Everyday Bliss

This is my favorite photo this month. It was taken on a Sunday early evening, I was in the kitchen doing some washing, and I looked out through the kitchen door to our dining table, and the boys were quietly doing homework side by side. I was suddenly filled with so much joy and thankfulness, just to know they are there at home, they like each other's company, they are quietly working, that I can see them from where I'm working. We have lived through enough, and seen others going through much, to know these are not to be taken for granted! Oh how I count my blessings! The quiet everyday bliss is the most precious and wonderful of all.

A few days ago, our family's oldest and best friends came over to our home to visit and celebrate with us in our newly renovated home, and they had a Home Blessing for us, where each prayed over us and our home, room by room. It was such a blessing to have good friends and the Lord blessing us in our home!

We so appreciate their prayers for us, which were, for our home to be a sanctuary of love, peace, and rest, where there's understanding and acceptance, where we will be healthy and strong, where there will be laughter and fun, joyful and happy memories, where the focus will be on people and not things, where less is truly more, where we will create, grow and live together. Thank you God, amen!

BI-MONTHLY APRIL LAYOUTS

These are our daily photos, one a day for April. I find this Project 365 so worth it, when I look back at my older 365 albums I'm so glad I had the everyday captured. Wish I did this earlier when the boys were littler! Having said that, I keep it very simple, 90% of photos are taken on my iphone, except those that the boys or dh takes and passes to me. I do the two pages for each month at one go, journal at one go, pick all the embellishments at one go, you get the idea. I timed myself - it is usually completed within one and a half hours every month!! You have to be decisive with the embellishments though!

Highlight for 1st to 15th of April - first photo on the top left - R vacuuming the floor without prompting just 'because it was full of crumbs after breakfast' :) 2nd photo: the boys are into Japanese anime girls - poster on their bedroom wall :) 

 (Credits: Yin Template 317E, alpha by Kay Winiecki, Paper by Gina Cabrebra, butterfly overlay by Laurie Ann, wordstrips by Allison Pennington and One Little Bird, Our Life wordart by JustJaimee)

HIghlights for 16th to 30th of April: My hand - my third finger on the right hand swelled up and the doctor thinks it might be arthritis!  :(  Bottom photo : datenight at Shakespeare at the Park - watching live Othello while picnicking on the lawn of For Canning Park - cool!

 (Credits: Yin Template 317D, alpha by Kay Winiecki, Paper and word art by Allison Penington, Splatters by Karah Fredricks, chevron arrows by Gina Miller, flair from Scrapmatters' Life Everyday collab)

PROJECT LIFE

Here is where I capture extra photos for the month which are extra special, or I have a story to tell, anything that I fancy at all. Only 3 pages for April, took me an hour and a half one night to choose the photos and edit in photoshop to prep for printing, and another half hour another night to assemble into the pockets and journal. Love Project Life!

Took an entire page for photos taken at a wedding we attended of a very special couple. It was the boys' first church wedding! And these were their Youth pastor so it was extra special. We got to dress up too, and meet up with old friends, so it was fun as well. 

 More everyday life, R and I had a swim together (this is rare! especially where he chatted with me as we took breaks between swims), Jared tying his own tie, dh's tooth implant, and the last look at twenty years' of travel brochues, we threw them away finally, no space anymore to keep them!

(Credits: Cobalt core kit from Becky Higgins PL, 3x4 cards from Midnight editioin by Liz Tamanaha, Life quotes by Smitha Katti, alpha by Karah Fredricks)

BEIJING LAYOUTS

For my next 4 Beijing layouts, where I had very colorful photos, I went for completely white backgrounds again (see these Shanghai layouts). Love the results! Super striking layouts! All I had to use was great alpha and Paint splashes (this set from Emily Merritt is my constant go-to , see credits below), and they are done!

The first two layouts were us at the Antiques Market, more like a flea market, with all kinds of everything, from art to books to jewellery to weapons! We LOVE it!

 Template 331

 Template 332

Next two layouts were when we visited the Temple of Heaven - really a huge park with several amazing structures and areas, where the emperor used to go annually to offer prayers for good harvest and a good year. The entire temple was built without nails and had withstood all kinds of weather, earthquakes and all. Amazing. An as you can see, super photo opportunities!

 Template 333 

Template 334

(Credits: Painted On Rainbow and Painted On Neutral by Emily Merritt, Alpha from Karah Fredricks's Awesome Sauce 3, and Alpha from Chelle's Creations' Bluebird on my Shoulder, black paper from Essential Blacks by Emily Giovanni, red paper by Laura Grier in the LilyPad's MFEO collab)

THE DIGI FILES

I know, I'm so excited, I'm on The Digi Files at The Daily Digi this month! I'm so honored to be a contributor for the third time! Steph and Katie and their team run an amazing site, and the Digi Files are a super deal. I myself am a subscriber and you can see a lot of what I include in my layouts and PL are from the latest great kits every month! This is my contribution this month, all layouts from my Hawaii photos, the 12x12 layouts are my first templates for Instagram photos! 

INSPIRATION

Every now and then wonderful people send me their beautiful layouts and books, so I'm never short of inspiration to share: This time I want to show you Carol Johnson's Europe Travel PhotoBook: It is full of amazing pictures, layouts, trust me, you will love it. 

Go HERE to view her entire album

FUN WITH TEMPLATES

Templates are versatile and fun! Like this layout I made below of a Sunday Morning scene in Beijing. At first I went with a white background, which looked striking and great! Then I played with placing an enlarged photo as the background, it looked fab too, especially the streaks of sunlight interplaying with the people's shadows. Now I can't decide which to print in my album, haha! 

 

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