Moving Forward…

As promised, the Beloved and I had a wonderful 1st anniversary celebration. We had this:

 

I loved the desserts and we had a lovely time just recollecting about the past year. What is so sweet about the Beloved is his thoughtfulness. He wrote a love note and decided that since it’s the first anniversary and paper is the symbol, we’ll go to my favourite LSS and buy some! That will make me a scrapperholic for life too! Amazing isn’t he?

 

Here’s my card to him, I’m continually awed by God’s goodness in our lives and His tremendous blessing to me in the form of this wonderful man…

Meanwhile, I had time to create this layout this week, capturing another favourite moment: When the mail arrives! Used bubble wrap, corrugated cardboard and nick nacks from the mail for this to capture all the paraphanalia that comes together with each surprise.

 

I’m glad that with this layout, I’m moving away from orange, which I really love. Just wanted to try another color with this one. This week also saw the creation of this:

Baking in the form of a diaper cake! What was really cute was having the brother of the newborn imagine feeding the cake to all around that day. That’s what imagination is all about!

One Year On…

Today, one year ago, we became One… Blessed Anniversary Darling…

From the Heart

Made the following yesterday for a colleague’s newborn baby girl. Looking forward to meeting her real soon.

 

As I think about the process behind making a card, I realise how important it is to consider your intended audience… It helps too of course, that sometimes, something place there in the card re-inforces the message without you even knowing the cultural significance. Just like this one, made with a newfound friend that the Beloved introduced:

Dear Mr Owl was there to convey the wonderful time I had with her while she was here in Singapore. A little cute birdie to say thank you and till we meet again. Thought she might have liked him. Much to my surprise and delight, dear A wrote a thank you email explaining the following:

…In Vietnamese culture, the eyes of a night owl symbolize a resilient effort to see through things critically and speak truth to injustices. That has always been my passion and you saw that!…”

Isn’t that great! I’m happy to have made her day! That’s the beauty of a handmade gift. Not something that is just bought off the shelves, but a symbol of one’s love, gratitude and regard. So let’s continue to bless many people through this ability to create! Go forth… from the heart!

Making Memories

So my week on Pink Sketches is finally here! This was the layout done for my task as this week’s guest designer:

 

Thanks Kelli and the gals at Pink Sketches for this lovely opportunity! My first at being on any Design Team! I look forward to honing my skills in scrapbooking through playing along at Pink Sketches! The layout was created to remember those emotions going through me as I prepared for the most beautiful day in my life – our wedding.

This week also marks the beginning og the hols for me… As it will happen…I’m still sick…urghh… The longest I have ever been. In fact, after visiting the doctor’s on Wed, and being diagnosed with a serious cold, it became a full blown flu yesterday…. The Beloved was tending to me the whole weekend once again…. Sigh….Do say a little prayer for me if you can yah? I’m needing all of them right now…

On a happier note, I’m looking forward to next week when we celebrate our 1st anniversary. It’s incredible to think that one year is going by so, so quickly! I’m truly blessed to have the Beloved in my life and I’m looking forward to many more wonderful years ahead!

Home Sweet Home

Isn’t it strange that it always seems that we fall sick only when it’s the weekend or the hols? After attending a conference on Friday where I was already feeling giddy and the inability to taste my food, I woke up on Saturday with a full blown flu, with my throat hurting like crazy and my head spinning. With that, the Beloved and I spent the day at home and he was so sweet to attend to my needs for the entire day!

I have come to the conclusion that sadly, in Singapore, it’s strange that an unoccupied weekend is certainly a luxury, one that we rarely have. Perhaps I’m in no position to generalise for everyone, but it certainly seems to be so for me. So instead of going for my youth ministry yesterday, I spent the time sleeping, something I missed tremendously this week, no thanks to my work and other commitments. Drinking the apple cider and honey concoction that the Beloved made was also a great remedy! Seriously, I used to detest apple cider, but am now a convert and attest to its amazing qualities!

In short, I love being at home.

