Those bits and pieces of advice from Mom

In my teenage years, I was not overly keen on advice from older people. I had the feeling that the adviser preferred me to take their advice rather than just take it into account when I made my decisions and this point of view fostered feelings of manipulation and restriction.
I also noted that people advised from their library of values, likes and dislikes, personality, etc, so I just dismissed most people because I felt they were biased.

As I've become older though, I have come to understand and appreciate a lot of things my parents used to tell me. I have recently become a parent and I now know that though parents can be biased in many ways, their advice comes from a heart that cares for their offspring's well being {in most cases}.

Being a bit headstrong in those younger years has meant that most of the advice I was given now remain scattered in weird bits around my mind. That said, I seem to have gained the ability to piece like ones together and use them if need be.
Some things that were drummed into my little head include advice like:

• Don't receive gifts from people because gifts come with strings attached.
  
• Don't visit men for any reason.
  
• Don't hang out with friends that love to miss classes.
• Don't take anything that doesn't belong to you without permission.
  
• Say thank you when people do stuff for you.
• Save sex for marriage.
• and lots and lots and lots of other bits and pieces

There's one that has been impressed upon my mind though because its directly related to the kind of person I am. I'm usually an impulsive person while my husband is a more deliberate person, so while it takes me approximately 1-5 seconds to make some key life decisions, it would take my husband a couple of days. However, no matter how frustrating our personality differences may be, it can't be compared with the frustration of having to live with my mom for my first 23 years. I love my Mom but the sole reason for my high frustration levels in my younger years was that my mom took a couple of weeks to make 'favorable' decisions on issues that I needed an answer on within the next couple of minutes (or at most 2 to 3 hours).
How long can it possibly take to decide if you're going to let me go for that party or not? Oh and about that dress I can't wait to have, do you really need to take a couple of weeks to decide if I need it or not, AND then wait for it to go on sale because its a bit on the high side?
I used to stamp my feet quite a lot in frustration and anger but tantrums did not move my mom.

It was all for my own good though and this is why the bit of advice from my mom that has remained impressed in my mind is - "Shops will never run out of good things. If you wait, you will probably get it for a bargain."And how true that is!

Have you ever gone shopping and spied out a shoe that you felt will be snatched away if you did not make the purchase immediately? Did the shop attendant remember to mention that this was the last one they had and that they wouldn't be ordering anymore in? How can you deal with that kind of pressure? If you're a quick decision maker like myself, you'd probably go ahead and buy it. If you're like my mom and husband, you'd wait and get it at half price or with 75% off the original price towards the end of the season. Then I'd hate you for a while because you'd rub it in.

Needless to say, I LOVE sales when I happen upon them. Don't we all? Sometimes its hard to wait for a sale when you've got your eye on something in particular, and it gets harder when you're not sure if it will still be on stock during the sales period. However, it is a good financial management principle to be a little bit more patient and to hunt for those sales and bargains. The satisfaction of a good bargain hunt lasts longer than the aftertaste of an expensive indulgence that ends up being quite needless.

While we're on that note, don't forget to take advantage of our End of Financial Year Sales which have slashed 20% off all our marked prices. To add more spice we also have a Special Offer ->For purchases of $100 and above, you receive a complimentary coupon which gives you 50% off any other item of your choice! How good is that? Even your mom won't complain!

Direct store link: Store
For those my savvy on Etsy: Chenna Collection's Etsy Shop
Website: www.chennacollections.com.au

Woot Woot

I've finally finished lining all my bags! I must say that attaching lining to 100% beaded bags can be very intricate. I'm happy that its all done now, so I can do other things like taking out my 'fake' dreadlocks in anticipation of doing a new hairstyle tomorrow! yay!
If you're wondering how the beaded bags are made, I stitch the beads together one by one (yes, I touch every single bead that goes into a bag) to make the sides of the bag, then I stitch all the parts together, create some kind of clasp, then sew the lining and attach it to the bags by tacking.

Check out the finished products below.

Starlight beaded clutch



Silvia beaded clutch



Just puckered beaded clutch


Map of Oz beaded clutch


Natural beaded clutch

Adora beaded clutch

Signature handbagPeaced beaded clutch bag



All that Glitters beaded clutch

wHats YouR cOmFort zONe?

