Brothers

The above 365 layout was made using one of MandaGirl's templates, I love her style!

The boys' exams are over and we are all having a much needed rest from studying. The two of them have been spending the last week on holiday from school, 5 days together with each other for company, with their fair share of fun and tears! I guess that's the way with brothers right? One evening they were quarelling over something trivial again, and I got so fed up settling the dispute, I said whoever can come up with 10 compliments for the other first, will win the case. They got started and it was such fun hearing what they come up with!! When Ryan struggled to compliment #8 for Jared, he declared, "That's the absolute limit, I can't think of anymore!!" Haha!! Jared is more generous, and got to 10 more easily, along the way I suggested that 'Ryan is honest' and he said, 'honest, my foot!' lol! When they were done, they agreed reluctantly that 'my brother does have some good points!' :)
I tried to capture as many of the 10 compliments as I can remember!
From Ryan, good points about Jared are: He's intelligent, adorable, good with robots, great at puzzle games, creative, have a good sense of humour, fixes my (Ryan's) toys, learn from his mistakes. :)
From Jared, good points about Ryan are: Coordinated gaming skills, great strategist, superior vocabulary, strong, tall, has many good friends, fun sense of humour, careful, obedient! Another great story for a layout! :)

I'm pushing to complete my 365 layouts and Japan layouts, as I'm already planning next year's album in my mind!! It will be along stories of everyday like the 10 compliments story above... more of that later!

The next part of our Japan trip was spent in Takayama, a town in the Japan alps, it was a total change from modern, bustling Tokyo, it was beautiful, quaint, with pretty old houses and alleys to explore, lots of arts and crafts and markets to browse in, and here are the first few layouts I did.





This template is now available as a set in the store HERE

This one below I put together quickly and simply, I'm so glad I started my 365 album on a simple, white background, minimalist theme!
Here's template 154 for you to play!

Sponsor Spotlight at The Daily Digi!

I had the incredible honor of being a sponsor on The Daily Digi! Had wanted to blog about it, but just been too busy working 12 hour days this week (don't worry, it's temporary). I have loved The Daily Digi since Janet started it this year, and visit it everyday - if you haven't been, check it out, you'd be hooked. They have great articles, tips, fantastic inspirational layouts and scrapping ideas, great non-scrapping fun stuff, helpful hints, and lots more. You can see Yin designs being spotlighted in this post, it's such an honour, so exciting, I still can't get over it! :)
I have contributed the following tempaltes 144 to 147 to The Digi Files 8 - in which (for a mere $5) you can find designs by the AMAZING Lauren Reid, Ziggle Scraps, Dani Mogstad, Designs by Lili, Kay Miller, and The Digi Chick! Can you believe I'm in the same File as these designers??? I had many items in Dani's wishlist when I found she was being featured, and promptly bought them all with her sale coupon.

I did find time during the two weeks ago when I was on leave (I called it PSLE leave - I took leave to see Ryan through his Primary School Leaving Exams - a big deal here in Singapore - unbelievable, you'll see how hard we studied in my next few 365 layouts) to complete several layouts, catching up on my Japan album (I think I'm about half way through)
This captures the many bento set picnic meals we had while in Japan, they have the loveliest bento meals - available cheaply in their supermarkets, with the most amazing array of options, assortment, the hardest part is choosing, especially when we couldn't quite figured out what they were made of, lol. These picnics became a memorable part of our trip! The places we've ate them in!
And here we are at the Maritime Museum of Science - I found it whimsical with an old time air, and very fascinating, with lots of hands on stuff - a total hit with the boys.
Another quinessential part of our trip was our Shinkansen journeys - Japan's super fast bullet trains - the first day of our Rail pass, we boarded the wrong local train (to the same destination) and only realised after half an hour, I know, how could we?? When we got off and found our way to the right station, a shinkansen came and zoomed right past us, whoosh! And we all went "Now THAT's a shinkansen!!!" We made no more mistakes after that!
One more layout of Disneysea, too many photos, and I had to pick at least one from every scene, just didn't want to exclude them from our album!

Finally, this one's from the afternoon we spent at the uber cool, ultra modern Museum of Science & Technology.

And the template for you to play

This template is now available as a set in the store HERE

My very first layout - Opposites according to Jared

Thanks so much for your lovely comments, especially sharing your views on 'frog in the well'. I really enjoyed reading every one of your comments and appreciate all the wisdom and views shared! So much food for thought for dh and I as we continue on this journey of parenting. Even dh sat down and read through all your comments (he rarely does that) :)

While I was going through my harddrive to find older favorite layouts to dress up the blog, I came across this - my very first digital layout, using photoshop 5, with no digital supplies. It captured Jared's so cute and amazing words at age 6, isn't it precious! This is the reason we must keep recording and scrapping! I'm reminded to care less about perfect layouts, and go for the story! (Click on the image to enlarge and read the journaling)