bye for abit

i'm leaving for hongkong tomorrow, and then to the philippines a week thereafter, and will be back in singapore after 6 september

but no worries please. the littleoddforest shoppe is still open and orders will still be processed! shipping will be on alternate days though. couldn't find anyone to help me ship everyday... super minor delays, you won't even spot it! if you're in america, usps or the customs is most probably the cause of your package delay... haha. sad.

anyhow, my agenda overseas includes

- business business business!
- getting supplies!!
- visiting friendssss!!
(i often wonder why all my closest friends are scattered all over the world... it's so painful for so many reasons...)
- hongkong disneyland! (don't ask why)
- visiting mummy!
- eat eat eat!!
- breathe breathe breathe!!
- sleep sleep sleep?? doubt that would be happening...

i've been so crazy busy with stuff before i leave, so that there will be minimal hiccups and etc. and i also had to prepare my list of to-dos so that i do not make an unproductive trip. workaholic monster me. everything has to be productive, including a business-cum-pleasure trip.... tsk tsk tsk...

anyways, you'll see what i've been busy with soon, in a couple of months' time... !!!

i'll still be checking emails, but won't be able to reply that soon. unless it's a life and death situation.. (p.s. sold out stock of the item you want is not life and death)

anyhow, take care for now! i'll be back with good stuff ;)

hugs & xoxo!

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EDIT:

i just have to say this because i just spent more than 30 precious minutes deleting and making null a ton of fraudulent orders. all our stocks are limited in quantities and i get really pissed when i have to reset their quantities for this kinda shit.

please don't test our system by spamming us with fake orders and etc.

if you have any questions about our website, just email and ask nicely and politely, with a short little sentence about why we should help you or what you are working on etc. would be really nice.

we did not figure out how to build our own website overnight, by spamming other websites with fake orders, or by asking curt or abrupt questions out of nowhere, because, frankly, no one owes anyone a living. good things come around, bad shit will come back and bite you back in your arse. be good. play nice. thanks.

i love my snake scarf

and i'm going to wear it! even if it means just in my air-conditioned workroom!! hahaha

this cute snake scarf is lovingly handmade by donna chung (puzzledpanther) from etsy!
puzzledpanther.etsy.com

spanish sweetness

we all need some of sweetness in our lives!! yes we do ^_^

lucia, the talented and creative mind behind chicadecalena, was one of the very first few talented nice peeps who cheered me along the way when i first started out littleoddforest more than a year ago

and she has finally opened a little boutique section in her pretty website for us to shop for her wonderful sweet creations! you simply must visit, even if just to browse!

i have my eye on this~

a chicadecalena collaboration with natacha matic, another super talented gal!

i've been using babelfish until it drove me mad, as you know, the translations sometimes (or most times) are literal translations, which could mean nothing in english! hahaha

i gave up. i emailed to ask for help.

^_^

have a gorgeous weekend everyone!!

life is not that short

singaporeans... or anyone else for that matter...

please be nice to someone today. just very simple and basic civil, courtesy behavior like

holding the elevator door for someone

staying to the left (or right) side of the escalator so that the other person can rush to wherever they need to

smiling and saying please or thank you when you request to be served and when you are served

does it really take that much to be just that little bit nicer or kinder or considerate?

please stop being so self-absorbed.

"oopps sorry i didn't notice/think of that" just doesn't cut it as an excuse for selfishness.

donating money also means nothing when you can't even help a passer-by stranger to pick up something she/he has dropped.

if you weren't brought up by your parents or family environment to be this way, then please, learn it yourself and teach your younger ones and those around you to be so.... i love my country, i'm not saying i'm perfect myself, but my fellow countrymen, you often make me ashamed to proclaim that i'm proud to be a singaporean... :(

a little smile and kindness goes a long way. not everything in this world must be about money or gains....

i just had to say my piece...

i ate too much

it must be the banana leaf, it makes everything on it looks very little, and then before you know it, your belly aches from over-exhaustion from curry. haha

banana leaf's super terrible service made it the more fun eating there... for us at least. we must be whacked.. hahaha

while we were enjoying our yummy indian dinner of curry fish head, prawn masala, chicken masala, and mutton curry (gosh!), an irritated foreign customer lost his patience and started shouting at the "i-wish-i-was-somewhere-else" waiter. drama and good food, what else could we ask for?


