First thank you everyone for a wonderful sale! I'll probably have one twice a year, so next one will be in July! I just hope I come out with enough templates in that time! :P
Right now I'm just getting quite excited and quite worried at the same time with this project 365. The more I read about it, the more I like the idea and want to have an album of our 2009! But only a few days into January, and I was like, what photos can I take? Our life is so "everyday", it's all the same everyday, how am I going to have photos to fill 365 days?? I've calmed down a little since then and decided that, I will cheat a little if I don't have photos for everyday, or I'll substitute some image if miss a day, or I'll skip some days and record more for others, just keep going and enjoy the process!
Actually, as the whole family gets involved into the project, everyone chips in with giving me ideas for photos, it is becoming fun and a great family project! Dh thinks we will find in the course of the year that there are many little things in our lives that we appreciate, fail to notice before, and are worth recording, but basically it is our life, and as a lady commented on this blog, our lives are ordinary but satisfying. I hope that shows through in my album, and we get a time capsule of our lives circa 2009 captured! If you have started, keep going with me!
Now the main problem I have is what style of pages do I go with? I've had a few requests to make templates for Project 365, and as I started, it got fun. Here's a layout using one of my templates (set 9 - altered as I needed 9 photos - it's available for your download further down)- easy and fun to embellish! Credits: Paper from Thankful, by Emily Giovanni. The "january" epoxy sticker is from a mini kit I made long ago, you can download it further down too!
Now this is more in keeping with the graphic magazine style I started with my January First page. I can't decide! Which do you like better? Or do you think I can have mixed up styled pages in my album?? :) Credits: paper by Andrea Victoria, and word art by Mindy Terasawa
Now you might be wondering what is Will Smith doing on my page, well I had no photos for that day where we worked till late then went on date night to watch Seven Pounds, so that will have to do. And do you see the photo of a green snake trying to swallow a chameleon? Dh took that shot last week at his school camp, amazing! And without Project 365 that photo will not have been scrapped. :)
Next up I'll be scrapping the boys' birthday photos, they turn 10 and 12 respectively on 13th and 17th of January! Where did my babies go?
And here are Project 365 templates I put up in the store :here And these are for you to play. Hope you like them. Get the templatehere And get these month tabsHere
All I wanted to do was to add a music video of Amazing Grace I had found on Simply Sarah's blog, and blogger made some prompts, I clicked something, and before I knew it, I've updated my blog layout but lost a lot of my old side bar stuff! Thankfully I was able to put back my blog header (I'm sentimental, it's my first blog header and I never wanted to change it), but the other stuff will have to wait. Maybe time for a revamp! And to pay a visit to Jeanette's blog - easy custom blogs Thanks Jeanette for the link!
I'm so glad you liked the Brown Paper Pakages kit! Thank you for your WONDERFUL comments! I feel that the style is a bit outdated as I prefer more realistic embellishments now, but I still love the theme of it, about everyday joys, favourite things, and authentic lives we live! I had to fish out this layout I did with it, look how young Ryan was then.
It's the 6th of January, and I'm just suddenly looking back, and feeling that 2008 seemed to have flown by before I knew it! This coming sunday we celebrate the boys' 10th and 12th birthday, has it really been a year! Their birthdays are actually on the 13th and 17th of Jan, so we always celebrate them together on the weekend just before, it's fun this way!
On New Year's day, we also asked the boys if they had any reflections. Jared asked, what are reflections? We explained, "how you feel about the year that has passed, and the new year ahead?" Ryan said, "I'm looking forward to new discoveries in the new year, the old year is all rubbish" what? "well, new is always more exciting" ok, how about Jared? "The number you dialled is not in use." was his answer, grinning away. Sigh.. we'll try again next year! LOL
But seriously, the boys are more intuitive than they let on. Yesterday Jared brought home a "Find out your learning style" questionnaire he completed in school, and we had to smile at some of his answers - it's so true of him!For eg,
I would rather be considered a) realistic, b) innovative (he chose b)
I more easily remember a) something I have done, or b) something I have thought a lot about (he chose b)
I would rather first a) try things out, or b) think about how I'm going to do it (he chose a!)
