Moving to new domain!

Hi readers,


I've moved my blog to my own domain at Estherly.com


I'll stop updating this site.


See you there!


Estherina Sally Tan.

OMG!!!

OMG OMG OMG!!


Did you catch me on the front page of Etsy?? My SO Christmas necklace is on the front cover of Etsy!

This is my first time on front page!!


I'm so Happy!


I'm doing the bunny dance now!!

Smidge

If you're a shopper and a supporter of independent artists, you'll find smidge a gem!

At least, this is from my personal experience.

Kat is the webmistress and she has passions in extraordinary things. Her website showcases talented artists who sell handmade and unique stuffs! Her articles are honest, sincere and always draw out the uniqueness of the work of the artists that she featured. And, she is a very friendly person too, so nice to work with ;)

Plus, I'm amazed that she has active group of readers, active buyers who constantly enjoy going through her website for shopping ideas and tips! I say this because I've come across too many sites that have become too commercialized (which, initially they didn't start off like that) due to the competitiveness of the market.

To me, it's a great way to learn the market dynamics and I really enjoyed browsing thru her website as a buyer too! Ahem... {blush} ... I am already eyeing some sweet, lovely items that some sellers have ;0

Flickr

Wow, I'm impressed with what I can do with Flickr! The photos organizing tool that they have is excellent, simple and easy-to-use. Suitable for dummy like me, who get frustrated when I can't get around things easily esp with software. (My software engineering background is the culprit here).

My hubby always laughed at me and teased me as 'lut'. That's a hokkien (a chinese dialect) saying that describe someone who can't think smart.

I'm so happy that I get around doing the tagging, labeling and batch organisation with the new photos that I have taken, to my satisfaction this time.

Interested? Check it out!

Check out etsyBead's Treasury

The etsyBead Street Team has a new theme for this week (4 Nov - 10 Nov).

Grab yourself some chain pieces by clicking this link here.

You can visit Estherly store for some chain creations too!

And my honey bear pendant chain is now featured in Kaskaad's Treasury that she managed to grab. Check out the treasury too!

Dawanda

You know, you can find me on dawanda as well, click on this link: Estherly

It's a Berlin based online handmade venue, like etsy, but the only difference is Dawanda is catered more for European market but etsy was started in US. Dawanda now has 3 languages, German, French and English.

There are more traffic on the German site because it's the oldest. So I translated my english text with Babelfish and put the German text with the listing as well. The only fallback is that, I have no clue at all of what it is saying in German!! I can only trust that Babelfish is doing a good job in translation. Now that I wish I pick up these languages when I was young! :)

Peacock Beauty, Estherly range of Necklace

Oh I love this new piece! It's just a simple design, but the beautiful part about this necklace is that it features the lovely highlights of the peacock colour pearls and a stunning black agate stone!

I like it, do you?

Featured in etsy's treasury

Ha! I just found out that my ring is being featured in etsy's treasury which is selected by
Cori from CCDesign

I'm home!

At least I feel like it is.

I stayed in The Hague a few months ago and I absolutely fell in love with this place.
I like the weather, I like the clean air, I like the people and the lifestyle.
I like the city, I like to see people cycling, I like the architectures etc...
I like to see doggies running in the park, I like to see doggies shopping with their master... and...
I missed my rabbit.

When I was on the train back from Amsterdam to The Hague, I felt so much joy in me!

And now, I need to unpack my beads...

I'm not in Amsterdam, yet.

It was a roller coaster ride for me to travel from KL to Amsterdam, and, I'm still not there yet.
I was stranded in the airport for 2 days due to the plane engines failure. They still couldn't fix it when I boarded another plane to fly to London. However, that carrier promised to fly us after the second failure with the same engine. I said to myself, not that I'm biased or something, but I'll only, try my best, to fly myself with MAS only or any 5 stars carrier certified by Skytrax from now on.

I just can't trust the carrier anymore. I managed to get a flight to London, instead of Amsterdam, and landed myself now in Barcelona to meet up with my husband who is having a conference here. I have to spend an extra night in London, extra transportation cost and not forgetting the stress and tiredness that you have to go through due to that lousy engine failure!

So now, after 2 days, I'm typing comfortably in a hotel room in Barcelona.

It's only when you go through some bad experience with an airline that you will start to appreciate how good quality and high standard MAS is. They have very spacious seats, excellent food, friendly staff, top-notch in-flight entertainment and superb personal screens for every passengers. Everyone get a freebie Magnum ice cream after meal and packs of tidbits sponsored by various food manufacturers. In fact, you can just feel the typical Malaysians warm when you travel with MAS. I'm so proud about them! Well done MAS!!!

