Embarking on recording life the creative way...Project Life

Ever since I started scrapbooking, I was hooked. I love that I can use my creativity to preserve those precious memories and that all the photos that we take are not only kept in disc and computer hard disk...I know these albums will be precious in the future....there was once Grace took out the albums and started looking at her baby stories and it was fun.....

As much as I want to scrap everyday....that really is no workable when I have 2 sticky glues and a household to mend....and so, due to us moving to the new house....I've stopped creating layouts for like 4 months....gosh....that was long....

I came to realize that when life caught up with me....I create less and less.....but I still want to keep all those memories and print out those photos!!!!

After much consideration and calculator pressing....I finally pre-ordered my Project Life kit in November, waited for about 1 month and was so excited to receive my package.....Project Life is so talked about these days in the scrapbooking community.....as for my non-scrapbooking friends...Project Life is "a back to basics approach to memory keeping". You can read more about it here. (note: I'm not getting paid for telling you this..)

And so, I am now happily taking photos everyday, making notes everyday and creating the pages in my Project Life album every week....I will still make scrapbook layouts on those bigger/ special events....

After reading through the blogs of fellow Project Lifers....I get ready for 2012....

I organized my stuff nicely...

I prepared a weekly diary with pockets for recording and keeping memorabilia.

I put together the title page (still missing a photo of daddy and the girls)

We're now onto the 2nd week of 2012....and yesterday I get the spread for the 1st week ready....

1st week and I already have an additional insert...1 side of the insert is for the welcoming of 2012 at church while the other side is Grace's school activities sheet..

Here's the spread without the insert

The right page

The left page

My space

A space belonging to me...yeah just me...when the 2 sticky glues are asleep....

I'm so happy with this space of mine....though not very big....it is not small....

In the afternoon, it will be a space for Grace to do her homework and craft.....other times it will be my computer room, work station (my work as family accounts clerk and church treasurer) and craft corner....

I'll let the photos say for itself...

An overall look of the room

On the table top is the chest of drawers (got it from Material) which houses a lot of my smaller stuff and the one beside it (also from Material) houses my Project Life cards (will talk more in another post)...

Nice shelf from Biggie Best..housed all of my flowers, buttons, Mister Huey and Distress Inks

These wall cabinets (originally installed by previous owner) are great for displaying my mini albums (upper) while the lower panel house all my vertically stored stamps, dies, loose alphabets, glues (in the white bin), large tools (in the pink bin), my newly bought sewing machine....and all hanging crafty creation of Miss Grace...

That pile of metal bins are both decorative and for storing threads and needles..

All my papers, stickers, die-cut shapes, are stored vertically here...this top to bottom book cabinet is an add-on...my scrapbook albums are stored in the guest room...with all my photo albums....easy retrieval for people to browse...

The book cabinet has 4 compartments, the lowest compartment has 2 shelves - houses Grace and Elise's books, the perfect height for little girls, then a compartment with just 1 shelf for all my crafty stuff, then the open shelf (as above) and the last compartment with 3 shelves - houses files (bills and documents), books and many more....

This little box below the table is also an add-on....with a just right drawer above and a carefully designed cupboard below.

The drawer houses these....

and the cupboard houses these....

The open shelf below the table....one arm houses more of my stuff...adhesive, ribbons, cutting mat, trimmers, pens....etc...

the other side with trays....houses Grace's stuff....pencils, coloring pens and pencils, a whole lot of stickers, a whole lot of mini notebooks.....

There you have it....my crafty space...I hope it will always be so tidy....hehe....

Grace's Birthday Final Part - Episode 2

Wow....I've abandoned my blog for the longest time....year end is always so very busy....I'm not quite done with Grace's birthday as yet....

And so...after our breakfast, we went home for a much needed rest and nap....

In the evening, we head on to TGI Fridays for a birthday dinner....and a little surprise for the little girl....when ordering our food, I told the waitress that we are celebrating Grace's birthday and wanted them to celebrate it TGIF's way....and for that we get a Friday's Sundae on the house....

