Hello everyone! Wow, It seems surreal that we are celebrating our 7th Year Shop Anniversary. It seems only yesterday I started planning in my Midori Travelers Notebook that first started this whole journey. And what a ride its been. Its not all peaches but we tried our best while also fighting with our mental health like comparing ourselves and trying to do everything that always leads to burnout. After many years I think we finally found a good balance (yes.. finally!)

Now, on to the fun part! For our 7 Year Anniversary, in the spirit of keeping things simple and less overwhelming, we decided to have mini giveaways on our Instagram, where we will post everyday starting 1 September until 9 September, the goodies that one of you will win!

Here’s the details:

When: 1 – 9 September, from 1pm to 10pm
How: Like and comment on the post and your name will be entered
Where: @septembermoonco instagram

Winners will be picked after 10pm and announced via Story and edited caption.

Secondly, we want to also show our appreciation to those purchasing in the month of September by giving double the freebies (minimum purchase of $9 not including shipping). So this will last from 1 September to 30 September!

We hope you have a good month and survive the upcoming planner launch season together with us. Love you and hugs!

• Lisa

This month, we start the final 4 months of the year. Its surreal. How did 2022 flew by so quickly? There is a sense of resistance and also hope – from worrying about “what did we achieve this year” and then the promise of a fresh new year. Either way, I want to start now, to get into the habit of doing and not just planning.

Like I said in the last post, doing small tasks makes you feel more confident to tackle even larger tasks. So let’s keep going!

This year is the first year we are celebrating September using the new branding “September Moon Co”. I feel very connected to this brand name. I feel like we are meant to be. Just always obsessing when September arrives.. I start on a journey. The past 2 years, I did a “retreat” for myself. Personal Development, Mental Health, Business Journey, Home .. this year, I want to focus instead of being scattered all over the place. And hopefully for the next year, I will not try to second guess myself. (cos “overthinking” is just my middle name lol).

And what a great start it is. Recently we have secured a double cube at Box of Cravings after being on the lookout for a better part of the year. We need more space for notebooks and albums. And I hope that we will continue to diversify our product line in the future. Stationery will always be my first obsession, but I love desk setups too!

Soon, I would like to start experimenting with “patreon” content. Is it better to have it on the website or try using Discord or Facebook? Basically, I just want to have a cosy small community to geek out stationery with. Posting on instagram/youtube and asking for comments doesn’t really work, usually I don’t get that many comments, but I know I really really need feedback! So if you are familiar about “patreon” website, essentially, I’ll be posting blogposts that are hidden from the public and can only be seen if you are a paying member aka “patron”.

I think our community needs to grow and appreciate “patreon” type content from makers/artists in Brunei. Its just too bad that we don’t have Paypal enabled for Brunei to allow easy payments. Otherwise I’ll be on Patreon.com already ;P

Anyway, until next time. Take care!

Starting August with some manifestation vibes. In this blogpost, I am setting intentions and goals for the month. When we set a goal, we are giving ourselves a target to strive for, days become more meaningful and productive. Sometimes we just keep our goals in our minds, never writing them down .. and we don’t always remind ourselves of it .. so we get distracted.

It is coming to the second half the year and for us stationery vendors, it is time to buckle up and get going for the End of Year Market and beyond …. aka planning for 2023. (Timeflies by so fast, its scary..)

A look back at recent tasks I completed:

• I’ve decided on the new sticker sizing for the quarter sized stickers.
• Started a new YT channel
• Created instagram graphics
• Filmed and edited a new video
• Refreshed my Notion

For August, here are some tasks and goals I’d like to reach:

• A new collection for September
• Declutter my office more (there are stuff hidden under the tables)
• Opening a preorder for PaperIdeas and Wonderland222
• Consistent with content
• Start 2023 product design

I’m making the projects start with the smallest tasks, like just doodling out the products would be a great first task. Then maybe a more detailed sketch and deciding on sizes, colours and fonts. I have to keep reminding myself to keep it small and doable instead of dreaming big but its not achievable (perhaps my skill level isn’t there yet, or I don’t have the resources – time and energy to devote to it).

