stress is solved by spending $$$

or is it? me thinks it'll just cause more stress later! when the pockets are emptied
LOL!

i need to have this!!!!! neeedddddddd. yes.

and amy... plssss don't cry! i seriously did not mean to make you cry. i just didn't know how crazy crochet is. haha. you're so hired lady! keep it inexpensive and within budget for me plss (i'm refraining from using the word "cheap". hee, just kiddin') email you as soon as i get things ironed out in me big explosive brain.

see now why me should really get this awesomely green and cool mouse??? yep

us humans and the labels we give...

how would you call yourself professionally, if you were doing what i was doing?
owner? designer? creator? creative director? director? big-shot person? some other silly haughty labels?? what???

any clues?? anyone??

sigh *throbbing enlarged head*

so, supposedly, we're there to "spice things up" because we're the "odd one out" of every label/company there, and so, basically, that means we're there to function as an "accessory", you know, the little pair of cute earrings you hardly notice, what with that huge attention-grabbing big-ass gown...

or, more positively, as lana puts it, we're there to provide "diversity", yeah... :p

singapore is sooo boringly commercialised it needs us super small fry to provide diversity. har har har.

any aspiring talented english graduate with undiscovered marketing copywriting skills willing to work for a couple hundred bucks and some gifts??

oh, if you read the newspapers some weeks back, according to a branding survey, we in this asia region are boring indeedy... we love to buy only established international big power brand names (this is with regards to fashion), as opposed to our western friends who very much prefer supporting independant designers, labels, names, new start-ups etc. we love the super high prices and we love that the person walking next to us could be carrying that same expensive thing too ( having mass support means mass recognition and confirmation, yes?) because we like being a part of the huge herd, and we love even having cheap imitations of these big brands, nevermind the lack of ethics of violating copyrights and all. who cares, really? because we love to "think" that we are in the higher upper-crust of the society. that we "have it". and have "made it". it's either this, or cheap cheap sale of cheap cheap mass-produced factory made stuff. nevermind how it was made, who cares, really? it's just a dress/bag/material thing. we buy, we use, we throw, we buy again. yes? ............

getting touchy feely

you all are waay tooo nice, i'm so grateful and touched... thanksss so much, really

i just hope i don't disappoint you if i don't get to go any further from here, or if i decide to give these all up later on

nay, don't worry, i'm just saying this in jest, things have been a roller coaster ride recently, full of obstacles, and i was getting so burnt out, it's tiring to be doing this alone sometimes, i wish i had a business development partner of some sort, or at least a super reliable secretary/personal assistant person, so that i don't have to deal with all those other stuff. i just want to enjoy what i like to do, and make a good living out of it. i want my long long holiday!!! but yeah, i had a nice weekend at our secret hideaway place, have my irrational fears ironed out (temporarily.. haha!) have to thank my mum and b for it. they're my pillars of support, and you all have been simply too nice and encouraging to me and what i do. *hugs and kisses for all who'll accept!!* hee..

oh yah, did you catch the latest winners of fredflare.com??? i need to have these!!

we're up!

the second batch of 9 winners of fredflare.com's next big thing includes littleoddforest! yay!

i'm especially grateful to all who notified, encouraged, and pushed me to join.. thanks a gazillion! really ^_^

i had a difficult time thinking of what item to submit for the competition, since it has a number of requirements, like being able to produce a few hundred pieces in 2 weeks, good price point, fredflare-ish... etc.

so i decided to submit my Kitty Luvs Fish brooch pin, it's colorful, cute, and inexpensive, and especially since i make them all myself so i can count on myself on not screwing up on datelines. and then i got an email requesting for samples in multiple colors! yay! So I thought, hey! might as well use this opportunity to put in a few MORE samples, tsk tsk tsk... naughty me. anywaysss... so i also added in Luva Kitty and Mogu brooch pins... and weee! they decided upon our Love Mogu which they have seen before... ^_^

pure luck eh? yep

at least this month isn't so bad for me now, after all the stressful events.... I was super motivated today, and edited 30 photos at one go in an hour! 30! one go! 1 hour! phew~ off to supper now... i've to gain back some weight, i lost yet another kg this month... :(

fred flare's next big thing!

tis finally arrived!! ^_^
super adorable stuff from the first 9 winners! weee!
more crazy updates coming up!

everything's blahhhh...

nothing has changed since i last asked you to slap me

now i need a "wake-me-up" slap as i'm spacing out while typing this...