I consider it higher praise to call someone a) reasonable or as having good sense, or b) imaginative or good at coming up with new ideas (of course he chose b!)
Interesting eh? I'm keeping the questionnaire to show him when he is 21. :)
I'm doing catch-up of last year's photos, which had been left unscrapped while I worked on the US trip. So Japan photos will have to wait. These are from our many walks around our island city!Credits: Papers by Ksharonk - summerspice, and embelishments by Fei Fei- crazybeauty - free kit available at Oscraps now! See how I sneaked in pink on an all boys' layout! Credits: Word art by Donna Rafferty, leaves and glitter by Weeds & Wildflowers, swirl by Franziska Altmann
And some ladies have asked me to share the template of the layout I made for my first day of 365 project, and also if I could share templates for the rest of my 365 project, certainly! Here is the first one, and I also made a 'jazzed' up version of it for those of you who prefer it:
Download both versions of the templates HERE!
Blessed New Year everyone! I'd like to give you this verse and wish that I received from a very dear friend: Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." In the coming year, may God's grace cover you, may His presence watch over you, may His love abound toward you - moment by moment, step by step, day by day. I wish you and your loved ones a Blessed, Peaceful, Joyous and Wonderful New Year!
After a wonderful time spent with old friends on New Year's Eve, reminiscing and laughing as we thumbed through old photo albums, we spent New Year's Day quietly and just by our family. After a time at the beach it rained, and we headed for our favourite Borders' bookshop nearby, and our favourite seat in the Borders' cafe.
It was so nice to sit with dh and reflect on the past year and the new year and share our thoughts and wishes over coffee. I won't share everything with you, but I liked what Rozanne Paxman said in the ScrapGirls newsletter, if I may quote some of her words, she said that sometimes when she compares her life with that of some interesting blog writers' , "I begin to think that I live a remarkably unremarkable life. I get up. I get dressed. I work. Sometimes, I cook. Usually I don't. On rare occasions I bake. Usually I don't. My house isn't as clean as I'd like it to be. My haircut is easy-to-do. I'm using the same makeup I've been using for years...." I had to smile because that is so me! You must read all that she says, but eventually she concludes that "for now, my life is as it is and my blog proves it. I guess that's okay. It feels good here."
Me too, I'm not perfect and neither is my life, but DH and I concluded that it is good, and definitely as good as it gets, and we treasure what God has blessed us with.
I didn't make resolutions, but I intend to enjoy every little blessing I have to the fullest, find the good in everything and in everyone I meet, and "love mercy, do justly, and walk humbly with my God" (Micah 6:8) :) Now I did start something yesterday! I took a lot of pictures, and at Borders I saw this fantastic book that touched the part of me that love the magazine, graphic style of photo-booking, then I went to Ikea Goddess' blog , and read about the 365 Project link she had... well one thing led to another, and I started what you see here!
I'm not ambitious about taking a photo for everyday, but I will certainly like to keep going maybe every other week for 2009! This will be in simple graphic style, so I can keep it up, while I still get to be scrapbook style-creative with my Japan Travel photos!
If you're interested, the 1 Jan journalling reads: We woke up really late. After all, tomorrow we start 6 am school days! The boys bought and played their once a year entitlement to a computer game (yes, they are deprived!) Jared, his Return to wonderland platinum edition, and Ryan his Avatar Bobble battles. While we watched Dan in Real Life for the second time - wonderful movie, just the way we like them! After much debating (nowadays its usually a 4 way debate ..sigh)we made it to the beach for our much missed (3 weeks in Japan followed by 1 week of rich Christmas/New Year foods) local foods - satay, chicken wings, nasi ayam, ice kachang and coconut! YUM! The boys spent time playing on the beach - we have countless similar photos of them at this same beach through the years! They never tire of it! We sat on the beach and while he read papers I caught up with the sewing of school pants for Ryan - he's so thin everything needs altering! I still have 16 name tags to sew onto both their school shirts! When it rained we escaped to Borders, and our favourite love seat in the Borders cafe. We chatted and reflected on the new year and how good we have it, how it's so "As good as it gets", and how we must treasure each day. Then a quick take-home dinner and it's off to bed for the boys at 9, while I set out their first day uniforms, shoes, the bags they had already packed. We are ready for the new year! And this is how we spent the first day.
