What makes home home?

Because of the timing of our move, (between finding the unit we liked in the neighborhood we wanted, and wanting to do it during the one week school break), we did not custom-renovate before moving in, and also had to simplify greatly and only bring what we really needed over. At first I was wondering if we would be able to quickly make it seem like home, and when we first moved in it seemed a little empty, as some of our non-critical/older books/toys/sentimental stuff went to temporary storage, and a lot was given away.     

But quickly the boys' stuff was all over the place again, familiar sights and some dear belongings made their home around, our daily routines clicked into place, so did laughter, chatter, squabbles, music, competitive family games, favorite TV shows, and so on, and this is now quickly home.

I made a PL page to capture some of the familiar sights that make our home: Miffy on the sofa, side-by side  computer work stations, the boys' wires and laptops, gh's fighting fish and my potpurri, our favorite robin-egg-blue ikea mugs, our bathroom counter stash, the now indispensible Happy Call Pan, the boys' truck-themed  bedsheets that have been with them for so long(!), Jared's pet gold fishes (named Cute One, and Cute Two), and their devotionals by their beds. Hhmmm, definitely home :)

Most importantly, the knowledge and assurance that the Lord is with us and blessing us in this new home makes all the difference. I'm so happy to show you that my Exodus 6:7 wordart canvas has arrived! It is our constant reminder and declaration that the Lord is our God, and a testimony of how much He has blessed us.

I only have four PL pages for the month of March, since I'm now capturing a photo a day in digital layout. I'm loving this format, keeps me very up to date on PL! On the left page is simply our Ikea and move related Invoices and the pamphlet on which we scribbled a lot as we went around the store.

One page to record our move :) I bought a set of Studio G alpha stamps for S$2 (!) that I used to stamp 'MARCH' on the month card. I just love having the chance to do a bit of physical scrapping.

Picked some  photos and stories I liked for the next two pages, including this 'square' Jared painted, a copy of a section from Monet's Impressions, for his art homework. (below top right)

More everyday moments! A typical study afternoon, kids on homework, mom on Project Life! Watching LORAX at the movies, Dh and I on a bus journey home... all makes for special ordinary moments  :)

And here are my PL photo a day pages for March:

(Credits: background paper by Andrea Victoria, elements by fruitloopsally and K Winiecki from MSA's Celebration collab)

( credits: Paper by Digital Design Essentials, word art 'matters' by Kate Hadfield, alpha from Miss Mint's Lilac Garden) 

I've been on a roll scrapbooking-wise lately! Thanks to the various offers by Shutterfly, I've completed 4 photobooks in the last 4 weeks, I'm not trying to brag, really! ;P

We had two free 12x12 offers (both me and dh have a shutterfly account). For the first book, I used Ali Edwards'  Top Ten customised book, it was super easy, just find 10 photos, plus one for the cover, load them up, add journaling, and it was done!  I chose the theme of Top 10 Travel photos from 10 different trips. It was wonderful to see how the kids have transformed and the tonnes of memories we have built!

On the Cover we were at Tioman Island in Malaysia - notice how Jared posed in photos throughout the years :)

Title page

Standing at the base of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur - they were four and six! 

At Fremantle, Perth, Western Australia

Phuket, Thailand

Christchurch, New Zealand

Central Park, New York City

Miyashima, Japan

Onuma Quasi-National Park, Hokkaido, Japan

Suzhou, China

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Great Wall, Beijing, China

And for the second 12x12, I let Jared choose photos for a Miffy Family Book! He was elated and here are some of the pages

Yep, they are family

Miffy, Biffy, in Orlando

On the Shinkansen  in Japan

Happy together at Halong Bay, Vietnam

 In New York City

Lucky rabbits, I know!

And I used the 50% off Mothers' Day Offer to print my 2011 Family Photobook, this is the cover. All the pages were already done.

(credits:  Paper by Weeds & Wildflowers, hearts by Michelle Godin)

For the next 40% off Offer Shutterfly gave, I used it to complete my Shanghai Trip book. I stayed up late for 3 nights in a row! Okay, it was worth it ..

this is the suitably red cover
(from Allison Pennington's Hot Mess, dragon by Brittish Designs)

title page  (template by Paislee Press CP No 3, and background paper by Gina Cabrera)

(paper by Ange)

at our uber cool budget hotel
(paper is from Mood papers - Ed by Gabi, elements from Wanderlust by Pink Reptile Designs)

just walking around Hangzhou
(Paper is from Amy Sumrall's Childrens' day, gesso patches by Tangie Baxter, camera by Kate Hadfield)

Enjoying greenery in Hangzhou
(Paper is from Madame Wing's My day my life, tag is by Cherie Mask)

At the mausoleum of Yue Fei - he was a loyal hero who was betrayed and executed for a wrong he did not commit. When the truth was out, he was posthumously honored while those who betrayed him were forever remembered as kneeling statues in front of his tomb. All visitors used to 'spit' on the statues but now we are advised  to 'glare' at them instead. We gladly GLARED. 'Shame on you!'
(paper from Gina Miller's Get Creative)

 Beautiful, beautiful walk in the Westlakes of Hangzhou
（paper from Gina Miller's Get Creative，butterfly by Agnes Biro Morjike)

Enjoying cultural activities like painting and traditional kite-flying
(paper and cutout by Pasilee Press, kite by F Jardine)

Watching the Awesome Impressions Westlake show that played out on the water - yes, they were literally dancing and walking on the lake. You must check out the video clip!

