Love To Wander !

Finally, after months of preparation, we are ready to GO LIVE! Yes, Love to Wander goes live!

What's that?



Love to Wander's our online shoppe - you can buy clothes!! Our being me, Lak & Kay's brainchild. Lak & Kay have always been my top travel mates. For the past few years, we are bound to take at least an overseas trip together. Each of us complemented well - lak being the planner, executer, researcher, map reader - kay being the entertainer - and me being the $ controller (simply cuz that's probably the easiest no-brainer thing to do (but when a guy joins for the trip, he takes over).


Sometime late last year, we decided to combine our passion for travelling and shopping to start an online shoppe. As always, the easiest is to decide what to sell, the hardest at the initial phase is the name. We decided to use our initials to Lak , To & Wong and combine it with our wanderlust ... and ta da! Love To Wander!



I guess everyone would have at some point in time tried shopping and buying clothes online. I have done my fair share but often ended up being dissappointed. Very often, the clothes looks darn good in pictures and the actual product turns out horrible, or the sizes dont seem to fit or the delivery time is way too long. I understand many blogshops locally do back-to-back delivery - meaning, they order only when they get confirmed orders from customers and that will increase delivery lead time. Also, the postage charges are artifically high.



So what do i love about Love To Wander? And how are we different?

- We only sell what we have in stock locally. Meaning, if u dont have to wait few weeks to a month for the delivery. You get it almost within a week.


- Our prices are NET prices, inclusive of postage charges. This means no hidden costs at checkout. But if you require registered mail, we have that option at $2.24 only, which is what Singpost charges - we do not charge mark up on that.

- We QC our stuffs before selling. Meaning, if there are loose strings around, we cut them etc.


- We only sell what we would want to wear ourselves - this would mean it may not be the latest fashionable item but its definitely still pretty & wearable.

So, after many months of prepartion, we are finally ready to launch our first collection on 12.1.11, Wednesday at LoveToWander!!! Please do keep a lookout for it and buy buy buy if any catches your fancy. And feedback pls!!! :D


Here are some sneaks! :D

Patchwork hexagon purses

My last crafts for 2010 - patchwork hexagon purses. I have been patching them together over the past few months whenever i travel. Made enough, finally, to make six of these purses. Here are four of them. I have only completed the other 2 yesterday and they will be avaliable in the shoppe soon. Get these one-of-a-kind purses quick if it catches your fancy :D

A closer look at them individually. The red+blue one is custom order for one of my fave supporter of my crafts- she bought it before and wanted more. Ms M - if you are reading this, hope you like it (sorry i took so longggggg to craft it) :D

X'mas trip to Malaysia 2010

my 2010 x'mas was spent in Pangkor with family and bro's frens. We were in Malaysia for a 4D3N trip covering Pangkor, Ipoh & KL. Its a short and hurried trip - the main intention was to go Ipoh for bro & audrey's wedding lunch. They held their dinner in Singapore back in Nov-10 but audrey's dad wanted to have one in Ipoh so that his relatives need not come down all the way to Singapore. So, since we are all going up, we might as well do some 'touring'. We chartered a coach and hence begun our customised trip.

We took an overnight coach and headed straight for Pangkor. We reached the jetty at about 7am, about 10 hrs after we left singapore - that included time for supper and toilet breaks in between. Had expected it to be a very tiring one but its better than expected. Whew.

Since Pangkor is a stand alone island about half hour ride away from the mainland. We took a ferry over and started our tour straight away early in the morning.

First stop was breakfast at the town centre. Pangkor town is made up of a short row of shops - very basic. I had the prawn noodles which was yummy. Piping hot cooked food is always good, especially after two weeks of ang moh food in europe.

After the breakfast, we started our sightseeing trip. First stop was to the famed ruins on the island. The old dutch fort. I tot it was really amusing cus it seemed to me like a really small unfinished building, which was conveniently turned into a sad toursit attraction. There was some history behind this but i didnt pay attention to what the tour guide was saying. We took our only group picture for the trip here. There were quite a few kids which made the group livelier.

Then we went off to one of the 2 temples around. Cant remember what temple this is though.

After that temple, we went off to another temple, this time, its by the seaside. Its the Guanyin templet. Got my bro & audrey to take a picture with the word "Pangkor Island".

