Flower Goth Queen

 As a CIE-free summer approaches I have been thinking about changes I can bring into my life. Big, small, it doesn’t matter as all changes are welcome. Every summer passes with the promise during exam stress to make it great, unforgettable and highly productive but every time I let go of all milestones and goals, become lazy and don’t take full advantage of all my free time. Becoming a couch potato is easy too if you have TV shows you have been neglecting and need to catch up on in summer (which is why I have been staying on track with my TV show viewing throughout my academic year). This year, I’m determined to go ALL IN and be my very best self. I have been maintaining three lists- one is for all the big, important study and future related goals I plan to meet; one is just for all the creative things I plan to do this summer and one is labeled ‘All the small things’. ‘All the small things’ consists of any vision I have had for myself that needs to take place this summer. It includes meeting people I haven’t met in the LONGEST time, reading certain books, hosting certain parties etc. On this list, scrawled in black ink is ‘Dress the way YOU want to’.

Here’s news for you: I have moved on from the emo subculture I was obsessed with during my early teen years (those who were in Bayview with me DEFINITELY know) to a ‘flower child’, as described by…well, a lot of people now. It’s not just flowers that I have grown to love so much that I wish I could be a florist on an island in Turkey, but plants in general. I plan to go plant shopping with my friend Manal soon after her exams end and I don’t know why I’m so excited about the prospect. Along with the flower child label that I apparently identify with now, I have also very slowly started making fashion choices that seem scary to make because they would make you STAND OUT and that has become a frightening idea?? This seems ridiculous to me now because this stops me from putting together outfits that excite me, for the sake of not bringing too much attention towards me. Now, a vintage, embroidered varsity jacket with a raw silk camisole and a ‘Ramleela’ choker sounds like the sort of outfit that will seem like an accomplishment once I get to wear it. For now I am making small changes for example wearing purple lipstick and doing something different and slightly daring with my hair. Up till now I have tried Princess Leia buns and most recently, long pigtails that remind me of Wednesday from ‘ The Addams Family’, as pictured in this post. I strangely felt extremely confident in both hairstyles, and they looked great! Hence, I decided to subject myself to my friend Shanzeh’s camera (MODELING IS SO AWKWARD I’M NOT MADE FOR IT AT ALL). Among the plants I sat and ‘modeled’, which was me just being very wary of the wasp above my head, leading to the wide-eyed picture.

 Nevertheless, I think these pictures came out great. The lesson learnt from this post SHOULD be to wear whatever you want, however you want to. This is the time to experiment and dye your hair purple or get a septum piercing, or just wear jean jackets all the time. I personally, have decided to become a flower goth queen who will be slaying Instagram this summer, and slaying LIFE this summer as I dance in parks after dark with friends, smell like fruit constantly(Thanks, Bath and Body Works) and become the very person thirteen-year-old Mana would pin on her Pinterest board as a muse.

Solo Adventures

Hello! I am very well aware of how quiet it has been lately on this blog, and I can make a lot of valid excuses to justify my absence. However, I would rather skip that conversation tinted with a slightly negative light because I am too excited about this post at the moment to let anything of a bleak nature pull me down. Creative blocks suck and as an exam-free summer approaches I have been digging around for new perspectives for this blog. Tonight, a random conversation resulting from being sick of staring at accounting formats and past papers and wanting some space from A levels brought me to a guest post that I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT! To me, it's the start of the change of perspective and breath of fresh air I was looking for. 

This is a guest post by Anusha, talking about solo adventures. Let Anusha inspire you to live just a bit more spontaneously.

Solo adventures are when one embarks on spontaneous and often secret journeys to random places they want. Even though the idea sounds pointless, solo adventures are often important for several reasons. First of all, to go out and have a good time by yourself and only yourself teaches you to be comfortable with solitude, other people come and go, but you will always be there, and it is important to enjoy your own company and get to know yourself away from the influence of other people sometimes. 

For me, solo adventures are deeply associated with piercings. My solo adventures consist of sneaking off and grabbing a rickshaw to Park towers for a piercing as soon as i have a decent amount of money and a clear shot at a getaway. Second,to go out into the city yourself and experience the streets firsthand is important,this city is full of pleasant surprises and it is much different than simply seeing it from car windows or other second hand sources.

