Strange Machines

Sometimes I wonder if I am made for the business world at all. I have no urge to put my craftwork out there and sell them.

I feel content just hugging my sweet homemade softies, carrying my homemade bags, and staring for hours at the mini playsets I have been making for Biscuit and Gray and their brethren (yes, the final design for Blue Biscuit is complete! See pic on left).

Yes I even make toys for them! There’s something about creating a stuffed animal that makes me feel all motherly over them. Must be the act of creation!

But the idea of setting up shop has been daunting (especially since my personal time is from 11pm-4am, interrupted, and I spend most of it unwinding by snacking, reading, surfing, then think about crafting and maybe selling - a lot of it has been thinking).

Here’s the legwork:

1. Print business cards.

2. Design a logo and make fabric labels for bags, dolls, etc.

3. Stock up on shipping envelopes.

4. Make fabric bags to store items (for packaging - this seems the most environmentally friendly choice).

5. Plan trips to the post office (with Jack and pram in tow) through blinding heat and roads - at least we can walk there so it isn’t terribly environmentally unfriendly.

6. Making some merchandise that I won’t end up wanting to keep for myself or giving it to the first person who says, oh so nice, or as a present I think a friend whom I’m meeting tomorrow will like.

7. Designing a shopfront banner and crafting the text.

8. Updating the Biscuit & Gray website!

I already bought the weighing scale from Ikea… Ok, maybe I’ll start with #6 first then we’ll get the rest in order.

What do you think? Where’s the best place to start? Ahh!!! *runs away screaming*

For 3 months now I have carried my own bags out. I make my own cloth bags and roll them up so I always have a bag of any size when I buy stuff. I am proud to say I have been plastic bag-free for 3 months. Then there was today. At Isetan I couldn’t resist their supermarket-wide 10% sale so I grabbed 2 bags of Kettle chips, 2 slices of black cod fillet, and some bread and let the cashier bag them.

My extra bag wouldn’t have carried everything and I was carrying a fluey and fussy Jack, fluey myself and tired from a sprained shoulder, knee, and sore back. Yeah excuses… Of all days to forget my Reisenthal.

Anyway to compensate, I posted 7 Green Things You Can Do Online To Save the World (and some Money too!) on my tech blog to make up for it. Enjoy!

Since as far as I can remember, Jack has always loved puzzles. One of his fave toys is still a wooden puzzle box with many 3-piece animal jigsaws inside. He’ll sit and play while he has lunch or dinner. At his cousin’s he encountered a more complex set of jigsaws. Some were up to 15 pieces.

Still he was unfazed. He’d ask me to help and I gladly taught him to look at the board and look at the pieces, fit in the corners, then the sides, and then the middle pieces. To my amazement, he managed a 9 piece puzzle by himself today! I was so proud!

I have a confession to make.

I am an Etsy addict.

I bought my craft supplies and that Singer 8280 and so far have made at least 15 bags and 5 plushies including a tree last night. I’ve given away 4 bags and 1 doll but have kept the rest for myself! How the heck am I going to sell anything like that (the same reason why I should never work in a bubble tea store - I can imagine me saying, “sorry, we’re out of pearls *burp*”).

After I gave her Big Blue Biscuit, Angie commissioned me to make a Biscuit & Gray pair for her baby nephew but I loved the Big Blue Biscuit (BBB) v2.0 I made (photo forthcoming) that I decided to keep her for myself. Okay, actually after I sewed on the face, Jack decided he liked it and has kept it for himself. He actually asked for his friends just now when he woke for the second time this evening. I gave him Biscuit, BBB2, and Gray. He grabbed the first two, turned around and slept.

I have a third BBB who hasn’t got a face yet. I will keep that nice soft rabbit for Angie’s nephew. I swear.

Then there are the bags I promised Carol and Sarah. If only I can stop keeping the ones I make. But they are just right. I use one set a week and wash the other. I guess I just need to make 2 more sets for my friends before I can start selling any. At least the girls agreed on Sunday that they’re pretty, especially the cat one. And I haven’t taken any plastic bags at all since I began making my own bags. That is 2 months now and at least 50 plastic bags saved. Not bad huh? <- good consolation for procrastination.

