Friendship #InHisLoveMail

We had something in common, it was a second job for the both of us after University. After having moved from various media agencies, this was our first foray into the client’s business, doing marketing in a consumer goods MNC.

We were wide eye and enthusiastic, and I first met K about 6 months into the job. I was in Corporate Marketing, while she was in Trade Marketing. What bonded us together was that we were both in the less glamorous marketing jobs in the company, since Brand Marketing were highly coverted roles. Besides, she was seated diagonally across to where I was seated, so naturally she became my lunch partner.

I initially thought she was too prissy at times, but we clicked nonetheless. We saw each other through various changes in that company, after a year, I joined her in the trade marketing team, and we eventually move to Brand Marketing with separate portfolios.

I left the company to do brand marketing for a beauty company, while K stayed another 2 years in the company. Despite not being colleagues anymore, we met each other for dinner then drinks weekly, as it always seem that we had so much to chat about.

She was a ’sister’ at my wedding and when she got married, I was also her ‘sister’ despite already married.

Our weekly meetings slowly fizzled out over time. It became once a month, then once a quarter, then barely twice a year. In fact the last 2 years, I met up with her twice. It has been tough to find some time on weekday nights to wrangle myself away from my responsibilities at home.

So when I embarked on #InHisLoveMAIL project this year, I thought that she should be one of my personal friends, who will be the recipient of my first snail mail package.

 

Why Snail Mail?

Simply because I think it is one of the most meaningful ways to show love and care to a friend. It is a very good excuse for me to pull together my love for crafting, through sewing and paper-craft. Then personalise these items, together with a hand-written letter in a cute little package.

Most people love receiving letters and cards though mail. I do! I used to love receiving snail mail from my pen-pal in my teenage years, and really looked forward to receiving mail from my sister when I was studying in Australia.

It may be an old-fashioned way of communicating in this ‘technological age’, but there is so much love that is bundled up into an envelope for the recipient, even if it may be just a simple card or just a few sheets of hand-written letters.

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How does #InHisLoveMAIL ties in with #InHisLoveFund?

To date, about $350.00 have been raised for the fund. This $350.00 will be converted to 7 sets of $50 Supermarket vouchers that will be placed in each #InHisLoveMAIL mail package. The package will consist of hand-made items, some stationery items and a personalised letter.

This snail mail package was personalised for my friend K, who loves bunnies, giraffes and is fond of cute concepts and sweet flower motifs.

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My good friend Pauline, who is another avid crafter, will be working with me to personalise 7 sets of #InHisLoveMAIL packages this year. So the items in each package will vary according to our inspiration for that month. In other words, our ‘crafting and encouragement services’ 😛 are available for any readers who want to encourage or bring joy to a friend through a #InHisLoveMAIL package.

We will create the items, write the letter, throw in a $50 Supermarket voucher with each package, and then mail the package directly to the recipient fully at our cost.

There are 7 sets available, 1 will be prepared for each month.

So do comment on this post and share with me, why you hope to send a #InHisLoveMAIL package to your friend, and I will do a random pick. This could be a friend whom you haven’t met for some time, or she may be going through some challenges in her life, and will need some encouragement. You can choose to remain anonymous if you wish.

Your friend’s name do not need to be shared in the blog comment, as confidential information will only be needed if you are selected. If you are selected, do provide more details about your friend and her design preferences, as the #InHisLoveMAIL package will be personalised according to the concepts that she will like.

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If we do not get any ‘nominees’, Pauline and I already have quite a few people in mind whom we want to send these packages to :)

So do join us, and participate in nominating a friend and let us work together to spread some love, hope and encouragement through #InHisLoveMail this year!

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The Felt Book for Math – #InHisLoveFund

If you have read this blog for a while, you can guess that I have a thing for felt :)

This is something that I designed, and was hand-made by my ex-helper (QC done by me), which will be up for sale. All proceeds of the sale of this item will go into the #InHisLoveFund, details of this initiative is shared in this post.

 

The Felt Book for Math (9 sets available)

Front Cover;  The Felt Math Book 10

It comes with both the detachable birdie purse and the goldfish purse.

The Felt Math Book 9

The purse has press buttons, and velcro at the back.

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This Felt Book for Math has a total of 72 handmade pieces of felt numbers, felt sweets, felt flowers and leaves, all sewn with a velcro at the back of each piece.

The Felt Math Book 21   So how do you use this 72 pieces with the Felt Book?

Page 2 and 3 of The Felt Book for Math;

1) The Pattern Game 

Patterning is a basic and foundational math skill which many mathematical concepts are based. Addition, skip counting, times tables all require an understanding and proficiency in patterning.

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Here is an ABAB pattern that you child can learn.

How to teach;

Demonstrate First – “We are going to play a pattern game today! Watch this. Blue sweet, pink sweet, then blue sweet, and pink sweet. Do you know what comes next? Blue sweet and pink sweet!”

Repeat the pattern verbally, and point out the pattern to the child – “Blue sweet, pink sweet, blue sweet, pink sweet, blue sweet, pink sweet”

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Here’s another variation of pattern;

ABC, ABC, ABC; Yellow Sweet, Blue Sweet, Pink Sweet, Yellow Sweet, Blue Sweet, Pink Sweet, Yellow Sweet, Blue Sweet, Pink Sweet.

As there are 15 sweets in the set, with 3 of each color, yellow, red, pink, blue, green, there are different variations of patterns that you can teach your child.

 

2) The Number Operations Game

Rearranging the numbers to show 1-15 in a row, going through the numbers with the child. Then start taking away some of the numbers, place them in a pile on the side, and then get your child to pick the right numbers to put them in the blank spaces.

