new fabulous items just listed!

if you've looked in my shop at all today, you might have noticed something exciting: nearly 20 new items, mostly from my new and popular 'kabuku' line!

some of my favourite newbies:

'vintage crane' wall scroll

'tropical blossom' kabuku necklace

'plum branch' kabuku necklace on one of my new 18" gunmetal chains (also sold separately)

'chakra flower' kabuku necklace

'winter wonderland' is back for the holiday season!


a new style of ring: rectangle wood pieces for the perfect kabuku look

and finally...

kabuku wrapped bangle bracelets! these are $20 each and are in very limited quantity currently (i only have 2 of the purple, one of the red, and one of the branches). hopefully i will be able to get ahold of more bracelet blanks soon, because i love these!

whew, well, i've spent the entire day either taking pictures or sitting on the computer listing these new beauties, and i think i deserve a break! time for me to go relax and drink one of these delicious hot chocolate things i whip up :).

♥,

melissa

pocket mirrors!

some time ago, i had this awesome customer from the u.k. who requested pocket mirrors with the washi designs i use. well, here they are! well, some of them ;).

at the moment, there are 5 designs to choose from, but considering the fact that i sold one (the koi cutey pictured above) immediately after listing it, i can tell i'm going to be expanding to even more designs very soon!



you can use these 2.25" handy mirrors for checking your makeup, your hair, or my favourite use: peeking around corners like a super sleuth! ;D and each mirror comes prettily packaged in a matching organza bag, ready to give to a friend or toss directly into your purse!



and at only $6 each, how can you say no?! every girl needs one of these!

if you see any washi designs in my shop that you think are just dying to be on a pocket mirror, leave me a comment and let me know! you can name a pendant, magnet set, etc. that uses the design you're thinking of so it's easier for me to know which one you mean.

yay, pocket mirrors!

oh, and ps - these were a total bugger to photograph! lea, now i know what you had to go through with your pocket mirrors!

♥,
melissa

coming soon to my shop...

washi bobbypins! what do you think?

they'll be added to the shop over the course of the next few days :).

♥,
melissa

front page premier!

i woke up this morning, checked my etsy stuff, and noticed i received a lot of item hearts and store hearts, an unusually high number, in fact. what was the reason for this, i implored?

unbeknownst to me, my 'japanese wedding' washi fortune cookies were featured in a treasury (with many other talented etsy paper artists!), and that treasury made the front page! :D



this is the first time anything of mine has made it to the coveted "fp", so i am extremely excited!

in other news:

• yesterday was brandon's birthday. he loved all his gifts (i bought him 'rockband', which he has quickly become addicted to, and thanks to which i finally own some semblance of a drumset, a wish of mine since childhood), and we had a great time with our friends playing blacklight mini-golf and having a nice dinner together.
  
• i finally got together with my soon-to-be mother-in-law. after our 6 months of silence, she finally came through on our plans to have dinner as a family (brandon, me, his mom, and his step-dad), and it was... awkward, but fine. i was civil, and everything went okay.
  
• also, my sage plants bloomed!

pretty, huh?

• the nine inch nails concert is less than a week away! i am pumped :).
  
• one other really important thing to mention:

starting tomorrow, i'm going to be introducing all kinds of new cuties to my shop, including washi bobbypin sets and new gift sets, earrings, and pendants!
be sure to check in throughout the week to see all the new goodies!

alrighty, time to go jam out on the drums some more ;D.

♥,
melissa

new and improved!

introducing: my new magnet sets! after lots of problems (which my friend lea was kind enough to listen to, haha) with my slide-top tin circle magnet sets, i decided to completely reinvent my magnet line. i am very, very happy with the results :). the end product makes for a much more pretty, thoughtful, and original gift than the previous magnet sets.



what do you think? here's the direct link to this ^ magnet set, 'asian garden'. i have 6 more magnet sets ready to be listed, but they will have to take their turn behind the rest of the washi-scape pendant necklaces i have yet to list. whew, i have been really busy creating this past week!

talking about my washi-scape line, here's the newest:



'good day, sunshine'. so bright and cheery!

