Thursday, January 01, 2009

Blessed New Year!

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?)

Click here to view this photo book.


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

53 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for the freebie! I love the colors!! Your photobook is WONDERFUL! You've seen more of the US than I have ;). Wishing you and your family many blessings for 2009 and I can't wait to see the Japan pictures!

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  2. Happy new year, Yin! I hope that 2009 brings you and your family tons of blessings and joys. Your Shutterfly book is wonderful. Thanks for letting us look at it.

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  3. You did such an awesome job on the USA trip book! Congrats!!! Also, thank you for the freebie kit... I'm a sucker for brown and pink combo!!!

    Happy New Year to you!

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  4. I LOVE reading your blog - thank you so much for sharing your sweet spirit with us. God is SO good! Thank you for all the templates you have shared and for the gift of this beautiful kit. May God richly bless you and your family during 2009.

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  5. This is just BEAUTIFUL!!! Thank you so much for sharing this kit:)

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  6. HAPPY 2009!!!!

    Your Shutterfly book came out just awesome. I love it!!!! Sorry about the duplicate pages :(

    I can't remember if I linked to these before or not, but I did these pages with your templates recently:

    New Zealand

    Bear Lake

    Fraser

    HUGS!

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  7. Your photobook is beautiful !!!
    Thank you for this freebie !!

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  8. I love the photobook! I really like the two-page spreads. Can I ask how you do that? I'm new to this world and I love learning new techniques. Thanks, also for the freebie - it's great!

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  9. Thank you for the beautiful kit! I love it! Happy New Year :)

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  10. I love your blog and your style! Your books are wonderful - and inspiring! Thank you for the kit! Love the colors! Blessings to you in the New Year!

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  11. Thanks for sharing your book with us...you are an inspiration! Seeing yours all done really motivates me to have one of my own! And thanks for the kit, it's very sweet and I love the name! :) -Karen

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  12. Templates--gorgeous,
    Pictures, out of this world,
    Book of memories-spectacular
    time spent with family--PRICELESS

    I LOVE your work! You have seen and done more than I probably ever will so I am jealous but lovin' the inspiration that you are spreading! Keep up the great work1

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  13. Thank you so much for not only your freebies & templates, but also for such a wonderful blog. You remind me of my mother who just unexpectedly passed away last week. She loved God and her family first and lived life to the fullest! She will be missed. Thank you again!

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  14. So NOT out of date! Love this sweet kit. Thanks so much! Your blog is so sincere and inspiring. Blessings!

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  15. Thank you for sharing these are absolutely beautiful:) Not outdated at all)

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  16. I love your blog and your templates! Thank you for sharing! You ordered from shutterfly right? Did your book have a barcode on the back cover and their logo on the inside? I love shutterfly, but it bugs me with that barcode on the back of the book! I also wanted to share a layout that I did with one of your templates. Here is the link: http://meghanjustice.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-layout.html

    Thanks again!

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  17. Hi Yin! Happy new year! That's a gorgeous photo book! I think this year will be the year that i'll finally be able to scrap 100 pages! Haha :)

    I'll definitely come back to get your freebie, it's beautiful. Thank you in advance :)

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  18. Thank you so much for the freebies, they are super pretty!

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  19. Thanks so much for the freebie! Great photobook too! I love your templates and was wondering if you could make one of your 365 project pages. I love the clean lines of it.
    Michele

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  20. thanks for this freebie and Happy new year to you and your family

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  21. Yin, I really LOVELOVELOVE your photobook! Your style is amazing and I think you are really talanted. Also thank you so much for your templates, they are my favourite!

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  22. i love your photobook! i wish i could be creative like you! thanks for the freebie!

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  23. Merci pour ce tres joli freebie

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  24. Lovely, thank you!

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  25. Oh my your photobook is so wonderful. It will be treasured for years and years to come.

    I was wondering if you would be interested in making weekly double templates for people to use in the 365 photo project? You are such an expert at layouts it would be wonderful if you could share some templates with people like me that are not creative in that way. I am fine once I have a template and an idea but need that start.

