Happy birthday to me! (kind of)

Right now, I am dead beat from work, with bleary eyes and a mind that has already gone to sleep.

So do forgive any errors along the way. :)

My birthday was 9 days ago. A few weeks ago, I had this grand plan of making a miniature birthday cake. As 22nd March crept closer, the grand plan shrunk to just making a tower of cupcakes.

My birthday came. And passed, and all I had made were four chocolate cupcakes. 

Undecorated, mind you.

Sigh, juggling both AiClay and a full-time job ain't as easy as I thought.

   

Right, I never meant for this entry to be depressing! 

Let me lift this veil of gloom (ah now I'm a poet).

Four chocolate cupcakes seemed too lonely, and so I gathered 

some miniature kitchenware and little chocolate hearts.

 

 Little itsy bitsy cupcake papers.

I promise the next entry would be a much happier one. 

I'll even stuff in a joke or two about char siew paus! :)

This is a personal (and long) entry.

Hello everyone. :)

Lately, I've been missing from my online sites (twitter, flickr, blog) and I don't think it's fair to just write off this disappearance with a simple "I'm busy."

For the last few months, my close friends and family would know that I've been an all sort of a emotional wreck. My passion for sculpting and miniatures had me jump in with both feet right after I graduated, and pursue the lofty dream of being a full-time miniaturist. However, reality soon turned around to bite me. I became trapped between rollercoaster emotions of being delirious that I'm living the dream, which would quickly spiral into a state of depression when faced with unpaid university loans and financial insecurity. Needless to say that I wasn't very happy these few months.

This made me think hard about what was lying down the road for me. I had to admit I was by no means, financially secured to head down the entrepreneurial road. There is a chinese metaphor, 'shou ting kou ting', which literally means when the hands stop, the feeding stops too. This is most apt to describe AiClay, and any other crafting business around. (hello etsy friends! :)) I'm not selling imported clothes, or jewelry supplies etc where I had a ready supplier to replenish stocks. I had to physically get down to planning, sculpting, baking everytime I wanted to add an additional item in my store. And of course, there comes the sometimes-long wait for the sale, and for the money to arrive.

The constant worrying for my future was eating away at my enthusiasm for AiClay as I forced myself to brainstorm for more designs, sculpt more, work harder at promoting the store. Which led me to a realisation. That if I wasn't happy working at AiClay, then all of this is basically pointless. If sculpting and miniatures were starting to feel like work instead of a release for me, then there is something wrong, somewhere.

(Yes, I know this is wayyy too long, but I'm getting to the point now.)

And so, I found a job. It would allow me to see the real world beyond my sculpting table and bedroom, and see and talk to some real humans. (Replying emails and Etsy forums aren't exactly enough.)

Most importantly, it would provide a daily income for me to repay my university loan.

Don't get me wrong, I am not giving up AiClay, and I still have great plans for it although they are currently shelved away. (till I have more money in the bank, to put it bluntly.) I would still be blogging, sculpting, sharing my favourites via Look! etc, just on a smaller scale.

So basically, what it really means for my dear readers, is that you would be seeing less (not none!) of me in the blog, on flickr/twitter/facebook etc. I would still try to write in here at least once a week though. With a 9-to-6 working schedule now, I can no longer sculpt as often. But, I am still accepting commissions, but do understand if the waiting period is longer. :)

Right, feels good to get this off my chest. :)

I shall end with two pictures I have forgotten to post, of my miniature cake stand and some miniature packaging. 

Look! {two.}

Welcome to the second episode of 'Look!'.

This glorious Sunday, I have gathered a few shops which have not received any sales yet. It is puzzling as they have beautiful items which are just begging to be owned and loved!

Show some love to the eight shops below and be their first Etsy customer! :)

Faas Kids

kristin reyer

Mel's Art Buffet

 

olives on a string

Tree Farm Studios

Pomp & Ceremony

Kats Jewelry Box

3aby3lue

SIDE NOTE:

I have been wanting to feature Etsy shops which have had no sales yet for a really long time. I was sure that there must be plenty around, with beautiful inventory just waiting to be bought and loved!

However, during the few days of researching for this entry, I realised these undiscovered gems were harder to find than I thought. Shops like those featured above are really few and far between.

While flipping through the many pages of shops which have yet to have a sale, it became apparent that most of them had zero sales for glaring reasons.

As a buyer on Etsy, I honestly feel that most of the shops I've seen, commit at least one of the common turn-offs below.

A. People buy handmade because it is precisely that, HANDMADE. We like to know the real person who has knitted/painted/sculpted the item, so do fill out that empty seller's profile!

B. Having a blank avatar just shows how little effort you've put into the shop.

C. Seriously, I don't want to buy something I'm supposed to wear on my head, that you've left on the muddy ground to photograph.

