Monday, April 19, 2010

a note for my country and a gift of Love!

I'd like to start with a personal note as usual, if you don't mind. :)

I am Thai. If you watched the international news for all the last week, you might have seen that things haven't been easy in my home country. It breaks my heart. And now that we are so far away in Lebanon, there is not so much we can do. (And I doubt we'd be able to do anything much if we're there either.) It's even more depressing when you think that it's the week that we're supposed to be celebrating Songkran (Thai New Year holiday -- between April 13-15), with our famous Water Festival. Instead of splashes of water and smiles, we had a lot of anger and hatred on the streets this year. :(

I will not get into anything politics related here, just want to share some hope for love and peace to come back to my country. And, of course, I chose to express my feelings through some scrapbooking layouts.

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Dúnia is back from her pregnancy break full throttle! She has two new products in store this month and they are absolutely fabulous! She is also a featured designer at The Daily Digi this month. You can read all the fun facts about Dúnia here. The product she made for The Digi File is called Upside Down and it's full of fun elements and doodles! I love it!

She also has a new template set out and this one is so special! (If you have seen Ivana Alves's ultra amazing layouts before you'd know what I mean! LOL) It's called Be Inspired by Ivana, available at both DSB and ZZS:

I used Upside Down with a template in the Ivana set and came up with this page. This happy picture of 3-year-ago Neill somehow makes the present situation in Thailand seem even more gloomy by comparison.

"Make Splash, Not War"

Journaling reads:
This fun picture of Neill was taken three years ago
when we were celebrating Songkran holiday (Thai New Year) in Phuket.
This year we are in Lebanon, so far away from home,
and all the gloomy news from Thailand does its best in getting us out of the celebrating mood almost completely.

If we can have one wish for the New Year,
It would be for peace and love to come back to our beautiful country.
Let the joyful spirit of Songkran make people come to their senses and finally see what is best for the country.
Instead of bullets, blood, and hatred, let's splash each other with cool, clean, and refreshing water
to calm our temper in the manner that Songkran has been celebrated all along.

I personally don't like seeing kids play with guns, even a water gun for that matter,
but after watching the news where there are people with real guns
walking around the once beautiful and serene neighborhood,
I'd take the water guns over that any day! - April 13, 2010

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Another page I made last week was from the wonderfully lovely kit of Pixelily Designs, Love Is All Around. Lily is a brand new designer at Digital Scrap Cafe, but she is by no means a new name in digiscrapping community. She's been designing and giving away freebies with a group of friends -- now known as the Jakarta Scrappers -- for a long while. (A member of the group is Lisa of Aprilisa Designs, who's not at all a stranger to this blog. LOL)

During the new store celebration period, a lot of Pixelily products are on sale (this one is 50% off!) so don't miss this opportunity!


Here is what I made with Love Is All Around:

"Give Peace a Stance"

Journaling reads:
With a heavy heart I pray for my motherland. No more fighting, no more bloodshed, no more hatred. I pray for love and peace. ...Give love a chance. Give peace a stance.

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Well, let's end this long post with a gift of love from Lily and me! You can have the layout I made for the kit as a quickpage for your personal scrapping projects! I'm giving you the word art I created for the page as an extra gift too. :)

You can click on the image below to download from 4shared. Enjoy!

12 comments:

PaMam said...

I read your blog today with tears in my eyes. I don't know what my feeling call ...sad...depress..or even relieve because I just read someone speakout like I thought.

Many thanks for sharing many things here. I'll be back to grab them later.

Miss Neill and you soooo much.

CraftCrave said...

Just a quick note to let you know that a link to this post will be placed on CraftCrave in the DigiFree category today [19 Apr 02:00pm GMT]. Thanks, Maria

Daydreamer said...

The link for the QP is not working. It says link is not vailid. :(

Pom said...

@PaMam: We miss you too ja. Thanks for your kind words.

@Nancy: I saw your name at 4shared, so I hope the link works for you now. I just checked and it was working fine. Please let me know if you still have troubles downloading the file. :) Thank you!

@CraftCrave and CBH: Thanks for spreading the words!

Elaine U. said...

Thank you for the QP and WA. You're always so kind and generous.

Ella said...

always a pleasure to come on your blog. Yes I'm sade for you, to see all this in your country. Just think that things will go better one day...keep smile on your face and on your scrap, ok ? {hugs}

Unknown said...

I'm sorry about things near you sweetie :(

sana said...

ว้าว...น่ารักจังเลยคะคุณป้อม

Unknown said...

Hi Pom! So sorry about what's happening in Thailand. We too here in the Philippines have had our share of such chaos and heartbreak. Haven't had the chance to chat with you recently coz I'm in the midst of non-stop election coverage but just wanted to drop a note here to let you know you and your family is in my prayers. =)

PaMam said...

I come back to download your QP and WA. Thank you so much for always give us a good things.

I love the way you use 'Lai Thai' for the red background paper it present Thai style, thai blood and hot situation here. Also love the leaves that look like 'Bai Po' and for a small flowers that present Thai flowers ..you are so great for this.

Look at Neill's happy wet face is made me miss him more.

Pressed Petals said...

sio nice to see you blog/scrap again!

Pom said...

@Elaine: Thank you! You are too! LOL

@Ella: Thanks for reminding me. :) Love your not-so-new-anymore blog too!

@Dúnia: I'm so glad you're here. *hugs*

@Lori: Thanx!

@sana: กรี๊ดดดดด ดีใจมีคนไทยมาเยี่ยม ขอบคุณมากค่า บล็อกคุณ sana สวยมากเลยค่ะ น่ากินด้วย แผล็บ ๆ LOL

@Rach: I've also been wanting to write a long one to you. :) You know, Rach, there's even one foreign journalist killed in our recent situation in Bangkok too. It gave me such chills how I thought it could easily be someone I know, like you. Please take good care of yourself during the coverage. I'll be praying for your safety and your health as well. :)

@PaMam: Oh no. Thanks for your compliments ka but I really can't take the credits for them. The gorgeous paper and leaves are all created by Pixelily Designs. See how fortunate I am to be working with such beautiful kits?

@Christine (Pressed Petals): I should blog more, I know. LOL! I have a lot of LOs I wanted to show here but was too caught up with other things and didn't update the blog. Bad me. :( Thanks for coming by, though. I miss you!