Updates

Back then after graduation in the middle of finding a full time job, I decided to make my first handmade necklace to my then boyfriend (now husband) as a gift. It was fun that I started making more for myself, for friends and for my family.

I got compliments from the necklaces I made, so I decided to set up my own shop on Etsy and occasionally sold them at flea markets. It was such a fun experience and I thought it would be nice if I could do this as a career.

Moving to Japan a few months ago, I found myself in one of the biggest fashion capitals of the world. It is full of life, styles, forms and new ideas. This makes me want to create something new and different for my shop.

I'm letting you all know what Cocoa Chu Chu is growing into a different direction. I decided to set up a new shop Cosette, to represent my new jewelry line. I'm currently working on the shop's website and photography. Thank you for your warm support in the past years and in the future as well.

I hope to see you at Cosette very soon. Here's a sneak peek of Cosette.

Shop n' Promotions { New items and Shop banner }

Hi there! I hope you all have a wonderful week so far. It's been a really hot summer week in Toronto which makes me feel so exhausted and don't want to do anything. How have your summer treated you so far? Any tips on staying cool would be great!

some of the new items in my shop

French rose ring, pastel peach


Enchanted necklace


Pastel rose stud earrings, mint and cream


I'm updating my shop's banner. I really like the 3rd version of the banner. It looks shabby chic don't you think?

Shop n' Promotions { Website! }

I'm really happy to announce that I bought a domain name a few days ago. Yep, that's right. From now on you can access to my shop on www.cocoachuchu.com and it will link directly to my etsy shop.

I haven't thought about buying hosting site yet, but it's really tempting. Oh, and I'm launching new jewelry series, coming soon later this month. Here is a sneek peek and a new item in the shop :)




Thanks so much for your support. Have a wonderful weekend!

Shop n' Promotions { Giveaway #1 }

I have very exciting news! I will be giving away a necklace from my shop. Dionne from City of Dionne is hosting a giveaway on her lovely blog.

For your chances to win, please visit Dionne's blog. The winner will be announced on Sunday, December 6th.

It is a fun and exciting contest. Be sure to participate. Thank you Dionne :)

Please follow me on *TWITTER* for promotions and upcoming giveaways.

Shop n' Promotion { Simply elegant }

I'm proudly introducing a new collection in my shop, Simply elegant. My previous designs are mostly playful, whimsical and story like. I intended to continue doing previous designs, but I also would love to include this new feature in my shop.

My new design is inspired by everyday life. I'm thinking of something dressy. Something you can put on when you want to dress up or down :)

I still don't have a lot of items in this section yet, but please come back and check my shop out for more updates.

Shop n' Promotions { Featuring in La Boheme }

I'm currently featured in Anna's lovely blog La Boheme. Thanks Anna :)

You will find yourself lost in her amazing blog that is full of inspirations from colorful interior designs, fashion, photography and much more! If you need design inspiration, don't forget to check Anna's blog out!

photo credit: Lindatinne on Flickr via La Boheme

New banner

Hello.

Notice something different? I made new banners a few days ago. I made one for my blog and one for my shop. It took me nearly 6-7 hours to finish them :)

Here is the new version vs. the previous versions.


I have been visiting many blogs lately. They're nicely organized into sections and such, making it easier for readers. Oh, they are very lovely as well! I want to upgrade my blog too!

I have added my favorite blogs on the left side. Please check them out. They're really amazing :)

On my desk

I have been busy updating my shop for the past few days. I made a new business card design. It's MUCH better than the previous one. My sister helped me with that (Thanks little sis!!). Without her, I don't think I could figure out photoshop and other programs. I'm a photoshop dummy.

I also did some research on shop packagings. There are sooo many lovely packagings out there and I felt so inspired after looking at them. I want my shop's packagings to be a little different from other regular mails. It would be nice to receive such a nice packagings don't you think?



Lastly, I have been addicted to using these lovely hair pins. It's so handy in such a hot weather like this! The weather is extremely brutal that I have to tie my hair up into a bun. I use these hair pins to add extra cuteness. My favorite is No.5 :)



You can now choose your favorite pins. Please check out my shop for more details.

Craft Fair

Cocoa Chu Chu is having a craft fair in downtown Toronto!!!

When: Thursday, September 3rd

Time: 11 am - 3 pm

Where: Butterfield Park, OCAD

Address: 100 McCaul Street Toronto, ON M5T 1W1



I'm looking forward to my very first craft fair! It's gonna be fun. If you live near Toronto area, hope to see you there :)

Currently sold out & Craft fair

My two necklaces, Paris, je t'aime and Allons en France are currently sold out in my shop. I have already ordered some supplies and hopefully they will be in stock again sometimes next week. These two necklaces are the bestseller necklaces up to date. They even got featured on Etsy's front page. They make me proud. They are just like my babies :)

Just a quick note that I will be doing a very tiny craft fair on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at OCAD in downtown Toronto. It will be my first craft fair ever! I'm looking forward to it. I will post more information about the craft fair later this week in my blog. Please stay tuned :)

Finally there's some sunshine in Toronto. It's been raining cats and dogs for the past week. My puppy got scared when she heard thunder sounds. She would quickly come sit next to me. I found it very cute!!

