waiting lists

back to business.

so, here's the situation now.
the waiting list for the yet-to-be-listed-in-the-web-shoppe goods from my new collection is growing out of hand.
i'm officially not adding on any more customers to the waiting list, because i don't even have any more mungo wanderlust leaf bags left for the shoppe. i think only 1 miserable piece.
am now working on our stockists' orders, and with the 1-week chinese new year break coming up for all @ littleoddforest, i estimate stocks for the shoppe to be ready only after mid-feb.

thanks for all your kind patience!!!! xoxoxo
and here, a sneak preview of the color choices you'll have for tree trunk and a leaf (padded laptop tote, detachable zipper pouch not shown in photo)

they are all dropping dead like flies.

wednesday, january 23, 2008 10:01 am
mandy texted me: "heath ledger is dead!"

wednesday, january 23, 2008 11:23 am
mao texted me: "daaa!! heath ledger is dead!!!"

wednesday, january 23, 2008 11:27 am
pat texted me: "heath ledger is dead!!"

we will all miss you, heath. looking forward to the new batman.

they preferred picnics and outings to ritzy dinners

http://www.tagaytay.com/

grateful thanks to you all!!!
and cheers to a brand new year together :))) xoxoxo

even with all the petty squabbles and politics you like to indulge in...
who knew even such things could happen in a little home cottage workshop...
irrational irresponsible declarations of wanting to quit and leave just because you dislike a new sewer.... all due to simple petty misunderstandings.... things that even $ couldn't solve....
you couldn't care less if you were going back to unemployment or menial sweatshop work back in the countryside or had no place to stay.....
am glad things worked out fine though! (albeit temporarily only, i speculate...)
hahaha
women. so hard to fathom.
tsk.
for every emotion we pay out to you, you all would have been millionaires by now.
oh wait, i'm a female specie too, aren't i... ha! different i guess :p

i love to travel

the title has nothing to do with this entire post, it's just that i'm chatting on the phone with a friend about how many times we leave this tiny dot of an island country singapore every year, and how many countries/cities we've visited in our lives so far (excluding those when we were in mummy's womb), and blabbing about our favorite holiday places and the not-ever-going-back-in-near-future ones unless you drag us there or it's for work stuff (china and hong kong... don't even ask us why haha).... yes, i'm multi-tasking, typing this out as well :p

and yes, the title is misleading, because what's to come does not evoke any positive emotions of anything remotely close to what travelling does.

first of all, my sincere apologies for the previous angsty post, i totally got over it after my yummy taiwan porridge supper, haha. it's nothing really, just customer service shit, yep. so am unable to talk about it here. no cause for worry ya all, really appreciate your text messages and phone calls. thank goodness it's all just emails and stuff, not face to face, i can only imagine how many times i would have thrown super acidic killer sarcasm at those..... (can't think of a better word than stupid. stupid, the forbidden "s" word haha) people.

i seem to be losing my acquired skill of being "nice", recently. it was like i had attained the highest level of this skill (along with my "being patient" skill, although thankfully i haven't lost that, yet), and then suddenly, i just couldn't be bothered to use it anymore. i've been mean to people i don't like. i just couldn't care less and suddenly became intolerant to all types of situations i would categories as stupid and nonsense. i seem to have suddenly thrown away my ability to be "patronising" and "pleasing", skills that took me so many years to acquire, and now just couldn't be bothered to use. i'm just not very nice at all anymore. it gives me such great kick to make the deserving "s" people feel "s".

everyone seems to want a piece of me, my time, my energy, my mind. so yeah, my current life philosophy (which, by the way, changes like the weather) is, if you bring me no joy, or worse, make me sick, i ain't hanging out with you no more.

so many things irk me recently.

our government websites.
who the hell designed those???? don't we pay enough taxes for you to find better and more expensive designers to do them??? didn't they get someone else outside of their team to navigate through the entire site? who was the dope who approved the job?? a technical person cannot do a creative's job, unless he studied design, is good at it, or something along those lines.
fuck.
couldn't you intelligent civil servants employed by our intelligent government even get this simple logic right??
i hate it when you can't fucking find the correct navigational link to click.
there's always a sub-link and sub-sub-link in a sub-sub-sub link page somewhere.
then after taking more than an hour to have finally found what i was looking for, it brings me to a dead non-functional link.
dead.
i need to download a pdf application form, and all it says is "the page cannot be found".
what the fuck.
so now i've to make the dreaded phone call.
dreaded because it's the dreaded government talking machine customer service, that just goes on and on just like the website.
this is exactly what the 80-20 rule prescribes that i should not be wasting time on.
and the 80-20 to me is like the bible is to my dad.
and yet.
just kill me.