After the boring sighseeing, we checked into our hotel where we had free & easy for the next few hours before we go boating. So, me, tyre & bro decided to laze by the boring beach - just so that we indulge in the 'beach' culture. i really wasnt into the beach after a long coach ride, but just had to go through the motion of hanging by the beach.

We gathered for the boat ride where Mr Boatman brought us round the island, pointing out sights to us such as what the rocks resembles etc. The highlight of the boat ride was when he dived into the waters to pick up sea-life for us to see. There was the sea urchin, the sea cucumber and corals.

I must admit, Pangkor was quite a let down. I have read about some good reviews about Pangkor island, where one of the world's best resort resides in. But its really a dissappointment. Its even worse than Tioman. I was glad to get off the island the following day.

After Pangkor, we headed straight for the restuarant for the wedding lunch. Wedding lunch was pretty good, Fuzhou cuisine, first time i am eating it. Very filing very tasty. 2 of audrey's frens had a harrowing experience here. Before lunch started, they were loitering outside the restuarant. When they were walking back, a motorist tried to drive inbetween them and tried to snatch one of the girl's handbag. Luckily, she was quick enough to hold on tightly to the bag. So tightly that she fell and the motorist rode away empty-handed. Well, i have heard of stories of fren's fren who got pickpocketed, who got stuffs stolen but never so close.

After lunch, we headed off to KL for our shopping trip & one-night stay. Nothing intersting in KL other than to loiter around aimlessly. The following day, we shopped a bit more and headed home for Singapore. But before that, we have to celebrate Audrey's birthday which falls on boxing day :D

So this concludes the x'mas trip. I think it will be quite a long time before i go back to KL, and likely never to Pangkor.

Steaming 2010

Did our last steaming for the year at the Vong's place on the last day of 2010. For the past few years, we have been steaming. Seems like steaming is sort of a tradition meal for the last day of the year yearly.



Thanks to the Vong's for opening up their place for us to do steaming. And good thing their table & place is big enough for 10+1. +1 = to little ella. nowadays, it seems kids are invading our adult space. every place, or gathering which we go to, there's always a kid ard. guess we have reached the age to have kids already!??!?! in the past, it was about who has new boyfren/girlfren but now, its about who has kids, how old the kid is etc etc.

that's cute ella. She started off being very quiet and shy. but as soon as she warmed up, she was busy showing off her facial tricks and handing out foodies to us. joee has taught her daughter well!

ella had to sleep early so yaozhong and joee left early. and so, its left to us couples without kids. snapping some pictures before the stroke of midnight.

and i chanced upon some crafts. First on the left is the large metal clasp purse which i made for Lynn about 1.5 yrs ago. She has been using it for her knick knacks since. Its still in good condition, looking as good as new :D The one on the left is made by Ms Vong's sis-in-law - a gift for x'mas. Its pretty!

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New 2011 Year to us all!!!! Time flies and another year has gone by!. This year will be just as good as last year, if not, better :D

Looking back at 2010, its been a great year. Did quite a bit of travelling with family and friends, started to sell my crafts at Belle_Maison_zakka, renewed friendship with some old friends through common crafting interests, made new friends, bought our first apartment, brother finally got married and this year, it be my turn :D

1.1.11 - its my dad's birthday. Did the usual on his birthday, nothing fanciful - had dinner outside, blow birthday cake and home sweet home.

doggies @ reservoir

brought doggies out to the reservoir last weekend. its kinda once in a blue moon thing for me to do. tyre's occasionally bugging me to bring them out to the reservoir especially in the mornings but i pretty dread bringing them out to crowded places or outside cuz i become the ultimate control freak and it tires me out trying to keep them totally in control, wihich is also impossible.

anyway, good thing i did it cuz they were so happy prancing ard and exploring the new environment. so much so that snowy was sooo tired that she merely plopped down on the grass and refused to walk/run anymore. here are some pictures of my darlings...

