One Friday in the life of a MAAD seller

Hi folks,

This was petty much how Friday 9th September went....

@1:24pm I decided it was more important to post my money bag on facebook than to finish packing up.

First time using this bag. I love it! It's such a handy sling bag that I want every seller to own one. This one was made specially to cater to my large wallet. The "name tag", cat brooch and little bird house are from Momshoo.

@2:15pm I headed out to catch a taxi. Fingers crossed.

I'm always happy when me hubs is around to help me lug the luggage around. He's a really strong guy.

@2:26pm Reached my strategic spot to catch a taxi. Another family had the same idea. I queued up behind them as I didn't want to fight with them for a taxi. But man! They're terrible at flagging taxis. Finally, I decided to help them get one. I started waving at every taxi that went past and that got them terribly nervous and they too started waving at every taxi that went past. Wow, what a relief when they finally got into one. I thought I struck gold when I got a very clean and cheery looking red taxi.

Wrong. He took me for a ride. A very long, expensive scenic ride. When I finally arrived at red dot design museum, most of the sellers had already taken up their spots.

@3:15pm Went in search of a pharmacy. It seems I was car sick from the long taxi ride and my head pounded like crazy. I'm always forgetting to bring something and this time it was my medication.

@5pm Table was finally set up. Tried a different way of hanging my stuff. Still very much in need of better ideas. The medication worked like magic. I felt pretty good.

@5:57pm My first customer! Janet, Janet, Janet. Check out her necklace. p.s. her new items match her bag.

The rest of the night was quite low-key. No sight of celebrities or the elected president. My sister came and so did Su. Had a nice chat with them. The traffic wasn't like the previous month. But interestingly, my total sales went up. My guess is this round there were more serious buyers. And that's a good thing. Then it happened.........

@8:50pm I could barely contain my excitement. I wanted to scream and shout and scream and shout but I controlled myself. You see, ladies. Long, long time ago, on January 24th this year, okay, not so long ago, me hubs said and I quote:

No woman would buy a bag made in the skulls and roses fabric at MAAD

When I first saw the Alexander Henry skulls and roses fabric, I knew it would be hard to sell bags made in the fabric. But you know me. I can't say No to a challenge. And the "worst" part which I hadn't revealed to anyone? The fabric seller confessed to me that she had trouble selling the fabric on account of the skulls. And you know what? When she asked if I could buy the entire amount of the skulls fabric she had, I said YES. It wasn't that much really.

So, the challenge of selling this Alexander Henry skulls and roses fabric crossbody bag has been met. Me hubs has to EAT HIS WORDS and give me $100. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

If you're wondering, I did not tell the young lady, I think her name is Ida about the challenge. I didn't want to scare her with this crazy story. I can understand how strange I may come across.

And she said and I quote:

Wow, this is so cool!

Why do I keep accepting such challenges?

@10pm My family arrived. They did not come the previous round so I was happy to see them. I immediately told hubs the skulls and roses bag had been sold and you know what? He said he'd completely forgotten about the challenge. In fact he had no memory of the challenge! Can you believe it? But don't worry. He'll cough up the money.

@10:38pm My kids manned my table while me hubs and I went to explore.

This part of the museum is where the music, singing and drinking take place.

Guess what this "lady" is selling? Woooooooo!

@11.08pm Just killing time. Someone thought it was a good idea to take a pic of me from the back. Next to me is Mandy of Forest Flame- the hat lady.

@11:13pm Completely bored, me hubs went off to explore the exhibits with my girl.

He's washing his hands.

He's washing his hair.

He's a mannikin.

@11:23pm This is how the kids kill time. Plus another shot of me from the back!

@11:37pm Group photo. (my girl is in her "hates photo taking" stage) Just hanging around waiting for 12 midnight.

The night ended well. We managed to get a taxi driver who drove fast via the shortest route. Let's do this again on October 7! See you.

This and that

Hellooooo!