Suzhou and Hangzhou were always said to be the earthly equivalent of heaven, they are very modernised now, but the older preserved areas are still so beautiful.
(Paper from paulakesselring's watercolorpapers2)

Silk Museum was surprisingly fun - we saw live silk worms at every stage of growth - quite an eyeopener!
(paper by Cinzial designs, stitching by Jen Wilson, alpha by Jady Day Studio, silk flowers by Weeds & Wildflowers)

The Wu Kingdom at the Suzhou Museum
(paper by Ange designs, ribbon by Meredith Cardall, flower by Allison Pennington)

At one of the lovely gardens of Suzhou.
(Paper by Artgal, elements from Cinzial's At Home and Thankful for you)
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And a final page to wrap up our album!  (template by Kate Pertiet)

I sure hope that all of these have inspired you to go record your memories, capture the moments, share the stories, any way you like.  

And I'd like to share Template 300 - enjoy!

This template is now available as Template Pack 8 in the Store. Thanks for your interest!

The Names of God

Wow I just realised it's been so long since I last posted. Well, LIFE happens :) ! We had maneuvered a home move within the last few weeks and then only just had our high speed internet connected this week, so go figure! :) It has been a hectic time, but we can't believe how it all came together so easily and smoothly, and we are settling down wonderfully too. The move brings us closer to the boys' schools and cuts down significant travelling time, and we are also praying it will be a good move for us real estate-wise. More photos to come later!

In our church we have embarked on a study of The Names of God. It has been wonderful to learn the context of each Name in the Bible, and to bless His Name and to call upon His Name as we go about daily living and find Him so faithful!

Proverbs 18:10

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

 ¹⁰ The name of the LORD is a strong tower; 

   the righteous run to it and are safe.

In Exodus 6 God announced to Moses that His name is Jehovah, that is, 1) God who performs what He had promised, 2) God who perfects what He had begun, finishing His good work. (extracted from Matthew Henry's commentary), and went on in Exodus 6:7 to declare:

Exodus 6:7

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

⁷ I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

This verse really spoke to me, for we have experienced and know that He has taken my family for Himself, to be His people, that He is our God, and we know that He is the Lord our God, who delivers us. And I really wanted to make this verse a reminder and testament to His Goodness in our lives.

Remember I had a canvas work art done previously of Micah 6:8? We brought it along and it has taken its place in our new home, see below. (Notice my Project Life album in the bottom right compartment, and my photobooks in the the bottom left compartment of our new Ikea EXPEDIT shelving unit :P  )(please excuse the yet unpacked bags of scrapbooking stationery and stuff!)

  I have decided to make a new canvas word art featuring Exodus 6:7, this time in a longer horizontal dimension, to fit our dining display area. This is what I've come up with. What do you think?  I've done it at 40" by 8", but need to find out if the canvas printing company can even do this size. I'm liking it a lot now, not sure if I'll change it up or add more colors. Dark brown, sand, and white is our new color scheme now.

Anyways I've saved the word art to a size that will fit on your 12x12 layout in case you'd like to use it. The fonts I've used are Tiza, Papyrus, Viner Hand ITC, Bosshole and Tempus Sans ITC. Download it Here.

Scrapbooking-wise, I have finally completed the last few layouts for our 2011 Album, and will be setting it up in Shutterfly awaiting the next Discount coupon :)

Here's a layout to mark our trip to Beijing in Dec 11, a separate Beijing Album will be made later.

And here's CNY family photos from Feb 11, more than a year ago!

We made a trip (been many years since our last one) to our URA (Urban Redevelopment Authority) that had  models showcasing Singapore as it is now and the plans for the near future. Fascinating to see our country landscape so quickly change over the years.

And here's dh and I enjoying a truly lovely time at the Dreams & Reality exhibition, which is an exhibit of art pieces all the way from D'Orsay Museum in Paris - WOW.

For Project Life, here are my Feb layouts. Still having a good and easy time putting them together.

And because I have the daily photos captured in the digital layout, I only print out a few photos from each month that I really want to highlight or have special memories to document. These are my PL physical pages from February. (As I don't have a photo printer, I send them to be printed about once a month - March's are just being sent for printing now)

I like that I can put in some paper memorabilia, like I tucked the receipt of our dinner bill behind the photo above (bottom left).

  and like this paper  'sculpture' J made at his creative art class ...

If you look carefully you'd see that I got dh to help journal some of the cards, his are the ones where he stuck on the photos at an angle, strangely I like them straight for the physical PL pages, but hey, it's GREAT that he will join in our PL, I will love them any way they come :)  My next goal is to get the boys' thots on some of these cards! All of the Feb physical pages was completed in one afternoon under two hours - I love it!

And finally here's a simple 12X12 layout I made to capture a Shakespeare in the Park performance dh and I caught last year on date night. We studied Macbeth as our O'Levels Literature text as teenagers and it was such a thrill to sit on picnic mats on the Fort Canning lawn and watch it come alive again in this modern interpretation (with all original Shakespeare dialogue). Shakespeare can still be so enjoyable!

This is now available as part of Template Pack 7 in the store. Thanks for your interest!