Super Shoot

Milla Jovovich as Career Mom and Chris Noth as Stay-at-home Dad in July 2009's US Harper's Bazaar.

I Miss Yoga

I have not yoga-ed in 10 days solid, and I am feeling, to say the least, not well. The throat infection is slowly but surely clearing up, but I still have a bellowing honky-tonk cough that induces petrified looks from the public during these H1N1-paranoid times.

I really feel like launching myself into a nice, relaxing session today. But I know it will do me more harm than good. 'Coz yoga is so much about breath and breathing, and this cough is just going to screw everything up.

So, I shall persevere being semi-vegetative. Let my body fully recover, so I can get back into the full swing of things.



(t-shirt at cafepress)

So True...

I think we should all exercise this on a regular basis. Otherwise, there'd be no aim, no agenda, no checking off things on the "things to do" list.

(On the other hand, having no agenda sounds like a holiday... which would also be a perfect day.)

Hmmm, yet another conundrum.

(pic from ffffound)

Gone Too Soon

Michael Jackson

1958-2009

Makes me laugh

Phineas and Ferb on the Disney Channel. I watch it religiously with the real Maya and Ruhi. Superb stuff. SO. FUNNY. (!)

New stuff - going to KL

These are just a few of the stuff I made specially for Rachel, who represents MAYA & RUHI in Kuala Lumpur. She has done an amazing job, and recently managed to score another counter at major department store Isetan, at 2 locations - MidValley and KLCC (yes, that gorgeous, gorgeous landmark. It seriously took my breath away when I went to visit.)

So, I'm figuring this out. If I have the same designs on Etsy and in KL, there'd have to be a marked retail price. And really, I don't want to have that hassle of having to police, or having customers suddenly emerge one day saying "How come I bought this for $XXX, and it costs only $XX on Etsy!?" It's quite clear that there are no overheads and whatnot on Etsy, but to a customer, it's just not on.

Sooo, I have decided to have a separate set of designs exclusive to KL. Which is sort of basically what I have been doing since demand grew a little. 'Coz how it all started was Rachel scouting me out over Etsy, so to begin with, she had ordered wholesale off my Etsy "menu".

However, now that I'm carving out a niche in KL, I want to "keep it real". The customers deserve it, and no less. :)

Not to say that I won't be doing Klimts anymore on Etsy. But just different ones... :)

And Rachel, you are right. Now I have 3 avenues for creative expression through jewelry:
1. The super fancy stuff at colette (which I shall also include super fancy commissions for weddings and family pieces)
2. The niche market in KL
3. The handmade appreciators at Etsy

Now, shall I pull out all my hair, or just wait for it to all fall off? :]

Thing To Do Today

'Coz keeping calm and carrying on are for wusses.

(image from flickr)

Down But Not Out

OK, who is giving me the Evil Eye? I am down with throat infection, thank you very much.

But, no, I will not be out of action. I have a pair of bride's earrings to finish in time for her wedding, 4 other customisations to complete, one fancy pearl cuff commission, and an entire shipment for the department store in KL to finish and ship off.

I shall forego my usual session of yoga though. Instead I will be practising recuperative yoga, a.k.a. couch yoga. I will be dotting today's time at the worktable with Thinker's Pose and Corpse Pose. :)

I think I shall also be investing in some Evil Eye jewelry very soon. Not as blinged-out as Aaron Basha's gorgeous diamond-studded one, but a simple little something that will send any ill-thoughts "right back at 'cha".

Sheena Mathieken

This is Sheena Mathieken. She is a fashion designer based in Brooklyn, and has undertaken this unique fundraiser called The Uniform Project, in aid of the Akanksha Foundation, an organisation that believes that every child has a right to develop their potential, and is dedicated to funding school supplies and uniforms for slum children in India.

Sheena is garnering attention, and hoping to raise substantial funds for the organisation, by wearing the same little dress (well, 7 little dresses of identical design) for an entire year. Today is Day 52 for her. Do go to the website, where you can make a donation, and watch and follow how she gets creative with her little uniform. It is absolutely amazing!

(via Cup of Jo)

Featured in Kuala Lumpur's The Star

I am thrilled to bits about the feature article on MAYA & RUHI, and well, me. :D You can read it here. The piece makes me sound (and feel) like a bonafide jewelry artist... I'm SO getting there! I am so excited, I feel like vomitting... :/

Many, many thanks to Elaine for loving my art so!

