christmas project 2011

like every other year, the grand old debate begins once again, about whether we should do any Christmas gifts. i suppose last last year (2010), we had a good excuse not to, since we were about to get married within 7 days. so we invested on these instead.

but we had no excuse this recent Christmas, hehe :) and so after some deliberation and discussion, we embarked on a journey to create these...

thank God for a fruitful time, and for how things still turned out despite the hiccups we had. doing such gifts gives us time to ponder on each person who has been a blessing to us throughout the year, especially when we type notes for them and think back on the year of friendship/fellowship. also, we wanted our gifts to point to the perfect Giver, who has given us the perfect gift. hopefully, these sticker calendars will enable each of us to look to God in the rest of the days He (God-willing) gives us for the year.

first, we printed the calendars on A4 sticker paper, readily available in every bookshop. Editing the photos was done on photoshop, with the help of polaroid frame templates found on Fuzzimo - a site definitely worth checking out if you're into graphic design. The fonts i used more often are Print Clearly (for the dates) and Day Roman (for the month). Thereafter,  i used Powerpoint to arrange 14 images per sheet and printed them out using my trusty old Epson inkjet printer.

we did lots and lots of cutting. think: the number of people we love x 12 months = an EXPONENTIAL AMOUNT of stickers to cut out. what you see in the pictures are not all! to make full use of time, we would bring the box of stickers and 2 pairs of scissors around so we could work on the cutting whenever we had free pockets of time.

after the cutting, we needed to sort the stickers according to their months....

then, we tucked them into (commonly seen in FITW) white glassine bags. our original plan was to print the greetings on the bag itself with inspiration from here. however, to our dismay, the glassine bags were too slippery and thin and the printer simply could not work. hence, we had to change plans. we ended up printing them on sticker paper and cutting them out ourselves.

 

looking at these photos make me realise why i love photography so much. everything, from God's creation, to His people, to scenery, to the movements of His creatures, can be seen with a godly perspective and can remind us of what kind of God we have. indeed, they are proof that we have a God at Hand (Hebrew: Elohay Mikarov), near to us, revealing to us who He is and what He requires of us.

p.s. you will probably see these photos popping up on my blog throughout the year :) i hope what they express will be a blessing to you, to point you to God :)

1....2....300!

God blessed our dear friends with a beloved and highly adorable baby called Nathan! we have never seen so much hair on a baby! :) check out this cute little boy with his countless expressions :)

so, with the request of them and also a strong desire to contribute and show our affection, PP and i embarked on a project we think is rather major.. making 300 bottles of hot chocolate! fortunately, the giving of hot chocolate is highly versatile and the wordings on the labels can also be changed to fit the occasion :)

herein lies countless bottles, waiting to dry..

we could not find plain white marshmallows, but it turned out to be a blessing because the fruit-flavoured marshmallows added colour to the bottle :)

We used the same labels and design, but changed the wordings.

then, instead of attaching red hearts, we printed his picture on photo paper using our old but reliable canon selphy photo printer :) cut cut cut!

tied the photos and the spoon with brown twine...

300 of these is definitely not an easy task, but thank God for enabling us :) :) here's another version of it, filled with chocolate rocks instead of hot chocolate - to remind fellow brethren to "Continue Stedfast (like rocks) in Doctrine and Fellowship". not done by us la - many thanks to the loving hands who prepared this for our YAF anniversary :)

another year has dawned

wow!

in the blink of an eye, we are in a new year again. it has been a rocky start to the year. i don't mean rocky in the negative sense, but rocky, in that there have been many UPS, and many DOWNS. yes, all in the span of half a month?!? all in His plan, hence, all good :) much as i longed to sit down properly to pen my thoughts, i have been MAD BUSY. u will know why, God-willing, in a coming blog post. think 300 bottles of hot chocolate, hahaha!

thank God for His sustenance thus far. i long to document everything so i can use this blog as a record of how much i need Him and how good He has been to me. thank God for a special someone sent along the way to remind me also that this blog must be a blessing :) :) His ways are indeed perfect :)

when the year started, this song was my prayer.

 

Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be

In working or in waiting, another year with Thee.

Another year of progress, another year of praise,

Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.

Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace,

Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face;

Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast;

Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of service, of witness for Thy love,

Another year of training for holier work above.

Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be

On earth, or else in Heaven, another year for Thee.

Frances R. Havergal, 1874

people talk about new year resolutions, but i guess i do not really have fixed ones in my head. perhaps they are more of lessons learnt, from the past year... that for a fruitful and truly blessed year, i must....

walk with the LORD (night classes at FEBC have been a good way to keep it)

serve Him and love Him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength

think more of others and less of myself

be humble (still learning and always learning, sigh)

count my blessings (so i will be joyful)

perhaps this verse sums up everything very well...

Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you. 1 Samuel 12: 24

Consider the word "only". it means a lot.

pomelo pulp

pomelo pulp is a favourite of mine, since young! i would painfully slog through the peeling of the pomelo pulp, just to enjoy the juicy, tangy sweetness and the experience of the pulp bursting in my mouth at one bite! it goes marvellously well with this too!

of course, mummy dear knows that perfectly well, and i was extremely touched when she handed me a box of peeled pomelo pulp :)