A tribute in honor of Firefly's First!

As most of you recall.. or wonder.. or noticed.. Firefly turned ONE on the 25th of March. And well, since I wasn't home for the festivities, I delayed the celebrations. :)


Now that things are slightly settled, I'd like to get back to all of you who were anticipating and wondering what I had in store for Firefly's First Birthday Draw/Contest. I read through everybody's ideas for characters and doodled them out.. including a Smurfette Sue, a caterpillar, a yellow FLY... 


What clicked to me most, was the character put forward by Sadaf Hansraj-Sabir. *waves, Hey Sadaf!* Why not? There are so many doodles in the Firefly collection, I figured I really should introduce a new hijabi cutie for Firefly family and friends. :) So here she is. looking at her reminds me of my little sister the days she likes dressing up. I suppose we could call her Hayaati ;) The name implying, 'life'. Goes perfectly with Firefly's story of life now doesn't it?

So, Sadaf. Thank you for that little inspiration which encouraged me to represent a young muslim girl... woman... who enjoys humor, has brains and bright ideas, whimsical dreams, alongside faith and ambitions for a creative future.. InshaAllah!


*cricket sound* That's not all! Guys, waitttt... 
Sadaf gets a notebook featuring Firefly's newest character along with three keychains featuring the same with personalized text. As well as a bookmark. :) Hope that adds sparkles to your day! Lots of Firefly love. ♥

Everyone else who took time to participate in the survey gets goodies too! All participants get a keychain of their choice from any of the available designs at Firefly :D ain't that neat? 

So all of those with their names mentioned below, leave a comment on this blog post with the keychain 

selection of your choice & email me your postal addresses with 'survey participant' in the subject line. :D

Ayesha Baig 

Sanum Shaikh

Sanna Hussain

Urouge Raza

Sadaf Noman

Fazli Azeem

Kiran Ali

Zareen Ahmed

Mehr Azeem

Mariam Mamsa

Manaal Memon

Sadaf Hansraj-Sabir

Yumna Ahmed

Nida Fatima

The ideas you all put forward for products are awesome.. some of them a little crazier than others :p Some of them are already in the pipeline and will be launched as early as Summer inshaAllah! Firefly will be working out some of them a little at a time in the months to come. For the moment, hold tight as the Firefly girl needs to work out a 8000 word Dissertation as well as a Mini Thesis in order to graduate at the end of this year. (inshaAllah) :D I am positive that with support and duas from all of you out there, I will do great, and will do what I can to make Firefly the best it can be when it comes to spreading smiles and sharing those happy moments. :)


MashaAllah!


A milestone it has been. Over 1k fans on Facebook, with an increase everyday. A number of you are returning Firefly customers, and it means a lot to me. Several of you have even availed your loyalty cards 
more than once by saving up purchases. :D Firefly has spread smiles to cities outside Karachi... Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore... and has even surfaced joy abroad to Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Scotland, Australia, Canada, as well as across the United States. 


Firefly has exhibited with Ghazal Pirzada Creative Studios and Lumino-city at Port Grand, has participated at SAARC, and has put up a stall several times at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. Firefly has collaborated with Firefly Photoworks at the WeldonMom's Chocolate Festival, too! It has doodled up Valentine craziness for Cupcake(s) by Cookie & Ensemble. It has designed for Kainaat Ensembles. It has put heart and soul into bookmarks for Literary Junction and has prepared keychains for Rahnuma and its projects. Firefly's goodies have landed in the hands of Strings as well as Bibi Russell all the way in Bangladesh. Firefly has been mentioned in DAWN's PGAG's online news story as well as The Daily Messenger. Firefly will be featured in the new youth magazine, Blah next month inshaAllah. What an awesome birthday gift for me :D Alhamdulillah!

Allah Kareem, all the success and all the blessings my life contains are your favor and generosity upon me. My biggest support is my family. Mama, for always being patient to our trips to the printer's. My Baba who constantly smiles at my ideas. My Mr Awesome, who's given me more and more encouragement, and tons of butterflies and sparkles. Alhamdulillah! My Papa, who gets excited about the little news clippings and of course, Mom, who believes in all the possibilities of me seeing the world and making the most of my talent. My brother, my partner in crime, Neeners, *waves* it's awesome having you help me out 24/7. My aunt and uncle, who drop in at odd hours to help me put together inventory. My little sister gives me new inspiration all the time. My unbiological sister, who tells me she's proud of me. My friends, who keep that Firefly spark glowing. I cannot forget Printer Uncle, Rauf Sahab, who is the best-est person around, who gives me enough 
morale boost to chuck out ideas round the clock and is the most cooperative and patient person ever.


MashaAllah... MashaAllah... MashaAllah...

Thank you everyone. For always being super supportive and always giving ME reasons to smile at the end of the day.

I am working out a 'faith' series... as well as some fun stuff to add to the crazy college humor as well as Indusanity. I have a splurge of ideas but right now studies are a first. :) 


Much Love,
Smile Sunshine.