Therapeutic hobbies : Nature walks and Photography - Seeing God in the beauties of His creations in nature

Dear Friends,

How are you? Thank you for stopping by.

Thank God it is Thursday! I am reminded to give thanks to God.

♥ Today I am feeling a bit down. Not sure whether it is because I have been too busy and stressed up with a new freelance work assignments plus some visitations of the sick and elderly. Thank God for reminding me that He loves me and there are many things I can be thankful for daily. As I write this thankful post, I am beginning to feel a little better. I need to remember to count my blessings daily!

♥ Thank God for giving me an opportunity to go for a walk recently. I am often too busy to remember to slow down, relax and re-charge my batteries. I need to make time and effort to consciously take a break and spend time in nature. I love to go for walks in the nature park. Nature always remind me of what a great God we serve, He loves us dearly and is with us each day. He takes care of the lilies and feed the sparrow, we are of more values than many sparrow to Him. So today I thank God for the nature walk that refreshed me and help me to connect with God once again and remember His love and care.

♥ I thank God for giving me the joy of photography and of capture something of the beauties of His creations as reminders to me always of His majesty and love. Here are some pictures I took at Hort Park, Singapore. Hope you like them :)

To read more Thankful Thursday visit Laurie. Thank you for stopping by. Take care and have a blessed day!

Warm Regards,
Nancie

18 March 2010

Thank God for His unchanging love - Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.....

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by.

Amy posted a Calendar for December 2010 for her Word-Filled Wednesday Post. It is my joy to share this 2011 Calendar with you for my Word-Filled Wednesday Post. Please feel free to download this 2011 Calendar and print it for your use or give to your family and friends. I took this picture at Sentosa Island, Singapore. This is one of my favourite Bible verse. Thank God that our Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. His love and mercies are enduring and unchanging and this is my greatest comfort through all the changing scenes in life!

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and for ever. 

Hebrews 13:8

To download and print this Free Big A4 Calendar 2011 January to December with encouraging Bible quotes:

1) Click at the picture to see a bigger image. Put your cursor on the picture, right click and choose "save as" and save into your computer

2) Go to the folder where you saved the picture and double click at the picture. Then print from there.

3) Or you can open any word processor program such as Microsoft Word or OpenOffice and insert the picture into it. Then you can format the size, etc, and print from there.

To download more Calendars 2011 in 1 page, click here.

For more Word-Filled-Wednesday, visit here.

♥ Thank God for seeing us through almost another year! It is December now and soon we will enter into 2011.  It's been a while since I was able to post a picture and Bible verses on Word-Filled-Wednesday and to count my blessings and thank God together with you on Thankful Thursday. It's so good to be back!

♥ I thank God for strengthening me and restoring me from some illnesses. I have been rather sick over the last 1 month and so have been unable to blog. But thank God that I am better now and it is so good to be back! I missed all of you so much. Hope to catch up with you by and by.

♥ I thank God for the beauties of His creations and the joy He has given me in enjoying them and taking photographs of them. I thank God for giving me the joy too in making homemade gifts using these photographs. I have been making Homemade Calendars 2011, Bookmarks and Cards. Do feel free to download the above calendar 2011 and also the following 12 monthly 2011 Calendars with encouraging Bible verses.

To download and print these Free Big Monthly Calendar 2011 with encouraging quotes:

1) Click at the picture to see a bigger image. Put your cursor on the picture, right click and choose "save as" and save into your computer

2) Go to the folder where you saved the picture and double click at the picture. Then print from there.

3) Or you can open any word processor program such as Microsoft Word or OpenOffice and insert the picture into it. Then you can format the size, etc, and print from there.

I made this monthly 2011 Calendar using the pictures I took at Sentosa Island, Singapore. There are 12 pieces for the 12 months. Feel free to download and make these calendars as gifts. To download all the 12 months, click here.

I made this monthly 2011 Calendar using the pictures my brother took in New Zealand. There are 12 pieces for the 12 months. Feel free to download and make these calendars as gifts. To download all the 12 months, click here.

You can also download other Free Calendars 2011, Homemade Bookmarks and Homemade Cards with colorful pictures and encouraging quotes.

