Let’s Collab! -TORONTO EDITION

I had the opportunity to do a collaboration with talented girls in Toronto. It was my first time meeting them all but felt like I’ve known them since before. When women empower others, great things happen. The girls are amazingly talented and I just wish them nothing but the best in their future projects.

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When I decided to go for my usual trip to Toronto, I thought about a collab but I didn’t have any proper contact. I contacted TieTheThali members and they were able to share on their Insta-story about the collab. Later that day, Thadsha contacted me. We had to find models and sponsors for outfit and jewelry.

Thadsha had someone two models in mind, unfortunately, one of them could not make it on that day. I did a little bit of research, thanks to my cousin, as per as my request she posted on her Instagram and one of her friends contacted me.

We had our models: Sinthuja and Thanusha

Now time to look for sponsors; I went through about 20 online stores, none of them were able to coop with the dates.  Luckily, I saw one beautiful saree from Little Princess Saree. I messaged her and she was able to collab with us.  It was such a relief for me. And for the jewelry, I messaged Bristina from BoutiquebyBristina and her answer was so positive, she told me I can pass anytime to get the jewels. It was just like a mission to accomplish.

After so much hurdle, as a team, we completed the shoot and I am very happy with the outcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DON’T FORGET TO CHECK THEM OUT ON SOCIAL MEDIA 

Outfit: Littleprincesssaree

website https://lpsarees.com

Make up: Beautybythakshaa

Model: Thanusha & Sinthuja

Jewelry: BoutiquebyBristina

One-stop South Asian inspiration :TieTheThali

I am definitely open to collab shoots! DM me on my official Instagram page! the link below!

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SHiiNE & ME

It is very hard to choose a name for something long term, such as your company. As many of you know that I use SHiiNE for my photography and blog, but have you ever wondered why SHiiNE and not my actual name. Some use their name as their brand identity to represent their work and some choose different names that represent themselves. As for me, I neither choose my name or any other name.

As far as I can remember, I didn’t decide to name it ‘SHiiNE’ but it eventually became a trademark of my personality and my works by itself. About ten years ago, I used this word in the first photo designs I ever made in my life as a simple quote, but I would have never thought it would become my own photography name. I actually got attracted to the word so much that I started using it for all my editing.

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Definition of shine

shone shined; shining

1. intransitive verb

2. 1: to emit rays of light

3. 2: to be bright by reflection of light

4. 4: to have a bright glowing appearance his face shone with enthusiasm

5. 5: to be conspicuously evident or clear

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The word “shine” represents a positivity, brightness, and the power to change anything. That word always motivated me. It motivated me to be a better person and inspired me to work harder and shine among the stars and shine bright like the sun.

POSITIVITY, BRIGHT & POWER TO CHANGE…

It became my trademark and my personality as well. It made me a better person. I actually get to know me better and I can easily relate to the words ” shine ”. I always try to keep my entourage positive and I even get frustrated when someone thinks and talk so negative. I am always smiling and always tries my best to keep my entourage as happy as possible. KEEP SMILING & SHARE THE LOVE

I am more like an optimist person who always look at the bright side of the situation and always find a solution to any struggles that I ever faced. I never give up in any situation whether it is professional or personal. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I had to drop my studies, but I eventually went back to school and finish my studies. We all have up and downs in our lives, but it is wise to look at the bright side than thinking about the bad things and be sad over our situation. We only live once, so make the best out of it.I think with a simple smile and love, we have the power to change any situation that we face and make this world a better living.

LET YOUR SMILE ”SHiiNE”

I think SHiiNE suits me so much, I wouldn’t choose any other name. My personality is now my trademark for my works. I want to spread love and happiness as much as I can. Either through my personality or my photography, I want everyone to feel the joy of love, and in return, they share the same love with others.

