MSU SHC Pine Press 27 November 2020 - 1
Pine Press November 2020
Brought to you by the MSU Student Housing Cooperative Education Committee Table of Contents Cover design by Chrystel Lopez from Miles Davis 2 - NASCO Report 2 - Left Bower Design Updates 4 - Haven House Donation Drive 4 - Montie: The Mystery Revealed 6 - COVID Data Updates 7 - HAUS LUV 8 - Sounds of the SHC 9 - Dat Sweet NASCO Experience 9 - Sustainability Spotlight: Staying Warm this Winter! 11 - The Sapling Operations Report 12 - ThanksKILLING Movie Review 12 - Murder Mystery Game 13 - Raft Got COVID 14 - Democracy in Action: SHC Name Change??? 15 - Liberation Collective 16 - DIY Stickers!
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NASCO Report In lieu of a letter from the editor this month, I decided to print the report on NASCO Institute that I wrote for the Post-NASCO Share-out virtual event. The session I attended that inspired me the most at this year’s NASCO Institute was “Ecovillages: Cooperative Solutions to Climate Change”. This session got me thinking about capitalism as the root of so many problems, reminded me of how shit’s fucked and we can only strive to save what’s left, and emphasized that cooperative living can and should be made more radical. This session included some information about the extent of the climate crisis, as well as indicated ways that capitalism and human actions has contributed to it. The presenter also brought up that there is no one solution (“if everyone went vegan…”), that there must be a systematic and intersectional approach to mitigating climate disaster and responding to the ways that our society will begin to change as a result of it. One thing I appreciated about this session was that it had us introduce ourselves including who’s land we’re on. I was glad that I knew the answer for me - the SHC is on Three Fires land: Ottawa, Chippewa and Potowatomi. It reminded me that despite the equitable nature of cooperative organization and living, we are still operating and existing within an exploitative and colonial framework. Members work for underpaid wage labor, we buy groceries from corporations, and rely on exploitative supply chains. This makes me think that a long term goal for cooperatives is to distance ourselves from these aspects and forge new and more equitable ways to interact with society. It’s tough, though - I buy groceries from where’s closest, we use paper towels for proper sanitation during the pandemic, I still buy some first-hand clothing once in a while. I’m lucky enough to be working a job that isn’t generating profit for some white dude, but lots of people don’t have that luck. The day after the session I went to the Target on Grand River. I was with my housemate who was in the room with me during the session, and who heard most of it. I remember looking at the blueberries on the shelf and deciding if we wanted them to go with our waffles, but the carton said “product of Peru” and I recalled how during the session, the speaker offered the idea of confronting the fact that we shouldn’t eat food that has been shipped thousands of miles and produced through exploitative practices. But what am I supposed to do, never eat produce again? Try really hard to figure out if it was produced fairly? The farmer’s market in Valley Court doesn’t go year-round, and they don’t have much anyway; ELFCO theoretically exists but I’m not so sure. Eventually I want to live in an intentional community with some level of food subsistence options, but until then I have to operate within the patently exploitative capitalist framework that is our society. This session got me real jazzed about intentional community and collective living, and made me excited to continue my work in the cooperative movement as well as prioritize staying a part of it when I leave the SHC. Emily Tyler, Vice President of Education, Executive Vice President
Left Bower Design Updates: We Have a Design! By Casey Paskus, Americorps VISTA, from Bower
MSU SHC Pine Press 27 November 2020 - 3 Howdy folks, we are wrapping up the community design process for Left Bower/131 Whitehills so it's time for an update! After meeting with my housemates at Bower, we’ve narrowed down a design for the potential redevelopment of Left Bower into a cooperative house. House meals and house activities are very important to Bower house culture, so members chose the option that would allow for Bower and Left Bower to share meals together in a large dining room and spend time together outside in a shared yard space while still maintaining the distinct culture of Bower House - ‘Two Co-ops, Single Building’. I took my housemates' choices to Jim Jones, founding member of the SHC, who is working with us on the design of Left Bower. He drew up an addition connecting Left Bower and Bower, with bedrooms in the top two floors and a large dining space with a walk-out patio on the ground floor. We’re calling this addition the ‘Rainbow Connection’ after one of my housemates suggested painting an exterior wall in rainbow colors! Myself, holly jo, and Jim Jones are working with the City of East Lansing to determine how realistic this design is in terms of zoning and building code. We hope to have some concrete answers soon - but until then here is the ideal design for Left Bower!
