Café Hops in M'sia 2.0 (ft. friends)

    Recently, food and friends is probably the only thing that could make me smile genuinely. Well, majority percentage lies with my friends. They make me smile the most and forget all the worries and problems I have in my mind recently. This may sound cheesy but to me, their smiles meant the whole world to me; seeing their smiles made me happy and unconsciously, I smiled too. But it's not just them who made me smile but also the food we were willing to share together made me felt that I was part of them cause food always does bring people together right?

    Just yesterday, me and my friends went to two types of cafe; one is dessert cause who doesn't love to eat desserts right? and the other one is more to breakfast and brunch menu. Well, both were suitable to be recommended in my point of view and one can also just take a 3 minute walk to each of the two cafe technically! :) It was fun since it was our first time hanging out going to cafes instead of just going to shopping malls and window shop; it was a whole new memory made for us and we loved it. It was decent and to be honest, I do hope we were able to continue the moments for a little much longer than the usual 24/7. Anyway, cafe hopping is fun when you go in groups just because you're able to share the costs and also enjoy the moments of chit chatting and catching up with each other's lives at the same time and at least for me; we were able to have enjoy good food while we laugh at each other's funniest stories.

1. Jao Tim

    To those who are not the morning type of person that you are and you tend to feel a little fancy wanting to go out to have some brunch with your closest friends because why not right? Once in a while, it feels good to hang out with friends to have brunch with them; maybe you would still see their sleepy faces at times but it's worth the hang out just because its FRIENDSHIP GOALS - having breakfast or brunch with your closest friends. Well, back to food of course, if you're that type of person, you can go to Jao Tim located at Petaling Street; same lane as leaf & co cafe. It has a modern vintage feel to it and although it may look a little empty, it's peaceful. :) Peaceful to have a cup of coffee or tea and some croissants or sandwich. Music was played softly so it wouldn't interrupt our conversations with our friends, the great wide spaces in between each tables felt like they were giving us the spaces we wanted to have instead of the crowded tables that made it narrow in between. The food? Well, I could say it was lovely and light. The beverages? It was okay I could say in my opinion. But overall, it was pleasant as you get to enjoy quietness and vintage feel at once and it is a great combination.

Here are some photos I've took during our visit to Jao Tim:

The entrance of Jao Tim. It felt like it was hard to find the cafe at first but their doors were kind of unique and with the golden signage, it was practically easy to be spotted so yeah. 

The staircase of Jao Tim.

A top view shot of how the cafe looks like. See how the spacious it is? ;)

The food we ordered. We had Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Chocolate croissant, Chicken Pie and some drinks. If I would recommend between those 3 dishes, I would say Chicken Pie just because I personally prefer softer foods so the Chicken Pie was the softest of all. The other 2 had a little crisp in them.

A closer look of the Grilled Cheese Sandwich. :)

Our drinks: Latte, Hot Chocolate, Mocha and Earl Grey Tea. You could say it's the usual common drinks.

A cup of latte ordered by my friend.

The vintage feels that I was talking about was the decorations that they put in the cafe too. HAHA

2. Urban Artisan

    The next stop was desserts OF COURSE!! In Malaysia, the weather is ALWAYS scorching hot 24/7 and to kid you not, you can sweat easily despite it was only a 3 minute walk from Jao Tim. This dessert shop has been quite the popular topic when it comes to frozen yogurt ice cream. Its called Urban Artisan which is basically located in Petaling Street too, you can also say it's kind of the opposite lane of Merchant Lane cafe. Their ice creams are famous for the unique combination of two different flavors, they also have single flavors too if any of ya'll wants to savor only one flavor. Oh!! and they changes the menu every week as I was told about when I asked them for more information. Their flavors? I could say it's REALLY unique and different from the normal ones you try at llao llao or just any other Fro-Yo shops. I think that's what makes them unique and popular. The visuals? Splendid HAHA!! It's insta-worthy, TRUST ME! But try not to take it outside of the shop to have it especially when the weather is typically hotter than usual because it'll literally melt immediately. It's worth going to visit if ya'll wants some awesome perfect visuals frozen yogurt ice cream or just wants to have something that are more different than your go-to ice creams.

Here are some photos of Urban Artisan:

Urban Artisan cafe outlet, its all white so it's easy to be spotted. ;)

This is Thai Tea with Japanese Black Sesame flavor. It's really unique and they said this is the 'best-seller' out of the other flavors. It's worth a try! It has creamy texture to it, you can taste the Thai tea more to be honest. One mixed flavor ice cream cost RM12.90 for your information. 

If you're looking for more refreshing flavor, this is the one! It's Hawaiian Pineapple with the Natural Frozen Yogurt flavor. It's more on the sour side but not so sour. You can taste the pineapple flavor and also how the natural frozen yogurt flavor blends together with the pineapple to balance the flavor. It's worth trying!

So this is the reason I said to not take your ice cream cone out cause look at the picture, we just gotten it and when we took it outside for a better exposure, it melted miserably because the ice cream is not usual Gelato type of ice cream so it's fragile and melts faster than usual and also it's because of Malaysia's weather so yeah. 