Raminder Weds Suman

Wedding season is loved by all, where we get to dress up, dance and party. But it is not always the same for the one who organizes and celebrate their wedding. There are so many things to go through; all the planning, the vendors, the venue. It is totally different when you are part of the wedding as a guest and also as a photographer. You see the whole event in a different point of view.

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I was very excited and very nervous when my best friend approached me to be the photographer for her cousin’s wedding which was one month away from the day she told me ( May 2017). Until that day, I haven’t covered any big events such as a wedding. I asked my friend if she was sure about her decision and she was so cool about it. I couldn’t sleep, even though I was happy, I was so nervous.

Moreover, I was her guest as well, I didn’t know how it was going to be. Trust me, guys, It felt like I achieved a big record, And not to forget about the fact that it was a three-day wedding, where I was part of it for every single day ( as a guest and photographer). And to work on the same days, except the wedding day (Saturday). I needed a vacation already.

VIVALAHENNA

But, it was a great experience and I can’t thank my friend, Aman enough for giving me this wonderful opportunity, which I will never forget for the rest of my life. I think she trusted me more than I trusted myself, I was very hesitant about covering the wedding since it once a life moment for the wedded couple and the family, which I didn’t want to mess is up. When I saw all the photos one by one, even I couldn’t believe my own eyes. I told myself, I was actually better than I thought. All I needed was a little trust in myself and go with the flow for the events. I am satisfied with the fact that I did my best and it was a learning experience for me.

SANGEET

HENNA BY VIVALAHENNA

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WEDDING DAY

Temple

How stunning is my bride?

Reception

Thank you so much, Aman, for the love and the trust you had.

And not to forget about my first EVER gorgeous bride. Thank you for posing for my camera, even though with all the hectic that day.

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HENNA BY VIVALAHENNA

MORNING MAKEUP BY AMBER ESTHETICS

RECEPTION MAKEUP BY REVESTUDIO

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHiiNE

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HO PHOTOSHOOT

Had the opportunity to work with HER’S ONLY HANDMADE JEWELRY once again and it was another blast meet-up.

Jennifer had her product photo shoot happening in the second week of May and I was able to join at her shoot. Initially scheduled for the first week of May, it was postponed for the week after. It was a hectic day for me as I attended two more events ( house prayer and birthday party) on the same day. But I made it through the day with no complaints.

She had three gorgeous models and it was my first time meeting them, including her best friend.  It is always fun to meet new people and makes some friends and encourages and support each other.  We had a great time, even though I was exhausted at the end of the day.

There is nothing beautiful than women supporting each other and bringing the best out of each and everyone.  Hoping to work with this team yet again, here are few shots from our latest photo shoot.

 

 

 

Model: Safina – Saheda – Vaany

Jewelry: HER’S ONLY HANDMADE JEWELRY

Photography: SHiiNECREATIVEMEDIA

SUN-KISSED

When you have supporting friends, the sky is the limit. I have few friends who are really close my heart and Anne is one of them. I have known her for almost a decade now, but recently only we became very close. She will be one of the first who I would share my projects, my plans, and my dreams and no matter what, she will support me.

Last year, I recollected my portraits –> SHiiNE PORTRAITS 2016 <– and decided to post it on my blog. As usual, I showed to her and she loved it, and casually she said she wants to be part of it for next year and she was very serious about and I said why not? So, we both planned to have a photoshoot, as she was in Toronto, we decided to do the next time, she will come to Montreal. The first time she came, it was a big failure. The second time, she came by was in April, which was my birthday weekend too. So, we did our shoot, I must say it was so easy and fun. It was just amazing working with her as she was so comfortable with me, we both had so much fun.

Here is the lookbook – Part 1- of our first photo shoot.

 

 

When you have a gorgeous friend, you can’t resist but plan a photoshoot with her. It was so easy to work with her, she is a born-model.

We had so much fun together- laughter & jokes- never a dull moment with her.

Thank you so much Anne for being an amazing model- this is our first shoot, but not the last- many more to come, you are probably my forever female model.

