parade of wanted things III

H&M is having one super cheap item (as if they aren't all super cheap already!) every day till Christmas. This is my current object of desire. Not that I have any balls to attend, but it's still desparately coveted.

feeling grey

No Grey's Anatomy until January 4 next year. How am I supposed to survive the rest of December without McDreamy?

lady in red update

We saved the lady in red from a fashion disaster. She offered profuse thanks and said she'd return in a couple of days to pay for the emergency surgery on her zip.

It's been four days and still no sign of her. May all her zips spontaneously explode the moment she sits down from now on.

swirl uniform

Is it a coincidence that the only dress I sold so far happens to be the very same one I'm wearing as the Swirl "uniform" today? I think not.

Now to figure out a way to wear multiple outfits a day as shameless self promotion. Oh wait, that's what Aubrey, Heidi and Su Mei are for. They're our mannequins, always standing tireless with their best posture in the shop window.

P.S. Why are they called mannequins when they are of the female form? Shouldn't they be womannequins?

a body in motion

It was the last pantry break I'd be having with my twin for a while. A very long while. We spent it complaining of being sleepy and "men men men" -- meaning bored, not referring to the male species -- and snapping idiotic fake Lomo photos.

And now, for a commercial break.



Fancy this pink and brown wrap dress in the Swirl colours? You know now where to get it. Also available in blue and black. Grey version sold out, sorry!



A customer came to the shop and immediately spotted the Sheryl top on the racks. She told my elf: "I saw a girl crossing the road just now in this top and I really liked it." That girl crossing the road was me. Butofcos she bought it.




I was swishing around the shop in this skirt when a customer came in and asked to try it. As she was admiring herself in the mirror, a second customer saw the two of us looking so good in the skirt, she also wanted to try it. I sold two champagne gold ones and a black one within an hour.

Shameless self promotion is the way to boost sales.

hello & goodbye

It was a 2D1N trip back home for my sissy, due to some visa issues. It was so rushed that the only way we could eat ice cream together was in the car on the way to the airport. And we could only Photo Booth at the airport minutes before her flight.

it's an emergency

As we were winding down business for the week today at about 7pm, a statuesque woman in a floor-length gown in deep red swept into the shop, with a worried looking make-up artist from the studio next door.

"Do you think you can fix the zip?" the make-up artist asked tentatively, pointing to the woman in red.

It was then that we noticed that the bustier part of her gown was gaping open on the left side. The zip had burst. Yet, she couldn't take off the dress because, under her armpit, the top part of the zip was still stuck fast.

While she stood still, imprisoned in her clothes, three pairs of hands tried to tug the zip down, but the teeth refused to release their grip.

I suddenly had a brainwave: The seamstress who does alterations for me across the road happened to be working late. So I lent her a jacket, for modesty's sake, and we rushed over.

There, she kicked off her Christina Louboutin killer heels -- absolutely the most beautifullest shoes I'd ever seen -- while my seamstress snipped apart the zip. Then, she sat in the fitting room in her strapless bra and knickers -- shivering, I imagined -- while emergency surgery was carried out.

The entire zip had to be taken out and a new one fitted in under the lining. No mean feat, and it was accomplished in less than 15 minutes.

The dress was still too tight, though, and it took three pairs of hands to zip her back in to go for her cocktail-dinner thingy.

She said she was not going to eat anything that night. Or even sit down. I think she might spend the whole evening sucking in her tummy.

Oh, she also said it was the first time she was wearing the gown and that it was "frigging expensive". In case anyone is interested in labels, it was a Karen Millen.

drive me crazy

HE: Drove past Stamford House and thought of you.

Wish I had the resolve to reply, "Don't drive past my place anymore."

What's the point of thinking about me, when he does nothing besides that? Either stop it or do something about it. Or just think about me without telling me.

But I guess I'm guilty of the same.

ME: Had a dream in which we got hot and sweaty. We were having Korean BBQ.

It was a perfect dream, totally innocent, easy conversation, endless laughter, unlimited yummy beef. I could have kept it to myself, but when I woke up, I just had to tell him.

swirl swap swop

Ladies, are your wardrobes close to bursting point? Are you discovering long-lost clothes that you will never again wear in this lifetime? And would you like to swop them for something pretty -- without spending a cent?

Then the Swirl Swap Swop is perfect for you.

This is how it goes:

-- Spring clean your wardrobe. Be ruthless.
-- Stuff a shopping bag full of clothes you no longer fit into, fashion disasters and impulse buys. Someone else will love them, we promise.
-- Come by the Swirl boutique on the day of the Swirl Swap Swop.
-- Empty your bags into a giant pile with the cast-offs from other swoppers, who, needless to say, have extraordinarily good taste since they are Swirl Girls.
-- Rummage through the pile and grab those items you fancy. No cat fights, please.
-- Return home with fabulous finds. Mission accomplished.

