05 January 2009 The last month of last year was as memoriable as ever. Em went to Japan, and I went to Thailand; both returning with loads of goodies and interesting finds. After the first half of the month has passed, we had bountiful stayovers, munchkins (our favourite card game) and late night dip in the pool with our favouritest friends. But besides all that fun, we were really happy to share grab bags and auctions with all of you and we can't thank you enough for giving us all the support and festive greetings we have received throughout the month! Most importantly, thank you for being so patient with us as we worked our butts off to complete all orders. :D To continue this train of events, we're proud to announce that we will be part of the FunFair held by The Faculty on the 10th of January (this Saturday). We will be showcasing new items there and we will be having a sale as well! So do come down this Saturday to visit us. :) Venue: 168 Telok Ayer Street CBD
(3 mins from Tanjong Pagar MRT station)
Happy 2009 everyone! Can't wait to see you guys on Saturday. :) Love and more love, Mich 24 December 2008
To wrap up the celebrations of this month, we've come up with our Tzarina Collection. This is the first time we are putting anything up on bid, but we used the best loot from both our holidays to present these necklaces to you. They are available at russianrouge.livejournal.com, a diary Michelle & I started a few months ago to jot down our stream of thoughts. If you have a journal, do add us as friends! We've managed to clear all of our early orders, we hope you have all received them in time to give them away as Christmas presents, so here's more love, joy, and blessings for everyone this Christmas. December has been a blast for us because of you, thank you :)
15 December 2008
Since the last one was such a hit with you, we decided to do it again! Even though the last grab bag was more strenuous and demanding than we originally thought it might be, this time we are willing to do more work so you can indulge at a more affordable price :) At the same time, there's nothing lovelier than receiving surprises in the mail, especially near Christmas. For these grab bags, we can't promise that they will all be delivered in time for Christmas, not unless you pick them up from us personally. Just let us know your plans and we'll always try our best :) 12 December 2008
Tokyo in a handful of photos. It's an amazing buzz of neon and vending machines :)
And as I promised, no trip is complete until I hand-carry beads home :) Everything there is super pricey, as are the beads, but my addiction to beads usually overrules my budget-rationality. There were a few streets of nothing but bead shops. Imagine my delight, haha! There'll be more surprises, can't wait to unveil all of them to you :) Just a sneak preview of a few earrings first - hope you like :) I ruined my manicure for them.. haha I'm going to take over the reins from Michelle because she has just flown off to Bangkok. We have been communicating only via email, so there have been some lapses in answering emails. We apologise. I'm getting down to work, and I'll deliver all your items before Christmas :) Tzarist is turning 3 in 3 days, we have another bonus coming up so please bookmark this page and come back :D
1 December 2008
Tzarist is reaching our 3 year mark in two weeks! It's not a mile, but every year is a step forward :) Until now we are amazed at how many of you have been with us since our first anniversary. Plus the accompanying presence of Christmas makes every anniversary so festive and warm. After having delivered 3000 items and counting into so many homes, to so many ladies from lawyers to students to mothers and daughters, this is definitely an occassion worth celebrating with more than just a toast. Afterall, this is essentially what Tzarist is about - a dream bubble that grows unhurriedly bigger with each year; the design limits we challenge, the relationships we build :) Tonight I'm heading off to Japan. It's going to be my ultimate culinary dream-adventure, haha. I have a stash of items with Michelle but some things can only be sent when I return on the 10th. So I beg for your patience :) In exchange I'll be scouring Tokyo for the finest beads! We promise to try to reach everything to you before Christmas. If you intend to buy trinkets as gifts, please order early. We have so many ideas up our sleeves for this December. Take your time to enjoy the sale :) After that, breathe, relax and let us surprise you with brighter and shinier things. T&C: Your Emerald. 14 November 2008
So Michelle, Serene, Mike & I have been spending more time at Lorong Halus prawning more often than we've expected to. I say more than we expect to because there was a long time when I had a misconception that fishing was meant for old and boring people. Well, sad to say, I think we've aged considerably in the last few weeks, and our entertainment has been reduced to spending wee hours in a remote pasir ris farm getting excited by prawns. These prawns are huge! They have pincers. Once they clung strategically onto Mike's pants and uhm.. refused to let go. For a moment I thought thats it, he's not going to be able to have children next time. Hahaha! See how gung-ho Michelle is. Exams now and in the next two weeks at least. After which, it'll be December, that's the light at the end of our tunnel, when some of our friends will be coming back, and there'll be birthday party debts to be paid. Till then, be good : ) Em 12 October 2008
