goodbye steve...

"Your time is limited, don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinion drowned your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."  - Steve Jobs

courage to live

If you’re lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.
- John Irving

growing your own seeds

I received this email from TUT a few weeks ago. It struck me and have been meaning to write about it since forever. :P

It's like everyone's given seeds that are capable of growing into the garden of their dreams, but no one's been told they even have them. Then, when they see their neighbor's garden growing, whether it's because their neighbor actually found their seeds or accidentally spilled them, there's a rush to see what's happening. In fact, whole industries are built around the buying, selling, and trading of other people's gardens. Agents are hired, sales teams assembled, and sometimes stocks and bonds are issued. Vendors compete, lawyers are hired, and accountants are sued. There are mergers and acquisitions, buyouts and takeovers, and of course 401k's, company picnics, and vacation days.

There are seeds that grow into private gardens. Seeds that grow into best sellers. And seeds that grow into happy families.

It's quite a riot, and often good fun, but would you believe that one of the biggest impediments one has to discovering their own seeds, these days, is their fascination with the gardens of others?

I'm a huge believer that 'success' should be a personal thing. It should differ from one person to another because we inherently have different seeds inside each of us. We will be happy if we can grow our own seeds. But most of the time, instead of looking inwards and searching for their own seeds, people will make goals of growing some popular seeds and define their success based on that growth.

I'm still on that journey of digging and finding my seeds then nurturing them to grow. It has been a rewarding journey. :)

{ the trees are from Love Birds Combo set }

happy easter!

A basket of Easter eggs

Happy Easter everyone! Wish you have a meaningful one. :)


[ shop makeover update ]

So the shop makeover is ongoing. I did not keep count on how many I've changed, just slowly changing one by one if I have time. I hope the new tags and the new listing description style are better (and more SEO friendly).

[ facebook page ]
I just found this, via Etsy forum, yesterday. The article is giving a detailed instruction on building a Facebook page. Super useful. :)

[ blog post ]
I have thought of featuring my customers and their business in this blog. Will start to contact them as soon as I have finalized the plan. I'm open for interview/how-to-feature-with-a-bang ideas. :)

So I'm wishing you readers a wonderful week ahead! :D

{Easter Eggs}

my etsy shop makeover: titles, descriptions, and tags

I read a thread in the forum a few days ago and I just realized that I made quite a mistake in tagging! I've been tagging my items with potential uses for them... and this is frustrating for people who is using 'search' to shop for items. If I have ever frustrated you in this way, I am so sorry.

So I am launching a shop makeover, especially for my tags. If you want to know more about the tagging system, you can find more information here. I have slightly over than a hundred items in the shop. It could take a little while, but I will get them right! :P

I think I'll be referring to The Etsy Shop Makeover series often to make shopping a better experience for all of you.

custom orders pictures uploaded

Little Red Riding Hood set

I just uploaded some of my custom orders pictures in my Facebook page. Check them out here. I planned to upload them in the blog too with accompanying stories. But let's do this slowly. :)

vivera design facebook page

I just created a Facebook Page here:

Vivera Design Facebook Page

The first 25 people who 'like' the page can pick ANY one product from my Etsy shop for FREE. I will send you a message in your Facebook inbox for notification. :)

Thank you so much! :D

Update: The page is now located here: https://www.facebook.com/viveradesign (after 25 likers, we can choose an account name for shorter addres).

the road not taken

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

—Robert Frost

taste so sweet

I got my 100th sale last January 15th. The reality of being able to earn some money while doing the thing I love hit me hard this month. I was stubborn enough to quit my engineering job in Singapore (with good pay) and chose to stay home with the kids, earning nothing, for years. While I did have the dreams of working on something that I love from home, with the kids, I was often uncertain of the possibility that it could be done soon. Faith keep me going, and my husband provides his constant support... and here I am. While I'm not earning as much as other wonderful sellers in Etsy, I have earned something. The most valuable were the wonderful heartwarming feedback I got from my customers. I've gone farther than I used to dream of going. I am thankful for that.

I've been sleeping a lot less nowadays, but I've been feeling a lot happier too.

Go for your dream. If you can dream it, you can do it. :)

{Check my shop for print or clip art of the image above.}

2010 to 2011

Happy New Year to all who read this! :)

I am writing this about three hours before the new year start in West Indonesia. 2010 has been quite an amazing year for me. This year I got to watch my stubborn little princess to turn from one to two, getting chattier by the month. And my boy grew taller (and less chubby) into a four and a half year old boy. My! I couldn't believe he will turn FIVE next June.

I started my Etsy shop in March, got my first sale ever a few days later. And only managed to have the next sale in October (that was like... seven month later!). So after that one sale in March, I had two sales in October, three in November, and... five in December? Nah, I had a total of 45 sales now, so that's 39 sales in December. I am so grateful, and any of you who read this has been (or hopefully, still is) my customer, I want to say a huge THANK YOU for purchasing my art. I've gone through quite a lot of 'down' times this year, and every sale has been a tremendous encouragement for me to move on.

I plan to write more next year (that's starting tomorrow, ehm), but not very sure if I can because my priority would still be filling up the shop and attending to all my dear customers. And I just lose my part-time assistant (who help out with the housechores) today. So yeah, looks like I need to be realistic. I will try to share what I has learned during my journey along the way, but... yeah, I'll just take it one step at a time.

Thank you for reading this. Thank you for visiting the shop. Thank you for believing in my art and in me. I wish you all the very best in your journey next year. Happy New Year!