get 'em while you can!

head on over to the clearance section (where everything is half off!) in my shop if any of these cuties catches your eye... once they're gone, they're gone!

♥,
melissa

sale on all pocket mirrors!

my pocket mirrors are on sale for just $5 (regularly $6) right now! plus, as always, buy any three pocket mirrors and get one of your choice free! go get 'em here.

enjoy! :)

♥,
melissa

so much going on!

well hello, my lovely internet friends! i see that it's been almost a full month since i last blogged - inexcuseable! ;)

i have been a busy girl lately, and that is my reason for not keeping in touch. i know i'll probably leave some things out by accident, but here's what happened this month:

• honeymoon! brandon and i escaped from the texas hillcountry to... another part of the texas hillcountry :p. we made the hour and a half drive from the marble falls area to one of our favourite cities, san antonio and stayed there for nearly a week, spoiling ourselves (hey, we deserved it!) and enjoying spending time with each other. we went to the zoo (pictures to come later), sea world, lots of neat restaurants, the rivercenter mall (which is on the riverwalk... if you've never been, you really should! it's beautiful!), and on our way into town, we even stopped off at a cave for a long and strenuous cave tour. if i haven't mentioned it before, exploring caverns is one of our favourite things to do!

• the day before our honeymoon, we saw nine inch nails in austin for their final tour.
  

with my fancy new camera, i was able to get this awesome shot :).



blurry, but me and brandon before nine inch nails. we decided to sit this time, instead of rock out in the moshpit, because we didn't want to be worn out during our honeymoon! we had excellent seats, though, because i got presale tickets (presale people are given the best seats in the house).

• i'm going to be selling in two new austin venues starting this week. the first is 'beth's book box', a second-hand book shop (which also sells local artists' wares). i've been helping beth out a bit with businessy things lately to help her get everything in order for the store's opening. the second venue, which happened almost by accident, is austin's famous 'capra & cavelli', an upscale men's/women's clothing boutique, which also sells local artist merch. the buyer for the store just happened to be visiting 'sweet tempered', one of my favourite clients, and saw my items. she really liked everything i make, so she asked my friend jenny, the co-owner of 'sweet tempered', for my contact info so she could have me selling at 'capra & cavelli' asap! so starting this weekend (or shortly thereafter), my items will be available at their location inside the hilton, downtown austin! needless to say, my little fingers have been super busy making close to 500 items for these two venues!

• brandon and i broke down and bought a wii finally! it'll be here in a few days, i'm so excited! we got a wii fit with it, and a few other ultra-cool games, and i can't wait to start having fun!

• living out in the middle of nowhere makes for a sad social life, so lately, b and i have been working hard at seeing friends more often, whether it's having them out to the house, or us visiting them in austin. my super-great friend whitney was recently in austin for a visit from nevada, so i was grateful to get several days of girl-time in while she was here!

speaking of whitney, her birthday is tomorrow, so i gave her one of my pieces that i thought she would adore. looks like she does ;).

that's 'sakura flourish', and it can be found here if you want one for yourself! also, congrats to whit for closing on her and her husband's first house tomorrow! yay!

• i've been preparing for my first craft fair, which will be july 4 at an event that my step-father-in-law is organizing here in cottonwood shores. that should be a lot of fun! oh, and speaking of cottonwood, did i mention our road got paved? yessss! so nice to not have to drive on dirt anymore!

• i've also been preparing for my french examination, wherein i must test out of 16 credit hours of the language. that has to be done by the end of june, so wish me luck! i also only have 4 more college courses left until i graduate!

• i've mentioned before that my husband and i love going to comedy shows of our favourite comedians. by two strokes of luck, just a few days apart, i was able to get 4th row seats to mike birbiglia (i'm in the future also) at the paramount theatre downtown austin in november (we donate to the theatre, so we get top seats. it pays, people!), and also ::drumroll:: 10th row seats to the one and only dane cook at the toyota center (same place we saw nine inch nails last august) in houston june 20th! so pumped!
• our geckos are all back to optimum health, yay! their eyes are so big, bright, and happy now, and their tails are getting so fat! i'm so glad all my nursing paid off - i love those little lizards!

