guilty

Not guilty of eating too much chocolate cupcakes, but of neglecting the blog. Oh wait, that too. Yikes. Its been such a crazy time, I had mosaics of great etsy finds yet have absolutely no time to post them up. I'm really intending to do so when all this madness (exams) end and I get a little break with DH in sydney. He's got broadband now so no excuses!

After my bout of stomach flu in September, everything's like whirlwind! Loads and loads of custom orders. Well, loads to us anyways coz we take time to make stuff, to make sure every little detail is of supreme quality. I get antsy and guilty and can't get to sleep at night if the stuff isn't as good as I want them to be. So on and offline, we do buckets of purses for weddings, shops and people simply love our stuff! Heavens bless these wonderful people who keep us alive. I know, its not Thanksgiving yet, but we feel so lucky to have such wonderful support! Its not a millionaire job, but its good enough for me. Hell, I'm living in heaven! Ironical but so true. LOL

If this all sounds bit fast, its because I'm high on coffee & stressed out from studying for the tax and corporate accounting paper looming at the end of this month. (*gasp*) Worst yet, my landline at home decided to trip out on me suddenly. No internet, no landline at home right now til end of the week when the technician comes. I'm actually writing this at a coffeeshop at the next suburb over at 9.15pm on monday night. Not complaining since they got coffee, smidge of wireless internet and proper table and chair. The facebook flash games won't work tho. Maybe its a good thing, since I got quite a bit of admin done. phew! Apologies to everyone who's been waiting for feedbacks from florspace. yikes! But thats done. finally. :+)

All that said, I'd better get back to my books. See ya when I see ya.

Giving thanks + shhhh...news!

Whew! Its been a long day! Had to stay up last night, amend all the 155 listings in the shoppe for the sale, answer convos, tweet and prepare more stuff for you wonderful people who stayed patiently by the screen and waited (past midnight for the eastern hemisphere!). To all you early birdies, THANK YOU + HUGS! Its very cliche, but seriously, we'll be living on the streets without you! Its well and truly such a wonderful feeling to be appreciated for the things we do! You early birdies will definitely find extra goodies with your order! ;+) yaaay! Not to worry "later-comers" (*giggles*), our orders always come with love and thanks, just because you believed in us! It makes everything worth its weight in gold.

Now, you might already know this, but I'm quite a juvenile and almost naive person. I have issues keep secrets and holding things in! LOL The shot up there is a final version of our Maxi Clutches soon to be in store! You saw it here first! I just had to say it coz its almost the only thing on my mind these days! I'm a little nuts about clutches. I have a plethora of vintage ones that are being used almost daily as well as prototypes for florspace. With fabric construction constraints, I found in order to create a large clutch enough for our daily (load of!) essentials to be crammed into a hand-held, it needed both to be sturdy, yet relatively lightweight and somewhat structured yet will be suitable to be made in cottons and canvases. I hated super hardy clutches like the old hand-tooled leather ones coz they can hurt as well as clutches that eventually turn lumpy after sometime of usage. Pleats and whatnots tend to trap dirt in the yummy fabric and it can become difficult to handle in everyday situations. I'd wanted something classic, something simple, in the florspace spirit of real functionality and letting the fabric speak for itself.....hence a sort of blown up version of our small clutches we used to do. I loved the classic circular moon shaped flap and trapezoid style. The flat bottom means your clutch will mould to your essentials and habits and you can control how much to put in, not to mention things will be more easily found as they can only be on one plane! And, it packs so easily in your suitcase for travel! And of course, the zippered top means nothing falls out even if you drop the clutch or have to fend off unwanted attention. ;+)



Quite a bit of thought went in but it'll be boring you guys out! I will not be releasing the one you see at the top, as the fabric is vintage and has a bit of flaw in it. Its mine for keeps! 3 more really adorable ones like above are coming in store, so do keep your eyes peeled if you're a clutch-anatic like moi! :D

