Giftopia x Sample Store

Did you RSVP for Giftopia?

If you didn’t, you missed out on some great stuff. I also did one of the most loserish things I’ve ever done in my life.

Gardens by the Bay’s Christmas Canopy

Christmas won’t be the same without carnivals, light shows, festive markets, special food for the occasion and lots of entertainment.

Singapore’s largest annual yuletide fair, Christmas Wonderland @ Gardens by the Bay, is all that and more. Visitors immersed themselves in a traditional European-style Christmas in one of Singapore’s most recognizable landmarks.

At its debut in 2014, a combination of spectacular light sculptures, charming festive markets and carnival games received over 900,000 local and international visitors, with some returning to share the wonderment with their families and friends.

White Sands Flea: The Aftermath

Sooo… I blogged that I would be at the inaugural White Sands Flea about a month ago and I’ve only just barely recovered from that taxing day – blame my aging bones.

My younger brother tagged along to sell his preloved clothes as well (he needed more space in his cupboard) and my mom also went to be our backup cashier for our smoke breaks. She wanted to sell her preloved clothes too but we banned her – I WAS NOT HAVING ANY FLOWERY AUNTIE CLOTHES AT MY STALL.

From the start, we had some minor issues going on. Think lack of parking spaces to unload, trolleys on grass, inconsiderate neighbouring stall who took up way more than her allotted space and left me about 2mm and insects crawling all over merchandise. But it was a pleasant surprise to see my name on my table as opposed to a generic “Stall 1”, which the general public had. As far as I know, all my fellow White Sands bloggers took out placards home as souvenirs. And for all my whining, it was an awesome day just hanging out with Michelle, Chloe, Swee Teng and Rudy despite the ridiculous heat that turned us all into useless lumps of sweating meat.

There was a surprising number of stalls selling everything from food to clothes to toys and even a couple of handmade accessories.

I took several walks around to kaypoh but ended up spending most of my money on food and drinks. I did spend an unreasonable amount of time molesting the dogs at the Save Our Street Dogs stall though. Wished I could bring them home but mom kept giving me the evil eye =(

My store!

I was pretty much selling everything at super low prices. Tops at $1, shoes at $7.. most of them hardly worn too. And because my neighbour (on the left of the pic) shifted my table over to Swee Teng’s and I had to leave some walking space, I extended my items about 2 meters further infront than anybody else hahah. It did create an effect where people walked around my stuff and bypass said neighbour’s. Opps.

I kinda made $90 even before I set up anything at all. Rudy’s partner for the day saw these:

She instantly choped one. Take first, pay later. Another seller from some booth far away also beelined to my Coach Nylon Totes and choped 2.

Without a doubt, these were the bestsellers of the day – I completely sold out before 3pm for the 16 pieces I brought. They weren’t exactly cheap too.

(Although, if anybody wants them or any of the Coach items I sold at the flea, please email me. Black Friday is coming up so I’ll be restocking!)

There were also carnival games which my brother forbade me to play because “I’m over 30 and should act my age”. He didn’t know I really wanted to play because I would get a free portable fan with purchase of 3 carnival tickets.

Omg luckily Kase came by noontime and starting handing out these fans to us bloggers. I don’t think I could have survived till evening without them.

I can’t end this post without the highlight of the day. When I was reading the floorplan, I saw a stall named Chomel Yang and I thought it had something to do with the accessories store, Chomel. But nooooo. Chomel Yang is something greater.

TRUFFLE PASTA. (Picture koped from Michelle, because its her fault I bought 2 of this.)

She bought herself a serving of this and started force feeding all of us, telling us that this is the best pasta any of us would eat. Of course we all had skeptical faces but after a bite, we automatically went to buy our own portion and promoting this to anybody who would listen.

Its. That. Good.

Anyway, other than the heat and insects, I had quite a fun time just re-homing all my once precious items and cracking jokes with my fellow bloggers. My brother was happy too – he made $54 and promptly spent $25 of that on a pair of Nudie jeans at Swee Teng’s stall. Myself?

CHA-CHING-BADABING!

Money in the bank baby. At last count, I had made approximately $640 – largely from my Coach and Kate Spade purses. Most people bought 2 to 3 pieces at a go once they realised that my goods weren’t counterfeit and brought friends back to buy too. I kinda stopped counting in the last hour or so since we were all goofing around and having fun but I think I pocketed at least $100 then. Some thanks goes to the PR girl who took good care of us and spent a significant amount at my stall… haha.

The next day, I brought the family and the BF out for a thank you mookata dinner at Golden Mile.

(To be honest, its not really so much thank you, but they saw me counting my takings and knew how much I earned so I had better bring them for a nice meal.)

Some of the customers at the flea contacted me last week to discuss some bulk buying of the Coach/Kate Spade stuff for Christmas so I think that even though flea day was tough, its totally worth it  =)

Save the Date: 19th September Flea at White Sands!

