Some blogs I love

I love reading blogs. I love looking at pictures on blogs.

http://clarastickar.blogspot.jp/

This is a Swedish blog by Clara Falk. I'm not good at Swedish (Did you know I speak Danish ? ;), but just looking at pictures on the blog makes me happy. She's adorable knitter. There're so many ideas of DIY!

http://www.hverkenfuglellerfisk.dk/

A Danish blogger, Anne has this blog. I have read this blog since 2007 (!). She's also knitter, and her house is just beautiful. I think she has real Danish humor, which I love.

Hverken fugle eller fisk means neither fish nor fowl.

 Lastly, let me please introduce my Japanese blog, which focuses my cat, Rotteline...If you like cats, you can see a lot of pictures of tortoiseshell cat!

20 views and sold

I have no idea why, but this silk fabric that has indigo fan pattern is really popular on Etsy.

I put on this pencil case last Friday. It got 20 views, 8 favorites and 3 hours later I put on Etsy, it's sold. This zipper pouch was the 4th of the same fabric, and nothing is left. It's very popular. The only one problem is that I don't have the fabric left. It's vintage, and I cannot get it any more.






It seems that there are items which is sold very quickly, and some items are not sold even though it's been viewed and faved. For example, this bag got only 8 views and sold.








On the contrary, this bag has been viewed 247 times and got 17 favs, but it's still on my shop.
( I sold the same bag with the different fabric as custom order, though)











Today I have listed two items. Both is iPad covers and I really wish they would sell as fast as those two bags.

      

Free gift of magazines in Japan

I take metro (subway) to my office every day. I often read advertisements of magazines in the metro and am quite surprised with free gifts that come with magazines. These magazines cost only 500-800 Japanese yen, that is around 4 to 8 US dollars and you get free bags! Not that crappy polyester bags, but designed by Michael Kors, Jill Stuart and so on.

I sell my handmade bags at around 20 to 40 dollars, which I don't think so expensive, but I can't compete with these free gifts....

Here are examples...What do you think of these cute bags????

Tweed bag with Zipper, designed by Jill Stuart. Free gift of Sweet magazine.

Passport case designed by Michal Kors (!), free gift of 25ans magazine

A4 size tote bag with zipper, designed by Snidel, free gift of With magazine

 

Cat spay

So my cat got spay last Saturday.
She has to put on Elizabeth collar (we call it so in Japan) until Wednesday, and she hates it as she cannot bite anything (Rotte loves biting).

Our animal doctor tell us that most cats don't like collar, but after 1-2 minutes they give up and get used to. But, Rotte is not one of "most" cats. She is very stubborn.

She struggled with the collar for 5 hours after she came home from the animal hospital. She went to bed only because she was tired, and the next morning she was still really angry at the collar.

We had to put off the collar and put on handmade cloth which covers her belly so that she could not lick it. It seemed to be well done, but no. She is a stubborn cat and somehow she took it off while we were in bed. My husband realized because he heard that Rotte tried to hop up to her bed (which is on a high shelf) and she was nearly falling down.

We put (again) the cloth on her and she hissed so much while we were doing it.  Now she seems to give up, but I am in doubt she sneaks to take it off.

Handmade cloth on her...it used to be my husband's sweater from Jcrew. He loved and wore it so much that it broke...

Valentine gift for her and for him

I am sure it sounds weird, but Valentine's day in Japan is the day girls / women give chocolate to someone they love. And someone who got chocolate on Valentine's day should give her back something white like marshmallow on White day (14th March). I've heard this is only in Japan and in USA and European countries, people send gifts each other. Not chocolate or marshmallow.

That's why I made this bag. This is a messenger bag that is big enough to carry a laptop computer. My husband always says that a messenger bag should be large enough for a laptop, and those words made me make this bag. This bag is unisex, but I think it works best for men. (Well, I am 162 cm tall and not small as Japanese woman, but my husband told me this was too big for me.)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/175960099/large-laptop-messenger-bag-with-gray?ref=listing-shop-header-0

And this is a small messenger bag for her. It's made with the same fabric as the bag above. You cannot carry a laptop in the bag, but sure, kindle / iPad. In addition, this bag has pretty details like covered buttons and hand stitches. It's definitely for her.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/169549658/cross-body-bag-small-messenger-bag?ref=related-2




Both bag is made with soft & smooth wool tweed. You know, if you use coupon code "wintersale" on my Etsy shop, you can get 20% off discount :)

Silk can be machine-washed

There seem to be a lot of people who believe that silk cannot be machine-washed. Is it true? OK, I would not try to machine-wash my 370 dollars Hermes scarf, but why not kimono silk? We Japanese have washed silk kimono for over 1000 years, and I am sure that they can be washed at home. Here's my experiment.

1) This is the silk from vintage kimono that I purchased to make a bag. It is white silk with silver rose pattern. The fabric is smooth and beautiful, but it is a bit dirty. You can probably see the dark line in the middle of the photo, can't you?

2) I just put the fabric in a washing bag I bought at a 100 YEN shop (one dollar shop in Japan).

3) I filled a bucket with  cold water and put a half spoon of laundry detergent (powder) and soaked the fabric in the bucket for 30 minutes. The fabric was so dirty that I didn't think it could be cleaned only by machine washing.

4) Then I scrubbed the fabric to clean the dirty line, and put it  in my washing machine. I used cold water and gently cycle.

5) And dry it for a while...(maybe for 3 hour. Kimono silk is pretty thin and it can be dried very fast).

6) Steam iron it with high heat. It got very clean, and does not seem to be damaged.

