♥ Bye Melbourne

What can I say. I am totally bliss out these 12 days in Melbourne. 12 days of gorgeous weather, beautiful people, fabulous food and awesome shopping!

I can't wait to leave, because it is all too good !!!!! I can feel myself looking at apartments and asking about migration procedures because it is just so easy to live here! Shanghai would bring me back to reality fast with the crazy traffic, loud talking and all the vehicles honking.

I am all packed, looks like 35 kg! For some reason, I got a student air ticket and I can have 40 kg!!!!! Betcha all I make sure I utilize every gram!

I can't wait to see Beautiful Geek and Halley Boo. I did not think I would miss my kitten but I did very much! I want to hug him ( still the kitten) so badly! I really really am amaze by my husband who actually called me everyday to chat! This is not our style but I feel really nice to hear his voice every night before I sleep. Thanks baby.

Loads of work to do too. Let's see by 25th May..

1) Unpack, wash, clean

2) Pack orders and ship orders.

3) Loads of new inventory to list!

4) Make appt with my beautician for my facial

5) Do my French homework!

6) Prepare for my next English class

7) Pay bills!!!!

8) Buy groceries

9) Book appt for Halley's vaccination

Hmmm..... maybe.... I should take a longer vacation!

♥ Busy Busy Busy !

Yes, that is how I felt often! Well there is always the honey. 

cotton drawstring pouch bag -- busy as a bee -- idiom bag by chasinglightningbugs

I bet you guys had forgotten about me! I don't blame you! I  am so freaking busy these days ( then again I am kind of always busy!).  Let's see what I had been up to ::

♥ I am spending a lot of time with Halley Boo (my 9 weeks old kitten), brought him to the vet and yes I know I told you guys it is a female but the vet felt his miniscule testicles and happy told me "It is a boy!!!!" ( after all, we are in China). I was shocked! GOODNESS!!!!! I had been raising  him like a girl all these weeks! I had been combing his hair 100 times before he sleeps, accessorizing him with little clips and ribbons ! His litter box is pink, his small cushion is pink , his food bowl is pink and his nail polish is pink ( just kidding but THERE IS nail polish for kittens!!!!). 

Duhz... well, at least that explains his super speedy growth, his pretty aggressive nature and his sloppy eating habit! LOL! I am not too bother really, he is such a fun and affectionate kitten, it is a really pleasure watching him grow! 

I love to watching him sleep. It is nice when I can see he felt safe with us and love sleeping near us!

My friend bought her cat over for a play date. Dimanche is a four year old handsome tom cat! You can see Halley is trying to steal the food! LOL!

♥ I am preparing my trip to Melbourne ( YAH!!!!!) , gosh  I need a break so badly! I am a little worried though because I am not sure if it is easy to get around there. I need to Google abit more. Anyway, the idea of chilling out with Lilien, my super fun God sister really makes me very happy! I know the both of us is going to hunt down the best bargain in town and make everyone back home super envious!

Lovely necklace ! By Arete

♥ I am finally able to find a decent supplier for my deco tapes! Perhaps because I am an expat here and my Mandarin is not very good, I might been deem as not one of the local hence the suppliers are abit wary to deal a lot with me. 

After 6 months of spending a lot of money at their stores, I am so happy to say I had established a good relationship with many of them! The last batch of tapes, I manage to get it at wholesale prices! God, that means, approx 40% to 60% off!!!! Yeah!!!!!! It sure took awhile but perhaps I did not buy in bulk so that is why they are reluctant to give wholesale prices.  

I am in the mist of reducing my prices for my deco tapes and changing my listings. I hope to complete it by 30th April but changing 1800 listings can be a daunting task! Lucky for me, I have loads of coffee, cds and a warm kitten to keep me company!

*ROFL*

♥ I had been officially selling on Etsy for 4 months  and it is really an experience for me. I find this site to be really quite different from eBay in all ways pleasant.   Etsy buyers are much more polite, friendly and positive!  I truly enjoy selling on Etsy.

I do learnt a lot too. I mean, I had used various ways to give discount to buyers and it did worked but after doing some serious calculations and studying the buying trends in my store. It seems that 75% of my buyers typically buy less than 10 items.  They buy 6 to 8 items per order on average.  