well, we could ask for.... smelly durians!!!! yes!!!
good good stuff from geylang, b's friend (yes, he has durian-seller friends, funny!!!)

the durian was heavenly! all super fleshy with super tiny, almost-non-existant seeds! gosh

apologies to all non-durian/curry-lovers who find these photos... disgusting ;p


on to other news, i'll be away for about 2 weeks, from 23 aug - 6 sept (yay! i'm not spending my birthday in singapore! haha) but it's mostly a business trip, although i always try to mix business with pleasure ;) the shoppe will still be open! no worries. and all orders will still be processed and shipped. there may be just a super tiny slight delay here and there, but not any major hiccups, so shop away as usual! ^_^ xoxo~

happy birthday singapore!

no shipping on wednesday 9 august (also last day of free shipping for orders above US$60! it's been crazy busy this week, thanks for all your love!)

it's singapore's 41st birthday! i have a love-and-hate relationship with my home country, well, shan't go into that here ;)

i would also like to thank the awesome online blogging community who has been showing so much support for us and the entire indie/designer/crafter/handmade community in general... we wouldn't be what we are, in the internet world at least, if not for you all.. muacks!!!

check out sweet pink chicadee from holland!
http://pinkchicadee.web-log.nl/mijn_weblog/2006/08/little_odd_fore.html

and funky finds from texas! she likes our little odd forest!
http://funkyfinds.blogspot.com/2006/08/little-odd-forest.html

i'm excited because i just shipped out some new items to our new model to be photographed! yippee! keeping my fingers crossed that the photos will be great! i found our new model from myspace... i'm spending more and more time there nowadays... it has been pretty fruitful for me! old friends and new friends... add me if you're there as well ^o^

no crying, just a silent explosion inside

"i had specifically requested for sufficient rib binding fabric to go with the ton of tank top fabric. this is not the first time i'm ordering from you, and in the past, you had always added on a sufficient quantity of binding for the main fabric."

"no no, this was your order. you agreed and signed to it."

"but why would i order INSUFFICIENT binding fabric? so that the rest of my tanktops won't have to have any binding?"

"i don't know. you agreed and signed to it."

"so now i'm left with a ton of tanktop fabrics that have no binding fabric to go with. so i guess i'll need to re-order more binding fabric."

"then you have to order 100kg of binding fabric because your colors are all customised colors and 100kg is our usual minimum for customised fabric colors."

"but i'm just ordering the binding fabric and not the tanktop fabrics now, why would i still need to order 100kg?"

"no no, that's the minimum weight for all customised fabric, we don't differentiate if it's binding fabric or tanktop fabric or not"

"but what would i do with 100kg of binding fabric??????"

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i can answer the last question - to hang myself with.

just another beautiful day

i wake up, turn on my powerbook first (occupational hazard), take a refreshing cold shower, collect the papers from the door, make a cup of coffee, settle down in front of my powerbook, and specifically pick "i just wish to say" emails for a 5 minute entertaining read.

so here's to share a little peeky of my daily amusements from my email inbox ....

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Feedback Type : I just wish to say

Name : Lizzie
Email : xxx@xxx.xxx
Time of Msg: 7/31/2006 9:17:46 AM

um. if i could... i would leave omaha, nebraska with two blinks of eyelashes burnt off on last year''s 4:20... and take up residence in a huggable tree in the little odd forest. and never see a home depot again.

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hope you don't mind lizzie! i just had to share one and i picked yours

xoxoxo

decor8 feature

littleoddforest was so kindly featured in popular design blog decor8! ^_^

http://decor8.blogspot.com/2006/07/forestprints-design-little-odd-forest.html

great job you all are doing, holly and contributors of decor8! thanks so much!

well... crap

How to Start a Business Relationship, Even if You are Painfully Shy and Hate People
by wolf krammel

To build your business, you've got to build your business relationships. I said it now, I've said it before, and I'll say it again throughout this course. Don't worry about building your business, worry about building your relationships and your business will build itself. There are all kinds of easy, even automatic, things you can do to build a relationship and I'll get into those in later lessons. First, though, you need to have a relationship before you can develop it into something profitable. How do you do that? How do you do that when you don't have the time, energy, or gift of gab? As for the first two, all I can say is this: if you don't think you have the time or energy now to start and build a business relationship, fine. Don't. You'll have plenty of energy and time later, when you don't have any business. As for not being a "people person" or being shy about talking to new people, I'll show you how to make this part as painless as possible.

