My first craft fair

Yesterday, I had my first craft fair ever at the Victory. I was oh so nervous and the night before I was up late getting my displays ready. I did not have the time nor the money to buy proper necklace displays so I opted for more organic simple cardboard displays. I cut the textured cardboard into different shapes reminiscent of old shop signs and cut slits up at the top to affix the chains. They did their job but I would like to invest in an antique half bust sometime in the near future. It makes my necklaces look more professional. The fair itself was slowwww. I had alot of "ooo that is pretty, lovely work!" but no purchases until the last minutes of the show. A girl bought the Halsey Necklace (The one you can see in the photograph, grey with red buttons) It is a fun lovely necklace. I think I will do another grey and red combo soon. Most crafters at the show was complaining of the slow traffic and concluded it was mostly because of the Black Friday bleedover. Sad. Oh well, it is an experience nonetheless! Lots of my business cards did get squandered into people's pockets and purses which is a good sign!!

My next show is my trunk show at Thea's on Thursday, so if you're free, please come and have some wine and food and look through Thea's wonderful vintage shop down in the Pearl. I'm really hoping I will do much better there!

I am convinced that I need to make more of the double chained necklaces as that got alot of compliments yesterday.

This one is called "Fish on a leash". A guy came up to me and said "I dig your fish"
Thanks dude, I dig it too.

Here are the newly listed items:

I used a bit of the burlap I got for the craft fair table and am using it as a base for Rach's present. My dear friend Rach back in New Zealand just purchased a house with her boyfriend. Oh how fast we're all becoming adults. I'm making a cross stitch for her house, something cute and funky. It will say " Home iz where the *insert cross stitch of science beaker* iz." She's a scientist as well, you see.

OHHHHHHHHH! Plus I got my lovely gorgeous ring from Sarustar!!!!! I wish I have my camera butmy mother has it with her at her art show. Oh it is so beautifully and I love it! It's mine! I'm not a huge ring person, I've only owned 3 in my entire life excluding grooovy mood rings. There was the first platinum ring that my step dad got my sister and I when he and my mother first got married but I lost that! (I'm no good at keeping nice things!!) The second one was a tiny amber gem ring with silver leave frame that I bought in Corvallis but now I don't know where it is. I know it's somewhere in the house but this one, I will not loose!! It's so simple and the colour so subtle but special that it really makes a statement! (Even if it is on my manly fingered hands) Thanks Sarustar, I truly love it!

Kiss kiss kiss kiss!

Munted Musers:

I was strolling over at Hello Craft when I saw this in their older post. This cracks me up. Plus the fact that the creator of RichmondArts is a dental student, makes me laugh longer. I have a dentist friend, I wonder if she'll like this. She has said she's sick of looking at teeth all day long but not at how easily the numbers in her bank account exponentially increase. (Oh I wish this happens with science research) This photo tickles me because the instant I saw it, I did not think Vampire but my unborn twin somehow starting to come alive and grow and this is the first sign!

Angsanarts

It is an important day for my mum today, she is having her second art show in Tualatin. My mother, the part time florist, full time mum and artist envelopes herself in details. (Sometimes it's a wonder she's not crosseyed) I remember my favourite painting she did when I was just a child. (She has since sold it when we moved from NZ to the states) It was a vertical rectangular painting, in water colour I think, of a sparsed out village along a river and the mountains in the background. In each house, people were doing different things, drinking tea, looking out the window and it was as if I could make a story up just by looking at the painting. My sister and I would often argue which house we would want to live in if the painting was real.

These days, mum is more into painting flowers, old chinese villages (the nostalgic side of her) and using pointism to capture pets expressions. If you have time, whilst still digesting last night's hunk of meat, go visit her Etsy store Angsanarts or her blog. (The blog is filled with real Chinese cooking recipes, real as in, no brown sauce!!!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh the traffic to work was nearly non-existent! Yes, you heard right! Work on Thanksgiving day. I don't mind it much, as my job as a cancer researcher is not a regular cubical job so it is quite active and at times (like right now!) I get periods of 20 minutes to an hour of free time as some protocols call for long incubations. I'm thankful that I have a job, despite the horribly funded science arena.

I visited the Ornamentea online shop today to see what I could purchase and saw this great deal:

3 cute stamp set for $3!!! Could it be? Either way, for $3, I was willing to find out.

I also bought some metal case organizers for all my supplies because it is getting out of control at ground zero aka fireside by the lounge. I have reels of cords everywhere, buttons overflowing in boxes, crochet needles and findings all over the show.

