2012 Hari Raya Bazaar

Our annual Aidilfitri bazaar is now open for business !

Come check out the hundreds of kids baju kurung we have in stock this year. As always our sizes are from 0 to 12 years. BUT we have a special additional service this year . If you wish to bring your own fabric and have us custom make the baju kurung you may do so by bringing your fabric to any of our outlets.

Our Hari Raya Bazaar is located at Ground Floor The Curve ( opposit British India )
From 20 July to 26 August 2012.

Post Raya Bazaar

SORRYYYY for the long silent treatment .....

In between preparing the stocks for Ramadhan , the Raya bazaar and then the Mega Sale , somehow i have put this blog at the back of my head to-think-and-type list . Time to clean up the spider webs and start strumming on them keyboards again .

We had our usual hectic Ramadhan month where we churn out absolutely gorgeous baju kurungs for your little girls . This time around i wanted to brand it separately than the usual Little Haven tags , so we decided to call our 2011 collection Little Traditions by Little Haven. Cool tak?

I stick to the same things that i believe in which is good fabric , adorable prints and well made clothing . When we open our Raya Souq at the Curve on the 5th of August , we already had a huge waiting list of people waiting to get their hands on our stuff . Unbelievable. Alhamdulillah :)

Additionally , we also had the pleasure of having Bayou Batik as our guest designer this year , whereby they stock some of the most elegant handpainted batik apparel for ladies i've seen. Such luxury !

So nice to see our regulars coming back year after year , and we kept on increasing the size packs to accomodate their growing kids . I'm not surprised if we start making tween sizes for next year , growing in sizes as our customers grow . They cant stay a size 4y forever i suppose :)

Quilting Makcik VS Bike Chick

When we set up the sewing studio last May , the space we rented was way bigger than the area we needed . So I decided to let hubs sublet half and turn it into his bike showroom . Que's been running an online business selling mountain bikes, fixed bikes and bike accessories for almost 3 years now. He bought so much cycling stuff , it was making a big mess at our porch . So he decided to sell some . And people like the stuff he bought and he sold some more. The rest is history.




So after experimenting with different orientations , we decided that its best that he takes the front half of the shop , and our sewing studio takes the back half. Since we don't rely on walk ins and he does , this arrangement made perfect sense although from the outside you cant tell that there's a dainty little sewing shop tucked behind this rugged looking xtreme bike shop. He's all black and greasy , we're all pink and pretty.



Perfect.


Yesterday we received 23 bikes from the nearby UITM bike club. They needed to be serviced , repaired and cleaned. And once they're cleaned , guess where they put the bikes while waiting for the lorry to pick them up next Thursday .

Yup , encroaching into MY sewing section , leaning against MY fabric closets are upside down bicycles. If kena my fabrics, you boys die. ok.

Needless to say , staring at upside down bicycles does absolutely nothing to spark my creative juices.

Sticky Business

My second daughter is 9 years old. Yasmin had a sticker business.

A couple of months ago I bought her a few sheets of stickers. In each sheet there's about a dozen small stickers . She then cut the small stickers into individual pieces and sells them for 20 sen. I didn't ask her to sell the stickers , but she decided on her own that she has enough stickers for herself and wanted to sell the rest. At the end of the first day , she had a backlog order from at least half a dozen friends !

I asked her why did she cut the stickers and sell them so cheap instead of selling an entire sheet. Without hesitation she answered " oh, it's because most of my friends only bring RM2 to school . If I sell the stickers too expensive , they might not have enough money to buy food or drinks at the canteen . This way they can still buy my stickers AND buy food" .  I was very impressed with this rationale because it proved that at that tender age, she understood some of the basic principal of a business -

(1) know who your customers are ( other students and their budget )

(2) know her products and its optimum price  ( 20 sen. Any more, they might now buy . Any less , she won't get a profit )

(3) address the need of your customer ( want stickers , want food , limited allowance)

(4) business ethics ( not to have anybody finish their allowances on her stickers that they don't eat , only sell during recess and after school hours )

If you notice , i said "Yasmin HAD a sticker business , not HAS". Business was booming but unfortunately , her stint had to be cut short when she's made prefect at her school ( i didnt know standard 3 can jadi prefect ) and according to her , prefects are not allowed to sell stuff ( and non prefects can ? hmmm....nevermind. )
This same principal can be applied to any business even if it a hundred times bigger in size. It can be the first thing you think about when you think about starting a business ( what do i want to sell and who need this product i'm selling ). It always helps to start a business doing what you are already good at or passionate about . Yasmin loves glitter stickers , so it made sense to her to share what she already like seeing. I cant imagine myself opening a Kinko's , or a restaurant , or a mini market because i have no interest whatsoever in paper , heavy duty cooking or FMCG ( fast moving consumer goods ) . But if I am not running my childrens boutique , I can probably see myself opening a quilt shop or a wedding gallery or a cozy cafe , given my love for fabrics , weddings and latte.

