we are always handmade with lots of love…

i believe an extremely overdue birthday-thank you note is in order..!

going behind the scenes in the littleoddforest… besides the mundane administrative stuff which involves emails, packing orders, and so on, and more unimaginable, mundane boring stuff that needs to be done in order to operate a business, the entire littleoddforest collection, week after week, month after month, year after year, the fulfilling of orders and restocking of the web shoppe, none of those would have been possible without help from my fantastic littleoddforest sewing fairies. my tiny crafting team has been constantly evolving over all these years, and although trying at times, with countless ups and downs, but also sharing laughter and joy, and solving problems together, i believe it has been the most liberating experience, working and learning with these angels.. i love you gals. thanks for rocking. really. Czar Czar, Belle, Norie, and Ate Beth, and all my littleoddforest fairies in Singapore (including Shelley and Meredith, and Christine, who is always there to help out for almost all LOF outings), and of course, especially Auntie Millie and my dearest super Mummy. what would i do without all of you!?? nothing would have come into fruition. i would have cut and sewn until i died, and not have the time nor physical means to do anything else that this little operation involves, and sell nothing. and gave up. nothing would have worked out. absolutely nothing.

thank you to all who have stuck around me and littleoddforest all these time and believed in what i believed in, that is { fabric goodness that’s always handmade with lots of love, fair wage and sweatshop-free }, and supported littleoddforest in whatever ways you can. of course my own sweatshop is me, the slave driver and the slave who works more than 12 hours a day most days of the week. whoopsy

i love what i make, and make only what i love, and i want you to love what i love to. xoxo!

the bags i use

many of my lovely customers always ask me what bags i own, and which littleoddforest ones do i use.

these are just some of the newer littleoddforest bags which i use on a regular basis. okay, not regular. ALL THE TIME. lol. i obviously own at least one piece of every single design i come up with, so i’ll just share with you the newer bag designs which i have been using since the start of this year 2011.

i have not bought any bags for the past 5 years or so. probably only used some others which i really really love, a couple of times here and there. those who know-know me, will not buy me any bags as presents, unless it is by another small handmade label, something really exquisite, or really utilitarian, by, say, some japanese designer. i am extremely anti big brands. so forget about getting me a prada or gucci. i will admit that i was one of the many lost sheep way back then, and owned a series of lvs and gucci (horror of horrors, i know! haha!), which i have since sold off to fund my business when i first started out :p The only time I will ever consider buying a bag? probably when traveling abroad, one that’s really unique in design, an indie or niche label, and only available at that particular place.

i was quite disappointed recently, when an old friend excitedly got me a cheaply mass-made in China bag. oh well. a measurement of our friendship? mayyybeee… ha.

so! i use all of the Hoot The Owl series, especially the Messenger version, which fits my 13″ laptop perfectly, and is great to use when i’m traveling, since it comes with a double zipper and flap closure. i love using my Hoot The Owl Slings when going out to have some fun, and the handBag version when i need to go for business-related meetings.

the one bag which i have been using almost every single day for the past few months? the Forest Garden Tote!

i absolutely love how i can lug and throw this around, and how big and spacious it is. if you have noticed, i have started using plenty of bull twill cotton fabrics since early this year, and coming up with a more utilitarian range of bags and purses using mainly this particular fabric. i fell in love with this super duper sturdy and durable fabric at first touch, on one of my sourcing trips. they are thick and soft to the touch, and extremely good for rough use. i love love love them, and will be using this for a long while.

the other bags which i rotate with are The Petalon, the Tree Lovers Messenger (which very recently accompanied me throughout my one month wanderlust in europe, together with In The Woods tote ), and the Pixie Leaf Bag.

p.s. it has been extremely difficult for me to start blogging again! my aim is to start with 1 post a month… haha.. can’t wait to share with you the surprise which has been brewing since late last year and causing me to have migraines, signs of hair loss, blood-shot eyes, and panda eye rings :p

who? me?

