Just Keep Swimming…

Ever watched Finding Nemo? I’ll always remember catching this film with my nephew and the Beloved and how much fun we had…While Dory is so absent-minded, I like her philosophy of just forging ahead, in spite of all circumstances…. These days have been exciting, but tiring too, which numerous activities packed in, like having an all night scrapathon from 6pm – 6am at Yommie’s Place, my LSS where I teach classes. It was fun hanging out with the ladies, dressed in our PJs, having a sizzle, singing crazy songs and scrapping into the night. That certainly helped me completed numerous pages! Here are some for Pink Sketches that have been fun to create:

Just Keep Swimming, a personal reminder not to fear anything, anyone or any circumstance, but to always stay afloat…we all need that at some point in our lives, don’t we?

Then here’s the next, which again shows how much I miss all the lovely food I can find readily in Singapore and Malaysia…. An ode to all the cravings I have. Only that, I have to do all the cooking of the dishes when I want to eat them, instead of happily skipping downstairs, to the eateries near my home to buy from uncle a packet of chicken rice, or from the lovely Malay auntie, my sambal goreng (veges fried with chilli)…

I’m slowly learning to slow down and smell the roses…Admiring the beauty all the around and gasping at just how creative God is… The Beloved and I love driving home and just taking in the skyline and the beautiful trees and blooms that surround us…Of course the birds here are also more aggressive. I always revel in his stories of how magpies and ducks attack him when he’s out cycling…Must be quite a sight.=) Thank God for His protection however, given how common a phenomemnon this is, that cyclists here are often attacked. In fact, most cyclists here wear sticks in their helmets, in a bid to scare off the birdies, though I think they still try nonetheless, but fewer attempts are made. So here’s to God, the Creator, who’s 100% original. See the word “Bloom”? I ran out of “L” and “O”, so “1″ and “0″ replaced them, making them a lovely touch in capturing the essence of this page.

More on life soon to be posted, while I continue to happily cook, create and celebrate life…Ta!

Page after Page…

Not posting much these days, but that does not translate into not creating. In fact, here’s a post filled with pics. BUT before we get to that, thanks for all you well wishes and for sharing my joy! I’m throughly blessed by al lthe opportunities I’ve received of late in the world of creating. Before I post pics, allowed me to invite you to join us at Zutter for a Blog Hop! The OZZ Ladies, ie, the pioneer, original Zutter Zisters are having a blog hop and just by leaving comments, you might win some yummies for yourself!

First up, here are the pages created for Pink Sketches for the last few weeks, which I have been slow to post.

That’s Sketch #48, which celebrates the time spent with my bro-in-laws and sis-in-law bowling during Boxing Day last year. I certainly miss them heaps!

Next up, a cheerful happy page of our trip to Jervis Bay to do some whale watching. It was absolutely delightful and we enjoyed ourselves throughly, from the beautiful weather, to the whales, food and friends we made.

Last but not least, this week’s, marking it Pink Sketches’ #50, it’s Sojourn, a reflective page, as we trust the Lord to lead us. As sojourners through life, uncertain of what the future holds, we can only pray and seek His face… These days, we learning to do a lot more of that, knowing that ultimately, we can control nothing…

Not sure if you remember an earlier post where I mentioned how the Beloved and I love to make a special purchase for significant places we visit? For our honeymoon to Penang, we bought Mr Royal Typewriter, which I have not mentioned nor introduced to the world…yet…

Say hi to Mr Royal Typewriter, whom I fell in love with the instance I laid my eyes on him. Do the Write Thing! A page created as an ode to my honours year thesis on Righting Myths….

I’ve got loads more to share, but they will have to wait for now, as I return to the process of cutting, sticking and getting myself messy. Thanks for being patient and do stay tuned!

Floriade

The Beloved and I had a great time at Floriade! Each year in Canberra, this flower festival is held, heralding the arrival of Spring. We enjoyed admiring all the flowers and simply marvelling at how detailed God is in His creations. One of our favourites from the day, this beautiful organ that travels far and wide around Australia, playing at different fairs!

Music just makes everything seem so much livelier!

Candy Shoppe Designs

How exciting is this? I’m the Guest Designer over at Candy Shoppe Designs this week! Have fun creating those bookmarks and you might be a winner!