In another sense of the word, I’m thankful too for a wonderful family, both my immediate family and the Beloved’s. Today, as all of us gathered at my parents, it felt so good just to be together, as the little ones run around and we try to have our conversations, with all the food filling the table. Just being together and knowing that we can count on being there for each other through thick and thin together makes me feel comforted and grateful to the Lord for every single one of them. It amazes me how as we grow older, we come to a better understanding of each other and there is also a greater tolerance for each other’s idiosyncracies.

All in other, other than this nasty flu, it’s certainly Home Sweet Home… Enjoy yours too…

The Amazing Race

So there has been a lack of posts for the last couple of weeks due to a family emergency. On 20th October, the Beloved and I received a call from his family up North, requesting for us to return as soon as possible as Grandma was not in a great condition. The beloved and I immediately started our journey with a frantic attempt to throw in clothes into our nightbag, call possible airlines to book tickets, check that the home is safe and secure and of course to inform our supervisors at work. Failing to reach anyone on the phone, we rushed to Changi Airport and thank God, made it just in time to get on the last flight for the day up North. The security officer at the departure gate was so sweet when he saw us running. “In a hurry? No worries, I’m quick! Take care!” We fled to the gate just in time to board the plane. So I guess that is the closest I will ever get to being on The Amazing Race. We were glad that we got to see Grandma that night when we rushed to the hospital upon arrival. The next morning, Grandma said goodbye…

In times like these, it is hardest for the living. Thanks to understanding employers, we got to stay for a couple of days with my in-laws to support them, especially my mum-in-law who was really close to her mother. I love all my in-laws as everyone in the family are truly warm and big-hearted individuals who embraced me into the family since the Beloved and I started our relationship. So it was rather sad when we finally have to return home and I am looking forward to spending time with them in December again.

Once home, there were loads to settle at work, at home and in our youth ministry. Managed to complete ploughing through the stack of essays I had to mark for the exams and the delightful part was seeing how the students have improved from history! Great work! The thing that has been offering me respite and maintaining my sanity, other than God, is crafting. The following were two pages created upon my return, done in the night to hel pme re-charge for the next day:

This was created to celebrate the relationship Jeslyn and I share. We are pals at work and share closely with one another about life. When I got married last year, she was a great source of ideas and support, especially since she got married 8 months before I did! So Thank you Jes for everything! I haf fun creating this using Scenic Route papers and while creating, the one thing that I kept reminding myself was there pink must be featured in this layout as Jes loves that color to bits!

Another layout completed was the following, who is my favourite to date:

The pictures used were taken recently and I decided to play with the color saturation to get different hues of my face, an idea the Beloved and I toyed with. I’m a Dreamer at heart, as I often live in my imaginary world, where ideas take shape and things that are impossible happen. Tried to capture this aspect of myself thorugh this layout, which was part of the challenge at Made With Love for October, hosted by Leena. I had tremendous fun creating this, especially in cutting up all the different papers from Basic Grey, Sassafras and Hamblys. I love the amount of activity going on around the title, which is an interpretation of the buzz in my head. Love all those beautiful images! The cheery on top of this layout came this morning. When I woke up and checked out the forum on MWL, i was greeted with this. YESSSSSSSS!!!!!! I won the challenge! An absolute surprise! There were many wonderful layouts there by the other ladies who participated as well! I’m just glad that the wonderful ladies who left comments saw the colorful, vibrancy and energy in this particular page. That’s just so who I am! So I’m looking forward to playing with these new toys soon (Thanks Leena!):

 

Before I end this post, I must certainly mention about this book which I borrowed recently from the local library:

It was fun looking thorugh it, gleaning various ideas about how buttons can be used in craft work. What was more exciting was learning about how buttons are such a great part of some peoples’ lives. 1. Have you heard of the Button King? This one intrigued me. Dalton Stevens suffers from insomnia and hence, he started attaching buttons to a suit and eventually to a car and even his own hearse! This is so amazing!

2. The Buttonarium. How about an online museum featuring only buttons? Certainly worth a visit to get some inspiration! Have fun!