We made it

We made it!

Well, Ryan made it through his camp and so did we- without going down to visit him at camp, though we were terribly tempted to when he did not call for three days!! We found that he actually tried to call, but at nearly midnight and we had gone to bed!! It is unbelievable that the camp made them stay up that late!!

When dh went to pick him up for home, he walked right past Ryan because he had become so dark and 'burnt'. Dh asked how was camp, and Ryan answered"on a scale of ten, two", and when asked why, said "the instructors sprouted vulgarities".... dear me! It is adventure camp, and meant to toughen them up, but still, no need for vulgarities! Still, he had fun, and we are sooooo proud that he survived it - all cool, and such. :)

I've been reading this awesome book and want to HIGHLY recommend it to you all:

Art Journals & Creative Healing by Sharon Soneff. Sharon and many other artists have made fastastically beautiful journals that are wonders of journaling and healing. I was totally blessed and inspired and at times in tears reading it. You must get your hands on a copy if you can! If I may quote Sharon from the book: " ... journals. Sometimes incredibly artful and detailed, other times modestly simple and scrawled, these journals have brought me revelation, calm, solace, and circumspection. A work-in-progress journal is the perfect complement to my work-in-progress life, bringing me continuous, work-in-progress restorative health." Wow. May you be blessed too.

I keep my personal thoughts and feelings in a private journal, but I feel comfortable and happy sharing our family photo journals on the blog. Here's # 2 of our first day in Washington. (Boy have I got a long way to go with scrapping this trip!)

Credits: paper by Jessica Bolton, white journaling spot by sclingerman, hearts by Christina Renee, frame by Lori Barnhurst, ribbon by Sun & Jan, brown journaling spot by Toni Berman

Just in case you were wondering, I had always been making the layouts first, based on what photos I selected and their sizes, then I simply punched out the photos and saved them as templates. I find it a lot easier and more creative this way :)

Carena left me a great suggestion to include a jpeg preview in the zip file, which I did, and I remembered to include a terms of use too. Thanks Carena! However, I'm not sure about the suggestion to set up an email subscriber box on the blog yet, just feels a bit intrusive sending my blog posts into your emails! I'm just happy if you like to come over and visit a while.

Oh, and here's the link to the template, thanks to so many of you who left me love all the time! This is now available as a set in the store here

Ryan's Birthday Prayer

Ryan's Birthday Prayer
I just completed it! I really liked how it turned out too! A layout for Ryan's 11th birthday. He's growing up so quickly we are feeling in awe and almost in shock. Tomorrow in fact he leaves for adventure camp, kayaking, abseiling, and all that including camping outdoors in tents. I'm rather nervous as it is his first time away from home by himself. But he is totally cool and excited. We gave him one of our old phones and I said you have to call home once a day and if you don't I'm coming right down to pay you a visit, and then he totally freaked out. hehe! I'm sure he'd call! :)

The journaling reads:
On your 11th birthday we are amazed and in awe at how far God has brought you! We thank Him for your sweet obedient nature, your intelligence, the discipline and hardwork you put into your schoolwork. We also thank God for the other side of your personality that we see blossoming, the funny you, your wacky sense of humour, the newly opinion-ated you, full of comments and pre-teen takes on everything! We think we need prayer too, ‘cos we are not prepared for how quickly you are growing up! We ask the Lord to bless you with great friendships, and a great year in school. We pray that you will get many opportunities to try out all kinds of things,and grow your independence and confidence!
Most of all we pray that you will grow in your faith and knowledge of your God and Saviour, that you will walk with Him as you enter this next new phase in your life, begin your adventure with your hand in His. Amen
Credits: Paper, messy stitch, denim crown from Lori Barnhurst's Kid Couture, star by sclingerman, tabs by Christina ReneeThis is now available as a set in the store here
Let me know what you think, i love hearing from you all!

Birthday Prayer

Birthday Prayer

We're too busily living our busy lives!! Last week the boys celebrated their 9th and 11th birthday respectively. Their birthdays are 4 days apart but we always celebrate together. We had a little party with our closest friends and the boys' grandparents. When I asked them what party games they wanted to play, Jared asked for Scrabble, and Ryan said Taboo and Pictionary. That's when I know they are definitely grown up, or at least not my little boys anymore!! Here are some photos:
And I want to record the birthday prayer dh and I pray for each of them, here's the one for Jared: Journaling reads:
on your 9th birthday, we thank God for giving you to our family, for your talents and creativity, for your sense of humour, your exhuberance, how you run into everything, never walk; how strongly you feel about things, never without opinions; how you are always interesting, never dull! We pray that the Lord will give us wisdom as your parents, and patience too! We pray that you will develop self-control and discipline, that will allow you to achieve your dreams, although these seem so unnecessaryto you now. We ask God to bless you with a good year in school, for good friends and teachers and an enjoyable time. Most of all we pray that you will grow in faith and personal relationship with your God, who made you and know you and has wonderful plans in store for you. Amen

Credits: Background paper by SandeKrieger from Memory Maker, Happy button from Scrapgirls, stitched heart by Sliva

Made it into a template - they are polaroid style this time because I wanted to give each of the photos a description, hope they come in useful for you!

