We found an office space! And it’s literally round the corner…. heh heh. Thank God for that!

God’s been so good… prayer answered. Not that God is not good when our prayers are not answered but it just feels good when it’s answered.

We’re in the midst of looking for free or close to free furniture, prob checking out some garang guni places… prob need some tables n shelves. If you know anyone giving away stuff, pls let us know OR just pray with us that we’ll find some.

Business has been very regular and good! We’ve completed quite a few website and murals that past few months. Mostly websites tho. James’ done a few designs for logos and signages too…

Some of our customers that have become our friends the past 6 mths:
Thy Grace Marketing (Veg distributor, fellow Christian bro)
Singapore Alive! (Travel agency, I wrote the words Alive! and James scanned it in for the logo!)
Royal Harvest (a fruit shop in Chinatown owned by Sun Moon, we did their signages.
Sun Moon (fruit distributor) has become one of our regular clients which is great!
Russel Wong (Celebrity Photographer)
RedSports, Home of Singapore’s School Athletes (Local Sch Sports Blog owned by Leslie Tan. This site is COOL, lotsa regular updates).
Le Papillon (Restaurant owned by well known chef, Anderson Ho, located at Red Dot Museum. We did their distinctive wall mural plus their website.)

From blogging this, I just realised that all our clients are locally owned companies! What a priviledge! They are all Singaporean companies! International clientele would be nice but it’s awesome to be able to be connected to all these enterpreneurs. Some pretty high profile people too!

Thank God for all that He’s brought to us the past few months. We know it’s God coz we’ve yet to do any marketing. As of now, we’ve got no namecards, a makeshift website and no collaterals. Thank you God and thank you friends who’ve played a big part in helping us get off the ground. Praise God for He makes all things possible!

You know i normally buy groceries from HV Cold Storage right? I mean it’s just like two steps away and by pram (!!) it’s so much easier to navigate compared to NTUC which is at Block 15. A lot of people don’t even know that there’s a NTUC at Holland.

But recently, someone gave us some NTUC vouchers and we’ve been going there instead.

It’s really small so you won’t find all that you can find at Cold Storage and the aisles are very narrow (TERRIBLE FOR PRAMS!!), the veggies look like they’ve been there for days and they do not sell fresh meat BUT………. it’s SO MUCH CHEAPER. For example, our daily dose of Meiji milk is only $2.05 per bottle compared to $2.45 at Cold Storage and we got a bunch of bananas for only $1.

Everything is a bit cheaper at NTUC. To add it all up, it really makes a lot more sense going there. Wonder why i still keep going to Cold Storage!?! I think it’s really in the packaging and I’m a sucker for good packaging. I like pretty things. Ok… the truth is also at Cold Storage there are more pretty people and more to see. NTUC only got auntie n uncle.

At Holland V, you can find almost anything.

James wants to start painting for real. Ok he kinda started with murals but he wants to go further.

So we have been art teacher hunting. At Holland V, you can find almost anything.

We checked out an art studio called MICHI along Jalan Puteh Jerneh (which is coincidentally on the same street as L n I’s houses!!!). It is on the same side as Chip Bee Gardens where all the cool and more upperty restaurants and shops are.

Resident artist Ketna Patel runs this studio. You can spot it from a mile away coz leading into the studio are two GIGANTIC flip flops in her distinctive style of collage. I say GIGANTIC.

MICHI represents and supports separate artists with common interests. Artists here refers not just to visual artists but also musicians, movie makers etc. They hold regular classes, events, movie screenings by independent movie makers and other life performances.

But……. our main agenda was really to meet up with Maggie who holds painting classes at the studio. We spent a long time chatting with her. She really understood where James was at and where he wanted to go with his painting. It was nice speaking with her and we had a good feeling about it.

The only thing holding us back was the cost. She charges $490 for 6 sessions. Woo hoo! That’s really expensive. I’m like thinking of all the things i can buy with that kind of money OR even take a short holiday! But of course the classes are small and more focused. We told her we’ll consider and Maggie very kindly invited James back to check out one session.

It was a nice afternoon out exploring yet another corner of good ole Holland V.

At Holland V, you can find almost anything.

New mural job.. watch this space

Originally uploaded by Sophie Grace Lim.

Now for the real project…. James just got a new mural job for an advertising shoot. He’s now officially known as an mural artist, quite cool. We got ourselves some money to get a nice Wacom pen tablet that he can use to draw directly onto the com. Cost us like S$470! He’s been wanting one to do more artwork and illustrations soon so this job came at the right time. Praise the Lord!

