Book-shopping

Guess what, this is the very first time I create a label 'Shopping' for my entries!

Not that I haven't been shopping for girly stuff!

Just that, I don't have a camera to flaunt my purchases. 

The Husband is a scrooge when I nicely ask for his Iphone.

He complains that I drain his Iphone's battery too fast with my umpteen shots.
*sulks*

Iphone 4S is coming out this Friday!

*throws confetti*

But no news from Starhub yet on its pricing.

I presume it should be about the same as M1. =)

My phone contract ends on April 7, next year.

Contract renewal between 13th to 21st month of current contract means paying an extra S$200.

Absolutely rubbish, if you ask me.

Not like they are losing money when we sign our lives to them for another 2 years.

So that means I can only buy the Iphone 4S from January 7th onwards.

No taking pretty X'mas photos with a 'camera' of my own. 

Torturous.

I wonder if Starhub will send me a S$100 handset upgrade voucher, as they did previously.

All these years, I've never utilise all those vouchers. I only go for S$0 phones.

That was before the era of smartphones.

Every other phone seems the same. I didn't feel the looks make much difference.

All my previous 3-4 mobile phones were either lost/misplaced/stolen/forgotten in Neverland.

My current Nokia phone at 3.5 years old is the longest surviving phone.

What they say about Nokia producing very durable phones is true!

I've lost count of the gazillion times my phone survived bungee jumps.

Actually, the whole point of this opening is to wonder aloud if it's too thick-skinned to email Starhub for the voucher, erm, in advance?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the Chinese books section at Kinokuniya, Ngee Ann City.

I love Chinese books! Their selection beats Popular's hands down.

Borders should have worked harder in having more selection in different languages.

Bag: Sammi Tote, Tian Fen Lan

Necklace: Pinnancles Necklace, Tian Fen Lan

I rarely post photos of myself. Hence the need to self-advertise a bit first.

And must write my store's name in full, with hyperlinks to boot.

*smug grin*

I really like to carry bags at the side, with the long sling strap.

It doesn't crumple up my blazer and I don't have to fumble to make sure everything is in place.
So much easier to unzip the bag and grab whatever!

Top: Saint Jose Top, Love Bonito

Pants suit: G2000

At my age, it can get kinda tricky to buy clothes from blogshops.

The choices can be too young, too cute, too playful, too not-my-age/style.

Love Bonito really does it well in having great material, designs that you can play up/down according to your style & age and most importantly, an abundance of options for work and R&R days.

That said, I don't quite understand why such a pretty & versatile top is only 22 inches long.

Too short! I don't have abs to flaunt and it runs up when I sit.

Once upon a time, G2000 has lousy cutting for long-limbs people like me.

Ever since they change their cutting and improved their fabric choices a few years back, I'm a total convert to their suits!

Read, suits only.

I'm a huge fan of pants/skirt/dress suits.

No mismatched stuff when it comes to important work occasions.

Very few local girls don full suits, I realise.

I've 4-5 so far. The fit is great!

I do wish their jackets can be slightly longer though.

G2000 is having a season sale till end Oct. 

Their sales always have very good bargains!

I saw this black pin-striped pants suit going at 40% off from its usual price of S$159. 

My previous suits were bought at S$119-129. Similar material.

Seems like they are slowly inching the prices upwards.

I was looking for the latest book written by my Grandmaster, 蓮生活佛 (the Buddhist master I took refuge in).

 It's his #223 book that I'm holding.

That's right! He has written a mind-staggering number of 223 Dharma books over 30 years. 

Every day, he makes it a point to write an essay. So in a month or 2, he will have enough for a book.

Such amazing dedication & focus!
I've accumulated about 150 Grandmaster's books, I think. Bought from Taipei, Hong Kong, KL & locally.
Still hunting for the older ones!

I'm struggling to read as fast & understand as much as I can, to keep up with his pace!

You know the next best thing about Kinokuniya??

Not the Japanese fashion magazines.

Not the Japanese manga.

Not the Coffee Club.

Not the aisles and aisles of English & Chinese books.

.

.

.

.

.

.

It's their Wonderland of diary planners/organizers!!!

No other place I know in Singapore has such an amazing variety of organizers!

Not the usual Keny/Moleskin kinds!

I dare say they have it in almost every imaginable style you can think of!

The above photo is only showing 25% of the choices there.

Look at that! Shelves and shelves and shelves of planners for you to go wild about!

*fangirl scream*

Their 2012 organizers are already out! There were so many girls checking them out when I was there yesterday.

I've been a fan of Kinokuniya's organizers since I was in uni!

