Year-end UPDATES!

As you might have heard, my exhibition “Chinatown in Three Acts” is up and running through April of 2025 at the Asian American Resource Center. The exhibition party and workshop event will be held on February 8, 2025 from 1-4pm as the AARC. Admission is free and open to the public, but RSVP is required. I should have an RSVP link available some time next month from the AARC folks.

I am currently taking a much needed holiday break and taking time to focus on crafts unrelated to hats. Christmas always feels a little stressful because some of my children come to visit, and getting my home ready and festive seems more of a challenge each year. Reducing my holiday workload is a goal of mine every year. Gone are my unachievable lists to create handmade gifts for everyone. I think it is the amount of things that has to be done in a relatively short amount of time—like getting all the food on the table at the same time. I decided that maybe next year in 2025, I could concentrate on birthdays instead of Christmas, and try to make my children feel seen on their special day. Except in my family, all my children’s birthdays are two weeks a part. So the stress issue is a bit of a toss up.

I don’t know what 2025 will look like as far as hats are concerned. I know I will keep making them, but my physical and mental bandwidth seems to be shrinking ever so slowly. There are so many things I want to get done, and my usual 20-item a day lists have dwindled down to one or two tasks tops. This means my inventory of ready-to-wear hats will also dwindle. But who knows really! I don’t plan too far ahead these days. I have another grandbaby due this Summer, so much of my work will halt mid year. No foreseen holiday shows on my calendar. I do have one Spring show in March, but that’s about it.

Inventory is at an all-time high right now because I have all the hats from my last show ready for sale. So if there is something you like, many are heavily discounted because I have run out of storage space for them. All the hats in Chinatown in Three Acts will be available after April, so reserving them or purchasing them early is an option. Many can be replicated into different colors and materials. This is the time to reach out to me if you want something.

January might include a few rabbit fur or wool hats in the shop. I have currently reopened my ETSY shop to test where I can achieve better audience growth. So if you don’t see something you want in my regular shop, head on over to the ETSY shop and see if it’s there. Why both shops? I would have preferred to stay on ETSY if they did not charge so much for their marketing. After I calculated cost, shipping, etc, and marketing fees, I was only earning about 30% of the value of my hat. Realizing this was a huge accounting blow toward my bottom line. It really made me think about whether this is all worth it in the end. Which is why I am concentrating mostly on custom work going forward, and scaling back on the retail items. I am also slowly moving into retirement where millinery will be probably limited to teaching and exhibitions. I still have a lot to say and express with my work and I understand that my art pieces are not going to be wearable for many. But why not? Why can’t we all look expressive at special events?

See you next year my lovelies. Have a wonderful holiday season.