The full StraitsTimes report is as follows:

By Amelia Tan Hui Fang

At least five online vendors have been left out of pocket after the closure of The Blog Shop’s three stores.
The company shut them down between October and December last year, leaving several vendors with losses of a few thousand dollars each.
The Straits Times spoke to five vendors, who say they lost about $17,100 among them. Each claimed to have lost between $2,000 and $4,600 in rent, deposits, sales money and missing stock.
The store concept was the brainchild of Mr Clarence Chew, who started his business in Haji Lane in 2009. He had the idea of opening a physical retail space where online shops, or blogshops, could display and market their wares, in this case, clothes and accessories for women.
By the following year, he had opened two more stores, at Far East Plaza and City Plaza.
The 25-year-old National University of Singapore economics graduate was also nominated for the Spirit of Enterprise 2010 awards, which honour successful entrepreneurs in Singapore.
In an interview with the awards organisers, he mentioned that his store managed to break even in less than two months.
But since October last year, he has been ignoring the calls and e-mails of his unhappy vendors. A spokesman confirmed that the police have received four reports about the matter.
The vendors said Mr Chew’s stores charged an average of $750 a month for the use of a clothes rack that held up to 50 pieces of clothing.
Ms Ang Yuan Mei, the owner of apparel store Black Pockets, lodged a police report in November; she was one of the first to do so. She realised something was amiss when she went down to the Far East Plaza outlet during a stock check in mid-October and noticed people packing the items on display.
The secondary school student, who started renting space in the store in September, said she lost her deposit and four months’ rent, as well as the clothes on display. In all, she is around $4,000 out of pocket, she said, adding that she has been pressing Mr Chew for her money since then, but to no avail.
Attempts by The Straits Times to contact Mr Chew were unsuccessful; his mobile phone was disconnected and he has not replied to e-mail.
His last e-mail to vendors, dated Dec20, stated that he needed more time to return the money, due to ‘unforeseen financial circumstances’.
The reason for the business closure is unknown, and the shop spaces have been taken over by other tenants.
A former employee, who declined to be named, told the vendors last month to be patient while Mr Chew slowly paid them back in installments.
Some of the vendors have considered pooling their resources to hire a lawyer. But others, like Ms Sherene Hong, 23, have not yet decided on the best course of action.
‘It would be better if he can give us an explanation,’ said the part-owner of the Running Thread online store, which sells women’s clothes.
A similar case occurred in April 2010 with another store, Best of Blogshops, whose owner disappeared while owing his vendors money.

Insider information provided by angry blogshop owners who have encountered difficulties answered my curiosity as I did a search online, although I was too lazy to search the blog of Jacqueline Koh, because obviously she won’t post anything about it when their strategy is to dissolve the shop secretly without returning the money!

It is said that one of the directors misappropriate company funds. (I wonder who, I wonder who!) But it  is really despicable to just cease operations without proper handling of the situation, implicating blogshop vendors.

from sherenehong.blogspot.com

Find related insider information here:

The BlogShop Singapore SUCKS – *update*

Theblogshop.

My review here:

The BlogShop’s Clothes Buffet review 

So have you shopped for your new year clothes? If you haven’t, you should do it soon! Many blogshops are offering CNY promotions and here are some of my favourites.

From lilypirates.livejournal.com:

It’s amazing how a dress in the same design, but in different colours can achieve such different feels. One looks so modern, and the other vintage. And you’ll definitely stand out in either one.

From loveandbravery.com:

The design is simple, but the colour says it all. Girl-next-door’s dress.

I love the subtle lace details at the top and how fitted it is to the body. The size S is sold out, but they still have it in size M, grab it before it’s gone!

From theclosetlover.livejournal.com:

They launched this before Christmas, but I think it’s perfect for Chinese New Year as well.

This piece is launching in their next collection and I’m going to get it for a wedding. =)

From thetinselrack.livejournal.com:

thetinselrack offers a cute twist to the usual cheongsam by adding polkadots. The result is a playful and modern piece, definitely an eye-turner.

Are your fingers itching to click ‘Buy’ yet?

What I find interesting in Singapore’s Chinese is that most of us don’t wear the traditional costume during lunar new year, as opposed to the Malays and Indians. Once their special occasions are here, they are always seen decked out in their beautiful traditional costumes. Hopefully with more local blogshops coming up with laced cheongsams and adding modern touches to their manufactured exclusives, we would see more ladies wearing cheongsams.

I myself, am not adverse to wearing the cheongsam :)

What I wore for visitin in 2010.

In case you’re sweating it out on what to wear for visiting, here are some tips for you!

1) Wear something you’re comfortable in.