    Well, I do hope I can visit more cafes soon so if ya'll have any cafe suggestions that I should visit please feel free to drop a comment or just text me if any of ya'll know me HAHAHA. For more photographs of the two cafes I visited, you can visit my VSCOGrid just by pressing the icon on the left side of the blog or you can click here OR you can visit my Instagram (@shannonpsl) Thanks for reading all the way here!! I appreciate it very much!! :)

Sincerely, Shannon

"1, 2, Cheese!"

    For quite awhile, I've been caught up with other portrait photographers and of course I did try some portrait photography and I guess it turned out quite ok? (You can leave a comment if its nice or there is something I should improve on btw!) I don't really have any specific reason on how I got interested in photography especially in the aspects of portraits but one thing I know is how portrait gives me a sense of 'life lesson' that we should accept the flaws and appreciate them while we're at it. The details of each portrait photograph; from the little freckles, the little scars, the moles, the eyes to each and every part of the face and body shot from - It shows everything in detail and it shows it WONDERFULLY, at least to me; that's how I feel.

    We can see most of us girls tend to cover up our faces with layers of foundation and concealer and that is fine! It's really pretty and I understand that some would only feel confident with makeup on but one thing that hit me hard is that we girls were trying so hard to cover up our flaws with powders and cream that we tend to forget we will never find out who will accept our flaws just as we are if we continue covering up completely. We hid it so perfectly but once we reveal it, who will accept them? We tend to think so much about it and sometimes it may lead to anxiety and depression and that is bad of course! BUT no worries girls, makeup is fun but try not to overdo it till you realized you tend to rely on makeup too much and can't accept your flaws AT ALL. You've got to appreciate them ONLY then people will appreciate your perfect imperfections too. So 'balance' is the key to everything girls! ;) LOVE YOURSELF is what you need to do :)

    Portrait photography also taught me how to accept others' imperfections. Yes, its others' imperfections we are talking about too and not only ours we need to appreciate. We should understand that some people never wanted to have these flaws on them but ended up having it and we should accept them just the way they are. Just like how we accept our friends just the way they are; they may be talkative, they may have acne on their faces, they may have weird personalities but at the end of the day there are people who will accept the way they are and that of course the people might be us too! Also, God accepted the way we are too so there's no fret in worrying who does not accepts your flaws people!! The ones who accepts you at your worst and ugliest are the ones who are true to you - they are basically your true ones. 

   Not only that, portrait photography shows what you truly feel in the picture that you were shot of. Well, some might be poses directed by the photographer themselves BUT for me, no matter how they instructed you on how to pose; your eyes doesn't lie in the picture; they reveal your inner feeling someway or another. The eyes of yours can never deceive the ones who can see through you. They'll know it; what you are and how you are feeling. That's why I like portraits; it shows me the true feelings of the ones I took of. They tend to show what they feel at the specific moment too when one shoots them; some might be looking everywhere and not the camera lens because they are camera-shy and have no confident in posing, some might be confident and potential in posing, some might feel demotivated at times too without smiling maybe because they had a rough day but still; posing effortlessly. Again, the eyes doesn't lies and those who shoot portraits; I believe they'll know it too somehow and someway. 

    

    In conclusion, Portrait Photography tells a lot of a person's character, personality and feeling and it depends who wants to accept them for who they are and who wants to be in their life as a support and encouragement for them. Well, of course, It's not all about accepting and appreciating the flaws, it can mean nothing but as an enjoyment too cause photography is an activity to have fun and experiment anyway as we pick up our camera and press the shutter button to shoot with everything we've got to produce a good portrait. :)

There are some portrait photographs that I've taken and would like to share with everyone too! So please do enjoy my artwork hehe ;)

Model: Clarisse
Place: Garage 51, Petaling Jaya

Model: Jia Ai (Kailyn)
Place: OW:L Espresso Lab, SS15

Model: Carmen Phuah (My twin sis) ;)
Place: Pier 84, New York, USA

Model: Annabelle Cheah
Place: Sampling on the Fourteenth, 14th floor, Berjaya Times Square

Model: Joel Song
Place: Merchant's Lane, Petaling Street

Inspired by Brandon Woelfel (check out his Insta!)
Model: Carmen Phuah (My twin sis)
Place: Ota-Ya Japanese Restaurant, Newton, Pennsylvania, USA

Model: Carmen Phuah
Place: Rawang (My hometown)

Model: Joel Song
Place: Wild Sheep Chase Cafe, Taman Desa

Model: Random kid I saw HAHA He looks cool so yea :)
Place: Statue of Liberty Island, New York, USA

Sincerely, Shannon.

What’s Next?

    On the April of 11th, I’ve finished my finals and technically; it’s the last day of diploma life too. To be honest, I don’t really know about my coursemates but I feel like there’s so many more other things I wanted to do together still. But sadly, I wasn’t able to do it and literally low key wants to reverse back to the day to the very first time I talked to them; it was the fondest memory of all in my life and I’m already missing it so much.