managed to catch them smiling! look at the curl of snowy's tongue! :D

my three darlings posing for the picture. snowy was actually sitting with yuki but she jumped down and plopped onto the grass. i was momentarily worried/freaking out cuz she's acting a bit wonky but i guessed that's cuz she's tired

them on their way home. they are still smiling. :D

busy bug

Its been more than a month since my last post. Been busy with some serious data entry work to meet some deadlines, did some travelling to bangkok and korea, then preparing for bro's wedding end of Nov. And right after wedding, been busy clearing up backlog @ work and then crafting goodies for Ms G's upcoming fair again in Dec. Since i will be away from tomorrow onwards till end of the year, i had better craft more in case there are orders for my goodies, which are great as xmas gifts (yeah... i am 'advertising' my own products here). Handmade gifts will be a good change from those store bought ones - tho I will be giving store bought ones to my friends (i just finished wrapping the gifts! And realised i left out some... hope to find some time to buy before flying off tomorrow)

First to London, then to Paris with usual travel girl mates and then to Ipoh/Pangkor/KL with family. A bit sad cuz I wun be spending xmas eve in Singapore with the usual gang with the gift exchanges. Its has been a yearly ritual for as long as i can remember and i cant join in this time :(.

I really enjoied last year's gift exchange and was looking forward to it again this year but guess its not possible.

Anyway, if you are having a party with no idea for organising gift exchanges party - try this for a change. We call it the "Booby Gift Exchange". Its just like recycling - Bring a gift which you have recieved before but didnt like it and havent used it before. The idea was - what u dont like may be what the other like. Few of the memorable booby gifts last year were the glass trinket box (which i got in the end :( ) , the mouse pad, the comp speaker and an umbrella. The umbrella was actually one of the most useful booby gift.

On a seperate topic, Do look out for some of my new handmade goodies at the shoppe. Had wanted to take pictures of those but no time to do it today and i have already passed it to Ms G to post online. There are bendy pouches, large metal clasp pouches, small metal clasp purses and iphone pouches.

So, here's MERRY X'MAS in advance!!!

New New New!

Here's the prototype of the new purse! Its nicely-sized to hold in the hands, measuring approximately 12cm by 10cm. Been thinking of doing up something like that for a very long time but didnt know how to do the 'accordian-like' compartments.



I think, this is another useful, multi-tasker creation. The compartments allow you to categorise the cards. I am thinking - 2 slots for cards, 1 slot for dollar notes (have to fold it into half before slotting in). And the zipper compartment allows for coins.

Wanted to do a few for the shoppe and for the upcoming fair but I cant find the correctly sized zippers yet. I wanted the color of the zippers to match the purse but i could onli find black, navy blue and white so far. Anyway, stay tuned for these if you are interested.

Seperately - i do miss crafting. Have not been indulging in my daily dosage of crafting for these 2 weks, after the latest batch of carpark/cheque book coupon holders. Been busy with the house, doing some travelling and bro's upcoming wedding by month end. Hope to catch up on crafting when i am back from Korea next week! :D

Carpark Coupon/Cheque book holders

Made these about 2 weeks back and wanted to post them as soon as its done before listing in the shoppe. But dad brought my camera along for his holidays so i had to wait till he's back with it.

So, he's back now and here are the pictures. They have already been listed in the shoppe and some have been sold since then. :D

I have this little game i 'play' with tyre, my younger brother and mummy. Whenever my crafts are done, i will show it to them and ask them to arrange in accordance to their preference. And then we will 'discuss' the rankings. Tyre will usually rank the floral ones last, while mummy will rank those higher. Ha ha ha. I am quite bo liao :P

cooking workshop by 8days

the hazy weather in singapore's really bad, reaching over 100 pts yesterday evening. that explains the fogginess. its really gloomy in the normally bright and sunny island. despite the gloom, the weather's still hot hot hot. and its so easy to fall sick in this lousy weather.

it started my bro, then audrey, and me. i was down with fever early this week and am still plague by the intense headache cum giddiness for the past 3 days. normally 1 pandaol will do the trick but this time round, it doesnt :*(. kk said the weather's giving her bad headache too. @ least i feel better after hearing that knowing that i am not alone.

