You should have received our newsletter yesterday if you are subscribed to our newsletter, or a fan of our saplanet originals facebook page.

So, we are conducting the inventory check to ready for 1st quarter of 2012 procurement, and need to free up space to stock up new items (yes, new supplies!). These loose packs of safety eyes have to go, and they are going at ridiculously low price!

They are now moved to the ‘CLOSEOUT’ section in our eStore. Very limited quantities left, and there is a chance that we will not bring these again, or not until next year.

So, act now, grab all you can!

Conditions:

+ No further discount; cannot be used with other discount/birthday coupons

+ While stocks last

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So we are back from vacation, in fact we are back in town for nearly a week now!

I am caught up with processing all the orders, hence the radio silence.

It has been a fabulous vacation! Needless to say, there are 3 house kittens in where we stayed was a big bonus; in addition, it was akin to striking the lottery with such hospitable hosts/owners of the property.

What did I do? Let me think..

Slept, a lot…

Ate a lot.. (No kidding! The hosts – we stayed in one of the independent self-contained villas that is refurbished from traditional Thai houses – stuffed food to us all too often (I am not complaining), and on the last night there, one of in-house guests and the hosts whipped up a feast for us!)

Snacked a lot..

Yeah, exotic snacks – deep-fried grasshoppers, worms, and flies! Nope, I only had the guts to stand near enough to snap photos, but you will need to sedate me to feed me with those little things.

Napped a lot…

It’s a 2-story villa, we had breakfast here, relaxed and played with the 3 kittens.

Walked and shopped a lot…

Ah, ok, not really that much as compared to regular tourists. See, from Dec to end Jan, Chiang Mai’s weather can get a little extreme and crazy. It was 14-17 degree Celsius from 10pm to 11am, and hit high of 30-33 degree Celsius from noon 5pm, then it starts dropping.

Except for the first day, you will only find me out in the streets after 5pm. It was too hot for my comfort. The husband went out on some afternoons on his own, while I caught up with the long overdue reading.

We went to the Saturday night market, Sunday night market (yeah, they are in different streets), and the daily night bazaar (which could be given a miss). We went to the weekend night markets twice since we spent 2 weekends in Chiang Mai. On one occasion, we reached the market earlier, and at 6pm, the announcement went on the public system, and the music started. Like the ‘freeze’ game, no one is to move! From what I understand, it’s the time that the country will pray for blessing for their King, therefore, out of respect, everyone keep still until the music stops. It was fun!

The husband told me that if you were to watch a movie in the cinema, before the movie begins, the music plays and everyone stands still until the music ends. One of the host told us that during the Film Festival, she went for the movies marathon – free admission, imagine how many times she had stood and sent her sincerest blessings to the King.

For most of the time, we just relax and hang loose. If you live with 3 super friendly cats, you tend to observe the behaviors and attitudes. They don’t care less about what the world may become; they clearly don’t think that the world will vanish because they didn’t catch a mouse. It’s hard not to ponder over our crazy pace of life, and of course, we blended in very well with the cats and the relaxed pace in the beautiful Chiang Mai.

Now, about culture shock, I have to say that the real culture shock is when we come home! I seemed to have better quality of life when in Chiang Mai, perhaps because I chose to slow down and smell the roses.

I sure hope you had fun over the Lunar New Year!

P/S: Our order schedule is packed till end April, earliest next available slot is May. We won’t be launching Valentine’s Day theme or design, but we might just run a simple promotion by mid this week. As mentioned some time last year, there is going to be a shift in our business operating model, as in cutting back on the customized orders in order to free up time to work on the new designs. It is likely that I may shut down MTO orders and only accept very limited number of orders, and offer selected ready-made designs.

MTO orders – fully customized (as in new enough to have to build from scratch) – may have a turnaround time of 4-6 months. Please plan ahead.

Keep yourself updated of our latest news by:

1. Subscribing to our newsletter
2. Like us on our Facebook page

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“Flip, flip, flip…”

Time is flipping away, and before we knew it, it’s vacation time!

Just a final reminder before we pack up and fly out for vacation.

Please be advised that all new orders of tangible products – i.e. supplies, ready-made cozies and dolls etc – received from now, will be shipped within 3 working days from Monday, 06 February.

**Electronic Products (ePatterns) – last order 18 Jan (SGT)
ePatterns order(s) received on/after 18 January will be processed and delivered by email from Wednesday, 01 February.

For more details, please visit our official vacation notice.

[ SHOPS ]

Etsy shops – saplanetamigurumi@etsy will be closed from 18 January (SGT) and reopens on 03 February (SGT)

DaWanda – simpleartsplanet@dawanda – Vacation Notice is put up and will be displayed throughout the vacation duration

saplanet originals eShop – our main eShop is kept open to allow buyers to browse through our online catalogue; as our cart is capable of displaying the vacation notice in various stages from ordering to checking out, we are accepting orders on this venue, and assume that buyers are well-informed of the no-shipping period. The shop banner has been replaced with a vacation notice banner, if you miss out the smaller prints.

[ EMAIL RESPONSE TIME ]

We will not be replying emails during the vacation period. All emails will be attended to after we resume work from 03 February.

Have a great Lunar New Year! We shall see you in the Year of Dragon!

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Last order dispatched for shipping before I take off to the cooler destination for my anniversary vacation.

Product reference:

+ Inkie and Inko amigurumi owls

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Yes, they are no ordinary tortoises. They are super auspicious tortoises – yellow (color of royalty in ancient China) + red (color of auspicious since forever).

