June & July on Film | Zafira
Hey everyone!
I’m back with one of my favourite types of posts to do one here … A monthly film dump!
It’s summer, and I couldn’t be happier. The sun’s out, I’m finally turning a nice golden shade of brown and most of all, I’ve reunited with my friends and family again for a summer of fun after nearly 2 years apart.
There was a lot going on these past 2 months but it’s been a joy getting back to some sort of normality.
Here’s my June & July on film!
REDOING MY BEDROOM
I graduated and turned 21 in June and July and my room needed a well overdue makeover. The last time it had been painted was when I was around 13 and being the avid clothes collector/hoarder I am, I just needed more practical clothing storage solutions.
As you can see, I decided to paint my room white. I’ll try and post a room tour or some pictures of my new room soon if that’s something you’d like to see?
I turned 21 in June which was more of a shock than excitement. I feel like I’m still 13 sometimes, I can’t believe how old I’m getting. Thank you to my favourite cousin Zahrah for my lovely birthday balloon! It’s surprisingly still floating a little over a month later.
Also how cute is my new rug from Wayfair?! I will definitely be taking more shoe pics on it very soon.
I posted a blue eyeshadow look over on my IG a few weeks ago because it’s been my go to look recently. Blue eyeshadow and brown eyes are the perfect combo and I feel so 60s anytime I put it on.
In the middle is a very blurry picture of a polaroid of me and my cousins when I saw them for the first time since the lockdown in March 2020 which was so crazy, I’ve missed my family so much and it’s the biggest blessing to be seeing everyone again.
A SHOOT WITH MARIA
I’ve started shooting again!
I did a shoot with my friend Maria in June with the cutest baby blue backdrop. I’m not as comfortable using backdrops as I used to be so it was more of a little experimental, play around kind of shoot which are my favourite kinds. Look how amazing she looks!
You can check out all the pictures from the shoot here:
Alpaca Farm
On the hottest day of the summer, me and my cousins ended up at Adventurous Alpacas in Rossendale Valley. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done even though I’m not the biggest animal fan and I was quite scared but these alpacas were adorable and not scary at all.
You get these little bags of food and you get to feed and stroke them (if they let you lol) and take some cute pics.
This is Alfonzo with the pretty blue eyes.
NJ looking like she belongs in the countryside.
It’s such a lovely family activity to do during the summer! We all had so much fun hanging out the alpacas.
That’s my film dump over! Let me know what your favourite pictures were and follow my socials for updates for some very very cool things happening in the next 2 weeks.
Thanks for reading,
October & November on Film | Zafira
Hi!
It’s been quite a while since I’ve done one of these monthly film posts but I haven’t been shooting as much film as I would like to. With lockdown it’s been difficult to get my film developed at my regular spots and also, I don’t have anything exciting to shoot anymore. My life is officially boring.
However these photographs were shot in the little period of time during the beginning of October. When things were slowly on the path to feeling normal again and we were reuniting with friends and family. Little did we know we’d be in yet another lockdown just a few weeks after.
Anyway, enough with the doom and gloom. I hope you’re all taking care of yourselves and staying safe. Here’s a few photographs that will hopefully brighten your day.
I think growing up I never realised how exceptionally lucky I was to grow up around so many people who used to sew. I used to watch my grandma sew, my aunts and of course, my Amma. Now that I’m older I’ve found a little soft spot for sewing. Everyone knows I love clothes but the effort and time that goes into making them is an art in itself that many people don’t appreciate.
This past year I’ve made the time to teach myself how to sew, mainly from random Youtubers and just doing whatever feels right and what I’ve seen my Amma do. I’m not exactly what you’d call an organised sewer lol but there’s nothing more satisfying than wearing something you’ve made with your own two hands.
I’ve made a few things this year but recently I worked on this green dress. It’s not completely finished yet but I adore it so much. These past few months I keep seeing pictures of Gwyneth Paltrow in various shades of green and all it’s done is make me fall in love with the colour. I’ll try and make a post about this dress when I finish it completely over on my Instagram.
And just like that, eating out is once again a myth. A distant memory of something we once did so freely.
Earlier this October, I did manage to eat out once with my favourite cousin (sorry 2 the rest of my cousins) who I hadn’t seen since before the first lockdown earlier this March. It was so nice catching up with her.
We grabbed some lunch at one of our favourite places to eat, Comptoir Libanis. This is the one in Spinningfields and it’s so pretty inside as you can see from my poorly shot blurry photograph of the place. It’s literally one of the most stunning places to lunch. The food is amazing too.
What would these monthly film posts be without some shots of the city?
Here’s my friend Matt and his sleeping puppy Bear.
This is my favourite autumn outfit at the minute. The skirt is from Cow and my cardigan with the little birdies is from Zara! I don’t think it’s available anymore sadly but Zara has such a cute collection of cardigans this season.
And of course, uni was in full swing in October so I loved being reunited with my uni pals again!
And lastly, here’s some more pictures of Manchester looking gloomy and unusually quiet on a cold and breezy Monday afternoon.
I hope you enjoyed these pictures. Thanks for reading!
January on Film | Zafira
Hey!
January has lasted a good 3 years or that’s honestly what it’s felt like. It’s been a quiet month. I think like a lot of people, I’ve been trying to get my life back on track a little bit after almost a month off uni. I’m happy to be back into my usual schedule though and also happy to see what this year has to offer!
Here’s my January on film:
For the past few weeks, I’ve been adoring this little spot in my parents room. It’s on top of my mum’s dresser, a spot where she keeps a vintage jewellery box, her perfume, a mirror and a spinny bangle holder (not pictured). I think it might be the way it looks when the sun starts to set or the way an immense amount of light shines through no matter what the weather. It’s just very pretty.