Important! Our Gmail is encountering some difficulty. We have had feedback that emails are getting bounced back, and not everyone is getting the auto-reply from the shopping cart with payment details. In the event that your email cannot get through, or you need to contact us, click on the top right hand corner envelop. Our personal emails are there :) If it is urgent, you have our cell phone numbers :) If you are waiting for a reply, and not getting any, please try again or forward to our personal email! Yesterday Michelle and I went for class again at Raffles Design Institute. This time we learnt how to work with acrylic. I made a pair of white frames for earrings, and Michelle stacked petals together for a necklace. As usual, I have a phobia of the machines.. and then I cut myself twice with the saw. Hahaha! So Michelle had to help me a bit :P Though, listening to the machines whirring and concentrating on nothing but trying not to break whatever was in my hands was -relaxing in a stressful sort of way and a good way to start a beautiful Saturday morning :) Love much, Em. 07 October 2008
As promised :) Some of you may have already received our new satin pouches. This time in champagne and lilac. We also have large pouches for necklaces in red now. The champagne ones are embroidered in black with matching ribbons. Aren't they lovely? I am beginning to prefer black to white embroidery. When I pulled out all the old editions, I realised I don't even have any of the large pink ones left :( Neither does Michelle. And we had hundreds of those when we first made them! The ladies who have received them before, do treasure them! (Or be kind and send one back to us, just so we can keep one for momento) They are limited edition, hahaha. We are unlikely to produce the same colour again. I know some of you keep track of the colours you have.. if you want a particular colour, just ask, we'd be happy to complete your collection if we can :) Except for pink and gold. Those I only have less than the fingers on one hand :D 16 September 2008
When we had our idea for this contest, we didn't think to receive such overwhelming and touching responses. Thank you all who emailed us what you thought of us, it was two weeks of lovely emails, thank you thank you :) Because it was all too much to put into a banner, you can see the winning entries here, here and here. Maybe we'll make a Tzarist Wall just to keep these as mementos some time soon :) I'm having two midterm tests tomorrow but I'm procrastinating studying by uploading some pretty trinkets I've made. A slight improvisation from crocheting using yarn, to creating wire patterns using the same crocheting technique. Designing jewellery is like a journey, sometimes I hit a dry spell and I can't reinvent my own style, but when inspiration comes its rejuvenating like rain in a desert. Emerald. 29 August 2008
Hi ladies, we are having a mini contest :) Ok, not really a contest, just some incentive for feedback. With so many things up our sleeves, Michelle and I decided to take a Tzarina Break for this month. We've been very busy with school and other committments, and we don't want to rush through the collection, because it deserves more love and attention from us, so we have decided to give some earrings away. The 10 winners will receive the Tzarina earrings shown above, all in different colour variations. We made it together months ago, and it was stored for a special occasion, until now I suppose :) Some housekeeping as well: 1) The NEW POUCHES have been sent for embroidery! Yes! 3 new colours this time, we are awfully excited. In the mean time however, we'd be using some blue/yellow rayon pouches (unembroidered) for a week or two until the new ones are ready. They are just some spare cloths we have on hand, so we'll make do for now :) 2) Both Michelle and my cell phone numbers have changed. They are now 81188204 and 81335177 respectively. If you've tried to contact us earlier with no reply, we apologise. We only just realised that not everyone was notified of our new numbers. 3) Tzarist VIP gifts are sent at the end of every birthday month! Ok thats all, be good and have a good September. 24 August 2008
Last weekend, Tzarist was the official accessory sponsor for NUS Business School Jam & Hop event. We provided the pageant contestants with jewelry and they helped showcase them on the runway at the Arena where the event was held. It was crazy hectic that week, 'cos not only did we have to make 12 new items and remake some old ones, I was part of the marketing committee for the event and there were so many preparations to attend to! So, many apologies to those who received our emails and items late for the past week. We're still trying to settle down in school and struggling to cope with all our other obligations. But all in all, the event was a success and we were really glad our jewelry were showcased on some really good and pretty contestants! :D Updates have been slow the past 2 weeks,
but we promise you it'll get better from this week on! I just came back
from a short trip to Bangkok, so yay we have some really special pendants
for our August Tzarina collection! ;) <3, Mich Wish Bish.
