stressinstyle

Nicole Richie started her own costume jewelry line – House of Harlow 1960. The hippie chic queen named the line after her daughter, Harlow. Her on and off bff – Paris Hilton and amongst the celebrities seen wearing accessories from House of Harlow.

I just found out recently that Nicole Richie collaborated with Pascal Mouwad to create some pieces in the collection. This “sunburst” collection is one of the designs. I have an obsession with chunky rings – so I had to get one,

The ring arrived today. It was love at first sight when I saw the ring. It’s plated with 14k gold – a very nice touch for costume jewelry! The black bits are leather! I have to remember not to wash my hands when I am wearing the ring!

The ring is very solidly made. It has a very nice weight to it. Heavy enough to give it a more expensive feel. Now i am contemplating if I should get the other colors – grey, cream and the abalone one!

There is a matching necklace as well. I have ordered it from a different online retailer. I am desperately waiting for it to arrive!

My birthday month was last month, March. I normally don’t make a big deal out of my own birthdays. I don’t enjoy celebrating my own birthday either. And I don’t make it a habit to buy myself a pressie for my birthday. The only exception the 38mm white ceramic J12 that I bought for myself on my birthday 3 years ago!

This year – I got to enjoy 5 beautiful Chanel bags on my birthday – all eye candies were sent on the actual date of my birthday! My cousin who was attending a wedding in Hawaii sent me 4 of these photos. She saw these bags in a consignment store in Hawaii.

Then later in the evening, my high fashion BFF sent via BBM a photo of her tomato red new flap. I love the smaller quilting on the flap and the bigger diamond quilting on the bottom part of the flap.

After I saw the tomato flaps – I rushed to the boutique the very next day to try on that same “In The Business” flap in grey and dark blue. I will post mod photos in another entry.

Today, I lost my cousin-in-law, Daniel. It’s a sad day for our family. My cousin, June, found herself the perfect man a little over 18 years ago. Daniel was a kind, considerate and loving husband to her. With the rest of our huge extended family – he was always jovial and very entertaining.

This morning – we still had hopes that Daniel was still alive and well. We were all hoping that someone stole his car and that he probably was injured and lying in a hospital bed somewhere. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

I know my cousin, June is a strong person. However, I myself cannot imagine the amount of strength it’ll take to recover from such a great loss. He was the perfect fit in her life. He was her right hand, her pillar of love and strength, her everything.

Rest in peace, Daniel. We will all miss you and will hold your forever in our thoughts and prayers.

The above photo was taken on the first day of CNY this year. Daniel (with the Adidas runners) stuck his foot in at the last minute as I was snapping the photo. He then went on to explain that the retro tiles on the floor were all hand painted!

The million dollar question that everyone eventually faces at least once in a lifetime…what do you give someone who has everything?

For me this round – I have to find a perfect gift to give someone who has more handbags than yours truly here. She has everything under the sky – Birkins – normal and exotics, Reissues, Classic Flaps, GSTs, and get this…at least 25 Balenciagas! And those are just naming a mere “handful” of what she owns.

Over coffee with my long time buddy last Saturday, I stressed over this question. Then it dawned on me that I should give her “handbags”. First, I wanted to do a giant Birkin as she just received the BJ Birkin from her mom as a birthday gift.

I called two of the bakeries that I normally work with. Both have performed miracles for me before but both said it cannot be done in less than 48 hours. So finally, I tried another baker. See the end result for yourself.

The next day, I hunted for a cupcake stand. Found the stand, and had to increase the order for the cupcakes! Lucky the baker complied!

Then today, the baker said the cupcakes may not fit on the stand! I had no time to try them out on the stands as they stand was not fully assembled when I picked up the cupcakes. More stress! Lucky the cupcakes look very presentable on the tray. So if the stand fails, I shall present them on the cake board.

I arrived at the venue. Even the weather cooperated. The rain stopped. I had earlier roped one of my buddies to lure the birthday to the ladies on the pretext of wanting to have a private chat with her. However, my buddy does not know the birthday girl very well. Luckily, one of the guests who is close to the birthday gal arrived early. So I briefed her on the game plan.

