Lately I downloaded yet another photographic app to my iPhone: this is bonkers behaviour as I have an insane number of them on my phone already – many, correction most, of which I never use. However, when I read about Waterlogue on Garance Dore’s blog and admired the effect she achieved with it I was wholly smitten and bought it immediately. Waterlogue converts photographs into luminous watercolour paintings: I used it to transform a nondescript iPhone photo of a flower into the image you see at the top of this post.
Lately I came across the acronym yolo. It has apparently been around for a while but, as per, I am late to the party so I had no idea what it meant: I googled it and found that yolo = you only live once. Gosh, I reflected that’s just another way of saying carpe diem but as I scrolled through the google pages I discovered that about eight three million and seven people had thought of that already. Clearly I haven’t an original idea in my head. I am allergic to the acronym lol but I am unfathomably fond of yolo, I suspect because it’s a memorable way of expressing a simple yet profound idea.
Lately I have been drinking turmeric tea. I cannot remember when or indeed where I first read about cinnamon and turmeric being good for our health but when I did I started to incorporate cinnamon into my diet. This was easy as I could sprinkle it on my porridge, add it to the mix when I was making scones or crumbles, dust my coffee with it … Turmeric wasn’t so easy to incorporate until I happened upon some recipes for turmeric tea. I make mine by: putting one mug of water and a half a teaspoon of turmeric into a saucepan and bringing to the boil, then I reduce the heat and simmer it for about ten minutes, lastly I strain the liquid into a mug and add honey and soya milk to taste. I think it’s delicious.
Just Add Attitude 
ha, I was just wondering WHY Instagram was floated with fake watercolours lately 😀 thank you for the A to my Q!
P.S. have you tried my turmeric drink recipe? http://beautycalypse.com/2014/01/09/january-powerfood-turmeric/
I also add it to a lot of vegetable recipes where a bright colour is sought after: mashed potatoes, “golden” onions, boring brown lentil soup even vanilla desserts (just a tiny teeny pinchy-pinch)
I am glad I provided an answer, even thought it was an accidental one. 😉
I haven’t tried your turmeric drink yet but I will. Thanks for the advice on adding turmeric to mashed potato, vegetable recipes ….
accidental? nothing is accidental under this old moon 😀
but it’s really such a nice app! because yes, you CAN turn any image into a fake watercolour with photoshop, but automating that process is quite clever because it works differently for different types of original photos.
Turmeric also gives an amazing kick to a carrot-pumpkin-sweet potato soup!
‘Nothing is accidental under this old moon’ now there I so, so agree with you. Even though I suggested something was – must remember in future!
I am photoshop challenged so having an app like Waterlogue to play with is a godsend as I am not sure I would know where to begin the process on Photoshop.
I like the sound of carrot- pumkin-sweet potato soup. 😉 😉
you most certainly would love the COLOUR of the soup 😀
I think the trick with the app is finding out what kind of images work great and stick with it. on their site I saw a few examples that weren’t as great as your flowers above, or doré’s shoe shot. think your great sea landscape and greenery and city views will work just fine!
Thanks I will experiment a little more with the app – I like the idea of cityscapes being ‘watercoloured’ – I am in Paris next week so I will see if I can a few half decent shots to ‘transform’ .
Thanks for all the advice. 😉
aaaaaw, paris… a bit envy over here 😉
enjoy your stay and bring us (once again) great local tips and gorgeous images!
Thank you 😉 😉 I am looking forward to it …
I have to download Waterlogue, it’s very cool! I have been drinking turmeric for a while now, I add it to hot milk with a little black pepper. Black pepper is a catalyst to enhance the health benefits of turmeric. I take it all winter it really helps when you have a cold.
Thanks for the info about adding black pepper to a turmeric drink in order to enhance the health benefits and I will definitely do so.
Waterlogue is cool and has great transformative powers – it works better on certain images than others but I have yet to figure out why that is.
I’m going into the kitchen right now to blend up a turmeric/black pepper tisane. If I didn’t trust you, I would not be doing this weird thing….
I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Hope it turned out well!
I am drinking a cup myself at the moment – every time I make it I am always surprised at how good it tastes, altho I am not sure I would like so much if it didn’t have honey added.
Take heart, I am later to the party than you! You have just introduced me to yolo. Oh, and Waterlogue.
I usually find out about things light years after everyone else but I am improving – it’s one of the bonuses of social media that everything circulates faster. 😉
I suppose I am improving a bit too. But I probably won’t ever catch up with the front runners.
Me neither! 😉
I love the idea of turmeric tea! I agree that it’s a difficult spice to work into your daily foods. And whenever I cook with it, the tupperware and wooden spoons that I use are always stained yellow… such a drag.
I also want to check out Waterlogue now! Matt and I took a trip to the conservatory a couple weekends ago and I have a bunch of flower pictures that I think would look great with that special effect. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Yes, everything turning yellow when you make something with turmeric is one of the downsides of using it … and agreed it is a drag. I have just finished a cup of turmeric tea and the inside of the cup, even though it’s blue, now has a yellow tinge.
I hope you and Matt are happy with the Waterlogue effect on your flower pictures, it’s fun to see the images transforming. 😉
Beautiful picture! I also like to add cinnamon to lots of things and I hope that I notice the health benefit…
Thank you. And I hope the cinnamon works for you. 😉
The picture is beautiful! Stefano printed some of his photos on a particular paper to obtain exactly the painting effect and the results are amazing.
Heard you are in Paris. 🙂 Lucky girl! Enjoy it!!! 🙂
Thank you Francesca.
And yes I can imagine Stefano’s photos printed on special painting effect paper are pretty amazing.
Not yet in Paris but will be – thanks for your good wishes. 😉 Bx
I love the effect of the photo app. I’ve never tried turmeric tea, but now I will have to make some. Thanks.
Hope you enjoyed the tea! I wasn’t sure the first time I made it if I would like it, so I was surprised to discover I found it delicious.
Must. Try. This. Although I love your pictures as they are already xx
Thank you so much. xxx
Oh golly – just added to my bulging collection of photo apps.
I identify, I have a ton of different apps on my phone. Thanks Sally for your comment.