Monday, January 11, 2010

Looking back and Looking forward

Blessed New Year!! I just realised I had been missing from here for almost a month! Had been too busy with life! We were back safely from our trip to Hokkaido on 26th, followed by two christmas/new year parties at our place (due to us not being home during christmas), and then the mad rush to get kids ready for the new school year (which starts for us on 4th Jan), especially Ryan who moved onto high school this year!
We got him new uniforms, school bag, haircut, watch, track shoes, mobile phone (yes we finally gave it to him in view of his commute so he can be contactable), everything (!) to 'transform' him from primary school student to high school student (wink). But the real transformation was happening within, we watched as he took everything in stride - orientation, using public transport (his 'commute' is an hour and 15 mins each way!), new subjects, electives, new friends, and so on. He's definitely coping better with this than we are! I kept thinking back to his first day at primary school, crying and hanging onto me, look at him now!
On his first day at school, I messaged him this verse :

Isaiah 41:10

So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

And he messaged right back: Yes, everything is fine.
Indeed! With the Lord God upholding us, everything is fine, for our good, and for His Glory!

And on top of all that, we had a birthday party for Jared last saturday (put together in less than 5 days) - his first inviting friends from school (last year he finally wised up and asked why after 10 birthdays he still does not have a party with friends, we usually just cut a cake as a family or just one or two friends to celebrate, hehe) - we were quite stressed out planning food and games, I was worried too many kids will turn up and Dh was worried too few kids will turn up - of course everything turned out perfect. He invited only boys (lol) and they all brought a Nerf Blaster (toy guns) and had a blast. Here's the birthday boy making his wish. He's 11.


Now of course I have to show you some photos from Hokkaido! For the first time in our lives (other than that one day in New York), we experienced a complete winter wonderland for 8 whole days. Snow falling is perhaps the most magical and beautiful experience for us who live in the tropics, we loved it!! Until we were there this time we had no idea the immense effort required to shovel snow, remove it from the roads and streets, and how hard it was to pull our luggage over snow covered sidewalks!!! There was constantly workers and trucks on the main roads moving snow, day and night... wow we had no idea. We gave up most of our planned itinery (also taking it easy after dh's health scare) in favour of just playing in the snow, having snow ball fights, making snow man, snow angel and so on...here's a first layout

Credits: Background paper by Ginna Miller, snowflakes and word labels by Miss Mint
At the same time, I'm yet to complete all the layouts for our Japan trip from the year before!! I must speed up and complete it soon - here's photos from our visit to the Himeiji Castle - an incredible historical and beautiful day.
Credits: Alpha by Krystal Hartley, twine by Marcie Reckinger, Background paper by Mira Designs, and torn paper by Designs by Krista
And now i'm very excited to say I've completed my 365 album for 2009!!! It has been such a satisfying, rich and wonderful memory-making, daily life-capturing, scrapbook-creating experience! Looking back through the layouts when I was choosing photos to put on the cover helped me see how much God has blessed us and brought us through last year, truly, great is His faithfulness.
Now I can't wait to see it in print!! Here are the last two layouts for the year:

Credits: Christmas ornament by Nathy Designs, Christmas word doodle by HeatherAnne Designs, Foil Flakes by Rachel Young


Credits: Button flower and heart by Rachel Young, button by Julia Makontinsky


Then I decided to pick 12 photos from the year's 365 photos to put on the cover, this is what I finally got. It took me a while and several iterations, and I'm still not sure this is what I will go with, because it does not seem to go with the inside of the album, in which I adopted a much cleaner and linear layout scheme...
Credits: Background paper, numbers, arrow, flower and doodled frame by Lynsay Riches
And so, I found a template downloaded from Weeds & Wildflowers earlier last year, and came up with this. Lovely isn't it? What do you think?
In any case, I decided to pack my various iterations of the 12 photo covers into a pack for the store. Maybe you can use it for year in review layouts!

Finally, here are the last two 365 layouts templates
You can download both templates to play with here!
And as I look back and forward, I also want to thank everyone of you who visits me here, left me comments, sent me emails, bought my templates, supported me and became my friends - THANK YOU for blessing me!

48 comments:

  1. Thank you for the templates! I'm doing P365 this year and I appreciate the new layouts. I can see that I'd quickly get bored with the same ones again and again. And, congratulations on getting your album done! After less that two weeks of this project, I can see what a HUGE accomplishment that was!

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  2. First I came to your blog as a digiscrap addict. I love your templates and they are a base in almost every page I do :) But after a while your comments on your everyday life became almost more important than a new layoutfreebie. I don't have God as close in my life as you do, and your posts and quotes makes me think and reflect over life in another way. Thank you for sharing!
    Whith hope for a great 2010 for you and your family
    /anna

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  3. Thank you for the great templates. Wishing you and your family a healthy and happy new year!

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  4. Thanks once again for sharing your wonderful templates. Your pages inspire me more than anyone else. You are a shining example of the life we all should lead.

    Thanks
    Sharon

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  5. Thank you for the great templates. Wishing you and your family a healthy and happy new year!

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  6. Welcome back and thank you for the templates. Living in North Dakota, we have so much snow that its amazing to hear the excitement about having a white Christmas.

    I am curious about the comments you made about school for your children. I believe you said you live in Singapore. In the US the new school year begins in late August or September. Does the new school year begin in January in Singapore? If so, why?

    Thank you!

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  7. Welcome back Yin!! :) Glad to have you! Sounds like you had a great trip! All of your new pages are lovely. Thanks for the freebies and you KNOW I'll be posting them on my freebie blog in the next post!!!! :)

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  8. Hi there!

