There are no rules in styling, you've just got to try

We had a wonderful event at Chinoiserie this past Sunday. It was my first public event as an exhibitor and I was lucky enough to have met over 20 brides-to-be.

How funny it was that during the event, I was presented as an expert in styling headpieces. If you have been following me for quite a while, you know clearly that I am just an amateur who is fortunate enough to have finally turned a life long hobby into a career.

I got asked a lot: what kinds of headpieces go with what kinds of head shapes?

To be honest, I will tell you: I do not know.

True that we are born differently in head shapes and sizes wise. However, how you look, how you want to look, what you love, and most importantly, whether you have the courage and confident to try new styles, or styles that you would never have dreamt of attempting, all matter.

I had a very beautiful fresh-faced bride-to-be, who kept saying she lacked femininity in her look. She was born with a very gorgeous head shape, (and a great body!) just like a perfect egg! You would just envy her flawless fresh skin! I didn't find a single spot! She showed me her dresses, every piece was a dream gown! So feminine and truly romantic. I knew I had to tell her: "with just a little bit of makeup, you are going to stun everyone around you. You've got to have confidence in yourself too!"

I literally forced her to try on every style available at my little corner. She hesitated but she did start trying. When the first headpiece landed on her head, the one she kept telling me "I won't look good in it", her worried face broke into a smile. That's when you know your customers are feeling very good about what you have made.

She tried as many as she liked, and every single piece looked as if it was made especially for her. She's been those lucky few who can wear all my headpieces and look stunning in each and every one.

I was taught long ago by my boss at one of my previous jobs: try, and you may have what you want. Fail to try, you definitely have nothing.

There are no rules in styling, please remember that you've just got to try.

;-)

my little one helping with the set up and trying on a veil she adored

A dress table full of hair accessories: every woman's dream?

When Clients are Happy

When we make things for other people, we are often happy to see the end products looking exactly as we first created and captured on pictures. (We don't want clients asking why their accessories are looking nothing like the listings.) However, the ultimate happiness always comes from the satisfaction of clients' surprised little notes, telling me how they adore my creations.

These notes often come in when I least expect them, and I never take these notes for granted.  

Thank you those who have loved HoSD designs and have been so sweet enough to tell me how much you love what you receive.

These encouraging notes help me survive the sometimes rough and depressive creative journey. 

I am forever grateful to your kindness.

♥

"the headband arrived yesterday and is stunning, absolutely beautiful even more than expected!

"thank you vey much"

~ from a bride in Italy 

May 20, 2012

"Absolutely lovely headband, the craftsmanship is really phenomenal. This seller was prompt, professional, and a lovely person. Such a pleasant transaction and a wonderful piece."

~ from a bride in Maryland, USA

May 11, 2011

Joy of Creating!

May has been a rather creative and productive month, to my joy and to my surprise. I have enough online and offline orders that keep me busy, but at the same time I could not resist the temptation to create something new.

And thanks to Emily, the talented florist, owner of M.dimension, who has recently commissioned me to work on an exquisite piece for her June bride. She has given me enough details so that I could almost visualise what she saw.

Once again I am in love with my new creation. I have thus made another wearable piece and listed in my shop, and named this beautiful necklace after Emily.

It is always a joy to work with Emily. 

And it is also my joy to be her friend.

Created especially for Emily's June bride

A necklace version for my Etsy shop

Spring Sherbet Garden

Spring is finally here! Though I am not too convinced that it means we are rid of all the casual cold breezes. Nonetheless, how delightful it is to see that all windows in shops are already freshened up with sherbet colour clothings.

The candy colour fashion of Spring has definitely excited and awaken my creative spirit and thus these soft and beautiful colour accessories were born.

I hope you enjoy wearing them!