i've had to change yet another new sewer, who screwed up a whole lot of bags... i just feel like giving up nowadays, my mood really sucks... i just feel like sewing every single gawd damn thing by myself, and make people wait months and years for their orders, and take decades to re-stock and put up new stuff. i'm such a drama queen... it sounds like i should be enjoying an annual turnover of a million bucks (or so my pal sarcastically said to me today) but no! i'm actually kinda broke!?!?! i miscalculated and over-splurged on supplies last month... sob!!!! so now that i've almost no bitchy hate emails to deal with daily, since most of my inventory is updated and not sold-out sooooo easily (bleh) i've new problems to deal with, gawd damn sewers...

did i mention that my tanktop sewer suddenly died of a heart-attack about 2 months ago? i don't remember... anyway, everything's still stuck... stuck stuck stuck stuck. shit. and i've new fabrics in the warehouse, waiting waiting waiting waiting. fuck.

these are all old problems, but i just feel like digging up all the dirt and pouring it onto my face. why? because i'm sick and psychotic like that. yesterday i dreamt of an obnoxious owl sitting on treeling, laughing at me, for gawd knows what reason. so i've decided to make an owl plush. new mogu plushes will be ready soon too! i feel happier dealing with plushes and stuff, than trying to be nice to bag sewers who screwed up my orders....

what else makes my day? nice emails, nice text msgs, and nice packages. i did a swap with yet another portugal flickr fwen, love the package of wonderful handmade surprises!! thanksss vanessa!! everything was nicely packaged and tagged and such, just delightful to open!


and then, a fabulous swap with biggerKrissy!! now i've a biggerCritter, my new fuwwy fwen who's joining with all the other fuwwy and softy fwens in my room... i promise to take a cute group picture soon, when my time and mood permits...

i also did a custom fishy pouch for a regular-customer-fwen person more than a week ago, i made it happily, she was happy, and now i'm happier.

mao mentioned (again) yesterday that my posts are kinda manic-depressive-like. sadness, low morale, complaints, whinings, outbursts of vulgarities, and then official littleoddforest updates and newsletter stuff, and then suddenly a high of excitement, happiness, !!!!, and outbursts of hoorays... so! i will be setting up a proper littleoddforest updates blog thingie soon, so yeah, you can stop naggin me about it. things will be more professional soon..

end-note: if you see me walking on the street, and you think you know me, please for goodness sake, don't follow me and whisper behind my back and then point point point. it's kinda... scary???? yeah... sheessh...

slap me, please

today is wednesday, 10 may. i knew that only at 9.40am this morning.

since monday, my internal dates have been screwed upside down

i thought monday was tuesday

thought tuesday was wednesday

thought today was thursday

very unfortunately for me, i had scheduled meetings and appointments for wednesday, thursday and friday

- wednesday 10 may appointment with buyer at 3pm - i remembered correctly since 2 weeks ago, 10 may 10 may 10 may, set my organiser for this, so i didn't screw this one up

- thursday 11 may taff briefing for singapore fashion week 2006 at 9.30am - i had totally forgotten all about it over the weekend and remembered it only monday night, which was when my dates have already been screwed, and i somehow kept thinking it was on 10 may, 10 may, 10 may. even miraculously thought to myself "oh! how lucky that the later meeting won't clash with this one in the morning" and so, very cleverly, i set my organiser to 10 may for this meeting. and i used the format where there're no days displayed, only the stupid dates shown!!!!!!!!!?!?!?

SO the main point of this story is, i freaking turned up for a thursday meeting on wednesday morning!!!!!!!! wwwaaahhh!!!! at least i provided some laughter and amusement to the otherwise very sedate and quiet office at taff..... how nice. now i'm sure that they remember me. owner and design of littleoddforest, forestprints.... what a terrific method to make people in the industry remember you.

- thursday presentation to prospective buyer at 10am - scheduled on tuesday when my dates have already been screwed, so i errornously fixed it on thursday. now i can't make it for the taff briefing !!!!!! wwwaaahhh!!!!

did all of that make any sense to you, sane people out there? i'm losing it. i'm so overwhelmed with a gazillion things, yet can still make time to do some booze, and not sleep. i should be making a million bucks with such a work schedule. but i'm not. i probably deserve it huh.

am i being crazy?

