Sunday Stickies // 11 October 2015

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.

The week at honey&gazelle Design Studio can be summed up into an image of two headless chickens running around. Okay, please don’t think about it too graphically with real chickens. That would be frightful and very unpleasant.

Let’s stay on track with our busy week, shall we? We have been rushing to get our new collections out to the printers and at the same time, handle a bunch of boring logistics. Sometimes we wished that our work could just simply stop at designing. Such a pity that it is just a daydream!

We are very excited about the new stuff coming your way! We have Christmas goodies, new postcards and art prints, as well as something for the new year ahead and some things for you to write on. More news about our latest products will be trickling into our Instagram account and subsequently our stores as soon as next week!

Min: This week’s phone struggle was very real. I have no idea how I managed to wipe out my data usage this month! It has only been less than 2 weeks and I’m out of data. Say whhuuuuut? I’m currently on wifi, 2G or flight mode. It’s so frustrating to be unable to reply to anyone’s messages. It also didn’t help that my phone went missing for a couple of hours! Because the phone was on flight mode, I couldn’t call through or detect it. Ahhh! Imagine my face when I finally found it under the car seat a few hours later….

My mum’s birthday is tomorrow and I have a whole list of mummy-daughter adventures to do together! I can’t wait to spend some fun time in the sun with her! Have a blessed birthday mum. I love you so so much! 🙂

Jia: If you know me really well or if you have been reading our Sunday Stickies regularly, you would know that I have a finicky relationship with sleep. Some days I get to sleep peacefully but most days I can’t even catch a wink of it.

I am currently on a terrible sleep cycle. The good news is that I have actually slept most nights for the past two weeks! The bad news is that I can only get to sleep from 5am to 11am, which is horrible for work and feeling normal. I feel like I am back living in Geneva time. Oh, the life of an insomniac with sleep anxiety!

Sleep issues aside, I find myself surrounded with love and miracles. Butter macadamia nut cupcakes and new in-ear headphones along with quality time spent with friends and the boyfriend make me feel very cherished and loved! In more great news, my friend’s loved one has miraculously recovered after many days in the ICU. It has been an awesome week!

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Tell us how your week went! 🙂

Love, Min+Jia.

Sunday Stickies // 4 October 2015

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.

HELLO OCTOBER!

We have been waiting and working towards October for the past few weeks. As you know, we took a short break from pop-up booth appearances at art markets in September, which proved to be an interesting experience after our hectic weekly booth period in August. We felt like our productivity dropped tremendously in September despite us working our arses off. Whatever it is, we are back and we started hustling at the Red Dot Design Museum for MAAD on Friday.

MAAD was fun! We made a few new lovely friends who were also fellow vendors, and saw a couple of our old customers again. Hello hello hello. We are so pleased to meet you!

This week can be summed up in just one word: (post)cards. Yes, new postcards and the introduction of cards (yes, just cards, not postcards) will be coming your way soon.

Min: This week was about goodbyes and many ‘gotta be strong‘ emotional moments. I’m not good with goodbyes because I don’t usually see the good in them. I’m overly attached and have deep separation issues, goodbyes are… tough business for me. I’m on an emotional rollercoaster this week, and I sure hope all will be better the next week.

Thanks Jia, for listening to my sorrows (on repeat) and putting up with my highs and lows this week. :’) Meeting awesome customers and likeminded vendors at MAAD also made my week a lot better. Now I have lovely smelling lavenders from Andy and Nelson (Flowers by Andson), by my bedside! Mmmm, all is calm.

Jia: I’m alive! Not only am I alive from being super ill the last two weeks, but my design mode is on. Hohoho. I’m feeling pretty jolly about that. And the Christmas goodies that will be launching soon. Wait, this part is supposed to be about my personal week.

Alright, my beloved closest dearest favouritest friend came home! Despite the terrible circumstances that brought her home suddenly, I am still very happy to see her and to irritate her in person. She is back for a couple of weeks, so yay! Let’s pray that she will leave for work and her current country of residence with a heart full of love and not woe.

In other happy news, fall tv shows are back! I can’t wait for new episodes of The Flash and Brooklyn Nine Nine, and all the many other shows I watch. Yes, I am a teevee junkie but I am no TV snob. I still watch The Voice, for reasons seriously unknown to me. I just watched the pilot episode of Quantico and found it pretty interesting. Another to add to my growing list!