We've all got comfort zones in all areas of our lives. They show up in our careers and businesses, our family lives, relationships, and even hobbies.
For me, trying new recipes can be a wobbly step out of my comfort zone of boring and repetitive recipes.
In a work setting, taking up more responsibilities most often results in journeys into an uncomfortable zone. The good thing though is that we can be pleasantly surprised when we have ventured into this new zone. You know another thing? The new zone almost always becomes a comfort zone after a while! Isn't life ONE BIG CYCLE?

If you're adventurous, then you might even search out these disconcerting new stuff! Sometimes I'm adventurous and in my culinary life this usually results in frequent visits to video jug to learn and try out new recipes.
In my designing life, new can be exciting and new can also be daunting.
Recently when I bought my supplies, I ordered some acrylic beads for making bags. When my supplies where delivered, I found out that most of the beads were BIG! For someone who had mostly used 6mm beads, 12mm beads were daunting. The thing with trying to make bags with bigger beads is that it's a bit difficult to make some intricate and complex designs with big beads because they can be quite bulky and heavy, and you don't your clutch bag to be too heavy.

I did the natural thing that we do when confronted with something out of our comfort zones- procrastinate.
When I finally persuaded myself to work with the big beads, I was pleasantly surprised by one of their major attributes. Making bags with big beads is way faster than using smaller beads. If it will take me 2 days to finish a 6" wide x 4" deep clutch with 6mm beads, it'll take about 4 hours to finish the same size of clutch with the big beads.

In future, not only will I be working with big beads, but I'll be more open to incorporating new (and daunting) materials to my designs!

I hope you'll be more open to trying new and scary stuff at your workplace as well. Who knows, you might actually be enlarging your comfort zone. :)

Here are some of the clutches with the big beads.

Peaced beaded clutch
All that Glitters beaded clutch




And Adora beaded clutch

All that Glitters

With the completion of my bag designs for this season's release, all the late nights (i have been going to bed at 2am everyday) and loooooooooong days have suddenly come crashing down on me. Left with just a few finishing touches to make, I decided to postpone everything else (asides from blogging) to the remaining days of the week.

My lastest clutch bag is called All the Glitters because the beads that are used in making it glitter. Check it out below.





I also learnt how to make my own labels. When I finish lining the bags, I'll upload a pic showing the labels.
Till then, its off to bed to rest my aching back and drooping eyes!

Peaced

I am on a high because I have just finished the clutch bag I had been working on since yesterday. I was determined to complete this today and so despite the fact that my little 5 month old and normal household tasks demanded my attention, I managed to squeeze in a couple of minutes and hours here and there until this piece was finished. Wooooooooooooooooooo

I called it Peaced partly because I used some peace stones in the bag and also because the colours are quite tranquil.
I loved making it and the design sort of flowed as I worked. I love the feeling you get when you've created something new that you're happy with.
check it out below








I can't wait to start working on my next piece sometime tomorrow.
I wish everyone a happy and safe Easter holiday!

Password to Inspiration

If you're like me, then you have about 20 different passwords currently operative in your life. Its the information age (or have we moved on?) and I guess I've played along by opening a loooong list of accounts in various networks, some of which have been long forgotten. I've got a couple of emails (all with different passwords), I'm on facebook, I had to open a myspace account just to send someone a message (they were too busy to respond though) and I have forgotten the password to the account, I had an account with some blogging network some years ago and I dont even remember who it was with, I have got two current blogs at the moment, I've got websites and online stores that need login information, I've got credit card and bank accounts that i manage online (and cant afford to forget those passwords)........................at this stage, I think its safe to say that I'm neck deep in a pool of passwords. (did I mention that I'm still learning to swim)

Anyway, in my designing business, I find that for different projects, inspiration happens in diverse ways. Inspiration for designing a bag happens quite differently from inspiration for designing a necklace or a watch. Sometimes, when I have been successful in creating a new bag, I feel like I've got the password to "inspiration for creating extremely wicked bag designs", however, when I sit down to draw up another design in some weeks time, I come up with a blank and get the "ooops i've lost my password" feeling.