Thank You

Its been such a long week, yet it truly felt like it disappeared in a split of a moment. When I'm delved deep in sewing, packing or online admin, it felt like forever. Yet time would fly by faster than the speed of light. There were so many world issues - market crashes, airplane troubles for Qantas, terrorist attacks in mumbai, strikes in Bangkok, yet florspace reported a truly remarkable audience during the Black Friday Weekend sale. We are truly humbled and appreciative of everyone and anyone who waited by the screen patiently for the sale to commence, those who came, saw, grabbed feverishly, paid immediately and on time and to everyone who's been so understanding of our situation and the true lack of time by not asking for too much customs. We feverishly sewed, packed, relisted and sent out your packages in hope that it will all reach happy people in time for Christmas! It is such an immense joy when our purses were described as 'the perfect stocking stuffer'. We couldn't have been prouder coz it was exactly what we wanted everyone to feel! Everyone deserves the good stuff!

With tears in our eyes, we want to convey our sincerest thanks to everyone for all your support this year, and may you guys have a peaceful, wonderful & sparkling Christmas with your loved ones!

Pinky Jack Tote set

Oh I still reminise about how happy I was to uncover this fabric! I was in a little fabric town in Japan and happened to get myself a little lost, walked into this very small and quaint little store that had the most wonderful fabrics all tied up in bundles with twine. They had utterly cute lace and buttons in glass jars and vintage sewing knickknacks all over! I was in HEAVEN, albeit a bit small, but still. They had plenty but as we all know, the whole opportunity costs idea drives me mad. I picked out a couple of vintage european home dec fabric in very retro prints which I had so much trouble looking for. No dekoplus, but just as good. Then I saw this beanstalk fabric, both in blue and pink. I remember that I couldn't decide and waved both bundles in Mom's face and asked frantically. I'd wanted to run to more shops! We decided on pink and the rest is history!



So besides CT's pleat tote set + cube that I'd made for her, we have a little left for a tote set for another lucky girl or mom! It seems so perfect for a new mom with a little girl. Of course it'll be so great for jazzing up an otherwise boring outfit! Would contrast perfect with denims too. Hell, its pink people, goes with anything! Our totes are made with the utmost dedication. I don't make anything unless I know it will be perfect. Pressure points are all double stitched. Handles are stitched 4 times! So feel free to swing and dunk books in. I feel so bad sometimes when I've got poor customers who tell me they've bought handmade and the purses look so fragile, they might fall apart on use. I'm sorry but I do spit on people who think they can make a quick buck out of selling handmade. Instead of just making a quick buck and getting out of there, you're making your audience lose confidence in handmade goods in general because of your shoddy work. Its fine being ignorant about crafting, feel free to experiment and only start selling when you are able to make something you would want to use and love. Its tough making stuff sometimes, but nothing beats the wonderful reviews we get from wonderful people! So a huge thanks and hug to everyone who's been so supportive! Its almost the 2 years anniversary for florspace so expect more yummy things! yaaaay!

Belated ramblings & thanks...

Borrowed Thanksgiving table picture by Sassygeek.

Its been tough trying to get back to the temperatures here. Hokkaido was snowing and I was there on the 1st snow day. How fun it was standing in the freezing temperatures trying to catch snowflakes on my tongue. The food was so fresh and fabulous it was tough not to keep eating. I miss the potato pancakes most. Its such a simple thing, but yet so homey and yummy. Kinda like how Anton felt when he ate Ratatouille. Heavenly. I left Hokkaido after 6 days and proceeded on to Tokyo. Hokkaido was on a tour group thing so it was cool having to experience mountains, autumn trees, glorious food, hot springs, Japanese-style rooms and city life all in one go. Tokyo was by ourselves coz I was supposed to bring my folks around. Well, um, it was difficult; the population had grown so much in a couple of years. We did have fun there. Brought them around Akiba, Meiji Shrine, Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku (The crazy KK queue!), Ueno Zoo, Kaminarimon, sensoji and Odaiba. Odaiba was really pretty. I thought the Tokyo beach thing was an overkill but it turned out to be really beautiful. We sat there during sunset, with the rainbow Bridge in view and stuff. Of course we had to visit Yasukuni Shrine. Its my favourite place right now. Wish I could go back to see it when the Cherry Blossoms are in bloom. There was a monthly flea market there too. Couldn't resist picking up a couple of bargains.