I Like Surprises

A little while back, a kind Lady, Ellen, emailed me about this layout. Was I surprised to find out today that I’m featured on Core’dinations’ blog! Thanks Ellen for this feature. You have truly made my day=)

In the same vein, here’s a shout out to the ladies who have been so generous with your comments and praises. To Kate, Felicia, Huimei and Ros, let it be known that your words never cese to put a smile on my face=)

Here’s a recent layout created to utilise pictures that I had of the Beloved and I. You know how it is that often, after developing pics, we change our mind about which ones to include in a layout and we end up with a pile of pics that do not belong to the same event? Well, the Zutter solved my problem in this instance, where I scrapped about being Bound 4ever.

The owires served as an excellent embellishment to complement the message on this layout – that of how we’re united for life, a commitment we made the day we started dating. If you notice the top left hand corner, the equation there is not the result of my poor arithmatic.

 

When you flip it open, it actually reads:

Tah dah! There’s a little surprise journalling there. And of course, more journalling at the bottom corner, where little embellies were tied to the owires:

I say this layout was one of those where I really had loads of fun creating, not that I do not enjoy the others, but this one was challenging in terms of including different items to reinforce the subtle message and the layout, be it the frames overlays, the wires or the cherries…

Okie, since I’m on a roll, more surprises. While playing with the owires, I decided that my scrapping supplies should become wearable art as well. So this was what happened:

When worn on my wrist, here’s how it looks like:

How’s that? I should try to make some earrings soon with the wires….another challenge..=)

Finally, another one of those ideas that caught my fancy – a mobile featuring the weather! There it is, hanging from our porch:

Closer view of the top, where the wires were used as the main structure of this creation.

 

Phew! That’s a lot of pics in one post! I hope you had as much fun looking at them as I had creating them. =) As for me, Im just waiting for more surprises=)

Exciting Stuff Has Been Happening…

Ok…So I haven’t blogged for a few days… Not that I did not want to, I did in my mind…But there has been loads going on…i’ve started a new job on a casual basis, at a local florist!!!! I’m totally over the moon with that one, as it’s a dream come true! Prior to coming, I mentioned to my mentor back home and my Beloved that I would love to have this opportunity to explore all things creative. The Lord heard my prayers and I’ve been happily meddling with flowers=) I’m not trained in floristry, so that makes the Lord’s goodness all the more sweeter, that someone was actually willing to offer me a position.  Working in a florist is more than just making flowers look good in a container. It’s back-breaking work tending to them – changing water, rotating the flower etc… So as you can imagine, my body is adjusting to this new job. I love every minute that I’m in the shop=)

Beyond that, I’ve also been busily creating stuff that will be posted over the next few days. First up, for Pink Sketches this week, we have Seeing Double:

 

If you had read my earlier post about us spotting double rainbows when we were travelling to Canberra, this page is all about that. That’s my sis in the pic with me. Many people think we’re twins, but we’re certainly not, but we do have similar features and even my mum gets confused when we call home these days, mistaking us for each other=) Do check out Pink Sketches! We’re looking to add new designers to the team! 

I’m excited as tonight, I’ll be teaching for the first time at my LSS (Local Scrapbooking Shop). Totally grateful once agian for all these doors that the Lord has opened=)

The Best Embellishment…

The other night, while the Beloved and I were talking before turning in, we were discussing how embellies are such a big things for creating and he started this imaginery post which I think makes so much sense:

“You know how much we crafters love to have beautiful pages and try ways and means to embellish a page? I think the best embellishment any scrapbooker or crafter can ask for is…Time!!!”

 Having moved to a new land, where time is on my side, creating has been so much more fulfilling, what with me enjoying every step of the process. It’s not that I did not enjoy the process back home, but there was the constant nagging of uncompleted work, general fatigue and just this whole uninspired aura, as a result of my overworked state of being. I like how I’m able to grow from strength to strength through each piece I make, not having to worry that I’m taking too much time nor sleeping hours. I’ll readily admit that I’m blessed to affort this luxury. Given my present situation, I’ll live it to the fullest and learn how best to use my time wisely, so that when this best embellishment should one day not be on my side again, I’ll know how best to cope…

The layout for Pink Sketches this week is an example of me, having hopefully learnt from time management. Given the amount of stuff I was creating last week, I was happy to learn that the sketch lent itself well to a simpler layout and this was done after I returned home from the markets:

 

So all crafters out there, I say that money cannot buy us the best embellies. Ultimately, it’s all about how time is used…=) And I pray that you too, will enjoy the creative time you get.

What A Wonderful World

This song just kept playing in my head as I created this page. These pics of the beautiful scenary around us was the mian source of inspiration for this page. When the pics were developed, the idea of the rainbow came to mind immediately, and to use the wide array of colors Tattered Angel’s glimmer mists came in helped to give this page a boost.

