driving me-self nutss

just a teeny peek into the teeny part of stuff that has been driving me absolutely nutsss...




in case you ever thought i was slacking away and not replying your emails because i hated you

shoppe update

*Holiday Shoppe Update*

We've been super crazy in the forest factory, not just fulfilling tons of wholesale orders, but also trying to rush out X'mas goodies for a big holiday update!

In case you haven't noticed, some new items are already up at the littleoddforest boutique!



And expect lots more to come in these couple of weeks! Including brand new love-baboon pouches and also our popular hungry monster pouches, all in new exciting colors! Our applique scarves will be re-stocked in different colors too!

*Christmas Shipping*

International Customers | place your X'mas orders before 10 Dec to ensure that it reaches you in time!

Local Customers | the last day of X'mas shipping is 21 Dec!

*Gift Tags, Packaging & Little Freebies*

All our regular customers know that we always try to pack our orders as nicely as we can, and we always try to include little freebies - stickers, postcards, promo discounts, or buttons etc.

And it's no different this holiday season! In fact, for all orders more than USD50, there will be even BIGGER surprises in your package! In addition to the free shipping of course ^_^

Also, if you mention that your order is a gift to someone, it may just come to you already gift-packed! *wink*

*2006*

If you have always wanted to get our current range of super-affordable felt brooches but haven't done so, well, there's no better time than NOW! We're going to be doing a little special revamp to our brooches and pins for 2006, so get one while you can now, before we say goodbye!

Although our designs are now available in more stores around the world, you can rest assured that only exclusvie range of designs are available in all the different shops, and our littleoddforest boutique is still the only one carrying our one-of-a-kind designs!

Here's cheers to a smashing year-end holiday and a brand new year!

etsy featured seller

okay mao... did i forget to mention? littleoddforest™ is featured seller at etsy! yay!

i miss you mao!... i hope you don't ever decide to not come back for good!! how can you leave me! here! alone! forever! with no yummy bagels and thrift store excursions! waaahh...! well... not unless i'm there too! not forgetting b of course.. he says he's happy to get to tag along...

please don't be spoilt and overspend.. and try to save more $$$ so that you can come back SOONEST to visit me...

okay.. i'm just pms-ing and being alittle emotional and manic depressive... and of course, making you feel bad for leaving me here so that you'll come back soon... heeee...

dada kissies and hugs...

venuszine.com

just popping out of my forest factory for a bit to say...

little odd forest™ is the first of a series of holiday gifts to be featured in venuszine.com's diy - indie giver guide!

hope you're all having a fabulous thanksgiving holiday! (for those who celebrate it, that is)

my fingers have been so blistered and numb for so many days now, if only i can finish all these orders... i can have myself a short short teeny weeny break too... i'll be replying all emails by monday, so if you're still waiting for a reply... please don't fret! what's up with this asap world today... asap everything... including email subject headers starting with "reply to me asap!"... just makes me NOT want to reply to you asap... haha! evil grins

my felt brooches and pins

because of some recent feedback i've gotten about certain people copying my brooch ideas and packaging designs, i've decided to discontinue the current range at the end of this year...

new improvised exclusive designs of the same critters and also new ones , will be introduced in Jan 2006, with more exclusive prices because the range will all be numbered, with more design handwork involved...

i'm so burned out... back to work...

arrgghh!

first of all... thanks for all your thoughtful responses. i was a wimp and all i did say was... nothing! i just stopped smiling, did my eyebrow raised look thingie, let off a huge load of hot air, and thank god i got a phone call on my cell just at that very moment... then i just said "sorry i'm busy at the moment, talk to you again when we meet next time" it sounds abit formal and pretentious in english now that i've to translate it, but yeah, it's how you say in mandarin... anyways, he is in the local fashion retail industry, has a number of shops in malls all over singapore, he would be what you call, someone who has "made it' i suppose! bleurgghh...

i've no deep rooted hatred for every single mass produced item, hell, i buy ikea stuff and topshop's plain tanktops like no one's business.. but to make such statements about me not being able to do anything about it if he decides to rip off my designs some day... is just.. ????????? yes...

also, i just have to say that far east plaza is getting to be so annoyingly sad nowadays, i can't seem to avoid small brand design rip-offs whenever i've to drag myself there for some work related shiat... there're even a couple of switchboarders' design which have been copied outright, from label to print design on the tee.. i'm so glad i've decided to stop retailing there, for now at least

on to other bad news... i have officially lost 3 packages i've been expecting - 2 from the united states and 1 from the philippines. a present sent to me from the philippines from my dearest aunt millie, which had arrived in singapore post office safely over the weekend, was actually missing the monday morning they had to deliver to me. i even had to file a police report in order to claim back some monies as compensation. it was so obviously an inside theft job, someone working in singpost looking for an early x'mas present i suppose. fucker!

i had also ordered a plush friend from mypapercrane.com more than 1 freaking month ago and yup, nada!!! aarrgghh!!! heidi was kind and sweet to offer a refund or replacement, i haven't decided yet - it's so hard because she ain't making anymore of the plush friends! SOB! and j was so sweet to send me a whole package of vintage fabric and buttons he has so nicely rummaged for me from chicago thrift stores and it's been 6 fucking weeks!!!!!!! it's not the compensation i want, it's those STUFF i want!!!!! @#$%&!!!!!

now i've made myself to worked up to continue with my brooches bulk order. grreat.

......

not in these exact words, since it was said in mandarin...