Often we are taught that it is dangerous to travel alone because you will almost definitely get raped or killed or mugged or any variety of horrible things can happen. That is actually a complete lie they tell you so that you do not achieve independence and only go out with supervision so u can be supervised and stopped from living your life the way you want to.Most people do not care that you're hanging out by yourself on the streets, they're too concerned with themselves, and the ones who do have bad intentions wouldn't dare try and pull something in broad daylight with a hundred witnesses obviously. 

Its hard to explain just why solo adventures and piercings appeal to me so much, it's probably just the idea of defying and challenging such restrictive and religious society. So far, I have had only three, and they were the most fun I've had in ages. It's important to do things for yourself and keep yourself feeling alive in a mundane and useless existence. The first solo adventure was actually an accident, I was supposed to go an get a piercing fixed with a friend, however she had class, and any other friend who could have gone with me also had class. But I couldn't delay it or else the piercing would get worse.I was panicking, it would be dangerous to go alone. So I left Lyceum, walked til the gas station and halfway into the next ally and got a rickshaw to Park towers. It was the first time I'd been on a rickshaw in a decade, I loved it. Feeling the openness of it and the wind flowing through my hair felt amazing. I stopped being scared that I'd get assaulted or something and started to enjoy it all. When I arrived at Park towers, I was reluctant to go through with the piercings, so I had a smoothie at the empty food court and relaxed for a bit. The great thing about Park towers is that its's so close to Lyceum and no one goes there so u have the entire place to yourself and no worrying about running into someone you know. So I finally gathered the courage to go to Sarwana, piercing shop, and got it done. The piercer was also surprised that I came alone. However, the deed was done and I left. I bribed my brother with a shawarma roll not to tell my parents about my trip, they are totally unaware of the piercing shop, since in the past i pierced my own ear, they believe all my piercings are done by my own hand.I went home and could not believe what I had just managed to pull off. I got a ring to commemorate my independence, I have not taken it off since.

 

The second one was done in a similar manner. More piercings.I got an owl pendant to commemorate this one.

The third one was done very recently. I had an exhibition at Koel art gallery.Three of my pieces were to be sold for charity.

I had lunch with a friend, however when he left i realized I had money left so I walked out of there and grabbed a rickshaw to Park Towers, again. I got my septum piercing, and my navel piercing fixed. And another cool ass pendant as a souvenir.

In conclusion, if you ever want to spice up your life, get out of your house, know your city, have lunch by yourself, get a piercing, get a tattoo, fight conformity. It is your life after all, and you could die tomorrow, or in your sleep tonight, or in a few minutes, nothing is guaranteed so you might as well do what you want.

 

There! I hope you all enjoyed this blog post as much as I did! Solo adventuring can be done in any way you want. For Anusha, it meant indulging in piercings and buying souvenirs to commemorate that adventure streak in her. For you, perhaps it means going on a night drive by yourself and getting some ice-cream. Or maybe it's just spending some time alone in the neighborhood park. Figure it out, give it a try. It's refreshing.

                                                                                                                                          Love, Mana.

The power of girl groups

Girl group(noun): A group of friends who all identify as female.

Well, duh.

I have been part of several different 'girl groups' throughout the years. There was a certain group in ninth grade, which was probably my first group; and there was the trio of best friends, including two brilliant, talented, amazing girls that I am still extremely close to. Despite having experience in being part of a cluster of girls who had a certain identity as a separate entity, I never understood what was so great about being a member of one. What is it that chick flicks are based upon, why do they put so much emphasis on it? Why is it a recurring theme? Simply put, what is the hype about? 

Well, I recently went for a four day business competition called 'Young Leaders and Entrepreneur's Summit'. which took place in LUMS, Lahore. It is there that I met the coolest, funniest and smartest people, and it is there where our group was formulated and developed. This very group is what plays a huge part in making my A level life what I envisioned it to be. Here is a short manifestation of our girl group, through visual documentation of a certain, magical night and small profiles that capture the essence of some of the individuals I am so glad I got know.

Simran here is a party girl. And by party girl, I don't mean what we usually equate to the term 'party girl'. She's the kind of girl who just knows how to have fun and how to make those around her have a good time. We live extremely close to each other at a two minute distance  and that makes me feel cool considering that I supposedly live in 'isolation' and far away from all my friends. Simran is bubbly, chirpy, fierce, endearing, funny and is a great dancer(ahem ahem). She's the girl I know I can go to when I feel like the days are dull and dreary. We have also had some pretty great heart-to-hearts as well. I feel like Simran and I have our moments at night. It's just an observation but any moment that I feel is extremely significant in the development of our friendship always occurs when it's dark outside. Car rides, epiphanies, parties, silently looking at each other and just..understanding things without having to say a word to each other. I honestly feel as if we communicate through our eyes, and our small, silent smiles. It is in that moment when it is just impossible to feel alone. 