Can you believe it?

Just when I am getting impatient and frustrated, I got a call from my hubby yesterday that my MVV has been approved! :)

This is so sudden and I was caught unprepared. I have thousands of things that I need to pack, my beads and my findings, my clothes, my rice cooker (I still don't know how to steam the rice properly... don't laugh...you...) etc...

Plus, I got some custom made requests on my new wire creation which I have just put on etsy!

Ok, just stay cool, and let's plan. :) I probably need a bigger luggage.

I'm happy that I can finally see my hubby!

So slow...

I'm getting very very impatient as the days gone past. It's exactly 2 months now but I have no news from the Dutch embassy yet about my MVV application. I miss my hubby and the weather, the cold wind, the flowers and the ducks in The Hague.

I just sent off two boxes of instant noodles, sauces, curry powder, milo (I found one shop selling a 1kg milo at 5euro!! so I decided to pack my own one there), 3-in-1 tea packs for my husband and they cost me RM500+ for 18kg of stuff. My husband jumped! Well, I guess when you miss some Malaysian food which is impossible to get it over there, you have no choice.

It's somehow strange that food seems to be very important to us. We eat all day (mostly unhealthy stuff) but we still enjoy them to the fullest. The first and common question that a chinese will ask each other when they get together is, "Have you eaten?", or something like, "Have you had your lunch/dinner?" Is there any other culture that is so obsessed with food? I wonder.

My online shop is up! Check it out!

Busy busy busy...

One of my classmates in my beading classes is starting her own jewelry brand. So I'm helping her out to rush out a batch of handmade jewelries for her store which is going to open in early Oct.

She has a different style than I. She likes big, chunky pieces, and she uses precious stones heavily. I start to like this new style and I learn a lot from her. You can expect some loud items coming out from me soon.

Recently, I finally did up my online store and I am currently having an opening sales! 10% off store-wide! So do check it out at Estherly Studio.
I will be uploading more and more stuffs after I finish off my job with my friend. I foresee my schedule is going to get even tighter when it is closer to the opening date when I need to help setting up the store and producing more pieces.

I also helped Ser to finish off her pearl necklace. Pearls are always wonderful to look at and work with, though the knotting part takes up a bit of time, I enjoy making it. I just bought myself more fresh water pearls so that I can make some pieces out.

A new discovery

I can't remember when was the last time I saw my dad speak in public. My mum and I were accompanying him to a conference and he was one of the session coordinators. As a session coordinator, you basically introduce the speakers for that session and make sure the speaker finishes his speech within the allocated time frame (most of the time, they don't stop talking when the bell goes off... and the session coordinator is too nice to disrupt them in the middle of their speech).

I regretted that I seldom sit into my dad's lectures when he was teaching in a university. He just retired few years back and now he is working in a private college. But this new discovery is an inspiring one because I managed to see him speaks with such authority and style and I finally can understand why so many students like him and why he has such good relations with his peers and colleagues. I see another face of him, not as a dad, but as a teacher and an elder that people look up to.

This day, not only I discovered that my dad is well-respected in the industry. But I'm also astonished by how many students my mum has actually taught throughout the years! Believe it or not, she had to stop by and say hello to many people (whom I have no idea who they are), and each of them greeted her with "How are you teacher? Do you still remember me? I'm ..."

I'm so proud of them. I reckon most of us as children seldom get the chance to see who our parents are in their workplace. I grow up only knowing that they are both educators and have very good career. They performed very well in their job and they know their stuffs. However, I think it's a different picture when you can see it first hand and be part of the picture.

And then I reflected, did I live up to their expectations and what sort of examples am I setting as their child to outsiders?

What a busy weekend!

What have I been up to?
The weekend was so busy that it just went passed so quickly!

We had a food gathering with our friends yesterday night and oh boy... we chatted continuously for 2 hours with food and drink non-stop. You can imagine how bloated we were when we finished and then, we rushed for our next-round to celebrate a surprise birthday gathering for Ed.

Yesterday morning, I went downtown to make my usual purchases of beads and supplies. I dropped by another shop to look at what they have. It was the first time I visit this shop because I just found them through the internet. Apparently they are into the jewelry business for more than 10years. However I was rather disappointed when when I looked at their product range. Their minimum order amount is also very high and the prices are ridiculous.

I have also started working on my website. Hmm... I was scratching my head to work out the technical details to start a shopping cart eventhough I have an IT background. I feel so outdated!

This is funny...

I can't recall how many months I have been getting this credit card statements from this particular bank where in actual fact, I never had the physical credit card with me after I applied it 1+ year ago! The application was approved, but I never receive a confirmation letter informing me that my application has been approved or any phone call to ask me to collect the card! To make it sound even more stupid, the first statement that I received from the bank was when they charged me the annual membership fee! Sigh...

