July Creations

These are some of my creations for the month of July!

First off, is a card I made for my friend, Jo, who got engaged on 4th July 2009! Still can't believe it! Hehe. Congrats to them both! I did a pinky-purply card, backed with a floral pattern paper and a nice white-silvery ribbon across it. :)

Next would be my housemate's birthday card. Vic is a bigg fan of the colour blue…hence the blue card I made especially for her with a bigg ribbon. Her birthday falls on 6th July 2009.

On 7th July, my dad turned 61! Whoohoo. Mum calls it his "six series". Hehe. I made a card with a golf theme, since my dad is such an avid golfer.

You can find him practicing his swings at almost every corner of the house. His favourite spot is either in front of the tv or at the living room. Once, I even found him doing it at the dining area. Hahah!

And...here are my weekly challenges' creations for the LLC blog.


For the 1st challenge, our theme was green cards. This idea came up from Abin's (Sue's hubs) colleague, Agnes whose favourite colour is greeeen. I wanted to do something cute & fun..hehe. This is it. I named mine the "Green Smile". I totally dig the tiny brad which I've put on the centre of the blue ribbon. How cute is that!

The 2nd challenge was to create a card consisting of these 3 colours - brown, orange & white. An idea I got from this guy I saw, wearing a striped t-shirt with those colours. It got my attention straightaway. (Not the guy aa..so not, haha). So, to Mr Striped Shirt, thank you for wearing that t-shirt!

I made a thank you card this time round and it turned out to be earthy-ish.

And the 3rd and most recent challenge is to make a pop up card. An idea given by Adam (thank you for the input encik!). This is really a challenge to me! I totally have no idea how to do this challenge as Sue informed me about it only on Monday night (which was rather last minute!), and we're to finish by Tuesday so that we can post it on our blog for Tuesday's updates. But I told her, we shall go ahead with it & see how things turned out. So, without any samples (I didn't have access to internet anywhere else but the office, so tarak dapat get ilham online di rumah), I tried to flip through the pages of my craft magazines, hoping they have a picture (at least) of some kind of pop up cards. I managed to find one small picture and the bottom page of one magazine and that gave me an idea. Phewh..I'm relieved & glad! At least I have a picture of how it would look like...and this is the end result.....

Am not entirely satisfied with it...aiya, especially the cover of the card. But I do love my ladybug!

Another card I did was for my dear aunty Minda, my dad's che-che. I wanted this card to be very floral & sweet. I sure I hope it does! Well, this is it.

And I hope that it arrives in one piece and not in pieces, as this card will be travelling across the globe (hehe, not entirely lah) to Washington, North England (I wish I get sent there instead of the card :p).

And last but no least, my final creation for July is........

Tadaaa....

A purple farewell card for a lady who made an order for Sue & I to make 2 farewell cards for her colleagues. Sue & I split the job and did one card each. I sure hope she likes it! I'm satisfied with it, though I had a tough time figuring out how to piece 'em together..

And oh..I adore my newly purchased polka-dotty pink ribbons...makes me smile, lookin' at them.. :) Terima kasih 'Cinta' (the place where I found those pretty ribbons..bukan lagu Afgan, hehe)

So, there. My July's works of art. Am embracing the new month ahead for more inspirations & creations! :)

Til then, God bless & thanks for dropping by!

Diocesan Youth Sunday 2009

Last weekend was indeed a memorable and a busy one! Heck we've been busy all week! All these busyness is to prepare for the Diocesan Youth Sunday on 26 July 2009. This year the youths decided to hold a Youth Service to commemorate this day, with the theme "Take Up Your Cross". Hehe..our very own service, how cool is that! A day in a year where it's purely for youths!

I was involved with the band and oh ya...I've found my very young "padwan" keyboardist...the young & petite Phoebe. I'm glad that she took up the challenge to try out and play for this event when I approached her. It has been quite sometime that I've been wanting to ask her to play (in other words to ganti me..or at least I have a substitute, so to speak), and now finally dapat..hehe! Anyways, we, the band and dancers started practicing since two Sundays ago and had practices every other day, ever since, plus with meetings which kinda left me having only 1 free day!
Phewh!