This is Shanzeh. She's my muse at times, and I take the concept of muses very seriously. I will be honest-I didn't like her much when I first met her in my Accounts class. Well, I definitely did not feel as if we would ever get close. Again, I would like to thank YLES for introducing me to the side of her that isn't reserved. Oh, my god. There is so much to uncover about individuals, there is so much that makes them THEM, and I absolutely love being aware of that. Layers upon layers, complexities upon complexities-there is just so much to human beings and I don't think I can get enough of it. Shanzeh is the best dancer I know. She's damn smart, and unfortunately and to my irritation people do not think so, at first. But the amount of times people have come up to me and told me about how smart Shanzeh really is, how taiz she is, it's amazing. She is fierce, and you can see it in her eyes. She is loud and loving and fun and that spark is evident. She's also very gutsy, and well, when you're wired to do stupid, spontaneous things, you can talk to Shanzeh about them and she will probably be the one tying your hair for you in a tight braid so that it doesn't come in your way while climbing over a wall in order to trespass(I'M KIDDING MOM, you should be well acquainted with my terrible sense of humor by now). 

All these pictures originate from Shanzeh's surprise birthday. I like to believe that we have an aesthetic attached to us, as if we are a brand. Magical, strong-willed, sentimental and subtly flirtatious. I feel that this 'aesthetic' is distinctive in our pictures from the night, and the way we planned out the surprise. Let's just say it involved cramped cars, a certain playlist, blindfolds, dark basements and Ramleela(friends who dance to Ramleela songs together, stick together).

Irha is quite the character I must say. She is known in school for being the dramatic one, and we do NOT use that term lightly when it comes to her. You see it in the way she expresses with her big eyes, the way she stresses on syllables when she talks and even in the slightest of gestures. It's something that one can only truly understand once they meet her. I promise, spend just five minutes with her and you will be entertained by just observing how she talks and acts. If we had a homecoming queen stereotype in our society, I feel like Irha would be categorized in that, hands down. She walks the halls in that way(by halls, in Lyceum terms I mean taking rounds in our campus, the floor carpeted with bird poop. I kid, I love my school, the bird poop doesn't bother me much), she talks the talk, you can literally quote her and turn what she says into a famous line of some chick flick. She models, throws great parties and surprises, designs her own clothes and is a selfie queen. There's never a dull moment when Irha is around.

Whoosh, random strand of hair ruining a really cute picture. It's okay, this is better than the first take for sure. So I think I am in love with Xenub. Again, I never thought I would get close to her. At first, we had this very awkward atmosphere that would build up whenever we would talk to each other. We are both in the music society and let's just say we were part of different 'factions' in that society, hence it seemed like we would never get along and would only be able to maintain a sweet, formal relationship, perhaps with fake smiles and small talk. However, this all changed when we were put into the same team for YLES. We spent one evening without our other team members, walking the breezy lanes in the community I live in, chasing sunsets, filming pretty things and slowly getting to know each other. We were still formal then too, but Lahore broke that formality from the very start. Being on the same team means a lot of interaction and cooperation, and soon alongside of stressing about different business modules we started getting dressed together, talking about makeup, borrowing clothes, walking back to our dorm and having heart-to-hearts, and learning to trust and to confide in each other with the $60 incident(It's a secret guys, shh). She is one of those girls that I can be extremely girly and open with, the way I am with only one or two girls whom I have known since childhood. We have also ended up accompanying each other to different events(buddy system feelings because I am indeed, five years old). Xenub is one of those people that I made a very interesting, sort of spiritual connection with. We seem like we have a lot of inside jokes, when the truth is that we just actually look at each other and laugh out loud and say 'Yeah, I know you know what I am thinking about!' when we actually don't, we just wanna seem cool. No, I'm just messing around, we have tons of inside jokes. I promise guys..I'm not crying wolf. 