Bower House will remain pretty much the same, with more space for food prep and food storage in what is now our dining room area. Left Bower will be renovated from apartments to a suite-style arrangement, with a couple bedrooms, bathrooms, a common area and a kitchenette in each suite. Jim chose suite-style arrangements for Left Bower and the addition to create smaller communities within a larger cooperative house. This will also allow Left Bower to have a different and separate organizational structure from the co-op at Bower, because they will have a different type of living situation. There will be a virtual meeting for SHC members to go over the possible design of Left Bower in early December! More information will be sent out soon, but make sure to come to this event to ask questions about the potential purchase of Left Bower!! Email me at paskusca@msu.coop with any questions :)
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Haven House Donation Drive Update By Emily Tyler from Vesta In case you didn’t know, instead of an event this fall the education committee is organizing a monetary donation drive to Haven House, a local organization that provides emergency housing and other services to area families. Haven House not only does housing work in our community, but they are also our neighbors (right next door to Bower). You can learn more about Haven House at their website havenhouseel.org. So far we have raised 265$! A $200 donation by an Orion member put their house firmly in the lead, with second being Bower at 25$. The house that donates the most per member (total donated by house divided by number of residents) will receive a prize package: ● Supplies for mural painting ● The choice of a community org to donate 200$ of Educom’s “community service projects” budget ● A pizza party??? (TBD) Not only would your house benefit from these prizes, but showing support to other orgs doing the work in our community is perfectly aligned with cooperative values of solidarity and support, as well as engages with the 7th cooperative principle of “concern for community”. So if you have a few bucks to spare, consider donating to Haven House! To make it easy you can venmo VPE Emily Tyler @emilytyler666 with “Haven House [your house name]” in the memo, or donate through the HH website and send a screenshot to education@msu.coop.
Montie: The Mystery Revealed By Emily Tyler from Vesta Y’all know Montie, but how much do you really know? The big brick house on MAC just down the block from Vesta, Beal and Orion with red letters spelling their name has been a notorious mystery to SHC members since I joined this co-op three years ago, and I’m sure much longer. Is there beef? Are they a
MSU SHC Pine Press 27 November 2020 - 5 real co-op? Why aren’t they a part of the SHC? I got the chance to virtually interview Matt Prominski, a Montie member since August 2017, and he told me a little about his home. Matt’s first co-op experience was living in Howland during the summer of 2017; then he found out about Montie and “fell in love with it”. Matt said that Montie “feels a lot more free”; he pointed out that every decision is made by and within the house, with no outside forces or influence. Matt’s life has been “absolutely” impacted by living at Montie; he says that living there has made him “a more patient, tolerant, and understanding person,” and that it is “very rewarding” to live there even during difficult times. Let’s talk about the house itself. Matt told me that living there is very affordable - around 350$ a month, and a little less if you share a room. The house currently has 18 members, but has had up to 32 in the time that Matt has lived there. While that may sound like a lot, Montie actually has a capacity of around 40 residents! And if that number isn’t big enough for you, consider this: in January of 1971 for example, Montie had 50 residents! The house used to be all-male, due to university stipulations requiring single-sex occupancy for off-campus housing for allowing sophomores and juniors to live off campus. Oh how times have changed! These days Montie’s membership is about half and half students and non-students, with some recent graduates, and some re-entry students. Matt tells me that the house culture has definitely shifted in the time since he moved in, changing from a party-heavy culture to now a more “relaxed and mature” environment. Matt is pleased with this shift; he doesn’t wanna do crazy party nights anymore - they get old (not to mention you literally can’t during a pandemic). Matt describes the current house atmosphere as “eclectic and unique”. Matt tells me that the turnover rate of members changes with time, but that the average length of residency in Montie is about a year or two. However, there are some members who have lived there longer than that, including Adam who has been a member of Montie for seven years. Matt tells me that Adam is