had to walk over, a full sized air raid shelter in a grass bank and so much more. If you are in Cornwall, you should definitely pay a visit!

You can see their website here!

This is really all I can think of for things to do this summer because half of its gone. Other things could be BBQs, pool parties, holidays or family days out.

I will definitely look into family days out at museums and other things!


Until then, Caio!