I heart

(a) Sabon body scrub vanilla coconut.

(b) Tour de France necklace by Cocoa Chu Chu (my new creation).

(c) Marilyn hair accessory by which goose.

Lucky clover

My sister found a four leaf clover while walking our puppy. It is the eight time she found 4-leaf clovers, so she gave it to me. I'm so jealous. I've never found one! I tried looking for lucky clovers all the time, but never ever found one.



I happen to have a lovely lucky clover charm necklace in my shop. It is as cute as a real four leaf clover and doesn't wilt. I carry good luck charms from times to times when I need some encouragement. I guess I'm kind of superstitious after all...ha!

Photo shoot / DIY

It's super windy today in Toronto. The wind just makes my hair goes crazy! It's just too cold this year. I miss a nice warm sunny day. Boo.

I just finished taking photos for my new necklace. I haven't come up with a name for it yet. I used eco-friendly/recycle props I found around my house.


These roses are from my sister's graduation just a few months ago. Drying flowers are actually very easy to make. Here's the how-to link.

I put these dry roses on the hallway next to a photo frame. It looks great together!

My favorite things

I'll be blogging about TEA today. Having tea everyday in the afternoon seems like a ritual for me. Yes, I'm addicted to tea. I guess I need to have some caffeine in my system to get things started.

My favorite kind of tea is Green tea. The best I had was when I went to the temple in Kyoto and they offered free green tea. It was so light, clean and smooth. I wish I could make tea like that some day :)



I bought an Earl gray tea from Harney & Sons the other day at Indigo. First because I love drinking it, and second, I think I could use the packaging as a prop for my etsy store.



I have recently received a tea pot as a birthday gift from a really good friend. Look how cute it is! It has little strawberries pattern on it and the BEST thing is that it's a cup in itself! How convenience! I've never seen anything like this before. My friend knows that I'm tea crazy! It's sure a handy gift for me!

Love at first bite

For today's lunch I had Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is one of my favorite food, second to Takoyaki. I went to Osaka in April and tried one of the Okonomiyaki restaurants around Namba. I was a little bit disappointed, though. The batter was too soft than the usual Okonomiyaki, but Yakisoba there was to die for. I ended up having 2 orders of Yakisoba myself hahaha.



By the way, I got featured again by window seat books . The theme was How to enjoy a nectarine (lovely!). My plumeria blooms got featured in there. I'm so happy. This is the 2nd time I got featured in one week, Yay!

Summer music

My Symphony No. 1 necklace got featured on Talis' treasury, Summer Music. Check it out before the link is gone! It's a very lovely treasury. I love the title as well. Thank you so much for including me :)

Also, I just found a way of how to save your treasury snapshots, thanks to Etsy's forum. The best way for me is to use Screengrab add ons for firefox. It's really easy to install in firefox and you will get the screen shots in just a simple click :)

By the way, I'm totally falling in love with the song Lucky by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat. I couldn't stop playing the song (hope I'm not the only one). Press the play button below to listen to it!

Weekend deals

Starting this weekend, I'm going to add a new feature to my shop. Some necklaces will be on discount. I'm not going to tell which necklaces will be on discount yet, please stay tuned for tomorrow :)

I watched So You Think You Can Dance last night and I wished I could vote for Randi and Evan. I love the dance routine so much. It was so romantic and lovely. I couldn't believe it was their first time dancing together. They were amazing!!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for them :)

There are so many great contemporary dancers this year. I can't wait to see Mia Michaels' choreography. I'm getting ready for the show tonight!

I got featured! Yay!

It's the first time that my necklace got featured on Etsy treasury. I'm really happy about it. Thank you ishandchi for including me.

You check out the treasury by following this link:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=45383

TAGGED!

I was tagged on Facebook for something fun. I'm supposed to name 25 random things about myself, but I could only come up with 5. Here we go:

- When I was 6, I pulled out my lose baby teeth with my own hands. I liked doing it by myself than going to the dentist. Yes, I pulled out every baby teeth by myself.

- I was a meat lover and didn't eat vegetables, but now I stopped eating meat.

- When I was 10, I was in TV commercials for apples, soy sauce and milk product...LOL

- I used to be a ballet/jazz/Broadway dancer up until few years ago.

- I can sometimes predict the future. Sounds creepy isn't it?

That's all I could came up with for now. I just listed a new necklace on etsy. It's inspired by Anna Sui. I love Anna Sui collections, especially for her cosmetic lines. I love her purple/black packaging theme. They're lovely. I'm a total sucker for cosmetics and the packaging!

Boxes

Here are the new packaging for my shop :-). Aren't they cute? I cute packagings! I hope my customers will be happy when they receive cute packagings. It's like a little treat. The problem is I couldn't get these boxes through 2 cm Canadian standard for small packages. How absurd!! Can't the government change it to 3 cm instead? Well, the knot on top of the box is the reason why it wouldn't go through. I will have to come up with a new way of tying these knots. I really do like my packaging right now. It would be sad if I have to change the design....boo!

The wrapping papers are made from old magazines. I found some colorful pages and just cut them out. I could also recycle used magazines. I also find packaging ideas from Etsy, the storque. Here's the link.

I will go watch now. Will update later. Night Night