D. Unless it's a lone word, like 'SALE!' or 'NOTE!', reading an entire item description in CAPS is plain uncomfortable and would get any potential buyers running out of your shop fast.

I wish all of you that very exciting first sale quick! :)

toast + ham + lettuce + toast = SANDWICH

I love food math. :)

 

When I was in London for a month a few years ago to visit my good ol' friend, I remember seeing sandwiches all over the city.

In specialty sandwich gourmet stores, there were carefully arranged stacks of beautifully wrapped high grade sandwiches which were going for a few pounds for a pair.

In grocery chains, there were cost-saver sandwiches at 99pence. I remember squealing at that price, because that was honestly the cheapest item I saw in London, heh.

One of my most vivid memory in that trip, was having the BEST sandwich I ever had in my life, yet. (Also, the most expensive.)

It was from Pret A Manger, and I still can taste the smoked bacon, crunchy cress and a whole lot of other ingredients which I can't name, but OH THE HEAVENLY SMELL AND CRUNCH OF IT ALL!

Sorry for the outburst in caps, I just got a bit carried away thinking about it.

Sigh.

(because I'm far far away from London now, and I don't see anywhere in the near future where can I get another All Day Breakfast. SIGH.)

 

Unless I make one myself I guess. But besides bread, tomato and ketchup, I really don't have any other of the other ingredients.

-extremely tempted to put in another sigh, but there's an overload of them in this entry already eh.

Oh, I suddenly remember that on departure day at the airport, everyone else was scurrying around to look for KrispyKremes, but not me. Instead, I was really really anxious to have my last Pret A Monger sandwich because who knows when I'll taste it again!

These miniature sandwiches, sandwiched between my fingers (HOHOHO pun!), measure 3cm along longest side (cut side) and are 0.7cm in height.

Now how can I let you go without a snapshot of this sandwich I've been gushing non-stop of.

It's the one in the middle. Shucks, my stomach is rumbling just looking at this photo.

An old snapshot at London's Pret A Manger.

I'm the one in the middle. (See, I'm fated to be reunited with my sandwich. Both in the middle, get it?)

Right, I really need to grab dinner now for my very-unsatisfied tummy!

a LITTLE packaging..

..goes a long way. 

And I mean, little as in tiny.

Hehh.

Anyway, conducting an online business means having to be hands-on in carrying several different activities, from photography to social media promotions to doing accounts etc. Some are rather tedious yet necessary, but there are some which I truly enjoy.

Like the part where I get to pack orders. Somehow I always get a kick out of penning down addresses, making my own bubble envelopes (yep I do that!) and MOSTLY, packaging the actual purchase.

I'm very, for lack of a better word, anal about packaging. (actually 'particular' might be a better word eh. oh well!) To me, packaging is a last step which is sadly, very often neglected. But I feel it is the key to transforming a simple purchase, into a gift. 

It wasn't easy at first, trying to figure out what kind of packaging would work best for a product that tiny. Most packaging advice suited jewellery, or books, or clothings, but it was hard to find any that taught you how to package miniatures. 

Fast forward a year later, now I've found some materials and ways to package miniatures in a way that would asthetically please. I can't say and definitely don't think they're the best packaging methods, but the main point here is to show that just a little thought and effort goes a long way. (yes, I'm starting to repeat myself.)

This is how I chose to wrap up some of my cookies for a recent customer.

 

Okay please allow me a shameless moment. I'm REALLY proud of my cursive 'cookie'! hahaha, I've always struggled with cursive since my primary penmanship days. But ever since I saw a girl in lecture who was taking down school notes in a journal which was crammed with gorgeous, messy cursive, I fell in love with the font.

Although I must admit I practised about a dozen times just for this 'cookie' label.

 I use cheap baking/greaseproof paper, and baker's twine. Trust me, you can't really go wrong with these two materials! :)

 And that's a lot of mini triangle cut-outs achieved after a few minutes of hard snipping away.

 Right, so I threw those cut-outs into the bin (not before I snapped the above photo!) as I was really cutting the jagged edges of these miniature grocery bags instead! 

I haven't seen a patterned scissors which cuts such small edges yet, but I kind of like the brainless, shut-down mode I go into when I'm cutting them anyway! I always recycle the brown envelopes of my family's mail, you should try looking around in your postbox or you could use real grocery bags. :)

 

RIGHT. This is turning out to be a long monologue, and I sound like a total packaging geek, don't I!

It's all her fault really, head on over and see if you ain't bowled over with all the pretty packaging!

WAIT, before you hop off!

How do YOU package gifts/products?
or 
What's your favourite/worst package received so far?

Cutest name ever - Kueh Tu Tu.