I'm relaxing this weekend...

I have not sat at the worktable, not bent a single wire. Nice, once in a while to just stay away from work.

On my Lust List...

... where it will remain for a long, long, long time...

Dior Christal Amethyst
38mm Automatique
Christian Dior

Makes me smile...

... you just gotta.

And sometimes, you just have to sing along too.

alay apoo nabu kiboni
alay apoo nabu kiboni

a pon yo maa, hey may con do la, leek a pay, buk a yoo, pow mow,
ah be pocky pocky la, eek a boo hoo da, heek a beek a deek a bey, may buni

a pon yo maa, hey may con do la, leek a pay, buk a yoo, pow mow,
ah be pocky pocky la, eek a boo hoo da, heek a beek a deek a bey, may buni

a hoo ah de ley, an a don da la, a na na hey, hake a bukie a shoogie poogie hey, an a pondo la, leek a beek, hake a bo, may buni

a pon yo maa, hey may con do la, leek a pay, buk a yoo, pow mow, ah be pocky pocky la, eek a boo hoo da, heek a beek a deek a bey, may buni

(source: Wiki)

The Wedding Party Set In Action

Isn't she lovely? Our blushing bride, Tsu Yinn, wears customed MAYA & RUHI, blogged about earlier here.

This ensemble was for the wedding's "disco-party" reception, and it called for something funky yet elegant, unique and luxe, to complement her heavenly turquoise-silk-with-black-lace dress. After some discussion, we decided to make it 'pop' with black onyx, cream pearls, brilliant amethysts, and fancy fuchsia-pink sapphires, to go with her deep-pink peep-toe stilettos.

What an honour for me, 'coz just look how gorgeous this photo of the happy couple has turned out... :) +*sigh*...

This, I can tell you, is every designer's dream. A million thanks, Tsu Yinn!! :)

More Chunky Bangles...

I got into a bangle-crafting frenzy a few days back, and just churned these out over a few hours of Kimora, Style Her Famous and Peter Perfect reruns on The Style Network.

I still have so many other big stones to play with, and I think I shall be moving on from this design concept... so watch this space for variations... ;)

The Sunshine Studio

Today, me and my Etsy shop are being featured at The Sunshine Studio, a gorgeous, gorgeous blog by Lory Mabe, a fellow Etsy seller. Her shop is a treasure trove of little lovelies, and her blog is filled to the brim with lovely finds and sweet little somethings to brighten up your days. You must head over and check it out. You will be hooked...

Tired and Procrastinating

Ruhi got these sunglasses a couple of weeks back, and could not get enough of them, wearing them 24/7. Here she is watching TV. And she looks exactly how I feel.

The weather is just too damned hot for anything but lying around on the sofa, with sunglasses, to watch TV. I have SO much to get done. But when I am at the computer, I am itching to get something done at the worktable. Then when I do get there, I feel like racing back to the computer to check emails and surf the Net. Argh.

I squeezed in some yoga yesterday, in a bid to get my energy levels up. But now I have a strained back from Bridge-ing for too long... double Argh.

Gratuitous fabulous jewelry pic

Martine Wester

Rosette Crystal long necklace

Separated At Birth

Marion Cotillard

Katy Perry

Emily Blunt

Thing To Do Today

Give this a lot of thought...

Edith Bouvier Beale

This is Edith Bouvier Beale. Born in 1917, straight into the echelons of American high society, to privileged parents Phelan Beale, a respected lawyer, and Edith Ewing Bouvier, a gorgeous socialite from the aristocratic Bouvier clan.

Little Edie started a flourishing modelling career at 17, while Big Edie pursued her break into a singing career. The mother and daughter pair were extremely close, and were a staple of the New York social scene. Wherever they went, they were received as VVIPS, and were highly respected for their social graces, fashionable good tastes, and pure fabulous-ness.

Little Edie went on to appear in the pages of Vogue, and was to move away to pursue a singing and dancing career in New York City, when she was discouraged by her mother. Big Edie just could not imagine life without her daughter. And with that, they slowly ebbed away from the limelight.

Then in 1972, they reappeared, headlining the National Enquirer and New York Times no less. Not as the celebutantes as they were remembered, but as hermetic recluses, living in a world of their own, in their dilapidated 28-room mansion called Grey Gardens, where Little Edie grew up in. The gardens now were grossly overgrown, and the house was a shadow of its former self, completely run-down, with no running water, broken floorboards, and even a small tree growing into the walls of one of the rooms.


