a much-needed vacation

hello, internet darlings!

i am about to go on a long-awaited and much-needed vacation.  as you might remember, a friend of mine won a trip for two on a caribbean cruise and invited me to go with her - i'm terribly excited!  i am leaving this friday, and will be soaking up the sun in the bahamas, st. thomas, and st. maarten until the next saturday.

before i go, though, i wanted to share a new pencil set i've whipped up:

this stunning set is called 'dreams of a geisha' and can be found in my shop here.

all pencil sets are created equally, but shhh, don't tell anyone:  this one is my favourite ;).

i will have dozens of new items available as soon as i get back from the cruise and get settled into my routine again, so stay tuned!

also, just a quick mention well in advance:  if you are in the austin area, maoiliosa will have a booth set up at the caffe medici  autumn art fair taking place 11 september, so be sure to stop by and say hi to me!

that's all for now!

♥,

m

aloha!

exciting news!

if you are lucky enough to be able to visit honolulu, hawaii, or are even luckier to live there, you will soon find a selection of maoiliosa pencils on the island!

these beauties were packaged up this morning and started their journey across the ocean to their new temporary home, the adorable 'sugarcane' boutique.  i say "temporary" because, well, let's face it: locals and tourists will be taking these pencil sets to new homes soon enough, right? ;)

so if you're in the area, stop by 'sugarcane' and say aloha! to my pencils!  better yet, grab some while you're there, and use them to journal about your hawaiian adventure!

♥,

melissa

back from oregon!

we just got back from our trip to oregon! it was really great to meet my friend lea in person and spend lots of time with an old friend from high school, brittany, and her partner, daphne. i can't even being to explain how breathtaking oregon is... from the mountains, to the trees, to the ocean, everything is just magical, if you ask me. and the weather! oh man, brandon and i did not want to come back to hot and humid texas after experiencing the fabulous oregon climate!



anyway, here are some pictures from our trip. if you're my friend on facebook, you can see the whole album (i took a lot of photos!).





me on the plane! this was my first time flying, believe it or not! (ps - that necklace is a new 'kabuku' piece of mine which will be available in my shop soon ;D).





mt. hood, as seen from the plane, as we descended into portland.



portland, as seen from a viewing area on top of a big hill.



oregon sunset.



ecola state park. it was so moody and perfect with the mist and the cold air!

the water was so cold on my feetsies! it felt awesome!

the astoria bridge, as seen from the astoria column.

the columbia river gorge.

me and brandon in front of multnomah falls in the columbia river gorge. i'm a sucker for waterfalls!

we had such a great time! thanks to brittany, daphne, and lea for showing me and brandon a great time - it was our favourite vacation so far! you guys are the best!

♥,

melissa

the big 'thank you!' celebration!

as a special thank-you to you all, in celebration of the new year and of my business being open for its first full year:

30% off your entire order from 'washi by maoiliosa', now through january 31st!

just enter "new year" in the 'notes to seller' section at checkout and i will refund you, or you can wait for a revised invoice from me.

i can't thank my friends and customers enough for such a fantastic year... you all are awesome!

i'm really excited to begin 2009. i've been busy the last few days doing little repairs around the house that i've been meaning to do forever (redo the curtain rods namely, which looked hideous before as it was only supposed to be temporary) and doing inventory.

i've also got a whole bunch of new things planned for the shop this year, and i've already met my first goal for the year: redesigning my packaging for more effective branding! i'll be sharing pics of those with you sometime soon (in the next few days), along with a short series of blog posts outlining lessons i learned from 2008 and tips for going forward in 2009.

my next goal is to redo all my shop photos, whether they're "okay" or not. i've learned a lot about revamping photos to meet their highest potential over the course of this past year, and it's time to clean up the shop and give it a new, fresh look with crisper, better pictures :).

there are many things i'm looking forward to this year, such as graduating college (finally!), pushing my business to the next level of success, and of course, my honeymoon with my husband! that's going to be especially awesome - we've decided to go to oregon for a week or so, see all the natural beauty of the pacific northwest, get me on a plane for the first time (no joke! so lame, i know!), see some dear friends (shoutout to lea and ryan!) while spending the largest chunk of our time in the fabulous city of portland (potential relocation in the next few years... ;)), and simply spending time with each other away from home. home is great, but vacations are necessary to my survival, and quite frankly, i don't take them enough, considering all the stress i'm always under with school and such ;p.

so here's to 2009, you all! may all your dreams and goals be addressed amply this year :).

♥,
melissa