Saturday was our final practice and as well as decorating session! Mag and I were at church from about 930am til 930pm that day!! Imagine that! Never in my life, have I ever been in church for that long! "Holy" indeed! Haha! :p After our practice and rehearsal we started off with the decorations for the church. Well, we planned to make a wooden cross and decorate it with small purple & white balloons. We also decided to use folded crepe papers to hang around the church which we gave to the "dancing girls "(Lisa, Jill, Shannon & Nunun) to do. The huge challenge was that our church has such hiiiiigh ceilings, which make it impossible to decorate anything up there, so ended up, they hanged the papers onto the tiangs...hoping it will remain sticking til Sunday afternoon (crossing fingers!). However, I guess the biggest challenge yet was to find wooden planks and construct a life sized cross. But it wasn't til Uncle Dennis, who overheard us deliberating on it..jumped into our conversation (and saved the day!) and said that the church already has a wooden cross which they used for Easter. What a relief! Challenge no more! Haha..well...not entirely. A problem surfaced when we couldn't find a part of the base which holds up the cross. So the boys (Adam, Bajeng & Malcom) decided to use what's left of their Kemahiran Hidup skills & try to construct the missing base for the wooden cross. With much groans and grunts...partly infused with occassional laughters (by us gals), they managed! Not bad, though the cross kinda looked "senget"...but it stood, alright! And THAT'S the most important thing. While the boys were busy with the Cross, us gals (Jo, Mag & I) unleashed our hand painting skills..hehehe. The plan was to make a "guest board", so that those who attend the event can write comments etc.. on the board. We decorated the board by "stamping" our watercoloured hands along the corners and thumb printed the borders. It was so much fun! At one point, I almost wanted to paint my tapak kaki and smack 'em right on the board...tapi tak jadi. Heheh. Melampau lah pulak.

So, with the board and cross done, we have the cross yet to be decorated. Oh..we also found out that Amy & Sheila has ter-over blown too many of the balloons. We only needed like, about 30 balloons max and they, in fact have blown the whole packet of 100 pcs (but I think it was less that that. Siong Lee cheated us! Hmmph) of white balloons that we've bought! Noooo....another "garuk palak" moment! However, we timed-out for a bit & went out to grab a fast dinner as it was already half past 6 in the evening and we're famished! When we got back from our dinner, the cross was already decorated!

Thanks to Jo! Hehee. She didn't join us for makan & stayed back to do the cross. Yay! So, cross...done. Now...whaaaat are we going to do with the left over balloons(??!?)....Mag & I were still weighing our options while Bajeng has nicely tucked himself on one end of the church pews...sleeping(!) and the "dancing girls" (hehe) and Malcom still struggling with their crepe paper hanging issue..Maggie then came up with an idea to decorate the entrance doors with the balloons. Ok, agreed. We gathered the balloons and start tying them along the strings. I was already thinking that this would be a looong night and don't know when will we finish with the balloons and it's as if God heard me (well, of course He did! HE always does! Hehe...it's just that we need to be more aware & reminded of Him working around us rather than be overwhelmed by situations and issues), Iyok & Moi came to help out. What perfect timing! And the best thing is that, it so happened that she knows how to tie the balloons 'coz she did it before for her company dinner. And in no time, she's tying up the ballons at a pace that Maggie and I couldn't even catch up. I was on my 2nd balloon and got tangled up, whilst Iyok was halfway til done! So, feeling that we're the "biggest losers" in this balloon tying challenge, Mag & I decided to paste up posters instead! And oh, poor Baj's bike got pimped using left over crepe papers..hehe.
So, that's that. Finally we're done with the decorations by 9 plus and started packing our things. It's time to head off home. Despite being verry tired to the bones, I was satisfied with what the youths did that day...the deco and all, and thankful to God, our provider that has blessed & guided us throughout the day. A little proud feeling swelled in me but not without a tad of nervousness for Sunday's event! However, I shall not be worried, I reminded myself, for God is already there. Amen!

Come Sunday (the day!), the youths who are involved came early to church, all wearing their blue-white AYC tees! We look good together, aiseh hehe. :p

By 230pm, people started coming. Youths from Tudan, Taman Tunku, Chinese congregation and also Good Shepherd, Lutong made it to the service. :D By 3pm, the event is well on its way. We started off with a pageantry (which consists of the tambourine dancers, banner & cross bearers) to the song "Tiba Saatnya" and then a praise & worship session led by Bro. Bajeng. Readings from the Bible, thereafter by Nunun & Zara (part of the dancing girls..hehe). The sharing on the theme, Take Up Your Cross, was preached by Fr. Ramdan, who never fails to bring a blend of seriousness and humour to his preaching. A real good sermon indeed! After the sermon, was the intercession, read by one of our youths, Casper, a 15-year-old-who-sometimes-asks-the-most-impossible-questions, to which I saw potential in him. :) At one point of the intercession, my heart was touched as his deep voice looms over the microphone, reading the prayers. It's one of those heartwarming & inspiring moments I get occasionally. Hehe.

After interceding for the needs of the youths in the Diocese, we we're entertained by a song, sung by the Chinese Youths. I loved the song! I wonder if they have it in English too. Very melodious!

