The Handmade Marketplace

Giving myself an hour everyday for this book :)
The Handmade Marketplace
By Kari Chapin
http://karichapin.com/blog/book/

Weekends!

The weekend past so fast!

I took the weekend off from work to breathe, read up & spend time with the man.

He specially prepared a homecooked dinner for me. :)

Such a blessing to have him. ♥♥

Garlic prawns/pork belly/cheese sausage/clam chowder.

The prawns was so so yummy!

 Also took some time to browse my favourite reads - Frankie & Mollie Makes.

 Saw some really interesting sites!

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Sharing this with you today!

Society6

A place where thousands of artists upload their work.

And you are able to buy them in the format you like.

For example art prints/iphone cases/stationary/tshirts.

Quite a cool website!

The Bird & The Whale by Oliver Lake

The Conversation by Oliver Lake

 Time of Your Life by Matthew Kavan Brooks

Falling (Laptop & IPad skin) & Cotton Reels by Cassia Beck

*Love her work! So romantic & pastel-ly!

This website got me surfing for the past hour & I am still not done!

So much pretty stuff to see! :)

I am sure you will be hooked. TeeHee.

have fun browsing & enjoy whatever that is left of the weekend :)

**Meanwhile I finally set up my own system of doing my Etsy store. 

Going to try it out tomorrow so hopefully it will work!

Hello Hello again! :)

Hello everyone!

Apologies that I haven't been updating much on the blog.

Running a business on my own means I have to do EVERYTHING by myself.

From accounts to paperwork to cutting fabrics to packing the room office to buying stationary to mailing letters.

Before I turn self-employed, I often wondered how do crafters do it?

How do they stay focused & patient on their business?

Don't they feel despaired & wants to give up when things are slightly down?

Then I realise passion overwrites everything.

When you have the passion to do what you love, nothing can stop you.

You may have days that are down & sucky.

Go out. Have a walk. Have a cup of tea.

Breathe.

I had a really bad day last week.

Was really procrastinating to go for my weekly session of yoga.

In the end, I went & it turned out to be my best session.

I did my positions. Not the best but I tried.

I sweated. I breathe. I relaxed & I felt oh-so-good after that.

There are LOTS of people out there who think that being self-employed is the best & easiest thing on earth. Yes it is the best thing on earth.

When it rains heavily in the mornings, I am so glad that I don't have to wake up but yet I could sleep in a little while more.

When I don't feel like working, I take a day off.

BUT what they don't realise is that when you are self-employed, everything falls on your shoulders.

When the business does not makes enough, you are the sole responsibility.

When the stocks are not moving, you are the sole responsibility.

There is no SUCH THING as benefits/maternity leave/paid leave/MC/insurance.

 You work longer hours because there is only ONE u.

There is no job security.

Next is hard work. Enuff said. I think I have never work so hard since my school days.

Totally agree with this. "Good things comes to those who work their asses off"

 

Taken from here.

And you definitely need a bit of luck.

I admit I have been a wee bit lucky this year.

Things are slowly picking up on the business side.

I met a few people who are absolutely wonderful & supportive towards what I am doing.

Participated in a few fairs (Public Garden/Maad) which was oh-so-satisfying.

It was such a good experience with so many vendors that has the same mindset but yet we were not fighting with each other for business.

The atmosphere was oh-so-good that made me realise that I did not make a mistake by changing my career which was at my peak (I reckon).

To be frank, I am definitely not earning as much as I used to.

Am I happier now? YES.

It is hard to put in words that satisfaction you have when you see someone coo-ing over your designs or wearing your designs or simply just having a customer telling you that she loves your designs.

I had a customer who came over to my booth during Maad, congratulating me on having my booth and how much she loves one98one's stuff.

It was an absolute high!!

AH.Shucks. I am rambling.

Ok. I have to scoot off to fill in a questionarie for Marie of Etincelle Creative Studio & get ready some of my samples!

It is going to be oh-so-exciting March/April/May!

Meanwhile I have been really into typography/posters!

So you can follow my pinterest boards here!

H&M + Marni

The much talked/discussed fashion topic in town - H&M + Marni.

Recently I dropped by H&M with the man and was telling him that the H&M is really different from the one in Hong Kong.

Somehow it is lacking that "oomph" factor for me to shop.

Perhaps because it is no longer special since it is readily available here.

But the whole store is just lacking in the "come buy me" factor.

When I was in Hong Kong, even the smallest H&M store surprises me!

Do you feel that way?

But I guess it is still too early to tell since they only been around for less than a year in Singapore.

Of course the good thing is that we have an extra shopping place to go!

Oh well enuff' said! Let's start with dresses.

Love flowy styles like this cos it is such a Sunday dress!

Perfect for those feel-fat days. :P

1st Dress - SGD159 

Not sure about the second one.

(prices from Bagaholic Boy)

Stripes/Dots/Prints.

Yeah certainly my style!

Prices are steep for H&M but certainly reasonable for Marni.

Wool Cardigan - SGD139

Tee - SGD59.90

Jacket - SGD199

(prices from Bagaholic Boy)

Necklaces & Bangles

Love the colour combi.

Hopefully the actual thing looks better.

Can't seem to find the prices from Bagaholic Boy so the prices below are USD.

(Taken from Nitrolicious)

Necklace - USD49.95

Bangles - USD29.95

Bag - USD39.95
Sunglasses - USD19.95 (Love the shape!)

Blues for the man!

What a nice touch of colour for the collar! :)

Shirt - USD49.95

Sweater - USD99

Niceeee...

Ok that's all for me!

These are my favourite looks from them but I reckon there will definitely be a queue for these when it launches on 8th March 2012.

And no. I will not be queuing for them. :)

(all images & USD prices from Nitrolicious)

(all SGD prices from Bagaholic Boy)

Getting Ready

Meeting some important people tomorrow with these & others.
Hope things turn out alright!

Loving this colour combi at the moment.

Taken from design seeds.

Public Garden @ Goodman Arts Centre 18th Feb 2012

Participated for the second time at Public Garden!

As usual, it was fun fun & more fun!

& I had Zabalang Goods joining me this time so it was even better!

Really appreciated everyone who came down & of course my family & my beloved!

thanks for the support! :)

Our new handmade goodness!

First appearance in Public Garden!!

Received many good feedback from customers for this range & I am working much harder to get them photographed & upload them here.

We also have many customers coming over to "WOW" over the accessories & eventually  asking us how is this being made?

I will be blogging about it soon!

"Neatening" up the photos that I just took & will try to upload tonight :)

Presenting Zabalang Goods!

The place for quirky/unique/afforable homeware goodness!

Last but not least..PRESENTING OUR $$ BAG!!

黄金满满!! 黄金满满!!

More photos can be found on our facebook page!

Like us now! :)