♥ I thank God for my family, my church, my friends and everyone of you, my dear blogging friends, and for your prayers and encouragements. They mean a lot to me and I thank God for every one of you. You have made a great difference in my life and used by God to encourage me and show me His love by your friendship and encouraging notes. You are in my thoughts and prayers too.

Thank you for stopping by. Take care and have a blessed day!

Warm Regards,

Nancie

Enjoying God through nature and beauties of His creations

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by!

Thank God for seeing us through another week. It's so good to be reminded on every Thursday to count my blessings and remember to give thanks and praise to God.

♥ Thank God for seeing me through another busy and tiring week, and giving me much joy and strength in Him daily.

♥ I thank God for the beauties of His creations. I thank God for giving me an opportunity and joy of going with my very dear Church Aunty, AR, to East Coast Beach, Singapore recently. AR stays near the Beach and we love to go there together. I particularly love the beach as it always remind me of the majesty of God. What a Great God we serve! He Who creates the beautiful nature around us, loves us and cares for us daily. We can cast all our anxieties upon Him. Whenever I am going through difficult time I like to go to beach and be reminded that God is so powerful and great. He loves me dearly and all my trouble are like just a drop of water in His sea of mercies. He can still all the storms in my life and see me safely through them.

   I took this picture at East Coast Beach, Singapore

Be still, and know that I am God:
Psalm 46:10

♥ I thank God for giving us the gift of creativity and the new technology of photography to capture some of the beauties of His creations. Taking walks in the nature is one of my therapeutic hobbies.  Photography is another of my therapeutic hobbies. It gives me a lot of joy. I love to take pictures of nature, beach, flowers and the beauties of God's creations. Whenever I look back at these photos I will remember with joy the time I spend in nature and just bathing in God's love and the beauties of His creations. It brings such calmness and quietness to my heart.

Here are some photos and video I took of East Coast Beach, Singapore:

A video of East Coast Beach. I love to watch the waves:



♥ I thank God for my family, my church, my friends and everyone of you, my dear blogging friends, and for your prayers and encouragements. They mean a lot to me.You have made a great difference in my life by your friendship and encouragements. I thank God for every one of you. May God may your visit here a blessed one too!

To read more Thankful Thursday visit Iris. 

Thank you for stopping by. Take care and have a blessed day!

Warm Regards,
Nancie

Making Homemade Christian Bookmarks with encouraging Bible Verses : Another therapeutic Hobby

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by.

♥ Thank God for seeing me through another busy and fruitful week! How times flies. It's Thursday again! :) I am reminded that it's good to share about God's goodness and mercies to me on Thankful Thursday :) I have been so blessed every since I joined Thankful Thursday as it helped me to count my blessings and be more thankful to God. I am also greatly encouraged by all the thankful posts that I read on your blogs. Thank God for His goodness and mercies to us daily! May we be always praising Him.

♥ I am thankful to God for a very encouraging sermon I heard in Church last Lord's day morning. My Pastor preached on the importance of Prayer Always in our daily Christian life and as walk with the Lord daily. I am reminded of the need to be praying always, not just during my devotional time or in church, but throughout the day as I seek the Lord's grace and strength to live for Him and in Him. It is a means of grace that God has provided for us to draw us closer to Him and receive grace and strength from Him.

♥ So I thank God for the privilege prayers in which we can fellowship with our Lord and enjoy His love and grace. We can casts all our anxieties upon Him and find peace and joy in Him, and direction in our Christian walk as He teaches us through His Words.


♥ I thank God for the joy of doing some simple Christian crafts to give to my friends. Last Thursday I shared about the joy of making simple Cross-stitch bookmarks with Bible verses for my friends. It is one of my therapeutic hobbies. Another therapeutic hobbies that I enjoy very much is making simple Christian homemade bookmarks with Bible verses. Below are some samples of bookmarks I made with regards to Prayers. The first two I made using pictures I have taken myself and the last two are just simple design from Microsoft PowerPoint or Open Office.