Actually, I wash most of my garment at home. Not only cotton and linen, but also cashmere sweaters and down jackets. It is not true that those luxury materials should be treated at a professional cleaner. We can wash them, even in a washing machine :)

Etsy ad VS Facebook ad

From 7th January to 14th January, I ran both Etsy ad and Facebook ad. I wanted to see the effect, so I set ads in the same circumstance. One week, 14 us dollars.

The result.

*Etsy ad

Spent / $8.19 USD

Impressions / 5,157

Views / 16

Favorites / 1

Orders / 0

Revenue / $0.00 USD

*Facebook ad

Spent / $14 USD

Impressions / 6,341

Views / 80

Likes / 29 to my listing, 8 to my facebook page

Revenue /  $0.00 USD

Well, both ad didn't bring me any sales, but I think Facebook ad is more effective. As Etsy ad uses keywords and tags, if people do not search using those tags, my shop does not get found. (That's why I paid only 8 dollars, I think).

My sales are very slow these days. You know I am running coupon code, don't you? "wintersale" gives you 20% discount until 28th February. I add at least one item per day, so please try to look at my shop :)

I added this box shaped makeup bag today.

Danish / Japanese site of my shop

As I have customers from Scandinavian countries and Japan as well as USA, I decided to have shops in Danish & Japanese. I hope these site will help customers to understand more easily about products.

They do not have coupon code, but if you email me, I will give you discount :)
Feel free to contact me anytime at malmokko.bags@gmail.com

Danish site http://malmokkobags.tictail.com/

日本語サイト（Japanese）http://www.creema.jp/c/malmokkobags

My cat is in heat.

It's amazing how a cat grows up so quickly. Our cat, Rotteline Oerstad aka Rotte, is in heat. She is about 8 moths now, and going to get surgery on 18th January. I am scared as I have never experienced my cat /dog got any surgery, but we should do that as we don't know what to do if Rotte gets 5-6 kittens.

She talks a lot always, but these days her meow is really weird. It doesn't sound meow, but more like nNAaaagooooWW. Plus she seems very irritated and move crazily in our apartment.

Then I got this email from my husband yesterday, when I was at work.


 I think Rotte is sneak using your perfume... And some of your makeup things were scattered around... She's not wearing any though. It's probably difficult to put on eye liner when you only have claws. Anyway, maybe it's time for you to sit down and have to 雌 to 雌 talk with her... :-p


*雌 means female

I wonder if she wants to makeup in order to attract male cats. Maybe I should tell her that normal male cats are not attracted by perfumes and makeups, but by natural cat smell...

Rotte at 2 months old

Rotte now...

When to take photos

Unfortunately we don't have much sunshine in our apartment. It was built in 2007, and most apartments these days in Japan were built on the strict building law against earthquake. They should not have big windows, if they do not have a huge budget!

I take photos for my Etsy shop in our apartment. And I have noticed there is difference between photos in the morning and in the afternoon.

(I used the same camera using the same mode, and I have not used photoshop)

Japanese eco bag with wool kimono

1) A photo taken in the morning.

This is what I took this morning, around 8:30 am in our living room. The bag was hung on the white wall, and it looks OK (to me). The wall looks kind of pink-graysh.

Orange bird pencil case

2) A photo taken in the evening.

I took this photo around 16 pm in the same place as the photo above. It looks blue-graysh and does not look OK. I uploaded the photo on my Etsy shop anyway, but I do think I have to re-take the photo.

So obviously, I should do photo-shooting in the morning, between 8 and 9 am. The light has very important roll for photos!

Making a publicity to my friends

I had not made any publicity to my family and friends until yesterday. I was too shy to tell that I sell something handmade on Etsy. I was afraid that they would laugh at me. Handmade is surely popular in Japan and there are a lot of people who sew, knit and especially crochet, but it should be "hobby", not "business".

But I finally decided to worry too much what other people think of me. Some people may think I am selling that is not worth, but I am proud of it and I have some repeat customers (!). So I posted my Etsy shop on my facebook.

My friends reacted really nice and sweet. They even share my Etsy shop link :) And I was really ashamed that I thought they could be mean to me. No, not at all. I should know that I have really good friends.

Silk makeup bag using Japanese fabric.

Ruffle addicted

So, my holiday is over and I am back to my (daytime) job. I spent reading and answering tons of emails this morning...

Yesterday, the last day of my holiday, I made two bags. Both of them have ruffles. I am ruffle addicted right now and could not resist my inner voice.

 The first one is Hobo cross body with ruffle detail. I sold an another cross body bag yesterday and I made this to fill up my shop section "cross body bag". 

The second is ruffle zipper pouch. It has three layer ruffles. My husband told me it looked like a skirt, but still I think it is pretty!

I wondered why I love ruffles so much. Probably it is because my parents did not allow me to put on any frilled / ruffled cloth. I have typical Asian face; round face with single edged eyes. Plus I was really suntanned always. However I insisted to put on girly cloths like pink with ruffles and frills, my mother never nodded. I understand why they did not want me to put on any girly cloths, but I really wanted to when I was a child. That leads me to make feminine bags, I believe.

Eat, drink and eat.

I deceided not to measure my weight during New Year holiday. Instead, I eat, drink, and eat (not pray). I cooked hudge New Year´s food and we have a bottle of nice Sake that I got in the Bingo game of my conmpany´s drinking party. Well to tell the truth, a big bottle (1.8 litter) sake is already gone...

At the same time, I am stocking up my Etsy shop. I have no idea what you do on Valntine´s day, but maybe you give some nice presents to someone your love? In Japan, women give chocolate to men (Weird).

I made this bag today and added on my Etsy shop. This is cream beige zipper pouch, and the pattern has special meaning; Rakka-Ryusui, which means two people are deeply in live. I think this can be a perfect gift for Valentine :)