What did you do this week?

Well, all four of us went to watch the movie Star Trek which was so cool and fun, and Ryan looked like he is going to be a new generation Trekkie, we have visited a few secondary school Open Houses with Ryan who is due to start applications soon (a whole new world!), I attended a so sweet so special Mothers' Day celebration organised by Jared's class at school, Jared has been crazy about playing with dough, I received my latest soft cover photobook from Shutterfly(!), the boys had been bunking in our master bedroom because the air conditioning in their room has broken down, Jared just did his national physical tests - running today, and we have all these captured in pictures, ready to go into our 365 album for the year!! Yippee!!As you can see here, I wanted to see how my 365 pages look together and got a rush seeing them all together! I can just see and imagine how wonderful the year's album is going to be, and I'm all excited again, and very motivated! Hope these next few layouts motivate you too! Keep going, find the easiest way you can to scrap them, don't worry about the aesthetics of the layout too much, focus on the capturing of an entire year of your family and your life, and that album we're all going to have at the end of the year!I also loved Janet's post about 365 at The Daily Digi here - her photos are so inspiring! And I also found fantastic 365 layouts by Christine using my templates - which she has kindly allowed me to share here - thanks Christine!
Now have I motivated you enough to press on with your 365? :> Check out more of Christine's awesome layouts on her blog . I just found out also from The Daily Digi that she is one of the ladies behind DigiDare - love the site and their layouts - especially the ones that dares you to journal - i need to get more of those done!

And here are two more 365 layouts of mine, you can download both the templates for these at the bottom of this post.
Credits:All papers from Jackie Eckles' Write it down. Word art by Lynn Grieveson
Credits: Papers from white almond kiss by Amy Hutchinson, word art downloaded from ScrapGirls

Finally two more Japan layouts which templates can be found in the STORE thanks for looking!
Both are from the morning we spent at the Hakone Open Air Museum - a sculpture museum set on the hill of Hakone, a totally unexpected awesome place - I can't describe how much I loved it, (there was even a little hot spring where they let you soak your feet seated two by two on the grass with a towel, unfortunately we did not have time) - I decided to let the beauty of the pictures speak for themselves and set the photos in linear un-skewed manner in these two layouts. Finding the perfect elements took a bit more time but I think I nailed it finally. :>Credits: Paper by Zazou, Swirl from Creating Beauty by W&W, flower overlay by Corina Nielson, alpha by Traci King

Credits: Paper by Choubinette, Ribbon and 'a beautiful day' word art by Fanette, overlay by Lien, beautiful definition by Michelle Coleman

Here are the templates i used for my 365s.

Download them here. But don't just download them, use them!! :) And thanks for every comment - they are greatly appreciated!

Going slow

Oh, I've been going slowly recently, scrapbooking-wise. Just had to spend a lot more time with the boys lately to catch up on their work and prepare for their mid year exams. Ryan is very hardworking so I just need to work with him on approaching his revision in the smart way. Jared has had issues with motivation and I've had to sit beside him for hours daily for nearly three weeks now doing catch up - it's been tough for him (and me!) I'm happy to report he has put in a lot of effort and starting to feel good about his work again. As for me, my maths and science has improved significantly, it's all coming back to me! I may be as smart as a fifth grader soon! lol!

I couldn't believe it, but after years of online shopping, my credit card was frauded :( No idea how it happened, but for now I'm sticking to sites that accept Paypal only so I don't have to key in my card number anywhere. Has this happened to anyone of you?

Did managed to sneak in some shopping over NSD :) and got a few layouts out finally. For the next two layouts, I've intentionally tried to work with a white or near white background, for a change, and to bring out the colors in the photos. I find that this works really well if the multiple photos have many different colors in them, or the photos are dark colored or were taken in dark conditions. Try it! And I like putting in a border of some sort to 'ground' the layout.