When county officials raided the decaying house for inspection, they found innumerable cats and raccoons - some dead, some alive - also lodging at the Grey Gardens. In one room, there was a five-foot high mountain of used cat food tins. There was faeces in certain rooms, and in others, rotting antiques and memorabilia of an era gone by. The era when Little Edie was the "It" girl of high society.

All this was more than just juicy headlines. This was a PR nightmare for The First Lady, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, who was first cousin of Little Edie. Big Edie and Jacqueline Kennedy's father were siblings. The Kennedys quickly forked out tens of thousands to repair the house so that the whole drama of the squalor and eviction of bluebloods gone bonkers would quickly came to a close.


In 1975, a documentary, simply called "Grey Gardens", was made by the Maysles brothers about the Edies' strange existence. This was a little over a year later after the house was repaired, and by this time, it was back to being a cluttered, faeces-filled house-of-horrors.

The documentary opened to mixed reviews in theatres in America, but was well received in Cannes. It was a fly-on-the-wall cinematic essay about the two women's daily life, a peek into their everyday witty banter and squabbles, curious meals of boiled corn, pate, and ice-cream, and even curiouser "costumes for the day" fashioned from too-small clothes, tablecloths and curtains, by the resident recessionista, Little Edie.





Invariably, we also get a glimpse into Big Edie's unfulfilled dreams of becoming a singer, and Little Edie's resentment, yet deep love for her mother. Big Edie's dissatisfaction with how life has turned out, and Little Edie's poignant attempts at coping by performing marching dances and singing, very creepily if I might add, that she "ought to be in pictures".


An HBO movie has just been released starring Drew Barrymore as Little Edie and Jessica Lange as Big Edie. Using the documentary for leverage, the movie is able to explore the women's lives deeper back in time. It is a visual feast of high society parties of pre-war and pre-Depression America, and a heartbreaking love story between mother and daughter.


I am super-fascinated by this story. The riches-to-rags tale, the gothicism and its Dickensian essence, Big Edie's bizarre nonchalance and breaking into song, and posh-accented Little Edie, with her heirloom brooch on every scarf, skirt-turned-scarf, sweater-turned-headgear, ex-tablecloth and head-wrap towel, breaking into exuberant dance. Seriously slaying stuff.

And at the end of the day, I see it as a story of Fine Lines. Between squalor and freedom, between nurture and damage, between mothering and smothering, between being bohemian and being an absolute nutcase. And how the Maysles captured it all just leaves me in awe.

As for Little Edie, she is one "staunch character" that makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time. And one that I thought only existed in the genius of creative minds - until I discovered her story. To me, her existence was one heart-rending epic poem.


Big Edie died in 1977 of pneumonia, 2 years after the documentary was aired. Little Edie stayed on at Grey Gardens for 2 more years, before selling it to then-editor of The Washington Post Ben Bradlee, and his writer wife Sally Quinn, making them promise to restore Grey Gardens to its former glory.

Little Edie then tried to realise her showbusiness dreams with several failed cabaret shows. By now, she was around 60. She lived out her days in Florida with relatives, and was said to swim every single day, until her death in 2002, at 84.

So True...

And with that, I shall get back to work...

Dream workspace

This is how prettily and organised-ly I will have all my references, my portfolio, and materials...

This will be where all the magic happens, so to speak. A lovely, bright, clean, airy crafting space dedicated to making me feel inspired, with a coffee machine and a small fridge full of Heineken nearby.

And this is where I will welcome my custom clients, and discuss the coming true of another one of their visions, or just to simply hang out and talk baubles and bling over coffee. Or Heineken. :)

This is the home studio of desginer/seamstress/artist, Christie Chase. Her gorgeous loft was featured here. And this is her Etsy shop.

New acquisition

Still quite fascinated with the retro pin-up look, I recently got this from A Farmer's Daughter. I am going to wear these with my cheongsam for a cousin's wedding in August, hoping to look really cool. But my mother thinks I will look crazy. Oh well.

So Not True...

... to me at least. Probably the BEST motivation (I wouldn't touch those fries with those double-C's staring at me), but I'm not so sure if it's the HEALTHIEST...