I should stay at work all day today because I have that huge horrifying science department presentation next Friday but I think I will go home early. I have to re-do Dana's custom order, I hope it is the last time because I'm starting to spend too much time on it for how much I quoted her. Custom orders are tricky, are the labor hours ( I hate the word labor!) a reflection of the seller's inefficiency or customers standards? That is a tough one to juggle in my head. Don't get me wrong, I love making this piece for her but everytime I finish it, I wince in reading her replies to see if she loved it or it's just not quite there yet. However, I don't want my customers to receive something they're not entirely excited or happy with! I will re make the necklace for the third time and hopefully, third time's the charm! Some custom orders are different from others and I think it is just harder to put into action what she has in her mind.

The timer just went off which means my bacteria cells are all lysed! One last reminder, if you're free on Saturday, come by to the Victory for the Granny Panties Craft Bazaar!!

This Saturday, 29th of Nov
11am-4pm

Introducing....

Um, I actually don't know her name. This is a quick sketch of what she looks like. It is a lady that works at the post office near my work. Since I've started selling Muntedkowhai necklaces on Etsy, I've been dashing off to the post office during work (I love flexible science jobs!) and it is the most bizarre post office to date. It is a run down post office with a glass case smack in the middle, hand prints all over and inside are haphazardly placed booklets of collections stamps with a chicken scratch handwriting saying "NOW AVAILABLE". There is also, these two beautiful mustard meets satruce coloured arm chairs with wooden lion feet bottoms. One of the arm chair is in a very bad shape, the material has broken through at the front edge and it is sad looking. It is a pity that the lovely arm chairs are sitting there, in the depressing down trotten place. The wait is usually very long, un neccessarily so at times but hey, it's a government run place right? The lady I sketched, I get served by her most of the time and it never ceases to amaze me how much she does not care. I'm wanting to give her a nick name and all I can think of is Jugs because that she is a lot of. Jugs is probably 45-55 years old. She is an excessively plump lady and when she walks slowly away from her desk to put a parcel into a container, you can see parts of her body that sits on other parts of her body. What intrigues me to no end is her hair. It is grey and white, wiry. Jugs has evident bald patches which she does not care to cover up with her other hair, mainly because they're free standing, reaching up to the sky. They stand up in all directions, NE, NEE, SW,NWW. You name it, it's pointed there. Often while waiting in the line, I have the sudden urge to go up to the counter and use both of my hands to smooth out her static medusa hair from top to bottom. I do not.

Jugs is in her own time zone as well. One time, she was finished with a customer and there is still 7 people in the line. She does not call Next! but gingerly takes out a pad of pink sticky notes and with 6 year old intensive concentration, wrote something slowly onto the pink sticky pad. Her tongue is out and only retracts in after she has finished writing. All the while, everyone in the line was flabbergasted that she took so long to calligraphy a note to herself before helping us out. What tickles me the most besides her hair, are her questions. She has something to say about everything.

When I mailed my first sale out to Seattle, she looked at the address and said "Oh! Seattle." Steps back from the desk.

"I used to play the clarinet in Seattle."


Another time, just quite recently, I sent Anna's necklace to Dunedin, New Zealand where she lives. Dunedin is pronounced "DUN KNEE DUN", however most Americans are prone to pronouncing it " DUNE DUN". Jugs looks at the parcel and said, " Oh?! DUNE DUN! Oh! New Zealand! The warriors of DUNE DUN, Chapter 14!"

I am not LOTR fan and so I don't know any references but was sure that Dunedin was not mentioned in the LOTR series? I was not going to argue with Jugs either way but she still wanted to enlightened me as I was giving her cash.

"You know, it is so funny that the book was written about New Zealand and now the film is filmed in New Zealand. Yes."



Now, everytime I have a Jugs encounter, I will surely blog about it. It is one of those quirky things that makes your post office visits.

Skipping the Gym...

means you can take photographs of your pieces in some what decent sunlight...

I listed the Rangitoto Necklace today since I sold one when it appeared on the front page!

Mama wants these lil babies!

Oh my lord. Mamaslittlebabies Etsy shop makes me bounce like a four year old, hands clapping, legs fraying saying " I want it! I want it!" You'd want it too!




Mamaslittlebabies make these gorgeous Victorian illustration prints onto plastic and cut out to be made into delightful necklaces! I've always had a huge crush on Victorian illustrations and now you can wear them! Oh boy! I especially love the black and white peony but the colour cut outs are quite eye catching too. Swooning as I type. Swooned.ed.

Second chances

I have a success rate of 2:5 when I crochet/tat my motifs. This means, I have a pile of motifs I'm not satisfied with and I also have motifs that I'm happy with but not wowed due to a combination of things, mostly matching of buttons. Last night, I revisited two motifs that I made and chained up but never intend to put on Etsy because it just didn't do it for me. Since I have a rummage-able amount of buttons now, I decided to re-button these motifs to make them into "Ooos!!".