So in my opinion , if you have no idea about what you want to sell , maybe you can start thinking about what you like in life in general. What attracts you when you go to the mall , what products you love , what services you use , etc . And then go one step up and start thinking about what gap is there in the market , what new products or services can you think of , what niche in the market you can service etc. Of course there is always that instance when someone finds inspiration to start a business over something that he/she never think about , or when a rare opportunity strikes and you can take advantage of it. There are also many that inherit family businesses and dont need to think twice about what they want to do .Or perhaps you are very good at your job now and found an original spin off idea that you can start your business with .

Anyhow, Yasmin found her ideal business. I hope you find yours too.

 

My Shop's New Look . Pixie Lights

I want a chandelier in my shop . Period.



In my head I'm seeing a mejestic seven tier masterpiece of shine , shimmer and glimmer ( alamak , quoting Barbie again ) with sparkly crystals cascading down from antique candles reminiscent of the that candle guy in Beauty & the Beast. It will be regal , it will be devastatingly fabulous , it will be all that and mor .

Its not happening.

A quick 10 minutes discussion with Jamsen, my long time electrician turn insurance agent ( but still Mr E for his loyal customers) quickly put out any kind of hope i have of having a mind blowing piece in my shop . " Ceiling you manyak rendahla " " Plaster ceiling tak kuat ooo . nanti jatuh" .

But if there's one thing that I know about myself - I'm persistent. So after scaling down the size ( and my expectations ) , it seems that we can only fit a teeny tiny chandelier piece . And even then , during installation we had to trim the chain short so that it wont bump into my cashier's head . LOL .

But I got my chandelier in the end . And it looks just fine.



My sweet & small chandelier .



My Shop's New Look . Designing Fixtures

Now that I've picked out the wallpaper for the walls , now i need to decide what fixtures i want to keep , throw or order. So I decided that all the wall cabinets get to stay ( also due to budget cutbacks :) and the gondolas remain . But i'm not to fond of the double rack metal clothing rack that displays our baby clothes . So that one's going away.

Last Xmas , our toys fair was nestled between wraught iron pillars in gold and backed with a majestice wrought iron gate. The grandness of the whole visual was stuck in my mind ( i kept on reminding A&P if they ever want to dispose of the gates after xmas to please think of me ) I thought it'll be a lovely idea to design a wraught iron clothing cabinet for the dresses.

This is our 2009 Toys Promotion in conjuction to the Autumn Xmas at CenterCourt. Isnt it pretty.. So i took the wraught iron inspiration and combine it with another inspiration - a wedding cake !

PLUS



2009 Little Haven Toys Fair Centercourt The Curve



 And tadaaaa.... i came up with the display rack below that I fondly call my Princess Racks. They're powder coated in white for that ethereal feel. Although I must thank my friend Pattrine again , for helping me out with communication. The first few companies i spoke to speak mainly Kantonese , so they all thought i wanted a drying rack or a window grill . So ... thanks Pattrine !

As our customers have knack of ordering things that we do NOT sell in our boutiques , i thought why not share this with them as well . So for anyone interested in having the Little Haven Princess racks in their homes , we can custom order them for you . Each rack is approximately 5' high , 4' wide and sides are about 2'. The middle bar is removable.

I should caution you though , this rack is super heavy ( because its 100 % wraught iron ). So if your kid is the climbing type , i won't recommend it . bahaya oooo...

My Shop's New Look . Behind The Scene .

Its our fifth year running at the Curve and we wanted to treat our regular customers with a brand new look. Upon scrutinizing piles of interior magazines for inspiration , i look no more than my ultmate source of ideas - Barbie movies. Cheesy , i know . But i must admit , there is always something beautiful about having lots of pastels , lots of white , lots of swirls and lots of tiaras in the picture. It just looks , pretty.

So I put together a design board and get started on my color pallette. I collected pictures of things I love , and things that inspires me.

 


Image (left) from polyvore.com


Now that i've reaffirmed what i've always known , which is i'm a sucker for everything pink , i knew i wanted the shop to keep this same color scheme. Next is to decide what kind of changes i 'd like to make. I wanted the shop to look different , but still keep the crafty vibes in check. Wanted to keep some furniture , but change some too . And definitely change the wall treatment.

So off i went wallpaper hunting with my good friend Pattrine , who is by the way , a brilliant businesswoman. She's the brains behind brands like Spiele & Schenken toys , Tootle Tee and a whole bunch of cool brands . Anyway , back to our hunting trip . Pattrine has some vouchers she received from last year's HomeDec exhibition. So off we went to this wallpaper place and my oh my , do they have wallpaper. Hundreds and hundreds of wallpaper , and some fetches up to over RM400 per roll !

But even after scanning all the designs , nothing caught my eyes. I dont like to overthink designs , i usually know what i like when i see it. A couple of days later , and many more trips to i.d stores, I walked past the Laura Ashley boutique and thought , what the heck, maybe tucked between granny cardigans i may just find something useful. And waddayaknow , i found this -

Perfect! Josette Carnation from Laura Ashley it is then for the walls . Next , fixtures.