2012

It's the 3rd day of 2012 and I'm already back to work. Back then when I still had my old blog, I'd take time off every 31st December to blog through the new year and set new resolutions for myself. I'd even recap the whole year and see if it was a good or a bad one.

I don't think I'm going to do much of a long post this year around mainly because I'm pretty lazy and still have a bit of work to do so I don't think I can do a long one anyway.

2011 was generally speaking, an eventful year. I finished Poly (finally!), I joined Start Up @ Singapore and got into the finals with the lovely friends, I started up La Novella with the boyfriend and we are finally starting to break even. :)

I had a lot of downtimes this year because of my lack in better time and stress management. I suppose this year, I'll have to work on them a little more.

It's still a little hard to believe that I've finally finished my 3 years of Polytechnic education and have moved on to carving out our own little world here. It's also especially difficult to believe that I'll be 21 in 4 months time -_- The boyfriend will officially be turning 21 in 2 days and I've literally prepared nothing for him. :/

I'm glad I got through 2011 - it was the year of a lot of tears, a lot of hard work, a million surprises, rebuilding friendships and just generally speaking, a year of beginnings.

Hopefully 2012 will see major expansions in La Novella's operations and a generally better relationship with the boyfriend, the family and all my dearest friends.

Here's wishing everyone out there who happens to read this a very happy new year and I hope 2012 will be a good year for you no matter where you are and what you do!

Sobfest

This Thursday feels like a sobfest in the studio for me. I started off with doing work that I don't have to start on yet... And then, I started watching a proposal video. That sparked off my tear glands. They are not very happy today. After which, I started reading blogs of widows... And that didn't sit too well either. My tear glands are still working pretty hard today.

I wonder how my customers will react if they see me weeping silently outside the studio when they exit the studio.

There are so many thoughts going through my mind right now. My emotions are in an absolute turmoil.

It is scary to be in a relationship. You end up baring your soul to someone so foreign yet so close to you at the same time. It's been 6 years now. But does it make me feel any better to bare my soul to someone else? Not always. I feel exposed and vulnerable and easily hurt most of the time. But he's so impossible to leave. He's so impossible to reject. He's so impossible to not love.

It is also extremely scary to be in a business with the same guy you're in a relationship with. There are so many what if's. There's so much tension most of the time. There's so much fear. And you bare yourself a lot more than you're supposed to just because you're in a business with him. There's so much insecurities, so much fear, so much that can go wrong.

I hope nothing goes wrong.

The story.

If I was myself one year ago, I'd never have thought that I would open a studio one year later.

One year ago, I started up Thursday Tales (which is now closed) with the intention of setting up an online boutique that was fairytale themed. But it turned out to be a fairytale as well. It's simply too difficult to enter the online boutique market without some fame/ extra capital or just a selling point that was unique enough. I eventually got discouraged and closed Thursday Tales down permanently. Actually there's a part of me who would love to bring the shop back. I loved it because I fully conceptualized the idea and created it with the help of my lovely friends. I still love Thursday Tales and it'll forever be part of my memories and history.

But now La Novella Studio has came along and I love it with every bit of my life as well. Despite the need for National Service and the many difficulties that we perceived would come our way, the boyfriend and I still went ahead and followed our hearts instead. We created La Novella Studio with the help of our parents and although he's in army now, he spends much of his free time here in the studio with me.

It's not easy, really. This studio is probably one of the hardest projects I've embarked into in my entire life. There's much of photography that I've yet to learn. There's so much of the studio that still baffles me even up till today. But it's challenging I guess. It's challenging to learn. It's so different from what I've done in my entire life that it challenges me to want to learn that much more.

I wouldn't say I've done a good job though. I've made so much mistakes in the scheduling of bookings that it's not funny. But realize that I'm still a newbie at this and sometimes, I just really need time to learn. I am not a machine/a robot. I'm a human being and human beings make mistakes - much like anyone else. The fact that I work in this studio doesn't make me any less of a human being so start treating me like one please.

I've been working the most irregular hours here in the studio and sometimes, it's just really exhausting to say the least. So when I make mistakes, please understand that it's not my intention to screw up your schedule. It's just that sometimes, you're just too exhausted to focus but yet you still have to because you have a mailbox that is filled to the brim.

So yes, it is definitely not easy and I'm definitely still learning, but I'll be better. I promise.

La Novella Studio will be a lot better one day and I'll be sure to make that happen.

Chase

Sitting in the office has this ability to make me think too much. There are a lot of thoughts swimming through my mind today. Good ones. Bad ones. What if I don't turn out the way I want to in 2 years time? What if I fail? What if I become a failure in life? What if things turn out the way I wanted it to? What if things turn out well? What if La Novella becomes a success? What will I do then?