Hi xxxx,

it's good to receive your newsletter, because i haven't gotten any replies for any of the emails i've sent you the past 3 months regarding my 2 orders.

i'm hoping that this was all a big understanding. but just to let you know that i did not receive both of my orders, and am unable to check with my post office, because you had not given me any shipping information, nor was i able to get any refund because i had waited too long, beyond paypal's stipulated time frame for refunds.

i really hope to hear back from you at the very least.

thanks,

lynda

------------------------------------------

in response to newsletter from her announcing the re-opening of her shoppe....

------------------------------------------
EDIT

i finally got a reply... finally... no good news at all... but a reply nonetheless....

a quickie summer update

Hello Summer Forest!

Hello all ya stylish folks! Just a very quick update on our new and upcoming items, designs and re-stocks!

NEW!
+ Ring-Clutches + Coasters (New Colors!) + Crowned Bird On Cloud (Larger Totes) + Summer Tanks + Unicorn Totes (New Colors!)

RE-STOCKS!
+ Brooch Pins (Assorted) + Huggables (Love-Senders + Treelings!) + Bird Flying In Forest Totes + Owl Ribbon Clutches (Navy + Brown Colors!)

UP-COMING!
+ Corduroy Birdy HandBags + Corduroy Leaf Pouches + Cushion Covers (New Designs!) + Pillowcases Re-stocks!

Yes! We've done our third (and final!) print run for our popular silkscreen pillowcase designs! Weee!! So keep a look out for them, they won't be coming back anymore once they're gone this time!

Just one of our brand new cushion cover design in smart navy blue color. No pictures of our other new products yet, but watch out for them in the coming weeks!

+ We have been rushing to mail our all new VIFF Membership Cards as all of you repeat customers keep rolling in! Thanks for all your awesome patience!

+ And if you're wondering about our super-long-awaited Gift Cards, we apologize for the delay as we've been working extremely hard backscene to make it a fuss-free experience to shop with them, so that'll be a couple more weeks... ack! Our very tired part-time web engineer has a demanding full-time job in the day, so kudos to him for working so hard for us!! You've all been super nice to ask about them and wait for so long.. Thanks a mil! We're trying our very best to get it done asap!

That's about all for now! There'll be a much detailed update in a couple of weeks from now!

Till then,

Take care and happy shopping!

xoxo!

not another one again

yes, another one to go, another wedding to attend, how fun. not. don't get me wrong, i'm always truly happy for these happy couples. i'm never gloomy nor a wet blanket when attending weddings either. it's just that, i've a pretty bad habit of trying to analyse the entire situation inside my head, to question, to be doubtful, to be cynical, to bring up all the past case studies i did in my family psychology class... to be with one person only for your entire life? that's a really huge thing to decide on isn't it? and if you're thinking that getting out of it with a divorce is just as simple, why get "married" in the legal sense, with all the paper documentation nonsense and shiat etc. to deal with in the first place?

i think maybe it's the state of my family that makes the word "marriage" terribly terribly nauseating for me.....

some therapy work in store huh :p

happy stuff?

i know i've been bitching and preaching somewhat alittle too much here (thanks for bringing my attention to this tc & mao :pppp) well, it is just soooo much easier to type all such thoughts out at the spur of the moment, rather than verbally expressing it in real life, for me at least. i've been esp stressed recently due to lots of sudden screw-ups backscene, and i'm having to deal with the headache, the problem, and my real headache... tc thinks i'm giving people the wrong impression that i'm this gawd awful person who goes around persecuting everyone and everything i see. well. my response - whatever.. i can't help it if anyone thinks so. people who know me personally will know better...

anyways!! some happy stuff. new buys from etsy! impossible to take pics of all of them, so just 2 of my dozens of favs.
they arrived promptly, safely wrapped, with thank you note! i like.

i had to have a lego-something, you know, so here's my very own mondrian-lego necklace thingie... now i'm eyeing that big fat lego ring with a diamond, real diamond... hee.. and a bat-wing corsage, how cool right??? mao & b thinks otherwise though.. whatever you all... :p

and a nice may day spent at the botanical gardens, where the sso performed in the evening

it was a huge crowd, lots of expatriates and tourists, but people there were relatively nice, soft-spoken, and civilised, even the babies were quiet, except for some a.d.d. kids. we had a little sandwich and salad picnic, expensive ice-cream (10 bucks??), and wine. fed the swans, laid on the grass, and talked crap.

the weather couldn't have been better, cool breeze as if it was going to rain, but it didn't, until much later when we were at the carpark about to leave.