a sort of archivist of the house; the house has lots of photo albums and articles in the smoking lounge, some dating back to the 40s and 50s when the building was a greek house. As far as how the house works, they have similar positions and systems to SHC houses. There are several elected positions, including president, treasurer, secretary, house manager (handles maintenance stuff), membership officer, social chair, and kitchen steward. They have a constitution and house rules; they have a chore system that Matt describes as “really generous”: take the kitchen, for example. If the kitchen cleaning chore doesn’t get done, its value increases by 10$ each day that it isn’t done, and then whoever does it gets that amount times the days it wasn’t done taken off of their monthly cost. Let’s talk a little bit about the history of Montie. It first became a co-op in 1963. Montie was a part of the original conversations way back when about the formation of a federation for all the local independent co-ops in East Lansing. However, as the conversations progressed, Montie took a step back and wanted to remain independent (although they were affiliated with Howland). But they were connected in a way with the other co-ops: once upon a time there was something called the Inter Cooperative Council (ICC), which was a loose collection of the various co-ops in the area. Its effectiveness deteriorated over time, with Jim Jones (SHC’s first president) noting in an old paper that “by 1971, the ICC was alive in name only, and
MSU SHC Pine Press 27 November 2020 - 6 contact between the groups was nearly non-existent.” However, on paper the ICC survived; this picture from the 1993-4 SHC Owner’s Manual illustrates how the SHC and ICC were connected. These days the spirit of independence and autonomy are strong at Montie house, and that’s how they like it. Matt says they try to stay connected with the other co-ops in East Lansing, but that depends on how outgoing the current members are, as well as depending on social interactions such as hosting or attending parties. Obviously that part isn’t happening anymore due to COVID, and Matt expresses disappointment in the loss of opportunity for connection with other co-opers in EL. Hopefully when this pandemic ends we can re-establish a relationship between Montie and the SHC, as fellow co-opers and just plain neighbors. Many thanks to Matt for the interview!
COVID Data Updates By Jonathan Sheehan from Orion
It’s been a couple of months since I updated my graphs for the Pine Press, so it’s time to take a look at how the pandemic is unfolding in our state. Let's begin by looking at the graph of new COVID-19 cases reported in Michigan daily. In this plot, we see the number of new cases in black. The red line is the one week moving average. The highlighted portion of the plot represents the duration that at least a part of the state was under a Stay at Home Order. There are several days of very low numbers that are due to reporting irregularities. Let’s take a look at how this looks on a county by county level.
This map visualizes the number of new cases per 10k people in each Michigan County on October 24th, with darker red indicating higher values. Seeing things like this can be important for understanding not just the number of cases in an area, but also how widespread the virus is in a community. If we just looked at the number of new cases Wayne, Kent, Oakland, and Macomb Counties would be reddest.
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However since they have large populations, the severity of their outbreaks is comparatively low. The plot to the left looks at progression of case numbers in the counties of Michigan with populations greater than 200,000 people. This shows the total cases per 10k residents, because it makes it easier to visualize multiple counties at once. If all of the counties are increasing at the same pace, all of the lines would have similar slopes. If the lines look different, it’s indicative of localised outbreaks. To see this, all you need to do is compare Ingham counties line to the others in the beginning of September. Looking closer at Ingham County, we can clearly see the spike in cases in early September. In this graph, the red line again is the one week moving average. The area that is shaded orange is the duration of the Governor’s Stay at Home Order, and the red area highlights the two week period after classes started. At a state level, new cases in Michigan are just eclipsing what we experienced during the height of the pandemic. But here in Ingham county, things are already significantly worse now than they were in April and May. It is so easy, especially after 8 months of life disruptions, to bend the rules and partake in risky activities. As tempting as it may be sometimes just remember, if you were too worried to do something in April, the data says you should still be worried now.