Forget that short tight skirt/low cut blouse. Visiting many relatives in a day isn’t an easy task, and you have to feel comfortable. If you have to spend every minute of the day worrying if your underwear are peeking out of your clothes, you’d be one nervous uptight bitch by the end of it. Choose something that you can sit comfortably in (something that doesn’t ride up too high your thigh), because you’re not just going to stand around in your relative’s place.

2) Wear light and preferably NOT long-sleeved.

I know you’re excited to show off your cute long-sleeved number that you bought specially for new year. It looks fabulous, but in this (Singapore) weather? Perspiration patches on your clothes when you’re trying to look glam is not glam. Feeling too warm till you wanna peel your clothes off is also not fun.

3) Bring plasters.

This is a MUST. You must have a couple of plasters stashed away in your purse or bag. This is to save yourself or somebody else in pain –  a pain every girl who adores heels will know, caused by damned blisters. CNY is definitely a time to wear heels and look like a star. But when the pretty shoes are biting away at your heels, chewing bits off again and again, the picture is not perfect anymore. So, unless your heels are resistant to blisters, please remember to bring plasters! You’ll thank me for this.

These are the 3 most important tips I have thought of, I hope they are of some help! :)

Love,

Zoe

For me, the first time’s always gonna be weird, the way new people are thrust into existing circle of friends. But with more exposure, things will get more natural. And it’s always nice to bond over good food, or board games for the non-athletic ones, and physical sport for the athletic ones.

With jacynth and laura

with theresa

This jacynth wanted to hide behind me cuz she thinks she's fatter than me. Come on!

Wait, you haven’t seen the whole group yet!

Our gatherings have doubled in capacity, somehow! Isn't this cute?

The photos above were taken using laura’s digital camera. I like how it has wide-angle properties and can fit everyone in the photo and it doesn’t look cramped. Nowadays even point-and-shoot cameras are so good!

We had dinner at The Delicious Group in Scotts Square. The food was not as fantastic as we had anticipated, and the dish that the boys ordered (3 of them ordered the same chicken) turned out to be a camouflage of mushy moss over tasteless chicken drumstick. It is as unappetizing as it looks, trust me.

Mascarpone Pesto Chicken ($15)

The boys who ordered this got their girlfriends implicated as well, because it was so tasteless that the girls volunteered to share their own pastas with them, so the couples took turns to alternate eating this erm-looking thing. See! Where can you find such nice girls to share thick and thin with you guys?? Haha. By the way, pesto tastes like grass.

Hammy and I were lucky as we ordered pastas, so they weren’t so bad, although nothing to rave about. I’d expected the Crabmeat Linguine to taste better, but the dish didn’t bring out the flavour of crab meat. It could have easily been substituted with chicken and it would taste the same. Hammy’s aglio olio was nothing worth mentioning. We’ve had better Aglio olio from Pasta Manna at Old Airport’s hawker centre, way cheaper too.

Crabmeat Linguine w pine nuts ($15)

Aglio olio spaghetti + Shitake mushroom and sundried tomatoes ($12)

Well anyway, gatherings aren’t so much about the food right? It’s catching up and sharing gossips that makes the deal. I wish I could have joined them for coffee at TCC afterwards but we had to go off. Another time then! Next up, steamboat in mid-Jan 2012! :)

Theresa and laura were so generous to gift a unique polaroid to every girl in the picture :) Thanks for the memories!

Thank you theresa for organizing this gathering!

Made this moving photograph from the photos we took at the zoo :D

I couldn’t help but feel narcissistic enough to let Hammy treat me like a ‘model’ and snap away. It helps to have nice scenery. :P

Bokeh effect.

Love this photo cuz of the background. Haha.

The new jetty with shelter.

This was Hammy playing around with the camera when the sky got dark. There were night lamps along the path and after waving the camera about in slow shutter speed, this was what he got.

Again, using slow shutter speed, I managed to capture this photo of the water spouts at the water-themed playground. Slow shutter speed gives flowing water a smooth and foamy appearance.

A silly photo of me.

The place was void of noise from the main road, despite a nearby expressway. We got to connect with mother nature for awhile; breathe in the fresher air; hear the swishing of the reservoir, and watched kids have fun at the water-themed playground. Relaxing! <3 I could consider it a date.

Exhibition

We were at the largest art exhibition in Singapore last week entitled ‘A Moving Masterpiece: The Song Dynasty as Living Art’. It was held at the Expo, taking up a whopping area of 10,000 sq metres. Exhibits include the items that were used during the era and explanations on how the people lived. The main attraction is the 128m x 6.5m animated reproduction of Qing Ming Shang He Tu (Along the River during Qingming festival), an enormous paranormic painting by Zhang Zeduan. That was what we came to look at.