well, and how can i not have something to bitch about? hahaha! so here goes. i've learnt my lesson (again) and will steer clear of hiring anyone's acquaintance/friend/family in future (trying) ... i had to sort of fire a "friend-sewer", who has been wasting my fabrics and materials for the past couple of months, because all the purses i let her do came out crooked or asymmetrical or something or the other... and useless me let it dragged on for 2 more projects before i had the guts to face it and had a talk with her... it was a painful affair, with the reasons and sad looks she was feeding me with... and i'm still feeling bad.. gawdddd...

some ramblings

so, i WAS seriously trying to give the opposition a chance, i was trying to be interested in what they had to offer, what they could do, what they could promise, what they had in plan. i wanted to know. all past tenses. the pap's way too good, or the opposition is way to lousy for words. no substance, as mm lee says. "acts" of strong passion and beliefs, are simply, just "acts". i can put on a pretty good show myself if i wanted to. not equal to actions. no proof, no evidence, no facts to back statements. just air and coconuts. i'm just disappointed to say any more. and this cracked me up so bad that i cried. tears of laughter.

http://media33b.libsyn.com/lndueJ11m3vGeml7lXttqGynZHSW/podcasts/mb/tmbs-060501-the_persistently_non-political_podcast_no6.mp3

anyhow, that sunday newspaper report on the straits times about the "bank of mum and dad" made me think. i had always thought that i was a pretty spoilt child. i was fed well, clothed well, given love, opportunities and material needs i had needed when young. and now, even though i give my parents a monthly allowance, pay utility bills and such, and don't receive a single cent of parental support ever since i graduated from college, i still don't think it's enough. i felt bad that i sponsored my mum's 2-week holiday trip to china and taiwan, and couldn't sponsor my dad as well. i feel bad that i'm unable to give them anymore allowance than that little i'm giving now, that i'm unable to bring them out for good dinners all the time. and yet, there are some monsters our there who are of age, late twenties, receiving a pretty respectable monthly wage, yet still sponging off their aged parents... very very sad. what has the world come to today? no wonder the incorrigible spoilt brats we see on streets today... no wonder all that disrespect you get from the young today, that tone when speaking to our mm lee, no wonder that prevalent "taking-things-for-granted" and very indifferent attitude, breeding a very shallow generation... oopps, i sound soooo gawd damn old. ha!

i was talking to my mum, who has specially made a trip to come back sg just to do her duty to vote. we talked about her holiday trip. she liked it in general, but was disappointed that they didn't visit more historical and scenic places (it was a tour group). and why? because, i'm sad to admit, singaporeans love to shop, and shop and eat, and shop, and enjoy spas and massages, exclusively. nothing else. they just love to shop. so when they visit any country, they love to visit their malls, and then compare everything they see with their own beloved country. if the tour itinerary includes any remotely arty places where cheap bargains and purchases of any kind are more likely to be inexistant, there will be complaints to the tour guide, and changes will most likely be made. because art bores them. they think historical buildings are signs of being un-modern. they think museums are meant for old fardy-darts, bores, and insomniacs. that's why our very own chinatown looks like the tourist-trap it is today. that's why everywhere you go in singapore, there's a freaking mall. and the worst thing is, all the malls have the same brand shops, selling the same gawd damn thing. why on earth do we need so many giordanos???? seriously??? that's why our museum standards are the pits... and i'm ashamed that i don't know what to do to make things better...

b openly screwed some aunties and a bunch of kids the other day, when they crowded right outside the train door, thus preventing people from alighting first. i was so proud to be walking with him (not that i was never!). even though the cta in chicago stinks badly of pee, and really, the train is no way in comparison to ours, which is spacious, brightly lit, clean and nice. however, the ride in the dirty train is often filled with pleasant encounters (except for that few masturbating perverts, and ghetto hooligans), unlike ours, which can really be a field trip to study the ugly human behavior. there, people give way to others, guys say "ladies first", no one literally fighting for seats, and even the homeless beggars help you to keep the train door open so that you can rush in and not be late for classes, and saying "god bless you young lady". here, when someone sees you nearing the elevator, they hurriedly try their very best to have it shut before you can rush in. i remember fondly the times when people always hold the elevators for others and saying "hey, no problem, we're all dying to get home anyways" with a warm friendly smile. i love my country, this invisible entity, but not the people. i guess that's bad of me, i can't help it...