ignorant people.
only when they choose to bother me.
i got to know many people and made many friends and acquaintances in my years in chicago, the majority being americans, and i regret to say that at least a quarter of them know squat about the world. outside of america. but that's cool with me, because i know them personally, as a person, and i know them for who they are, and they know me for who i am. so we're cool. what's not cool - those whom i don't know and who don't know me, but yet, chose to bark up the wrong fucking tree. my tree. me.
how dare you drop me email via etsy, saying that i come from a country of factories, china, and that the origin of my handmade products are thus dubious. i don't see the need to defend my products as being handmade, because all my customers and the real world know better.
but china????
fuck you.
i'm from SINGAPORE. IT IS NOT A CITY IN CHINA. OR THAILAND, since i'm on this.
google it, fucker.
so i guess the entire great big country of america has not a single factory.
so i guess the biggest customers of china factories are not americans.
since i'm on a roll, and i'm no fan of china, but hey...
so i guess the entire population in china are either factory workers, slave-workers, exploited sweatshop workers, cruel factory owners, factory supervisors, and the few farmers here and there? and there are no colleges to speak of, not even art colleges, and the young people there, upon graduation, just goes straight to work in a factory. god forbid they have dreams of designing and creating some handmade wares on their own, and hopefully make some american friends online, even if they aren't able to make any sales.
is there like a chinese etsy website? if there isn't, i propose that you should do up one! the biggest dough rollers now are afterall the chinese from china.
i quote kishore mahbubani, author of can asians think?, dean of the lee kuan yew school of public policy. "Unfortunately, even as the world is becoming more predictable, America is becoming less so. It has one of the least informed populations on the planet, and the quality of the presidential debates on global issues has been appalling."
as claire, my dearie pal who just recently moved to toronto, canada, said in our msn chat yesterday - "sorry that our world is only as big as America is, was glad when I got to move out to chitown, meet "the world", then realized that world was only so big"

kids.
kids who scream at their maids.
kids who beat, slap, kick, and pinch their maids.
apparently, when you live in a neighborhood with many young families and their children, the incidence of meeting such an annoyance just jumps high up.
i held a boy by his collar this morning, told him to keep quiet, and told him i was going to bring him to the police for abusing his maid, in my most pissed off manner.
this brat was screaming orders at his maid to cook his favorite gawd knows what (i couldn't decipher from that high-pitched shrieky tone), but obviously something not what his mother had instructed, and so after his poor maid repeatedly told him in the softest possible tone that she couldn't cook that for him, he started pinching and kicking her.
an 8 year old school boy (i asked him his age, just like a policeman... hhahahahha) in school uniform, kicking his maid. in public.
i'm sorry to come to this conclusion, but he must have an awesome upbringing.
after a very brief "why you shouldn't do that to your maid" blah blah blah, i was already late for my appointment, i forced him apologise to her (she almost pissed me off too, by saying nevermind, nevermind, nevermind, non-stop.....). i told him i wasn't going to let him go until he said sorry for doing what he did. so he muttered a reluctant one amidst sobbing, and being me, i said
"i can't hear you. you have such a loud voice, and that's all you can give me now?"
and he mustered up a decent one whilst crying loudly.
"if i see you again, and see you doing this to your maid again, i'll make sure you'll regret it."

irritatingly delusional dog-owners with spoilt rotten dogs that are not properly trained, who think their little yelpy "children" are the loveliest cutest babies, and think everyone else must think so too, and let them run amok on public beaches, and then when their beloved dog pee-pees on someone else's beach bag, and then all they can coo out is "oohh bad boy, bad boy.. i'm so sorry... so sorry.... oohh baby, come to mummy, why are you such a bad boy? hummm.. hummmm... ooohh naughty babyy"
WTF.
i bet their dog's pee smell heavenly to them as well.
i love both dogs and cats. but i'm not mad.
i do not find it cute when a dog comes and sniff my arse and refuses to budge while i'm laying down at the beach.
"ooohhh baby (apparently her dog's disgusting name is baby) loves you!"
shoo. go away.
i leave the city to escape human madness. and i come to this mad place. sheesh.