There are a lot of girls missing from our group as well, in these pictures. There is Zoha, who knows how much I LOVED her when I first met her, but actually ended up being a very nice, genuine person, and i find it endearing. There is Kainaat, whose name means 'universe' in Urdu, and i think it suits her a lot because to me she is like an pool of vast resources and knowledge in a way, because of the way she speaks and thinks out aloud, gathering so many experiences and reflecting upon them. We had a pretty incredible talk all alone in Lahore, sitting on a curb, star watching and gazing at cute couples at the football field(sad, creepy life). There's also Fatima, who happens to be our senior and sadly won't be with us next year. She is the cutest, chirpiest senior who really made us feel like we were important and took great initiative in participating in our kitchen floor deep talks and kitchen dances. She also really loves sneak outs and has a 'sneak out outfit', only the sneak out failed miserably.  

I would like to end on the note that I did not mention how gorgeous or beautiful any of my friends are. Firstly, you can see it for yourself. You have Shanzeh's tousled locks and flirty smile, you have Xenubs great lips and long eyelashes, Simran's big brown eyes and killer grin and Irha's sharp defined cheekbones and long hair. Secondly, I didn't want to define my girl group by physical appearances. I don't want the definition or the visuals of a girl group have to only do with how we look, because there is so much more to girls than that. Why are we mentioned as pretty or beautiful before smart or tough or fierce? Why do we think of how girls dress before their different hobbies and passions and talents, like public speaking and fashion designing and dancing and reading and maths? I wanted to and chose to focus on the sentimental aspect of my little community. I chose to reflect upon different incidents and smile at strange, funny, magical memories that I can visualize in my head so clearly. I wanted to share with you a piece of the beautiful souls my friends are, and I wanted THAT to be the link one makes when they think of us. A girl group is more than just a cluster of friends who get dressed together, carpool everywhere and walk in a certain formation. A girl group is a tribe of warriors who you face reality with, who you strengthen your relationships with and who lift you higher and higher, support your wants and wishes, your goals and dreams. A girl group is a haven, away from the boys who break our hearts and the university applications that make us cry. A girl group is a unique support system that can not be achieved through other means. And I swear, I am blessed with a really great group and I am grateful.

How to become a Leela

An important tip for content creation is to create content you, yourself would enjoy looking at and would get inspired by. Keeping this in mind, I am here to create content on one of my biggest obsessions-Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Indian film- Ram-leela.

A violent adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Ram-leela blew me away and had me thinking about it 24/7. The obsession still hasn’t died down though, like I expected it to. No, this movie captivates me with its breathtaking aesthetics to this day, even if the storyline starts slowly fading away. It has cultivated a desi girl in me, who can’t stop dreaming about Leela’s absolutely gorgeous lengha choli’s, for example the filmy white one she adorns whilst lounging about in her room or the beautiful, sequined, patchwork choli she wears during the festival of Holi and the song, ‘Lahu Munh Lag Gaya’. For those of you who don’t know what a lengha choli is, it is an outfit comprised of a long, floor length skirt and a short, fitted crop top. It’s not just the clothes that dazzle me-it’s everything, from the music, the makeup, the tribal tattoos, the heavy jewellery, the way the rooms are furnished, the sort of activities that take place, the famous set where Ram comes to secretly court Leela at her balcony. In short, the lifestyle depicted in this movie.

In my daydreams about Ram-leela I often find myself wondering what it would be like to adopt certain elements of this lifestyle that really appeal to me, and how I can add on to them and build on this lifestyle, getting into the smallest of details. For example, if Leela drinks tea, what kind of tea does she drink? Does she use tea bags? That doesn’t give much of an ethnic princess vibe now, does it? She must use proper tea leaves. Does she add honey, sugar, milk or lemon to her tea? Does she drink it out of a mug or does she drink it out of a gorgeous, hand painted cup?  I would also like to note that THIS is the sort of attention to detail that has probably contributed a lot into making Ram-leela an iconic film, because visuals stick in an individual’s mind for a long time, and that is what influences them(example, me).