This is now available as a set in the store here

Inspiration

Look at these Layouts!

Thank you to the wonderful ladies that kindly gave me permission to show their pages here, just look at these beautiful layouts!! I so love that we can all take a kit or a template, and always end up with something uniquely and wonderfully different! Most of all I get such a thrill each time I see one of the templates being used, it's so rewarding and also makes me feel like there's a connection between us :)

Here's a layout by JanMary in lovely fall colors and such fabulous photos!

And this calm and lovely composition is by Esther

And here's three by MirandaLea making monthly pages for her son, look at that fabulous smile!

And checkout this great page by Jools. I just love the red and how the photos went from far to near like he is scooting right up to you!

And I think this is my favorite, how much fun a lolli can be to a little girl! This page is by Heather!

And my own latest page - from the first day of our trip - even though it was already late Nov, we were treated to the last bit of Fall colors at Great Falls Park - again our first time seeing autumn colors - I can't begin to describe it, it must sound silly to you, but I was oohing and aahhing all day long , :) , couldn't help it, it was all so lovely.
Credits: Paper from Fall in Colors by Lili from Scrapartist, tag from Kawouette's ChocoNoisette, page curl by Flergs.This is now available as a set in the store here

Thank you I also want to thank everyone who left me such lovely feedback and encouragement, I'm honored and blessed that you're finding the templates useful and touched that some of you come back with a link to show your layouts to me! Actually I would love to post any of these layouts here, if you don't mind, let me know when you leave the link to your layouts. Sorry too as I think I

14th Anniversary

Into the New Year
It's the new year! For us here it is a hectic, back to school time. The boys started the new school year on 2 Jan, we are all adjusting to schedules again and it's surprisingly easy and even feels good.
In the last few days I was doing my "spring" cleaning and clearing space for new books and all, and found stuff and many ideas and much thoughts for scrapbooking! I hope I get to all of them, some of which involve:
- a pattern for one of my maternity dresses my friend made for me nine years ago
- the children's kindergarten art and works
- Jared's spelling book where he adds a little illustration for every word he spells!
- old passports - i'm thinking maybe scrapbook on the remaining empty pages?
- lots of magazine pages torn out for ideas for scrapbooking designs from when I was designing - it's making me feel like designing again - wow who knows?
- old letters from me to dh and vice versa - priceless!

When I read what I wrote in one of them it was what I needed for a layout for our 14th anniversaryCredits: Papers from Weeds & Wildflowers, word art by Designing on the edge, journaling strips, heart and flower by Christina Renee, frame by Mom to Niryza, snow flurry by Michelle Coleman.

And I completed a half completed layout from 2007. Haven't been able to start on the US holiday photos yet, it just seems like such a huge undertaking! Need to think about whether I will follow a theme, or color scheme, or what, oh, just been putting it off ! :) I'm sure I'll really enjoy scrapping them, just need to take it slowly!
Credits: Paper by Michelle Coleman, flower and swirls by Kim Christensen, tag by Dani Mogstad, and the alpha is by Krietz from Scraphead!This is now available as a set in the store here

Blessed Christmas and New Year

Blessed Christmas and New YearI'm sure you had a wonderful Christmas! I read some lovely words about Christmas that I would like to share with you! I believe these words are written by Phillip H. Barnhart, in a book "Christmas Is..."

"Christmas is God's love coming to everyone in Jesus Christ.
Christmas is God putting his arms of deep and far reaching love around the world and hugging it to Himself.
Christmas is God in the flesh, making tangible God's feelings about you.
You acknowledge such love when you put up your tree, decorate it with colors and shapes, and light it in joyful anticipation.
You honor such a gift when you choose particular presents for special people and give them in love and appreciation.
You affirm the coming of God in Christ when you read the story, sing the songs, listen to the Word, accept the truth, and feel the touch.
Christmas is knowing God loves you and comes to be with you.
Christmas is God in your heart."

I wish for all of you Christmas in your heart everyday!

We had a great time this Christmas spending time with our oldest and best friends, and in church worshiping. We are truly blessed.

I have been adding to my desktop layout with more holiday photos, this is how it looks now!Credits: Paper from Franziska's Whimsical Wonderland, flowers from Christina Renee's Art Fusion, ricrac by Miss Mint, but I can't remember where the Word Art is from? So sorry to the creator of this lovely word art, can anyone help me?
And I thought maybe someone will like to use the desktop template for their Christmas and holiday photos, so here it is!
This free template can be downloaded from the store here

We're Back

We're Back!
We've been back two days now, after a 25 days trip, what an adventure!! We're coping well with not too much jet lag, I went right back to work, and life is getting back to normal quickly, except the laundry!!!