Pink Lemonade Headband (on Icing Headband)

Spring Blossoms Headband

Marie in Pink Lemonade

My colour inspirations: 

Pastel colour macarons

Mulberry S/S12 campaign 

Louis Vuitoon S/S12 campaign 

Valentine's Day 2012

Valentine's Day this year is going to be special, for me, or for Sugar Darlings. This is the first time ever I am doing a crossover with another shop. She is a florist who is known for her poetic arrangement of her flowers and her unparalleled aesthetic taste.


She creates unforgettable masterpieces with her bare hands. These are flowers you see almost and probably every day in your life. And every time when her work is completed and presented, you just wonder: how did she do that? 


Well. She just did. 


Some people are really born with some special talents. And aren't we all fortunate to be able to enjoy her works?


And the specialness doubled, or even tripled, when Emily contacted me and asked if I was interested in doing a special collaboration with her. Of course! 


Absolutely honoured. 


I already know this year's Valentine's Day is going to be usual, but in a terrific way. 


I hope yours will be too.


♥

Hearts of Flowers arrangements by 文殊花度 M.dimension
To visit her blog: http://mdimensionhk.blogspot.com/
To visit her Facebook fan page:  https://www.facebook.com/M.dimension   

Some Childhood Memories

Beautiful soaps by TokyoFactory
My favourites include: first row from left, Victorian Rose Bath Fizz Cake  (I often find it tempting...as if I could eat it), a beautifully wrapped soap bar; second row, Sea Breeze Soap with Goat Milk Yogurt & Organic Coconut Water; third row, my soaps in their gorgeous packaging. 

Do you use soap bars, or do you use liquid soap? 


If you are like me, born in the 70's, you must have grown up using soap bars.


Not only did we use them to wash hands, body, face, hair, clothes (yeah), I was told that the fragrance could put off bugs who would feast on your clothes! It was somewhat a luxury to place a bar or two LUX inside our wardrobes to ward off insects and to leave some long lasting sweet smell on our clothes.


And during the 90's, when everything moved fast, or too fast, we needed something more convenient and gradually no more sighting of soap bars on the supermarket shelves. Instead, bottles after bottles of liquid soap, in their vibrant liquidly and jelly-like colours, lining up for people to buy.


Recently during one grocery shopping, a lady in front of me at the till was transferring her shopping from the basket to the counter table when I spotted the few bars of soap she was cradling like newborn in her arms.


Do people still use soap bars??


I don't even see them on the shelves!!!


What era is she in??


Are we shopping in the same supermarket??


Yes, I admit. I did make a big fuss about it, as if I had never seen soap bars in my life.


Back home, I remember I was researching for my new treasury list when I came across soaptician (nice name, huh) Ayu's wonderfully created soap bars. Not only do they all look like some art masterpieces, sometimes I just have to remind myself they are not food...albeit how delicious her soaps all appear to be.


After creating the list, I clicked the picture again and just went shopping. I so wanted to bag all the items but the shipping was hefty because of the weight of the soap. I still managed to pick a few. 


When they arrived a week later, I even went out to buy a soap container! 


I must tell you how gorgeously refreshing Sea Breeze smells! Every single piece is a work of art. I admire Ayu's creativity and her patience. All her products are photographed very beautifully too, and have I already mentioned the packaging? I did save all those intact stickers and put them in my diary! They are so nice as a display! I hardly wanted to use them!


And I found that I had washed my hands more frequently... ha ha ha. I felt like a child again, going back and forth and repeatedly doing something for its pleasure, not really for its function, or necessity.


Then I remembered. When I was a young child, my beloved grandma would come visit us frequently. My mother had four children in the span of five years and grandma probably thought she couldn't really handle it. She loved giving us baths and she loved washing my hair in the basin (since I was young and having flexible muscle, I did and was able to tilt my head backward for grandma to wash it). She was always using a bar of soap, singing in her Shaoxing dialect, "ta bee song, ta bee song", smiling, happily bathing her grandchildren one by one, and occasionally giving me a kiss on my cheeks.


:~)


As I write, I am trying to hold back tears.


Grandma is still here, at her very double golden age, approaching her 100th birthday in three more years.


