September is a “second January” they say. A new fresh start. A reset. This year, I decided to have one too. And to stop something that has always been part of my personality: “Hesitating”.
Hesitating because “it” was notperfect, because I didn’t think it through perfectly. Classic overthinker.
I promised myself: That’s it. For the next few months: I am just going to jump in!
And there are two things already that “I just did”: Writing this exact blog post without planning it weeks in advance and: Opening a shop ! Finally! For YEARS I have been thinking of building one. I still remember that one email, in which a doctor asked if he could order a print to hang in his private practice. I was flattered and told him: “Soon!”
And that was like 8 years ago. I just checked: It’s literally been 8 years .
Fun fact: I HAD a finished shop in the backend – non-published – because I was afraid of everything that came after and mostly taxes (specifically scary sales tax)! Ugh! But as our tax advisor once said: “First, worry about making money, then worry about taxes.”
The truth is: I don’t aim or think of making real money with this shop. I won’t market it like crazy, I won’t give you “-,99” offers or anything. I just need it to exist – because I told myself (and the doctor) it will one day. And maybe here and there, you find a print to be a nice gift or a nice decoration for your office. Then that would make me happy, too.
For this shop, I work with Gelato, a Norwegian print on demand company that offers great service and quality including some organic products. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding the shop: Please reach out!
But for now: I wish you a happy new half year – maybe you, too, want to just do “something”.
Do you also have someone in your household that constantly forgets to take their mask when leaving the house? I have just the right thing for you:
Choose a language, click on the image to get the high resolution version, download and print it and stick it to your apartment door, so everyone can see it when leaving the house 😉
the days are getting shorter, everything is planned to happen inside and we are looking forward to sharing with you our steps we took in the last months. I, Stephie, have started working for Soufeina in the beginning of this year and I can say: I am happy to work with Soufeina and to experience new interesting projects and ideas of clients and friends of tuffix every week.
I have created a colouring book ? about what it means to stay home 🙂
It helps children understand that they are not alone in this situation, that other kids don‘t go to school, to the playground or their grandma, as well. That they also have to videocall their loved ones and that mom has to work from home so they cannot disturb her too much etc.
You can buy the pdf in this store: www.westayhome.net. It is available in both ??????? and ?????? . If you want it to be special you can even order a ✨custom version✨!
You will also find free colouring illustration on the page.
A few days ago, I created a little Ramadan Memory Game for my nephews and nieces. I realized: Why not share it with you? Maybe some of you will be happy to play something with your little ones. It’s a great way to start a conversation about the holy month and get them excited 🙂 Ramadan mubarak!
Download the template by filling out the form and clicking “send download link”, print it twice on a thicker paper (or glue 2 papers together, so nobody can see through) and cut the squares.
Wait 2019 is over? Already? How…? Is it also too late to review 2019? Well, we’re still in January (2020! Oh man..) so let’s do this.
The bad news: 2019 was probably the year I got the least personal projects done – I barely posted new comics on instagram or my website 🙁 BUT: The main reason was that I wanted to grow in my business and my client work. And I was blessed with some beautiful projects…
Die “Muslimischen Kulturtage” sind eine vom Senat in Berlin geförderte Veranstaltungsreihe, die vom 19. – 22. September 2019 stattfanden. Innerhalb dieser Tage wurde ein breites kulturelles Programm auf die Beine gestellt, welches die Vielfältigkeit der Berliner Muslimischen Communities repräsentierte und nicht-muslimische BürgerInnen Berlins dazu einlud, das muslimische Leben und die kulturelle Vielfalt kennen zu lernen. Für die Erarbeitung des Konzepts und Durchführung der Muslimischen Kulturtage haben sich VertreterInnen unterschiedlicher muslimischer Gemeinden und gemeindeunabhängige muslimische Personen zusammengefunden.
Soufeina war selbst zweifach vertreten: Einmal als ausstellende Künstlerin in der Blogfabrik und einmal am Abend des selbigen Tages als Graphic Recorderin.
The first half of 2018 has passed and here I am: Not keeping my promise to share an update quarterly. Instead, this is gonna be an update of the past half year! Well, that’s better than nothing, right?
The past six months have been full of personal and professional milestones.
Back to the Roots
First things first: My biggest personal change in 2018 so far: We moved to Berlin! The city I have lived in most of my life. Dublin was home for exactly 1 year (for me, 7 for my husband). It was an emotional goodbye for me, mostly because Dublin was a safe, cozy and friendly bubble. Read my comic about it here. Now we are living the freelancer life as my husband created his own digital marketing agency. So far it works well, we don’t hate each other yet haha. We try to organize our days by starting the day with a “team meeting” and by respecting each others work time (as much as possible…) . There are still moving boxes in our apartment but we are slowly feeling home in this new place. Designing the new place is both joy and stress – I take hours/days/weeks to decide which pillow case to buy. Yep, I am a perfectionist. A perfectionist with a pinterest addicition. (more…)
To be honest, when I created this blog three years ago I was not very sure how to handle it. I was not sure what to share, how often I would share etc. With all those social media platforms, facebook, instagram, deviantart – who would be even interested in reading a text here?
But I decided to use this space wisely, now: I want to write reviews every quarter of the year. This is for all those who are interested in having an overview of what is happening with my art. And it is for myself since I believe that regularly looking back and acknowledging what has happened will help me to move forward more strategically, more passionately.
Since my last blog post have been uploaded such a long time ago, this first review will be on the year 2017. The next one will be about the first quarter of 2018, the second post about the second quarter etc.
So, 2017 has been a very exciting and rewarding year. I have made huge changes privately and professionally and I have not regretted any of them so far. (more…)
Time flies and my life feels like a chaos.
A positive chaos, although my body is giving me signals by muting me – my voice is gone for three days now.
So, here’s some news: I quit my job to start a new one in Berlin – back to the roots. This means: Moving within less then 3 weeks – a challenge that won’t prevent me by following my artistic career.
Next stop: German Protestant Church Day (DEKT), on June 5. I will be sharing my experiences on a discussion panel about “Approaches and obstacles of interreligious learning”.
These last few weeks were extremely exciting for me. I am so grateful to have the oppurtunity to travel around in order to show my work and talk about it. Alhamdulillah (Thank God). So here are my highlights:
Life is unpredictable, subhanallah (“Glory be to God”, said when you’re impressed by something). Sometimes you’re trying so hard to reach a specific point in life and although you keep pushing persistently it won’t work. It won’t work because it’s not the time yet. And because something else was planned for you, something that comes to you so easily, you won’t understand how and why. (more…)
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Next stop: German Protestant Church Day (DEKT), on June 5. I will be sharing my experiences on a discussion panel about “Approaches and obstacles of interreligious learning”.
These last few weeks were extremely exciting for me. I am so grateful to have the oppurtunity to travel around in order to show my work and talk about it. Alhamdulillah (Thank God). So here are my highlights:
Life is unpredictable, subhanallah (“Glory be to God”, said when you’re impressed by something). Sometimes you’re trying so hard to reach a specific point in life and although you keep pushing persistently it won’t work. It won’t work because it’s not the time yet. And because something else was planned for you, something that comes to you so easily, you won’t understand how and why.