Thank you to all of you who have been keeping us in prayers, we were truly blessed on the trip, kept safe, and in fine weather throughout, we've taken 5000 photos! Think of all the multi-photo layouts coming up!! I am feeling so homesick only from not getting to scrap for nearly a month! :)

How was the trip? Where do I begin? Amongst other things, these moments come to mind:
The Lockheed BlackBird at the Air and Space Museum (For dh)
The Holocaust Museum in Washington DC
Choosing a 14th Anniversary gift at Tiffany's in New York (For me!!)
Lady Liberty up close (for all!)
Being trained by Obi One Kenobi at the Jedi Academy at Disney (for Jared)
The changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
All that toys at FAO Schawtz and Toys R Us (for the 3 boys in my family)
Ground Zero and the St Paul's Chapel
Buying a very special ring at historic Harpers Ferry on our last day (me of course)
The Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts
And probably most memorable of all, snow in Central Park!

And here's my first layout for the trip. None of us had ever seen snow falling before, and we were rewarded with our first snow on our second day in New York, our first sight of Central Park was really a winter wonderland - a truly magical morning!
By the way I used a mini kit I made and shared on my blog last year, finally I get a chance to use my own snowy christmasy light colored papers! Thought I'll share them again to say Blessed Christmas to everyone!
sorry these are no longer available

All Ready for Washington DC!

All ready!

We're all ready for our trip! We leave tomorrow night, and arrive in Washington DC friday morning!! Do keep us in your prayers for a safe trip and for good health and great family time! Ryan had a minor asthma attack two days ago, and now I'm armed with inhalers and so on, to help the boys beat the cold!

Yesterday we had a great laugh! Gim had announced yesterday that he bought new memory cards (2GB) for his camera for the trip. When he came home after tennis last evening and was trying to load the new cards, he opened the plastic cover, took off the scotch tape, and stared in unbelief at the card - 256mb?! Jared had replaced the card with the one he had in his camera, and taken 65 photos while Gim was at tennis!!!

Here's the little terror, at one of our beach resort trips in March. Oh, the template link is below

Credits: paper by Autumnsmoon, sun and tags all by Dani Mogstad, curled edge by JG

Below is a layout of Ryan, photos taken in NZ year before last, but sentiments as of now.

Journaling reads:

You knew the alphabet at 18 months.Could spell 50 words at two. But you could not speak in sentences till nearly four. About the same time you started reading! Since then you’ve baffled us & doctors and therapists, and now have an opinion on everything and is doing so well in the gifted class. Only God knew what He has in store for you, and we thank Him for the miracle that is you..

We are exceedingly thankful for all that God has done for him, to us, it is nothing short of a miracle, and we constantly remind ourselves.

Oh, may I share one of my all time favorite songs:

GIVE THANKS WITH A GRATEFUL HEART

GIVE THANKSTO THE HOLY ONE

GIVE THANKS FOR HE'S GIVEN JESUS CHRIST, HIS SON

AND NOW LET THE WEAK SAY I AM STRONG

LET THE POOR SAYI AM RICH BECAUSE OF WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE FOR US

GIVE THANKS...

Credits: paper from Michelle Colemans' thankful heart, QP by ksharonk, title by Jen Wilson

And here's my dh who loves keeping fish, at an make shift fish shop in HK. I love that it takes very little to make my dh very happy, love you, dear!

Credits: Paper by Jen Lin, frame by Jen Wilson, arrow by Fernlili, title by Jen Wilson

This is now available as a set in the store here

Being THankful

Being Thankful
Finally I have time to complete a layout and blog a bit. Been wanting to get these thoughts down. Thoughts of thankfulness.
The other day i was at my dear blog friend Tink's blog (http://tinkstribulations.blogspot.com/), and I do so love to read her very interesting entries and how wonderfully she expresses how she feels, and I quote her in her blog entry on 1 Nov on family members she is thankful for : "Finally, but surely not last... my husband... Pan. There is so much I could say about him. His love of life (and Halloween), his infectious smile, how incredibly brilliant he is. How he stood up and took charge of three teenagers when he wasn't much past the stage himself. He became a father the children could love and respect. But what it all boils down to is his belief in me. Thanks honey." Loved that, Tink! You're blessed!

And so am I, and I am prompted to express my thankfulness in specific ways for my husband. Here's one: When Jared was about three, Gim suggested, even insisted that we have date night just for ourselves. At first I resisted (what was I thinking!), but since then, friday night dates have been going on pretty much without fail... I'm so thankful my husband values us so much that he engineered and protected this time for us, it's been 5 years now (!) and I think it's one reason we are going strong. Thanks dear.
And how thankful we are for my parents in law who has babysat for us every friday night without fail either....!

Today I completed a layout I have wanted to do for a while. It's about Ryan and his play battles. He's nearly eleven, but war-play with his toy armies (any toy can be enlisted to his armies, Miffy included) go on everyday, the dialogue is deadly, the plot unpredictable, the fun, guaranteed. Rather too many photos to squeeze in one page, but I didn't want to miss out any!


Credits: Scroll from summerspice by ksharonk, comic star and words by JCrowley, alpha strings from ScrappyBlueStones , brown paper by MistyCato, and blue paper from DaniMogstad's party kit, Word art by ksharonk, and tear from Monika69.
This is now available as a set in the store here