Many times you think you cannot find something, whether you are shopping for a particular item, or shaking your handbag like mad searching for that damn car key which often goes missing. 


Perhaps because you are not looking?

I mean, really looking.


Just a week ago, I shopped again for some convenient liquid handwash in the same supermarket, when I noticed many bars of LUX soap were quietly sitting there on the shelves, just patiently waiting to be picked up. 


Many of our happy childhood memories are not lost, they are still there, shelved in that corner, possibly blocked by some recent happenings.


But if you look with your heart, you will always find them.


And when you find them, they will always bring a smile on your face.


Because, you are evidence that you were once very much loved, and you were once a simple and happy child.


:-)

My Etsy finds for "A bit of blue" led me to Ayu's Sea Breeze Soap

Don't be discouraged

Copper Bezel pendant with chain by bluskys06
Available for purchase on Etsy

There are definitely moments (could be many), when we have to deal with rejection in life. 


Two nights ago, whilst having dinner, I shouldn't have but I suddenly found myself checking my inbox messages. I did it as if I knew something was waiting for me.


"OK, like I have predicted, I got rejected," I told my husband.


"What? Who?" of course he would ask.


"The shop I tried doing consignment with, they rejected my application," I said, handing the phone to my husband, but decided to read out loud these lines: "...your collection does not currently meet the criteria we are using to diversify and expand our current selection of designers."


"Idiot," my husband said.


When I sent out my application, I had a very strong feeling that I would be rejected. But  I told myself, no harm trying, they don't know me, I don't know them, there wouldn't be any embarrassment.


My elder daughter was busying with her network socialising, but I noticed my little one was suddenly nervous.


"Mommy...Can you tell me what happened? Who doesn't like your stuff?" she asked, worriedly.


"No, that's us adults talking, dear," my husband tried to ask her to concentrate on her dinner and finish it.


But I thought differently. I told her, very simply, a shop did not find interests in my work and they would not be selling my designs online.


I also thought it was a very good opportunity to let the young girls know when you grow up and work, you get expectations, you get appreciation, and you get rejection too. You must never think you are the best. 


I said everything very calmly, and I was a bit angry my elder one, a teenager, found that Facebook was so much more important than Mommy getting rejected. I tried to control my temper.


When I looked back at my plate of food, I could tell I had already lost my appetite. Regardless of how composed I looked. I seldom had leftover, but I allowed myself to waste the last mouthful of rice and two little pieces of curry porkchop. 


The rejection was not at all an embarrassment, but definitely a disappointment.


I was lying to everyone.


No, I didn't feel alright.


Who was I lying to? My temper finally erupted yesterday. I got mad at teeny tiny things at home. 


Every now and then I go back to my temple for meditation. 


One time the temple master told me, "Without the past, without the present. You have to be thankful to your past. Those experiences are what make you here today."


I always try to believe in his words. 


My husband and my younger one asked me to delete the email right away.


"No! I won't!" 


I wanted to keep it, the email serves as one of those teachers you have at school, those we call them "a living terror", without them, you won't progress. And when you don't progress, you will never excel. 


Ever since I started working on my own again, there's no one to teach or be my mentor. I need opinions (regardless objective or subjective) on my work. I need to know how I can do better, what mistakes I can avoid.


I only immediately deleted their junk mail and unsubscribed their service. I just can't believe they rejected me but readily put me on their mass marketing mailing list!? I won't buy anything from them! 


It did reply with a funny automatic message asking if this email from them had been forwarded to a friend who had accidentally clicked "unsubscribe". Funny, really, they did think of that!


I confirmed my unsubscription by clicking the button. 


>:-]


Revenge taken.


How silly I would look back, perhaps next week, to laugh at myself.


Only two days, I am already feeling grateful. 


There are many happenings in life. Rejection is just one of them. Whether it is related to work or personal relationship, to be rejected is a way to learn to be accepted, in the future. 


At least this is what I think.