Thank you Hareen Peduru for making Anne Amalan, even more, prettier than she is.
Outfit : Forever 21  Photography Suki Krishan

PHOTOALBUM ON FACEBOOK: SUN-KISSED LOOKBOOK

Mother’s day Special

 Mothers day is always special for me because I get to celebrate with two wonderful mothers in my house ( my mom and my older sister). My sister has two daughters ( 5 years old and 1-year-old)  I always treat the best way possible and shower them both with love and present. I make sure they are treated with no difference.  I love them from the bottom of my heart. They are equally special for me and I would never trade anything and their love toward me is amazing.

Every year, I always do something special for them and make sure they are happy, this year I had planned to do special love box for both of them, with goodies and stuff they would like. Unfortunately, I did not have much time due to (overtime) work and babysitting.  So what I did I prepared them each box and made them similar gifts.

And one of my love boxes highlight was the love jar and the box itself.

FOR MY MOM -WITH HER 3 DAUGHTERS

THE BACK OF THE JAR-

FOR MY SISTER – WITH HER 2 DAUGHTERS

 

MOM’S – THE RECIPE OF LOVE AS SHE IS THE CENTER OF OUR LOVE AND THE FACT THAT SHE FEED US WITH LOVE AND FOOD AT THE SAME TIME 

SISTER’S – WHERE SHE LOVES TO TRAVEL AND THE FACT THAT I LOVE TO TRAVEL WITH HER THE WORLD 

 

And to add to the ”mom” celebration I had ordered doughnuts from DoughNat Montreal.

I had the chance to have a bit and they were amazingly tasty. It was love at first bite. I am sure I will order doughnut from DoughNats from now for any events in the future.

MEMORY BOX FROM: MICHAELS CANADA

DOUGHNUTS FROM: DOUGHNATS MONTREAL : FACEBOOK ; INSTAGRAM

One fairy’s story – Johnika

 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights – James 1:7

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When my sister announced us that she was pregnant, we all had mixed feelings. We were very happy and at the same time nervous. Since she already had complications with her first daughter, we didn’t want her to go through the same thing again. But every child is God’s blessing and He knows what is good and what we need. And God’s timing is perfect.  We welcomed the good news with open arms.

One Week Old 

She was off work during her pregnancy until the baby was born also being said that she was also house arrest my mom and I for her and the child’s safety. We restricted any outing or anything else that needed traveling outside the house.  Since she was someone who can’t sit in place, it was very difficult to keep her in the house. Of course, she would try to sneak out without our knowledge and get caught. As I was so scared for her and the baby, I would get mad at her and we would throw pillows and other stuff at each other ( just kidding).

As time passed by, it was close to her due date (April 2016), she had moved in at my place and since I lived on the second floor it was very difficult for her to go out. Since we were already five girls in the house, we were all expecting a little cute boy. But God’s plans are always different from ours; He added another girl in our gang. #GIRLPOWER

One Month Old 

The day finally came; the day when I was going to see our little one for the first time. About 6 AM, my sister started feeling weird and went to the hospital.    Around 8 AM, we received a call from there and we were told the baby was born but….

The Fairy- Johnika

 But, we were told that the mother and the baby went through complications and they were both not okay. As we are panicking, we got to know that my sister started to bleed internally and they had to take the baby out as soon as possible. Just in 15 minutes, the doctors checked the baby’s heartbeat; it was at 75. They took her to the operation room, had a c-section and at 6:30; the baby was born.

Our little baby went through complications as well; She was not breathing and only began to breath 30 minutes later. The doctors didn’t want to take any risk, so they transferred the baby to another hospital and my sister was left alone.  We were told that the baby’s brain may have been affected by the lack of the oxygen in the body. We just kept praying for the mother and the baby’s health. We took my sister to my place again as she was having difficulty and still recovering physically and mentally. We wanted to keep her with us and be at her side. Once again, my room was rent out for another month.  But the baby was still at the hospital; it was heartbreaking to see them in two different places, ( I am not crying right now).