Now I would like to share with you lovely layouts from some wonderful readers and friends! This first one is by honeybee, love her Christmas morning pics! And this is what Vanessa has on her desktop showing off great family shotsThis is by Britney, love the theme of EverydayLife and the way she scrapped about them. And I wanted to show you my photobook! It was all of 100 pages! I had to throw 2 pages out, and when I received my book, I realised I duplicated 2 pages!! ugh!! But everything was beautiful, love the cover, the paper, colors, how well the textures showed up (I enlarged a couple of shots to show you here), and the spacing using the shutterfly printing guides turned out so well, I was so excited to get it, yes, I did do a bit of a dance :) And here is the entire book (can you spot the duplicated pages?)
Finally I want to leave you a little gift, a kit I made nearly two years ago when I was designing and selling at GDS, it's kind of out of date now, compared to the superb kits out there now, but you may like it. It has to do with everyday life, that's why I thought of it.Download the Paper pack hereAnd get the Elements pack here
Hello everyone, we're back! We touched down on the evening of the 23rd, went to work on 24th (yeah !), rushed home to celebrate Christmas with our family, then spent Christmas with friends right after Christmas service till late, then back to work on 26th, and finally today I have time to catch up on my blog. I've missed my blog a lot!
Hope you all had a wonderful, blessed Christmas celebrating the coming of Emmanuel, Lord with Us, the greatest gift of all.
And thank you for the wishes left on my blog for my family too! You're such a blessing to me :)
Where do I start telling you about my trip? Wow, while our US trip was wow in everyway and iconic in that we visited places we've read, watched on TV, seen in the news, and always dreamt we could one day visit, on this Japan trip, the wow came in experiencing this very different culture, people, beautiful land, everyday was full of fascination, they are so technologically advanced, yet so traditional, so much history, yet so modern, and the people we met everywhere with their warmth made the trip truly wonderful!
You'll hear more and see them all as I scrap the pictures (1000 of them on my camera alone, and another 1400 on dh's!) but I'd like to show you this one that is probably my favorite. It's the boys being absorbed as we all were, everyday, at this temple ground where hundreds of red tori (gates) were erected over a hill. They were counting them, actually, haha, but gave up at about 640th , when we gave up climbing further up the hill (I think we were not yet halfway!)
And I've made myself a desktop featuring more highlights from our trip. (click on the image for a larger pic) Yes we made it to Hiroshima! See the picture of the Atomic Dome building in the centre. Scroll further down to get the template link.
Now I've got new templates in the store too, these are from one last page for my US album and the front and back covers, which I completed before I left for the trip. And today I received my US album from shutterfly in the post!! It's perfect! I'm so pleased and all the pictures looked so much better blown up to 12 by 12 book size. I'll take some pictures and show them to you in my next post. This is the front cover, And this is the back. Credits: the background paper is by Flergs - it made the photos on the cover literally pop! Credits: background paper by VeraLim, and the red leaves are by mimilou.
The new templates are in the store HERE
You can download both the 1024x768 and 1280x800 sizes of the Desktop templates HERE! Just one request, if you don't mind me posting it on my blog, could you send me a jpeg copy if you use this, to me at "yindgs at yahoo dot com dot sg" (replace at with @ and dot with . of course) so we can have fun seeing what we are all having on our desktops! Thanks in advance. :)
Hi! I'm posting from Japan! Wanted to leave a note that I will be away but did not have time to do it before I left. Have spent the last 10 days in this amazing land and being absorbed in its culture, beauty, people, language and food! Well I'll have lots of photos to show when I'm back :) just before Christmas, will have so much to tell then! Take care and a blessed Christmas to allof you my friends!