Whether or not the business turns out well, I always have this same dilemma. What will I do later on in life then? I don't want to keep running around chasing after money. I don't want to lead a life where I am enslaved to my job. I want to lead a carefree life. I want to tour the world. I want to travel and learn all the wonders of Earth. I want to do things that makes me happy. I don't want to be tied down to the same spot just because. 

But I realize this is a very naive thinking. How can anyone drop whatever they have on hand to just travel the world? How can anyone just drop everything just to be happy? How does anyone know that they have earned enough money to stop being enslaved to it? What is having enough money? 

It is sad isn't it? Because life is just like a vicious cycle. There are endless things that you want to achieve. There are endless things that you want to chase after. There is this endless materialism that you'd like to fulfill. And let me just say that even those people who tells the whole world "they don't believe in money", "they only like nature" etc chases after things as well. We are all enslaved to a goal in life. We are all enslaved to something that we will spend our entire life chasing after. 

Some people chase after money. Some chase after fame. Some chase after peace. Some just after eternal wealth. Some recognition. 

What do you chase after? 

And no. Please don't ask me to stop being sad/emo just because I wrote this post. I don't have these emotions in me right now. All I have is a brain that works too quickly. A brain that is registering too much  thoughts.

♥

I'm here with my obligatory once a month post again! This time around, it's about La Novella Studio's one month anniversary! We have finally pulled through our first month. Still not making any profits but I think I am pretty happy that at least the brand is growing. I have a few plans up my sleeves for the coming month to hopefully help the studio grow to the magnitude that we would like it to be so I am looking forward to that...

Let's review some of the memories that I've had in La Novella Studio during the past month or so.

My best memory of the month has to go to The Pixiefication Party hosted by Rachell (Pxdkitty)! It was super fun and allowed us to know a lot more wonderful people! (:

I also have all the awesome friends and of course my awesome boyfriend to thank for being there for me so that I was never truly alone and lonely. 

 Erm. Other memories of the studio include my crazy camwhoring while waiting for people to finish their shoot so let's skip all these.

And that's all I have for you for this post! Shall post about my trip to Ho Chi Minh City next

♥

La Novella Studio

I am really starting to only post once a month :/ The famous excuse: I've been busy. No really, I have. I have been busy with the whole set up and renovation of the studio. Also busy trying to get the name of the studio out and just really aggressively advertising the studio.

I know I promised that this post will contain photos of the studio. So, I've decided to do an entire post on the transformation of La Novella Studio - from the very beginning when we rented this place till now when we have finished the entire renovation and set up of the studio.

Without further ado, I present to you La Novella Studio, 2 months ago:

This was the studio right before we had it painted. Look at how dusty the floor was and how ugly the whole place looked. :/

Another photo of it right before painting.

Work in progress!

This was right after we had it painted. Looked a lot cleaner and neater.

The boyfriend (who still had a lot of hair) measuring the size of the wall.

Then we decided that it was time to do some furniture shopping!

Here are some of the furniture we liked but didn't get to buy ):

The $40 table that we bought to assemble for the office!

And this was one of the tables right after its assembly.

This was me trying out zillions of typography to finalize our logo.

And with everything about done... I present to you La Novella Studio (2 months later): 

The office - with our final assembled $40 tables

The sofa and coffee table that we decided on purchasing in the end!

The studio area with all the equipments and the white backdrop

Our steam iron & Clothes rack

The hair straightener that we bought for usage in the studio

And finally,

The logo we picked in the end.

And there you have it! This was the entire transformation progress of our studio. Of course, I didn't add in a lot of details because I didn't take pictures every step of the way. This was probably the most exhausting journey I've put myself through in the entire 20 years of my life, both emotionally and physically. But it was also probably the most fulfilling journey I'd ever embark in my life and I'll never ever trade this experience for anything in the world.

♥♥♥♥♥

Another long break

So, I took another extremely long break away from blogging. Been working on my office, on learning the art of self-reliance and just generally trying to get myself back on my feet. It has been an extremely emotionally challenging month.
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That aside, the office is finally coming to shape and I've been in talks with people. I don't think the studio is going to lack business but I hope this isn't just my over-confidence talking here. I honestly, sincerely hope that things are going to work out fine because I've put in nothing short of my best for the past few weeks.

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My heart has been extremely heavy lately. I like what I am doing but I don't like the way my closest people are leaving me.

It's 5.18am and my thoughts are incoherent as ever.

I haven't cried for awhile but tonight I wish something would trigger off an emotional meltdown. I'd like that. I think it'd be good for my heart. I think it'd be nice to let go for once.

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I miss you, you and you. I miss my 18th and 19th birthday. I miss having all of you around me. I miss feeling like I don't have a thing to worry about at all. I miss having you around me. I miss the past 7 years.

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This post seems to be a compilation of all the snippets of thoughts going through my mind this dreary Monday morning. The boyfriend just woke up. Guess this is my cue for goodnight then.

I have another long day ahead of me tomorrow.

Next post up ~ pictures of the completed office/studio!