    Hope all is well with you and yours.

    Congrats on completing your P365 - I have the photos, but still some layouts to complete.

    I am continuing it for this year.

    Your templates are still wonderful, and the first ones I go to when I need some multi-photo templates.

    Thanks :)

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  9. Hi!.. glad you are back!!!...
    wow your kids are getting old!! and now high school... i follow all your post and have during the last year how they grow!
    thanks for all you share and going to keep buying your templates this year!
    Thanks for the freebies too!
    a hug from Colombia

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  10. Thank YOU for blessing us with your creativity and kindness! I just love your lo's--I always get so inspired. Thank you!

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  11. Thank you for the templates. I decided to do P365 this year. It's going to be such a project, but I'm sure your templates will help!

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  12. Thank you so much for sharing your templates and tidbits from your life.

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  13. I love reading about you and your family and how God blesses you. You are so generous to share your wonderful templates - thank you for that.

    Also, thank you for sharing the verse you sent as a text to your son, it was just what I needed to hear. Thank you for blessing me.

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  14. Thank-you for always being one step ahead of me. Your templates are wonderful.

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  15. Thanks for the great templates!

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  16. Happy new year, your LO are again and again beautiful, thanks for the template

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  17. Thank you so much, I've really enjoyed browsing your site, your layouts are so pretty!

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  18. Thanks so much. I have a new blog and have you're linked blinkie up.

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  19. Thank you so much. I want to tell you that your layouts help me get going on pages. Sometimes I have such a creative block. So thank you many times for sharing.

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  20. Thank you for the templates, I just love them!

    I also want to say that I am incredibly impressed with your son. To message back such an incredible message, shows me that he has had and is having an amazing Godly upbringing. What a blessing he will be to others in his life! My prayer is that I can raise daughters that would reply a similar message if I would send one like yours. Have an amazing day!

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  21. Congratulations on finishing you album. I wish I could say the same :(

    Have decided a photo a day is just too much for me and will try to do weekly layouts this year. Each week will include whatever photos I manage to take :) Hopefully I will have 52 layouts at the end of 2010.

    With the help of your wonderful templates I know I accomplish this. THanks so much

    Blessings to you and your family for 2010

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  22. Welcome home from what sounds like a wonderful vacation. Your boys are really growing up, and very nicely it seems. I love your pages and your templates. Thank you so much for your generous spirit in sharing the gifts God has given you.

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  23. Happy New Year! sounds like you are as busy as ever. I'm not sure it ever slows down until the kids leave home! LOL
    I finished P365 last year and ordered my book just a couple of days ago. I too ended up redoing my cover even though I still liked it because the one I had made previously just didn't seem to fit the clean and simple style I used for the pages. I can't wait to get it!
    Thanks for your templates, they always help me get pages done!

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  24. Thank you! These are just fantastic!

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  25. I recently had baby #4 - which pretty much means no time to scrapbook. But last week I was sent 3 free coupon codes for shutterfly books! yay! But I didn't have pages ready to go. So - thanks to you and your wonderful templates I think I might just get it done. Thanks so much for sharing the freebies. Also - I love the new Box download service... very easy. Thanks!!!

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  26. Thank you for more wonderful templates! I always look forward to your posts. I really love you style.

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  27. THank you!!! It's my first year doing P365 and these will help me immensly. :)

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  28. Thanks again for the wonderful templates! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE your templates!

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  29. Always a treat stopping by--thank U for sharing with us! :)

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  30. Thank you for all your wonderful template. I admire your album and wish can make an album like that for myself

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  31. Thank you for the great templates! They look awesome.

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  32. Haha....here's me thinking I've finished my 2009 project 365, but I haven't done my title page yet! Doh! Will have to think about that and get working on it.

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  33. Thanks so much Yin for the wonderful templates. So generous!

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  34. Thank you so much Yin! Hope you have a wonderful & healthy New Year! Your generosity is much appreciated!!

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  35. Thanks for these, they look great

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  36. Glad you're back! What a busy month you've had!!

    I'm still working on my 365 project, but when it's done, it will be 52 weeks of Yin templates..YAY!

    Always a blessing to visit your blog.

    Thanks for the freebie...hugs!

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  37. wow, thanks for the templates! I really love how you've used them too. Great photos and layouts, I'm sure you and your family will treasure them

    Julie

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  38. I wanted to say thank you for all of your work---I enjoy reading about your everyday life as well, you are an encouragement to me.

    I finished Project 365 last year and need to take a year off! I used my own template design as I discovered that I have been photographing almost exclusively in landscape mode.

    I wanted to tell you I LOVE the "new" template style you're experimenting with (like template 165). I have always loved your scattered curled templates and have bought or downloaded a ton of them. But I find myself moving more toward a squared-off type of look, and the new ones suit me wonderfully!

    Keep 'em coming, and I'll keep buying them! I'd love to send links to LOs I've done with your templates, but I don't know where to send them.

    Thanks again, Sappy New Year!

    Sarah
    Monroe, Louisiana, USA

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  39. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  41. thanks for the freebeis!

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  42. Thank you for the wonderful templates! God Bless! :)

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  43. I love seeing your pages and your templates are gorgeous. Thank you very much for sharing both. :)

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  44. Thanks so much for these. I been looking for something to scrap my photo project with. Thank you...

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  45. Thank you for more of your fabulous templates!

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  46. Thank you so much for your freebie!It's really nice from you to share your talent! here is my pages http://creatrish.blogspot.fr/2012/03/week-11saint-patricks-day.html

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  47. thank you - all I have to do now it to put these great templates to use, and browse through your store. :)

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