Dear Dayre,

Restocks of the midsummer's night tulle dresses are up on our website!!! For the #dayrebrides still looking for bridesmaids dresses, do seriously consider these beauties? ☺️

We restocked them in all 8 colors too, sizes XS to XXL!

One of the most gorgeous pieces ever really.

Our Arianna off-shoulder dresses are also back in stock too, in six colors if I remember rightly!

This time round I ordered a lot more stocks cos they always run out too fast for many customers to get their hands on. 😆

So hopefully for the ladies who are keen, you manage to grab a piece for yourself!! One of our popular pieces: Aurora Bow Back Top has been restocked in three colors too! ❤️

Go to www.thevelvetdolls.sg to shop! 😁

Firstly to share some sad news.. My Fiji trip that was supposed to be tomorrow got cancelled due to bad weather and heavy flooding at Fiji!

A little bummed of course but ah well better that it was called off before we reached there and got caught in the storms and floods.

Hopefully Fiji recovers real soon and we'll still be able to fly there in the near future! 🙏🏻

And since I'll be in Singapore for the next week instead of flying off, it's time to work work work 😂

Will take these few days to catch up on work and other matters instead. Which is not a bad thing I suppose! Suddenly I feel like I have an extra six days back in my schedule 😬

I do have quite a bit of work piling up including some blog posts that I want to write as well as TVD-related matters. So I'll look at this positively and use my time productively to spend with family and loved ones as well as to work!

💪🏻

Speaking of bridal-related stuff, I went down for a meeting at Blissful Brides today, together with my creative and marketing minion, @hashyyusof 😁

I just like to call my staff minions la but I don't mean it in a bad way haha I just think it's cute 😂

We ended up having a really long session discussing about possible collaborations with Blissful Brides, so stay tuned for more news soon 😚 Me loves exciting stuff happening!

Their rainbow cake surprisingly yummy eh! 😍 Blissful Brides Cafe is situated at Delfi Orchard and it's a nice and cozy place! It was conceptualised for couples to lepak and talk about wedding planning and stuff like that. Quite a cool idea.

Pretty pretty space 😍😍😍

Selfie cuz my makeup damn on point today! Unfortunately it was thanks to a great MUA rather than my own prodigious skill haha! 😂 Had to do some filming for the show this afternoon and got my shoddily-applied basic makeup touched up by the MUA!

I just can't seem to master doing my blush so nicely until it defines the apples of my cheeks!

And this mascara gives me really long lashes 🌟👀

Thank goodness my puffy eyes subsided today! My eyes are quite sensitive and tear/get puffy easily 😿

Today's filming was about some profile footage as well as singing for a group MV together.. With a song that I only heard for the first time on Sunday 😰

一个 stress trying to remember the melody + memorize the lyrics simultaneously in about forty five mins or something gosh. After which you still need to make sure you sound decent singing it while looking natural at the same time 😂 It's truly a challenge!

Hopefully I didn't do too badly.. 🙏🏻

Recording in progress! Those markings on my page are my fast and dirty notations of the melody/tempo 😹 Random snippets on snapchat heh. If you're keen..

💃🏼💃🏼💃🏼

Apparently, the first episode of Hear Me Sing will air on StarHub GO (there's a mobile app for it) on the 10th April, which is this Sunday!

Not too sure what's gonna be in the first episode but I'm looking forward to seeing the show! 🙊 I don't think I'll be in the first episode tho. Will let you guys know again on Sunday?

On success and ambition….

Did you read @themerrymaker's Dayre post from a couple days back?

Awwww, I love what SY said about how you define your own success!! 🙌🏻

I've shared before that many years ago, I never would ever want to be my own boss! It's so stressful?! And for someone like me who is so poor at managing, organizing and finances, I really am the worst person to run a company. Gotta admit that 😭

Back when I had just graduated from design school in polytechnic, I remember working my first job in an illustration studio for a pretty meager full-time monthly pay of 1.6k, which meant I brought home like.. 1.3k?

I was also taking lessons at a pop music school at that time and paying almost $400 a month if I recall correctly, for my lessons.

That left me with less than a thousand dollars a month, inclusive of 家用 for my parents and other monthly expenses.

But I remember feeling so content because I really enjoyed my job back then and it was my dream job to be working as an artist at one of the best/most prestigious art studios in Singapore! Despite the low starting pay, I was happy to be working at the studio, doing what I liked.

I worked at the studio for almost two years and even when I left, my pay was still just at 2k, which isn't very high still 😂

When I left the studio, it wasn't because of low wages or the long hours of OT, and if circumstances were different, who knows? I might still be working as a digital artist today instead of running TVD and whatever I'm doing today.

That being said, I never started TVD with the intention of it becoming some empire that would overtake all the online shops in Singapore or what not.

I don't have that kind of ambition at all and I really don't think I'm even cut out for that job.