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Here are the links to September’s Sunday Stickies if you missed any: 6 September // 13 September // 20 September // 27 September

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How was your week? Any grand plans for October?

Love, Min+Jia.

Sunday Stickies // 27 September 2015

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 has been one s-l-o-w week in terms of output and productivity at honey&gazelle design studio.

We are still stuck with some designs that just aren’t coming out right (in our eyes). Lots of retooling and reworking needs to be done next week before we are ready to start production!

Here’s to a better October in terms of health and productivity yes?

Min: This week is all about reflections and making changes. I feel that I am quite open to the idea of change but in reality, I take a long time to settle in and I need a lot of convincing that I have made the right decision. It’s been some time since my family dog left us for doggy heaven and while I really want a new dog (not to replace him but to have the company of a furry friend), my parents have expressed that they can’t deal with another heartbreak and ache. I guess we will have to deal with this as a family!

Another change that I’m seriously anticipating is my body! Asides from healthy challenges that Jia and I occasionally partake in, I have also signed myself up for one year of gym classes, to you know, tone up? I had my first spinning class yesterday and boy, my head’s still spinning from all that cycling. Side note to my dear friend: Hats off to you, Est! You’re amazing!

Jia: I have been sick for the entire week, struggling to recover from my asthma attacks and coughing fits in the midst of terrible terrible haze. I didn’t do much as the doctor’s orders were simply “REST!”. So yeah, that is my week summed up in one sad sticky against my bedroom wall.

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Tell us about your week below! We’d love to hear from you 🙂

Love, Min+Jia.

Sunday Stickies // 20 September 2015

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.

Yikes, September is on its way out and the end of the year is coming. We have been rushing to catch up with tons of work all week but the weather is slowing us down.

In more positive news, look out for more Colour-It-Yourself and Wordsearch postcards! We are super thrilled with the positive response to our various postcard concepts and have been working on new ideas for the past few weeks. Asides from postcards, we are also designing and testing our products frantically for Christmas and the end of the year. More information will be released in October 🙂 Very exciting!

It seems that love is in the air, as we have also been busying ourselves with commissioned wedding invitations. Congrats to all the lovebirds getting hitched in 2016! -throws confetti-

So much work, so little time!

Min: It has been a rather meh and slow work week for me. I haven’t been very productive at work so I now have quite a bit of stuff stacked up on my “in” pile. Ahhh, someone save me please! It really doesn’t help that I’m currently hooked on Pocket Mine, and I’ll be smashing rocks whenever I get some free time at work.

Oh! And I finally had the chance to watch the Singapore Grand Prix and… it was a neck aching/breaking experience for sure. After all that race adrenaline (or beer high), we caught Pharrell Williams live! Whoop whoop! Really love his giraffe tee and jeans outfit.

Jia: One of those weeks where it felt like time just went by in a blink of an eye, however when you really think about it, there were moments within the week where time seemed to have lingered and stood still. The moments that stood out were my boyfriend’s birthday (yay!) and me feeling sick on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday (boo!).

I am ending the week on a very exciting and fist-pumping note though – Bon Jovi’s concert at the Singapore Grand Prix is going to start in 10 hours! I am spending the rest of my Sunday (albeit sick) at the race with good music – The Sam Willows and Bon Jovi – and my favourite partner-in-crime ❤ I looooooooove Bon Jovi and I cannot.wait.to.see.them.live. Like I have told my boyfriend – I’ll be there for you always on a bed of roses. You can be my friend if you know how many songs were in that sentence!

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Tell us – how was YOUR week?

Love, Min+Jia.

Sunday Stickies // 13 September 2015 + Behind The Scenes!

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 Sunday Stickies post is a little different from usual. We are preparing and publishing it together for the first time! We usually write our own stickies and bits of the Sunday Stickies posts separately.

This weekend, we are having a little fake retreat that is basically a quarterly review of our business. We are hidden away in a small hotel room that kind of looks like a dorm room and have been having meetings all day all night. However, we took a break to prepare for this post and thought it would be fun to show you what goes behind the scenes of a stickies post. 🙂

Jia’s mess and stickies. She got stuck with drawing on the bed, thus is using the tablet and notebook as support!

