GRATITUDE

A mere four months ago, on the 8^th July, I wrote this letter to myself and looking back, it’s amazing how far Moustache has come since then.

8^th July 2012:

Today I met up with Monica & Miguel (the architects helping me out with the project) and Scotty (the builder). These people have been amazing to me & I can’t begin to describe my gratitude to them.

The thing is, despite saving for Moustache for so long & often having to work 2-3 jobs to make this project come alive – there still isn’t much money. This means that they’re doing a lot of work for me purely for the passion of it.

I don’t ever ever ever want to take people for granted & so with this pen & paper as my witness, I won’t rest until Moustache is a success & I can repay everybody for their kindness, for their passion & for their faith.

This project has given me the opportunity to see so much beauty in humanity. Being surrounded by this constantly inspires me to be a better person & for this in turn to be reflected in any business I may have.

Moustache, I believe you have the ability to change lives. Money may be tight & it’s hard to see it now, but I have this peaceful & undying belief in myself that Moustache is going to transcend the boundaries of “success”. I don’t want Moustache to just make money, I want it to contribute to communities & inspire others to chase their dreams…to spread the beauty.

I want all of that but right now it couldn’t feel anymore distant. There is much work left to do & everyday is an upward battle, pushing this boulder up the hill.

But you’d be surprised at what magic humans can conjure when resources are low & the odds are against them. All you need is a bit of faith.

Ashamedly, I haven’t had a chance to say a public thank you to those who gave so much to me when I had so little to give back.

So most notably, Monica & Miguel from mimo-inc.

They are the amazing people who helped me design the shop so that Moustache is a beautiful place for all of us to enjoy. They took my vision and really turned it into something special.

They stuck by me when everything took so much longer than anticipated, they encouraged me when so many things kept going wrong and despite all this, they came out with an amazing result. Check out their blog and go like their Facebook page too. These guys have true talent.

And a huge thank you to Deborah Teh, Kalana Dayaratne, Alex Kong, Genesis Diep & my family for your support. You each know what you did for me. For all those weeks staying up ‘til 3am doing DIY; painting, sanding, polyurethane-ing, demolishing…at a time when not many people believed in me, your support kept me sane.

Two months since opening; it is still early days and we still have a lot of work to do. We are a tiny shop with big ambitions – each day we will take baby steps so we can keep improving for our customers. To Team Mo, my friends & family & all of our customers – thank you. It is only through you all that Moustache is here now.

Deanna

Some behind the scenes construction photos:

Above: Our soon-to-be kitchen…where do we begin to start.

Above: Halfway through construction

Above: Felt like I was painting, painting, painting for three months.

Above: Monica, Miguel & I screwing together the milk-bottle pendant lights

Above: mimo-inc & the early stages of the pendant light

Above: Starting to all come together now