• i think the only other major thing that's going on with me lately has to do with nerf guns :p. brandon and i are about to bust out like huge nerds and participate in this LARP (live action role-play) game called 'aftermath' which takes place monthly (i think?) in dallas. we bought several nerf guns, a bunch of nerf darts, and have been having nerf shoot-outs with each other almost daily, haha. such nerds we are! the next step is to get our costumes together. i'm going to be playing this class nicknamed 'gloomies' (emo, right?), so i got these wicked parachuters' boots (hot!), and i'm about to buy this "vampire" jacket and steampunk top (i'll post pics when i have 'em)... it's kind of hard to describe the look i'm going for, but it'll make more sense to you AND me once i put everything on together, heehee. brandon is modifying our guns and painting them (he's a skilled miniature painter, so this is right up his alley). is it sad that i'm so excited about this? ;p

so yes, i've been very occupied lately with all these goings-on! i'll be sure to update you more often :).

hope you all are busy with adventures and opportunities of your own!

♥,

melissa

free shipping!

(too koi - a washi-scape pendant necklace, available in my shop)

yay! free shipping on everything at 'maoiliosa', now through april 15!

what are you waiting for? ;D

♥,
melissa

updating my photos

i spent most of the day today redoing most of the photos in my etsy shop. the majority of the pictures i've taken so far aren't in the shop yet, as i still have to resize and edit them, but WOW it feels good to have been so productive today!

i get so many compliments on my rice-and-river-rock photo motif, but i am branching out a bit on some pictures to include different props. above is a silly picture i took of my "rice and rock" set-up :p.

as of right now, my wall scrolls and pocket mirrors have updated photos.

mmm, pile o' mirrors ;D.

i am also slowly listing new washi wall scrolls and rings, so stay tuned to the blog and shop for those!

♥,

melissa

the first happy customer photos are in!

happy 'maoiliosa' customer (and marvelous friend!) whitney sent me these darling photos of her and her sweetie-pie daughter ceili, and thus, these are the first of the 'happy customer' pictures that i will have the pleasure of showing you!



whitney is wearing the 'crimson petals' pendant necklace, although she was smart and bought it in the (now extinct) 'spring's arrival' gift set (those things were a great deal!). i know it probably seems as though ceili is protesting having her picture taken, but in actuality, she is so excited about her mommy's 'maoiliosa' wear that she is doing the "rocker fist" move. you know, like you do at a badass concert. okay, maybe that's just wishful thinking, but still! ;p







whitney is also wearing the matching earrings (available as 'love in bloom'). whitney, they look so pretty on you! and look at little ceili striking a pose ;).



so like i was saying in my last post, everyone who submits a 'happy customer' photo featuring themself in 'maoiliosa' merch gets a free necklace or pocket mirror of their choice from my shop! yay whitney - happy choosing!



see my previous blog entry for info on submitting your 'happy customer' photos (and of course getting free stuff!) too!



♥,
melissa

attention all 'maoiliosa' customers!

(me in a custom 'maoiliosa' necklace i made for myself)

have you purchased 'maoiliosa' items in the past? well, i have a fun task for you!

i am currently on the look-out for 'happy customer' pictures! if you love your 'maoiliosa' merch and want to show it off, email your pictures of you wearing/using your necklaces, pocket mirrors, wall scrolls, etc. to me at mrogers09@gmail.com .

i will be posting the pictures here on my blog once they start coming in.

but you wanna know the best part? because i looooove my customers, i will be thanking every person who submits a picture of themself using my products with a free necklace or pocket mirror! free, including shipping, and the choice of necklace/pocket mirror is yours from what's available in my shop :). (one free item per person)

i'm going to keep this as a running opportunity, so even if you haven't shopped for 'maoiliosa' cuties yet, no worries! the offer will stand for quite some time, at least through july. this offer extends to items made by me but purchased from a venue other than my shop, as well, so all you shanalogic, trendyshoppes, and sweet tempered customers are included, too!

happy photo-taking! the more creative the better! ;D

♥,
melissa

washi wall scrolls are on sale!

'enchanted sakura' washi wall scroll by maoiliosa

sweet deal alert! just barely in time for valentine's day, and in addition to the other 2 sales i have going on right now in my shop ("buy 3 get 1 free" on pocket mirrors and "buy 2 get 1 free on necklaces"), i have temporarily reduced the price on my wall scrolls to $30! that's $10 off, people!