Ever since I watched Ram-leela I have developed an interest and a taste for things such as vintage furniture, desi clothes, especially lengha choli’s (a girl can dream of living in nothing but those), ethnic jewelry and much more. I have been contemplating getting a small nose piercing and I have been looking for an ethnic looking cabinet/dresser for my room. My mother, being aware of my muse, recently bought me this beautiful silver mirror for my room that looks exactly like something an ethnic princess would possess. I put a little crystal bowl on my current vanity, with just a little bit of water and a rose shaped candle. The smallest details and layouts add up. One morning before an exam I went out into our balcony. The weather was chilly and the trees outside as well as the plants on the balcony were slightly swaying with the breeze. We have a small pond in which we keep our water plants such as the umbrella plant, and we have lined it with pots of bright yellow marigold. It was a lovely morning, and I stood above the pond and looked down at it and realized that there is so much beauty in the imperfect composition-it lies within the happy flowers beaming up at me, and even in the reflection of the umbrella plant and the sky upon the muddy pond water. It reminded me of Leela’s balcony and the trees and plants everywhere on that particular set, and the jade green water body just beneath her balcony. Another time, at a social dinner for my school’s business competition, I looked over at our school pond, which now, is inhabited by our two school turtles. The dinner was fancy and formal, with these blue and purple lights. That light hit the reflection on the pond, causing it to cast its own purple glow. I had to take a picture because it was such a magical sight- not to mention it again, reminded me of Ram-leela.

Mostly for my own satisfaction, I want to start visually documenting the sort of lifestyle an ethnic princess like Leela would have, by developing it for myself. It’s like living and fulfilling a fantasy that will be adapted for practicality. I mean, I can’t go out in a choli even if I can dress up for myself at home. However, I can opt for more shawls over hoodies, as a very basic example. I invite you to witness and perhaps, get inspired by my development and documentation of a Ram-leela lifestyle. I plan to put in a lot of effort and detail into as many aspects of life as I can (without hopefully, getting too carried away), such as beauty, fashion, health and wellness, food, activities, education, and culture. If you are anything like me, and have desperately scoured the internet for ANY article or even the smallest paragraph that will tell you how to become a Leela (ahem ahem, Muskaan), this article, and over a period of time, this blog, is for you. 

                                                                                            

There is no Majam.

Never have I been this honest in anything I have written before. Never have I opened myself this much. It’s scary, because usually you make up a huge part of yourself in writing, because how much do you really want people to know? It’s easier to glorify the good parts of our lives instead of revealing the embarrassing, scary parts. I think, personally for myself, that needs to stop. There’s impression management that keeps taking place all the time when it comes to me. As the sociologist Goffman says, the world is our stage and we are the actors. We choose the role we want to play and the person we want people to believe we are.  We act like them, we think like them, we completely adopt that new role, that new character. I think that is where my much beloved alter ego, majam derives from. Majam also helped me cope with lots of things. Maybe, we will get into that later on. I have realized how much this impression management has destroyed me, and I find that extremely strange because all these motivational books and speakers teach you to ‘fake it till you make it’ and to be strong in whatever way possible until you are your strongest self. Well, ironically, my strongest self has hurt a lot of people as well as me. I never expected it to turn out that way, but it did.

See, for quite some time I have been all about alter egos and how they don’t have to have a negative meaning attached to them. I have done projects relating to this and have promoted the ‘healthy alter ego’  image for such a long time. I mean, majam allowed me to be this badass, cold, unfeeling girl, who was confident and cocky and who raised her eyebrows a lot. She was designed to help bring out the best version of me, to be confident, to believe in my own capabilities etc. but I have learnt that there must be a reason all these movies and all these books promote alter egos and split personalities as negative things-they have a dark side to them.

You won’t even NOTICE it because it will creep up and will build up slowly and all the while you’ll be thinking ‘OH, my god. I am powerful. I am a goddess. Majam gets what she wants’ and you’ll be strutting as if you own the place and then YEARS later it will hit you and you will fall back, really open up your eyes and be amazed at what you see. There is nothing healthy about being two people at one time, let alone three or four. We cannot handle it as human beings, it is too much work. I have had melodramatic moments in my life in which I’ve stopped myself and thought ‘Oh shoot. Maybe, MAYBE, my alter ego is taking control of my life and fighting and winning against my normal self’. You know, just like in the movies. However, majam actually did take control of me. She infested my body and took it as a host instead of just slightly pushing away the real me. It’s like, she climbed into my body and I woke up the next day as Majam and didn’t even realize something had changed and that I had been this person all along. THAT is how dangerous alter egos and split personalities can be.

Tonight, I have participated in the spiritual scrapping of an evil personality with whom I just cannot get along with anymore. I refuse to. Tonight is the night, 14^th December, 2015, that I should remember for getting rid of my alter ego. There is no Majam. She doesn’t exist anymore.

But wait! There’s more.

