A Different Season

Yes our family has without a doubt entered a different season of life and it shows. Our boys are now older teens, no longer children and it sure was hard for me to get with the new program. :)  I was just telling J the other day, "you used to call 'mommy, mommy' all the time to ask for help, so how about let me give you some advice about (something)". "Nope" came the answer immediately (at least he said that with a grin). R is already living in hostel, and they both have their own friends and interests and so little time for us, and now we connect with them through sharing videos, interesting news or posts, movies, online and phone games, over ice-cream suppers..... who knew?

We love being parents. As parents we were always very involved, desiring to share and shape our boys as much as we can. And how wonderful that now they share our love for books, movies, travel, the beach, creating, share our sense of humour, our faith in God. Some things did not catch on though, like dh's love of sports, and their taste of music is so different from ours. Of course they are their own person too, with their love of anime, anything quirky (like World Order), and they are continually evolving (J asked for and started folk guitar lessons last week)

What a journey - from their complete dependence on us, to directing their lives in those preschool years, to planning everything, to merely influencing, to learning to take a back seat and let them find their paths, trying to be a friend, hoping and praying simply that they will thrive in what they love and want to do. If you had been reading my blog over the years you would know it was a learning journey for me to let them be who they want to be, and not make them be or do what I think is best for them. Confessions of the over-bearing mom!

I have learnt the hard way that what I think, what I know (even), cannot be pushed down (especially not nagged) to them anymore, but must be experienced and learnt by themselves from now on. Only what we have imparted in those earlier years, and our continued example will speak to them now. And most importantly I am learning to release them into God's Hands for they are His people, as the words of the verse hanging over our dining table says: "I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians - Exodus 6:7" Now that I'm finding myself more comfortably in that backseat (and keeping my backseat driving thoughts to myself) it is more and more fun and exciting to get to know who they are becoming. I'm evolving too!

And so it shows in our Annual Birthday Prayer to them - we write a letter and Prayer to them every year on their birthdays. This year dh wrote them both, handwritten into a journal that he gave to them each at the beginning of the year. I've made most of them into layouts and you can see the past years' ones here, here, here, here, and here. It's a wonderful tradition and one of my most precious scrapbook pages.

Supplies list

supplies list

This year I decided to try doing it in a more mixed media style, mixing and blending a lot of papers and brushes and paints. It is not my usual style and took very long but I do love the results! Also, I just started using through listening to The Daily Digi Podcast to use the Supply Tracker script by Christy Vanderwall, which automatically uploads to Flickr so you can see how many layers and supplies I used! Click on the supplies list link and you will be taken to Flickr image with the supplies list.

And click on the images below if you want to see 30 second videos of how the layers add and blend up. So fun!

And here are the 8.5x11 templates for you to try out. :)

Download these Here

Project Life - Feb and March

This season in our life shows in our pages too. Our PL contains family gatherings, more of what dh and I have been up to, and rarely do I have photos of what the boys are up to in their own lives. So I've taken to include this month, a page about what we are 'Currently - playing, watching, talking about'. Each month I may take a different focus. Next up I'm planning a page on 'Currently - Loving, pursuing, dabbling'. My PL is evolving too, haha! Still loving this record of our lives, or slices of our lives right now. Are you in similar stage of your life as me? How did it change the way you scrapbook or memory - keep? 

Project 365 - Daily 'Half Monthly' layouts for Feb and March

Still loving my quick and great half months in review templates! This is my third year!

supplies

supplies

supplies

supplies

Hawaii Pages

Finally more Hawaii Pages - that you can find in the store too.

I've simplified my process for this album by sticking to only wood backgrounds. I went through my stash and copied all the wood backgrounds to a folder - so that I will cut down on this usually most time-consuming part of my scrapping. Then I just add an alpha for title (my favorites are by Kaye Winiecki and Karah Fredericks) , add a paint or brush, plus an element or two (I limit myself) and call it done!!

supplies

supplies

supplies

supplies

Pinterest Galleries for Yin Templates Inspiration

Now the other day I saw a Pinterest link to my blog, did a few clicks and searches, and found to my huge surprise and was so stoked that I found a few Pinterest boards dedicated to Yin Template Inspiration!! I mean, how cool is that? 

I could not find a way to contact these ladies, but since these are public boards I think they wouldn't mind me providing a link to their boards, in case others would like to follow them. Thank you so much to J Austen, Lisa Kelly, and Linda, I'm very very honored!

Lisa Kelly's Pinterest Board

J Austen's Pinterest Board

Linda's Pinterest Board

I myself have tried to keep such a board, to which I have only pinned less than 30 layouts, mainly from my super talented friend Tawn of Homemakingirl - if you like to send me links to your layouts, I will try to pin them here too

Yin's Pinterest Board

Guide to Creating a Digital Genealogy Scrapbook

I'm super excited for Barb Growth, who was one of the presenters at RootTech 2014, and presented on how to preserve genealogy and family history using a digital scrapbook. Her book, Creating a Digital Genealogy Scrapbook is now available for purchase for Kindle on Amazon!!  It has lovely reviews and I'm honored she mentions my templates in the guide :) Do check it out. And thanks Barb for bringing the possibility of creating a digital genealogy scrapbook to so many out there!