White Sands Shopping Mall will be having their first carnival on 19th & 20th September this year at the huge grass patch directly in front of the mall. There’ll be games, drive-in movies and flea booths designed to suck your wallets dry =p

I’ve gotten myself a table and will be offloading new and preloved items – think clothes, heels, boots, beauty products and luxury purses to name a few. And nothing will cost over $30. Not even the Coach and Kate Spade items!

A quick preview:

Coach saffiano leather coin purses in 5 designs and limited quantities! Direct from USA outlet stores.. retails for USD 78 and going for SGD 30~ Don’t forget the Coach bags too!

So many beauty products – hair/makeup/skin/body you name it I have it. I pretty much have a Watsons or Sasa inventory in my room right now. No kidding – they weigh more than 30kgs combined. All must go, so I can buy more!

Hand made polymer earrings, gemstone necklaces and charm bracelets going off at under $1.50 each.

All Pursenality beauty bags going at half price $12.50. (Read more here). Take this chance to stock up on Christmas presents k, stock is running out reallllll fast. We’re stuffing in more than $25 worth of goodies into brand name purses for half the price!

So many clothes that I need 2 luggages to contain all of them. From dinner dresses to tank tops, both preloved and brand new with tags. Prices start from $2! I’ll probably be selling my Timberland boots too, never worn before and I’m letting them go for under $50… and I paid $200+ for them =(

I’ll be there only on the 19th from 10am to 10pm so come early to sweep my inventory clean cos at my previous fleas, bags and cosmetics get cleaned out within the first few hours.

See you then!

#AuntiesDiary: The Cat Cafe Episode

I have nothing to blog about (more like nothing I feel like blogging about) and animals are always nice to look at so I thought I’ll put up a post of the time I went to The Cat Cafe with Herine.

Plus, she’s already blogged about this so I can steal her pictures =D

I’ve never been to a true animal cafe before – cafes that allow you to bring your dogs not counting – so I was actually very excited to finally go to one. Miss Herine was on an extended sabbatical and we were looking for stuff to do together. She actually suggested Forest Adventure at Bedok but HENG AH, the cost was just a little beyond our budget so clever me said that we’ll go to a cat cafe instead. I’m more a dog person but I like all things furry and Herine has Kiki now so it seemed a perfect way to get our butts out of Tampines.

The Cat Cafe is located a stone’s throw from Bugis MRT at 241B Victoria Street Level 3. By level 3, they actually mean level 9. Each story has an unreasonable amount of stairs that you have to climb. And climb.

And climb.

Probably makes it more difficult for the kitties to escape of they ever do.

You’ll be greeted by Silver, a local short fur grande dame who’s preferred spot is on the fence right at the main door and Missy, a Siamese cross breed.

Silver was a little temperamental cos I accidentally woke her up from her nap by breathing too heavily (see first grumpy face pic) and she swatted me. Bad kitty. I accidentally woke Missy too. Bad human.

But Missy didn’t swat me. She went right back to sleep in a place where there’s no way I could breathe on her too hard.

By avoiding my breath, I’m not sure if she could breathe.

I spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out if she could breathe properly since her entire snout is pressed against her bed. Apparently she can, because she’s not the only one who sleeps like this.

Meet Ginny, a pure breed Singapura who’s quite a bit smaller than her friends at the cafe and super adorable.

She was one of the few that let me carry her (for awhile). She’s also very dainty and pawsy – playing with her pretty much means getting batted with her delicate little paws and getting nipped from time to time. The dark marks on her ears is pair of “8” tattoo on her ears from when she was spayed as a stray.

I suspect the cats like dogs though. Why?

They all showed an unhealthy, stalkerish obsession with my bag. Lots of sniffing and head rubbing ownership going on even when I wasn’t watching.

Of course my Tuppy went apeshit crazy when I got home cos my bag smelled like cats. And then he proceeded to remark his property with excessive head rubbing ownership. Animals. All possessive and selfish.

My favourite feline at the cafe is without at doubt Tuxedo.

Tuxedo is a long fur domestic local breed who was found abandoned after a local breeder passed away. Tuxedo was subsequently rescued by Kittycare Haven, and moved to The Cat Cafe. He’s a large kitty but despite his size, Tuxedo is a gentle cat and is very active when he is in the mood for play.

His fur is so soft and feels like clouds and I want to pick him up to snuggle my face in his body. But he’s a cat. Which means he only lets me touch him when he wants to. He walked away most times when I tried to pet him but he did deign to flop over and let me rub his torso for a bit. I had to resist the temptation to stuff him into my bag and kidnap him home.

The entry fee at The Cat Cafe is S$15 with a complimentary soft drink but we got food to go along with our visit since we hadn’t eaten.

They serve coffee/tea/juices, pastries and cakes, and some cooked food like pastas and sandwiches. We ordered one each of their baked macaronis. The food isn’t bad and we didn’t pay an arm and a leg for it.

While it was a nice place to slack the afternoon away, I think we made a fundamental mistake of visiting during nap time. We spent a good hour or so watching sleeping cats and when they woke, it was a case of waiting for their royal furriness to even point a snout in our directions. Its a great place for cat lovers and people who want to learn more about cats though. When the kitties are in the mood to play, they’re really quite affectionate.