So those of you kind people who have gone to my Etsy page, sorry it is still empty. I wanted to make a few items before selling any. There is still the black and white cat purse I made which is my first “merchandise”, waiting to be placed for sale.

Meanwhile I should spend less time shopping on Etsy (see sparklerama’s too-cute Tiny Kitty driving Jack’s fave car on right) and making stuff. I’ll start tonight. Honest. Oops it is already 3.34am. I’ll start tomorrow. Really!

Gray looks awed by his tiny brethren, made by the super talented artisan sparklerama.

First off, Nicole Kidman gave birth today to a 6 pound baby girl named Sunday Rose Kidman Urban. She’ll be needing lots of cool baby gear now. Congrats to the happy parents and their lovely new addition.

I always find heavily pregnant women trawling the baby section of Isetan and feel like telling them when they pick up that armful of useless baby things, “You won’t use those! Save your money!” But I don’t unless they pick up a BPA bottle. Then I get upset.

Anyway. The important thing is to be prepared. Shop around first. Surf the net. Lots of stuff and information there. A good place to start is a wiki for baby stuff. Yup, there’s one. It is called ShopWiki and under their critter section, you’ll find tons of cool baby gear, all objectively crawled from online stores all over.

Don’t waste your money on the Baby Bjorn. Get the Ergo or any other one with waist support. Then buy a baby sling that is light and you and other male relatives would actually carry. There are nice ones that actually fold into themselves and wrap into an attached pouch. Forget the rest.

Of course if you travel with your child a lot, here are nice baby moving equipment to consider. Your pet can probably sit inside with it.

Biscuit, Gray, Box the owl, and Bone the bone. Box and Bone were made by the very talented Petticoat Pirate.

Aside from my BFF Shen, of course. And before you get married!

I believe every woman, where financially possible, should have a diamond set for that special occasion (and trust me, after becoming a mom you’ll be craving for opportunities to glam up).

The diamonds don’t have to be big and expensive but they should match in terms of colour and size, the latter of which should vary no more than 0.3-0.8 carats for all items. Better a sweet 0.5 carat H colour set than a 0.5 F colour set. The naked eye can’t see the difference unless you compare literally side by side.

A basic set should consist of a pair of diamond studs (no danglers), a solitaire ring, and a pendant, and if you’re fortunate enough to have a fairy godmother give you for your wedding, a tennis bracelet. Acquire them one at a time. Don’t bust your budget and shop around for a good deal. When it comes to jewelry, it’s best to buy from someone you trust or ask your friends for the name of their long-time jeweler.

To me, certificates are just a way for the shop to earn another thousand bucks. Diamonds have little resale value and certainly not worth the hocking value. You buy it because you want to wear it, not for “investment”. So take your time to choose (years even…) and choose wisely within your budget.

Should you want to check out online jewelry stores, My Jewelry Box has a lovely selection, from diamond rings to lovely ruby earrings (my fave!). Its easy and intuitive interface offers many browsing options, should you prefer to browse by material, product, or price. I like that they have a comprehensive 30 day return policy, in case you feel antsy about buying online or change your mind about your purchase.

Browsing online gives you the lazy pleasure of taking your time to look at the products without a salesperson breathing down your neck, although you miss out on the guilty pleasure and temptation of trying out that one carat ring. Still, their return policy means that you can buy and try without any worries and it is great for an online store to care so much about customer satisfaction.

The Clearance Center is my fave section since you can probably pick up great bargains from there. But I love that they put their sweetest picks for you to drool at on the homepage, smack centre (best online real estate) so you can’t miss it. I am a sucker for blood red rubies so the earrings have caused a puddle on my laptop.

You could spend a whole day browsing (as I have). But take your time. Buying jewelry is a very personal journey. Enjoy it. And when your set is complete, and even if it is not, sweep your hair up, wear minimal makeup, don an elegant black dress, and your sparkling diamonds (remember to soak them in detergent overnight and use toothpaste to brush them clean the day before) and you’ll look a million bucks.

I never realised it but I was schooling Jack about needs vs wants from the day he could say Toys R Us some one year ago.