Swirl Swap Swop
Venue: Swirl boutique at 02-05 Stamford House
Date: Sunday, 10 December
Time: 2pm
* Registration required as the event is limited to the first 30 respondents due to space constraints.

Sounds like a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon? Get your girlfriends all excited too and sign up together. Just drop us an email at shop@ilovetoswirl.com to let us know how many of you are coming, and we will send you more details.

Remember, waste not want not. A penny saved is a penny earned. One woman's cast-offs is another woman's treasure -- or something like that.

Happy shopping and happy swopping!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
S W I R L
stamford house 02-05
39 stamford road
tel: 6338 5020
monday ~ saturday
12pm ~ 830pm
www.ilovetoswirl.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

parade of wanted things II

Contain yourself! How much do I covet these useless kitchen doodads from The Container Store. No more resting spoons while cooking and dirtying the countertop. And no more guessing if that frozen piece of mystery meat is worth thawing.

i scream

When three pints of Ben & Jerry's -- Magic Brownie, Chubby Hubby and Fossil Fuel -- in as many days still don't work, you know it's serious.

parade of wanted things

I'm so in love with the paintings of Kendra Binney. So pretty, yet with a tinge of the morbid and a touch of sadness.

She sells on Etsy and I can't stop looking at the prints, especially It's A Secret Only We Know (above) and Parade Of Unwanted Things II (can't post the pix, for some reason, but go admire it on her site. Vaguely Dali with the ants on it).

So tempting, because it's not pricey at all. Am I on the verge of buying my first piece of art?

[Note: I have shelved my grand plans of being an artist-slash-fashion-designer-slash-writer. It is impossible to learn to paint from a library book. And I don't have time for classes.]

half hearted

For dinner, I had half a pint of Ben & Jerry's Magic Brownie, half a punnet of raspberries and half a bar of Morinaga dark chocolate.

One tummyache, coming right up...

i want my tintin back*

The two of us were playing tourist around Covent Garden in the autumn cold, when we chanced upon a Tintin** shop. After agonising for the longest time over which characters to buy, we both decided on Tintin and Snowy***.

That was the last time I saw him while he was still attached. The next time we met, back in Singapore, he was living the too fast too furious lifestyle of the swinging "eligible" bachelor.

Somehow, we ended up making a pact, which I'm sure he has forgotten by now: Whoever got attached first would have to buy the other the complete Tintin collection****.

And somehow, as every year drew to a close, we would end up commiserating about hitting our year-end slump -- stuck in a rut yet running around like a headless chicken at the same time, going nowhere with work or relationships or life in general, another year over with nothing to show for it. No one else seems to hit the same slump, which starts right about November.

Just a couple of weeks ago, we were still going on with our annual lament. But how quickly things change.

He's seeing someone new, someone serious, for once [ie. not some random "pussy" he picked up]. And I'm left with a sour taste in my mouth.

Not because I have a thing for him -- We are so not each other's "type" -- but because I had counted on him being as moody as I would be over the festive season.

Because we're so purely platonic, he completely understood when I blurted out, "I'm jealous. I'm not jealous of her. I'm jealous of you. Because you're happy. And this makes me a small small person. I don't like this feeling. This year-end slump is going to be so bad for me."

* He whines all the time, "I want my car back." His Paul Smith car, which is supposed to cure text addiction, is still hanging on my mobile phone.
** Tintin the boy journalist was a serious crush of mine when I was too young and stupid to realise comic book characters can't quite requite.
*** Snowy is still with me, but Tintin was nicked from my desk some months ago.
**** My Tintin collection lacks 16 titles.

what was his name again?

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a common name attached to an even more common surname, and I found myself asking M, "What was Daniel's surname?"

To my horror, I found that I couldn't remember my ex-boyfriend's surname. Or that of the Daniel who came before him. [Yes, I dated two consecutive guys with the same name. I have issues.]

Yesterday, I was having dinner with an old friend J, who knew me when I was with Daniel the Second. She related how, right after we had broken up, she and her now ex had run into him at Borders and waved most enthusiastically at him from afar.

But as they came closer and closer, she realised she had committed a faux pas. What do you say to your friend's recent ex?

"How are you doing?" just opens up a can of worms. Your only common friend's name can't be mentioned, for obvious reasons. And you can't even say, "You're looking good", cos you'd be lying.

I found it hilarious, even when she told me she felt so bad because he looked so sad.

