Mabel Teoh...

• is busy moving, packing, unpacking, shopping, painting, and installing IKEA furniture. GAH! 1 week ago
• is looking forward to moving into the new place! 2 weeks ago
• is loving the cream cheese pound cake that is fresh from her oven! http://thescarfer.net/blog/2010/08/16/cream-cheese-pound-cake/ 3 weeks ago
• is going to have a fruitful weekend of sewing and dyeing despite being down with a nasty cough. 2010-08-07
• More updates...



In a nutshell


Simple Scarves is the baby of Mabel Teoh, a Malaysian who has just moved from Europe back to Asia while trying to craft her way through life. Opened in 2008, it is a place where colour meets creativity.

The store found on Etsy as per below (we are on Facebook as well):



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  SimpleScarves by Mabel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
  
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…yup, that’s right. I went from zero to close to 40 sold items, 2.5 kilos of wool to 8.5 kilos, from three different items to almost 15…

The shop is over two months old and I’m amazed at how much it has grown. The journey hasn’t been easy – the competition, the slow sales (due to a global slowdown), criticisms & ideas from all sorts of people about the prices/photos/profit (what profit?), and sometimes just slow braindead days where I can’t seem to come up with any new colours or combos – but I’m glad I never gave up.

Oh, trust me, I am guilty of wanting to throw the towel in for some products and I have been guilty of bemoaning the lack in sales sometimes…

But I’m glad I made the decision to open up a store, doing something I really love and it has been rather evident. Recently, the Hubby and my silent-partner mentioned that prior to knowing me, he thought wool was just wool and yarn was well, just yarn. Now, when I blab out my plans to bring in wools like Shetland, Gotland, Leicester, Falkland, Merino, and so forth together with sock & laceweight yarns, his eyes just glaze over and well, you know that he’s lost. I talk more about the shop and all the plans that I have for it more than what I do in French class or with my knitting projects. He knows I love my craft dearly…and I like to think that it’s evident in my shop.

Now, when I first started the store, I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy. For starters, I wouldn’t be making any money because the amount I spent on setting it up – supplies, equipment, shipping, knowledge (yes, knowledge costs money), labour costs and so forth. To top things off, not only do I buy in Swiss Francs, I also buy in USD and British pound. So I had actually given myself about three months to break even and at least make a sale for every update (which is a bi-weekly affair and at least 6 to 8 products per update).

Today was a surprise for me because after doing my accounts, which I work on nearly every week, I discovered that I’m TWO CHF shy of breaking even!!!! Also since updating earlier last week, I’ve made about 9 sales! (Well, that has to do with the store going on sale but still…)

So yes, despite that awful weather, it’s truly an exciting time for me!!!!

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