I received approx 21 convos asking me to explain the old discount rates.  I do not blame them really, it is really quite confusing even to me. 21 convos in 6 months is not good, I know I need to do something about this.

So I was brainstorming and with the supplier's wholesale discount, I gathered I can merge these two events together. I can lower my prices and this would benefit 75% of my buyers who buys less than 10 items.

For those who buys 10 items, I can give them a 10% discount and if they buy 20 items, it would be 15% discount. Just giving two discount rates, I hope it would help to make it easier for buyers to calculate and more free ways to include any items, instead of specific categories.

I have approx 30 IHeart members now and I really appreciate them a lot!  They should not be to affected with the new rates. I hope this would make them happy too! :)

This cartoon is taken from http://www.shannonburns.com/cartooncatalogbusiness.htm

♥ As I had mentioned I would be on holiday soon and my stores would be closed from 4th May to 21st May.  I am using this time to recoup, regroup and re-troop ( I don't think there is this word but it kind of rhythms so I use it).   I have many many plans for May to July, read on ::

a) There would be a Featured Seller here every weekend till July. I am reviewing the sellers as we speak. I love doing Featured Seller posts and I hope it is a way I can help give back to the Etsy community.

b) The last Blog Giveaway was really a lot of fun! The next one would be in June.  Do look out for the details here late May.  

c)  This blog is about 3 months old I think and I also want to use my vacation time to see which direction I want this to go. The purpose is to promote Etsy and it's sellers , I want to see if I can do a store directory here .  Perhaps a weekly update about each store's special offer or new items. 

d) I am going to source for more stuff for my IHeart eCrater store. I love listing there! So easy and I am starting to come out of the Handmade/ Supplies mentality and see if I can list more categories like headbands, hair clips and more household items!

Indeed, I am blessed to be in this place, this time, this era and this body! Thank you all for being so nice and read my blog!

COMING UP THIS WEEK :: I am featuring  a vintage seller and look out for the next Finder's Keepers !

 

♥ It Is A GIRL!!!!

Hello Halley Boo!

The last few days were absolutely CRAZY and HAPPY for me! I had wanted a kitten for the longest time. My family are super avid cat lovers and there are 4 cats in my home in Singapore. My parents had started by rescuing wounded strays and gradually adopt some of them. In Seoul, I used to take care of a really friendly and sweetest German cat for my friends when they were away for the holidays. I yearned for one here , my very own.

Look how peacefully she sleeps in Beautiful Geek's arms.LOL
In her little pink carrier!

Therefore I was really happy that my postal office friend found one for me. He has a friend whose cat gave birth to 6 kittens and once they were wean off milk, he gave one to me for adoption. IT IS A GIRL!!! Now now, I love boys too, boys are much better tempered and fun to play with but girls, they are so sweet and demur! I love taking pictures of them with a small hair clip placed ( not clip on) their head. So cute!!

It was amazing how fast she found a good spot on Space Ji Ji and promptly felt asleep!
She also likes sleeping in her sand box *shrug*
Her name is Halley Boo. She is about 5 weeks old and very very affectionate! The first day I got her, she was nicely snuggling up to me and Beautiful Geek. She is intelligent too! I just need to show her once how to use the litter box, she caught on immediately. She loves to play and is crazily active. Like most cats, a piece of plastic sheet can entertain her for more than 30 mins!

I am spending a lot of time with her now as she is still very young. She needs a lot of attention and love. I am carrying her in a little cloth backpack and hang the back in front of me. This way, I can work abit and she is always near my body. Don't worry, my office is separately from the apartment so there should not be cat's fur at all in my stock!LOL!

How tiny she is beside Space Ji Ji!


How tiny she is beside Space Ji Ji!
Not too happy to pose with my hairclips.. ;p

Yes... like a proud mummy, I took a lot of pictures and videos! I know she would grow up really fast and I want to make sure I get all the moments with her. It is strange to have a pet on my own honestly. I was really quite apprehensive, not sure if I will be able to give her the love she needs but I figured out that it would do me and Beautiful Geek good to let someone else in our lives. We are such city people and am so use to attending to just our own needs, we are slowly becoming a little selfish. It may sound like a selfish reason, to use an animal to help us grow. But this is my truth.

I have been blessed with so much, I often wondered why. Now I know, so that I can give away. Althought I am confident in the end, the kitten will be one of our best teacher in life. I know I love her like my own already.:)