To download and make these simple Do-It-Yourself DIY Christian homemade bookmarks with Bible verses at home, just follow the instruction below. Feel free to download these Free Homemade Bookmarks for yourself or your friends. You can also make them and sell them :)

For more Free Homemade Bookmarks, visit the following websites:

• Free Calendars and Bookmarks
• Free Homemade Bookmarks, Cards, Calendars and other Gifts
• Free Printable Homemade Bookmarks

To make the following Free Homemade Christian Bookmarks with encouraging Bible verses on prayer:

1) Download the picture
- Put your cursor on the picture
- Right Click your mouse
- Saved the .jpg picture into your computer

2) Insert this picture into a Word Processor (such as MicroSoft Word or OpenOffice).

3) Use a color printer to print.

4) Cut it and laminate it. The bookmark will be more lasting if you laminate it.

♥ I thank God for my family, my church, my friends and everyone of you, my dear blogging friends, and for your prayers and encouragements. They mean a lot to me.You have made a great difference in my life by your friendship and encouragements. I thank God for every one of you. May God may your visit here a blessed one too!

Thank you for stopping by. Take care and have a blessed day!

Warm Regards,
Nancie

Therapeutic Hobbies : Doing simple cross-stitch as gifts for friends

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by.

♥ Thank God for seeing me through fruitful week! How times flies. It's Thursday again :) It has been a very busy week for me and I am tempted to skip posting but I am reminded that today is Thursday and it's good to share about God's goodness and mercies to me on Thankful Thursday :)


♥ I thank God for answering my prayers for one of the elderly grandma that comes to my church evening service. She is 85 years old and is suffering from severe heart failure. She also has some dementia. She has been forgetting to take her medicine on and off and so she began to show early symptom of possible relapse of heart failure as water begins to retain in her body, and on her legs and ankles specifically. Due to weak heart, she has problem flushing out the water from her body and the medicine helps her to do so. I have been visiting her together with another sister in Christ and reminding her to take her medicine. Thank God that yesterday she seemed so much better and she has remembered to take all her medicine! Due to dementia, she has problem remembering many things she heard in the church about the Gospel and our Lord Jesus Christ. But thank God yesterday she told me that every morning when she wakes up, she does remember to thank our Lord. She will say, "Lord Jesus, thank you". Although it is a very short prayer, I am encouraged :) Thank God!

♥  Thank God for giving me the joy of doing some cross-stitch recently. I love to do cross-stitch as it is very relaxing and it helps me to develop patience :) I have been making cross-stitch bookmarks for some of my friends. I love to sew some simple Bible verses and make a small bookmark for them.
 

This is one of the first cross-stitch I sewed when I first learn how to do cross-stitch about 20 years ago.

Recently, I sewed this small bookmark for my friends.

 This is another bookmark I like to sew as a gift for my friend.

Sometimes, I like to sew my friends' name of the bookmark to personalize it for them.

This is one of my favourite cross-stitch designs. I like to sew this as a gift for my friend and sometimes I use different Bible verses to suit their needs. After I sewed this cross-stitch, I usually frame it up with a simple frame. I have found many free cross-stitch resources on the internet. For some free cross-stitch resources, visit Free Cross-stitch Resources : http://cross-stitch-resource.blogspot.com/.

♥ I thank God for my family, my church, my friends and everyone of you, my dear blogging friends, and for your prayers and encouragements. They mean a lot to me.You have made a great difference in my life by your friendship and encouragements. I thank God for every one of you. May God may your visit here a blessed one too!

What are you thankful for today? Thankful Thursday is hosted by Lynn. Thanks, Lynn! Do visit the other participants and be encouraged by their thanksgiving to God too.

Thank you for stopping by. Take care and have a blessed day!

Warm Regards,
Nancie

How to make homemade bookmarks and cards : Another therapeutic hobby

Dear Friends,

I shared in my last post about 2 therapeutic hobbies that are helping me a lot, namely nature walk and photography. They helped me to relax.

Whenever I walk in the nature park, I am reminded of the great God Who created us and is caring for us daily. It helped me to remember to rest in Him :)

Photography helped me to capture some of the beauties of God's creations and be a constant reminder of Him and His greatness.

