monday moments

My first macerated oil made from green tea.

This week, I'm grateful for...

• My latest order of essential oils, which has allowed me to experience the divine olfactory heaven of ambrette seed, myrrh, balsam of tolu, tuberose, neroli, fir needle, nutmeg, and coriander.
• Receiving complimentary tickets to see Sex & the City 2, which was great fun and hilarious.
• Late nights spent watching the first season of The Tudors.
• An upcoming week of sun and kind relief from a gloomy month of cold and damp.
• This undying creative energy.

markets

I’m quite disappointed today as I had cleared my schedule with the intention to work productively on my conference presentation and spend the evening at an old friend’s to celebrate Winter Solstice with a dinner party, but I spent it instead nursing a killer migraine. I hoped it would go away but ended up admitting defeat at around 3, when I took some painkillers, and crawled back in bed. Days like this you’re even more grateful for the cats in your life who take care of you. Salmon is taking a bath on my lap now and keeping my legs warm in the process, while The Cat is on his way home from work and will make me potato bake with some organic russet potatoes we bought from the market last weekend.

I mentioned the farmers’ market in my Monday Moments post briefly, but I think it deserves a little more attention. On Saturday, I went to the Eveleigh Markets here in Sydney with The Cat and a friend who was a little more of a pro than we were to the art of market shopping. Turns out his experience and guidance were more valuable than we could imagine as we found market shopping harder than it looks! First of all, I found it incredibly confronting that the people who harvest and create the products are right there, watching your every reaction as you sample their food. I found myself nodding fervently and making “mmm” sounds when I wasn’t even particularly finding the thing I was tasting delicious, which meant that when they announced the price, I felt cornered into either coming up with a thinly veiled excuse of how I didn’t want it to go bad in my bag and will come back around to pick it up on my way out or the more likely scenario, buying something. One thing I found myself doing a lot to counteract feeling pressured into buying something I didn’t need or want was the browse-from-afar tactic. More than once, I caught myself straining my neck on my tippy-toes, trying to read the distant signs and make out the wares before I approached and got myself caught in a sticky web of white lies.

You’ll also remember my recent post about how I’m a hopeless anti-spender who suffers from chronic buyers’ remorse, well, I’m trying to remedy that but I still need to take baby steps. The Cat and I were walking past one stall when one of the owners called us over to try. They make pastes and sauces and offered us some to taste. They were cooking some rendang at the time, a Malaysian dish that The Cat actually knows how to make and has successfully pulled off a few times already. It was yummy but I didn’t think it was as good as what The Cat makes, and even though The Cat is adverse to pre-mixed ingredients from a jar, he’s even more of a pushover than I am and I believe (even though he denies it) that he bought a jar because the stall owners were friendly and not because he actually intends to use it.

I think about it from the stall owners’ perspectives and can see how if I had a stall selling perfumes and offered free samples and testing, I would have absolutely no problems with people trying all of my perfumes yet not purchase anything. If they didn’t like any of my scents or thought my prices were too high, big whoop. I would still rather them try and decide they didn’t want to buy any, than admire my perfumes from afar but remained too shy to come up and speak to me. I’m definitely going to need to learn to build a thicker skin about these things if I want to go back!

While I was there, I noticed some posters advertising an arts and craft market they run on the first Sunday of every month. I asked around, did some research, and read up on craft shows on the Etsy website. The general consensus seems to be that the Eveleigh Markets are still quite new and not as busy as some of the more establishes ones, but the crowd is really good and well-targeted to those who appreciate handmade. I’m pretty keen to try running a market stall, simply out of curiosity for the experience rather than any motivation to make sales. The biggest hurdle it appears is in the need to apply for public and product liability insurance, and although I have done a bit of research and it seem to be a small amount (a hundred or so a year), that’s a fortune for someone who may very well only be doing one market.

I’m going to do a lot more research and report back when I’m ready to take the leap!

monday moments

Mr Leafhead Rootpants, my mandrake felted toy. This little guy will not be going in my store, no, he's too special. He'll be sent off to protect a bottle of my Mandragora perfume when I send one to Andrea.

The Cat is currently working on a new, temporary shift with a Sunday to Thursday work week, so last Friday marked the start of our weekend, which threw me off of my routine and I forgot all about my weekly blog post. It’s a few days late but “Monday Moments” sounds pretty swish with its alliteration anyway, so here it is.

This week, I'm grateful for...