10 August 2008
Put us girls together, give us 500 water balloons, a twister mat, and we'd show you how to play like children gone wild - without rules, fear or inhibition. We are still sixteen year olds at heart like we were back in St Nicks. Except that we are also still as hopeless as starting our BBQ fire, which took us nearly an hour.. and that thing Michelle is eating? I know it absolutely looks like a blackened corn, but its not, its an exotic ebony carrot from South Africa. The only good thing that emerged from the kitchen was my Japanese Salada! Also, because of Ping, who has to impulsively beautify everything everywhere she goes, we had beautiful white lanterns around the chalet, even if they had to be taken down the next morning. Am about to upload more crochetting this time round cos many of you asked for it - any requests as usual just email :) P.S. We are sorry for any delay in delivering parcels. School has started for Michelle and I, so we may be slower than usual, we apologise in advance. Emerald. 14 July 2008
Last Saturday Michelle and I spent one-day at Raffles Design Institute learning silver-smithing. During the workshop, which lasted for about 8 hours, we learnt how to pierce, shape, soulder, buff, and polish silver. We both made rings, hers an abstract ribbon, mine an oxidized heart muscle, with "From here" engraved at the bottom. From the bottom of my heart :) I think Michelle got the nicest ring in the whole class! It was superbly fun, much more than we imagined. Hands-on work in a studio with all the complex machines reminds me of my hopeless D&T days, but if we could we'd defiinitely want to pick up another course there again some time. Our teacher, Sandra was very patient and super expert! Michelle and I are day dreaming about dropping our uni courses for full time jewellery course.. but, we're still telling each other to 'dream on'. Hahaha P.S. We did not co-ordinate our outfits. We just both happened to turn up in yellow >:D Peace, Em.
6 July 2008
We know we have never been very forward about our VIP thing - with just a small paragraph under our 'Terms' tab. But now, with an increasing number of new Tzarinas joining the Family every month, we thought we'd better make ourselves clear once and for all : ) Usually, we require a single receipt of $200 to make VIP. Now, just for this month, we are having a special promotion. Make $150 in one purchase, and be a Tzarina for life ;) It entitles you to these benefits: 1.
15% discount for 1 to 4 items purchased in a single receipt. Terms:
Promotion ends 31st July.