Another therapeutic hobby that helps me to relax and gives me a great sense of accomplishment and joy is making homemade bookmarks and cards using these photographs I have taken or photos that my friends shared with me.

I love to put in encouraging Bible verses or quotes to the pictures taken and made these homemade gifts for my friends. I also sell them on my little website business at Homemade Bookmarks Cards and Gifts.

Here are some simple bookmarks and cards. Feel free to download and print them for your family and friends. You may also sell them, if that will help you financially :-)

I took these pictures at Sentosa Flower Exhibition, Sentosa Island, Singapore. They are some of my favourite Bible verses.

To make the above homemade card for your friend, just do the following:

1) Download the picture above:
- Put your cursor on the picture
- Right Click your mouse
- Saved the .jpg picture into your computer

2)Insert this picture into a Word Processor (such as MicroSoft Word) or any other software.

3) Use a color printer to print.

Here are some other Free instructions on how to make simple Homemade Cards and Free Cards Templates from Homemade Bookmarks, Cards, Calendars and other Gifts.

To make this pink rose bookmarks click on  how to make simple pink rose Homemade Bookmark.

Here are some other Free instructions on how to make simple Homemade Bookmarks and Free Bookmark Templates from Homemade Bookmarks, Cards, Calendars and other Gifts.

Thank you for stopping by!

Thanks for your encouragement. Take care and have a blessed day!

Warm Regards,
Nancie

Thankful Thursday : Free Calendars with Bible verses and Bookmarks with Bible verses

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragements.

Thank God for seeing us through another week.

♥ I have missed posting on Thankful Thursday for many weeks as I have been unwell and have to cut down the amount of time I spend on blogging and visiting. Thanks to all of you who have visited and encouraged me. Thank God I am better. I am looking to our faithful God daily. I do remember you in my prayers.

♥ I am thankful to God that I can serve Him through making some simple gifts with Bible verses. I have a small Homemade Gifts business. I am selling some Calendars 2009, Bookmarks and Cards with Bible verses. Do let me know if you are interested to purchase these gifts for yourself, your family or friends. And please do not hesitate to pass the words around and let your friends know about it too.

Homemade Calendars 2009 with Bible verses









Homemade Bookmarks with Bible verses and General Wordings











Homemade Cards with Bible verses












♥ FREE templates for Calendars with Bible verses and Bookmarks with Bible verses to share with you!

As the postage is rather high to post to some of you, I like to share some Free templates for Calendars with Bible verses and Bookmarks with Bible verses with you. You can make these small gifts for yourself, your loved ones, family and friends. You can also make them and sell them, if you wish to :-) My Free Homemade Crafts and Gifts website is at http://homemadecraftsandgifts.blogspot.com/.

I have the following 3 Free items to share with you.

1) Free Instructions of how to make a simple Homemade Hanging Calendar for 2009 with Bible verses




















2) Free Instructions of how to make a simple Calendar Planner for 2009 with Bible verses


















3) Free Instructions of how to make a simple Bookmarks with Bible verses




















For more Free Bookmarks and Calendars, visit my Homemade Crafts and Gifts website.

Thank God that I can have the joy of serving Him in little ways like these. Hope you enjoy making them too.

♥ I am thankful to God for providing precious people in my life ie. my family, church, friends and blogging friends who love and care for me in their very wonderful ways. These are tokens of God's love for me and I treasure very much.

♥ I am thankful to God once again for all of you, my dear blogging friends and visitors. I have been so greatly blessed by all of you and I thank God upon every remembrance of you. It is wonderful to read of how God is guiding and blessing you in your walk with our Lord and it encourages me in my walk with God too. Thanks again for your prayers and encouragements.

May God continue to bless you with His love and mercies in many wonderful ways every day :)

Thank you for stopping by. Take care and may God continue to bless you through this week!

Blogging - Therapeutic to me and a tool in recovery from depression and coping with bipolar and other challenges in my life

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by!

I am thankful to God for restoring me from a relapse of clinical depression recently. Bipolar disorder is a medical condition with extreme mood swings (manic and depression) which can be treated. I am thankful to God for preserving me through the difficult times of a relapse and strengthening me now.