Today, as though by merely remembering him I'd conjured him up, he called me out of the blue.

It was nice to have a conversation with someone who can drop words like lambasted and flabbergasted without sounding like he was trying to use big words. And it was nice to hear the pride in his voice when he told me how cute his 19-month-old daughter was.

I now remember his surname. It was Ong. And the one before that was Choo.

call me god

The endlessly entertaining Poison Ivy has come up with a completely unscientific personality test: If you could live your life over, and were given a choice on what kind of person you could be, what would you choose?

1. Being a millionaire with the ugliest face that even a mother wouldn't be able to love
2. Being a great beauty who is destined to live and die alone
3. Being with the love of your life, but afflicted with a chronic illness, which may or may not be diabetes and may or may not involve your leg being amputated
   
4. Being a genius inside an obese body
5. Being a workhorse who is blessed with good luck in little things, such as always being able to find a parking lot
6. Being well-loved by countless friends but living in a two-room HDB flat for life
   
7. Being powerful and influential, but short as a midget, not unlike Deng Xiaoping
   

What you choose reveals what you value. Most of the lunch kakis didn't mind being ugly millionaires. Me? I'm willing to live with one leg for love.

who's that boy

I'm well pleased with my new haircut. Now, I just need some cheekbones to go with it.

down with dunkin donuts

Why is Krispy Kreme called Krispy Kreme, when it is neither crispy nor creamy?

But I don't really care, since I just had a surprise delivery of them this morning to my door at 8am.

Just 8 seconds in the microwave and it almost achieved HOT NOW status.

Thanks, lurve, for the morning sugar rush!

fool me

HE: How are you feeling?
ME: You must be psychic. I just saw a doctor cos I'm still not well...
HE: please just take two days to rest. REALLY rest. instead of trying to use it to do other things
ME: Im at work, actually. And I rejected the offer of an MC.
HE: you fool
ME: There's too much work. And I need the money, And you're supposed to say poor baby instead of you fool...
HE: Poor baby, you fool

i don't care if monday's blue

For days now, I'd been feeling crappy, for numerous reasons which will make me seem silly/superficial/selfish if I list them here, so let's just leave it at my feelings of utter and complete crap.

I was so surly that the Girl Next Door could tell from just exchanging two sentences that I was in a bad mood.

My mother didn't dare to even talk to me, much less nag, and my father felt compelled to, awkwardly, say something along the lines of, "You can tell us if you have any problems".

And I almost snapped, "Unzip it and pull it over your head, lor!" when a clueless customer pointed to a vintage dress and asked, "How do you wear this?"

But let's focus on the happy things which kept me from going completely over the edge (in order of appearance):

-- Downloading Sudoku onto my phone so I can now feed my latest addiction wherever I go
-- Jay Chou on repeat mode
-- Clarinase ["Poor baby" he said when he found out I was sick, but now I know all too clearly that that's all he can offer, so that's progress for me]
-- Totaling October's sales figures and, more importantly, finding that they tally
-- Tangy tomato soup from The Soup Spoon [Mushroom's good too, but then I'm partial to soup, especially when ill and feeling sorry for myself]
-- Managing to drag myself out for a nice quiet drinks after a long Friday and going to not one, but two new places at Dempsey Road [That's a major accomplishment for someone with zero social life]
-- Resisting the urge to party and imbibe on Saturday night and sleeping early instead [See above, about zero social life]
-- A clean house after three weeks of not cleaning [My laundry is another matter altogether]
-- Napping with a warm body next to mine on a Sunday morning [Memphis loves me only when the Girl Next Door is not around]
-- Confirming that there are only expensive and ugly bras available in Singapore [Good news for the Swirl Girls, who have exciting developments in the works]
-- Recovering from the nasty flu bug
-- Instant noodles and luncheon meat at C-Jade [which suaku me hasn't been to before]
-- Deciding that I want to take up painting, so that I can call myself a journalist-slash-dsigner-slash-artist [nevermind that I can't draw]
-- Cute buttons from TopShop which I can still afford
-- Productive production meeting for this month's designs, which includes a ultra pretty top I can't wait to wear [currently it only exists in my head in a buttercup yellow chiffon]
-- Tako for dinner at Sakuraya [yet another new place I haven't been to, so that makes it four over one weekend. I need to get out more]
-- Conquering last-minute panic and banging out a 10cms piece of fluff that doesn't even qualify as a story, let alone a column [I need all the peanuts I can earn]
-- A brand new episode of Grey's Anatomy [Semi-spoiler: I finally understand the "ham and eggs" relationship analogy]
-- And finally, finding this just before I was going to go to bed: Feeling popsicle?

Have a good Monday!