Sunday Stickies is a column where we reflect on the past week and pen those thoughts down on sticky pads. Expect notes to ourselves and others, advice, reminders for the week ahead, quotes, and anything random actually. What a challenging week it has been. We have always been thankful for kind and understanding clients though we know we will eventually have to cross paths with trickier clients. And most recently, we met the trickiest client yet. After weeks of managing a tight and unreasonable deadline with a brief project outline, we struggled but managed to submit our deliverables well ahead of schedule. And there was no response. All was quiet until we received an email containing a slew of harsh, unethical and unnecessary comments. What hurts the most were the groundless insults to our work professionalism and integrity of our work. We do not produce slipshod work no matter how tight a deadline is. It is against our work ethics. It comes as no surprise since integrity is one of honey&gazelle Design Studio's core values. It is perfectly fine with us if a client has issues with our designs but it kills us to be insulted beyond reason. We sincerely take pride in putting out the best work and even a simple piece of work contain layers of hard work and ideas that no one pays attention to. Despite the hard knocks, we choose to remain true to what we believe in and no amount of insults and careless words can break our passion for creating innovative, creative and beautiful paper with personality. This is the true spirit of honey&gazelle! :) Min: What do you do after a when you had a terrible, terrible day at work? After hours of ranting, venting and expelling any remaining anger and bad feelings, I usually turn to my bed for comfort and protection. My bed is my security blanket and it makes me feel safe. No matter what the crisis is, I tend to sleep better when I am safely and snuggly tucked in bed, under the covers and fluffy pillows. After this long and unfulfilling week, I have decided that all I really want to do is to climb into my bed and sleep my sorrows away. And maybe stuff my face with buckets of juicy fried chicken and some yummy fries. Jia: If you have been reading our Sunday Stickies for a while, you would know that I am a Pokemon fan. I have played all the Nintendo games with my brother and am totally anticipating - with a crazy amount of excitement - the newest instalment, Sun and Moon. However, after downloading Pokemon Go a few hours after it launched in Singapore and casually playing while working at Takashimaya, I was very disappointed over my lack of enthusiasm for the game. I realised that I much prefer the original games by far... so is that why am I not addicted to Pokemon Go?
- Have a bright week ahead! With Love, Min+Jia.
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Sunday Stickies is a column where we reflect on the past week and pen those thoughts down on sticky pads. Expect notes to ourselves and others, advice, reminders for the week ahead, quotes, and anything random actually. This was a week of utter tiredness as we started on huge projects and also got ready for our pop-up stint at Takashimaya Departmental Store in Ngee Ann City. With a call time of 6am in the studio everyday and us finally calling it a day at least 18 hours later, we are so so so pooped now. Happy songs have been blaring non-stop in our studio while we work to keep us motivated and our only respite from the busyness is an impromptu dance party every now and then. However, those happy dancey moments are rare as we have been out and about all week! In very very exciting news, we have started a two week pop-up adventure with 13 other fabulous Singaporean designers at Takashimaya. If you have been wanting to check out our products in person, please do drop by the space at Basement 1, Talking Hall. We will be there everyday at whatever time we can make it, so we hope to see you there! Here are the deets, along with another upcoming pop-up art market next weekend: 4-16 August 2016 Good Things x Style Avenue Takashimaya Basement 1, Talking Hall Ngee Ann City 10am to 9.30pm 13-14 August 2016, Saturday and Sunday New Balance Run On x The Local People Lace Up Art Market School of the Arts (SOTA), Drama Theatre Foyer + Exhibition Gallery 11am to 7pm Min: August is my favourite month but this August is as crazy as crazy gets. We are practically working from 6am to midnight daily and it drives me crazy to see the sun set while I am still glued tight to my office chair and gaze transfixed on the computer screen. That is when Jia and I call upon the late night office (bad) dance moves. Bad dancing always works. I feel like I am clinging on to the pendulum of life and it is swinging furiously from one end to the other. So it is true that the lack of sleep and nutritious food can lead to a serious mental state of deliriousness and it impacts the ability to make sensible decisions. And I survived this week to tell the tale… Jia and I were at Takashimaya to set up for an event and we realised that we were trapped in the world of Narnia. I am pretty sure everyone was staring and laughing at us. We had to go through many swing doors till we found that one door that led to the way out. We were completely delirious and like the movie, ‘Inception’, I somehow feel like I am still stuck in the deepest layer of dreams. Am I even awake? Jia: I used to pride myself on being able to function 100% without much sleep. I am after all, a clinically diagnosed insomniac and am very used to pulling all nighters in a row as a student. However, very recently I discovered that ageing is real. It is like I woke up one day after 4 hours of sleep and became old. I woke up old. Old and tired with aching bones.