"hahaha, you're so young and so wet behind your ears. what is so special about your products? so what if they are all your so-called tenderly handmade and limited editions or one-of-a-kind? i can just buy a sample from you, give it to a factory in china, mass produce it in tens of thousands and at the cheapest prices, with the best factory workmanship and quality control, sell them like hotcakes and earn so much for profit for so little effort, and there's nothing you can do about it... you've so much more to learn, too idealistic and naive to make it in this industry, like so many of your generation today."

just interested to know how you would respond to that...

afw 2005

so... our booth at the afw!

you may see the transformation here...
http://flickr.com/photos/odditii/sets/1349559/

the fair went pretty well for us greenhorns, regardless of the negative publicity of the fair towards the end of the exhibition (that was a real pity). we got to learn and absorb so much, the ton of constructive and positive feedback and responses... it was really incredible! i'm so glad that we didn't let the cost turn us off when we were first approached to participate in it, and probably because we were the younger participants, many people there were very open to talking to us, telling us more, and advising us about certain things - especially our friendly contractor tai-chi dude, the super nice label guy from taiwan, and many many other ladies we met ^_^

we were also pleasantly surprised with surprise visits from some of our very dear customers, and from lana and gang, david, corina, shan, and lisa (even tho you came when my booth was already totally dismantled) mao! i really appreciate your overseas call... you will be reimbursed! i promise! hee..

it was really weird when i saw the dude that interviewed me like a million times who made lots of strange claims and requests over and over again, when i first came back to singapore from chicago, and that was my first design job interview. he was in the very same pair of pants and shoes he was wearing in all the many days of my interview, and also at the fair, twice, (the color i shan't mention because then some people in the industry will already know who i'm talking about! :p), since i saw him on 2 different days of the fair... wowee... i'm keeping my thoughts to myself

you were right, lucia, my little things did sell like hotcakes.. i'll email you detailss of the fair, both you + amy! ^_^

all things cute

sweet rachel of ilovecutethings placed an order from me few weeks ago, and i'm so happy she loves them! ^_^ Read about it in her blog here!

you should go check out her very cute online shoppe and her cute stuff!

updates and of course photos!! of my experience at the afw coming up... drama-mama...

email issues

to: hardy mathilde

please provide me with another email address via which i may reply to your queries. i have been replying to all your emails since last month, with our main email accounts, with my gmail accounts, and also my yahoo mail accounts, and yet you haven't received any of them! i'm not deliberately trying to not answer your emails or anything like that, and i'm very sure there's nothing wrong with all my email accounts. so please try to use another email account when you read this. thanks!!!

by request

quite a number of people have been emailing me asking for details about the exhibition, so here goes:

Asia Fashion Week 2005
- 8 - 10 November 2005
- 10am to 7pm
- Singapore Expo Hall 2B

Admission
For trade visitors & professionals only.
Minors below 16 years will not be admitted.
Admission to the exhibition is free and is by registration only.
You may register on site during show days or you may wish to pre register using Pre Registration Form available online. All admission badges will be issued on site during show days at the Pre-Registered Counter.

Open to Public - 10 November 2005
S$ 10 per admission

Dress Code
All visitors must be properly attired. No shorts or bermudas and slippers are allowed.

meanwhile, crawling back to the forest factory...

bye for abit

i've been having a bad case of cough and flu, so have stopped sewing in case of freak accidents.. things have been thoroughly crazy these 2 weeks, but in a good way.

as usual, piling pre-orders (i wish i was an octopus, though i've just started hiring an extra sewing help occasionally) and things are also flowing quickly, aided in part by our birthday month and free shipping of course! i feel like it's x'mas already, with all the discounts i'm giving away... HO HO HO!

so it's all good, except, i'm not updating the store as much as i'd like to. i've been so pre-occupied, together with b, with the afw and many other stuff all coming at the same time. ever wonder why that always seem to happen without fail

there are actually new stuff ready to be uploaded to the boutique, but they're to be displayed at the afw 2005 trade exhibition first, sooooooo there will be craaazzyyy updates after the 10th! hmm... let's make it the 12th, give me 2 days off at least... expect lots of brooches!!! bagsss!!! yippppeee!

anywaysss, the afw is open to public on its third and last day, 10th nov. i think there's an entrance fee of SG$10. so anyone who's feeling like the expo is not god-damn freakingly far away and feel like parting with 10 whole bucks (ha!) scoot on down! and say hi! lots of established brands etc. and the greenhorn littleoddforest.. bah...

in any case, pictures will be taken and shared on flickr ^.^

other news...

a lesson learnt - i know that photography is really important for web stores, but this is really too much of a difference! some items which have been selling slowly (due to bad photography i gather :p), i re-took a whole bunch of their photos a while back, and hey presto! hotcakes! selling out! phew!

some very kind mentions, one from the netherlands and another from a sweet customer!

i never knew i'd get to say this.. but some friends i got to know online know me better than my "real" friends, how freaky is that?? not you, mao and b, of course, you guys are still theeee best! a big shout out of thanks to karyna, shayne, amy and lucia! you've been my pillars of support and help. and there are really some very very sweet customers out there who drop me nice emails every now and then too. i'm very easily touched by little things like that and love exclaiming in joy and annoying the shiat out of b by my repeated exclamations.

i've also been offering to accept promos from fella indie designers and crafters over at lj and the switchboards forum, anyone from here can also just drop me an email if you're interested! so expect little promos from other websites in your orders soon. won't you rather support all things made with love, than by some disgruntled robotised factory sewer in part of a big production line..

til the 12th.. byes!