oh man, i can't wait for the chinese new year holidays and my multiple trips abroad.... need to leave this country.... no such thing as traveling to other states here! pasir ris to jurong?? i don't even like going across the causeway..... the nearest i can tolerate is bintan. phuket.... bangkok....... japan........ excitement has driven the angst away temporarily.

happy monday, peeps

rudeness and stupidity

Some people are just so rude. RUDE. And STUPID. And RUDE. And yes, STUPID. I am so PISSED off that I'm posting this from my phone in the car on the road for supper.I couldn't wait until later. Do the world this one fucking favor and go DIE if you LACK common sense and are rude.And stupid. So so so very stupid. And very rude.I would slap you so hard if I could, thank goodness I'm unable to, I might just contaminate myself with your RUDENESS and STUPIDITY. Michelle promised this works better as therapy than violence hahahaha I think it works abit, thanks babe for putting up with me.

restocks galore!

i apologise for being tardy in announcing new item listings and restocks... some new items have been listed and are all sold out... sorry!! here's how an lof regular from singapore, kathleen, has summed it up in her email to me last wednesday... "It's like striking lottery! I won the small one (my new hansel & gretal keyring pouch) but missed the big one :( Please make more of the heart wooden handle bags soon! It's depressing when I don't have the chance to go online and check in your website every morning!"
and some maybe not so nice ones like this, no hi, no bye, just like as shown here - "I was delighted to have found your store, but it is now even more upsetting to see things that I love but are sold out. Why on earth do you still show me items that I can no longer buy??? Do you restock them or what??? Please remove them if they are really sold out and save me the pain."

erm..... wth???

i still remember an incident in inqbox @ far east plaza, a couple of years back... the shop owner had displayed some items from her personal collection which were not for sale, just to spruce up the look and decor of the shop. one fine day, came this tai-tai looking woman with an air of snottiness surrounding her, browses around, and points at one of the not-for-sale item, and asks for the price. the sales assistant then politely apologises and informs her that the item was not for sale. and then this woman went all crazy on this poor girl and starts raising her voice and arguing about how the shop is so "stupid" and "silly" (exact words she used) and has something not-for-sale displayed there and kept ranting on about how "ridiculous" (exact word she used) that was... sheesh woman, that shop belongs to someone, who has a right to display whatever she wants since it is her shop..... do you start asking to buy the shelves or display units off from a store selling apparel??? maybe you do... ha!

so! anyways, the "sold out" items in the shoppe, most of the time i leave them there because they WILL be restocked! i just can't tell you when for sure sometimes :p some others i wasn't able to restock them as planned because the fabrics are no longer available, and the rest, i either simply forgot to remove them or i just want to show potential stockists that they were part of my previous collections.... ( -___-")

oki oki... so here's what's in store... coming your way soon!
# selected key-ring pouches restocks + newies! (new word coined by and courtesy of patricia)
# selected snotty bird bag restocks!
# forest seedlings tote newies!! (don't miss out on this one!)
# selected summer bird bangle clutch restocks + newies!
# selected petit leaf straplet restocks + newies!
and because of wonky work schedules, between now till end february, do expect
# yet-to-be-launched new collection! including mungo wanderlust leaf bag, "tree trunk and a leaf laptop" combo, "love sprouts switchy" purse, lof monster sacs, and moreee! and of course,
# restocks and newies of our already-launched new collection designs

go check it!