 

3) Number Bonding and Addition and Subtraction Game 

Start with using the words ‘add on’ and ‘take away’ before introducing the mathematical symbols of ‘+’, ‘-‘ and ‘=’.

Use the sweets, flowers and leaves to help your child to think creatively about numbers. Show the child a group of the felt pieces and ask him/her “How many ways can we make 6?’ and, come up with a combination of different things to come up with 2 and 4, 3 and 3, 1 and 5 and 6 and 0. You can use the felt pieces to teach number bonding.

Once the child can think conceptually the concepts of addition and taking away, that’s when the mathematical symbols of addition and subtraction can be taught, while at the same time using the felt pieces to allow the child to count something physically.

The Felt Math Book 15 The Felt Math Book 18

 

Page 4 and 5 of The Felt Book;

4) Counting Activity and Number Correspondence

Place a number next to the flower or the leaf, and have the child place the number of flowers and leaves on the plant according.

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5) Spatial Concepts

You can teach spatial concepts like Right, Left, top, bottom, in between.

Demonstrate first – “Shall we put one pink flower on the left branch, and another pink flower on the right branch? Then let’s put a white flower below the pink flower. How about another pink flower below the white flower? Shall we put a leaf between the top and bottom pink flowers?”

Once the child has a concept of what is Right, Left, top, bottom, in between. You can start a new game by giving directions to your child.

 

Page 6 and 7 of The Felt Book; 

6) Pretend Play and Picture Stories

Your child can use the Goldfish and Birdie purse, use the numbers as coins to do pretend play to buy sweets, flowers, plants.

Or he/she can create picture stories on the felt book with the various pieces that are detachable and arranged as he/she likes it.

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Each set of The Felt Book for Math comes with 72 detachable pieces; 19 green numbers, 19 blue numbers, including the +, – and = signs.  15 sweets in yellow, red, blue, pink and green, 8 leaves, 9 flowers and with both the goldfish and birdie purses.

The Felt Book for Math costs $39.00, including registered mail. All proceeds of this handmade item will go into the #InHisLoveFund. 

Drop me a mail at inhislovemail@gmail.com to purchase The Felt Book for Math. 

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Update 6 January 3.15pm – All 9 sets of The Felt Book have been reserved.

Do drop me a mail to leave me your name and email contact if you are interested to purchase this, and I will keep you updated if anyone gives up their reservation for the item – Thanks!

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Sending Love and Hope in 2015

To jumpstart the new year of 2015, Catch Forty Winks blog will be embarking on a new initiative, pulling together my love for craft and beautiful creations, in an effort to spread love, hope and joy to others.

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In the past year, I have noticed that there are more people around me who are faced with much discouragement in their lives,  as life in general isn’t getting any easier for many. The exposure to social media tend to add salt to the wound, as here have been so much negativity and countless bad news in the recent months.

I believe we all need hope and joy in this challenging journey of life, as well as, some love and encouragement from others around us.

If we take some time to look up from our daily distractions, we will find that there are many needs around us, and there will always be someone we know who is in need of some love and encouragement. It could be a friend who is going through a tough time at work, someone who has recently lost their job. Or another who is swamped by the responsibilities of taking care of a sick loved one, sick children, or that someone who has recently experienced a loss.

 

In His Love

Charities are not the only ones that need help.

So instead of selecting a specific charity to raise funds for, I have started a fund know as #InHisLoveFund

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Like the name suggests, it stems from one of the key focus of being a Christian. Which is to love God and love people.

With an overflow of God’s love for me, I hope to be able to channel His love to others.

God’s love is amazing, in 1 John 4:16, the bible says that ‘God is love’. Further in verse 18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear…” God’s love is the greatest medicine that can heal every wounded soul, broken heart, remove the pain of rejection or fear from people’s life, or any hurt that one has experienced through life.

The most direct way I can think of to spread God’s love and hope is to be an encourager to that someone who needs love and encouragement.

 

How To Be An Encourager? 

The proceeds of #inHisLoveFUND will go into buying supermarket cash vouchers which will be gifted to specific individuals.

Who wouldn’t like a surprise snail mail package? It is not the value of the gift that comes with the snail mail that matters, but the love and the thought that are behind initiating this effort.

Together with this new initiative of #InHisLoveFUND, a snail mail movement #InHisLoveMAIL will be launched in the next few weeks. More details will be shared in the days to come, in the meantime, if you are curious about the progress of this initiative, I will be micro-blogging the updates to my Instagram feed regularly.

I will not be doing this by myself, as Pauline from A Perfect Bliss will be supporting #InHisLoveFUND and #InHisLoveMAIL by contributing handmade items too, so this will be a joint initiative for our Facebook Page LoveFaithHopeSG.

 

You Can be Part of this Initiative Too!

In the next few weeks, I will be asking for names of special people from readers. You can nominate anyone whom you know personally, that needs to be encouraged with a personalized snail mail,and if you would want a $50 Supermarket voucher to be added to this package to be gifted to the recipient.

12 sets of #InHisLoveMAIL will be planned for 2015.

The handmades and paper craft materials for the initiative will be fully sponsored on our end, and the proceeds of items to be put up for sale for #InHisLoveFUND will all go into buying the supermarket cash vouchers. Do support the sale of the items that will be shared on the LoveFaithHopeSG Facebook page.

Do stay tuned for more details on #InHisLoveMAIL coming up soon.

Look out for the next post, on the first set of items which will be put up for sale, where all 100% of the proceeds will go into #InHisLoveFund.

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