If you need a reminder, remember to keep going. We will reach our goals one day. And enjoy our journey there. Wishing you a great August! And Salam Maal Hijrah 1444 to all muslims. Have a great year ahead!

xx

Lisa

Hello! Its time to fully utilize the blog section on this website, I think its a great way to expand on productivity topics, document my business journey and more! (Fun fact : I used to be an avid blogger back in my teens and loved documenting my life this way)

What can you expect on this blog?

Business Journey – I’ve always wanted to document my journey (and I do keep a B6 Archer and Olive as a business journal but as a blog, I’m able to organize the topics and search for things). I hope that it would help someone on the same journey ..

Creativity, Productivity and Positivity – Productivity and using organizational tools ties in a lot with my Mental Health, and Journaling plays a big role as well to express creativity while processing your feelings. At one point, I truly enjoyed growing @lisa.paperandpics instagram account as it collected all my creative works – planning, journaling and my stationery love! I felt really sad for deciding not to update that account anymore, but at the time I had to reduce things on my plate – I had an overwhelming amount of things to do, and having extra instagram accounts just didn’t help. Anyway, I believe I can continue what I’ve done on @lisa.paperandpics on this blog! So stay tuned for these content ..

Lifestyle – I’m taking this opportunity to go back in time and enjoy making blogposts again. Nowadays, I would like to write about my thoughts on kdramas, tv series, books. Same reason as keeping a journal (I have a media journal as well) .. having it as a blog will be easier to organize and search for at a later date.

In closing, I hope this blog will be useful and helpful (both to myself and to visitors of the website). Take care..

Last year, I started feeling detached from the name “Paper and Pics”. It didn’t give me much joy and motivation anymore. It was a big turnabout from 2019-2020 when I first rebranded from BPC Paperie to Paper and Pics. I wanted to keep the “Paperie” but decided to declare my love of photography too and that’s how “Paper and Pics” was born. It worked for a while.. until it didn’t.

Recently I was hit with a rough case of HFMD (Hand Foot Mouth Disease) and during this time I decided to work on a rebrand. When something wasn’t working anymore, it didn’t make sense to keep going. In addition, I was struggling with other aspects of my social media – having way to many accounts, and finding that I’m burnt out faster trying to keep making content, and if I wasn’t, I was thinking about it 24/7. It wasn’t a healthy situation.

Business-wise, I needed to change something so I can continue my business journey. Health-wise, I needed to do less and be more selective on where I was spending my energy. I also wanted to document and write blogposts like I used to. I have always loved helping newcomers to the sticker business and more and more have DM-ed me on Instagram for help. It occured to me perhaps I should write a proper blogpost and direct them to refer to it in their own time as sometimes I had missed messages in the Requests folder.

For the rebrand, I decided to go with “September Moon Co”. I believe my personal branding helps with the “september” and I am forever adding moons and stars to my designs that they just became part of my personal and now business branding. I would love to explore and expand my business journey. Furthermore, September Moon Co would be able to serve as my creative outlet and bringing me back memories of keeping blogs and documenting pieces of my life and my journey.

I hope that the rebrand will be enjoyable for both myself and the community. Stay well and stay creative!

It was time for a change.

September is a special month for me. I try to take a work leave during my birthday to reflect and it led to this.

I’ve received more than a few questions about our previous branding. “What is BPC?” As it wasn’t a straightforward answer, it gets a little tiresome to repeat the whole story.

I initially wanted to create a totally new name but last year, as I was creating this domain for the purpose of a blog, I already went through the process of finding the perfect name.

So, with 2020 coming up soon, it was time for a rebrand for this sidehustle of mine and what better way to name it the same as my blog. I love stationery and I love photography. Enough said !

Hello .. Paper and Pics.

I’m full of ideas for 2020, and I hope everyone’s excited to join along. Its been a great 2 years of organizing Planner Market, our bi-annual vendor events and I’ve seen tremendous growth in vendors, supplies and our customers are some of the greatest supporters-turned-friends.

Let me just say thank you for your support. Your support helped supplement my income and my family expenses and for that I’m forever grateful.