He’s gonna be quite busy the next two weeks coz it’s a rush job. Which means working on weekends and overnights. Please pray that everything will go well and that we will not be too stretched. Pray for GRACE and also peace as we prepare the family for Christmas.

P/s i like that – “preparing the family”. Previously when it was just James n i, it was strange to be known as a family. But now, we are a family with little Sophie.

I’m in the office, clearing all my stuff, am
going to leave in 2 weeks… i’m going through HeartBeat events and
camps etc from the 90s! So much has happened over the past few years…
really brings back a lot of memories.

I even have the script for Couch, the Musical which we did in 97/98.
The script! Those of you who remember this muscial, you must be really
old as well. It was one of the first fully youth muscial, led by youths
and performed by youths with Li Huan being our music director and
Aileen? our drama director. It was amazing. We had it over two nites in
Shalom Chapel.

I also have the Youth Camp 98 Secret File with complete info on the
camp! The most memorable camp ever! We had crazy fun and went home with
the most one liners from the sermons ever.

And i have funny core team email conversations that i’ve printed out from last year.  Hilarous.

Today we finally set up the corporate account!
That’s another step to structuring the company. I’ve been trying to
look at the accounts. Very scary. I’m arts student. Putting numbers
together is a bit scary. Granted that i’m a little better at it than
James, it’s still scary. Somehow i don’t have many accountant friends.
The one closest to me is prob Pris! haha but doubt she’ll want to go
back there again, right Pris? The last time i did something like that
was in 1998, writing Ecq‘s business plan, putting together financials for investors. Argh! 

Anyway i shall be brave and overcome my fear, after all i did get a B
for A level maths (thanks to a stupid maths teacher in jc who said oh!
you arts student ah, drop maths lah drop maths! So i braved on in maths
to prove him wrong!). heh.

Btw, on a separate note (not too separate), I’ve just finished reading God Owns, Manage Money the Biblical Way by Benny Ho (SKS,
now at $13!). If i’m not wrong, there’s also an audio series but i
prefer to read. It’s only 85 pages anyways. I STRONGLY (with 5 stars)
recommend that to anyone who might have been struggling with questions
of tithing, giving, whether or not to buy insurance etc… I know many
of you who have started work always ask me the same questions so i
recommend this, it’s very good.

The new company is set up! Go to www.alignleft.net

We’re up and running… pls pray for us.

Here’s the latest… I finally got to see the site for myself n got to
meet the owners too. It’s really God’s favor that James got to do this
at such a high profile place and many thanks for Mark n Hwa for the recommendation. At Sat’s tasting session, most people
liked the mural very much and we had great feedback. That’s God man.
And it was great to hear Papa say very nice very nice.

For the past week we’ve been going to the St Andrew’s Home for the Aged at Clementi everyday.

Being with the old folks have really caused me to think a lot about how
i want to grow old and how i must treat my parents when they are old.

Many of the Ah mas and aunties that are there have been forgotten by
their family members. They are not very sick or anything, most still
mobile and sane. But just neglected and abandoned.

There is this Ah ma we call “teddy bear” Ah ma cause she’s always
wearing this teddy bear pjs. She’s like the sweetest and most innocent
grandma i’ve seen in ages. There is no inch of wickedness in her. She
keeps asking me to bring Baby to see her when Baby’s born. So sweet.

Auntie Maisie sings hymns all the time. There’s another auntie that
made my day today – she’s mentally disabled and when i started singing
Jesus loves me this i know, she started smiling and tried to sing
along! It was like as if she remembered the song from long ago.

It was such as joy bringing them to East Coast Park and watching them
enjoy eating Mcdonalds. Watching them enjoy the breeze, the bus ride,
the company, the food… really made me happy. Even bringing them to
the toilet was a joy coz they are so appreciative.

It has been a great and meaningful week. Thank God. I think i’m gonna miss them.

I’m heading off for mission trip already starting tonite.

Please keep me in prayer coz i don’t really know how much my body can
take. I’m gonna come home to sleep, it’s a compromise i know but i have
no choice at this point. Don’t wanna risk too much. But still am going
to go by faith to go in by 7am and head back by 10pm.

The Lord is my strength and my joy… I know His grace will be sufficient. Please pray that i will not be distracted.