Pictured here is an & Other Stories Perfume I got my mum for her birthday which I occasionally steal a spritz or two of and my favourite favourite & Other Stories lipstick that has most definitely been loved.
We spent Christmas and Boxing Day in London this year compared to our usual family shindig in Birmingham so we could visit some family. I took this somewhere in Whitechapel on Boxing Day. Honestly I think it’s kinda disgusting. There’s nothing I hate more than pigeons.
Here I am dressed like I’m cosplaying Shrek in this funky green silky dress from none other than Zara. I love this dress however, I hate wearing it because it creases instantly. I am also wearing some vibrant green eye shadow that you can barely see. I have my massive vintage coat from Headlock Vintage on too which everyone seems to hate but I am completely smitten with it. My personal tutor at university actually asked if I picked this coat of a skip which was very nice of him.
I was going to do this whole “only buy two things a month” thing but it’s now the end of January and once again, my wardrobe doors are incapable of closing without an aggressive shove.
These dreamy babies were a little bit of an impulsive buy from ASOS but my god are they beautiful. I love Mary Janes. They’re probably my all-time favourite style of shoe. These are plain black and velvet and pretty much match everything in my wardrobe.
As I said, this whole “only buy two things a month” thing did not go well whatsoever.
I’ve been quite in love with various shades of green for a while now which is strange because I used to hate the colour green. I think it’s incredibly flattering on brown-ier skin tones.
This blazer style corduroy jacket is from TK Maxx but is from a brand called Y.A.S that I know nothing about other than they are expensive are sold on ASOS. This jacket was originally £80 however because TK Maxx is a literal heaven on earth, this jacket only cost me £14.99. Bargain of the year.
Considering I’ve lived in Manchester my entire life, I don’t think I’ve ever been to the Whitworth Gallery.
It’s an incredibly pretty building, not only from the outside but the inside too. It’s so open and bright and I think this might be my new favourite place in Manchester. They’ve also got the most aesthetically pleasing cafe that’s lined with tall window after tall window (there’s a little snippet of it on the smaller pic).
I don’t even know where to begin with these cheeky babies. They both came over a few days ago and were causing chaos left, right and centre. They gave each other makeovers with some pretty pink lipstick, made me draw everyone and everything ever possible, ate of course (their fave activity) and both took turns drinking from my water bottle/cup in this picture.
Thanks for reading!
It’s been wild watching these two grow up the past 2 years.
Lots of love,
October on Film | Zafira
Hi!
It’s been a wild month. I’ve finally settled into uni after 4 months off. I’ve realised that I don’t really talk about uni a whole lot on here but that’s mainly because I have the biggest love/hate relationship with it (by this i mean i cry not to go but i still go in everyday). Brexit has been postponed. Zac Posen has closed his beautiful fashion label. Harry Styles released a new song. CO2 levels probably rose a bit. Like I said, it’s been a wild month.
But as always, I tried to capture this month as best as I could so here is my October on Film!
We start October off with this beauty of a dress.
Me and my cousins had a lovely day out towards the end of September and one them kindly bought me this dress from Zara and obviously, I had to wear it to Uni the next day. I love dresses in this style and cut because they are such classic pieces to have and super easy to style. This dress is also the comfiest thing ever. I spent the day running around Manchester and uni in it and it didn’t get in the way at all.
Can we also talk about how great I look in this photograph? Not to like toot my own horn or be a complete and utter narcissist but I love this picture of myself. Thank you Victoria!
Since these photographs were taken I have also accidentally accumulated this dress in black too.
On every roll there’s always an odd shot of my room. Here is my dad’s boutonniere from my cousin’s wedding over a year ago that I haven’t had the heart to throw away yet.
Here’s Vicky applying lip gloss after our little brunch date.
I’ve weirdly been spending a lot of time in Harvey Nichols recently because I love walking around and looking at things I can’t afford. This is a shot from either the second or third floor.
I was walking back to uni one day and ended up walking past a massive protest on Oxford Road. This was about what’s happening with Turkey and Rojava and to raise awareness. I can’t say I’m too educated or read enough on the topic to fully explain to you what’s happening but there’s a page over on the Independent that cover a lot to do with it. You can check that out here.
I feel it all it looks like I’ve done this month is go for brunch. I promise you I’ve done a lot more. This is my cousin Zahrah on our brunch date at Evelyn’s where we spent so long taking pictures of our food that it went cold.
There’s also always a shot of me drinking something on every roll now too. I’m actually wearing the black version of my blue dress here but you can’t see it very well.
I bought this Ralph Lauren tweed blazer at the Thrift Shop in Manchester for £12 and not only did I buy this for an absolute bargain but I met Oli Sykes too from Bring Me the Horizon! I have nothing but a badly taken picture on my phone to show for that but it was truly a great day. The 13 year old in me was filled with pure joy.
This is Jack being a hardworking student and also looking very grumpy because he wasn’t too happy about having his photograph taken.
We had a wedding in the family (again) so the end of this month was spent getting dressed up and hopping from wedding event to wedding event.
I took this because we were at a wedding at the exact same time last year at the exact same place and saw this exact same cat. You can’t see the cat very well but it’s been strolling around the British Muslim Heritage Centre for a year now. Maybe even longer who knows.
I love autumn so much.
It’s your favourite child bride! I really have to stop making that joke now that I’m no longer a child. But here I am all dressed up on a freezing cold autumn day.
Here’s my cousin Zahrah again looking pretty.
Daylight savings happened this month too which contrary to popular opinion, I actually really love. I like it when it gets dark earlier. How beautiful is the sun setting behind the marquee?
