2012 in retrospective part 1

As 2012 is coming to the end, I'm doing a review of what the year was for me. My first target for the year as far as my crafts were concerned was to do 12 bazaars this year; an average of one bazaar per month. It was really easier said than done. Being a procrastinator extraordinaire, having my booth well stocked up is a real challenge. 

My utmost gratitude to Azzah of SewFabby for letting me in this joyride with her. She's a proper bazaar hunter. She did more bazaars than I and a real working machine when it comes to stocking up her wares for the bazaar. I couldn't keep up with her. All in all, we're together in 5 of the 12 bazaars that I took part in this year. Thank you Azzah for being a good sport, a great bazaar partner and a real friend I can count on. I can never repay the kindness that you've shown to me. May you grow and prosper in the years to come, dear friend.

So what's in store for 2013... maybe less bazaar, one bazaar in 3 months, 4 bazaar for 2013. That would give me time to stock up and keep my online business in equilibrium. I must admit my online orders suffered as I have to decline taking orders so I can spend more time preparing my stock. I'll be focussing on my online shop. 

How was your 2012? 

The May that was - Part 2: 3 more Bazaars

Earlier this year, I made a goal to do one bazaar a month; which gives me a total of 12 bazaars for the year. The goal still remains but with a small twist; I’m looking at the total of 12 only, regardless of how many bazaars I take part in a particular month. I took a break in April, only to come back with not 1 bazaar in May but 3!!! I’ve chalked up bazaar #4: Little Red Market 3, bazaar #5: Markets@JayaOne and bazaar #6: Fuyoh Art Bazaar @ Publika. Stretching myself a bit far this time.

Bazaar #4: Little Red Market 3

I’ve been looking forward for Little Red Market 3 ever since Little Red Market 2 (read about it here). I had so much fun in the last LRM and this one is even better. They had it in White Box, Publika. A bigger place and more vendors and a bigger crowd too. Having just came back from our short break in Hong Kong (read about it here), I had little time to prepare for the market. I didn’t even get to do a blog entry for a shout out. My chalk mats was the best seller of the day. I was so busy at my booth, and without help, I couldn’t go around rest of the bazaars to take more pictures. However, Melissa and Sally has lovely pictures of the event on LRM fanpage and Flickr. Team Etsy Malaysia has a blog post on it too :) read all about it here.

p/s: Thank you to my photobuds: Mirsham and family, Dezz and new bride, Pak Long and entourage and Rick for coming down to Publika to show their support for my small enterprise. I couldn’t find the group picture. I’ll post it here if I can locate it.

Thank you Nadiah and Liza for making the bazaar a pleasant experience meeting the likes of you :)


Bazaar #5: Markets@JayaOne

Teaming up with SewFabby again for this market. We had a very good location, right smack in the middle where the registration counter is. There was a long queue for registration and we had quite a good traffic. For the record, Aishah Sinclair stopped by our booth to say hello. Azzah was pre-occupied with arranging her goods and I was just not thinking, totally forgot to ask her for a picture, DUHH!!!!

Nadiah of Team Etsy has nice pictures and a good write up of the market here.

It’s my 4th appearance here and again the response has always been good. Worth sticking to this bazaar for a few more rounds at least.

New items I brought to this market were the Knitted Ipad Cozies. It was a long shot. I have a few skeins of Colourscape Chunky by Kaffe Fasset that I don’t know what to do with so, I knitted a few cozies for the Ipad. I was pleasantly surprised that they were well received. Hmmm... maybe I should have more knitted goods for my future bazaars.

I also made the circular pod or the round pouch. I just thought they’re cute and since I just bought a circular cutter, cutting circles on fabric is a cinch!

I’ve also figured a new way to display my baby bibs instead of just lying them flat on the table. I use a plastic garbage holder I bought at Daiso and some plastic hanger. They do the trick just nice.

A special mention: Thank you to Kak Faizon and friend, Zarina, Melissa, Jan, Kak Roza, Nadia and Ida Sumie for stopping by at the booth and showed your support. Nadiah and co were there too :) I feel loved :)


Bazaar #6: Fuyoh Art Bazaar

It’s a back to back bazaar for me. Saturday in JayaOne and Sunday in Publika. My table was a bit bare and the arrangement became very predictable. Then, Nani came along and revolutionized my way of arranging things. I followed her way and yes, although the traffic where I was located was poor, but the sales were not too bad either. I love her energy, buzzing here and there, stopping at booths and asking how we’re doing. Michelle aka Mamasan too is a big help. Keep up the good work gals!

Thank you to Rosie Echlin and family for dropping by, Nadiah and Liza for a fun chat, Alice and Faudzi for keeping my hydrated with a bottle of coke, and Ida Sumie for keeping me company till closing time.

I mustn’t forget, a great big thank you for all who have purchased my handmade products. You are my shareholders in making it possible for me to send Danial to school and pay for his TaeKwondo lessons and Kumon classes. I need to fill another piggy bank for Arwen soon :)

May Markets@JayaOne and FAB

I have lots to write about; My Mom’s day and Teacher’s day projects, my recent trip to Hong Kong, my new Big Shot acquisition and experiments and Little Red Market at Publika but all that have to wait as I’m pressed for time. I do love to write about them in greater details with lots of photos so a slip shot write up just won’t do :)

I’m doing a shout out for my next two bazaars this coming weekend. I’ll be at Markets@JayaOne this saturday, 26 May 2012 with SewFabby, my bazaar partner and at Fuyoh Art Bazaar in Publika on sunday 27 May 2012.

Here’s the banner for Markets:

We’ll be at booth #70. Right smack between Starbucks and Brussels.

I’ll update this post when I get the banner and more details for Fuyoh Art Bazaar aka FAB.

Till then, have a great week ahead. My work is cut out for me... I wish I have 2 or 3 more extra hands. But then, I’ll make more as a circus freak won’t I? OK, OK, got to sign off for now and on with some work.