Half full or half empty?

With the recent unfortunate dismissal (maybe due to bad economy, redundancy, or whatever the management wanted to claim), I guess it is time for me to take a break and think about or reflect on my life. The last time I did so was in 2003 (if I am not mistaken).

I worked in a local publishing company specializes in primary and secondary school books. Whilst working there, I had turned myself into a workaholic - worked long hours, over the weekends and stayed over night in the office just to rush for deadlines. Then, I had decided to take a break from work and enrolled myself in a short course on fashion design and dressmaking in one of local fashion schools. This was a turning point of my life. I learnt a new skill and made some incredible friends, whom I still keep in touch with until today.

Let's fast forward to 2009. I am jobless at the time of making this entry but how do I view this? Half full - it's time to take a break and think about what I want to do for the next few months or maybe years. Or half empty - I would not be able to find a better job as what I had previously or the economy is so bad that I don't think I will find a job soon enough etc.

Despite all the worries on how to move forward, how to survive etc, it teaches me to be strong and be positive. I am glad that I took the short course in fashion design and dressmaking. Now I can develop my sewing skill and make good use of it. I am planning one or two fashion or dressmaking projects. As my previous boss, Steve, mentioned to me; in difficult times lie an opportunity. Maybe this dismissal is a blessing in disguise, who knows ;-)

To buy or not to buy

Despite the bad economy (as almost everyone worries about it) and the downsizing of my work place, I am in the situation whereby I should spend my money wisely. But being someone who loves fashion and likes to shop occasionally (does almost every weekend count as occasionally?) can resist such good offers by boutiques or departmental stores. Good offers I am referring to here is 70% discount.

Before losing my job, I shopped a lot. I was building my empire of necklaces - different types of styles and designs. Besides this, I bought some dresses, tops and bottoms. All these were bought during sales at one of my favourite boutiques, Cats Whiskers. I have shopped from outlet to another outlet.

This week itself, I bought one top after discount price was RM10.50 and one dress after discounted price was RM23.70. Still a good bargain, right? And how could I resist this? I love my sister's philosophy of shopping during sales; "It is about how much you have saved and it is not about how much you have spent". Let's say you bought a dress at 50% discount, it means that you have saved half of the price that you need to pay. Always think of how much you have saved. Such a great philosophy, don't you think?

However, at the end of the day, it is you who decide to buy or not to buy. In my case, because I have a part time job as a financial back up whilst finding a job, I invested in those two items. Furthermore, during this so called difficult time, I needed something to comfort myself (hhmm... you must think this is an excuse to shop!) to go through the emotional-financial roller coaster at the moment. Life goes on and I would like to go on with style.

Getting started

"Hah? You attended a workshop on 'Writing blogs'? That was the impression of one of my friends when I told her what I did on Saturday. I guess for her or maybe some others that writing blogs is easy peasy. Why do you have to spend your weekend and pay few hundreds for a workshop on an easy topic such as this?

The reason I attended this workshop was because I have been planning to have my own fashion blog, where I could show my creations and share fashion knowledge. In fact, the said blog is in infancy stage. Before I really started to work on it, I felt like I needed more info on blogs and blogging especially on legal part. The workshop organised by NSTP was very informative and beneficial. I am glad that I've signed up. No regrets.

Now, with that knowledge, I can start re-plan on the content and approach of my fashion blog. Looks like this will keep me busy for a while.