Yangs is finally back from England, its so good to have her back. She's a bake-aholic and we are going to bake thousands of cupcakes, muffins and all the other sugary sweet things in the coming weeks. The other night we had a good time stuffing ourselves with Claypot at a Geylang street stall. The mosquitoes from a nearby drain had their feast on my legs, and Charmaine was acting like the busy film producer that she is as usual. But guess what was the weirdest thing? When we were slurping on our tou huay and swooning over how good it was.. Michelle said to me, "If you were food you would taste like that." Eww! Hahahahaha Emerald
It's my friend's sister's wedding this weekend, and ever since I've heard wind of it I've been experimenting with hair accessories so that I could wear something sweet to the church ceremony. I've got hold of some organza ribbons, which always reminds me of romantic events such as weddings, anniversaries and all things sweet and beautiful, to make them into little roses. Entwined it with wires, and I made them into swirly shapes too! It was fun twirling and trying whatever I made on my hair for a change. It was so fun making these hair accessories, I thought it would be nice to share with everyone! :) Although I'm not putting it up for sale (I love them so much! It makes me feel like a little girl again..) if you're interested in them, feel free to email us and I'll see what I can do. :) Hope you ladies like what I made! <3, Merry Mich
11 June 2008
So last weekend the girlfriends celebrated my boyfriend's birthday >:) (Who also happens to be our webmaster) And we had such a blast! This week, we have a extra special surprise :) We made a video of how we wrapped the Grab Bags for you ladies, so you can be assured that there was no favouritism practised.. (not that we have any reason to anyway) haha. Also because many of you said you wanted to meet us at the suntec fair, so at least now you can see us in digital motion :P Though it was fun making the video, I have to confess that it was very embarrassing for me (more than you can guess), but nonetheless at Michelle's insistance we finished it anyway. I won't embed it here (less embarrassing a little), but for those who bought and are interested, you can watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IzX67L_4m0 That aside, new uploads this week. I scouted vintage pieces to make this collection, its glamorous and sexy like the good 1970s, so I hope you all enjoy it >:) Love, Emerald (the meek/soft voice)
03 June 2008
Hi Ladies, *No further discounts for Members So hurry surprise yourself with lovely items from us and click on Tzarinas to grab a Grab Bag now! :) <3, the girls.
16 May 2008
We have some good news! On 14th June 2008, there will be a 'Blogshop Galore' at Suntec City we are participating in. On that day, there'll be the PC Fair and many other shops are setting up next to us, so do come down and lend some support :) For those who always felt our fleas were a little out of town, now you can come take a look! As usual, some old stock we want to clear at slashed prices. But this time we promise many more new hot items k! :D We will send out a mailing list closer to the date as a reminder :) On Tuesday, we went troopatrooping along Ann Siang Hill to look for this Irish Pub called Le Carillon to see Ping's installation. Look at that MerTiger, cute eh? It was glowing prettily in the cosy basement, where Michelle couldn't resist putting her face so close to a pretty derriere... We also managed to walk past The Patissier, which was godsend to our growling tummies at 3 pm in the afternoon (and we haven't had lunch!) The small cakes had sprinkles of gold foil and so heavenly. Then we went all the way to remote Pasir Ris to visit the pet farms, and nearly couldn't resist bringing some puppies home. Our May Tzarina Collection is finished, it will be up and ready some time by late tonight or tomorrow. Hope you guys enjoy our new nautica love theme :D Emerald
28 April 2008 Some gorgeous updates by Michelle and I today. Two weekends from now is Mother's Day.. are you frantic? If you are not, it should be because you are super filial and got her present two weeks early in advance! Otherwise, what are you waiting for? :P No time is a poor excuse! Because our mothers are always there, and y'know they work so hard to make us who we are today, overcoming all challenges and taking our daily troubles as if their own.. To celebrate, we are having a sale. Many old items are marked down 10-30%, sift through the back pages. Fastest fingers win :) We are also giving away a pair of earrings to those who purchase more than $70. It is made of stacking flowers, gold and clear, frosted beads and white capped pearls. It drops at 4.5 cm. 
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3<3 <3 <3 <3 Emerald
21 April 2008 I'm officially not a "teen" anymore, and that thought scares me. :S Like I promised, here are some photos of my birthday week, which was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! So many surprises and so much fun. :) Kbox, banmian steamboat, chocolate cakes, cam-whoring and much much more. But most importantly, I had many precious hand-made gifts from my friends this year. I can't help but smile whenever I look at them; the hand-made gifts really really touch my heart.