I created my own rainbow mask for this page to guide the colors where i wanted them. Also, for the title, using some alphas, I sprayed over them to create the title. A little pattern was added to them there after by spraying silver colored mist with the help of a floral mask. I like the subtlety of the effect created.

 

See the clouds at the top? Recently, I’ve been in a cloud loving mood, mostly inspired by the beautiful cloud formations here in the skies. Hence, they’ve been making an appearence in various creations. To give the clouds some color and character, they had different color mists on them and just random words on them, using rub-ons. I like how they mirror our thoughts sometimes when we’re just walking and looking at the surroundings.

 

Of course, to add to the idea as if these are from a scrap book, they pictures were matted on a sheet of paper that was put through my zutter machine to create that tattered page look. Phew! So much writing in this post for one page. However, do indulge me as I really love the colors I played with for this one and they various goodies I got to include in it. Oh I forgot! See those flowers on the page? I crocheted those and spray them once again with mists to make them go with the page. I like it when I get to incorporate different types of crafts into my pages.

With this page, I remind myself never to walk with my eyes blind and oblivious to the beauty that is ever present around us, in this wonderful world the Lord has so creatively made!

Stop! And Live…

One of the things I’ve been learning to do is to take things a little slower, to appreciate the beauty that surrounds me and to just relax. Often, coming from a ountry where we rush from one task to another, even working in our dreams, it has been a privilege to slow down and take a break. Here Down Under, God’s handiwork surrounds us everywhere and I’m constantly awed by how creative and detail minded He is…

When doing this week’s page for Pink Sketches, it was a reminder for myself never to rush and miss out on living, living life to its fullest by being present in the moment. Instead of regretting or missing the past, wishing for the future, it certainly means more when we are able to embrace what we have, here, right now… To live.

 

Those pics were taken in our first few days here, in the midst of our scamble to be on time for various appointments to view potential places to rent. In the flurry of activities, the beauty of the trees and the wonderful shadows that were cast caught our attention. Hence, my humble attempt at creating to capture His creations.  How about creating something to remind yourself about what life is truly all about?=)

When the Engine Starts…

One of those things which I have on my to do list is of course, to be more regular in my posts… While loads have been happening in my life, my blog posts have mostly existed in my mind, hoping that somehow, somewhere, there’s some technology that will transmit my thoughts to posts… Before that actually becomes a reality, the only other solution will be for me to write diligently and keep posting my pics….

With more time on my hands now that I’m Down Under, I’ve been on a roll where creating is concerned! That makes me happy! Being in a place where Kaisercraft is produced, one of the first pages scrapped pays ode to there latest range, which I find to be really gorgeous – Royal Dutchess.

 

While I don’t usually enjoy pink, this was a good exercise to get the engines going… While scrapping, I really miss all my toys, which have not arrived – yet…. The shipping company promised to have them delivered today, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed, praying that it will happen and then, I’ll be one happy gal=)

With the remaining amount of paper and some stuff bought at the Craft and Quilt Fair held at Canberra (I had loads of fun!!! Tonnes of inspiration everywhere and some great buys!), here is the layout for Pink Sketches this week, chronicling our battle with the cold…our very First Winter.

 

I love the effect glimmer mist gave to the page, helping to reinforce the idea of the season. Talking about the cold, just the other day, while the Beloved and I were in the car driving and it was pouring, we saw white splotches on the windscreen. What I thought initially as dirty water turns out to be Hail! Wow! Though many have told us that this is perhaps the warmest winter Canberra has experienced (we’re still feeling cold nonetheless), I’ve been hoping for some snow…So hail was the coldest thus far that we have seen – water that have become crushed ice-like in nature, falling. Of course, coming from a sunny island, I knew none of these info, till the Beloved found out in the papers the next day that thankfully, it was not a heavy hale fall, otherwise, our windscreen might have cracked. Interesting to read how school children actually made iceballs to throw at each other when they saw the hail=) My response – I don’t have a picture!!!!

On a seperate note, have I ever told you about Scrap n’ Art? This delightful online scrapbooking magazine is chokeful of great ideas! I’m grateful that they found my creations worthy of their publication. Here’s one that was pubbed in their March/April 2009 issue, one of the Beloved’s personal favourites, “In Our Elements”:

  

This was created, with the idea of including as much green as possible in a layout. So here, our difference in personality is captured, thanks to our wedding photographer who caught this candid moment where we were just ourselves, as we enjoyed our wedding dinner.

Well, need to run now, before the shipment comes in and hopefully, by then, my stuff will all be in place and not only will the engine have started, by the car will be crusing along…. Tah for now!