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 :)

The May that was; Hong Kong Trip

I would like to say I’ve been busy but the honesty of the matter is I’ve been hit by a lazy bug when it comes to my blog updates. I guess the true culprit would be PROCRASTINATION and as things started to pile up, the P word just got bigger and bigger. 

OK, lets start. Going back in time to May 2012. I’ve decided to take a breather from bazaars for the whole month of April with the intention on working on Mother’s Day and Teacher’s Day promotion. That kept me quite busy when orders for my handbag organizers came in. Thank you Dr. Zeti Hussein and Teacher Ila Abdul for your orders. I hope your friends and colleagues enjoyed them as much as I had fun making them. 

Next Stop: Hong Kong

This is an unscheduled trip. Azrai was going for a trade exhibition and I asked if the kids and I could tag along. Long story short, we packed our bags and flew to Hong Kong on Arwen’s birthday. So it’s like a big 2 year old birthday present for Arwen; Celebrating it in Hong Kong Disneyland. Here’s some  pictures on our first day in Hong Kong at Avenue of Stars:

Day 2 in Hong Kong lead us to Hong Kong Memory Chest. I’ve been researching for a cutter just before we left for Hong Kong and had my mind set on Sizzix Big Shot. A quick check on the store locator in Sizzix website gave me an email address for HK Memory Chest and I send a quick email asking if they have one in stock. The reply came promptly from Angela and what luck, they are running a promotion for their birthday celebration. We went there and the very friendly and ever so helpful Erika showed us the Big Shot and a quick demo. I’m just sold not only because the price was right, but also the excellent customer service given by Erika. I just love spending time there. I wish I could have a studio like that. Check out the pictures, you’ll know what I mean :)

I have a quick video of Danial with the Big Shot :)

And since I’m already at it, here’s some more pictures of us in Hong Kong Disneyland:

The kids (and both Azrai and I) had a great time there despite of the heat. We stayed until the end where they had the firework display. The kids kept talking about it for weeks after we got home. I’m just happy that they have this beautiful memory of their childhood when they grow up :)

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.

When sleep eludes me

We had a long and hectic day today. Azrai decided to renew our passports for a trip we’re planning soon and Danial skipped school to do that. I wasn’t feeling really hot as I’m still dealing with my coughs. Azrai too had a bad case of stomach pain because he broke his routine of having breakfast by 8am. Nevertheless, we got it done.

I wanted to keep my date with Azzah of SewFabby who’s having a sewing class at Art 2, Publika today. Azrai agreed to take me there. The main reason was to get my pliers from Azzah. I’m itching to get started on my stitch markers.

We grabbed a late lunch at PappaRich, Publika only to be annoyed to be served with moldy toasts. I didn’t take a picture of it but we told the manager we’re not paying for that. In fact, we should have said to him that we’re not paying for anything. To add to the horror, we had a couple of cockroaches running around on the table while we’re having lunch. The manager himself squeezed one to get it off our table. How gross is that?

Anyway, back to my story. We rushed back to pick up Danial’s passport just in time before the office closes at 5pm. I got home, took Bena Expectorant for my coughs and got knocked out for a few hours. Azrai quietly gave the kids their baths and took them out for dinner. He even got me my dinner. Isn’t he a darling?

After I had dinner, took some more cough mix and paracetamol, expecting another knock out session. Well, that didn’t happen. I was staring in the dark till midnight and then I decided to take out my new toys; the pliers I got from Azzah and started experimenting with them. Wallah! these are the first 2 sets of my handmade stitch markers from the ceramic beads I bought last saturday. I would have made more but I ran out of head pins with the flat ends. I’m loving it!

Great Find in Gogo Bazaar Sogo

Last Saturday, I went to Sogo to check out the bazaar there. A few of my crafty buds were there salling their products. I was there to lend them some moral support. Check out the pictures in the slideshow for show and tell.

The greatest find of the day was these beautiful ceramic beads from Sarawak, my hometown; well, sort of. I knew immediately what I want to do with them and guess what? I got a new found interest in wirework especially after Kak Roza demonstrated how to make loop with the round nose plier.



Created with flickr slideshow.

First E-Award!

From Craft Corners

I4rr

I received an email from Kristina L, Editor of Craft Corners a few days ago. My blog has been chosen to receive an e-award!!!! My very first e-award. I replied her email saying I’ll be honored to accept the e-award and she followed up with another email today with the e-award HTML code.

Cool stuff this :) Thank you so very much :)

Handmade 1" double fold bias tape

After a casual chat on whatsapp with some friends, I realized that there's no ready made large size bias tape in the market. At least, not in Malaysia; or I've not come across any of them in the market. So, I made a quick check on the internet, I found a seller on etsy selling hand-made bias tape using cute cotton prints and I figured, why not?

So, breaking away from my bag making routine I made these prototypes. Cute, don't you think? I made a calculation blunder and these came out 64" long of continuous cut bias tape. I'll be making some adjustments and try to make 3 yards of continuous cut.