Un-named as for now.

I've also started hand writing my tags for the Granny Panties craft bazaar on Saturday, I love Indian Ink!

I should really start on cutting out my displays tonight.

Speaking of second chances...I can't believe Audrina totally believes a rumor told her to by a friend she has only known for 2 years over Lauren's trusty friendship! For those of you who don't know, not only do I have an unhealthy passion for buttons, this also bleeds into the great realms of reality TV. (The Hills specifically but anything will do!)

It seem to come out of no where! Oh Audrina, you have slimmed down too much and you've lost a bit of your mental stability with that weight! When I watch the show, I always keep going back and forth as to who's fashion sense I really like. I really like Audrina's sense of rocker chick wardrobe but Lauren's more simplistic edgy which I think, in reality, I'd be more prone to wearing. Oh my god, what a nerd, I'm talking about reality TV shows on my blog.

Your face, it's like a doll

This morning, on my very quick glance at the front page, I saw a print that struck my heart, made my eye brows raise and made me whimper all at the same time! I immediately clicked on it and bookmarked it. The collage genius behind all these eerily romantic prints is Layla from Providence, Rhode Island. Her Dollfacedesign Etsy shop is listings after listings of pure tea stained parchment whimsical delights. Fanciful birds and victorian flowers pour over the pages and it is just about everything a little girl (or grown up 26 year old adult) would ever want to surround themselves in. These enchanting collages are balanced by the more interesting Victorian morbidness, or rather, a sense of mysterious beauty that is made ever more engaging surrounded by all this beauty.

You know, I think my favourite is the print on the right. It is just so insanely intriguing.


I'm also really excited as Sarustar and I are doing a bit of a trade! Oooo it is my first trade and I'm really happy because I've been eyeing her Colleen for a long time.

See, this is Colleen. She's pretty. She's going to be mine. Mine!!!!

Boutique hotels

I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend, be it productive or not! Mine was, for the most part, pretty productive.(Especially Saturday!) I was able to indulge in day light and take photographs of my new creations. I just wished that it was summer time because when I get off work, there is still workable sunlight to be had!

Sunday, we took a stroll down the pearl as I needed to get some nice boards for my Granny Panties show on Saturday. They're for the displays you see and since I'm too cheap and out of time to buy real busts (also it's so hard to find neutral antique affordable busts!), I'm going to make do with really nice textured boards. Had a lunch mixed dinner sort of a meal at the Deschutes Pub and for the rest of the afternoon, was comatose with the delights of stout beer and steamed clams. (Oh steamed clams, how I love thee!)

Last night, I also got to book our other flights. I know, in my last travel related post, I had said I was going back to NZ but after looking through our finances, we thought it was best to keep to our guns at the South East Asia plans.

Here is our tentative route:

Singapore-Kota Kinabalu-Penang-Ipoh-Seremban-Singapore

Basically, we're flying from Singapore to Borneo, flying to Penang and taking the train down the Malaysian countryside to Seremban where my maternal family lives.

The flights are all booked and I even booked our 6 day stay in Kota Kinabalu, thanks to my awesome cousin who gave me the local heads up. We booked the Imperial Boutec Hotel which is not only very affordable (6 nights for $450 usd with taxes included!!) but stylishly boutique!

It's so funky and minamilistic, it's great! I can't wait!!

Then for our Penang part of our trip, which will only be a few days, I'm looking to booking our accomodation at the incredibly sensual and nostalgic Cheong Fatt Tze Chinese mansion. It is a small boutique hotel that drums up the vibrant past. I just love hotels that have character, unlike the Sheratons and Hiltons of the world.



The Cheong Fatt Tze hotel has a bit of colonial touch to it and the decor just seem to transport you back to the 1920s, oh my! Wow, I so don't want to go to work right now despite the fact that I'm already 10 minutes late into getting into my car!

Make, Making, Made

I've been busy this Saturday. I even tried making some earrings. I like making earrings! Also, I fell on the trendy wagon and tried to make a cowl but will sew some of my crochet motifs on there to see what it'll look like.

I can't get enough sunshine/daylight. I wish I had enough time during the weekdays to photograph my creations because right now, I'm only photographing on the weekends which gets me frustrated because I want to list them during the week!

Enjoy my latest, I have not listed them on Etsy yet but perhaps next week!





Gotcha! You thought I forgot about my Happy Saturday?!!!

Well fear not, my Happy Saturday is a cheque.. from Thea's! Thea's Interior is my Portland Consignment shop and if you have not been, you should! It is the cutest, most romantic vintage shop I've laid my eyes on. In fact, it was the only store I wanted to consign with in Portland.