The first thing to do when thinking about starting a business relationship is to decide who you want to have one with -- narrow the pool of potential clients. It may sound counterintuitive, but it's like pruning a tree. Sometimes you have to cut some new growth to make the whole tree stronger. Besides, that's just less people you have to worry about talking to. Additionally, once you do this, you may discover that you have no problem connecting with and talking to these people because you have something in common -- your business. Which brings me to the two easiest ways ever to start a business relationship: networking lunch and professional activities.

The networking lunch (sometimes it's a breakfast) is the easiest single way to meet potential clients and client referral sources ever. At it's least painful, you walk into a restaurant, sit down at a table with a couple of strangers, plop down your business cards, eat lunch, listen to a speaker, then leave after collecting the business cards of others. Of course, this is not the most efficient use of your time; things tend to work out better if you chat with the people you are sitting with. Usually, these things have a meet and greet time before the meal is actually served, and that's a good time to chat with people and pass around your business cards. Sure you have to interact with people, maybe even strangers, but it actually is much easier than it seems because everything there is out in the open. That is, people are expecting you to talk about yourself and your business and hand them your business card. You must, of course, return the favor, and allow them to do the same. In that regard, here's a tip that will make it easier for you to work the room: talk less, listen more. Most people will assume you are interested in them and think better of you for being so, and most people will assume you are interesting and intelligent until you prove otherwise.

If you are not involved in an industry or professional organization, tear yourself away from this lesson and join one or even two or three, now. I'll wait. OK, good. Not only is it a great thing to join such a group in terms of keeping up with your business, it is a fantastic way to generate business. The better known you are in your industry, the more likely you are to get the business that someone else is conflicted out of or doesn't have time or the ability to do. Further, people who are ancillary to your industry, but crucial for getting business are likely to attend these things. For instance, an estate planning attorney might be part of the Southern Arizona Estate Planning Council, an industry group that meets once a month for a dinner lecture. At dinner, that attorney will probably sit with other attorneys, CPAs, life insurance professionals, and financial advisors. All those people are sources of business for the attorney and vice versa.

Industry and professional groups, to be effective, usually require a little more than the average networking lunch. If you want anyone to take your business card, and actually do something with it besides throw it away, you need to make yourself known, and trusted, to the group. Volunteer for something. Speak at a lunch, write an article for the newsletter, donate meeting space. Do something besides just attend (though that's better than nothing). When you do those things, you won't have to worry about trying to talk to people; they'll be clamoring to talk to you. A correlation to joining industry and professional groups and attending their events is participating in their online activities. Almost every group has a listserv or a message board; contribute to it. This is probably actually the easiest single way to meet business referral sources -- even easier than the networking lunch.

Once you meet someone and decide you want to start a relationship with them, follow up right away. The next day is best, but within three days is crucial. Nothing elaborate is needed here, just a quick e-mail or phone call mentioning that it was nice talking to them and you'd like to meet again. Be sure to ask to meet again. If you promised some sort of information, be sure to deliver it. After the quick call or e-mail, send a note card with your business card inside, repeating yourself. It's a good sign if they follow up with you too, mentioning that they were just about to call or e-mail you, but if you don't hear anything, don't freak out. Relationship building is a slow process, give it time. Move on to the next contact.

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i'm definitely not shy, but i do hate people at times. when i don't make an effort to smile, i look standoffish, even though i could be thinking the most ridiculously funny thoughts. i hate being pretentious and patronising. although i do that pretty regularly for survival's sake. it's gawd damn tiring especially for my facial muscles and my brain, and i hate it. so well, crap.

hahaha, good luck to me