happyshop

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And had to make some phonecalls. But the 1st person I called was a grumpy one so I ended up texting instead since it’s less intrusive (and unfortunately means a much poorer chance of a reply, ever). Time check: 8.15am Saturday.

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.

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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.

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Deco my life

CareBears wide deco tape

I love CareBears!

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

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Hiatus

I’ve been endeavouring to take a little break from my online work, hence my 2 month long disappearance (from the blog).

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.

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Baack … !

I’ve been much occupied this holiday season; for a while, it didn’t look like it was ever going to let up!

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!

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Trip out

Here are the pix from my trip out to Nagoya, Japan to attend Shinzi Katoh’s first solo art exhibition in 20 years!

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Muji to Go at Hong Kong International Airport Departure Lobby. Fairly big store with a lot of travelling companions, such as nifty laptop bags and even cute alarm clocks.

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At Hong Kong airport — in transit to Nagoya.

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My stay at Miel Parque Nagoya. I love it here plus the fact that it’s just 10 minutes drive to the Shinzi Katoh art exhibition.

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Dependable service by the hotel front office staff, smiling even as I approach the desk from far, and always ready with polite greeting and a bow.

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My workstation in the mornings and late nights. The closet on the left is small but perfect for a short trip. I love it how everything is so compact just against the windowed wall — closet, desk with standby torchlight below, electric heat-top, digital lock safe, drinkware store, fridge, and tv on a rotational top. Love the urban night view too.

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Even space to put in a coffee table! Nice touch to the room.

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A clean and compact have-it-all bathroom. And the bathtub is deeper than the norm!

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Electric heating top for hot water! Stainless steel tumbler provided. Perfect for my late night cup noodles. There’s a vending machine on every even-floor for drinks (beer included) and cup noodles. Ah~ wonderful solution for them after-hours hunger pangs.

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Too hungry on the first morning to hunt for anything more. Settled for a quick and cheap bite at a crowded cafe at an underground subway station. The crispy toast was only 130yen, and was really yummy too. Stuffed with ham, cheese, sunny-sideup and cabbage. Wolfed down the other half before remembering to take a pic. Actually this is one of the very few photos I took of my food. Busy concentrating on the eating!

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The sushi display that really was just a quarter of the work with the clever use of mirrors! This was at a Japanese restaurant at the NHK building 1F. There was another restaurant nearby with special takeaway bentos for just 500yen. Quite popular with the office workers in that vicinity.

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On my way to Shinzi Katoh Design office in Aichi a day before the Shinzi Katoh art exhibition.

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Door to studio — our meeting room.

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Mr Shinzi Katoh and me after our meeting.

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Shinzi Katoh Design studio. Snapped this pic while waiting for Sensei and the co-workers. They were in the office to get ready to leave for dinner together.

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Day of the exhibition! But first, to check out the new Shinzi Katoh store at La Chic mall. Remember I posted about this Nagoya mall last month? I thought no way I’m heading back to Singapore without taking a look for myself! No photography allowed, but Shinzi Katoh Design office very kindly made a call to the store to let them know I was coming with my camera. Look at all the goodies!

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Sweet staff at the shop! For more pix of this shop, view the album on Facebook here

Reached Jill D’art Studio later that day — that’s where Sensei’s art show is held. What a crowd!

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Cat hatching a plot! This is my favourite ~

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Sensei talking to one of the many guests who came to this opening party.

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The Shinzi Katoh Design team! I was very honored to be seated next to Sensei.

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Right-o! When it was say sayonara Nagoya! I took the miu-train back to the Nagoya International Airport. It’s an express with a flight-inspired interior. I topped up about 300yen to my commoner of a Meitetsu train tix to enjoy the ride.

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It was a very comfy and fast ride, all done too soon. Why, that’s the control tower!

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Back at the busy Hong Kong airport, in transit back to Singapore.

 

I spent a total of 4 days away from the family, that is, 2 days at the airports and on the planes, and 2 schedule-filled days in Nagoya. This was a work trip no doubt, but I managed to fulfill my bit of Singaporean duty and visited plenty of shopping malls, and tried out plenty of Japanese food from crispy deep-fried snacks, quaint bread and desserts, delish ramen to a grand 5-course dinner at a cool jazzy eat-in. Got lost once on foot, and took the wrong train once. All in all, it was a good trip out.

Hope I was able to share a bit of my outing’s fun!

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