♥,
melissa

'summer field'

my newest gift set:



the necklace is the same style that i wore on chuck palahniuk night (see a few blogs back, there's a picture).



and, of course, the earrings. i think the red coral beads are a perfect match to the red petals.



over the next few days, about 30 new or reworked items will be listed in my shop. yes, i've been busy :).

♥,
melissa

ohm

this is my tattoo. well, this is the tattoo i want; i just painted this on myself with tempura paint :p. and actually, brandon doesn't like tattooing on hands, so it's going to be on my right shoulderblade instead of my thumb :pp.

i've wanted 'ohm' tattooed on me for a really long time now, so i think that after the wedding, i should go ahead with it.

brandon and i had a very eventful day today! he took the day off as a vacation day so we could get a bunch of wedding stuff done, and i'm happy to say that we survived, got everything wedding-related accomplished, and he didn't die of boredom (always a plus!).

first, we woke up early and drove towards austin. we ate breakfast at 'chick-fil-a' (mmm...), then headed for 'unbridaled', the dress place. i just placed my wedding dress order 2 weeks ago, but nicole miller had it in stock in my size (for a trunk show, i think), so it got shipped the next day after i put down my deposit. 2 weeks and $1732 later (ugh... but it's worth it! i swear!), i now have my dress hanging up in a nicole miller garment bag in my closet ♥. i will try very hard to resist putting it on and walking around the house in it for fun :p. no promises, though.

so anyway, next we went to the social security administration office to get brandon a replacement card (his has been lost since... he can't remember when. his mom lost it when he was a teenager or something). we waited for -maybe- 30 minutes, and got everything taken care of. easy!

after that, we attempted to run some other little errands (to no avail, but that's okay), and since we were near my parents' house, we stopped by to show my mom the dress (i think she wanted to cry, and she was grateful we thought to come see her).

it was then lunchtime, so we ate at 'outback steakhouse' really quick before going to our appointment of the day: cake tasting!



i found this picture in some magazine. it looks sooooo good, and it's our colours! the only thing we're changing is the shape; it's going to be a square cake instead of a round one, and it will have 3 tiers. the cake is going to be red velvet (::drools::) with cream cheese filling alternated with raspberry puree filling, and the icing is chocolate buttercream. are you drooling yet? :p. the samples the ladies that own the patisserie brought for us were absolutely delicious, and we're going for a second tasting in a week and a half, at which point we'll place our order. yay! i think everyone we work with is astounded by my preparation and i-know-exactly-what-i-want attitude. i guess most brides are kinda floopy about things and don't really know what it is they want, but i sure do. all that time recovering from surgeries last year was spent wedding planning, and it has really paid off! i'm not stressed or pressed for time at all :).

i've also been busy making new things for my shop. i've been really focusing on my washi-scape line (i need to beef it up in my shop... those few pendants in that category are looking lonely!). i have over a dozen new pendant necklaces to list, plus a new star magnet set, many pendant boxes, and a brand new gift set. exciting times in 'washi by maoiliosa' land! i'm also just 1 sale away from meeting my monthly goal (!) of 25 items sold this month, which is just incredible! my little shop is really taking off :).

here's a new piece, 'blushing':



whew. what a day! i'm gonna go curl up in bed with a good book :).

♥,
melissa

starbright!

a tower of stars, reaching to the heavens!

these are my newest magnets, now available in my shop for just $10, including a cute slide-top tin covered in washi paper.

i love doing the star items, but let me tell ya, they are not fun to cut the paper for! i spend probably twice as long on these as i do the circle magnets. but i think it's worth it - they're just so darn cute!




ps - my tile pendant necklace clearance is going really well so far! if there's a necklace you have your eye on, get it while you can! they are, after all, just $4! :)

♥,
melissa

introducing: washi picture frames!

behold my newest washi creation! i have decided to make picture frames using my beloved, gorgeous japanese washi papers :). as of this moment, this, 'wildflowers', is the only one listed in my shop, but more will be available soon!



i really love this frame. to see the item in my shop, go here and take a peek.

i just received a whole bunch of interesting supplies to make new, awesome things, so keep checking my shop (and the blog!) for the latest info on all my new cuties!

♥,
melissa