Birthday girl went to the ladies. We arranged the cupcakes on the stand. Birthday girl saw the “surprise” and loves it. So, mission accomplished.

The day started off beautifully at 7am. Still bathed in the glow of yesterday’s successful event with a wonderful client – I began dressing for today while holding to the positive vibes from yesterday’s event. I need lots of positive vibes today – I’ve three meetings to attend today. One of the meetings require formal attire! My very smart fashion consultants says to wear CC – so of course I did. And a little bit of CC goes a long way in boosting one’s self confidence. So all gals out there – make sure you invest in at least ONE piece of CC RTW

First meeting with a new client went very well. For once I was early for my meeting. Why was I early? I thought the meeting was at 9am when it was at 10am!

The second meeting required more preparation. So in order to be close to the meeting place – my partners and I decided to meet at The Apartment, Suria KLCC. I almost lost my concentration trying to put the presentation deck together because there was a super loud person at the next table – amplifying whatever 3 cents he had to say with his ultra loud vocal chords. I was so annoyed – I blasted out the dance music from my laptop. The second meeting went as well as can be. I forced my self to concentrate because this meeting is not just about me. I now have partners in my Digital Arm. I must not fail them. And the results of this second meeting could give us the catapulting factor we need to launch our Digital Arm successfully. Second meeting went as well as can be – there are only FOUR companies vying for the ONE top spot.

Third meeting – the client almost fell off the chair when they saw the budget estimate. However, they loved the concept – so they asked for a re-submission of two options – one with the higher budget and one with a lower budget.

My very kind colleague drove all the way back from KL – PJ. I was sleep deprived as I only slept for less than 2 hours the night before – I fell asleep from the KL – PJ drive. During the drive back to PJ – a pivotal message arrived. I was asleep and only saw the message half an hour later.

So my Facebook status was immediately changed to – “”..gonna go freaking KILL some idiotic numbskull of a cyclist who is a FUCKING shithead!!!!”

Here’s the story that sapped all the positive vibes and thoughts I carried though the day to…
Almost two years ago one of my Telco clients hired a new staff to spearhead a new department (till today I still feel strongly that this department should not exist or be managed as how it’s being currently done). For simplicity’s sake – we’ll call this new staff XX. XX has been an acquaintance of mine from BF’s circle of cyclist friends.

XX got hired because no one bothered to do a reference check on what he wrote on his resume. He practically lied on his resume to get the job. And of course he did an even more “beautiful” job at the job interview. When XX got hired – I got the FULL DETAILS of how he’ll attempt to make my life dreadful as I’m a “service provider” for that Telco.

The HR department said he cannot be fired since he was already hired…hmmmmm. So – off I went to rattle off my thoughts to his new boss. She said, “It does not matter if he cannot do the work – all that matters is that he can delegate.” Yup – isn’t this just wonderful? What a dream job – I wouldn’t mind having a job like that! And then she said, “You cannot fault a person for his character flaws.” And her last piece of suggestion for me was to become XX’s friend. Obviously – the last piece of “expert suggestion” was ignored by moi as it’s against my principal to work with someone who does not deserve the post and salary he gets by using pure lies.

So life went on – with very little jobs for my company from that Telco after this new “reorganization”. I confronted XX about his “lies” – he half denies them by saying I did not know what “BIG” events he did abroad – trust me – a lot of us in the cycling community were aware of his so called “BIG” events and how “BIG” his job scopes were at those “BIG” events.

And today – the BIG KAHUNA of all shocking news landed via a simple message to my mobile. XX told my new client that I have spun stories about my new client’s companies. I have not spoken to XX or to anyone about my new client. My new client happens to be from the same Telco XX is working for. So upon hearing my company’s name and my working with this new client – my guess is XX started spinning the tales.

I am very pissed off – but I’m really too busy to start a war. Obviously XX is has a lot of free time since his only role is to delegate out his jobs! So – to war or not to war – that is the question…

Note: for all those of you out there looking for jobs – I can pass you XX’s contact details. I am sure he can spin a beautiful fake resumes for you. And I am sure for the right price – he can even attend the job interview on your behalf so that you can clinch the job *rofl*