thank you so very much :)

some fun photos from one of littleoddforest's awesome regular customer/friend, gretchen! i think she's building herself a little forest there, haha









gretchen not only got herself one of our donated goody boxes for our adopted world vision child (a 4 year old girl from bangladesh), hope she doesn't mind me posting about this, she dropped me an email after her purchase - "Your sponsorship inspired me - I logged on to World Vision and now I am sponsoring a girl from Sri Lanka." such an awesome person, isn't she???!! :D it makes me feel so very happy every time when i see goodness in this world :)))

just like the very polite and sweet little chinese boy around 13 years old, in catholic high school uniform, who held the elevator for me 2 weeks ago, for at least a full 1 minute, even volunteered to help me bring in the huge packaging boxes (i must have looked like some crazy lady), and in my imagination, i took a stamp with a huge tick and the word "approved!" and stamped it right on his forehead, right after he said "oh, not a problem at all!" with a ready smile on his chuberic face. i almost lunged towards him to pinch his cheeks. if i had a daughter, this would be who she has to hang out with (another sign of old age). it may seem absurd to you, but NO one here in singapore will EVER say "oh, not a problem at all!" not even adults! we seem to have hidden gold inside our mouths here in this country. whenever i respond to an action or whatever, to a stranger, with more than the usual one-word responses, they stare at me like i'm some alien. terrible, isn't it?????

also got super sweet greeting cards in the mail last month from some of lof's most regular customers over the years, kelley, maureen, janice, kathleen, jessica, and siow leng :) hugsss... shouldn't i be the one sending them cards??? *embarassed*

all's looking might fine right now....

me thinks 2008 is off to a beautiful start :))))

haha, just kiddin'... not about the beautiful start though... ;p

okay, discounting the fact that my poor phone is still being held by samsung for repairs (delayed for 4 more days, because apparently many phones decided to "die" during the new years'?? rubbish lameo customer service excuse. i would know that, wouldn't i... hahaha!) after it decided to fly off from the top of the atm machine (ok ok... i accidentally flung it off...), and am now using a "grand dame" xda IIs which works okay temporarily since it also runs windows mobile, but i still don't have my contacts back... that totally blows. so dependent on technology... so useless without it...

so anyhoo... :)) the air after a heavy rain, the early morning dewy smells... *sniff sniff*... ahhhh.... i've been reading alot, and spending even more time outside, in addition to the usual work, which explains my absence from the www... sorry ya all...

so how was new years' for you? for the first time in my life, since 14, yes, FIRST TIME, i didn't spend mine clubbing away or at a loud party, it's a miracle! totally unbelieveable for me, yeah? haha! no big bang this year, it was a refreshing change (literally, since there wasn't enough loud music and booze to knock us out flat or give us a nasty hangover the next day). we had what i would call a nice little "ah-pek and ah-um" (old uncles and aunties) steamboat dinner party at a newly-wedded friends' place, with soothing jazz and bossa nova.

i also received a record number of gifts this christmas i think :DDD (well, we'll not include our presents galore childhood years), some from new found friends, but plenty from those closest to me... who seem to have caught on on my love for part 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. of holiday gifts... have to thank b for that.... muahahahaha.... *an evil satisfied dada grinny laugh* so, no, really, it's the fact that they know "me", and what i like, is what was comforting about it all.... for awhile, i was so deep into littleoddforest that i felt "i" no longer existed. even the majority of pressies i get since the past couple of years are mostly forest-related, i do adore them tons! but it's kinda sad, i don't know how to explain it right, but it's sad, in a funny way! funny in a sad way. whatever.

i had hinted about lovin' the sunny side up shag rug

but since my "new home studio" plans had to be temporarily shelved (boooooooo), mao got me this instead... heeee....
sunny egg eye pillow

which totally rawks too!! :DD i don't think i bear to use it though, because it's very white... and being me... it'll be un-white in no time at all...

and following the yellow+white egg theme (eggs are one of my favorite foods by the way.. yumm!)....

i seem to have plenty of yellow amongst my possessions....

"dada" (what i've been called for short since a lil' kiddo, by all my long-time friends and family) seemed to have almost disappeared gradually over the years... after a few-too-many friendship-betrayal incidents and severing ties with a few certain people and from a certain group of "friends", coming back home from chicago, and then the starting of my own business, which has successfully morphed me into being called "lof"..."littleoddforest".... "the forest girl".... "lynda of odd forest", someone's silly version of lof... (gawd.) and it seems we are all glad dada is back! :)) i think meeting up with jill, pamela, and ghim helped too... and also chatting with chae eun, ahhh memories... i still remember back in college in chicago, when all my self-branding/promotion projects were dada, dada, dada... everywhere, everything was dada... and everyone called and sung out my name with such melody and rhythm... especially joel, chae eun, etc.. i miss getting voice messages with just a singing "daaddaaaaaa daadaaaa..... callllllll meeeee." dada makes me feel warm and fuzzy. and now, all i do is lof, lof, littleoddforest, lof.... which is good of course! but i suddenly miss dada... calling me "hey, littleoddforest!" just makes me feel like it's all business.... maybe i should try to make the two click together this year... to my dearest closest friends, thanks for talking to me about "where's dada?????".... i don't like to be too personally close to people/friends in general, you all know why, but i'm definitely grateful for the handful of you who truly know me :)

