Things younger me would like about current me

Just for fun, I'm sharing this list I journaled in September 2013

Things younger me would like about current me 

-journaled in September 2013 (italics in brackets written for blog readers)

*Straight hair and simplified dress code

(no more permed hair and mix and match dressing)

*I'm married to this wonderful man I've known all along!

(we met when we were 15 but the younger me might be surprised he is the man of our dreams all along)

*I'm still slim at more or less the same size

(definitely less baby fats than in the pic above which was carried around in dh's wallet for years)

*I'm a mom as I've always wished for 

(so much more challenging than I could ever have imagined, but every bit as fulfilling of course)

*My best friends from then are still my best friends now!

(One of my greatest blessings in life)

*I'm still walking with The Lord and most of my family members are believers now - praise be to God for His blessing 

(we had always hoped on the verse: 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord- Joshua 24:15')

*I have found the best hobby, the joy of scrapbooking and memory keeping, and even have a blog store

(the younger me would be so proud :))

*I have continued to travel with kids and all through the years!

(the younger me had bitten the travel bug in the backpacking, shoe-string, 'doing and going where the locals do and go' way - we've kept it up pretty much in the same spirit!)

Journaling with Lists, Journaling about myself

I wrote this list above in response to one of the 30 Days of Lists challenge I joined in September last year (30 Days of Lists is a semi-annual journaling challenge, by Kam of Campfire Chic and Amy of Lemon and Raspberry) They are about to start the next one in September, just a heads up!

It's so rare that I journal about myself and lists are easy to do so I really enjoyed joining the challenge. In fact the few times I did pages about myself were all from challenges, like these layouts from 2006/2007.

I am so glad I had some of these pages, it's so important to capture some of ourselves into our scrapbooks. How have your journalled about yourself recently? Do you include them into your Project Life or family scrapbooks? Anyone joining the 30 Days of Lists next month?

Project Life Pages

Only two pages for month of July - I never worry about how much I have or not have, as long as the stories I want to tell are captured, then it is perfect. 

More photos of us at CosFest, and funny things that the boys said, I like capturing these things :)

DH has taken to healthy eating - making salads and sandwiches for his workday breakfasts and lunches! We have also been working on golden wreaths as headdresses for my colleagues and I who are planning to dress up as greek goddesses at our company costume party :) And we had a case of bed bugs in our sofa!! That was scary and needed professional help. Hope it's gone for good.

Project 365 - June and July

Due to working on the Bali photobook last month I did not get a chance to complete my June pages, and did both June and July pages in one go. Which was great 'power scrapping' (as Katie the scrapbooklady coins it) as I looked for background papers, alphas, embellishments for all four pages at one go. I usually search for embellishments from the latest kits I have downloaded (mainly those from the monthly Digi Files) and by color scheme, and try not to overdo it :)

First half of June was start of holidays and the highlight was the making of tank cakes!

A week of the second half of July was spend in Bali, and then it is back to school.

In July we attended CostFest, a local cosplay event, stayed up all nights following the World Cup, had a surprise birthday party for dh's eldest sister, and enjoyed a 'Day of Wootopia' event at Youth Ministry at church - so fun!

School is in full swing now but we managed to squeeze in 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' which left us speechless at the end (so unlike other movies where the men usually have lots of comments at the end), a date night, and a spate of healthy eating which I hope will last!

Hawaii Photobook

Four more double pages of our trip completed! This round I played with layering paints between the photos and the wood backgrounds. Templates of these are in the store.

Here we were at Haleiwa on the North Shore. We did not have our own transport, so took The Bus on a round the island route, boarding and alighting at various stops, taking the entire day!

Also spend a morning at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet - lots of fun - it's so huge! To this day we are not sure if we went one round or not, the stores tend to repeat themselves after a while, but we found a few wonderful shops, the highlight of which was the one selling handmade life-size swords - the LOTR swords to be specific, took our breath away. It was the first time Ryan would not leave, he was almost in tears to hear that we can't buy them and bring them back into Singapore!

This particular morning was the Honolulu Marathon and we were just ambling about admist the marathons who had already completed their run, amazed at all the older runners we saw - so fit and just amazing. The most meaningful part of the morning was spent at the Father Damien's museum - honoring him and the mission he founded to serve the Lepers' colony at Molokai.

And in the afternoon we visited the Bishop Museum, founded by the husband of Princess Bernice Bishop, to house all the family's heritage, treasures, and to preserve their history and memories. 

Brush Script

Last month quite a few readers asked about the Brush Script Titles on my Bali layouts, like the 'Eat.Love.Eat' below. They were handwritten by me!

Basically I wrote on white paper then scanned them in. I wrote a lot, then chose the best  :)

It was easy! The secret is this Japanese brush tip pen which I found it in a local bookshop. It had the perfect effect of brush painted words with the control of a pen! The name on it as akashi-ya, I googled but can't quite find the same thing online. There are many sets on Jet Pens, but I'm not sure if they are the same.

I used them on my Project Life photos as well, see below.

Here's a look at it close up - cool, isn't it?

As promised, here are the words for sharing with you - they are saved as individual layers in a single photoshop file, just drag them into any of your layouts in photoshop. I've saved them in black for you, if you want to change the color, how I do it is to add a 'solid color' adjustment layer, and then use 'clipping mask' to clip to it. There are many ways to do it, hope you have fun playing. I'll try to scan the rest I have written and share them too if you like :)

Download it here.