HAUS LUV!!! Compiled by Kiran Lantrip from Raft Hill
November ORION: Thank you to every single housemate for being here for me during these rough times. I love you all so much!!! ORION: Thank you to Rico Nasty for not peeing on my bean bag chair anymore :)
MSU SHC Pine Press 27 November 2020 - 8 VESTA​: Duncan, you did such a thorough job of reviewing our constitution, thank you!! APOLLO​: Adam, you have a really wonderful smile!! You look so joyful :) MILES DAVIS​: sophi is the best! thank you for always being on top of things! BOWER​: LUV TO CARRIE AND UR WORMIES!! yum yum eat that compost (and Mitch McConnell) HOWLAND​: Jay you are such a beautiful soul and make everyone feel loved and cared for. we love when you do your rounds of the house and pop your head in to say hi. you are loved and you deserve so much love and happiness � HOWLAND​: Julian, I don’t think I can accurately put into words just how grateful I am for you and your energy. You helped me see the person I want to be and inspire me to change for the better all the time. You will always hold a special place in my heart no matter where life takes me. RAFT HILL​: We have gotten through a rough few weeks together, and I'm so lucky to live with all you lovely people. We did it! We got through quarantine as a family, and I'm so grateful for all of our healths and recoveries in such a hard time. Much love fellow velociraftors
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PHOENIX:​ Hey Phoenix, nice job we still haven't gotten corona ​[that didn’t age well] RAFT HILL​: David is always cooking up great things for the whole house to enjoy. I really appreciate the extra effort he puts out for us to enjoy something special. HOWLAND​: Emma you are a total badass and can do anything you put your mind to! Sending lots of love and support your way <3
Sounds of the SHC Compiled by Kiran Lantrip from Raft Hill Another month, another playlist :). Thank you all for your submissions as usual! We have a couple months of material here - sorry if your recs didn’t make it in last month, but hopefully the beefier playlist this month spices up your listening! The Spotify playlist for this month can be found linked ​here​ or on the Facebook page. November Acid Dreams by MAX, Felly (Orion) My lady’s on fire - Ty Segall // krisofferson’s theme - Alexandre Desplat (Howland) Albums: Last Call for all Passengers - Dan Terminus, Artists: Swaya, Agoria, Mija, Songs: Love is a Mystery - Asquith | Off Ma Mind - MatJoe | Ghost - Machine Girl (Orion) BLVCK Ceiling - First Dates; Grey; First Blood; Girl Money (Harambee) song: feeling good by nina simone (miles davis) Your voice, as i remember it - AJJ (Vesta) Aldous Harding - The Barrel (Bowie) October Now The Powers, Bulgarian Chant by Daniel Alva (Phoenix) Hyori Ittai, Dancing Queen, Thriller, Dan Dan Kokoro Hirateku, American Idiot, Hotel California, Dancing with Myself, Amazed, Iris, Fly High by burnout, Kirameki (Rafty Hill) Fade (song) by THE DRIVER ERA (Raft Hill)
MSU SHC Pine Press 27 November 2020 - 9 Song: Is This It? by the Greeting Committee (Howland) Ghostemane-AI (Harambee)
Dat Sweet NASCO Experience By Mallory Bengry from Orion The NASCO Institute provides a place every year for co-opers across the country to access educational workshops about cooperatives. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the institute was held virtually so it was hard for me to make connections with those that attended. One of the workshops that I attended was led by Jeffrey Edenberg about Chores: Systems and Culture. Jeffrey Edenberg is the Residency and Operations Director at Beacon Hill Friends House, an interfaith Quaker intentional community in Boston. He has been involved with community living for more than 10 years. We discussed the three A’s of chores: adherence, accountability, and attitude; these three A’s can be used to look at both individual behavior and to assess at a community level. Adherence is the actual doing of the chores, accountability is how we help to hold ourselves and others accountable to the labor, and attitude is how we show up to the work. Under the category of adherence, some of the examples of tools we can use to divide labor are a chore chart or chore handbook. Some ways to enforce accountability include reminder slips, signing off on charts publicly visible, and talking to each other. Attitude can refer to the energy we hold personally around our labor and the way we communicate as a community around the labor. With these three A’s, we can look at our house chore systems and evaluate whether or not we are satisfied with how things are going. A house can use an anonymous survey to reach out to housemates and see how the public opinion reflects the practices of the house. If there are issues within the chore system, look to the three A’s for ideas on how to build a better system! Maybe it is an issue of adherence and people need more motivation to do their chores. The most important thing to keep in mind is communication with your house. If voices are heard and actions are taken, people will most likely be more satisfied with how things are going!