Of course, these days, anything and everything is so competitive, being auspicious alone is not going to win hearts over. They are also super talented! See, they are highly skilled acrobats! In addition, they also take part in Magic performances. Really, can you tell them apart?

They are named Do, Re, Me.

Problem – Who do you think is Do, Re, and Me? These triplets confuse the audiences with their identical appearances!

Product references:

+ TorGri Amigurumi Tortoises

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Just what do we need for a joyous mass wedding party? Ninjas of course!

Counting down to my annual vacation, I work through all weekends, and completed more orders before I take off to a cooler region, so I heard.

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“Heart shaped” item denotes a range of meaning, but mainly, it’s a desire – for health, or for love.

Don’t we all wish that there is a highly skilled Ninja who swears his life to guard over our health? Or to have a cute Ninja helps convey a loving message across to that special someone?

The “Love & Health Guard Ninja” does all that and beyond. Only the cream of the crop in the Ninja community is selected for this mission. They are highly trained to make sure of no mistake and no failure.

You may opt for a single alphabet embroidery on the pillow, at no extra charge.

He may look innocent and gentle, with his alert wide eyes, don’t let that fool you, he is trained to keep his eyes opened at all times, and he blinks in millisecond, so quickly, it’s not visible to our naked eyes.

He has a best friend, JaJa, the super cautious spy Ninja. When JaJa is off mission, he visits the Guard Ninja. When they join forces, they are the most formidable combination ever!

The Guard Ninja sits at 15cm tall; and stands at 20 cm tall. He prefers sitting, just saying.

It is obvious that JaJa is the hyper active one between the two. That is why he can never be the Guard Ninja, he can’t sit still!

The Guard Ninja is now available on our eShop, but please note that our turnaround is about 3-4 months, please check our order schedule before ordering.

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Call me crazy, but between everything else, I managed to list up the 4 PATTERNS SAVERS for Lunar New Year.

In addition, for those of you who do not know your Chinese Zodiac Animal Signs, swing over to ‘12 Zodiac Animals‘ page to locate your own animal sign with your birth year (take note of the special remark that I made at the bottom of the page for special condition when your birth date is before 04 Feb of the year).

[NEW]

We have moved our mailing list function, and if you have not subscribed to our mailing list, this is a great time to do so, to receive periodic newsletter on new designs, promotions, and special discount coupons.

To subscribe, simply enter your email address on the signup box on the side panel of this craftblog; or our eShop, or on our Facebook page.

Please read our updated Privacy Policy.

[LATEST NEWSLETTER ]

This is our first newsletter since we moved the mailing (just 2 days back), so we are blogging and linking the screenshot to the newsletter. In order to achieve efficiency, we will not blog about future newsletter.

(click through to view the newsletter)

[ABOUT THE PATTERN SAVER PACKS]

It’s straight forward, there are 4 saver packs; the bigger packs are tagged with 50% savings; the smaller packs are tagged with 35% savings.

No exchange of patterns/designs; limited time offer (we are going on vacation soon, so all transactions stop before 19 Jan); no reward points awarded for these packs.

You may however, use your reward points to redeem against the invoice total!

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Ho Ho Ho! It’s that time of the year when the year is ending and a new year is unfolding..

We wish you many happy moments, every day from this point forward!

It is a working Sunday for me, but I am in quite a jolly mood! The weather is cooler over these few days due to the rains; many nice telly programs are lined up while I work through the holidays to get more orders made before my anniversary vacation.

While I get busy with all the work and social networking, I remember to make a donation to my preferred choice of charity – World Vision International – and to nudge the husband to contribute generously for charitable cause.

I believe any amount is good amount for the needy. We are not running any charity fundraiser on SAPLANET ORIGINALS™ but I would like to appeal for generous contribution – not necessarily in the form of monetary contributions, any kind of act of kindness is a wonderful gesture!

Contributions made easy on World Vision Singapore:

1. Bank transfer (instant and takes less than 2 minutes – my personal choice to donate)
Details: http://www.worldvision.org.sg/st_donation_methods.php

2. Online contributions (credit card)
Details: http://www.worldvision.org.sg/CF-General.php?catID=7

Other methods are available, just look on the side panel for other ways to help. Perhaps include this in your new year resolution? You may also like to volunteer your time and expertise with other charitable organizations.

I don’t earn a lot of money, but I hope the small contribution helps ease someone’s day-to-day challenges. They say Karma works in an amazing way, and I agree. I believe that by donating, I help fetch good karma not just to myself, but to my buyers who help me earn a living to put food on the table and pay some bills; and allow me to be able to contribute for a good cause with the earnings made from your support.

Have a fantastic year ahead!

P/S: All the shops on other venues besides our official eShop at simpleartsplanet.com; such as DaWanda, saplanetamigurumi on Etsy, saplanetoriginals on Etsy (which has been closed a while back due to overwhelming orders)  etc, will be closed from 19 January to 03 February 2012. There is strictly no delivery – including ePattern delivery – during this period. Visit vacation notice for details.

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The little cuties got together, and sparks happen.

They have different skills set, but they are both born with a heart of gold, each. They are kind and they share knowledge, always.

Dumpty teaches BunBun how to ‘pick himself up if broken in pieces’; BunBun teaches Dumpty the secret to a perfect landing to prevent breaking into pieces. Aren’t they perfect together?

BunBun and Dumpty are going to different homes but they promise to keep in touch.

While I continue to work through the weekend, I hope you are enjoying your weekend; be it preparing for the Christmas party, or a year-end getaway, or simply just a restful weekend.

Product references:

+ BunBun Amigurumi Rabbit

+ Dumpty Amigurumi Fairy Tale Egg

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