♥,
melissa

new news

hiiiii, the internet! i didn't forget about you! i have been overwhelmed with grown-up problems (ack! this 25 year-old is not ready for that!) and writer's block this month, but i think my head is on straight again, and i'm ready to blog blog blog :).

first thing's first:
extended/expanded sale going on now at 'washi by maoiliosa'!

that's right :).

• all pocket mirrors are 'buy 3, get 1 free'
• all pendant necklaces are 'buy 2, get 1 free'

you know the drill, just tell me which items you want for free in the 'message to seller' section when you check out :).

also, be sure to check back tomorrow for the first of many posts in my brand-spankin-new segment, 'feature friday', where i highlight one fabulous etsy seller per week whom i'm ordered from in the past! i'll be kicking off this segment with none other than the talented susie ghahremani of boygirlparty! don't miss it!

♥,
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

cyber monday sale!

30% off everything in my shop this monday, CYBER MONDAY, 12-01-08!

this sale is in addition to my other sales that are going on right now:

• buy 3, get 1 free on all pocket mirrors! on duplicates, too!
• pendant necklaces reduced to just $10 each!
• free shipping on all orders over $50!

don't miss your chance to save big this holiday season!

the sale will run all day, starting at midnight monday and ending at 11:59 monday night (central time).

this is such a crazy time of the year! you'll be relieved to know (well, i was, at least!) that i got an 'a' in that biology class that i put off forever :p. i now have to do an entire sociology of deviance class in just one week (but don't fret for me - i just need to write a bunch of papers, which just so happens to be my forte!). i have 2 other college courses beginning this week (gotta love self-paced classes!), and i need to apply to take that gigantic french test soon so i can test out of all my foreign language credits i need to graduate.

on top of that, i am still waiting to hear back on the final result of whether or not the retail shop i am supposed to manage will open, and whether or not what the job entails will suit me and my schedule. and on top of THAT, i have been working on a secret new project that will appear in my shop this coming friday! all i can say is it's nothing like anything you've seen on etsy, and you're gonna LOVE it! :D

and i did finally get my wedding pictures, so i will be sharing a few of those on tuesday. i already have them in an album on my facebook account, so you can peek there for many more photos than i will be able to post here :).

i hope all of you had a tryptophan-tastic thanksgiving! ;D haha, sorry, that's my favourite (and thankfully only...) thanksgiving gimmick!

♥,
melissa

finally!

hello! didja miss me?

after basically a 3-week hiatus from blogging, i have returned to you ;p. things have been so eventful the last few weeks that i haven't had time to sit and blog, believe it or not! but i missed it, so here i am :)

let's see, where to begin?

• the nine inch nails concert on october 23rd was AMAZING. it was definately the best nine inch nails concert i've been to, and of course that means it's the best concert i've been to overall ;). here are some pictures:

as you can see, we got REALLY close this time! ah, to be close to trent reznor...

... but i am a married woman now, and even though trent's hair is dreamy, his voice is dreamy, his muscles are dreamy, his butt is dreamy... no! no more of that ;p.



we eventually had to retreat a bit, but i could still see mr. reznor perfectly fine, in all his yelling glory. i got a few really good videos of the concert, too.



the acoustics were much better at this venue than the one in houston, and i was blown away.



the opening band, ghostland observatory (from my native austin), was super awesome as well. the singer really struts his stuff on stage, and it's hilarious and very engaging! look them up on youtube for some examples of what i'm talking about. and yes, the other dude in the band is wearing a cape :p.

i like their music a lot, and brandon and i are going to see them in austin on november 15th at the place where i attended my very first nine inch nails concert :). i'm sure we'll have a blast! they're a lot of fun.

and of course no concert would be complete without a silly pic of me and brandon!

• halloween was mostly uneventful (would you believe that not one trick-or-treater even came to the door?!), but it gave me an excuse to wear my platinum-pink wig!

i love this wig! brandon bought it for me for my birthday last year, and i just adore it ♥.

• my etsy friend heather (auryndesign) is a super-sweetheart and featured me on her blog recently. that means a lot, especially since we are each other's competition, you might say. she is a good friend with a lot of talent, and we each have our own totally unique spin on the washi-paper-jewelry front, so it works out :). so yes, i am excited that i was interviewed for a feature, especially from a friend :D.
  