i finally "bothered" (oppsy! hee...) to update here, because i'm almost done with my 2007 accounts (i'm super prepared this year, eh!), and most importantly, littleoddforest's 2008 catalogue update is completed! sent out to all stockists, new orders coming in, new design samples completed and to be shipped out to lof's sales rep. in the usa, recession looming there, so there are changes and work to be done, and also, selected new designs are now available in the lof shoppe now! go looky!

have also received a record number of internship/job applications over the holiday period... please email directly to info at forestprints dot com with complete details, by complete, i mean complete, you can be creative, but please introduce yourself properly in detail, instead of just leaving us cute little "begging in a friendly sort of way" messages in our contact page. i don't need super formal and boring click-copy-pasted resume templates, and i do love cute people, but hey, it's going to be work, and if all you can be is cute.... hahaha sorry.... if you wish to model our products, please be sure to send in photographs or links to your photos, as for helper elves, we're not looking for any at the moment though, not at least until after chinese new year...

am away on a work trip, other than lof's little annual dinner party, hopefully it will be a fruitful one as i'm scouting for stuff for some new projects i have in mind.... excited!! as usual ;)

suicide

my phone committed suicide today at 3.30pm.
i didn't snob your text messages or phone calls.
don't have your numbers either. nothing. nada. all dead and gone.
i know i received 4 text messages between 4pm - 6pm
sorry. please email. or just call again. whatever.
arrrggghhh!!!!! yep.

new collection preview

catch more glimpses here! - http://flickr.com/photos/odditii/sets/367675/
i hope to be able to get some ready for the shoppe by the end of january'08. really hope you peeps will knock yourselves out! i had a whale of a time whipping them up from that very enlarged head of mine, i've got a couple more surprises in store, so yeah, don't worry, this is not all of it, yet ;p muacks!
and yes! i will be replying super late emails okay, by this week! liz! mao! gretchen! lucia! betti! amy no.1! amy no.2! erm... and you, you and, you! sorry.... :S
and kitty stories! (you may stay away, mandy) and photos! yeap. so much to do. tsk.

happeee newwww yearrrr! 2008!

hungover, no voice (croak...), too much booze, laughing, shouting and screaming. and it was wasn't even at a club...haha
i know this one's for kwismass... but hey!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1855223358
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! how did yours go? hope you all had a good one.
thank YOU all so very much for such an awesome year, for myself, and littleoddforest too!
i hope all littleoddforest fairies and elves are spending their new year with a huge smile! they know why.. yippe... ;D *big group hugsss*
sorry i have been awful at updating, it's simply because there have been just way too many good things (and some crazy workin') happening at the same time and so many stories, too little time, and so many unexpected presents! sobs.. thanks for the part 1, part 2, and part 3 pressies, i really love them all, even if YOU (you all know who you are) were not entirely pleased with what you got for me... silly billies. and yes yes yes, i'll try my best to take photos of them.... try, yeah.. ha
i can smell all the goodness coming in for 2008 already.
hungry. my mum came back last week, happy me. i totally splurged on a huge family dinner treat last friday. today's b's turn for part 2 of big treat. we're off to my favorite brunch place! wooppee! ta-ta for now! xoxo!

p.s. and yes, i'm still waiting for world vision (singapore) to get back to me about our child sponsorship. this, after 1 month and 2 phone calls, and promises of receiving our sponsorship information "next week". so much for efficiency eh? i'll give them another call next week if i still don't receive anything. there's still 1 more donated goody box left! no one likes green? and i thought this would be the first box to be sold. i'm also deciding if i should continue with littleoddforest's wwf donations for 2008, or to go with another organistaion, hmmm...