Here's us wandering the streets of Harajuku - a teenage haunt and fashionable shopper's playground in Tokyo. We DID NOT fit in. Haha! But had fun anyway!
Credits: Background paper by Denise Docherty (adjusted brightness and contrast), alpha by Lili from ScrapArtist, painted buttons by BrentBoone, painted flowers by Carola Steedman and Miss Mint.
And in the evening of the same day, we made it to Shibuya, another super busy shopping area, we were suitably impressed at its famous super busy junction, the shopping was great of course!
Credits: papers by Ziggles, swirls by Sarah Robinson, dots by Kristen
As usual I've put these templates in the store

On the next few days of our trip, we went out of tokyo on day trips. Here is the first one spent at Hakone on its quaint 'zig zag' train.
Credits: background paper by Vinnie Pearce, sun motive by A work in progress by Vicki
This template is now available as a set in the store HERE

Catching Up and Inspirations

A friend shared this video of a short film with me, and I shared it with my boys today. It's quite long (6 minutes) but worth every minute in its beautifully put message. Take a look if you have time. Poignant especially for my Jared who is such a fussy picky eater, in our land of abundance. They were both rather moved.

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Life's been terribly hectic! Jared is falling behind in his work and has a huge backlog of homework, so a lot of time is now focused on that. It's hard, but he's been a trooper.
I'm falling behind in my layouts, and just managed to complete my 365 layout of two weeks ago. It seems my photos are mainly taken around our home, which is where most of our family time is spent, and home really is best! :)
Credits: Daydream patches by Brittishdesigns, Mojo Papers by Amanda Rockwell, abc jump papers by tiptoestudio, spotted paper by Jackie Eckles, Home word art by Krystal Hartley

Finally I'm going to share with you all the lovely, lovely layouts that have been shared with me, be blown away!

First, you must go and check out an entire album that the super talented Christie Hayes completed !!!
New Zealand Album
Here are three more breathtaking layouts by Christie!
And these two are by Cassandra Nelson - love her clean and striking style!
And here are two sweet layouts I picked from so many shared with me by Karen Mathre, thanks for sharing with us, Karen!
I do so love this birtyday layout by Honeybee!
And this is Erika's wonderful desktop layout
Finally two super disney layouts by my friend AnitaThank you so much for sharing your talents ladies, I greatly appreciate it, and you always make my day with the privilege of seeing my templates in such beautiful action!

And if it can be useful for you, this template can be downloaded Here !

A Strong Woman vs A Woman of Strength

Thanks to Linda, who found for us that the poem is by Luke Easter & Dee Cheeks, and there is a full version, which I re-produced here. I googled some more, and found this site where it seems Luke Easter posts his poems. Thank you Luke and Dee for blessing us so much with these words of spiritual wisdom.

A strong woman works out every day,
Pride in her appearance she portrays,
But a woman of strength kneels to pray,
Keeping her soul in shape, God leading the way.

A strong woman isn't afraid of anything,
Looking forward to challenges each day will bring,
Women of strength show courage in the midst of fear,
Knowing triumph through faith because the Lord is near.

Strong women won't let anyone get the best of them,
So skilled in defense even if they have to pretend,
Yet a woman of strength gives her best to everyone,
Being anointed with divine blood from the only begotten Son.

A strong woman relies on the physical attributes making her tough,
In her search for power and money she will never have enough,
A woman of strength understands that it’s not about material stuff,
Knowing that before becoming a diamond first she’ll be in the rough,

A strong woman sometimes disguises her feelings shadowed by clouds,
Unhinged when challenged on her policy becoming boisterous and loud,
A woman of strength concerns herself not with judgment from others,
And will not let business interfere with commitments as a wife and mother.

A strong woman is easily impatient back and forth she will begin to pace,
Counting on her holier than thou attitude instead of depending on faith,
A woman of strength is assured trust in God will always carry her through,
And at the Creator’s appointed time she’ll receive all that is justly due.

A strong woman makes mistakes and avoids the same for tomorrow,
Refusing to take time looking back with reverence and Godly sorrow,
The woman of strength realizes life's mistakes no matter how slim,
While thanking God for the blessings as she capitalizes on them.