  
• you might have noticed a bunch of brand new things in my shop. well, that's because i put a bunch of brand new things in my shop! ;p. more on those in my next blog entry, but feel free to head on over to the shop and check out the new pocket mirror and pendant necklace designs! the new pendants come on 18" sterling silver-plated chains!

this pocket mirror is called 'natural beauty', and is $6 in my shop

• also, i've decided to no longer do my "monthly goals" blog post, as i rarely felt i was meeting my expectations, and it's just a reminder that i didn't do as well as i hoped for the previous month, if that makes any sense.

but the main reason i've been away from my blog is college work. i am finally done with everything but my final in my biology class, i've studied a lot for my huge french test (i have to test out of 16 credit hours of it), and now i can complete my deviance sociology class with nothing else in the way!

oh, and i still don't have any more wedding pictures to show you; they are supposed to be on their way to be by next wednesday. i'll share as soon as i get 'em :).

and one final thing: i don't like to talk about things on here that might offend people, but i just have to say that i voted for barack obama yesterday, and i am feeling extremely, overwhelmingly, and fantastically proud. his winning speech was so moving that i got all choked up. i know many of you probably would have loved to see mccain win, but hopefully president obama can show all of america how his intelligence, instincts, and know-how will give this country at least a few of the things it has been severely lacking. i have faith in that, and hopefully you guys on the right-side will be impressed with him before too long :).

okay, no more preachy-yeswecan-hope-mongering! ;D

for those of you who have been checking in to see if i'll ever blog again (haha), thanks for sticking around! oh, i'm on twitter, too (see it on the top-ish right?), so you can follow me there!

♥,
melissa

itty-bitty bookworms feature :) and my new cute hair :p

i was recently contacted by a super nice stay-at-home-mom named tara, who operates a wonderful company (itty-bitty bookworms) that makes preschool lessons for little ones :), and also runs a blog that shares her ideas with the internet at large.

tara asked me if i would be interested in participating in one of her blog giveaways, and as anyone who knows me knows: i love giving people things and making them happy! so of course i said yes :).

the blog post is here if you'd like to take a look. the whole blog is really cute, and while i'm not a mother, i enjoy reading tara's posts :). of course, if you do happen to be a mother of a young child, it's that much more interesting!

in other incredibly pressing news :p, since the wedding is over, i was able to finally chop off my hair!



i was true to my word (to brandon, who wanted me to have longer hair for the wedding) and resisted the strong urge to chop off my locks. ugh, i just hate when my hair is long! long to me is shoulder-length, haha. my hair looks SO much better short, and i am feeling free and happy now that i don't have to deal with sticking my hair up in that silly bun every day anymore, heehee!

can you guys related to the hair thing? does your partner want you to have a style that is the complete opposite of how you think your hair looks good? am i the only one faced with this burden? haha.

well, the nine inch nails concert is in 2 days (!), so i am grateful for the short hair! i've got to look my best, you know, just in case trent reznor approaches me (riiiiight...) ;p.

♥,
melissa

my first consignment experience

i just returned from my trip to austin for my first-ever consignment deal (with sanctuary home.bath.garden), and it went well!

i brought the owner a little bit of everything from all of my lines, and she ended up deciding to keep almost all the magnet sets i brought, a few pocket mirrors, 4 scape pendant necklaces, and 3 sets of earrings. hopefully they sell well for her :).

♥,
melissa

oops! almost forgot!

i forgot to stick this in the blog post i just made:



last week, i updated all the gift sets in my shop to have the 18" sterling silver-plated chains instead of the ribbon! what do you think?

and another important thing: from now until probably forever (heehee), every order from 'washi by maoiliosa' over $50 receives free shipping! international, too!