Six Months Old

A few weeks later, we received the good news that we can bring our little angel home and was told the baby was in a good shape. But we took good care of her and my sister, we didn’t want to make anything worse since they already went through a lot. Until today,  our little angel had no problem, even the doctors are surprised to see a baby with complications at birth with no sign of problems now. They will constantly repeat that they can’t believe their eyes how healthy is our angel. She is such happy baby, always smiling, and always brighten up everyone’s life with her smile.

Ten Months Old

YES! MIRACLES DO EXIST! WE ARE THANKING GOD EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR GIVING US A BEAUTIFUL ANGEL:

-JOHNIKA-

As of today, I am dedicating this post to wish her very happy 1st birthday my little fairy! She is an example of God’s miracles and His wonders.

ONE YEAR OLD

 

” Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart”       Jeremiah 1:5

 

 

My Birthday Road Trip

As I was celebrating my birthday this month (April), I was planning to go on road trip. Coincidentally, my birthday was on a long weekend. So I had planned to go to Belleville and Kingston (Ontario). Unfortunately, I could not make it., so I decided to go to Mont-Tremblant for a day and go around the city.

Mont-Tremblant is a municipality in the province of Quebec located and a four-season holiday destination and ski resort. It is about 135km from Montreal in the northwest. The city was officially founded in 2000.

  We drove by the Downtown and decided to stop by to go eat. Thank God for the beautiful weather we were able to walk around and look for nice places.  The downtown was way different from our Montreal Downtown. I didn’t find any tower building or any circulation problems, even their parking was free of cost.

We stopped by Pizza & Cie. and they were busy since they had outdoor dining tables.  We decided to have lunch there and go another place for dessert.

As we finished eating, we went looking for a nice desert place, but we could not find one and my little sister was upset more than anything. Since we were all craving for dessert, we went to get something at l’epicerie Metro down the street.  And there, my sister found a tiny Tuxedo Cake. On the spot, my mom and my sister wanted to write my name on the cake and we ended up buying candle and lighter.

So we drove to the Parc Plage near the Village of Mont-Tremblant and end up cutting the cake near the water.

Even though, it was only one day I had so much fun, just walking around and looking for stuff do see and do and eat.  I had a different kind of birthday celebration. It was fun with three of us on a road trip (something we like to do) and the ( delicious) cake was something unexpected.  Moreover, my mom made the beautiful dress.

Pearls & Beads by Jennifer John

I had the opportunity to work with Jennifer John founder of HER’S ONLY Handmade Jewelry once again and this time it is more than just for a product photo shoot. I had the chance to interview her.  I have known her for two years and I can tell that she is very sweet and down to earth.

I actually wanted to write a post about her business and we came up with an interview. It is, in fact, the first time that we are both working on interviews even though, I had the pleasure to work with her for her jewelry photo shoots last year.

As we are also passionate both about photography and editing, which we both use for our respective businesses, it was very easy to have a conversation with her. Working full time as Biomedical Lab technologist at the hospital in Montreal, she pursues her passion for pearls at the same time.

“I realized that I have a job to feed my stomach and it’s time for me to have a job to feed my heart. That’s when I began making handmade jewelry and I gradually initiated my home based business.”- Jennifer John

When I asked her how it all started her jewelry journey and how she keeps up with her day -time job. She was overly joyed to say that since she was a kid she wanted to enter the healthcare profession and at the same time she always wanted to work in a place where her creativity will be at its peak and was fascinated about fields that require designing.

One day, one of her co-workers noticed a necklace that she had made a few years ago and she encouraged or even forced Jennifer to make more jewelry so she can share her passion with others. Weekdays are spent in the Lab and as she was always been into designing and creative fields: her weekends are spent making necklaces and bracelets for her loyal clients. Moreover, she takes two weeks off from her day job in order to work on her inventories. She also mentioned that she would like to take this opportunity to thank her. “If she didn’t give me this idea I would’ve never started this journey.”  