Thank you, Cozycot! For naming me as one of 100 Most Inspiring Real Women! And whoever nominated me! Even though you got my last name wrong… it’s LYE… not LIE… :p

http://www.cozycot.com/IWD/lynda-lie-siew-ping-profile.html

 

UPDATE :

they’ve finally corrected my name! ;p

http://www.cozycot.com/IWD/lynda-lye-siew-ping-profile.html

we love being in videos!

i love seeing littleoddforest goods in videos! and in this one here, littleoddforest bags were a part in a cool video of our Belgium stockist, Rose Rouge { www.rose-rouge.be } woot!

i will try my best to give ya all at least 1 decent post before this year ends! we are afterall 5 this year 2009, and one of our best business birthday pressie and highlight of the year was being asked to be on telly! ;D huzzah!

w.i.p.

the shoppe is still updated at least once weekly, littleoddforest’s facebook pages are still updated every other few days (or at least once weekly!), and every now then, if my attention span permits, i tweet updates and nonsense. these are just so much easier than blogging!! ha! you don’t know what you’re missing out if you’re a littleoddforest shopper because i have started giving out quick updates and specials via those! so anyhoo… too much going on as usual, exploding brain matter, brain pulp squeezed popped and sucked dry. i wouldn’t even have the chance nor time nor inspiration to post this up if not for the gloomy weather that just ruined my plans to recuperate my creative juices at the pool. so… enough talk. some work in progress pics posted up in my flickr recently….

i might start using my own fabric designs for littleoddforest goods soon!! might. maybe. soon.

new 2010 collections in the works….

oh, and i somehow knew taking a picture of this will come in handy. i had to resort to doing plenty of this recently….

and some new designs in the shoppe! if you’ve been out of the loop ;p

and that’s me with my normal relaxed facial muscles, the look that is so often misunderstood to be gangsta and fierce and haughty. like i have to be repeatedly reminded 3 times since last week. ha!! okie doke! i’m done with my kill all birds with one stone post! woooppee!! t.g.i.f!! happy weekend folks!! *muacks!

our starry rainbow pouch in a hollywood movie?

so, last month, harlan films called us from the united states, requesting for permission to use our starry rainbow pouch as a prop/set dressing for their upcoming motion picture, greenberg

it’s going to be florence’s (greta gerwig) pouch, going to be totally her style.
do i read ben stiller in the release form?? scott rudin?? that’s insane!!!

i didn’t know they even request for permission for such small matters. they must need to send a bazillion requests out for every of such movie made.

it was really insane, for like, 2 hours or so.
died down once i received the formal request letter and faxed over the signed release form.

so, i know, it’s just going to be 1 tiny weeny pouch in a gargantuan movie set.
friends who knew about it promised they’ll squint to find the pouch once the movie is out, if it’s going to be included in any frames for that matter.

fine.

hahahah

but still

so i had clean forgotten about it, what with all the truckload of work and my personal hoo-hah, until i read an email from meredith this evening, about her nephew working as a crew on the set of greenberg.

!!! insane!

broken records

i have broken a few records than i usually would have, since the beginning of this year (about 4 months)…

1 – haven’t watched the telly for almost 3 months straight (last record was only 5 weeks).
2 – haven’t been socializing regularly online for almost 3 months (last record was 1.5 months).
3 – have had to go out every single day for more than 2 months straight. not 1 day was spent indoors/home.
4 – credit cards refused to be charged even when i have funds to make payment. it was totally retarded when i had to withdraw a 4-digit sum of cash in $50s to pay for a furniture. i guess they were freaked out by my unusually high number of buys and total amounts charged in such a short period….
5 – busted my mobile phone bill for the very first time since i have been out and about, and had to use it for international calls and checking work online….
6 – haven’t replied to personal emails for more than a month (unless that person poked me personally about it again)
7 – might have offended a few people because of no.6
8 – does not have time to care about no.7, for now…
9 – spaces out more than usual. my drinking buddies have decided i am getting too boring to hang out with, because i just space out.
10 – just wants to go and sleep. i almost never “just want to go and sleep”. but i do now.