• Visiting my first farmers’ market with The Cat and our friend and bringing home the sweetest organic pumpkin I have ever tasted for our ravioli.
• Feeling challenged and excited by the prospect of having my own market stall some day in the near future.
• Completing exam marking, which will contribute a tidy sum to my bank account for extra spending in Amsterdam.
• The Winter Solstice.

swaps and trades

This week, an interview with me has been published on the Folk Reveries Etsy team blog. One of the questions asked was what my favourite thing about selling on Etsy is and I passionately proclaimed my love for trades. When I first opened a jewellery store on Etsy last year, the idea of trading seemed very foreign to me. Admittedly, I was selling quite well and I was reluctant to give away something, especially when it was one-of-a-kind and I was confident that it could be sold. Although I didn’t intend to do any trading, there were two people whose offers I could not resist—Andrea, and Kari of Clementiny Clothing. Months after closing down my store, the drawing I traded with Andrea continues to be displayed proudly on my bookshelf and the custom dress Kar made for me, with fabric I picked out myself, remains one of my favourite pieces to wear. My surprisingly touching experiences have proven that there are numerous sources of wealth and that of friendship is far more valuable to me than monetary profit. I also found myself with some leftover stock that cluttered my workspace for weeks and every time I looked at them, I was overwhelmed with the regret that I didn’t just give them away. (By the way, I did find the opportunity to give them all away to a wonderful bookbinder!)

I was thrilled to receive three parcels in the mail this week from trades with new friends. The first to arrive was a charming fluffy sage headband from Tianna of Tetrik. Tianna contacted me a few weeks ago as we’re both members of Indie Free Spirits. At 20, the elegance of her accessories and jewellery pieces and her masterful use of colour is still years beyond the work I’ve seen of people twice her age. I was immediately captivated when I saw her headband; the soft, cool greens emanate calm and serenity. Despite being such a talented designer, she is so down-to-earth and I feel really humbled she agreed to trade with me.

Even though Tianna packed the headband securely in a padded envelope, I was horrified when the vintage glass beads scattered out of the parcel as well. Unfortunately, the smaller beads on the focal component had come undone on the journey but they were otherwise intact. With a brass headpin and my pliers, I managed to get them back on and the lovely headband was salvaged!

After my bleak day yesterday, coming home to find Di’s letter in my mailbox was a burst of sunshine so bright it was almost tangible. She found me through Folk Reveries and wrote me the nicest email. As a half-rabbit and half-unicorn, she totally gets me and we hit it off straight away. She made for me a trio of whimsical feather creations, including a pair of earrings, a headband, and a necklace. Each has a distinct and unique style that I can see myself rocking for different occasions--the earrings would be so cool for a party or concert, the black feather necklace that looks like it just floats on the collarbone would look breathtaking with a black dress at a formal event, and the exquisite headband, well, I would wear that just about anywhere.  The Cat said it looked totally flapper, which made me smile.  You can find her creations at Dear Oh Deer.

One day, I hope to own one of her paintings.  There is just something so enigmatic about Untitled Moon I.

In the letter that accompanied her package, she brought up the question of why these connections don’t happen more often and I wonder the same thing.

must be bunny bashing day

I know I rarely post about bad things that happen to me here in this blog. Despite the logic that a little venting can be cathartic and therapeutic, I find committing it to writing and publishing the petty details of everything I perceive to be unfair in my life never made me feel any better about the situation, while also making me feel like a bit of a wanker for going on about it in the first place. However, I do admire people who are honest about not only their achievements, strengths, and joys, but also have the courage and honesty to share the vulnerable moments where they have been made aware of their weaknesses and limitations. Today was one of those days that I was made aware of my weaknesses and suffered for them.

About four weeks before I’m due to leave for Amsterdam, I discovered the bad news that my university did not have the funding this semester to cover all the expenses for my conference and will leave me $1000 out of pocket. Due to a misunderstanding of how to ‘best’ fill out my application form, I’ve been granted $200 less than everyone else. A colleague advised me to speak to the person in charge and all the way into campus, I prepared a gentle and diplomatic way to implore her help. That all went out the window from the moment I walked in through the door and she began with, “What do you want?”

I’ve worked in customer service for a bank and understand what it’s like when problem customers come in demanding things out of your control. I went in predisposed to empathising with her, after all, she just had to deliver the news to 100 people that they would be getting $1000 less than they anticipated, some of whom had already come back from conferences thinking they would be completely reimbursed, but I left feeling like a punching bag for all her frustrations. Sometimes, I wonder if it is that I try to be nice and apologetic about taking up their time that people think they can get away with lashing out at me. My colleagues and I at the bank used to really resent the fact that when nice customers are given bad news, they thank you for your time and leave, but arrogant ones who throw tantrums end up getting what they want.

I was really upset after the encounter, mostly at myself for getting so wounded by the notion of monetary loss. You know how the stereotype of females is that we love to shop and can’t stop spending money? I kind of wish I had a mild case of that, because I seem to be utterly incapable of spending money or when I do, I suffer from chronic buyer’s regret. I have a few friends like me, usually those who grew up frugally, and no matter how hard they work, how much they accomplish, and how much they earn, they still live on private label instant noodles. I definitely don’t think a life of superficial materialism and needless wastage is anything to aspire to, but unless I change my mentality, I will always be impoverished, in mind if not in wallet.

There’s a phrase in Mandarin called “潇洒” (pronounced “shao sar”), which literally translates to dashing and refined, but in particular, capture the sense of someone whose manner is elegantly unrestrained. I think my friend Fiona captures this term. She is far from anyone you would deem wasteful or ostentatious, I wouldn’t even think of her as a big-spender. But when it is appropriate, she is not afraid to enjoy life in style (as the rest of us cheap bastards sigh in relief as she picks up the cheque). When her and I used to share supply orders together from the US when we made jewellery as a hobby, she would always order the most beautiful, breathtaking crystal drops and metals and share them with me, while I was always too big of a coward to splurge on the high quality materials and end up with a pathetic collection of sad, irregular beads.

So I’m having an “I’m a loser” day, which to tell you the truth, I’m personally preferring to the “I’m a genius” month I’ve been having until now. I was fortunate that a colleague had scheduled a coffee date at the last minute so I didn’t have to go home and spending the afternoon alone. She treated me to Nutella crepes and choc-mint frappes, which has to be the best comfort food I could have asked for, and encouraged me to share my gripes about paying for my own business trips.

I’m going to call it a night early today, have a hot shower and curl up in bed with this hilarious chapter-by-chapter Twilight review my friend Rajita recommended.

announcing nocturne flora

Exactly one year ago, I was a jaded jewellery maker selling mediocre, cliché jewellery on Etsy. I decided that before I went mad, I needed something more authentic to fuel the creative flames, so I took a leap of faith and ordered a set of essential oils to try in July. The result was an opening line of four scents, including ‘White Poplar’, ‘Golden Lyre’, and ‘Huntress’, each inspired by Greek mythology, as well as a fourth called ‘Silent Woods’. My first sale of a pack of all four samples went to a woman in La Mirada, California. I was really nervous when I mailed them out to her, but the kind words she wrote back—“your fragrances are ethereal and they are just what I am looking for in a world that is too fast and too commercial”—gave me warmth, encouragement, and a sense of fulfilment I had so missed from running a jewellery store I didn’t love. Little did I know that even a year later, Andrea and I would remain dear friends.

A few weeks ago, we began a creative endeavour together as a partnership between my store and her upcoming emporium of hand-blended teas and dolls, The Kindly Owl. We have long shared a fascination with the deadly mandrake root and a series of novel-length emails later, we decided we would honour the beautifully misunderstood plant, and all its hauntingly beautiful friends, in a line of collaborative works called Nocturne Flora.

An established artist, Andrea has already drawn and sold numerous mandrake artworks and printed postcards. She has also created the prototypes to an amazing mandrake doll, ingeniously stuffed with a blend sleeping herbs. I contributed to the line, ‘Mandragora’, a bitingly venomous blend of patchouli, amber (from a plant-based accord), and petitgrain that is as smoky and intoxicating as its namesake. I’m also currently refining the fourth variant of a blend based on hemlock, the poison that purportedly killed Socrates.

Today, we reach the first milestone of our creative collaboration as we list our first items from Nocturne Flora to our stores.

I’m so grateful to Andrea for her continual warmth and encouragement, and my support network here in Sydney, including The Cat, my friends and my blog readers, for your patience and unconditional support in answering my tedious questions about whether 2ml or 3ml bottles of perfumes better strikes a chord in your soul. Crafting for love can sometimes take the backseat when you turn your hobbies into a business. Adamant of not turning into a jaded perfumer, I have focussed my energies with Faunfare on connecting with kindred spirits through trades and collaborations far more than I ever spend on listing products, promotion, and generating sales. And I have never felt happier with my work.