And so we let the little girl ordered whatever she wants and then we eat....

After which, the crew came out with the sundae all lit up with a candle....and while Grace is anticipating them to sing for her.....she was asked to stand up (on the chair) and sing a song.....hmmm....now that's a surprise for her....

Later when went to Toys R Us....to pick up a present for Grace (this is from her grandma 奶奶)...what else can a princess like Grace pick?.....barbie dolls off course...and yes, she also picked a set of barbie doll when her uncle (my brother) took her shopping for her present....

So...here's the last bit of her 5th Birthday in photos....

Here's the very pretty birthday girl

Birthday girl enjoying her food

Waiting for her surprise

Singing a song

from her 奶奶

from her 舅舅

Grace's Birthday Final Part - Episode 1

So how did we ended up celebrating her birthday on the actual day?.....

Well...it all started very early on Saturday (26th Nov)....intended to start it at 5.30am but as "mom-the-alarm-clock" couldn't wake up...it started at 6.30am.....both girls skipped their morning bath...too early....and someone...yes...someone even accidentally skipped brushing her teeth.....hehehee....must be too excited..

Where did we head to?....."The hills are alive....in the sound of music...."err....got a little side-tracked there.....we head on to the Penang Hill...and since it was a school holiday here in Malaysia plus it was a long weekend, and being very kiasu (how can we not?...we just don't want out kids to get sandwiched....) we went early to beat the crowd....

It was a great experience for the girls to be on the new funicular train up the hill....we had small walks there...and someone complained that her little feet are tired...and since there was no food found on the hill...we head back down after about 1 hour....and went to our favorite (more of like the girls' fav) Starbucks outlet for breakfast....

Notice the episode 1 on the blog title?....yes...there's more for the little girl....

In the meantime...here's some photos on the hills....

The amount of crowd when we board the train

A curious girl...

Beautiful scenery

with beautiful people....ahem

Grace's birthday Part 2

Like I said earlier....that little girl gets to celebrate her birthday over and over again (I mean...the same year!!!!)......

First celebration was with her school mates....and the second one was with my side of the family and it was in Kuala Lumpur.....ahahaha.....one lucky girl....we usually do birthday party at home but this year my mother-in-law was not around, as she went overseas for the birth of her 7th grandchild....

Anyway....it was school holidays and so we packed gong-gong's (my father) car and off we went to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday afternoon....her uncle Daniel usually fly back for her birthday...but since we are down there....we might as well have a celebration there....and so we have it at Delicious....and the food was delicious....

Here's some photos....

A Happy...happy...happy...(x100) birthday girl

with gong-gong and po-po

with Uncle Daniel (my brother)

Stay tuned for her final birthday celebration on the special day....with her special parents (ahem....)

Grace's birthday Part 1

Like last year, Grace wanted to celebrate her birthday in school with her friends and so we have to celebrate it one week in advance as they will be on school holiday starting tomorrow.....

This year, I have lesser time to prepare special goodies bag for her friends...and so we had just made princess wand for each of her girl friends (altered from windmill candy...which the boys get) plus bought some stationery sets......

Why part 1?....let's just say some lucky girl gets to celebrate her birthday a few times this year....stay tune to see how many times she gets to celebrate it......

Here's some photos....

Summer "Wahaii"

...that's Grace's version of "Summer Hawaii".....her tongue sort of get twisted and couldn't (initially) get the Hawaii right....she got it right later on though....

What's with this Summer Hawaii??....well it was the theme for her school's Children's Day Potluck party this year....and so we handmade her costume (err...except for the blouse and pants...of course)

we made hula skirt out of raffia strings....flower lei for the neck out of a whole bucket of Prima Marketing French Can-Ection, Paris flowers and flower lei for the head with simple handmade flowers.....

Here's the "Hawaiian" princess....