Before we go into Toys R Us, I’d tell him whether it is a looking trip or a buying trip. He’d nod okay and proceed to thrill himself looking at all the cars. It is roughly one buying trip per 10 looking trips and usually he can choose something small for himself that costs under $10.

Initially he’d buy something cos he can but more recently he would choose something that he really likes. If he doesn’t like anything, he wouldn’t buy anything since I tell him he can carry a buying trip forward to the next trip.

Of course there are the sums too. He’s been more fascinated about bigger cars because the doors can open and close and sometimes he asks if he can buy those. I’d point to the price and say, that costs $49 and it is way more than $10.

My friend Sarah tells of a trip she, her boyfriend, dear hubby, and Jack had at Toys R Us. Someone asked if Jack wanted to buy anything and he proclaimed, “no need”. His Dad was so proud, he said, “that’s my boy!” I was so proud too!

On a separate note, I started reading Chinese books to him and he seems to be learning the Chinese characters faster than English words, although he can read most of the alphabets by now. His memory is amazing! He can cite some of the moons in the Solar System, some galaxies, and many nebulas! It is so thrilling to watch.

So the past couple of weeks I have been shopping at Spotlight and buying tons of crafting supplies. All fabric and threads are 100% cotton and ribbons I got for making tags (or there lack of) are washable satin (but still polyester). I’m thinking no tag or cloth tag. My feeble attempts at embroidery got even the cats laughing.

Anyway, out of laziness I picked up a rotary cutter and a cutting mat. It was some Birch combo for $39.95 so I thought why not. Then this evening I opened it and the smell made me sick all night. I have since packed it back into its packaging to be returned to Spotlight tomorrow. If they mention the opened packaging, I’ll ask them to take a whiff. Man, I haven’t felt so nauseous since I ate those 5 bags of chips at one go.

I spent the better part of an hour Googling for an answer: what the heck is causing that godawful smell? Nowhere do they tell what the cutting mats are made of. The closest hint is that some cutting mats are made of PVC. And yeah, we know that smells and is toxic. Apparently, some smell and some don’t. A forum mentions that some mats just smell and it most likely won’t go away or will take 5 weeks.

I don’t think I can wait that long. Already the smell was seeping into the hallway so I quickly put it back into the packaging and double bagged it in an Ikea bag. There is a solution though but I don’t I’ll survive the smell long enough to do it. I still feel horrible sick as it is. So no cutting mat for me. It isn’t very green, being made of plastic anyway - the smell made me think of vinyl. I think I’ll stick to the good old scissors.

After about 10 bags, I think I have one that is in a saleable condition and of a shape women will carry (I am still working on a shape a man will carry but the husband had very politely refused to be seen carrying all the other 10 I have made). It is made out of a lovely black and white cat fabric I got last week (made in Korea) with black threading and handles, which make it quite pretty.

I like the idea of carrying cloth bags. The polyester ones, while strong, feel really plasticky against my skin. I have assigned one small black tote (which rolls up and ties on the side of my larger tote - now the main bag) for bread and those delish Spinelli oatmeal and raisin cookies. I usually carry another organic produce bag inside just in case.

Now the first cat bag I made I decided to keep for myself. The sewing was pretty and all, but I just wanted to keep that first cat bag for myself. And I just repeated myself repeating myself. That contains all the stuff I need when I leave the house. And that sweet tiny bag sits inside the main black tote, which incidentally was just finished today. That one was perfectly sized. Jack’s car bag (picture forthcoming too) with his diaper, spare clothes, wipes, snacks, and random toy sits beside that.

So when need be, I can whip out both bags, have Jack carry his cute car bag, I carry my cat bag, and the black tote bag can carry shopping! And won’t we look a hip mom and Jack pair. I haven’t taken a single plastic bag in 2 weeks! Feels great to refuse all those plastic bags they give at Bread Talk. The girl happily placed all the bread in my cloth bag.

Incidentally, I made a new large blue Biscuit out of lovely 100% cotton fleecy but since Jack “borrowed” the one we gave Amber, he is happy to give it to Aunty Angie when we meet her on Saturday. I used the Singer this time and the curves took a while to get used to but before long, I was swivelling the fabric like a pro. 3 hours on a machine instead of 8 hours by hand. Definitely a time saver!

Now, if I can only stop the nausea…