Submitting to His Master Plan

When Firefly began 4 years ago, it was a very whimsy impulse to just do something and it became my journey. Because it roots from my journal, a lot of my life's individual experiences have always... been encircled with it. When I had my thesis, all of you knew my stress with mission graduation... when I had my travels, you all shared the same excitement when I'd post random travelogues, when I have been ill or distressed, you all have sent in your prayers, when I worked for a fashion house's publications from morning til evening, you all accommodated my weekend replies and even waited for your parcels to ship from Hong Kong.

I never really thought I could manage such a set up from another country til it was the only choice I had... You all have been a part of this larger family that I have yet to meet or be introduced to. And while you all leave me encouraging words every so often, whatever I have here to show for my endeavors is by His immense Grace and further by your support. I wanted to say Thank You.

So recently, another little phase swept over my life, and I have a strong feeling it's going to make Firefly leap into some more changes. I am a textilian.. which means my life at some point is rooted to fabrics, design, texture and other pretty things. While my heart and soul is and will remain Firefly, I have committed to a chapter for my professional career. I am back to work during the week. It is exciting for me, and is definitely something I look forward to. This means that orders here will continue to run, but will need a bit of adjustments. The inflow of requests is huge, MashaAllah, and it puts me in a stump on how I can even consider managing so many orders with a full time role at an office.

Please don't ever feel I have sidelined you, or do not find it significant to accommodate you. I am one person with just too much on one plate. I really love everything about this life we live Alhamdulillah, and my strength to continue is solely the amazing people I meet through my work. My shows for crafters shall continue, I shall continue creating keepsakes and quirky gifts, and I shall continue to inspire as well inshaAllah as long as my life permits me to.

I will revamp my order forms and order catalog, and I will finally put stocking around the city in place. Just to make things easier for all of you in the process. Nothing is constant, but change. I find it kinda magical that Firefly has always led me to where I'm supposed to be... it's kept me connected to 'home' on so many levels. And the journey seems to get better and better MashaAllah.

Thank you everyone for being the most amazing fanbase and support system anybody could hope for. You all are #love

I will update our order status on the website this evening. Lots of you will receive happy mail this coming week! And all my unread messages and emails will also be addressed tonight.

Love,
The Firefly Girl

Scrapbook Layout

I have a stash of crafting papers about 10 inches high which are just pleading me to get to work with some scrapbooking. I haven't done it in so long! My entire year last year was overwhelmed with final year university madness, and the spare time I had I was scrapbooking for others. -_-; So while I'm on 'holiday'.. ie temporarily free of 'duties'... I thought I'd piece together something for myself, or rather 'us'.

This wasn't one of my totally spontaneous pieces because the size of the layout/project itself was a little larger than what I usually work with... 12x12 inches. I had to plan and be precise, crafting it was fun none the less. :D

I love vintage, so naturally the theme was fixed when I thought about what I wanted. I used the following to piece together this layout:

-Grant Studios Papers
-Glitz Paper
-Prima Flowers
-Kaisercraft Flowers
-Findings from a random bazaar in Hong Kong which include the butterfly and key
-Bo Bunny trinkets, ie the Flower on top
-Rhinestones by Doodlebug and Kaisercraft
-Tim Holtz stamps
-Ranger Archival Ink, black and russet
-Colorbox pigment ink
-Kaisercraft texture stamps
-K&Company Diet Cut tags and Journaling Cards

I cut out the bird and floral silhouette from the first paper... and lined it up with the second.

I had two silhouettes then to work with as a border/frame.

The doily sort you see beneath the photo is a journaling card I cut in half... didn't want a whole in your face sort of block :)

I began to build a collage near the bird, I used some flowers I made myself.. and a couple of ready made ones. I layered them over the golden net mesh I had and topped it with a key...

Same thing here... distressed the tag and the edges of the paper.

That's a bit of stamped imagery and gold dust. :) 

Some more stamping and the metal butterfly. I love printmaking, and I thought I could achieve the same look by layering stamps with text and the butterflies...

a close up.

there is actually stamped imagery in the same sea green as well as black, for layering and dimension.

gold dusted flowers and the journaling spot.

can you see the stamped images and distressed edges?

The corner left has some prose I wrote for my husband. Adds the personal touch there :) I used this photograph because of the sentiments it carries.. and the idea of the black and white was to be a center of focus in the middle of all the vintage and pretty pretty things :)