Min’s work in progress. As you can probably tell, tons of pens and markers get in on the action!

Arranging the stickies on the hotel room wall. Gorgeous laminate!

And what you are here to read… our stickies! Click to enlarge 🙂

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Hope you are having a great weekend! Tell us how your week went in the comments section below 🙂

Love, Min+Jia.

Sunday Stickies // 6 September 2015

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.

Hello September! We have been waiting for you.

September is going to be a month of planning and hibernation. We just wrapped up our last art market appearance for the month on Friday and we can’t wait to have a weekend to ourselves. After a ‘very enthusiastic but rather lacking in strategy’ August, September is all about focusing and refining. If you have any suggestions or feedback on our art prints and postcards, please do get in touch with us!

I know that we are always thanking you for your support in our Sunday Stickies, but we really do mean it. We are grateful for the positive response and warmth!

This week’s Sunday Stickies post is a little different as Min is away on a business trip with really spotty wifi. She was unable to send over her stickies and thus wanted me to type this: 😦 😦 😦

It has been a pretty worrying week as Boba had 3 minor seizures since last Sunday. He is a special needs kitty, therefore his vet has assured that it is nothing much to worry about (yet) as cats with prior brain damage tend to get seizures. Sigh! I just want him to be healthy and happy! Praying for no more seizures as I can tell that it really confuses and scares him.

Here is another fact about me: I love studying! I have a “studying bug” that comes and goes very often. It encourages me to research for universities and courses. I know for sure that my studying days are far from over, so I am currently undecided if I should pursue my Masters or finally read that particular undergraduate “passion” degree. Oh well, I have a lot of time to think about it as I doubt I will be hitting the books within the next two years!

The haze has been causing me to sneeze and cough for the whole week ): Please, please, please let there be a heavy downpour soon!

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A round-up of links to our August’s Sunday Stickies: 2 August // 9 August // 16 August // 23 August // 30 August

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Do you have any special plans for September? Let’s share! (:

❤ Jia

Sunday Stickies // 30 August 2015

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.

Note: It is currently 4.33am on Sunday morning. We came home from the art market at 3am and have been working on this post just for you! 🙂 Please forgive any weird sentence structures or grammar errors. We tried our best 🙂

It is the end of August! This means it is the end of our experiment of participating in weekly art markets as well as our challenge of daily vegetarian lunches!

August has been a busy and tiring, yet rewarding and fun month. We made a lot of new friends (customers and fellow vendors), saw a sharp spike in our sales, and ate a lot of vegetables.

We are definitely taking it easy in September and would most likely surface in public just once – next week at Red Dot Design Museum. We are feeling super zapped out as we are actually introverts by nature. Haha! It is time to recharge!

2 more days of eating vegetarian lunches and we will be done with our challenge. It was not as difficult as we thought it would be. In fact, we may try it again and up the ante in another month. But for now, we are craving beef!

Min: August means a lot to me because it’s both my fiancé and my birthday month, with our birthdates only 6 days apart. This year’s birthday was a little different from the past few birthdays. Work got in the way (as usual) and we found ourselves glued to our phones most of the time. Woes of growing up right?

This week’s stickies are dedicated to the people whom I love ever so dearly; for loving me when I’m the least lovable and grumpy as can be. All glory goes to my Abba Father for His grace and provision. This year, my greatest wish is for good health for all the people I love (myself included) 🙂

Jia: Happy Birthday, Min! Thank you for never doubting me (not even once!) and for always being super supportive (: You are always a blast of sunshine in my life and I wish you all the happiness in the world. -throws confetti-

I am feeling so grateful and blessed this week. I just want to throw a whole lotta confetti of love around but I would most probably be fined for littering. Thank you to everyone who has shown us love and grace for the past few weeks. I never imagined such a warm reception and it has really been such an uplifting month. Hugs and kisses to all!

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How was your August? Are you looking forward to September? Tell us all about it below 🙂

Love, Min+Jia.

Sunday Stickies // 23 August 2015

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.

Woah, nelly. We are tired.

Our enthusiastic decision for honey&gazelle to participate in art markets every weekend in August has been enlightening, to say the least. We love meeting new people and telling them all about our designs and inspirations. We love getting the honey&gazelle brand out. We love that the response have been really positive; we even sold out of our wordsearch postcards last night!

