We met Push Pin at the Gift Show in Tokyo this year. Their English was not so good so we agreed with them that they will contact us again with an English speaking contact person. Today Brian, who is from Hong Kong and is taking care of their production in China, visited us to talk more detailed about their products and their different collections. He also brought some really cute catalogues. We actually do sell Push Pin’s fabric made by Kokka in Japan in our shop already, but they make a lot of other cute products as well, like memo pads, sticker, keychains, wallets, bags and many many more. They have a matryoshka line, fairy tale line, kitty line and others. Their items are really adorable and we want to sell more of their products in our shop. They would fit perfectly with our other items.

The funny thing is that they have a collection  called “November Books” which is about the German fairy tales and they use some German words on their designs. Sometimes those sentences are wrong or just sound very funny. I guess its the same everywhere when people use other languages because they are “fashionable”. My English must also sound funny sometimes as my mother tongue is German, not English.

Here are a few pages of the new Push Pin catalogue 2011:

Push Pin stationery catalogue

cute memo pads from Japan

wallets and bags made with Push Pin fabric

Today we took some new pictures of our office and warehouse because it changed quite a bit and lots of new products have arrived since the last photos were taken. I love looking at pictures with lots of cute products in them. I also want to show where we work and how our place looks like. This way we can make our business a bit more personal for our customers and you know who is behind this cute online shop. Here are some pictures of our warehouse:

shelf with clay sets from Japan

lots and lots of Michael Miller and Cosmo fabrics

cute Japanese stationery

and clay sets again

Today we had a visit from Clothworks Textiles‘ CEO Ted from the USA. He visited us at our office to talk about a future collaboration because we are very interested in selling some of their fabrics in our shop. I always prefer knowing the people I do business with in person. I have met most of our suppliers before, it is just easier doing business together that way. Ted was so nice and brought us some chocolates from the US which are really yummy

But back to business: we talked about his fabric collections and he explained to us that their target customers are women aged 40 and older. That’s really funny because our customers are usually between 18-35 years old. Therefore, not all their fabric collections fit into our shop but some definitely do, including the super cute Woodland Friends fabrics. I plan to immediately place an order of those fabrics, plus the Dinos on Parade collection and the Beetle Boy collection. I think those 3 fabric collections fit perfectly into our cute fabric shop. I am very excited to work with Clothworks Textiles together soon. Thanks for visiting us Ted, I know it is a long way from the USA to Hong Kong.

Woodland Friends owls fabric

Woodland Friends fabric

Dinos on Parade fabric

Beetle Boy fabric

We made our own Christmas stamp for decorating all packages for Christmas this year. It’s our first modes4u-stamp with a cute character: Santa Claus, a reindeer and gingerbread man. We thought it would be nice to decorate all packages during the holiday season with a cute Christmas stamp. This stamp is handmade and totally unique. I hope you guys like your cute decorated packages. Merry Christmas everyone

cute Christmas modes4u-stamp

We had a company Dim Sum lunch today. Dim Sum is a very popular breakfast/brunch/lunch thing in Hong Kong. You can order lots of steamed food like dumplings, buns, meat/shrimp/seafood/fish balls, different meat, vegetables, pudding and a lot of more dishes. My favorite is “Har Gow“, shrimp dumplings, they are so delicious. Another very good one is Siu Mai (pork and shrimp dumpling), Charsui Bao (BBQ Pork bun), Xiao Long Bao (steamed pork dumplings) and Lai Wong Bao (custard bun), which is my favorite dessert dish. We had lots of fun and took some pics while enjoying the delicious food.

Dim Sum Menu

you traditionally wash the bowls and chopsticks before eating

Lok has fun cleaning her bowl

Lok's favorite: Chicken Feet

lots of yummy dim sum dishes

Lok is excited about the choices

my favorite: Har Gow shrimp dumplings

more good food

Siu Mai dumplings and meat balls

Alan and I are having fun while eating

the bosses are drinking tea

you can watch them preparing the dishes

yummy fried rice

our small team

Today our newest staff member is starting her work in our office. Her name is Lok and she will be taking care of packing all your goodies in cute packages and send them to the post office. We will have a nice Dim Sum lunch all together because that is custom here to welcome a new staff member. Isn’t that a nice gesture to let someone feel welcome? Welcome to the team Lok!

Lok in front of lots of empty boxes after a delivery from Japan

This month I am busy testing our new software. Until now we used a software from Germany called Afterbuy to handle our product database, customer database and our orders. As we were growing bigger we got to the limits of this software. We decided at the beginning of 2010 to change to a new software. We tested different commercial software for 1 month but couldn’t find anything suitable for us and our business model. Therefore, Alan, my husband, who is a very experienced programmer, started to program a custom made software for our business. It was a very big decision for us because we are only 3 people working fulltime for this business, me, Alan and one packing staff. So one person spent his whole time on programming and I had to take over managing the business which was growing significantly the last months. It was really hard work but Alan finally finished the software at the end of July and we started testing it this month. As there are still lots of bugs and changes, we have to run both software at the same time which means double work for me. But we plan to shut down the German software at the end of this month and only use the new software. I can’t wait for this to happen because it will make a lot of my work easier, faster and more efficient. I would like to thank Alan for this great software! THANK YOU!!!

We got lots of new products and therefore had to expand our warehouse space. A huge load of Tenshi Neko, Akuma Neko and Mimori bags arrived the other day. We also received lots of new Japanese fabrics for the coming Autumn/Winter 2010 season, including some really cute Halloween and Christmas fabrics from Japan. Our packing table was also upgraded and packing is more efficient now. We put a whole shelf on the table for all the envelopes and plastic bags. On top of the shelf is a bubble wrap roll fixed,  so our packing staff can easily pull down some bubble wrap for packing. I took some pictures after we finished setting everything up and looking tidy again. Have a look at the pics here:

our new packing table

lots of new Japanese fabrics

Tenshi Neko, Akuma Neko and Mimori bags

Today we received 2 long awaited orders of Japanese fabrics from Kokka and Cosmo. We are so excited, there are so many new cute and awesome prints like Alice in Wonderland, kawaii animals, matryoshka, skulls, flowers, Christmas fabrics and Halloween fabrics and many many more. One of my favorite fabrics are definitely the kawaii Christmas fabrics by Cosmo, they are just too cute We took some pictures of the fabric bolts, so you can enjoy them as well

lots of bolts of Kokka fabric

cute fabric from Japan by Cosmo

I will be on holidays from 12th of July until 19th of July! Daily shipping will continue as our packing staff will work as usual. I am looking forward to relax a bit and recharge my batteries. I know already that I will return with lots of new ideas and a huge motivation for improving my business I hope everyone else has a nice summer as well. Take it easy, take a dip in the nearest lake/ocean/pond/pool and enjoy the sun!
Yours, Sandra