Sustainability Spotlight: Staying Warm this Winter! By Casey Paskus, Climate Resilience and Development VISTA, from Bower There’s a chill in the air and we just got our first snowfall - winter is on it’s way! We all know Michigan winters can be tough, but before you dig that old space heater out of your basement, check out this list of more energy efficient alternatives to consider:
MSU SHC Pine Press 27 November 2020 - 10 1. Heated blanket or mattress pad I was having trouble falling asleep because after a long day, I would crawl into my coldass bed and all I could focus on was how my feet were freezing. Some nights I was wearing two sweatshirts, long johns with my pjs, and socks to bed! In my own home! I knew it was time to change something so that I could actually fall asleep (going into a hypothermia-induced coma wasn’t an option). My housemate mentioned that she had just bought a heated mattress pad, so I ordered one from Target the next day (it cost about $30 with shipping). It was super easy to use - you just have to make sure your bed is near an outlet. Heated mattress pads come with remote controls, so you can control when your mattress begins heating and how hot it gets. This small change has saved me hours of sleep! The only downside - it makes it even more difficult to get out of bed in the morning :) 2. Window film Ah yes, the humble window film. Maybe it seems like a hassle to put up. Maybe you don’t think it’ll make a big difference. Well I am here to share the good news - if you have drafty windows in your house like Bower does, window film could make a huge difference in the temperature of your home! Window film kits usually come with enough film for 2-4 windows and double-sided tape. The film lets sunlight in to warm your room, but keeps out any drafts of cold winter air. Talk to your housemates about putting film up on all the windows in your house to make sure Keep in mind that some of our houses have newer windows (like Bowie and Rivendell), so window film will likely not affect the heat in those houses. 3. Hot water bottle Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in the olden-days? Well wonder no more - once you buy yourself a hot water bottle, you’ll feel just like the heroine in your favorite historical romance movie, who had to use a hot water bottle to stay warm in the harsh winters of 19th century England. This is basically the same concept as the heated mattress pad/blanket, but the hot water bottle doesn't use any electricity (so it's even more environmentally friendly!). You just warm water up in a tea kettle before pouring it into the hot water bottle, and placing it between your mattress and your blanket! Shoutout to my homies who get bad period cramps - y’all already know all about hot water bottles. 4. Wearing layers Not trying to sound like anybody's dad on here, but I’m sure lots of us have been told “don't touch the thermostat!” and “if you’re cold, put on a sweater!” Well, the dads of the world are not wrong. Lots of our houses are big and old and they heat unevenly - your room might be freezing, and your neighbor down the hall might be wearing shorts and a t-shirt. This could be a situation where you bundle up and hunker down. Or maybe your neighbor will let you visit their room so you can warm up your cold toes!! Do you have more tips on staying warm this winter? Email me at paskusca@msu.coop :)
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ThanksKILLING Movie Review By Danny Olweean from Bowie When I was 14, my stepfather showed me a movie about an evil Turkey. It was the first holiday season in a new house, and with the anxiety of change on my shoulders, a turkey screaming “BITCH” onscreen was exactly... a thing that happened. I have not seen this movie in the 7 years since, but I wanted to write a review so you may – in a socially distanced manner – watch it with your families. It’s not like this Thanksgiving can get any worse. I don’t really remember the plot, but I know there was a Turkey who was kinda angry at a group of people. I do remember the visual assault that was the turkey puppet. BUT, it was made with $3,500, so that’s expected. My housemate Zia pointed out that $3,500, though small for a movie budget, is kinda a lot for some dude and a group of friends. Do you have $3,500? Do you think you and a couple of friends could muster that much? If you do, hey I’ve been having some trouble with a broken tone ring on my car, and with winter around the corner, I probably use my ABS to be fully functional. Venmo is @DannyOlweean. Financial quibbles aside, I remembered there is a scene where the turkey wears a character’s football helmet and pads and has s*x with his girlfriend. I don’t recommend this. But, for Christmas, you should check out the equally terrible Princess Switch: Switched Again. Score: 1/10 (1 point for the funny idea) P.S. I think I actually saw the second Thankskilling, Thankskilling 3 P.P.S. Thankskilling 3 is the second in the series. It’s like the Travelling Wilburys.