Before saying "it's a wrap!", Fr. Cheong shared a word or two of his story & experiences with youths. The service ended with a song "Hidup Tanpa mu", before everyone heads off for refreshments & fellowship, thereafter, di bawah pokok, atas rumput. :p Sue & I put up a small corner to sell our cards & notebooks too..!

After a few karipaps, sambal puluts and several packet drinks later, it was time to "close shop". But, before we head off home, we did some cleaning up and not forgetting (i repeat not ever forgetting)...group photo! And now, finally..we can say..'It's a wrap, y'all! Overall, the event went smoothly..well, not without a lil' minor hiccups & surprises along the way, but I believe that the youths did a great job and I too believe that there's always room for improvement!
Praise & thank God for He is good! :)

'Tis so sad

Just a short post before I head off home. I was shocked by a very sad news today. My heart sank when I read the online news that author Frank McCourt died following a battle with skin cancer. The 78-year-old is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela's Ashes, which recounted a childhood of extreme poverty in 1930s Limerick. He is one of my favourite authors! His books, Angela’s Ashes, ‘Tis and Teacher Man are brilliant, inspiring, full of wit and humour! His writings have never failed to entertain me with smiles & laughter (yup!) despite the horrible experiences he had to go through during his childhood days. He has a way of turning his life experiences into a witty piece of art. Truly gifted, intelligent & such an inspiration!

Rest in peace, Mr. Frank McCourt.

Some great & humourous quotes from his books:-

“If I were in America I could say "I love you, dad", the way they do in the films. But in Limerick they'd laugh at you. In Limerick you are only allowed to say you love God, and babies, and horses that win. Anything else is softness in the head.” – Frank McCourt (Angela’s Ashes)

“Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It's been a minute since my last confession.” – Young Frank (Angela’s Ashes)

"He says, you have to study and learn so that you can make up your own mind about history and everything else but you can’t make up an empty mind. Stock your mind, stock your mind. You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace." – Frank McCourt (Angela’s Ashes)

Live.Love.Craft.

One of my current favourite past times is crafting especially card making. The crafty side of me has been with me...since I was small.
I remember I loooved to doodle & scribble away when I first discovered how to use a pencil..hehe. The walls of my house where I grew up says it all. You can find my earliest masterpieces there (but I think they're gone now, after my parents did a repainting job to the house). My hands would get all dirty from the drawings & scribblings. I'm a leftie, you see. If you are a leftie too, you would know why. ;)
I even have a little nook where I put up all my drawings and scribbles..a little crafty corner for myself. Siap dengan meja & kerusi lagi tu. Haha! Then, I remembered Mum would have a weekly art class for me and my three childhood friends on Saturday mornings. We would play with watercolours, crayons, make crafts and we even did those stamps with batang pisang & potatoes..hehe. So much fun! I also went for art classes during my primary school days. I kinda forgot the name of my art teacher (aiya). I still have the drawings of my art class days, which I planned to frame, but have not (*procastinating*). During my high school days, I would look forward to PS (Pendidikan Seni) classes. I remembered my friends and I made this box set for perfumes for our project...hehe, which was pretty cool. We even had a brand name for the so called 'perfumes' (they were only bottles filled with cologne). :p I brought my crafty side to my uni days as well. Registering to the Graphic arts class as one of my co-curriculum was where I unleashed it. It was where I learnt to use Photoshop! But if you ask me how to use it now...I wouldn't remember...berkarat sudaa..hehe :p

Ok, fast foward to a half a decade (or so) later, here I am, with a passion for card making & making crafts! My cousin, Sue, who share the same passion with me, is my partner in crime. We found out that we both dig this (totally!) when we were making a birthday card for a friend. It has caused the crafty ball to start rolling...and we came up with the idea of selling our cards at our church to help out the youths. Wow..it was a great opportunity to let us both get our crafty juices out of our system into cards, bookmarks, notebooks etc! Hehe. We were so amped! And we never stopped since (well, only occassionally when we were hit with "crafter's block"..hehehe)! This month of July is a memorable one for us. We both decided to create a blog which we named as 'Live.Love.Craft.' & start a little business to sell our cards & crafts! A new beginning indeed! Check it out here!! - http://live-love-craft.blogspot.com/

Oh wow...didn't realise it's such a looong post! Well, if you're passionate about something, you can't stop talking about it. Agree? Live it. Love it. Craft it. Heheh.

Til then, keep peeking. ;) God bless.

Say 'Hello' to my little blog

Hello! The name's Evonne & welcome to my simple little blog! I'm just gettin' started. So there's still some tweaking & twitching & such to do..hehe. This is my first ever blog (aiseh!) & I've been wanting to have one for quite sometime, but have not gotten meself to do one...til, err.. today, that is! Finally (eyes rolling).

Thanks for stopping by. Go ahead...take a peek! ;)