New Year's Eve

It's the day before 2009.
2008 just zipped by. There were so many things to be thankful for:
My family: I'm so blessed to have hubby and two amazing girls.
My parents: they have been absolutely supportive, offering their help at the drop of a hat when work or other commitments call.
Our new home: it's amazing how God has provided for us.
Opportunities: to stretch and explore my ability and talent, to travel, to give my best, to unwind and rest.

While mulling over the direction for 2009, I found a list of 20 resolutions by Sinclair Ferguson taken from the book of James. I'm not sure I can keep 20 resolutions, but here they are:

1:5 To ask God for wisdom to speak and with a single mind

1:9-10 To boast only in exaltation in Christ, & humiliation in world

1:13 To set a watch over my mouth

1:19 To be constantly quick to hear, slow to speak

2:1-4 To learn the gospel way of speaking to poor and the rich

2:12 To speak always in the consciousness of the final judgment

2:16 To never stand on anyone’s face with my words

3:14 To never claim as reality something I do not experience

4:1 To resist quarrelsome words in order to mortify a quarrelsome heart

4:11 To never speak evil of another

4:13 To never boast in what I will accomplish

4:15 To always speak as one subject to the providences of God

5:9 To never grumble, knowing that the Judge is at the door

5:12 To never allow anything but total integrity in my speech

5:13 To speak to God in prayer whenever I suffer

5:14 To sing praises to God whenever I am cheerful

5:14 To ask for the prayers of others when I am sick

5:15 To confess it freely whenever I have failed

5:15 To pray with and for one another when I am together with others

5:19 To speak words of restoration when I see another wander

Do you make New Year's resolution? What is your resolution for 2009?

Hello Blog Readers

I started this blog as a way to record my thoughts, my crafting endeavours and snippets of my family and work life. The fact that I call this an aquarium means I want you to peer in and even participate. So, if indeed you are looking into my aquarium now, do leave a comment and let me know you're around.

Books and Tags (2)

This tags are bigger, but soooo yummy.

Painted Maya Road chipboards:

Matching and mixing flowers.  Love the layers upon layers of Prima and Bazzill.

Oh, some Maya Road sheers at the lower right.


Adding the blings (Robin's Nest):

Putting on the Glitz - Stickles!!

Ready to be customised with painted grungeboard letters.  I prefer these to chipboard letters because they can bend over and stick better to the uneven surface.

Books and Tags (1)

More images of the gifts:

Notebooks to go with the name tags.

The notebooks are covered with plain-coloured paper and trimmed with binding tape.

Boxing Day

The last post was Little One's doing as she pecked away at the keyboard when I wasn't paying attention.  I like to think she meant "Christmas ^^^ be good!"

Christmas came and went in a whirl.  We received sad news on Christmas Eve.  Yesterday was spent with the bereaved family.  It's heartening to see family members rallying together and giving each other support.  P's family is small and cousins are as close as siblings.  Our generation must work hard so that the next generation will be as closely knit too.

cm  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ bg

It's Christmas Eve !!

Finished the gift in the wee hours this morning and Big One will package them later today. The dining table is a mess after the last minute late night gift-making, but who cares? Christmas is peeking the nose around the corner and I'm excited. For the first time in 16 years, Hubby does not have to leave the Christmas dinner early or arrive late because of work. We'll probably stay awake until the wee hours of Christmas morning just because we can! A few more things to check off the to-do list: hang some ornaments and display items around the house.
Woohoo!
Merry Christmas to All!
Celebrate the Reason!!
May this holiday season be especially meaningful to you.

To Do's

Christmas is round the corner and I've got a ton of gifts to complete and the house to spruce up.

The bag tags are such fun to make - each batch gets better and I'm on to version 6. Let's see:
v2 had the microbeads, v3 eyelets, v4 dimensional pearls, v5 painted chipboards instead of sheers, v6 stickles on grungeboard letters and flowers.
I'll have to carve out time to work on the twelve altered notebooks.

Some new furniture arrived yesterday, but I left out one item in the purchase. Which means paying the delivery charge again just for this item. Sigh ... so muddleheaded.

I hope to test out some cameras over the weekend. These photo-less days are boring.

The End of a Phase

Another Mommy post ... we replaced Little One's bedtime feed with the bottle the last 2 nights.  I feel sad to let go of this phase, but I have gone for longer than I first targeted and I take comfort that I have provided her the best during this time: thirteen exclusive months, two and a half months partially beginning with one replacement while I depleted the stockpile, and finally, after Friday, a third bottle for bedtime.  I don't think I'll easily forget her whimper and expression of both surprise and frustration when she couldn't drink her fill.  Sigh ... 

Tapering Off

This is a mommy post ... I'm a little sad that Little One is slowly weaning off, going 40 - 48 hours with nursing.  But she has progressed in leaps and bounds (at least to me) in other areas.

• desire to self-feed
• able to follow instructions: pick up the bottle and put on the table
• learning to choose: if you do this, Mama will do that
• needing discipline: Mama said you cannot throw this on the floor (accompanied by sad yelling that she has been disciplined)
• fearing consequences: if you throw this on the floor, I'll smack your hand

Churning Out the Gifts

These are the first batch.

Maya Road tags and Grungeboards embellished with:

Rub-ons (Luxe) and mini compass (All the Extras)
Flowers (Bazzill Bling , Prima), Robin's Nest, microbeads

Choices

Somehow decisions about work arrangements, buying a pns vs dslr, save or splurge on new clothes, ... all these seem trivial and even disrespectful compared to this.

Someone who, though not given a choice for freedom, chose to demonstrate and express love.

My Big Girl

is a teenager already!  Happy Birthday Sweet!!

Venice - the food edition

Warm comfort food which hits the right spot after a cold day out:

Fresh seafood:

It was difficult to stop eating these so that I can take a shot:

And despite the cold, our daily (yes, daily!) dose of gelato:

Venice

Love the colours and textures in this city.  Every scene is postcard perfect!

A parking ticket on the gondola?
Venice food deserves its own post, but couldn't resist this shot:
How funny is this, in Italian!

Waiting to go home:

Amsterdam

Our very mod hotel:

Clean, comfortable, convenient.  Very friendly staff.  

The city sights:

And the country:

Dutch food isn't much to rave about.  Hotch-potch:

And pancakes:

Now this is what I call a pancake: