Design Direction

Dear Readers,

Happy Friday!

Some of you may remember when I blogged about working on the look and feel of the website a couple of days ago. Where I complained about my eyes going blurry, etc, and I showed a really stingy thumbnail screen print of the look and feel so far:

Well, after looking at it for quite a while, I decided the colours were not happy enough. I origionally tried to stick with the company's colour scheme but whilst restricting myself, I think my design direction got a little lost. I think everything started becoming too drained, dusty and gray. In reaction to this, I decided to play around with the scheme of things again to uplift the mood.

Obviously, not going overboard with colours and making it looking like a disco... I inserted some sunny orange highlights, abstract sky blue background patterns and little hints of vibrant pinks here and there.
Here's a new stingy thumbnail =) Much fresher?










Anyway. I came across my friend's new illustrations today and I found them really stunning. They made me miss designing! By Sarah McLeod:













Check out her other prints: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Nanukk6?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_campaign=Share

I love colours!

Imagine if you only saw the world in black and white. Although it'd probably feel a bit artistic for a while, I'd personally feel really sad.

Dear Readers,
As some of you may have read in the last post, I suffered from having a fish bone stuck down my throat for the past 2 days. Actually, I think it's still down there.
I went to the A&E (hospital) twice and the doctors still could not find it. Lets not go into the details of procedures as it's pretty depressing! I think I'm a lot better now... less painful than I was on Tuesday! Maybe it's dissolving. Grose.

Anyway. When I got home today, I decided to paint my nails yellow. I desperately needed something to cheer me up! Why yellow? It's such a happy colour! don't you think?

Here are my favorite 3 happy nail colours of the year: Mellow Yellow, Orange Red, Smarties Blue. Ladies, if I was to review brands for nail varnish... O.P.I. is ultimately the best. Nicest colours and longest lasting!












In terms of news for the boutique... the webhosting and domain name http://www.heimaboutique.com/ has finally been bought!! I've been so worried about it because my manager has been away in Milan for quite a while (he couldn't come back in time due to volcanic ash cancelling flights).
In order for me to process things like buying a domain name, it is always best for him review the contracts for the final time before things get paid for (cheques get sent out). And since I have been talking about the idea of launching "heimaboutique.com" on this blog, which is open for the public to read... I was essentially taking a risk (every minute of it not being bought) where someone could have just bought the domain name before we sign for it (basically, if you were really mean... you could have bought the domain name, and we would have either had to buy it off you for millions of dollars, or... think of another shop name).
Thankfully that didn't happen, and heimaboutique.com is now ours =) =) =)

Ugh- Sardines are evil

Dear Readers,

Just after speaking about "must-stick-to-it"... i.e. not giving up on writing a consistant blog... I decided to gave it a miss the following day (yesturday).

Reason for so, was because I ended up with a fish bone stuck down my throat, causing serious irretation- making me cough over and over. Once I got home from dinner, I decided just to sleep it off to "forget" about the irretation. Sadly, the bone's still in my throat. =(

Here's a picture of the evil creatures (4 of them on the right). Actually, they were quite yummy...

Ok, that's all for this morning. I might go to the Hospital later. Emergency Room. Yey

Must-stick-to-it

Dear Readers,

Hello Monday. (night) Little late in posting this entry today, but I'm making my way through!!

I finally found my way back to the office today to process more terms and conditions, legal notes, policies, delivery info, etc. As dull it may seem, I actually didn't mind doing that today- having had experienced walking around 3 straight days to search for houseware at trade fairs, I can honestly say that I'd rather write another 10 pages of legal notes. My legs were so incredibly tired after walking the fairs that I could barely walk around at the weekend!

...I salute our company's merchandiser who had to walk for 2 additional days (Sat/Sun) at Gongzhou's- Canton fair (it's the biggest trade fair in China... trust me, I passed by it during the weekend not for walking the fair's purpose... and it's HUGE! It's like a few football stadiums put together....) He then had to travel back down south, nearer Hong Kong to attend a another trade fair at Shenzhen today (another city in China). All I can say is... my 3 straight days of walking around HK fairs is- nothing.

Whilst writing the "About Us" page for the heimaboutique website today, I thought back to the start of this blog and how I wanted to document my journey of sculpting this online business just like Julie's documentation of cooking all 500something recipes in 365 days in the movie Julie and Julia. Like Julie, I liked the idea of reaching an "impossible mission" with a tight deadline.
I have to admit that even if this impossible deadline was not to be met as an end result, and that the online shop is not to be launched in time... just the documentation of my progress it's self will be a great achievement.
I don't know if any of you are familiar with blogging, but to do it everyday, and sometimes after work... it's 99% of the time the last thing you'd want to do. This time being one of them, as it's now 9.51pm, and all I want to do is sleep! Actually, I read on another blog today and there's something I totally agreed on- one of the hardest challenges of keeping a good blog is to stick-to-it and make it consistent. It takes SO MUCH WILL POWER!- a bit like going to the gym actually- you know it has positive outcomes, but the hardest part is making your way over there.

I'd like to say a big thank you once again to all my readers who keeps coming back to read my journey. Without seeing your clicks that my stat counter collects, I would have given up a long time ago! (I really do not have a lot of paitence for a lot of things)

The end note is- although blogging takes a lot of time and effort... I sure do encourage people to do it. I feel like it's a lot more meaningful than other social networking tools such as facebook and twitter.

Yay. Another post finished.
Sleep time!
Sorry, no prove reading today... apologies for spelling/ stuipd errors!

First my eyes, now my legs...

Dear Readers,

It's been a "while". I've been struggling with time a little the past few days... it's been excessively exhausting.

As said in previous post, I went off to the homeware trade show at HKTDC. Our parent company Wigwigcreation Int Ltd held a booth there, so I went to check it out. Turns out, our stuff's really not too bad compared to a lot of other booths. There was so much cheap/ tacky stock out at the fair it was unreal. Definitely not the kind of stock I'd like in our online boutique!

I then went over to another trade fair at the Airport China Expo yesterday. There was a lot more stuff to check out there. My colleague from Wigwig and I went over together and he taught me a lot in terms of product differences, supplier differences- e.g. where in China specializes in Brass, or Bone China...etc. It was great just listening to how he deals with suppliers. I sure learnt a lot from following him around!

Today, I spent another half a day at HKTDC to further browse some vendors who were from Vietnam, Thailand, India, and many other countries from S.E.Asia. Tip: They're great vendors if you're looking for extra low ordering quantities- they do not do a lot of mass produced stuff, therefore their MOQ (Minimal ordering quantities) are never too high. Businesses as such from those countries are also mainly family owned. They only have limited pairs of hands to make their products! Today, I asked about the MOQ for this BEAUTIFUL cushion. Pop print with some really nice trims- he replied to me- 25 pieces minimal order, and at the rate of $3 USD each. I was like- WHAT! This "wholesale" price made me regret everything I've bought at Monsoon/Accessorize, who have charged me something like 20GBP for a pillowcase= $30USD . Damn.

So yes. 3 straight days of Fair Walking, being a buyer... My legs need a little break.

But... Although it's weekend... no sleeping in for me tomorrow. Off to Guangzhou to spend time with the Daddy.

Collapse time. Ciao for now xoxo

Twitter Challenge & Off to the Trade Fair I go!

Dear Readers,

After sleeping for quite a while yesterday, I'm pretty much recovered =)

Today's task is to go to the HK Houseware Trade fair.

As some of you may remember, I have recently put in some orders from our company's catalogue. Although we have quite a few pieces of nice goodies coming in, our team thought it'll be good to expand a bit outside our own circle and sell other people's goods too.

I heard from some of my colleagues this morning (who went to set up our company's booth yesterday) that there aren't many people at the fair- this is due to the really annoying Volcano in Iceland stopping the entire Europe from flying in and out of it... It's apparently still total chaos out at the airports. Poor people who have (GCSE/ Alevel) exams to attend!- Good luck to you all!

Well, regardless of the fair being empty, I'm still quite excited to go just to see what's out there!

This morning, I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to add a "Retweet" button to my posts. I thought it'll be a really quick simple task, and it really should be, but there are so many wrong instructions online!!

Finally, I found a post that was really helpful and enabled me to add that little button ontop of this post!

Check out: http://www.tricksdaddy.com/2009/03/add-a-retweet-button-to-your-posts-on-blogger-blog-with-tweetmeme.html

NOTE! Something that's not mentioned on his post: When using Ctrl + F to find the post header (Step 2)... you must click/check on "Expand Widget Templates" FIRST for you to find it. I only know of this because I went through SO many tweetme instructions. haha.

So why twitter? I must admit, I'm not the biggest fan of twitter myself. I just don't really understand why people would use it, but PEOPLE DO! Actually, I had the same feeling when Facebook started. Now, people cannot live without it.

Social Networking is a seriously powerful toll. I think it's incredible how fasts things can spread around using things like facebook, you tube and twitter. For the fellow entrepreneurs, social network marketing is definitely the way to go!!! ;)

Let's Tweet Awayyyyyy =D

SEO

Means: Search Engine Optimization


















Photo credit: (c) e-mind

Dear Readers,

It was my sick day off work today. I usually hate being sick, but I'm so glad I took it off as I felt as though my eye balls were going to pop out sooner than later. I really needed some rest.
Question. Have you ever been to the doctors in Hong Kong? Every time I go, I always feel like I come out with a big bag of "M&Ms" (=medicine, if you didn't get that). They literally give you millions of different pills of all shapes and colors! I swear it's never like that in the UK... you only get one or two types of medicine. Maybe they can't afford this kind of treatment at the NHS (UK)... And I guess I did pay $250 for my "M&M's". Uh huh- Medical care is not free in HK.


Anyway...


If you typed in "Heima Boutique" in Google/ Yahoo a few weeks ago when this blog began, you would not be able to find a link to this page.
Maybe thanks to the amount of clicks I've had onto this page by you guys, and the fact that I have so much more content on this blog... the ranking of the search result for "heima boutique" is now at the top! yey!
***Note- Sometimes my flickr album likes to take a higher ranking. I don't really understand why, so anybody who knows, I'd love to hear from you!


I know with SEO- search engine optimization, you can do things to make your site/ blog boost much higher rankings and traffic. Does any of you know how to specifically do this? As far as I know, there are things like keywords that you can put under Meta Codes? I probably sound like a complete air head right now! Please help!


Oh and readers- when "googling" please do not get confused a shop called Heima Store THIS IS NOT OUR BOUTIQUE! This store always crops up when I search for "Heima". Another website that always pops up is Sigur Ros's Heima Video. This has nothing to do with us either... but it seems pretty famous! Our boutique has not launched yet. And you'll sure be the first to know when it does =)


It's official. The Search Engine war is ON!

Monday. Again.

Dear Readers,

Weekend's over and it's indeed Monday. How are you all? I'm pretty dead.

I am finally defeated by HK pollution- very bad air and caught the cold. My head is so clogged up and I'm speaking like "sexy" Pheobe in Friends when she had the sniffles.

Today, I have been working all day on legal notes, terms and conditions, and private policies. Yey!!! Well exciting. haha. I'm telling you, I've never read so many "terms and conditions" in my life. I don't think I've ever read one properly! You usually click "NEXT" yourself don't you? I know I do. Who reads that stuff? Anyway, read or not read. You got to have it when scupting a business.

On the brighter side. I found a cheeseshop near my work today. I do have an obsession with European delicates. The shop is called Monsieur Chatte. It smelt so strong when I stepped in, it was amazing. Too bad I had already had lunch before I entered. Their website is down at the moment or I'd get you all to visit. I'll blog about it next time when I have a picnic near the sea =) www.mrchatte.com.hk

Another brighter side, I took my family out to the Marco Polo Hotel the other day to celebrate my pay cheque =) We had lovely high tea. Scones were too good.

Here's a picture to make you jealous. (It's actually making me quite hungry!)

Off to see the doctors I go. =( ewww

I'm becoming a pro at using powerpoint!

Dear Readers,

It's Friday!!! That means I get to not blog for 2 days! =P

OK. Like yesterday, day before, day before that and endlessly before that, I have been working alongside the web designer to "Craft" the web! Guess how I've been doing it?.... without the help of dreamweaver, photoshop, illustrator, or frankly, anything that allows you to physically construct a web.

I have been having to deal with web constructing, illustrating my needs and exactly what I want using PAINT and POWERPOINT (extremely frustrating as I come from a design background. Not having photoshop is like not having an arm..). Making do with what I have... I made numerous amounts of slides instructing the web designer. She vise versa sent me numerous screen prints back. She's been very helpful actually, as me being me, I have been fairly picky with my corrections. I'm surprised she's not quit on me yet. (I'm sometimes a little too instructive. French people would know that about me).
Here's a screenshot of my screenshots. (Talk about complaining about my eyes going blurry the other day... They're Defiantly blurry now!!!)

I think I need new prescriptions on my contact lenses.
BTW- Starbucks in a Sachet is the BEST invention for ever!


Have a fun weekend everybody!!!!!!!! XOXOX

Thank you, Ng goi, Xie Xie, Merci, Grazias, Danke!!... =) That's all I know

Dear Readers,

I just want to say a BIG Thank you to all of you today, for reading my blog. Thank you Helina for being the first person to write on my facebook page telling me that you love it =). Nobody said that before you, and after you did so, my rankings went way up! (I also have a bar chart telling me how many hits I have that are unique, returning, etc). Thanks darl!

I'd like to share with you all my statcounter in global form. It's pretty amazing how many of you across the world have actually clicked onto my blog! =)

Do you know what, I really never have thought that people would actually come to read the junk I put on this page. First of all, I write too much (I'm sure you'll agree). I think I should really take classes on how to cut my words down! and 2nd of all... I just don't understand why people would want to drag their mouse all the way across their screen to physically click on my link. Well. Thank you =)

Today has not been as busy. Just few more corrections with the web designer. I have a feeling that the database system might be a pain to overlook.- Yes- besides the actual website, there needs be a database system to back up all your product info, imgs, etcetc. You also need a system that stores all your client's names, address, etc... Everything must be in a tidy, orderly manner, or else, when your customers really do come in to buy the stuff, and you have no idea where the info is stored...........you're pretty doomed.

Um, talking about editing a database system is pretty boring. Lets move on.

There is this mug design that I absolutely love by Peter Ibruegger












It can be found at: http://www.supermarketsarah.com/
(actually, supermarketsarah.com it's self is pretty amusing... it's like walking into an actual boutique and selecting the items off the wall. Unlike the typical ecommerce types who sell in grid formats- Definatly worth checking out... Maybe I'll launch this type of e-commerce shop in the future)

I adore the moustache idea. Simple, yet so much fun! If only I can get my hands on some of these at wholesale price!!....

Below is Peter's wall at http://www.supermarketsarah.com/
























Here's another one of supermarket sarah's page:






































You literally hover over the items and check if you can buy or whether it's sold out. Most things are actually sold out as they're one off pieces, but it's fun just seeing what she has on each wall. Their actual store is located in London (cannot think ontop of my head where it is... near Nottinghill..........).........Fun thing: they serve tea and cake to all their customers who walks in. Yum

My eyes are going blurry

Dear Readers,

I'm wearing my glasses today.

I have been so tired lately that I finally could not physically open my eyes this morning. I didn't even bother trying to put my contact lenses on!- The weekend really killed me- having had no break what so ever (due to photoshooting) drained the life out of me!

During the past few days, there has been constant back and forth work and feedback with the web designer. It's finally getting nearer the stage of what I want the final "product" to look like. It's pretty nice at the moment (Manager approves, so it's all good good to go!) Here's a very extremely stingy preview of the look of the web:
(It looks pretty ugly in this thumb nail, but that's on purpose!)


I'm pretty glad things are finally getting places. Well done webdesigner, designers and well done me!

Today's next task was to look for additional stock to dump into the boutique. I went onto Alibaba.com to look for new potential suppliers.
After looking for about 2- 3 hrs, my eyesight is officially heading towards blindness.
Here are a few screenshots of what I have been dealing with:

The above only shows three types of products, mainly mugs. There are absolutely MILLIONS of pages to go through. This website is basically created for buyers who want to do overseas business. They obviously have an English version, but I was told the Chinese one has more stock- which I think is very stupid.

My head started spinning after forcing myself to "read" Chinese for 3 hours. (My Chinese reading IQ is probably equivalent to a 5yr old born and raised in HK/China child)

I think I'm starting to see things.... Defiantly time to get off work!

Storage is expensiveeeee in Hong Kong!

Hello Readers!

It's Monday again, therefore another long day at work... As soon as I arrived this morning, I had so many web layouts to revise, give comments, etcetc... I am SO glad I found a designer, and am not doing the corrections myself! (I think I'd cry).

The photoshoot went pretty well yesterday- 2nd time round. It was so dark, gloomy and RAINING that it was pretty much impossible to take pictures. Two of our designers came all the way to my house (located at the furthest point away from anywhere convienant imaginable in HK- I commute an hr and half everyday to work!), and left after 10minutes because the weather was just too bad. I stressed out as usual, and as it was still only 7am, I was pretty grouchy.

Since the weather report said it will be sunny in the afternoon, I firmly believed it will happen- and it did! (thank god!) We then shot more photos at 3pm and they turned out fantastic. Sorry readers, cannot show you until the shop launches!

So- today's task was to look for storage space in Hong Kong (HK). As I am buying quite a few thousands of plates, cups and saucers, I kind of need a little warehouse. Now HK has always had a great reputation in being a convienant spot for businesses to trade and use as a port- but when it comes to leasing a space, its extremely expensive!!

Regarless of how expensive it is, it's got to be done.

A few interesting websites show how small storage spaces can be leased out- mainly for families who basically have too much things in their houses. For those who have never been to HK- everyone lives in a matchbox. There's never any room for anything!

***For an intersting artical on how this man in HK- transformed his 300something sq feet (thats probably the size of your kitchen in UK), into a multiusable home:
http://www.architonic.com/ntsht/box-of-tricks/7000267


Anyway, back to storage space... Here's a website= store-friendly
http://www.store-friendly.com/

The above illustrates how for $1288 per month (about 107GBP- sorry, there's no pound sign on my keyboard!) you may rent a room that potentially fits that many boxes, that many chairs, bed, wardrobe, tv and a couch. Hmm... This is already one of the cheapest options- it's located in the middle of nowhere too (near factory sites in HK).

I may look up how much it compares to UK tomorrow- but I bet you any money, it'll be much cheaper in the UK to rent a matchbox storage space!

Planning my Photoshoot

Dear Readers,

Pardon for not posting on Friday! It was a mega busy busy day. Just to let all you guys know- "It's all happening!"- My prof back at uni would always shout this phrase while we're stressing out, doing our deadlines...

The web development so far seems to be pretty smooth, I received the outlook of my web from my designer on Friday (Pulsegarden seems pretty ontime with their schedules!), and to be honest, it wasn't as great as I thought it would be... Non the less, I gave my feedback and am working hard on making sure it comes out pretty!

(first- top one is their version...and the 2nd one is mine. I like things simple and clean... ignore the macaroons, that was just my fave pic of the day- yum!)

I also received confirmations in terms of what is possible to be ordered in time for my e-boutique launch on Thursday! (yey & finally!) I was so excited that started planning the photoshoot right away- the idea of being creative again got me so psyched (creativity is in my soul...).

I spent pretty much all day (Today- Saturday) buying bits and bobs to aid my photoshoot. My best buys today has to go to my birdcages- I only photographed one for a preview =)... they are second hand from this really old bird/pet store near where I live (The old man who sold me them was really nice, he told me a lot of "gwei los"- white people buy them to hang in their gardens). I took them home and spray painted them white to give it a bit of edge. I also tucked in a few cut out blocked coloured butterflies. Cute huh?

My worse buy today has to be the "Just add water and 1 egg" cupcake mixer. I thought I'd save some money by buying this "ready to go" box- it appeared to have everything in it, from cake mould, cake mix, sprinklers and icing sugar in all sorts of colours (which is great for $40 HKD- about 3GBP). Wrong! I opened the box and it only had a bag of flour mixture in it. No sprinkles, no icing =( =( I was so disappointed as I really wanted to eat the icing after the photoshoot, lol.

Furthermore- I told my little sister to make the cupcakes... She opened the packet, poured it into the bowl, and cracked an egg inside...

"ERRRRRRRRR!" she yelled- "The egg's black!!!!" she then ran out of the kitchen as though she saw a rat -__-

So of all the eggs, she picked the bad one. The "Just add water and 1 egg" cake mixture ended up down the drain. I'll next have to physically go buy some (hk-ish looking, extra creamy) cakes tomorrow at the bakery. Shame, I wanted cupcakes (it's so hard to find "homemade looking" cupcakes in HK!).

Ok, sleep time. 1.10am now- need to wake up at 6am on a Sunday!

Yey we have a boutique name and a logo!

Although very obviously stated in the title previously- the boutique's name is going to be Heima Boutique. We really did try to come up with a different name to maybe replace the company's original name. But as days went by, nothing really came across sounding extrodinary. So- the end?- back to square 1, and keeping the name- Heima Boutique =)

Just so you guys know, I did think about some other options in terms of renaming our boutique... =) Here are some of them:

Tinner- This is an integration between Dinner and Tea

Le Tovia- This spells: I love tea (it's missing an extra E though...so no for this one...)

En Casa- Casa is such a used name, over and over and over.
It's very pretty as a name, but believe it or not, there are millions more out there, selling bathroom and kitchen accessories, which does not give our boutique much differentiation.

So Why Heima?I don't know if you've read previous posts, but Heima in German means- At home. (This is actually why I wanted to translate it into a different language, like Italian- En Casa, and Chinese- Jia.

A home is beyond a house- most people would say it's somewhere filled with warmth and personality. Or maybe somewhere built with love and creativity. We personally think it's built up of a lot of fun.

Our concept is to bring little delights to anyone's home- and little joys that boosts happiness to daily life. We aim to help make dinner parties that much more delightful, and high teas that much more lovely. I (personally) believe that it's always the little delicate wonders that makes small gasps of happiness in life.

Yey to the developed logo. Well done designers, who turned my scribbled into prettiness. =)

Also, I'd like to thank all of you returning readers (I have a tracker!), more and more of you are coming back everyday! I really appreciate it!

Packaging Design

Hello All!

Today's another one of those days where I'd like to pull my hair out.

This whole launching a webshop task just gets tougher and tougher everyday... this is because every minute is ticking, and everyday I'm closer to May (the month where I plan to launch the shop!).

Anyhow, today's task was to find some packaging ideas...



Packaging makes big differences, if not all the differences. Take this example- if you were to buy tea leaves from the supermarket, and you could not find your favourite brand (e.g. Tetleys), you're likely to depend your buying decision upon the packaging of the alternative products. To me, if I see something that is prettier in packaging, I have far more confidence in consuming it than the latter products that gives you the dollar store feel.

Here are some favourites I found today (although they're kind of totally unrelated to the kind of feel I want to give to the Heima brand..., but heck, they're certainly a lot of fun!)



A Nice Eco Friendly Idea- Award winning design by the Polish... biodegrades in 60 days after disposal (yes dear, I'm obsessed with sustainability). Very cool

Not so lady like, but I love this one: "oh shit" 1st aid kit- check out the bumcream in the green one. haha (not sure if I was allowed to write that!)

Another eco one, it's made of 85% renewable resource- and research shows how boxed packaging for water/ breveges are far more eco-friendlier than plastic packaging. interesting.

Back in 2007, the cool hunter wrote a nice blog on the power of packaging:
http://www.thecoolhunter.com.au/article/detail/927/the-power-of-the-box--powerful-packaging-design
I like the birdy! =)


For bigger pictures, check out my flicker album =)

p.s. I think I'm sticking with the name: heima boutique. yey ney?

Fashion meets Living

Quick Entry (before I jet off to lunch!): Meet Innermost, a very quirky style and living brand.

Style is simplistic with a little twist. Ultimately Fun.

Here's a design in which I think a lot of people may be attracted to> thanks to the Alice in the wonderland trend... Top hats as lamps. Awesome.

I also love design -White (shown at the bottom), by Winnie Lui. She is a jewellery designer turned light designer. Her concept integrats trash with bling, to essentially create beautiful treasures. The chandeliers are limited editions only- there are 50 in White and 50 in Black. Beaut.

Check them out! http://www.innermost.net/index2.html

Classified Mozzarella Bar

Classified Mozzarella Bar
Originally uploaded by heimab

Dear everyone around the world... HAPPY EASTER!

Ok, so despite last thursday being a work day, I was too sick to write a blog. I don't know what I ate wrong during thursday lunch, but I felt so ill afterwards! =( Anyhow, I found out how even when I haven't written anything in the past couple of days, some of you's still go on my blog and read =) Thanks!

So, what have I been up to these couple of days? Well, pretty much stressing all throughout the holiday. I've still not had much news in terms of getting my orders in, in definate quantities... It's been over a week now, and not knowing what I can purchase to go into my boutique is driving me nuts! The reason for this, is actually because there is a Trade Fair in Hong Kong in 2 weeks time... and my collegues are working HARD in getting things done for the fair in which our company's participating. We will be show casing numerous new collections at the fair this year, therefore my collections aren't really their priority at the moment (a little frustrating, but I kind of understand their deadline too.......).

Besides stressing (I think that's why my stomach hurts lately...), I've been trying to discover new things around in Hong Kong. There's this AMAZING mozzarella bar in Wanchai/ Admiraty at a tucked away alley called Classified. The food was so good it was unbelieveable.. First course- Deep fried Mozzarella wrapped in Bacon and bedded in Fig Jam =)... then my bf and I shared a nicoise salad (tuna), and a mushroom and rocket risotto (I think it was the best I've ever had). Absolutely yummy, I'd recommend anybody who lives in HK, who misses European food to go there. I loved it so much, I've been twice in a row already! (panna cotta- yum)

http://www.classifiedfoodshops.com.hk/

I love these little finds in HK... (this one has actually been open for quite a while), especially those that are a bit hidden. Actually, that area has quite a few nice little boutiques, including a really cool fashion boutique in which Susiebubble blogged about recently, called Kapok. They're all about the European style, Craftsmanship and kookyness. Awesome: check them out:

http://ka-pok.blogs.com/