Min and I had an episode in Takashimaya on Wednesday when we seriously went off our rockets. We were just done setting up our pop-up booth and wanted to head back down to the staff entrance and security post to get on with the rest of the day's schedule. But, guess what? We couldn't find the right door as we were unable to remember how we even got to the pop-up location in the first place. The lack of sleep leads to short-term memory failure. And deliriousness, judging by the way we laughed hysterically and manically around the departmental store in search for that ONE door. Ah, keep us in your prayers. We are gonna need them to get through August. - Round-up of July's Sunday Stickies: 3 July // 10 July // 17 July // 24 July // 31 July - Hope you are getting enough sleep! Let us all have a great August! With Love, Min+Jia. Sunday Stickies is a column where we reflect on the past week and pen those thoughts down on sticky pads. Expect notes to ourselves and others, advice, reminders for the week ahead, quotes, and anything random actually. Our schedules in July and August are fully packed with art markets, datelines and more datelines. It never rains but pours right? However, this is definitely a happy problem and we kinda like dancing in the rain. In this week's Sunday Stickies, we may come across as grumpy old ladies going on and on about busy schedules and the severe lack of time-off and sleep but don't take us too seriously. We honestly like the heavy workload. It is assuring to know that we get to be busy and we have big projects to sustain us. New work opportunities and projects mean growth for the company and a chance to explore new ventures for our studio. We had many meetings this week but the meeting in the air took our breaths away and we became giggly puffs instantly. We probably lost all forms of professionalism for about 10 minutes but life is too short to be always serious, right? Plus, we got ourselves a new Hello Kitty labeller for some studio work because life is also too short to have boring office tools! Min: What do you do when you are in a long and boring meeting? I often find myself dreaming of ice cream and wishing that the meeting will wrap up quickly so that I can finally indulge in some decent food. A part of me understands the importance of meetings and discussions but the other part feels that too many meetings are a complete waste of time. Sometimes, I wish most people will come prepared for a meeting, and by prepared, I want to have constructive conversations and a solid plan to move things forward. It can be extremely frustrating when the parties meet without any prior planning and time is wasted sitting around, looking important. #grumbles Jia: How important is your hair to you? That was the question on my mind for the past few days. My brother is a long-term supporter of the Children’s Cancer Foundation and has taken part in a few Hair For Hope events. Every time I watch my brother and the numerous participants shave their heads to raise money to aid the kids and families impacted by cancer, I am always filled with admiration and respect. My hair is my ultimate comfort blanket and as much as I want to support CCF and its events through active participation, the only thing I can really do is to donate to the cause! Perhaps, one day if I can raise $50,000?