A strong woman walks head first with no doubt in her mind,
Again, no matter what, she’ll not make this mistake a second time,
But a woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls,
So when a situation arises again, she’s not afraid to answer the call.

A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face,
Always doing whatever it takes to finish, seeking only first place,
The woman of strength competes with an emotional sense of grace,
Understanding it’s more important to run a Holy Spirit filled race.

A strong woman has faith that for the journey she’ll have enough,
No matter how uneven the terrain or roads being rocky and rough,
A woman of strength knows it’s in the journey she will become strong,
And the love of God is forever with her, no matter how difficult or long.

A strong woman when uninformed thinks that she is being mistreated,
In the end her physical attributes fail causing doubt to become seeded,
A woman of strength will compromise as a little give and take is needed,
Why? Because a lesson not learned the first time is soon to be repeated.

© 2006 by Luke Easter & Dee Cheeks
www.LyricsByLucas.com

Replies

How wonderful to hear from you all who are as blessed as me by the poem. Trac asked if I know who wrote it, I'm sorry I don't. My copy is printed from an email sent to me years ago by a wonderful colleague who has now gone to be with the Lord. But the blessing from that sharing continues! If anyone knows who wrote it, please let us know!

Someone also asked how I create my layouts. Well I always choose the pictures I want to use first and then adjust the sizes of each photo depending on whether I want to highlight some over others. Then I kind of play around, shifting them around until they look pleasing to the eye. And finally I tilt them around! No real method to the madness, lol! I do also keep some sketches in a notebook when ideas hit me. And I refer to it when nothing works on a particular layout. Yes it does happen to me too. :) When the photos are in place, I look for the background (the hardest part for me actually), and the elements, and then do the title and journaling, and I'm done!

How do you do your layouts?

A Woman of Strength

I like to put lovely things on the blog, layouts, funny anecdotes, encouraging words, stuff to feel good. We do have challenges and frustrations and mundane daily routines, too of course, our lives are not just overseas trips, lol! Anyways this week I had some challenging situations as a mom, and was feeling low cos being a mom is what I probably regard to be my highest calling, yet there are days I don't seem to be cut out for it at all!! At times like this, I get drawn to this poem stuck onto my bedroom notice board, so this is what I will share with you today.

A STRONG WOMAN VERSUS A WOMAN OF STRENGTH
A strong woman works out everyday to keep her body in shape, but a woman of strength kneels in prayer to keep her soul in shape
A strong woman isn't afraid of anything, but a woman of strength shows courage in the midst of her fear.
A strong woman won't let anyone get the best of her, but a woman of strength gives the best of her to everyone.
A strong woman makes mistakes and avoids the same in the future, a woman of strength realises life's mistakes can also be God's blessings and capitalizes on them
A strong woman walks sure footedly, but a woman of strength knows God will catch her when she falls
A strong woman wears the look of confidence on her face, but a woman of strength wears grace
A strong woman has faith that she is strong enough for the journey, but a woman of strength has faith that it is in the journey that she will become strong
May we all become women of strength :)

I completed 3 more Japan layouts, from grand temples to traditional weddings to awesome shopping all in one day you can see why we really enjoyed our trip.
Credits: Background image has been blended with WW's Natural Neutral papers, swirl brush by Andrea Victoria downloaded from Designers' digitals, stitches by Gunhill, and chipboard flowers by Jessica Sprague in Echoes of Asia

Credits: Blue paper from Laura18k's new home 2, heart by Mira Designs, white paper by Kim Crothers in her Citrus Sea papers, pin by Tracy King in her woodpin freebie 9


The above templates are in the store here and the template for this layout is for your to play!
I'm so happy to finally use some of my Japan themed kits on the layouts!! Credits: Black paper by Laurenreid, fan paper from Cori Gammon's Asian Fusion, little doll peg is in a folder named Maiko on my harddrive, I'm so sorry I seemed to have lost the designer's information, anyone who knows pls let me know! Journal tab from Shabby Princess' Promise, scalloped edge by Nina Scraps Designs


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