It was a rather quiet birthday celebration for the store this year. I guess it’s because I hadn’t planned for a big bang, with the number of things that happened/are happening in June, July, August, September. Thank YOU for swinging by my roadshow at the Borders Fair at Singapore Expo. (actually come to think of it, I think my cough originated from there; there were terrible cooking fumes from the fair next door. I think my entire respiratory system just broke down after 3 days of continuous inhaling of the stuff.) And thank YOU for coming by my online store, and the FB page. I do enjoy Happyshop activities, online and off-. I’m in the midst of tidying up the lost photos of the events, and will post them up soon, I promise ~

So, it’s time for a move again (don’t get me started on how many places I’ve moved to in 2 years!) and I think I should be quite ready for it when September knocks on my door. I should be a veteran by now, with boxing up stuff, labelling, packing, and yes! throwing all those things away! Trouble is, I get so nostalgic about the pieces of memory and the worst that happens will be me, repacking and relabelling the wonderful bits and finding new spaces for them. The new place will have fewer stock-space, my Other Half warns, so I need to either cleverly invent a new storage system, or just have less inventory on hand. Hmm. Gurus with hands-on experience on clever storage, please share!

And in the Work Department, I just signed a contract for my 6th job, which is a meaningful job for me. Kinda related to my 6 years as a high school teacher, and kinda fits what I set out to do when I refused to pursue a masters in sociology. I mean, I want to do something useful, practical, something that makes sense in the real world. This new job plays a small, small part in helping adult English learners find (better) jobs. I hope to do this well.

My 5th job as a housing agent has panned out rather satisfactorily on-off the past 6 months. My manager says it’s the “Seventh Month” (i.e. Hungry Ghost Festival) so ‘business’ will be slow. But to me, it’s good news. I think it’s great to be able to slow down now, cos the job is really quite emotionally draining. If I hadn’t gone through the whole deal, I’d never understand that there can be THIS many difficult people out there. Maybe circumstance (the industry) shapes people negatively. Or, as Julie once told me, we always have a choice, so then, we all decide how we wanna turn out, huh? 

It’s nearly September. Soon it will be Christmas before I’m ready! Aw… but I love Christmas so. All the new memories mixed with the old, and the getting-together, giving of thanks, and loving all the people so dear to us. Hmm.

These are happy thoughts. 

Hope you have a wonderful mid-week, wherever you are.

So I’d say, other than Fresh-Start Mondays, I like Clean-Up Tuesdays best. Do you have a favourite day?

Alright, so with my own crazy workhours I’ve forgotten how maybe some folks don’t start work till 9am or later on Saturdays, discounting those who don’t work at all, all weekend. These agents I’m calling are supposed to be working from the word GO but I guess some can get quite aggressive about their beauty sleep. My bad.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The other day one of my ol’ buddies asked me how long I’ve done this “thing” and it hit me: I’m going to pass the 2nd year mark. The shopsite opened on 8 August 2008; incidentally someone told me it’s useless to pick a good date, but almost 2 years down the road, I must say, it’s a darn good thing I did, starting on an easy-to-remember date! Not that I’m a superstitious thing, but I never say no to nice numbers for a fresh new start.

I just said yes to a 5th job in January but the Happyshop business still gets most of me. I just love treasure-hunting for new stuff and the major roadshows: budgeting, restocking, inventory, sale list, freebies, layout, blahblah. My buddy Eileen recently commented more than once that I’m such a busy person. But having 5 jobs for me is fun. The toughest thing really isn’t choosing a different work/lifestyle. It is your heart having to deal with what people say to your face.

Most people I talk to don’t quite believe the thing that I do. Just the other day the manager at the reflexology centre even asked me how much I make a month. Oh even my own brother has not visited my shopsite. But if you’re serious about your life choices, you just have to stick with the people who understand (like, other solopreneurs) and just avoid talk with people who don’t. Otherwise it is too damaging for your soul. I mean, your life is yours, other than the true people you are accountable to, why do you have to justify it to anyone else? People are always going to have something to say. My wise school counsellor’s most memorable sayings were:

#1 Their Mouths Are On Their Faces

#2 Even The Best Of Celebrities Gets Gossip

I think the most important thing to aim for is to believe in the work that you do, and have that pay the bills, so you can spend your time with the people who matter the most. Yes it can work out that way!

Have a fab weekend everyone.

Birdsong Ruffle Dress - Sweet Plume

For more beautiful children clothings at Birdsong, click here.

Happy Friday!

Fawn Polka Dot Decorative Throw Pillow

Silver Ruffle Throw Pillow

Embroidered Flower Pillow

Jenna Pink pillow

Ruffles Pillow - Sand

Palmetto Pillow

This and some nice hot vanilla tea and a good read… ahh, my kind of a good afternoon!

Spilt Milk Bowl

Half Pint Creamer

Tasto Chip and Dip Set

Icecream Keeper

Nab one for yourself if you have guests over often, or to give away to your party hostess.

Now, the Icecream keeper will be just perfect for a picnic on a warm summer’s day. Hint*

CareBears wide deco tape

I love CareBears!

Use the new lovely deco tapes for packing your parcels, decorating your notepapers and scrapbooks.

White cotton & silk dress by Agnes B.

All pretty this season. Check out the 2010 Agnes B collection here.

Been up to some offline work, including two roadshows at the Science Faculty, National University of Singapore in January, and attending my real estate night classes. I hope the Chinese New Year break was good for you, wherever you are. And if you’re in a place like China, lucky you! The hols are a total of a week, ain’t it? Here in Singapore where I am, it is for but two days, but I think it was good enough for me. I haven’t been enjoying the Chinese New Year as much for decades, but this year turned out to be quite enjoyable. I put it down to cos my kids are old enough to enjoy the visitations and the fun with their cousins, discovering new houses and munching on a whole lot more of what I call ‘rubbish food’. Ah, the festivities.

Online, I’m grateful for the upward climb of the Happyshop FB fans (almost 600 now!) and the kind comments from customers, some of whom I’ve come to know a bit more personally. Also new in the shop in March will be new pens and deco tapes and other adorable brickbracks — the new pics have been uploaded on the Happyshop facebook page. On the Shinzi Katoh Design front, there’re some really great new bags coming our way. Katoh-Sensei has illustrated a brand new Fairy-flowers series of totes which exude a class of elegance coupled with much kawaii. These will be featured at our 3rd roadshow with our friends at Borders, at their upcoming Borders Fair in Apr/May 2010 at the Singapore Expo.

Here’s a sneakpeak!

New Shinzi Katoh Design illustrations

Hope you enjoy the rest of fabulous February! More good stuff, I promise.

The highlight has got to be the offer of a shop space — a brick-and-mortar store– at a nice area, which honestly had me sleepless a good decent coupla nights with hard thinking. But after some serious thought, I finally conceded that it didn’t make sense, especially in the Family Department. And so I decided to give this a miss. For now.

Managed to zip off to Tokyo with the family (I love Tokyo Disneyland!) cook for my dad, did a lot of Christmas shopping and ate too much of ‘nonsense food’ at my sister’s party, which is probably OK because after growing to a hibernation shape, I will probably/try very hard (at some point) to get back in size with some kind of exercise plan.

Ah well, sure there were a few spanners in the works, but on the whole it was good.

Hope your end-of-year is turning out splendid too.

Happy holidays everyone!