my head's giving out the 'wong wong wong' feeling as i type. i shld head home to rest well before my bangkok trip tomorrow. hoping that all the headaches & giddiness will go away by tonite - i dun wan it to follow me to bangkok! :(

back to the main topic of this post :

last weekend, we went to a cooking workshop organised by 8days, held @ marriott hotel where they will show us how to prepare easy desserts for parties @ home. cukoo haw signed up for it expecting a hands-on session only to be dissappointed for it is a sit down and watch from afar. hot mama hui-ee joined us too. She's looking really pretty for a mama-to-be with a pretty glow - pregannt and pretty ! - that's what i will be too when its my time :P

the 2-3 hour session would have been very boring if not for the entertaining host - michelle cheong and my excellent companions haw & huiee. and we were photographed by the event photographer! and many others were too. its pretend pretend cuz the photographer had to ask us to put up the 'twist' sign, smile and then put some advertisers products in front of us casually and look like we enjoied ourselves.

ask me if i would go for another such events again? hmm.. with the right company, why not , even tho its pretty lame :P

Ms G key pouch

was happy to see Ms G using one of my key pouch and had to take a picture of it. so pretty!!

bendy bendy again

did more bendys for the shoppe. get them if any catches your fancy.

wish i had more time so that i could craft more and newer products. I have one prototype done already.. will update soon.

Ten.Ten.Ten - Part 2

Here are un-professional pictures which i took for the day. It takes too long for the professional wedding photographers & videographers to do their editing, plus taking pictures helped to keep me occupied - so here's mine! :D

here's the happily married couple! pretty audrey & my brother (who lost quite a bit of weight for the wedding) :D

Sights spotted ard the venue

Food food food. Catered food for the day - not that bad.

Snapshots of the guests for the day , made up mostly of my bro & audrey's frens.

Kids galore! All girls and only 1 boy.

sold sold sold!

Sold Sold Sold! All these sold (and many others not pictured here, including 9 clutch purses) during Ms G's fair @ Thomson Plaza last week. Thanks to all those who have bought my crafts! Thank you thank you!

So how did i get to know Ms G and how did my crafts end up @ her fair? Briefly - earlier this year, i chanced upon her fair @ thomson plaza. It was hard to ignore her shop as its really prettily displayed with lots of goodies (very japanese zakka), I remembered spending a long time at her shop looking from top to bottom to look for good bargains and I remembered spending quite a lot of $$$. And it was not enuff to just buy @ her fair, i even bought some from her online store - which was delivered personally to my place. When she came by to drop off my purchases, i gave her one of my craft items, the bendy pouch. On that same day ( i think...), she dropped me an sms asking if i wanted to sell my craft items at her fair and the rest is history...

Yay! :D Happy to sell my crafts, Happy to know that pple are buying & using them. Happy that the money i get from my crafts goes to buying more pretty fabrics for more crafts.. and the cycle goes on and on.

Ten.Ten.Ten - Part 1

10.10.10 - a once in a century date. In singapore, a total of 830 couples exchanged marriage vows, out of which, my brother's one of them! :D He had his solemnization @ One-degree Fifteen Marina Club @ Sentosa Cove. A pretty place to get married in front of the sea, yatches and sun with a party of about 40pax.

Yeah, my brother of 34yrs finally got married to audrey after more than 7 years ( i think it 7 years). Its the first xi shi of the family. Dad must have beeen the most excited of the lot.

Helped to do up wedding favors for the day. Audrey came up with the contents while i helped with the cutting and packing. She chose a "Poker" theme with poker cards & chips in a black/red/white color scheme.

The wedding favor is includes a bottle of hard candy with "hearts" and "thank you", a stick of blowingi bubbles and ice cube thingy which lights up. All packed into a pretty white satin drawstring pouch.

Audrey ordered these handmade candies from a shop @ United Square. It comes in a pretty sized glass bottle and costs only $3.50. Pretty good priced, i think. We had to stick on our own thematic labels.

And we did up matching gift tags to match.

Will post pictures of the solemnization day itself later...

Russian Dolls Bendys

Kawaii russian dolls! :D Am using the red one for my camera - have been using my bulky camera without any pouch and its full of scratches. Didnt want to use the camera pouch that came with the camera's is heavy and boring in black. Fits perfectly! :D

Shiro comes to play

Shiro came over to my place for the night, together with her owner, cheryl of course. Such a sweet doggy who sticks to cheryl the whole night and rolls over @ a bang. Pity yuki & snowy wouldnt mix/play with shiro. Must be the territorial instincts kicking in - my doggies prob dun like shiro to intrude /vie for our attention.

Got shiro to pose the round pouch , 'fresh out of the oven'.

