Wanderlust Treasures and Jewellery by Coley Coming Soon + Favorite Online Suppliers for Customized Stuff

I've been ignoring my blog... and I'm sorry about that. But...

I'm a great believer that when creativity knocks, you should open the door and go wherever it wants to take you, and recently, it's been taking me to a lot of places. That journey, together with my day job, has really been keeping me busy.

But I'd like share some things that have been occupying my mind, and believe it or not, recently, a lot of my inspiration comes while I am stuck in traffic. The only good thing about Manila traffic being at it's worse ever is that gives me a lot of thinking time. Hahaha.

Everything has to do with things I love. My combined love of travel, shopping, jewellery, shoes and other stuff, the list is endless.

For now, let's call it Wanderlust Treasures. I am working on developing
one or two lines, but I am hoping for it to be so much more.

wanderlust + treasures from my unbeatable shopping prowess
The possibilities are endless!

Let's start with my love for jewellery and calligraphy.

Ady says I don't know how to draw. Hahaha. True.

But I know how to shop, and I do that well. I even have enough from my
personal collection to possibly start selling. Watch this space.

If my vision gets landed well, expect a lot of colorful stones too...

Coming Soon

An added bonus of product development on the jewelry front, is it requires frequent visits to our jeweler in Chinatown.

There are freshly roasted chestnuts on almost every corner.

Lucky Charms

And WaiYing for lunch too!

My new favorite is the fried dumpling in curry sauce. I can't wait to go back.

The other project I am working on, was brought about by my love for shoes, inspired by my travels of course!

This project brought me all the way to Marikina, the shoe capital of the Philippines.
Thanks Monch for brunching with me. Rustic Mornings is always a favorite in the area.

I even met a potential supplier. Exciting times ahead.
Please keep your fingers crossed for me and watch this space.

I am very much into ordering customized stuff nowadays, and having two new projects is definitely an excuse to have more stuff made.

Here are some online suppliers I have dealt with, who I would generally recommend:

1. Post Script Designs for personalized stationary products

I think I have been ordering from Michelle for three years now. Her products are really well made, paper quality is very good. Response rate and customer service is excellent.  I also ordered wrapping paper, but I'm too cheap to actually use them to wrap gifts. Hahaha.

You can check out their products and how to order from the facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/postscriptdesigns/

2. Things Remembered for personalized ribbons

What better way to wrap a gift, that with your personalized ribbon on it.

Nice product, but quite pricey. Minimum order requirement is 3 rolls, and they no customer service whatsoever. I remember ordering, paying and being told that it would take a few weeks (*I can't remember how long now, but it was longer than the usual 1 week or so). After the given time was over, I had to follow-up repeatably. It seems they didn't even do my order at all, and when I got mad, they did it in a day. Classic case of kaya naman pala. Then one of the ribbons had a period, like an extra dot. Seriously, they didn't even do quality control. They eventually replaced it, but it was a hassle. So only order if you really like the product, and you have huge amounts of patience.

Personalized Ribbons dress up even regular craft paper bags.

It was a bit hard to take photos of the satin ribbon with gold stamping,
so I did it with and without flash.

You can check out their products here: http://www.thingsremembered.com.ph/

Kris Aquino orders from them, but they probably don't subject her to the lack of customer service they do to other customers.

3. Cla Clodesline for reusable fabric ecototes printed with your full color logo

My experience with Cla Clodesline was the exact reverse of my experience with Things Remembered. Communication was a breeze. They even delivered my bags earlier than the lead time that we agreed on. The sent it even if the shipping fee I paid for based on the estimate was lower than actual, so I just paid them after they sent my stuff. The print and bag quality was quite good too for the price.

You can visit check their products and order through their facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/clodesline


4. Arts N' Style for their transparent stickers
I ordered from Kristine last year, and I liked the stickers so much, I reordered again. Communication with her is easy, she also delivered my orders earlier than expected, but she uses a very unreliable courier service, which has in the end, led to the delay of my receiving the products as agreed. She was helpful in chasing them though.

Arts N' Style also has other products (like the paper pouch bags used with the personalized ribbons above), and I tried ordering their gift cards because they are slightly cheaper than Post Script designs, but aside from the transparent stickers, I feel that their products have a bit more "homemade" feel while Post Script designs come across as more professionally-made, but it's really up to what you want to spend, and what you will use it for.

You can visit the Arts N' Style website here: http://artsnstyle.weebly.com/


So that's what has been keeping me busy. If everything works out, I guess, I will be even busier, so watch this space, it may be your source of finding really great gifts for Christmas. just saying.