Thanks for your prayers and encouragements. They mean a lot to me!

As I am on the road of recovery, I am learning to pace myself moderately and prayerfully.

I have at one point of time contemplated giving up on blogging as I found myself spending a considerable amount of time writing on my blog and visiting other's blog. I do a lot of this especially when I am hypomanic :-)

Too much blogging is actually mentally very taxing on me though I don't always realized it. My freelance work is also very taxing as I work on the computer most of time. I suspect my relapse of clinical depression recently was due to overstraining at my freelance work plus blogging.

Should I give up blogging? I prayed and asked the Lord for direction.

It has been a joy and privilege for me to be acquainted with many blogging friends who are suffering from depression, bipolar and other physical or mental conditions.

To be able to share and support one another as we seek to learn to understand and manage our conditions has a great impact upon my life. I felt I have grown much over the last half year of blogging through my acquaintance with such dear friends and learning from various people's experiences. I am learning to understand my condition better and to manage it better.

Ever since I joined Word-Filled Wednesday and Thankful Thursday, God has helped me to grow spiritually.

Word-Filled Wednesday (WFW) reminds me of many precious passages from God's Words. God's Words bring comfort, encouragement and direction in my life. It helps me to know more of God's love, His mercies and His sovereignty. Every visit to WFW blogs and post are very encouraging and refreshing. WFW also gives me opportunities to share my passion in photography and God's Words with others. I am thankful to God for many kind friends who allowed me to use the photographs they took and shared them on WFW. Thanks, Amy Deane, for hosting Word-Filled Wednesday and thank God for giving us this precious opportunities to be reminded and encouraged by His Words and beautifies of His creations!

Thankful Thursday (TT) helped me to count my blessings and to be thankful for God's many mercies. I learn to appreciate little things in life and to be thankful for them. Visiting the various TT blogs have strengthened my faith in God as I read of His goodness to His people in spite of whatever difficulties we face in this fallen world. I read of the power of God sustaining and delivering His people from the trials in their life. I read of how thankful they are admist the challenges of life. I am greatly humbled by the many who find reasons to praise and thank God for little things in life which I sometimes overlooked or took for granted. TT has in some way changed my perspective. It has helped me to be a more thankful and happy person despite the bout of depression I experience every now and then, and the many challenges I face in managing bipolar disorder, my work, my family, etc etc. Thanks, Iris, for hosting Thankful Thursday and thank God for using it to encourage us to count our blessings and know more and more of His love!

I am so thankful for your friendships, dear friends and visitors, and the way you and your blogs or your comments have encouraged me. I am greatly humbled by so many of you visiting me and encouraging me. Your prayers and encouragements mean a lot to me. They are especially precious in my recovery process. God has used all of you to provide the love, friendship and support that I needed very much in my recovery. It makes a lot of difference.

I am thankful to God too for making my posts an encouragement to various people. It is my joy and privilege to share with you God's goodness and mercies to me in managing depression, bipolar and other challenges in my life. God is good to me. I am greatly humbled by the knowledge that what I shared has touched some people's life and I thank God for using such a weak vessel so that His grace and glory may shine through!

In life, we will have our portions of ups and downs. Whether it be depression, bipolar or other physical or mental afflictions, or loss of jobs, loss of loved ones, and other difficulties in life, to have the love and support of family and friends is so precious. Thank God that He is with us and thank God that we can be here for one another!

So in other words, Blogging is therapeutic to me. I am encouraged by so many of you. And when God uses me to encourage you in return, it gives me a sense of satisfaction to know that I can still be useful and contribute despite my infirmities. It helps me to feel useful and challenges me to be more useful, as God enables me.

I have found it a joy to blog. Blogging allows me to share my thoughts and feelings, to verbalise it and to see things more clearly. It has also enriched my life through the vast of information that other bloggers shared through their life, resources they found useful and comfort from God's Words and God's goodness to them.

