December Daily 2011

Hello everyone!  Hope all is well with you.  Today I want to share my December Daily (yeah, finally) just before the weekend.  After the weekend, I'll have some new stuff up in the store for your shopping pleasure.  If you haven't used your Rebate Coupon, it may be an opportunity for you to use it. :)

I finished it a while ago but didn't have any chance to take some good photos of it.  As I mentioned before, this time I used some chipboard as the base of each page and therefore made a super thick album.  I like how the pages have turned out as I added some "paper engineering" this time to add more interests, but I honestly don't like the thickness of it.  Anyway, let's jump right into it and see if you have the patience to go through them all. :)

I personally like this intro page a lot as it looks like an art journal page to me.

On December 4th, we went to watch the Santa Parade in downtown.  I wanted to show more pictures of this and did this ~~

This is how it looks when the page is opened~~

Neat, right?  There's more of this kind of hidden pages to come.

I used a journal page to create this ~~

This is what's inside~~

On the eleventh day of Christmas, dear Kathy and Izzy gave me two gorgeous handmade cards and a bag of yummy cookies.  I wanted to include these cards in this album and made a pocket for them.  The above card was made by Kathy, and the following was made by Izzy.

And this is how the pocket looks~~  The tag is for the cookie bag.

Here I used a Fancy Pants Tradition Printed Transparency to show more pictures.  Love the swirl at the top.

The picture is actually a pocket for the receipts from the shops we visited that day, including Michaels.  Believe it or not, with tons of stuff for me to play with, I still shop at Michaels ... well, sometimes. :)

Another pocket here to house the grocery shopping on that day.

I wanted to include so many pictures on this special day and really gave some thoughts of how to display them beautifully.  I love how the next two spreads turn out~~

This is the inside of the extra little page, including pictures of the kids opening presents.

See where I put my journaling of the day :)

Same concept here.

Finally the last page!  I actually don't like this page because of the colour.  But, well, I've done it again for 2011 - another December Daily.

Here are some other looks of the thick album.

Four binding rings are used to bind the album.  I'm still thinking of other ways to bind it better.  If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

I really enjoyed the whole process.  When seeing my kids busy flipping the pages and singing Christmas songs at the same time, I feel so happy and content.  If you're still here with me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your great patience.  In case you're curious, I used mainly Authentique Paper's Wonder collection and Bo Bunny's Noel collection to build this album.

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading this long post to the end!!!!
hugs,
Yolanda

2012 - The Year of Family and Me

It's been 5 days into 2012 already when I'm writing this.  Can't believe it.  The other day I talked to my dad while going to Costco that the year 2011 has gone way too fast.  It felt like I haven't got used to write 2011 then it's gone already, and now it's time to write 2012.

When looking back, I find it hard to remember all the things that happened in 2011.  Thanks to the digital technology that allows us to take thousands of pictures without a blink.  Pictures bring me back the memory.

Both kids got pneumonia at the same time in last January, which really tired us physically and emotionally.  Despite this they had grown A LOT during last year.  Charles proudly finished pre-school and started kindergarten in last September, and he seemed to like it a lot.  Abigail started to talk a lot, became fully potty trained not long after her two-year-old birthday, learned letters and numbers by playing the monkey laptop (an educational toy that I highly recommend to any parents who are interested in early childhood education) and played well with her brother. 

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Today is January 12.  A week has gone by since I wrote the above.  Lately the store has really eaten up my time and brain.  Not that we have so many orders to fill, which we wish constantly.  As the store is reaching its 2nd birthday, we have, or just me, lots of decisions to make regarding the future of the store.  I'll write about this in another post as I've given some thoughts on this topic.

As in 2010, in 2011 I tried my best to keep myself busy and occupied so that I could "forget" certain things and feelings.  My dad went on a trip to China in April.  I had a hard time, feeling both frustrated and lost, during this month.  The loss of mom still hit me hard during this time of the year.

In early June, we decided to go on a road trip in the very last minute.  We drove all the way to Portland, then further south to Lincoln City, then back to Seattle visiting a family friend there.  It was a nice break for all of us.

It seemed the weather had a problem with me this year.  The rain was pouring on the day that I was planning a BBQ birthday party for the kids.  In the end we had to move the party indoor!  I couldn't believe my house could house so many people at the same time until this really happened.

Luckily the weather didn't ruin the party based on what I saw from this picture.  Everyone was smiling, right?  Hopefully in 2012, we have better luck with the weather.

Then it was the Mexican cruise and Southern California road trip in October.  As I said before, I will treasure this memory forever regardless of the annoying little things happening during the trip, which were inevitable no matter what.  As long as I focus on the positive side and the happy moments, I'm satisfied and content.

December was supposed to be another happy month for me as I just love this holiday season.  The shopping, the parties, the food, the gift making all make me happy, especially when I'm hosting the party for close friends.  But sadly it turned out to be not as good as I expected.  It was simply because both Charles and I got sick just before the scheduled party, therefore, we couldn't host the party anymore.  It was that simple.  But I was beaten completely by this "incident".  And I believe that I'm the only person truly know why.

Well, lesson learned in a hard way.  The more you care, the more you'll get hurt if things don't go the way you expected.  What can you do then?  Protect yourself, emotionally and psychologically.  And I've also learned that joy comes from the family.  In the end, it's the family that will stick with you no matter what.

This brings the topic of this post.

My words for year 2012 are FAMILY and ME.

I'll try to spend more quality time with the kids.  As they're growing and learning more and more about the world around them, I'd like to be part of their expanding world.  Charles gets bored easily, and he needs simulations to keep his energy up.  Ever since he started kindergarten, he's shown great interest in short stories books, words and simple maths.  Abigail is able to recognize more than 90% of letters, both upper case and lower case, and numbers although she still has difficulty with the names of colours.  More attention and meaningful activities will definitely further stimulate her learning interests.  By far she's learned things from her brother.

I'll try to improve my relationship with my hubby.  This is the topic I've been avoiding as it's a very complicated topic.  I read this article (10 habits of happy couples) awhile ago, and it really got me into thinking.  How many do we have?  And how well do we perform?  Focusing on the positiveness, the happy moments and the "stuff" we have/sharing really helps me stay on the right track of this relationship.  Marriage is a job; it is indeed hard work.  I can't agree more with this article.

I'll try to have no regrets with my dad.  Needless to say more about this, I just want my dad to be as happy as possible, as healthy as possible, and as being loved as possible.

This is my Family!

Then it's my turn.  I'll be taking good care of myself physically, emotionally and psychologically.  Although I'm still very impulsive when making decisions, I need to learn to slow things down and think it twice or even three or four times before making up my mind.  S.L.O.W. D.O.W.N.  I also need to learn to enjoy the moments and myself more, doing things for myself, NOT for others.  When doing things for myself, I'll feel happy and confident.  Then the people around me will benefit from the positive side effects of me being happy and confident.

I need to be more patient and do not get frustrated.  This is hard for me.  Again, focusing on the good side and try to let things go will help.

2011 is full of good memories regardless of those down-time moments.  I believe 2012 will be better as I'll be shifting my focus more towards the two most important things in my life - my Family and Myself.