Stop. Think. Act.

Here is a little thought:

Take a moment out of our previous time to stop whatever we are doing for a while and think about what is happening around us and how this would affect our life. Think of our loved ones, friends, neighbours, co-workers and anyone else we know. Act what our heart thinks is right. Lend a helping when someone is in need or give a hug to someone who needs it. At times, small gestures or deeds mean a lot. Start reaching out to those in need!

Time to reflect...

One, two, three... three more days to go before we ushering in 2011! It is exciting yet scary because there is a whole new world or new path to explore. Not sure what are in store for each and everyone of us.

Looking back through 2010, it has been a roller coaster ride, fulled of ups and downs. Well, that's what life is all about, right? Otherwise it would very monotonous, which can be dull. I guess every now and then we need a bit of drama in life; to spice up one's life so to speak.

Moving forward towards 2011. What I can do is to learn from mistakes from the past years and improve from there. Here, I have outlined some of the things that I need to work on:

Career
- hope to find a solution to 'passion or money'. Perhaps work for money during daytime and work for passion during at night or weekends?

Health
- exercise more.
- eat more veggie and fruits.
- count down coffee. This is quite difficult as I need to caffeine in the mornings. Sigh.

Finance
- save money into bank account each month (literally). I am very bad with this. I have always ended up using the money on something else. Vintage dresses? ;-)
- stick to monthly budget. Keeping my fingers crossed.
- thrift more instead of buy brand new stuff, unless I like the item very much (and within my budget), which I think it would be most unlikely as I like one of kind stuff!

Leisure
- spend more time with family and friends.
- hope to start proper sewing instead alterations. Bought a pattern magazine, FEMALE. Actually I have a couple of them but I have yet to sew anything for myself!

Picture taken from the cover of FEMALE for 2010 Autumn, website: http://www.boutique-sha.co.jp/

- hope to add frequency of blog entries especially on outfit posts. What do you think? Any comments?
- hope to travel to Paris. Do not know why that lately I am drawn to Paris. Because of flea markets?? Or affordable flights by AirAsia?? If not Paris, I guess Bandung would be a good place to shop for vintage dresses :-)

I think the above list is pretty much achievable (but not sure about the trip to Paris though). Well, at least there is something to dream, think about and work on. Life is all about the journey and not about the destination. Destination is like a target/goal we set to achieve and once it is achieved, we move on to the next target. Life goes on. It is a movement. All of us will reach our final destination at some point but how we spent and lived our life matters the most; our beliefs, our values, our deeds etc.

Living La Vida Chic

When life has become so routine, boredom creeps in slowly. This is the time to take action; to add some spice into life or to let boredom takes over life. Few tiny steps to spice up life through fashion are:

1. dress up for work or any social activities. If you look good, you feel good.
2. change hairstyle
3. purchase new accessories. It's a cheap way to expand your wardrobe/collection.
4. dress up based on a theme or trend at least once a week, eg. you can have a Girlie Day whereby you wear the most girlie outfit you have in your wardrobe. Bring out the girlie side of you which may have been hiding for so long. Enjoy and have fun with it.
5. try new colour
6. try new trend or style that you have been contemplating. Fashion is about experimenting styles.

Whenever I am feeling blah, I will make an effort to dress up a bit - add an accessories into my outfit. I have my session of retail therapies to de-stressing myself after a hard day or week at work. I usually purchase accessories such as necklaces and belts.

I am working on point #4 as I am not sure what theme to try. So far, I've tried vintage dress. Need to parade my purchases from flea market ;-) Will think and plan point #5 and #6. Looking forward to trying them.

I've got a feeling that life will slowly getting more fun in a fashionable way. Enjoy and live life in a stylish way.

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 ;-)