I still miss that place loads and the ramen shop guy in Tamachi knows us coz we frequent it too much. LOL Oh the katsu-kare is amazing stuff. ;+) We stayed at the gorgeous Villa Fontaine. Mum thinks its too quiet but its great for me. It was new, chic, spacious and tastefully decorated. Sitting way above an office block, we're assuming its for the working people and expats.

Oh yes, thanksgiving. There's actually no thanksgiving in Singapore but I'm going to pretend there's one anyways. And its not past November so I'm in time. right? ;+)

Thankful for people who heart florspace.

Thankful for the support of so many wonderful people who buy from florspace.

Tremendously thankful to people who take time to say so much nice things to me, in feedback, emails, flickr and blog comments.

Thankful for wonderful parents who put up with me, mentally and financially.

Thankful for wonderful DH who consistenly put up with my nonsense, even when I yell at him.

Thankful for a bunch of wonderful friends who are constantly there for me.

Thankful for the chance to do a second degree.

Thankful for motivating lecturers and co-operative project mates.

Thankful for great course results! (Got a credit for Macroecons *phew!*, HD for A/C, DI for computing and Marketing. Darn I expected HD, but oh well!)

Thankful for the existence of wonderful people on etsy who give me great discounts on their items, swaps with me and generally being so nice!

Many thanks to Emma, who listened to my problems and being so wonderful to me. She takes great pain in creating those fabulous bags, so go visit her and say hi for me.

Thankful for the existence of fabulous fabrics and zakka!

Thankful for people who make mushrooms.

Thankful for wonderful swap people, who send me so much more than I bargained for!

Thankful for awesome bloggers & flickrites who consistenly keep my nights entertained!

Thankful for the existence of Lush 99.5fm.

Thankful for the small bunch of shop assistants online and offline who make me wanna go back for more and more. (Not so nice people, try to be nice!)

(Hmm.....is that it?)

Okay, Many thanks for any other thanks I should be thanking for. LOL




Super cute Snoopy for you guys! Happy belated thanksgiving!

Darkest Hour, appreciations, new cell + wallets

Yeah, its high time I do a post. Its been yonkers (cybertime!) since I last appeared here. Loyal readers (if any!), I do apologise. If you all must know whats been keeping me off the blog, see above. Working with people for the Marketing project culminating to a 5000 word report with extra appendices spanning 52 pages. I haven't slept in days, literally. Before that, it was the marketing test. I mugged like nuts and worked my ass off, but there was this horrible dude in class who goes through life by leeching off others. Needless to say, I was estatic to find out, the day before I handed in the project (Friday) that I got a High D for the test. Then the next day, I found out this leech got a High D too. He was announcing happily after the class because of his height "advantage", he cheated and copied answers from students around him. Jerk. Now I feel like my HD is a joke, especially when put next to his. Did I mention he's in the same project group as me? And yes, he didn't do anything for the project, lamented that he wasn't given a chance to do stuff. Lies. We gave him a bazillion chances and he never once showed up with anything. He wrote his name on the cover of the project without a hint of guilt. Never in my decades on this earth have I met someone like that! Its both amusing and appalling. Its weird but grades never meant this much to me til now. It must be a HD curse. The stakes always get so high when you fare well. The pressure to keep up is mounting...



That package there is for a wonderful girl who supports me so much. I'm lending the picture to say thanks to people who have left wonderful feedbacks at my etsy account, emails of appreciations, condolences for the nonsense in school(eeep!), sweet comments at my flickr photos and random niceness of strangers and friends. Its a tough time, but all that niceness saw me through. All that's left now is the finals. Mugging alone seems like a good idea! Oh well, I learnt it the hard way. Never lend out your notes. Over my dead body! LOL



Moleskine has been my companion for years now. Funny how they're turning snazzy. Hell, the red really attracted me. I got this set from a local auction site and it came quickly. I'm loving the extra doodle book and stickers! Lying there beside is my new cell. The old pink one was giving weird problems so dad happened to get this one. Its pretty much the same phone, 'cept thinner? The last one was a V3X and this one's a V3xx. Funny how adding one X makes a big difference. Thats what they said about mathematics too...



New wallets! And more to come! Choco apples, mushroomated and pink sakura are still hanging around in my shop. Any takers?