A funny trumatic incident happened to Shiro the next morning - Mum brought Shiro down to the garden in the morning to 'play'/shit/pee. Since Shiro had no lease, she couldnt bring her out together with my doggies for their daily walk and so left Shiro in the garden. Dad came down shortly and saw this strange unfamiliar dog in the garden. He tot shiro was an intruder and tried to chase her out of the house. Poor shiro - she must have been traumatised and refused to leave the house despite all the chasing. Lucky mummy came back in time to 'save' shiro and it all ends well. Shiro went back and stayed by cheryl side for the rest of the time she was @ my place. Must have been scared silly. :P

Making disposable chopsticks

Ms G told me during our taipei trip that disposable chopsticks arent that hygenic and clean after all. I didnt really understand it till i seen this clip. Its a pretty long clip but rather interesting. Take some time to finish watching it if you are interested.

Clutch Purse Spotted!

Spotted!


Kay carrying the "handmade by yiwan" clutch purse last friday! I was so surprised and happy to see that she's still using it! After all, I gave it to her like about 3 yrs ago!?!? And its still kept in good condition. It was one of the first batch of clutch purses which i did back then when i first started crafting. And it was like seeing an old friend again!


This vintage looking newsprint clutch purse was machine quilted. Kay added her own disney pushpins to add some character to it. There's this stain mark next to the word "Tigger", which she JUST stained it during dinner that night ! :(

And the interior. According to her, she dislike the fabrics used for the interior, including the rick racs. At that time when i crafted it, i tot it matched pretty well, but now, on hindsight, i must agree with her unwillingly that it is rather mis-matched. But still pretty nevertheless cuz its lovingly handmade by ME!! :D

And, I think this beats any branded pLada, or LB wallet! :D

La Villa

Had saturday lunch with the usual gang last weekend - sort of a belated birthday thingy for both me and tyre. we love PS Cafe @ dempsey for the laid back atmosphere and greenery but wanted a change and try out something new so Lak suggested La Villa, which was also V's old primary school. Its located along River Valley Road, next to ERC institute.

The ambience was quite good. Love the setting and that they serve warm bread with vinger & olive oil. Yumz..

The main course was at best, average. The burger was flat and dry with very thin patty, the gnocchi (Lak's all-time fave food) had a too mushy texture and my handmade fettucini had more of a chinese stir fry noodle taste to it. The seafood pasta was the best among the average. On top of the average food, the service was very average and the place was understaffed - maybe that explains the lack of smile on their faces and words.

Well, @ least there's free parking but you have to ask for the complimentary ticket yourself. They do not offer it to you upfront.

iphone pouch

made these quite some time back - fits an iphone perfectly. well, something different from the usual silicon casing, sock-like casing or drawstring type of pouch.

it may not be the most practical one to use but at least its special and different. and if u do not wish to use it as iphone pouch, it can double up as a card holder again! :D or maybe fits one lipstick, comb and mascara nicely.

Why daughters are better?

2 person having a chat on a talkshow about kids. Person A has 2 sons and Person B has 3 daughters. So Person A was very proud and arrogant and boosted about how good it is to have sons. But Person B quickly reacted ...

你知道吗?

儿子是路人
媳妇是敌人

女儿是亲人
女婿是佣人

我家有三个亲人, 三个佣人
你家有两个路人, 两个敌人!

哈哈哈哈哈

Senseless Fun

Was @ the office yesterday feeling bored. Saw a spool of strings and stack of colorful post-stick. What to do with it? Hmm..

Yay! Make it into a string of those triangular hanging thingy (dunno wat to call them).

Then, hang it up and hold a get together for Ms Labbit & Ms Red :D

(duh!)

Spotted

Spotted Mr Star Tortise in my garden. He has been living there for many many years already - wandering around the garden, feeing on plants and vegetables which we feed him with from time to time. He used to have another tortise fren but he disappeared somehow and now he's left alone. Once, we even 'caught' him at the far corner in our study room - it baffles us - how he could get there without being spotted.

Lately, dad did a little 're-landscaping' of the garden and planted new greens. If i am not wrong, these new greens are suppose to repel mosquitos, according to the description i saw at the nursery. Looks like Mr Star Tortise found them and finds it delicious. Yummz.

So yummy that he continues to chew on the the last piece of greens even after we picked him up.