So here I am, continuing with blogging :-)

But I shall endeavor to pace myself more moderately in order to prevent burn-out and depression, as far as I can. I probably won't be posting on my blog and visiting blogs everyday like what I did before my relapse of clinical depression recently. I have to learn to understand my limitation and work within that boundary. You are in my thoughts and prayers always. I love to visit your blogs but if I am not able to visit you as much as I would like to, I trust you will understand :-)

What about you? Do you enjoy blogging? How has blogging helped you? Or how has blogging changed your life?

Thanks again for stopping by, dear friends and visitors. Your friendship and kindness means a lot to me and I thank God for everyone of you. I pray that God will make me a blessing to you too and that your visit to my blog has been a pleasant and encouraging experience. All praise and glory be to God!

Take care and have a blessed day!

Warm regards,
Nancie
First published on 25 August 2008

My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. Psalm 73:26

Making Bookmarks for Friends : A therapeutic hobby

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for your prayers and encouragements.

Thank God for preserving me daily.

Just a short update. My condition is still fluctuating. It kind of worsened during the weekends and I rested much. I prayed and read a little of the Bible whenever I can. Thank God that I am better today.

I went for a walk this morning. It was refreshing to be out in the nature once again to behold the beauties of God's creations and to remember His greatness in creating and preserving us.

Today I was also able to work on some bookmarks that I am making for some overseas friends. Thank God for the joy of making these little gifts for my friends.

I will continue to pray and do whatever I can daily, and hope to get better by and by.

Thanks for stopping by. I am praying for you too. Take care.

If you are interested to make bookmarks for yourself or your friends or to sell, do feel free to download some Free Bookmarks Templates from my Homemade Bookmarks and Crafts website.

Homemade Calendar : Another Hobby

Dear Friends,

How time flies! It's already mid May.

As you know, I love to do handicrafts and make homemade gifts. You probably have seen my homemade bookmarks blog with Free Bookmark Templates.

Around December of almost every year, I will make a simple homemade gift for my friends and it is a Homemade Calendar.

I first started making this Calendar for myself because I found it very difficult to find a Christian Calendar with Bible verses that I like. So I decided to design my own simple Calendar :-)

Subsequently, I began to make this Calender for some of my friends whenever possible.

Over the last few years, I began to make the Calendar for more and more of my friends.

It is good to know that some of my friends have found this Calendar useful.

Thank God that for the last 8 years, I managed to make between 80 to 100 Calendars for my church friends, whenever I am well.

Sometimes when I am too ill, I will not be able to make these Calendars. Otherwise, I will try my best to make them. I enjoy making them and I am thankful that they are useful to my friends.

This is how the simple Calendar looks like:




Although it's already May now, if you are interested, you can still make this simple Calendar for yourself or your friends.

Here are some simple instructions on how I make this Calendar :

You can download the following files and make it too. You can personalised this simple Calendar by putting your name or your friend's name on the top right hand corner. You can also change the picture and the text according to your liking.

1) Download these Microsoft Word documents (.doc) and make changes accordingly:

a) Use this Picture file if you are printing for a friend : Picture 1person

b) Use this Picture file if you are printing for a couple: Picture 2persons

c) Use this Date file if you are in Singapore as it has all the public holidays : Singapore Dates

d) Use this Date file if the Calendar is to be used outside of Singapore: Dates Others

2. Open the file "Picture 1person.doc" and change the name on the top right hand corner to reflect your name, your friend's name, etc. Then print on color cards/papers.

You can print 2 calendars on 1 paper.

3. Open the file "Dates Singapore.doc" or "Dates Others.doc" and print all the 3 pages.

4. Fold the pages into half.

5. Use a pen knife to cut and then fold the pages into half again.

6. Use the pen knife to cut again and arrange all the months accordingly.

7. Staple on top of the dates at a few places to keep them together.


8. Put double-sided scotch tape behind the dates and then stick it to the bottom of the Picture.

9. For hanging purposes, I usually punch a hole using a single-hole puncher and put a reinforcement ring on it.


Do you like this Calendar? Do you have Hobbies? Or do you like to make gifts for your family and friends.

I hope you enjoy making this simple Calendar :-)

If you interested to make bookmarks, do visit my homemade bookmarks blog. I have many Free Bookmark Templates there.

Thank you for stopping by. Hope you have a blessed weekends!