Our first exhibition experience as a family turned out to be rather solitary, as they issued a tape recorder and earphones for each visitor as an aural guide to the various sections of the exhibition. I’d thought that we would walk together and ogle at the masterpiece, but in the end we walked about on our own to explore the place. ‘Own time own target’. IN FACT, almost everyone at the exhibition was walking alone. What is this?!

Mobile stall selling tea leaves

Coins

Ingots

Song Dynasty was the first government in world history to issue banknote/money

Pipes used for smoking

Start of the digital masterpiece

Villager and cows travelling

It goes on and on~

Rural village

It was amazing how every single character was moving and interacting with the others, and the coolest part was that they even produced a ‘night-scene’ of the original painting. I’m sure the artist didn’t paint one in night mode!

Riverside in the day

Riverside at night

Finally at the end!

In my opinion, I felt they’d overdone it with all the merchandise and ripping parts of the painting off to decorate pillow covers/pencil cases/bags/paper fans/lamps/poker cards. Yes, the painting was even printed on poker cards, and they are not cheap. The original painting might belong to public ownership, but doing all these just shows that the painting is somehow not very valuable as everyone can own a piece of it. Well that’s my opinion, and others might counter by saying that it’s a form of art and they would wish to see it on every possible accessory.

Rows and rows of merchandise

Mini scrolls in day and night versions -_-''

Printed on red packets. Fancy giving it away during lunar new year?

Masterpiece printed on poker cards?

Overall, it wasn’t as enjoyable I thought it would be, and seeing all those expensive merchandise scared me off a little. It made me wonder if the masterpiece was just a tool to make money after all. You may beg to differ.

Venue: Hall 3, Singapore Expo Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Duration: Ends Feb 6 next year; weekdays from noon to 9pm, weekends and public holidays from 9am to 9pm.

Admission: $18 for adults; $13 for students, those above 60 years old and children between three and 12; free for children below three.

I want this full length mirror!

My sister and I absorbed in taking photos while the rest browsed the furniture. Hehe She’d asked me to post them.

That’s all!

Only my mom and my family are permanently rooted in Singapore. I’m not complaining, because it takes a lot of courage to just move countries. I’m pretty much satisfied here, although sometimes I wish for a closer relationship with my grandparents and aunts/uncles. They migrated while I was a child and we didn’t exactly got to bond. But they are all really nice people!

Anyway, we met up on Christmas to have lunch at East Ocean restaurant at Shaw in Orchard, and the Dim Sum really blew me away! Everything was so mouth-watering and delicious. Nicest Dim Sum I’ve ever tasted!

Sorry for the low quality photos, as I had forgotten to bring my camera!

My grandpa and 3rd aunt. Still looking great!

My grammy, mom and 2nd aunt. Don't they all look so young??

There was a long queue outside the restaurant and we waited for about half an hr before getting seated. This was despite having made reservations, because everyone else there had also made reservations! It was totally packed.

Waitresses would go around tables and calling out the names of the dim sum that they are carrying, and then place down the small bamboo baskets if people desired them. I’ve never been to Hong Kong, and this kind of hectic, active promotion of Dim Sum from table to table was a new experience for me.

Almond prawn ball. Very fragrant and crispy!

The restaurant serves little cups of strong Tieguanyin tea before and after the meal to sort of clear our palate.

The custard baos (buns) are heavenly! Innocently they may sit in their baskets, but once you bite into them, the golden custard oozes out in a perfect combination of sweet and saltiness. Salty due to salted egg yolk in the custard, hence it wasn’t too sweet. I ate 2. Oh my mama!

This place is good for families to have lunch and dinners, but beware of the long queue! That said, the wait was totally worth it.

East Ocean Teochew Restaurant
1 Scotts Road #02-18 Shaw Centre

Tel:             +65 6235 9088
Weekday: 11.30am – 3pm, 6pm – 11pm
Weekend & PH: 10.30am – 3pm, 6pm – 11pm

There are so many things I hope to achieve in the new year, 2012. It is going to be an important year:

I’ll be…

- completing my Final Year Project and graduating from University.

- starting work (hopefully) in the later half of the year. Although I still don’t know what I want to do, and whether any company will want to hire me.

Transiting from school to work life is a pretty major change in phase in my opinion, and although there is alot to look forward to, such as earning $$$, there are also challenges and fears to overcome. I’ll have to start repaying my debts accumulated during my course of study, and then work out a savings plan. I’ll have to go for job interviews and meet new colleagues etc… Ahh, just thinking of these gives me shudders.

BUT, I still look forward to growing up! And working towards independence step by step.

In case the world ends on 21st Dec 2012 according to the Mayan calendar, I have thought of some resolutions that will help me to live my life to the fullest.

1) Give my best to my Final Year Project and get an A.

2) Put in more effort in Mypeaceofheaven.com. Don’t be lazy!

3) Spend more time with family and friends.

4) Love.

Happy New Year everyone! :D