Tomorrow I'll be selling my bags at maad and I should be packing my stuff and price tagging. Instead I'm sitting here thinking over my taxi ride to maad in August. I think I was shortchanged. I'm quite a slow fuse, aren't I? Red dot design museum is located in the central business district so entering it meant having to pay the entry fee which is electronically deducted via a cash cash inserted in a special gadget on the taxi. Well, my driver ran out of cash in his cash card. He did not tell me this when I boarded the taxi. Instead halfway thru' he told me casually he needed to go find a gas station to top up. I was like, do I have a choice? Besides, he said he could give me a discount. At the gas station, he took note of the meter reading and when he came back he pointed to the meter and said 40cents which is the amount it ran up while he topped up. I still had no idea what it meant until I paid up at my destinatiion. 40 cents was the total discount he gave me! But he detoured off the expressway to go to the gas station. What a guy. I'm just hoping tomorrow I won't get a driver who doesn't top up his cash card before starting his shift.

While on the subject of shortchanging, some time ago, this happened to me while I was selling. A woman wanted to buy one of my pouches. She kept haggling but I did not give her a discount. Finally she paid the full price. She walked away but came back again. She took another of my pouches, said her friend would love it and said "that" was her discount. To my amazement, she took off with it. As she walked away she had the nerve to turn back and smile at me. I was so stunned that I did not chase her. Does her behaviour surprise you? I would not believe it if I hadn't witnessed it for myself. I mean, would she walk into a departmental store, grab an extra item and say "that's my discount"? I doubt it.

I had been wanting to make a metal frame purse for a long time but somehow never got started. Yesterday, I spent the entire day making it. I looked up Sweet Bee Buzzing's tute to make the pattern.

Mine is a sew-in frame so no glueing is required. What I don't like about sewing the frame onto the purse is there are holes on the outside but on the inside, it's solid metal. Your needle keeps hitting the metal. And even though I try to hide them, some of my stitches are visible. Plus my purse is too thin so I had to stuff cotton thread into the frame and to seal it, I used a plier to crimp.

Which resulted in very, very sore hands. I think next time I will use a hammer to seal the frame. I'm gifting the purse to myself so I can testdrive it.

I received another mooncake box. Isn't it stunning? Are you wondering what I do with all the boxes I receive? It requires its own post. Coming up.....

Have I ever told you how terrified my kids are of eating pastries which are too creative? They only eat the generic looking ones. Anything fancy they will not touch.

These 3 are pretty good examples of muffins my kids won't eat. Me hubs brought them home and they're just sitting in the fridge. To be honest, I'm with my kids for these muffins. They look pretty scary.

See you soon.

No peeing in public please, we're civilised

Dear readers of mine,

What have you been up to lately? This week is a 1-week school break in Singapore. It means I have to get used to the sight of my kids playing some kind of electronic games all day. In my days, I spent my school break reading.

Nothing much has happened in Singapore. The most "exciting" thing that happened? A local actress, Mindee Ong caught 2 drunk and urgent caucasian men urinating in public, one of whom was doing it on the rear wheel of her car! She shouted at the guy defacing her car to stop it (is it possible?). He simply waved his sad bits at her and said something offensive. She called the police and just like in the movies, the police arrived after the 2 men had taken off. So sadly, we will never know the identity of the 2 men who peed in public. More importantly, we will never find out the penalty for urinating in public in Singapore.

This got me thinking. What are the things I can't do in public. I mean, can you urinate in public? I know I can't pee even if I were in a jungle surrounded by trees and darkness. I know I can't pee even if I were in a drain where no one can see me. I know I can't pee even in a public toilet if it stinks, is filthy or the flush doesn't work.

These are the 5 things I can't do in public:
1. Pee
2. Sing
3. Dig my nose
4. Dance
5. Make out

It's a good thing I have no issues with selling my bags in public because I have another craft market coming up this Friday at MAAD.

My 2nd time at MAAD Pyjamas, red dot design museum from 5pm to midnight.

I made a few more cardholders for sale at maad.

Each cardholder comes with plastic sleeves. After making 5 of these, I got really sick of it. What to make next? Come back and find out, won't you? See you in a couple of days.