Girly, sweet and adorable, checked!

Whimsical and hand-made, checked!

Fabric or PVC covers, checked!

In every colour of the rainbow, checked!

With or without button closure, checked!

Monthly, weekly, daily layouts with notes area or an assortment in one, checked!

Big, Medium, Small & even XS organizer for that dainty lady, checked!

Or you like it vintage with a Harry Potter feel, checked!

Something Chanel-esque, checked!

Only thing is...

.

.

.

.

.

.

Be prepared to pay S$25-30 over bucks for a planner that is made in Japan. 

Don't try waiting till next January to buy from Kinokuniya!

The nice ones will be gone by then!

*speaking from experience*

If you divide the cost over 365 days, plus that bonus extra month/week, it's only S$2+ per month.

Self-consolation.
Or you can buy planners in Japan!
Just as kawaii & mostly less than S$20!

There were just too many dazzling options that I couldn't decide on what style I want to adopt for 2012.

Never mind, I will be back!!

By the way, have you seen the latest launch on my sister site, www.polkadotpigs.com?

I hearts their current collection so much!!
Let me show you what took my breath away!

My goodness, I wish I'm 21 again!

This suspender skirt is so cute to bits!!!

It reminds me of what Minnie Mouse might wear!

They also have it in blue! The Smurfette blue!

High-waist jeans in Mustard are such a rare find!

All their prices include local postage. It's a complete steal at S$29!

You can colour-block like mad with this versatile pair of jeans!
Dress it up with heels to go more sleek!

They have it in Baby Pink too for the demure dressers.

I'm a lover of shirt dresses!

They are forever in vogue and so easy to wear for any kind of figure.

This version that the piggies have is more light-weight than what the photos show.

A great choice for our sunny Singapore!

The fabric is velvety to the feel yet soft. What a quaint contrast to the usual shirtdresses!

Jazz up the dress with your own coloured belt & viola, a chirpy & vibrant look!

The piggies have this pretty shirtdress in a neutral beige too!

If no one buys them, I'm going to grab all!

The main point of squashing the big montages in my tiny blog is to show you the piggies' new template for their clothing.

It's done by, ahem, yours truly!!

*self-applause*

I think this new template showcases their adorable & colourful clothing much better than the previous one I did a year plus ago.

Only thing is, now I think theirs is nicer than TFL's. -___-

Heard orders for this collection are 2 times more than the usual!

So happy!!

I would like to think it's all the credit of my new template.

The piggies have such pretty clothes!

Hop on over to the piggies' site to gawk & shop now!

www.polkadotpigs.com

Metta,
欣雨 Xinyu

PolkaDotPigs themed shoot

Sometime back, the piggies did a themed photoshoot with Melissa. A themed shoot for the first time ever! Wrote this draft on 27 May...and I only finished it now...

The piggies wanted to give customers a fresh perspective this time round, so they came up with a occupation-themed shoot. There was a whooping 9 occupations they deemed able to emulate for the shoot!

Brother Piggy spent some time picking up the poses for the model & coming up with names for the clothes (named after the famous person in that occupation!), by researching online.

Next up was the selection of props. It was kinda hilarious. Most props were modified from whatever was available at home. The parents had a whole bomb shelter worth of antiques (or vintage-collectibles, sounds better?). 

The model & photographer were all roped in to help provide some props too! Here's some photos that you might not see on the piggies' website!

 

This is the driving picture for the shoot, with the model imagining about one day she take on different roles for a day.

Job #1 - Professional tennis player. Clothing named after Sharapova, a former World No. 1 Russian professional tennis player. For these tennis shots, the piggies originally wanted a picture of Melissa returning a serve, with a real tennis ball.

"Okay, Mel has gotten the ball! Let's try a serve!"

"Er, the ball is too low. Can't hit. Let's try throwing a ball higher!"

 

"Eh, the ball leh? Where did it go?!" Crew looked up, looked down, looked left & looked right. Haha!

After several tries, the piggies admitted defeat to a tennis ball who just couldn't follow instructions, so they settled for posed shots instead. 

Job #2 - Next on the list is Beauty Queen! The piggies got Melissa to bring her tiara & sash that she won when she was crowned Queen of Queens in 2009! Her poise is really befitting of a beauty queen, isn't it? What a beautiful tiara she has there! The piggies had the idea of this occupation when they realised Melissa was indeed a beauty queen in real life, which means she would have the 'props'! I still think they should have named this dress Melissa. It would be so apt!