The search is over, guys. I've found the food with the cutest name ever.

It's the kueh tutu!

Seriously, doesn't that just sound adorable! kueh tutu.

I mean I wouldn't want to name my baby after it or something, but I think it definitely ranks high in cute-factor amongst other food names like the serious-sounding profiterole (there is a financial term in it!) or the eyebrow-raising crepe (So many of us here pronounce it as 'crap'. lol).

Disclaimer: The latter two foods are still EXTREMELY delicious.

 

Alright, so I've strayed too far off topic. 

Back to kueh tutus. (I know I'm wearing the name out.)

 

To the non-Singaporean, it might be the first time you're seeing this pasty-looking dessert.

Some quick facts from Wikipedia.

Kueh Tutu is a traditional Singaporean delicacy. Made primarily from rice flour or glutinous rice flour, the light snack contains either ground peanut and sugar or shredded coconut as filling. The typical method of preparation involves rapid steaming of the flour and the filling. Once ready, the Tutu is served on pandan leaves to add fragrance.

 I played around with Picasa's effects, and achieved this vintage-y feel.

 

 

These kueh tutus were commissioned and made into earrings. Each kueh measures at 1cm in length.

I meant to write an entry all about reminiscing about how as a child, I used to watch the kueh tutu aunty make the kuehs and I was so intrigued that I told myself that will be my job one day.

 

But now this entry's all about food and their names. But it's strange, ain't it. How we humans attribute character to inanimate objects like foods, colors, names. It's like this innate desire to humanize everything.

Tell me any foods which you deem as having character! 
Like the macho Root Beer, or the sexy salsa dip. Haha.

 

Does the tiger go ROAR, or purr?

It's the Year of the Tiger! :)

Last Sunday was the very first day of the Chinese New Year (da nian chu yi), and with that we bade farewell to the ox and ushered in the tiger! 

Here are some CNY-related craft items - all made by mom.

Plump mandarin oranges made from stretchable material.

The red packets always have such festive, pretty details. Such a shame to throw them away after CNY!

Paper lanterns, with empty red packets.

Chinese New Year (or is it lunar new year?) is definitely one of my favourite, if not my favourite, festival ever. It is always jam-packed with activities - the ever-important lou-yusheng (pictured below), noisy and fun gatherings with family and friends, some happy-gambling with cards and mahjong, collecting angbaos (red packets) from our elders.. 

And of course, my mom's fab baking. 

I know in a few entries back, I whined about how the kitchen smelled permanently of pineapple and pastry after my mom's baking tirade, but I kind of miss it now.

And I was wrong, the pineapple fragrance was temporary and it has dissipated. :(

I did not manage to capture on camera, every single Chinese New Year cookie my mom churned out this year. But here's some of them. A few are still sitting prettily in their boxes in my living room table. Oh so tempting! :)

I can't remember what went into this biscuit, but they were crunchy, tasty, with a dusting of caster sugar on every one of them.

A concoction of toasted cornflakes, raisins, honey, coconut-ty goodness lies in each of these pink pastry cups.

 

 

I really take my hat off to my mom, for having the patience to sit through the tedious rolling of each and every chilli shrimp roll. They were devoured in probably less than 1/100th of the time she took to make them!

Separate pastry skin. Cut into uniform squares. 
Scoop chilli shrimp. Fold corners. Tuck in bottom. 
Roll. Dab top triangle of pastry skin with water. Roll.

Then repeat 32910 times.

(It's impossible to count how many she wrapped but I don't think it's too exaggerated an estimate.)

 

My little cousin's favourite. Melt-in-your-mouth milk sugee biscuit. :)

 

I used to hate anything with almond in them (if you've tasted the foul-tasting almond jelly, you would too!). But these almond cookies totally had me convinced to give the nut another chance. Teehee.

They were packed full with almond flakes, and it was so incredibly crunchy with every bite, and there was a distinct, fragrant almond smell, nowhere like the almond jelly at all!

 

This year was just the same like other years. In the entire week following the arrival of Chinese New Year, I don't remember having much time for myself at all, much less to sculpt/blog. It was a mad rush of hustling to and fro different houses, and it wasn't till midnight that we would reluctantly leave, only to gather again a few hours later, for another round of mahjong/ban-luck/steamboat. 

My sleep debt definitely accumulated in the past week, but I'm not complaining. :) 

Colorful sugar jellies.

 If I was a kid with no worries about an expanding waistline or risk of getting diabetes, you would see a very eager little girl cramping as many of this in her mouth as humanely possible. :)

 

My wonderful family - parents, brother, boyfriend, aunts, uncles, cousins.

 

This is such a long post, and my eyelids are getting really heavy. Time to repay that sleep debt, and I promise that the next entry would be about miniatures! :)