Murder Mystery Game!! Submitted by Roz Schafer from Howland Over the election weekend, Howland participated in a murder mystery dinner party. It was an absolute banger and I highly recommend other co-ops try it. The evening started off slow and organized but quickly went off the rails in a very entertaining way. The game followed an among us structure, as the murdered was a player in the game, and had the power to kill more players as the game went on. It was also loosely scripted and gave players a lot of room to develop their characters. As more people died, the tensions got higher and created a really fun high stakes game.
MSU SHC Pine Press 27 November 2020 - 13 If you’re interested in playing this smash hit like Howland did, email offredia@msu.edu for the full game description document, or click this link if you’re reading this virtually: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z5rf6178npaXX1edNT929RHnXUuR0_6b/view?usp=sharing
Raft Got COVID By Elizabeth Price from Raft Hill
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Democracy in Action: SHC Name Change??? By Marshall Clabeaux from Rivendell As we stand today - 17 houses and the capacity to serve 250+ members affordable housing and services, speaks for itself. Since 1939, people like you and I have been cooperating through our housing across the Greater Lansing area. Hedrick house led the way, and in large part, thanks to the legendary efforts of Dr. Orion Ulrey and Jim Jones we still exist today. Ulrey, Jones and many peers trail blazed a path of cooperation that exists larger than ever today, in thanks to you, 2020 MSU SHC members. You, yourselves, are trailblazers, as the first members to endure and persevere through a global pandemic. Carry on and be well to good health! In 2020 - now, and just as much or more than ever, diversity, equity and inclusion must be uplifted and intentionally worked on to improve as we strive towards creating a healthier, safer and equitable world for future generations. Our cooperative has made deliberate and concrete steps towards this Global Ends Policy 1.1.3 (“Member residents will be exposed to diversity”) of ours. The board of directors in 2016 voted for promoting and expanding diversity as its annual issue. This board of directors, mainly students over the history of our existence is unique and important to recognize and celebrate! MSU Student Housing Cooperative has provided affordable housing to students of Michigan State University for a long and historical past; we have always served more than just students of MSU, though. LCC students belong in our cooperative, students of online studies, students of life and non students; all have and continue to exist in belonging to our cooperative. Efforts into a more inclusive cooperative must and are continuing today. This brings us to the opportunity in changing our name to become more inclusive. In homage to our namesake (MSU SHC) and the Michigan State University (Spartans) students path of student led leadership - the idea of Spartan Housing Cooperative has emerged and leads a way forward. In 2014, Education Officer Jessica Seitsma proposed the idea. Come 2020, the idea has come back with a new life.
MSU SHC Pine Press 27 November 2020 - 15 Our cooperative may serve 2021 and beyond as an even more inclusive organization not only behind a new name but with new status as a 501(c)3 organization. Since our inception, efforts have been made to make our cooperative a 501(c)3. Whether it be clerical error, legislative barrier or lack of stars aligning, we have not received the status. We stand nearly ready today to re-submit an application to become 501(c)3. Pending a few touches here and there, and democracy in action - a member refrenda - we carry on. In further benefit of a name change to the SHC, we would have a nearly seamless brand transition. Internally and locally people know us as the SHC. For whatever reason, SHC seems to roll off the tongue more often than MSU SHC. Across the country student housing cooperatives come together through NASCO. Amongst these peers we also most commonly exist as “the SHC”. Furthermore in synergy - spartan by definition is - “showing the indifference to comfort or luxury traditionally associated with ancient Sparta. Ie “spartan but adequate rooms”. Does this not sound like our coop experience? Thanks for your time and reading. I hope we all as a cooperative embrace this chance to be radically inclusive :) Best, in cooperation, ~mc
Liberation Collective “Mission: To intentionally deconstruct the oppressive patriarchal capitalist and white supremacist cultures that are present in our MSU Student Housing Cooperative. As we deconstruct, we intend to both impact and respond to individual member-owners in our cooperative system and in our individual house cultures.” We are a group of individual member owners of the SHC who share a common interest in doing work to promote a more liberated culture and co-op. For more information, or for a meeting link, email Emily at
education@msu.coop
Training opportunity coming in late January! Stay tuned for more info!
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DIY Stickers! Designed by Chrystel Lopez from Miles Davis