However, the old ladies in us are exhausted. We are looking forward to mid September where we will have our little R&R time! Okay, not really relaxing as we will be making plans for honey&gazelle’s next big moves and products. Oh, the life of budding entrepreneurs!

Work hard, everyone! The end of the year is coming!

Min: August is all about celebrations and feasting for me cause it’s my (and my boyfriend’s) birthday month! -Proceeds to do the Boogie dance- I should be celebrating and all but… my head’s heavy and thoughts are fuzzy. I have no idea how I survived this week actually. But I do know that I’m sure not feeling very hyper even after drinking x cups of coffee. #realityofage is real! Eeks!

Going meatless for lunch in August has opened my eyes to the world of vegetables. When Jia and I decided to do this, I thought I was gonna give up by mid month and head straight for a plate of meat. But… nope. I’m still going strong (except when I had to use a cheat day #birthdayperks) Now, to make sure I drink at least 3L of water a day…

Jia: I am sure I have said this before in previous weeks, but this week went by in a fuzzy state of blur. Life, as an insomniac and workaholic gets pretty hazy. By Friday night, I was jabbering nonsense at the art market, unable to fully express my thoughts coherently. Someone, press the shut-down button on this robot please!

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How was your week? Are you getting enough sleep?

Love, Min+Jia.

Sunday Stickies // 16 August 2015

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.

August feels like it is running away from us. We can’t believe that it is the middle of the month already. What is it going to be next – Christmas?!

To describe our week in one word – overwhelming. We have been rushing custom designs for clients and our new product designs all week, plus the preparation of art market (MAAD) which was just over, amongst other things! Phew, we can do this though.

honey&gazelle will be participating in two more art markets this month as part of the Night Fest activities, with the closest upcoming market on 21 and 22 August at CHIJMES Hall from 6pm to 11pm. Our last market for the month is on 29 August at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) from 7pm to 2am. Min is a little freaked out by the timing for that as she will most probably become a zombie by 11pm! The early bird catches the worm because she does not stay up to party.

Some updates on our personal week and vegetarian diet below!

Min: It’s a known fact that I am a compulsive snacker. I always have snacks in my bag. My office drawer is filled with snacks. And I can binge on snacks all day long and still have Guacamole and chips for dinner. To be honest, going vegetarian for lunch is pretty easy for me and I can foresee myself eating more greens and less meat in the future! But… with all that clean and green goodness going on, I find it hard to snack cause it feels like I’m breaking my ‘healthy’ momentum. Do I make sense? So this month, I’m trying my best to snack on healthier options. Keywords: TRYING MY BEST. 

It has been one crazy week with very little sleep but my heart’s swelling with happiness and warmth. A big hello to those who popped by our booth at every art market to say hello! It really means a lot of us! 🙂 And to my dearest Jia and her other half, blessed anniversary you two! You guys are my favourite duo! ❤ ❤ ❤

Jia: Going vegetarian for lunch for the past 16 days does not seem to have any effect on my skin. I have actually sprouted two zits that I am pretty sad about! Hopefully things will look up by the end of the month. I have been finding it relatively easy to keep up with the vegetarian meals and have also been cutting down on the meats for dinner. However, I don’t think I can become a vegetarian completely. Gimme my tuna and bacon (though not together)!

This weekend is one of love, fun and happiness! My boyfriend and I celebrated (and are still celebrating on Sunday) our 9th year anniversary. Sounds crazy right? We spent yesterday at Universal Studios doing what I love the most – riding rollercoasters – and it always warms my sometimes cold heart whenever we do so. Why? Because my boyfriend hates rollercoasters and heights. This, my friend, is true love. ❤ 🙂

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Tell us how your week went in the comments section below!

Love, Min+Jia.

Sunday Stickies // 9 August 2015

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 is our 50th post!

Woohoo, we are really gleeful that our 50th post is coincidentally on 9 August 2015, which is Singapore’s National Day, and the nation’s 50th birthday (affectionately named SG50). In honour of SG50, we have written 5 things we love about our country 🙂

There are definitely more than 5 things we love about Singapore, but hey, we are going along with the “5” theme!

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All in all, we feel super blessed to be born in this multiracial peaceful country where we always feel safe and at home 🙂 May God continue to bless our country for many years to come!

Happy birthday, Singapore!

Love, Min+Jia.