- Are you ready for August? :) With Love, Min+Jia. Sunday Stickies is a column where we reflect on the past week and pen those thoughts down on sticky pads. Expect notes to ourselves and others, advice, reminders for the week ahead, quotes, and anything random actually. It is wedding season here at honey&gazelle Design Studio and we are absolutely loving it! Weddings are such joyous occasions and we love to be part of all that jazz and celebratory fun. We are definitely in a wedding bubble and our Pinterest account is truly reflecting what we are obsessed with. Browsing through Pinterest has really inspired us greatly as we currently have quite a number of wedding commissioned projects and wedding styling projects on our hands. Wedding season is real! We had an opportunity to style a wedding reception this weekend and we went all out in the DIY department. Getting our hands dirty with DIY projects is something we both enjoy and look forward to, so there's no way we would pass up an opportunity like that! The Event Styling arm of our studio is without a doubt, one of our favourites. It is a pretty tiring process to style an event but once you get into the whirlwind of ideas and crafts, you just keep going and going and going... Min: Wedding season is the coolest season ever. I have been dreaming about my wedding day since I was a kid. Well... they say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one. Kudos to you if you got that song reference! Now that I am a bride-to-be, planning and actualising a real wedding is as stressful as it gets. But I guess all that stress is a happy problem, and I am just beyond thankful for talented, patient and supportive bridesmaids. Besides being a bride-to-be myself, I get to be my friends' bridesmaids too. All the love and celebrations in the air are making my heart swell with so much happiness! I truly love weddings! Jia: Anyone who knows me can attest to this fact: I am not a morning person. But alas, a super packed work schedule meant that I had to get up around 5-6am for the past week! Now I totally understand why it is so important for Min to have breakfast in the mornings… I really needed the extra fuel to keep me going. However, even with the breakfast fuel in me, I was still a walking zombie on most days which led to many little accidents and Min’s constant exclamations/chiding whenever I dropped something or walked into something. All I want to do now is to sleep in until I wake up naturally. Come on, just give me one day please!
- Now, which do you prefer: weddings or waking up late? :) With Love, Min+Jia. Sunday Stickies is a column where we reflect on the past week and pen those thoughts down on sticky pads. Expect notes to ourselves and others, advice, reminders for the week ahead, quotes, and anything random actually. Phew, we made it to Sunday! It has been a super packed and busy week at the studio as we worked on new product designs and client projects furiously in a bid to stay ahead of our schedule. In our line of work, last minute projects tend to pop up when you are the most hectic, creating an even bigger pile of work that needs to be done as soon as possible. By the end of Saturday, we had gotten confirmation on two projects that we thought were out of our reach. And thus, in a span of six days, we had secured four new projects to our dizzying disbelief. It's alright, it's okay, we can do this. At least, this is what we have been telling ourselves for the past twelve hours. Beyond all that disbelief and surprise, we are extremely stoked about the new opportunities and doors that have opened for us. Now to get our act together and put our best foot forward! Cheer us on! Min: What a week! Jia and I had many errands to run and we are so thankful to have a car to ferry us around. In a span of 8 hours, we combed 10 locations, had 10 outfit changes, ate 2.5 meals, and drove under different weather changes - cloudy sky, drizzle, thunderstorm, and full sunshine. The weather in Singapore never fails to amaze me. I can't believe how I managed to pull all that off while driving with a spoilt left mirror! Nothing but God's grace and protection, and Jia for being the world's best co-pilot and mirror adjuster. Well done, Jia! We both deserve a gold star for A* teamwork. A busy week and a new addiction to a relatively new game has left me with very little sleep all week. As a result, I missed a couple of alarms in mornings and I hit the snooze button a wee bit too much this week. I don't usually respond very well when I don't get enough sleep. But that's normal right? Currently, I'm dreaming of a day dedicated to nothing but sleep, sleep and sleep. Jia: A friend in need is a friend indeed. Well, I was the friend in need this week and was so touched to receive unflinching help from so many of my friends. Have you ever tried hunting down wine crates and wooden pallets recently? I used to be able to find so many hidden gems in alleyways and dumpsters but sadly realised (and acknowledged) that it has been getting increasingly difficult to source for such materials.
In case you were wondering why I would need to find such random objects frequently, let me explain. I have been dabbling in theatre set design for many years where I would often need to find props to create realistic scenes. Along with honey&gazelle Design Studio's event styling services, random object sourcing has become a regular activity for me. For the past few days, my friends (and Min's dad!) have been graciously helping me out with my urgent search for wine crates and wooden pallets for a wedding next week. I feel so extremely loved and grateful! To all my friends: I love you guys and I would totally do anything for you as well. Thanks for sticking by me and tolerating my nonsense for so many years! Big hearts and kisses to all of you! <3 - Did you have a busy week too? Share with us your stories! :) With Love, Min+Jia. |
Min+JiaThe humans behind honey&gazelle Design Studio. When we are not frantically working, we share our mishmash of thoughts on design, life, and love here. Grab a cuppa and stay for a bit! Categories
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