Job #3 - One occupation that's really interesting is singer-songwriter, with the dress named after Yamagata, an American singer-songwriter! 

en.wikipedia.org

Actually, the boys had a small light blue toy guitar bought from a night market. That was supposed to be the prop. But the photographer laughed and instead lent the piggies her husband's electric guitar. Gosh, it was damn funky!

I am looking at the photo & wondering why the electric guitar does not have any strings. Are such guitars different from the normal guitars? Pardon my ignorance...maybe next time I go ask the piggies.

In true rocker style, the piggies wanted to attempt jump shots. Melissa was real sporting. She did the jumps in those precarious high heels, not needing to change into flats! The boys labelled the jump as dangerous. =P

Ready,

Jump!!

It baffles me how Mel can land so precisely in those heels and with shampoo-ad-worthy hair to boot. It took about 5-6 tries to capture the jump shots the piggies have in mind.

Tough to be a model nowadays, isn't it? Brownie points for Mel's professionalism!

Job #4: Photographer!

A camera prop, courtesy of the photographer. The top here was named after Dorothea Lange, an American photographer famous for her Depression-era work.

One of Dorothea's quotes that I really like is: "The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera."

How true. So many times we get all smitten by a photograph, and fail to realise that the objects in it are probably all around us. 

Job #5 - Baker!

 

The piggies had to improvise on the baker's hat and their mummy managed to find a costume hat which when turned over is white. Just nice for a baker's hat! Lol.

I think the rolling pin & baking tray are from home too. The cakes stood in to help before being demolished by the crew afterwards. Haha!

Job #6 - Makeup artist!

 

Job #7 -  Writer!

Love the suitcase! So rustic!

This shot didn't make it to the site's photos but somehow, I just like the 4 blue pencils in this picture. Reminds me of my Art lessons in secondary school. I've 2-4 of such pencils - HB, B, 2B or something like that. I don't enjoy pencil sharpening though. I'm very prone to breaking the lead while sharpening and the brown wooden part would be lopsided. Frustrating. Not good at it even after all these years.

Job #8 - I can't remember what the piggies told me this is, but I figure that it should be Librarian!

Have you heard the saying about an apple?

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away."
"If the doctor is handsome, throw the apple away!" =DD

 Job #9 - Dancer

This occupation was supposed to be a Cheerleader, with pompoms courtesy of the model. But the night before the shoot, the piggies were informed that no pompoms is available and Big Brother was warning the piggies not to attempt to DIY pompoms in the middle of the night. Haha! So dancer, it became.

There was one time with another model where we were trying to create a 1-leg-tiptoe-and-spin kind of shot, but the model was totally unable to keep her balance despite many tries. So I was looking at the shots and thought to myself that for Mel to have such balance, she must have had dancing background. True enough, I found out later that she is trained in ballet. =D

It was a mad rush to squeeze all the shots in within the time frame but the piggies & the crew had a fun time creating them! It injected a very energetic vibe into the photos, I feel.

I might have mentioned this before but here's doing another plug for the piggies!

They now have their first rack space at KissJane, at Bugis Junction #03-13A. For this new project, PolkaDotPigs created a retail label, named RiverVale.

 

I have not been down to KissJane yet, but looking at the exterior of the shop brings to my mind of a whimsical wonderland where beautiful clothing grow in abundance on trees and you can harvest them all year round! Haha!

The above photo is taken from Fann Wen Qing's blog, because the piggies' photos are not as sharp as hers. =P You can view her blog entry on RiverVale here.

Clothing at RiverVale are mostly not available at Polkadotpigs.com and limited to 1-2 pieces per design. The piggies restock every week. To stay in touch with RiverVale updates, check out their Facebook page!

 

When I see the photo on the left, all I can think of : "Oh, the Ipad. Ipad!". But I totally adore the interesting background picture too! The purple dress has such a scenic big field background that I somehow expect to see little sheep jumping over the fences! Must go & ask the piggies how they do it. =DD

I love the way the piggies do the pictures above! How brillant to match the outfits to approriate occasion kind of backgrounds! Beautiful! Makes my blog look pretty too!

I like the peacock maxi with that background. As if it's the home of the model and she's just lounging around in a expensive dress at her biggggg home, like some young tai-tai!

On a personal note, seeing the piggies come so far since their beginning days, I really can empathise with the ups & downs of keeping a business in momentum. Not easy at all, even if you think, "Oh, it's just a blogshop, isn't it?". It's a business that the piggies have really put in a lot of effort to grow & keep it going, during their darkest times. I wrote a bit about it before here. I have my fair share of darkest times too, working on TFL. One of them is now working full time on PDP so you can really see the transformation that their web store went through the past few months. It has been 2 months for them at KissJane and I'm really happy for them that things are great!