I'm still in a learning process (aren't we all?), but I've found that I dont really have any passwords to being inspired, heck i'm not sure that there are any existing passwords at all.
Sometimes inspiration is like the wind, and when it blows your way you get into a creative frenzy and come up with some extreme stuff....some other times, inspiration is elusive and you find it only by playing hide and seek.

Here are some ways that I currently get inspiration to design stuff:
1. when shopping for supplies, I come across some gem stones that I MUST HAVE...just by looking at some stones, I'm pretty sure what I'm going to do with them. In such cases, I like to say I was insired by the gemstone (or the material). The necklace below was one of such. As soon as I saw the fire agate, I knew what I wanted to do with it. Its a simple design and I love the colours.




2. Sometimes I have some beads that I want to work with, but I just find that I cannot decide on a design...I might work on it for 2 hours and find that I keep taking it apart because I haven't connected with anything that I have come up with. I find that leaving that particular project and working on something else can help clear my head, and when I get back to it I might have some luck. other times, sleeping on a project for a few days until I wake up with a light bulb moment brings all the luck I need with the project.
Sleeping on a project has also been a good strategy when I am working on a good design, but find that I have gotten stuck somewhere. This happened with my "map of Oz' clutch bag. I had done the front and back pieces but I couldn't join the bag because I had tried out an unfamiliar design and it would not join the same way other designs joined. I spent a couple of hours trying different strategies unsuccessfully, toyed with the idea of tearing the entire thing apart and opting for something I was more familiar with, then I decided to leave it for a few days.
I ended up waking up a couple of days later with the solution, and it worked!
Check it out below.




3. I find that lack of inspiration or creativity can stem from being stale. By being stale I mean not having any fresh projects that are challenging, or not having any new skills in the trade. Learning something new can inspire me to create new designs. To make sure I get inspired for my next season release, I'm investing in some major wire wrapping training and I will definitely push myself to try challenging projects.

4. Checking out what other designers are up to can also inspire creativity. I find that some talented designers challenge me and make me want to push the limits, think out of the box, try to incorporate new and unfamiliar materials into my designs. So I try to check out people that do stuff that are similar to what I do and also those that do stuff that are way different to mine or who use materials that I have never thought of using.

Here's one designer that I stumbled across who I admire her work. Her territory is totally unfamiliar to me but I think her stuff are cool. She creates jewellery with maps, boardgames and other stuff. Check her out! her website is www.zanneavenue.com

Dividends of researching

I was out and about on the internet last night, trying to buy a .com.au domain name. The guys I'm hosting my website with suggested an Australian domain registrar, so I checked the registrar out. Their price for registering a domain was $140 for 2 years. Earlier on, I had come across the Au Domain Administrator while I was busy registering my business and they had a list of accredited domain registrars on their site. Feeling hopeful, I proceeded to hop back on their site and go through the list of registrars and was pleasantly surprised to find a registrar that charged $26.97 for 2 YEARS!
Naturally I got curious. There had to be something important that the latter guys were leaving out, so I have gone ahead and checked out both registrars this morning. No, they are offering exactly the same product. There's no doubt that I will be settling for the extremely cheaper option, though I couldn't help but wonder under what conditions someone would purchase a domain name for $140 when there were other accredited people willing to offer the same product and service for $26.97. Two reasons came to mind:
1. Lack of adequate research; and
2. Wanting to make a status statement

However, I have observed how the current harsh economic conditions are making even the rich and famous to cut down expenses and I doubt that reason #2 holds enough water. I guess I'm left with only one reason, unless of course you're able to come up with more.
Suffice it to say that I learnt a good lesson, though thankfully not the hard way. So, before you type in those credit or debit card details, do some research.

It can't be that hard!

Ok, so i have never blogged because i've always had this niggling feeling that I wouldn't follow it through. I have always started the new year with exciting new diaries and planners, but round about March when I'm tidying the study, I find them neatly shelved but ...empty. So, I pull them out, read through a couple of pages, (usually the only days with entries would lie between January 4th and 15th) and make an entry for the day.
My last entry was on the 23rd and it was to remind me of some business marketing ideas.

Well, here I am, and presently fuelled with the strongest resolve in the world to keep up with this blog (you should see how furiously fast i'm typing and did i mention its 1.22am?)
Wish me luck :)