p.s.
we had a fantabulous fashbash last sat!! thanks to all our friends and regulars and so many other sweet peeps!!! it didn’t look so good at first, what with the 35ºc heat index, and the late fashbash phenomenal queue etc. but it all turned out better than expected anyways in the end! will just be uploading some pictures to our flickr and facebook pages later… too much to type and too busy to do so!!

ciao for now! muacks!

preparing for our friday dark movie night

before i migrated over from blogger, the previously embedded video here worked perfectly fine. but there’s nothing here now. nothing. empty. zero. zilch. and i’ve completely forgotten what the video was, so there’s no point talking about searching for it again. GAH!!!

working from home is good.

you know how sometimes people like to make baseless negative assumptions..
like how people who wear glasses can’t afford to get contacts or lasik
or how how all slender girls have eating disorders

so one of which is, working from home means that your label isn’t doing that great.
year after year, during some must-go-to-very-mundane-gatherings, i have to entertain stupid comments like “oh, you mean you are still working from home after all these years?”
while i snigger away privately as i pocket the $4000++ rental i would have spent on rent.

money aside, here are 10 great things about working from home:
taken from apartment therapy

1. Taking a Bath at Lunchtime (or a dip in the pool!)
2. Raiding the Fridge whenever I want (heck, i can work right beside the fridge if i want to)
3. Being able to hit up Trader Joes or Target in the middle of the day (mid-day shopping and movie dates! when i’m not so busy of course….)
4. Working in Pajamas (i can’t work in my pajamas, don’t ask why, i have to shower and at least wear something decently good enough for me to step out of the house the very next minute, so i’ve never done this before…)
5. Not commuting anywhere, especially in the rain (yes!)
6. Making lunch at home and being able to put a roast in the oven in time to eat before 10pm
(i can make my spicy korean noodles, kimchi, and roast pork for lunch!)
7. Making a mid day Yoga class (i don’t yoga, but i do plenty of late-lunch dates!)
8. Getting to be alone for the day in semi stillness and not coming home ragged and exhausted (i can choose to stop work at 4pm and resume at 12 midnight… muahahaha)
9. Getting to play whatever music I want (as loud as i want to! that is, unless my part-timers and interns are right beside me and i have to “behave” like a “boss” :p)
10. Getting to hang out with my kitty (anyone or anything i choose to!)

so much for short breather… back to my busy-ness…

is it only march?????

maybe i should be thankful that it is only march. or else i would be completely missing all my datelines…

- daily littleoddforest work stuff
- 4 design / crafting projects at hand
- people hounding me every day for project progress… proposals… confirmations…
- people hounding me every day for dates.. dates… dates… details….
- friends hounding me for postponing lunch and dinner dates…. i’m only free for drinks/supper late @ night!!!!
- rushing new spring/summer wholesale orders
- dealing with fickle-minded buyers…
- trying to solve relationship problems amongst my sewers..
- dealing with my contractor for new home renovations
- problems
- shopping for furniture, lights and fixtures
- problems
- preparing 3 parties / gatherings
- 1 party for ourselves in may :p
- getting cold feet as date draws near..
- caterers, photographers, cakes, decorations, clothes…
- presentssss…. weddings, birthdays, graduation, baby 1st month… blahhh….
- 1 small trip to finish up supplies buying this 1st half of the year
- making sure i don’t bust my budget
- hounding 2 stockists for payment else i can’t complete my 2008 closing accounts!!!!
- dealing with phone buzzing every other half hour…
- dealing with complaints and a dirty unhygienic tenant at the other place…

june 2009 should actually be december 2009.
and i would have completed my whole year of things to do.

@______@”

shoppe updates are up by the way!
more coming up too! so watch out for them! new designs? *wink wink*
apologies for the sold out items…
shelly is busy helping me pack wholesale orders… and not afraid to groan about it either :p

gambling, casinos, golf, and sports cars…. ahhhh mister ong…. how your life has changed… ha.

ok, ciao bellas~
damn phone ringing again…