Do make time to pop by www.polkadotpigs.com or RiverVale@KissJane for great retail therapy!

Here's more reasons to tempt you!

GSS promotion at PolkaDotPigs.com

Join KissJane as a member & get 10% off purchases!

In case you miss out, RiverVale by PDP is only available at KissJane, Bugis Junction #03-13A. I heard it's near the escalator!

Have fun!! =D

Metta,
欣雨 Xinyu

Behind the scenes

I have gotten very used to referring Polka Dot Pigs as the piggies. It's shorter to type. Haha!

For those in the know, the piggies and Tian Fen Lan have a close working relationship. We are family. =) You see their new collection banner at the bottom of TFL's site and we share photoshoots + models, mainly due to TFL not selling clothing.

The piggies started their blogshop half a year earlier than TFL in 2008 (hey, that makes them 3 years old now!) and to be where they are now, they went through a lot of rough patches - finding suitable models, getting the choice of clothes right, disastrous experiment with photography & studios, not able to launch regularly to keep the crowds coming, having a slump in business when the whole equation was messed up, balancing full-time jobs with PDP's work, creativity block in doing up the site/photo templates...and the list goes on.

Now, not only are the piggies able to launch weekly, they also have a prospering rack space at KissJane Boutique at Bugis Junction, #03-13A!

The very first template for the clothes photos

 Pretty Sister, the very first model & graphic designer for the piggies.
If Sister had become a blogshop model, I dare say she would be a popular one. =D

By the way, if you like the dress in the above photo, right now, it's on the piggies' Flea section! At only S$9.50 with postage!

In the true style of how blogshops started in the past, photos were taken at home against this long cream wall in the living room. 2 Ikea standing lights were shoned at Sister for lighting effect. A tripod was borrowed from Sister's then-boyfriend-now-husband and guess what, the camera used was mine, a wedding present from the Husband! 

Credits: infoborder.com

The Husband bought the camera for me to use during my travelling. I never did, and my camera ended up being the piggies' helper. Those were the days when photoshoots started at 11pm and ended at 1am.

The boys would be in their PJs, laying out the accessories on the long dining table, all bleary-eyed, while Sister shuttles in & out of her room, changing outfits as fast as she can.

At that time, we thought the photos were pretty good, until the trend shifted towards studio photoshoots and blogshop owners getting DSLRs. My camera began to look really small.

When Sister left for greener pastures, I was already doing TFL and had picked up some artwork skills along the way. That means I've contributed to some of the ugly photo templates that you see on the piggies' site. *smile*

But hey, isn't the current one pretty? I like that best! =))

So from that, the piggies now produce photos of this quality.

Credits: www.polkadotpigs.com

They have really come a long way.

I honestly do think they have one of the best photos around. =)

And that's my 學妹, Melissa!

No, I don't know Mel personally, but we are from the same uni course. =)

Somewhere in March, I first approached Melissa to help TFL out with a shoot. Interacting with her online was pleasant, which really made things easy. After being in this industry for a while, both the piggies & I have our fair share of 'horror' stories about the models we have dealt with.

It was a very tight schedule that I had then. She was the first model who emailed me her entire week's schedule, just so that it would be faster for me to arrange a shoot with the studio, cutting away the to-and-fro. Such initiative, how rare.

The boys were trying to get a shot of Mel looking at TFL's website on a laptop and these were the photos that ensued.

Me: "Eh, how come photographer never switch on light ah? Why is the photo so dark?"

The boys explained some technicality issues that they faced, which I forgot. Hehe.

Hmm, not any better.

Okay, now we can see Mel, the beautiful solid wood table & the DIY Africian daisies bouquet, but TFL's site?

Apparently, the boys had to move several lighting equipment just to get this shot.

Think it must have been tough for Mel. The boys were saying she just sat there smiling at the screen for at least half an hour and not exactly knowing what else she can do.

Well, at least, now we can see TFL's site!

The boys enlarged the laptop's screen image, so that TFL's logo is visible in the photo.

But I didn't like the lighting in this photo.
It seems like Mel is secretly shopping online in the middle of the night, not wanting her mum to find out. 

Haha!

After 16 tries, I think I eventually chose this photo. =)

Oh dear, it's already quite late. I wanted to blog about the themed shoot that the piggies did with Mel in March.

Never mind, I'll be back to blog about it soon!

p.s. by the way, I've having so much excitement & heart attacks from planning the photoshoot for the new manufactured bag just in on Fri! I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure it will be gorgeous!

Hope everything goes according to plan & no screw-ups pleasssse! 

Metta,
欣雨 Xinyu