I just really wanted to bring in nice apparels I like that would make customers happy.

Obviously the money-making element has to come in somewhere, but if you were to ask me where TVD would be in five years time, or whether I have plans to expand and grow and find a way to exponentially increase our revenue and profit-margin….. The answer is "I'm not sure." 😅

I'm happy with TVD being a small online boutique as long as I'm doing well enough to get by/pay my staff/keep customers coming back.

Like I said, it's super ironic because I told myself I would NEVERRRRRR be my own boss because I'm so lazy and unambitious like that 😂

In my early twenties, I just thought life would be good when I went to a job I enjoyed everyday and brought home a stable fixed salary (didn't have to be very high) I never really thought about my career advancement or how much I wanted to be earning a few years later.

Somehow 误打误撞 ended up running TVD, and it has already been 6 years or something 🙄

Obviously God wasn't paying attention to my thoughts on never wanting to be a boss ever.

I am quite amazed that TVD has managed to survive six years in this industry… It's truly a tough fight because of the strong competition and increasingly high overheads.

We are definitely not the biggest or best online boutique around but I do know that a lot of our customers come back to us because they love our quality and fit and affordability. ☺️☺️☺️

As you know, in recent years.. Many online brands have broken into the brick and mortar department, or even did a stint on the runways which is extremely glamorous and exciting! The trend is also for online boutiques to start becoming more and more "designer-ish" and upmarket.

Despite that shift though, I just don't see it happening for TVD..? Maybe because I'm personally not a very high-fashion sort of person, I mean.. I'm just your regular girl next door who enjoys dressing up a little more.

I've had so many discussions with fellow influencers who also founded their own clothing labels as well other online boutique owners… And although I do see the market for more high-end apparel, I just can't imagine myself or TVD in that segment.

And then I guess I realised that I shouldn't be pressured by what everyone else is doing, because what is for them might not be for me, you know?

Apart from TVD, I also love devoting my time to doing things that make me happy.

Spending time with hubs, hanging out with close friends, pursuing my interests in singing, playing with my pets, accompanying my family for meals and activities, all these are important to me too and fulfill me and give me joy ☺️

If life and success are only about earning a lot of money…. Then I guess I would be an utter failure haha!

But I couldn't be happier being able to do what I love! As long as I'm earning sufficiently for my current lifestyle and expenditure, I'm quite content.

You still need to be sensible lah. Cannot be all play and no work. But I'm definitely less about the money and more about the kind of joy and fulfillment I receive from work.

Or maybe I'm just plain lazy lah. 😂

Second time using this sticker, I guess it's made for me?

Hahaha!

For TVD, our plans this year is to go a little deeper into the wedding industry for our bridesmaids range not just because it's our best-selling range since last year. But more because I'm so excited about this move, because I feel so much affinity for it!! 😍

It actually gives me motivation to keep things moving for TVD. Not sure if you know what I mean!

Of course, we will be doing our regular apparel launches too ☺️

Because that's still the core of our business, heh! But the new focus on bridesmaid dresses will be a new staple to expand our product range a little!! 😬

Apparently, 25,000 couples get married every year. #ididnotknowthatuntiltoday @hashyyusof did I get that number right? Lol!

But long years of being forced to do things I do not like to do (AKA studying) has made me realize that I just cannot stomach doing what I do not enjoy doing.

It's never work for me when I enjoy it, and I can spend hours and hours "working" on the stuff that I'm actually excited about and interested in.

If you wanna talk about ambition….. I suppose I really just want to be happy doing what I do (but still not starve lah) and so far it hasn't been working out too badly for me, thank God 🙏🏻

My ultimate ambition is to be a tai-tai (ok not the chichi kind but just don't need to worry about bringing home the bread) and doing all the things I like!

So I pray for YZ to earn more money all the time 😂😂😂 Just kidding. Or maybe not.

It's ok for now cos kids aren't in the picture yet.. Not sure how our lives will change once we reach that stage but I always believe that there is no point worrying over the unknown future!

The world might end tomorrow for all we know and I would rather have more happy moments than stressing or working myself to death.

IMO, I define my success by simply knowing how lucky I am to be surrounded by loved ones and friends, by the hours I spend daily enjoying what I do, and the fact that I can be so happy-go-lucky 😬😬😬

Obviously, it's not that I don't compare and feel shitty at times. All my industries are so competitive?! Bloggers/influencers are all about numbers and how pretty you look, and bad TVD sales sometimes also get me down… 😖

Just need to look at the bigger picture always and be grateful!!

Don't let others define your own happiness and success! 😬

Brought mai girls @pohyeepenelopez and @hashyyusof for lunch at beauty pot today!!! I'm being kind and cropping off their faces cos this is an ugly candid shot 😂😂😂

Really my favourite hotpot place.

👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻

RBF ftw!