Andrea's art can be found at Little Big Head as well as her Etsy store.  She also blogs at Cider & Faun.

friday moments

A bottle of a yet-to-be-released scent blended especially for my Down Under Street Team (DUST) swap partner, Narelle, of Ruby Victoria.

This week, I'm grateful for...

• A good tête-a-tête with my dad.
• Whittaker’s Fresh Toasted Coconut Block and hot tea to stave off the bone-chilling cold.
• Hilarious hours spent watching The Big Bang Theory with The Cat.
• A powerful creative momentum which has driven me to produce two more perfume blends in the last week.

getting out of the funk

Today is the first day of Student Vacation, where students at my university have a week off between the last week of semester and the first week of exam to stress, binge eat/drink, and cram 13 weeks of knowledge in one night. For me, this will be a serendipitous week between my last day of tutoring, exam marking, and writing my conference paper, where I find myself with no pressing demands from work and am free to spend crafting to my heart’s content.

I was feeling a tiny bit despondent last week, irrationally frustrated with myself that I have not managed to recreate the explosive success I had with my jewellery store on Etsy last year. I think it’s a bit of a cliché—to do something that surpasses all your expectations but then its success dwarfs everything else you attempt after. I’m just trying to not let the funk cause Faunfare to implode. When I wondered aloud the other evening, “Why do I bother have an Etsy store anyway? Why not just make perfumes for my friends?”, it was up to The Cat to remind me that I have met and made friends with a small handful of people I met through Faunfare already, who took the time to write and tell me how much they appreciate what I do. That notion cheered me right up! I sent off two amazing trades last week for some very cool feather jewellery and accessories and am putting the finishing touches on a felted forest playscene for an incredible woman who is making me a sweater in return.

Nevertheless, I would still like to challenge and drive myself further out of this funk and see whether or not I can turn it around, but I can’t do this without your help. It would mean a lot to me if you could provide me with some of your personal insights into what you are looking for in a perfume store and what makes you swoon, delight and covet! :) Please feel free to take a stab at these questions even if you have never purchased perfume oils from me, or ever, in the past.

• Product range: Which do you find more appealing? A limited perfume line with 6-10 scents, but which all appear to be really refined, or a vast collection of scents that could have you trying samples for the next year?
• Descriptions: Succinct descriptions of what the perfume smells like with attention on its concept and the emotions evoked (e.g. “Bitingly venomous ambrette seed smoulders in this cruel blend of poisonous root and bittersweet sin”) or extensive profiles of the oils used and their history and/or therapeutic qualities (e.g. “Petitgrain: This fresh and woody oil comes from the green twigs of the bitter orange tree. It is uplifting and reduces fatigue and stress. Ambrette seed: etc.”)?
• Photographs: Do you mind perfume stores that take photographs of unlabelled bottles and use those images for all their perfumes, or do you appreciate it significantly more when they take individualised photographs of each of their scents?
• Materials and price: My current perfumes cost $12 USD for a 5ml bottle, using all natural essential oils with a carrier base of golden jojoba, vitamin e, and glycerine. Variations on the carrier oil, and thus the final cost include, a) fractionated coconut oil—$10, b) grapeseed—$9, and c) rice bran oil—$8. Jojoba is extremely nourishing for the skin and has the longest shelf life, but there is little discernible difference between the oils.
• Essential oils: Do you prefer perfumes made exclusively with essential oils, or a blend of high quality (synthetic) fragrance oils that will ultimately allow for a wider range of exotic notes that cannot/should not be found naturally (e.g. apples, amber, musk) and create a longer-lasting perfume?
• Packaging: Do you like beautifully wrapped and packaged perfume bottles with ribbons, charms, rose petals lining the box, tags and/or gift cards, knowing that it will be absorbed into the price, or would you rather know you are paying for little else aside from the perfume oil?

friday moments

This week, I'm grateful for...

• Two years married to my Cat.
• The end of Semester 1 2010!
• Dinner with my colleagues of delicious dim sims on my lecturer.
• Stupendously encouraging feedback from my supervisors on my paper for Amsterdam.
• An unexpected but highly welcome travelling companion for Amsterdam… Fiona!
• The beautiful rain (when I was fortunate enough to be enjoying it from the cosy indoors and not wading through knee-deep ravines).
• Three amazing trades, ready to be created, packed and shipped this weekend.
• Fun custom perfume blending sessions.