School holidays are here - it's the end of the school year and we have 7 weeks of hols till school start in Jan. The boys are home - and that means trouble!! Well, I've been getting like 10 calls in one morning when I'm at work - to settle disputes, listen to their complaints about the other, trying to make things "fair" ..etc! I need to find them something to do! Then I had a great idea, for 3 days they sorted through all their toys, into piles to give away, to throw away, and into neat / sorted to play piles. I told them if there is no space for new toys, then there will be no new toys (for christmas)!! It worked!
To their surprise they found so much they thought were gone forever, or had even forgotten. Jared found so many of his Lego mini-figures, he was delighted! And I had fun too playing mix and match with their hats, weapons, body suits, etc... haha this is the lot of the poor mama who has no daughters nor barbie to play with . lol!
Well, I am really coming to the end of my US trip photos. In fact, just in time, because in 10 days we are leaving for our first ever trip to Japan!!!I know it's recession and all that, but we booked it before the financial crisis played out, and also we had frequent flyer miles from our last trip, so it was not as expensive as it could have been. And we really scrimped and saved for it!
These photos are from our last day at Universal Studios - the wonderfully whimsical Dr Seuss Land.Credits: Pink paper by Ziggles Designs, lined paper by Robin Carlton, alpha by Lauraskathi, flowers by cinnamondesigns.
And then these photos are from our last day back in Washington, spent exploring Harpers' Ferry - am almost surreal time, quietly and thoughtfully spent, compared to the breakneck pace of the last week in Orlando!Credits: Paper from Faith Sisters Collab, leaves by Kim B, all other elements by cinnamon designs These templates can be found here
I realised after all the double pages, I needed a single page for the last page of the album I'm making. So this is what I came up withCredits: Paper by Meredith Fernwick, elements by Cinnamon Designs, words by Chantal.This template is now available as a set in the store HERE
Yesterday Ryan had his chance to dress up when he went to a friend's fancy dress birthday party. Guess what was the only character he was willing to go as? A scientist! DH borrowed a lab coat and goggles for him, and he was voted best dressed by his friends. Amazing! And he was so happy that he won a prize of a Risk Game set, his favourite board game. He looks so big in these photos! Can you believe he'll only turn twelve next January? My baby is all grown up!!
Oh! I'm very honored to have been presented with a blog award. The very creative Livia as well as Christine presented me with this! Thank you ladies! It's so nice to be nominated :)
The award calls for a list of 7 things I love or am thankful for, that's easy!
1. I'm so thankful for my Lord and God who has rescued me and blessed me beyond words can describe. Thank you Lord.
2. Very thankful for my husband of (nearly) 15 years, who is also my friend of 27 years! Although we did nothing much to deserve it, God has blessed us with an incredible marriage. His words to me for my last birthday were, 'grow old with me, the best is yet to be'.
3. I love my children of course, although they give me equal amounts of joy and stress, what would I be without being their mom? The best job there is, for me at least.
4. I'm thankful for my part time job, I'm facing risk of layoffs in this climate, but still, to have had this part time position for the last five years has been so great for the social/financial front and the home front.
5. Currently, watching Japanese and Korean romantic comedy tv series with dh - we are at it practically every night ;p
6. My collection of rings, mostly costume, semi-precious, vintage flea market finds, but all huge!
7. My digiscrapping hobby, my creative outlet, recording memories, my blog, my store, and ALL of YOU!!
Credits: Paper from Thankful, by Emily Giovanni. The "january" epoxy sticker is from a mini kit I made long ago, you can download it further down too!
Credits: paper by Andrea Victoria, and word art by Mindy Terasawa 
Get the templatehere