The matter of who is left after one part has been scrapped is still in discussion. See, MAHAM, is the girl I am most commonly known as. THIS is the girl who kept fluctuating between personalities and I don’t think I like her that much anymore. She lets herself be fake when needed. She lets herself inflict pain on herself and others, even if she doesn’t mean to. This girl leans towards being masochistic. THIS is the girl who couldn’t decide between good and bad. This is the girl who built up an alter ego. This is the girl who victimizes herself and lies enough to believe her own lies. This is the girl who can be quite vindictive and who can be self-absorbed without realizing it. This girl is too unstable.

That’s when I started thinking, ‘Whatever happened to Mana?’ Is it possible for me to completely forget about my own family nickname? Mana is the name that was given to that little girl with the ‘gawalon ki taangay’ and the cheeky smile I see in the family albums. The girl with the jet black, shiny mop of hair and this playful, innocent, youthful aura that clung to her. She smiled so much. I want her back because Mana is who I am. If you remove all the walls and get rid of all the layers of complexities, this is who you get, in her most raw, exposed form.

Who is Mana? Mana is the daughter of Sadaf Mahmood, a strong, independent, loving, beautiful woman. Mana is the daughter of a father, who no matter what Mana may feel at times, cares a lot about her and loves her unconditionally. She has a younger brother, who she loves so fiercely, even though she never shows it. He will always be the little baby brother, no matter how old he gets. Mana identifies as a female. She is a Muslim. She loves Ramleela, and cannot wait for the new Sanjay Leela Bhansali movie, ‘Bajirao Mastani’ to come out. She loves to take photographs, write, paint and make music. She dances like nobody is watching. She yearns to travel alone and take in the world and her surroundings and keeps changing her mind about what she wants to actually do with her life and what her calling is. I think Mana’s most important feature is that she loves people. She adores people and sees a lot of good in the world and those who surround her. She can actually show people how much they mean to her. She likes to make them feel important and loved. She just loves people more than is good for her and this intense love is what is her before prescribed as weakest but now, strongest quality. She loves and she loves, and she smiles and she smiles. She believes in all the good in the world, as opposed to Majam who held a bittersweet view of the world and saw all the bad.

Mana is who I am. Not Majam. Not even Maham, which is my actual name. You can change SO much the moment you decide to make a certain decision. Mana is my decision. I will resume introducing myself as Mana to new people, like I once used to.  I will ask people to call me Mana. I am going to bring that happy, giving girl again, even if that giving hurts her at times, because it is better than hurting. I am going to close a chapter of my life, and open a new one, right here, right now. Thank you for witnessing this moment. I hope I can bring good to you and show you the change myself, instead of through a blog post. I hope we will cross each other’s paths one day and we both will smile and nod at each other, acknowledging each other. I will call out your name, and you will smile, nod and call out, ‘Mana’. 

Visual Diary: New Identifications.

 This is a visual diary: New identifications.

Band practices, learning how to manage concerts, meeting new people, making friends who are YOUR kind of people, composing music, applause, community, a beautiful new school, serenity, opportunities, big girl pants, performing, blog re-branding, spiritual rebirths, muses, documentations, purple lipstick.

I'm selling paper goods!

I present to you all, a sneak peek of a shop I’m going to be opening! It’s going to be a paper goods shop, which means postcards, miniature books, cards, envelopes and poster prints of my photography are all coming your way. Sometimes getting back to paper after using technology so much for creative means feels so good. You’re reminded of those childhood days when your art was all in physical form-the finger paint cards and the handmade bookmarks. Getting back to paper for the purpose of pushing back the current stress in my life(A level school admissions and CIE results and what not) felt familiar and comfortable. I enjoyed creating, using splashes of colour, doodling and NOT straining my eyes because of excessive laptop use. It’s been good, guys. After some words of encouragement by a few important people in my life, I decided that I want to open an online shop selling all the papery goodness that I make. Everything that I’m going to be selling has been made with care and a lot of heart put into it. I for one, am an absolute sucker for stationery, which is where the envelopes and cards will come in, and I’ve also been wanting to pretty up my walls just before school-which is where the illustrations and posters will come in. A silver lining is also that everything is quite cheap-from $2 to $5 because I know how hard it is to let go of a pretty notebook because it’s for $20. I got your back, guys. Also, all funds will be going to a charity that I shall reveal soon! If you have any ideas for unique charity cases, let me know!

Until the actual shop is established, I’m taking orders via email, so just shoot me an email for any inquiries, and we’ll figure out what I’ll be sending you, what the posting address is and the process of payment!