So I called them to report this ridiculous incident and they agreed to not charge me the membership fee. I told them too that I wanted to cancel the card! So, the card is cancelled. The story does not end here! Now, I still receive the credit card statements every month
because I now have $20 credit with the card. This time, the bank needs to refund me $20! And honestly, I have no idea where did the $20 come from!

When I went to the bank to close my saving account, I inform the teller about this -$20. She told me that I have to call the customer service and ask them to refund me this money. And I was like, you're the teller, can't you just check the records and find out what has happened and reset it back to zero and stop sending me these credit card statements?

Anyway, today I've been working on some sample projects that I found from magazines. The pieces that they shown are beautiful. The difficulty that I found with working with these sample projects is that I have to always read the instructions many times to ensure that I'm doing the right thing. Some are new techniques so I took some time to practise them to make sure I master them.

At the same time, I also finished Glen's bracelet. She chose a Bali-style bead from my selections and I promised that I will do something for her. She is a simple lady that doesn't wear much accessories. So I was taking some time flipping thru projects to find some idea so that I can do something to suit her. I'm thinking of giving her something that she can wear daily as well as during special occasions. Finally I landed on memory wire and I combined the Bali-style bead with some wired coils and beads.

I did these coils myself with my newly bought 21g silver plated wire. I got this Bali-style bead from my polymer clay teacher in Netherland. She has many special beads collection and this is one of them. She is a very nice lady to learn from because she is very open and is willing to share many tips and tricks of jewelry making and I definitely have learned a lot from her!

The first time I went to her house for class, I was just so fascinated with the surrounding. She stays in a 2-story house, small, but cosy and comfortable. The most attractive part is that it is just next to a river! In that morning, I can see boats passed by in front of her house and birds singing and flying across the sky. There is no massive traffic like in a city... it's just calm and peaceful. The next round when I visited her, she gave me her folded chair and I managed to put it just next to the river and enjoy a moment of tranquility and my book. :) I wonder how many times in life that we can have opportunity like this to stop, sit down and read a book in such a beautiful surrounding?

Happy birthday Fel!

Ever since I came back from Netherland, Kenji, my rabbit has been very attached to me. He has definitely grown big and fat! Thanks to Fel, her grandma and her maid! They have helped me to take care of him when I wasn't around for that 2 months. They have definitely fed him well :)

This morning when I woke up I saw him jumping around his staying area and I was wondering why. I thought he was hungry so I prepared him a big chunk of cabbage and put it in his bowl. In the afternoon when I came back home, I finally understand why he was jumping around. He has got diarrhea! And guess what, he finished his cabbages and left me with an empty bowl! I quickly cleaned him up and put him in my living hall. I, this rabbit servant, started cleaning his litter box and his area because he has been stepping on his wet stools, as a result, I can see dry patches of footprints in every corner of his staying area. Then I gave him a bowl of pellets and fresh water, plus a clean litter box with fresh hay. Ever since then, he has been sitting quietly in a corner. I did check his private area, it wasn't watery. So it couldn't be diarrhea... probably that jumping around is telling me to clean his litter box... anyway, will continue to keep watch on him.

Mid-morning I was out because I needed to go to the center to celebrate Fel's birthday together with the gang. I made her a ring last night. I hope she likes it. It was my first attempt to work on a ring with baby bell flowers. I got these beads from US and they looked absolutely lovely when I combined them together with cateyes, pearls, bicones and seed beads. Well, I like the look because it's loud and classy. It has a 'full' look which I purposely wanted it to be that way because I personally don't like ring that are too simple (except wedding ring, just one big stone will do... hehe).

The celebration was a joyful one because we all gathered for lunch as well! Aunty P, the cook that I'm going to learn nasi lemak from, has prepared some fried noodles, red bean soup and some desserts. I put Fel's ring into a small black velvet bag. The moment she got the ring out, she was literally shouting, "It's a ring!!!" That's because Win has been choosing rings from my selection and she always didn't get to choose them (Win took the recent ones). So this time, she got it!!

It's one of the fulfilling moments when something that you have created is appreciated and liken by others. I should have captured her look with my camera. She proudly put the ring on and showed off to the ladies. I'm glad that she likes it.

Even though I have much business building experience before this, but starting a jewelry business is not as easy as what people think. To me, just the suppliers sourcing (of getting the quality and pricing right) and inventory management are skills needed to be learned and brushed up, especially to organise these tiny little beads into a proper inventory system and what's more storing them! But I enjoy doing them. No complains.