According to Google, creativity is the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. Jennifer defines creativity as a form of self-expression and she’s able to explore ideas and to execute them in reality. As seen on her website, she creates unique and personalized jewelry that suits every personality. Despite all the hard work and the time she puts into each of her creation, she likes to share her passion and inspire others to become self-taught home based entrepreneur.

           What is the best of the procedure?

My favorite part of my business is when I get to work with the customers to make customized jewelry. It’s out of my comfort zone, so it’s very challenging but yet interesting.

Talking about her passion, when I asked her about the procedure to create one jewelry, her response was that it always depend on the customization of a jewelry. “Creating a jewelry can take from fifteen minutes to five hours. Designing is the part that requires much time investment. I literally have to take out all my materials and stare at each and every single bead and accessories until I get an idea. Once I get an idea I have to design it in order to create my piece.” 

• Which one is your favorite jewelry till now or close to your heart?

My favorite jewelry is the very first one I made for my business called “Miss Pearl”. Miss Pearl is a seven layered elegant necklace made with simple off-white pearls.

In the future, her goal is to learn more techniques to make varieties of designs to reach more clients. And she also wants to make her brand renowned in the online jewelry shopping industry. Her biggest challenge was promoting her brand. Fortunately, her family and friends helped in a very old fashioned way whereas she starts selling her first pieces of jewelry in her entourage.  Thereafter, she promoted her products through her social media pages which only increased her sales.

 Who would you like to thank and why?

I would like to thank my biggest supporters, my family and friends. They’re always there to give me their feedback and to encourage me all the time.

-Jennifer John (HER’S ONLY HANDMADE JEWELRIES)

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Follow her Instagram

You can also find her on Facebook

And don’t forget to check her Online Store

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I hope you enjoyed reading the article about Her’s Only Handmade Online jewelry store.  I will catch you with another interesting interview.

By Suki Nathan

Crossing the borders

Most of the time when I go on road trips there is always always a story to it.  A week ago my family and I went to the States to do some grocery shopping and other errands. We drove 100km to Plattsburgh, New York, in two cars. From Plattsburgh, we decided to drove to  Burlington, Vermont which is 55km.

So at Plattsburgh, we bought stuff for the house and some other junk food for our tummies. Since my mom likes plants, she saw plants at the store and she like we should get it, it is so cheap even though she was not ready to buy. Since it was only  5$(CAD), we end up buying it.

We left Plattsburgh and drove to Burlington where we had to take a car ferry in order to cross the Lake Champlain between New York and Vermont. It was the first time I had experienced this kind of ferry.

Around 7 pm we decide to come back home. Usually, when I cross the Us-Canadian border, I speak French with the officers to facilitate the procedure (poutine! all the way). There was a public notice saying that we should declare any kind of plants or anything has to be declared. So I told the officers about the plant that we bought ( worse thing to do ) they kept our three passports (mom’s sister’s and mine) and told us to park the car and go to the office. That’s when my mom starts overreacting – I should not have bought the plant! we are wasting our time for 5$. She was like tell them to keep the plant; we don’t want it; we will just leave and blah blah. It was only 5$! 

In the office, they were doing an investigation on the plant, meanwhile, they gave back our passport.Thirty long minutes later, the officer told us that we can’t bring the plant in Canada and we had to dump it at the other side (USA). I was like are you kidding me; we had to drove back to the other side, show us our passports again and dump the plant and come back to Canada. We spent almost one hour at the borders back and forth just because of the 5$ plant. Surprisingly, the American officer was very nice and friendly with us and he was crying (joking) with us for the poor plant.

Out all the time I went to the States, this is the first time I had to spend more than 10 minutes for crossing the border. We end up just laughing about the plant and we were like the American officer was crying over the plant bought in his country and that he was sad that we were dumping the plant.

Moral of the story: NEVER BUY PLANTS ACROSS THE BORDER