    Happy New Year to you and your famly

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  26. I love your layout for January 1. Is that a template that is available somewhere? All of your work is gorgeous. I'm new to digital scrapbooking but your work is an inspiration and your willingness to integrate your Christian faith into your work makes it so much more meaningful. Thank you for sharing your creative talent with so many friends around the world.

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  27. Happy new Year to you and your family!!! I loved your album, is FANTASTIC!!!! Perfct!! Lovely! Thanks so much for this, I will take your address in my memories. Thanks so much.

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  28. Thanks for sharing. You have inspired me to get off my tush and work to create a family book of my own.

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  29. this freebie is absolutly fabulous!!! Love it!!!

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  30. Your photobook is absolutely beautiful! I wish I could capture the US the way that you have. I live in northern Virginia, not too far from Great Falls Park. You certainly made it look gorgeous. I love the Washington Monument pages too.

    I enjoyed seeing my layout on your blog. :-)

    Melissa

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  31. I have joined in with the Project 365 too, except I am planning to do it on a separate blog.

    Love the verses you quoted in this post.

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  32. Oh how I needed that scripture verse today. Thank you for that, more the the free scrapbook stuff. But thank you for that as well.

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  33. Thanks for the freebie! I love the bubbly hearts! Your photo book looks amazing!

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  34. Wow! Yin! l'm so glad to see this kit back. I loved the Quickpage you made with it. But I was to late to get it.Thank-you

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  35. I am amazed at the inspiration of your blog...it is so nice to come across a fellow believer! Thanks for all you do to help the scrapping community. Your freebies are delightful and show your generous heart!

    If you have time, I would love for you to visit my new blog...it's all about blogging, and decorating your blog, and I'm pretty jazzed about it.

    Thanks again for the awesome freebie!

    Here’s to more happy scrapping, and
    Hugs from the heart,
    Jeanette

    Come scrap your blog with me…
    Easy Custom Blogs

    -:¦:-.•:*¨¨*:•.-:¦:-.•:*¨¨*:•.-:¦:-.•:*¨¨*:•.-:¦:-

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  36. thanks! These are great!

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  37. I love your book! I was so inspired and I think you are so talented!! I love your style so much!!

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  38. It's a beautiful kit. Thanks so much for sharing!!!

    Hugs... Aisha

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  39. Thank you and Happy New Year!

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  40. Thanks for the wonderful paper and elements kit! "Outdated" or not, I love it!!!

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  41. Thank you!

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  42. Your kit is wonderful..thanks for sharing Yin !! take care..

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  43. Thanks for the digikit. It's so wonderful. I just was directed to your blog. I can't wait to see more. :)

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  44. i just went to see your photo book, and all i can think of is "absolutely amazing"! You did an INCREDIBLE job on it!!! Wow!

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  45. Blessings for you too! Thanks for your kit ... although there are trends ... the "personal taste" in scrapbooking is unique ... so see how many like your stuff!

    Greetings from Germany

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  46. Gorgeous! Thank you!

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  47. Thanks for the pretty papers!

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  48. Your photobook is wunderful! I´m a fan of your templates!

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  49. OOOOOOh.......love this color combo. This kit has a subtle sophistication to it. Thanks so much for sharing. My daughter is living for 2 years in Shanghai and is blogging all her travel experiences. I steered her to your blog and your templates which I think will be a tremendous help for her multitude of pictures. She's an excellent writer which will bring her scrapbook to life. Thanks for all your inspiration. Cathy G

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  50. whoa I'm totally blown away with the photobook. Love it. Now you make me feel like making a photobook for my Australia trip, but it's only 8 days LOL

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  51. AnonymousJune 05, 2009

    Thank you for your freebie templates and your beautiful inspiration. I love how you do your layouts book style. Very colorful. You make me jelous of all your travels :)) Happy Traveling and scrapping. You do it so wonderful! God Bless,

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  52. I love the colors in this kit!! Thank you for putting the time into it.

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