Sigh, I feel so loved. <3, Mich
12 April 2008
It was Michelle's 20th last Wednesday :) She had many consecutive days of surprises and celebrations, will leave it to her to post her photos :) New uploads for this weekend is up.
<3, Em 1 April 2008 Firstly, a big thank you for those who came down specially on Friday to visit us at our stall! :) It was nice chatting with you ladies. It really makes us happy to see our customers in person and to get to know them better; it just makes everything more personal and close to heart. And we're really sorry to those who found it too inconvenient to come down to NUS. We will try to participate in a flea that's more centralised and open to the public the next time k? Promise!
Last Saturday, Em and I went back to our old school, CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School for their big-bang Funfair Fiesta. Although it was super crowded and unbearably hot, we still enjoyed ourselves through and through. We played this DDR-look-alike arcade game with a primary school girl and she thrashed all of us in it. She really won us hands down. Lol. Then there was another irresistably adorable primary 1 girl, who persuaded us to buy a $6 worth curry chicken. We just couldn't say no to that doe-eyed angel. :)
We LOVE St. Nicks. We really really really really do. <3, SNGS all the way!
23 March 2008 Some new uploads for you girls to choose from :) More floral, more soft & more feminine than ever. We might be participating in another flea coming this Friday (28/3/08), at NUS in an event called Stardust. Details are yet to be confirmed but we'd inform all of you through our mailing list when they are!
<3, A Shining Green Stone
9 March 2008
It was my party last week, and I just ripped these photos off Ping's facebook, its quite a profound feeling seeing people work on something together for you. Unfortunately, the girls and I agreed my party was too wild for photos! So :P Just one of me after the 'attack'! Tzarist is having a very very special project going at the moment. It may take weeks, or even months to reveal, but it'll be such a surprise when we do :) In the mean time, we have our new March Tzarinas up. Splashed with bright colours, they are fashioned for a POP Spring, hope you girls love it as much as we do. Love, Emerald.
25 February 2008 February has been one big party so far. Thinking about our good friend Edna leaving for Australia again, and the onslaught of assignments in March has left us both pretty wistful. It's recess week, and the timely break has been desperately needed! Will leave some photos here, from Charlene's Party and Ping's party. The latter was set in Alice in Wonderland, and we had to wreck our heads to come up with character costumes. I went with Mike as Tweedledee & Tweedledum, Michelle & Serene went as Baby Oysters, Charmaine went as the Cheshire Cat, Charlene the Talking Rose, and our birthday girl was The MadHatter, naturally. :D
We should do this more often, the fun is so intense my heart nearly gave way halfway through the night! :P
18 February 2008
The NUS Arts Bazaar turned out to be so enjoyable and motivating for us, thanks to those who passed by and picked up something :) Our customisation requests were really interesting to do. It's so different servicing a customer in real life and trying to come to an agreement on a design through email. When you are suggesting a certain bead, or colour, you can immediately watch facial expressions for any sign of disapproval or that "ding" you-got-it moment. Plus some managed to walkaway with real fancy one-of-a-kind charms we have never shown online, made to their liking. If the girls are happy, so are we. If there was another opportunity, we'd surely do this again! :D Love, Em.
10 February 2008 February has been nothing but fun fun fun so far and it's not stopping there! Tzarist is going to participate in the NUS Annual Arts Bazaar this coming Tuesday and Wednesday. We will be selling our old stocks at slashed prices and we will also showcase some of our new designs! But this time round, we'll be doing something special. We will be offering our services to do customisations on the spot. The range of materials to choose from are mostly one-off pieces, so if you're interested do visit us early! Event: NUS Annual Arts Bazaar That aside, the All-White Themed Party at my place last week was lovely. We all dressed prettily in white, and even the food and decorations were white too! Here are some snapshots to share. :)
And then there was CNY.. I don't know about you guys, but I think I just gained a few more pounds from all those irresistable CNY goodies! :D One thing's for sure though, I really don't want the fun to end. :P xo, Mich
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