♥,
melissa

and now i'm married :)

photography by 'i heart photography'

well friends, i am finally married! and i have to say, it feels great to be melissa a. griffith :).

the picture above is, so far, the only one i have to show you (the others are being edited as we speak), but you can clearly see that it was a gorgeous day; there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. don't worry: i'll post more pictures as i get them! :D

the day itself was... exhausting. brandon and i barely got to eat anything because everyone and everything required our attention, and i had a terrible migraine through much of the day and night, but it really was lovely and i wouldn't change a thing about it :).

we stayed at the hyatt in downtown austin (right on town lake, which we had a beautiful view of from our 14th floor window), and were greeted with chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne. how romantic! the next day, we went to north austin and met two of brandon's friends for bowling, which was a lot of fun, and later, we met another of his friends for dinner. after that, we swung by my parents' house to get our wedding gifts and such, and then we headed home. we pretty much spent the whole weekend recovering from thursday and friday, haha, and this week, for me, has been all about catching up on things like cleaning, emails, and school, as well as preparing for my meeting tomorrow and working on my name-changing. i'm a bit worn out, but glad that everything has worked out really well.

so now that the stress of planning a wedding is behind me, i can refocus on the other important things in my life: my shop, my health, and my schooling.

i have an appointment tomorrow with a nice lady near austin who owns an upscale home decor and personal accessories shop called 'sanctuary home.bath.garden', which i am really excited about. this will be my first experience with consignment; i am generally leary of it, and much prefer wholesale, but she runs a very reputable shop, so i am going outside my normal boundaries of selling comfort for this opportunity. she says that if the consigmnent works out well, we'll switch to wholesale for simplicity's sake :). her shop is stunning, and i am extremely honoured that she contacted me. also, brandon and i are often in that area (my absolute all-time favourite thai restaurant is there, 'thai kitchen'! mmm!), so making deliveries/checking my stock and picking up checks will be very convenient. i am feeling really fortunate lately, and this is part of the reason why :).

on the health front, my good friend lea recently told me about this "self-hypnosis diet" book/cd that she found, and was saying how astonishingly much it has helped her so far, and recommended it to me. i have undergone some hypnotherapy in the past, which worked out very well, so i decided to buy the material and give it a try. i've got to say, it's incredible how much power your mind has over your body! i started reading the book on monday, and i've already lost about 3 pounds, simply by altering the way i think. for instance, instead of telling myself, "no matter what i do, i can't lose weight", i now think, "i am becoming thin and healthy". it may sound silly, but it obviously has helped me so far, and i haven't even tried the cds yet! i have not changed my eating habits (which were mostly healthy already), and have merely continued with my semi-regular exercising (other than cleaning, i've really only exercised by playing 'dance dance revolution' on the playstation, haha). i am hoping i can get into a routine where i start doing the abs-ball exercise every other day, and pick up pilates again. i love pilates, but i tend to put it off because it takes over an hour to do. however, i feel so much better at the end, and really there's no excuse for me not to take an hour out of my day to do that. so anyway, i'm going to keep thinking positively (whereas i'm used to simply thinking realistically), not say that i'm going to "try" to do things to get healthier and instead actually do them (do or do not, there is no try! :p), and add more exercising into my daily life.

i am working really hard on not getting blue about college. it seems a little overwhelming sometimes... all the courses i have to complete before i can graduate. but really i have less than a year left, and i am grateful for that. i think the main thing that really bothers me is that i will have to take out another student loan, but with the banks as they are currently, i'm worried i won't be able to get any money. at that point, i would be stuck, because i won't be able to continue my current lifestyle: i'd have to get a full-time job in addition to my shop, which in turn would make my schooling suffer, as that's less time i would have working on my classes. and let's face it: bills have to get paid :p. so i'm in a bit of turmoil here. hopefully, all my worrying will have been for nothing (that's usually the case, haha), and i will get my loan and everything will be fine. it would also be great if i could make a living wage off my shop! ;)

so those are the things that are currently on my mind.

oh, and as for shop updates: i have decided that after the holidays, i will be slowly switching to the glossy, waterproof finish for my items. in general, people seem to prefer the glossy look, and i will still be able to make items matte-finished on request. also after the holidays (or perhaps before, depending on if i run out of ribbon or not, haha), i will be switching all my pendants to the 18" sterling silver-plated chain. as many of you have mentioned to me, it looks nicer and is more durable than the ribbon (although the ribbon is so cute!). the ribbon necklaces will be available on request, like the matte-finish. i think these are the best ways to push my merchandise up to the next level of awesome, and i hope you agree :).

well wish me luck tomorrow (i am shy!), and i'll update you later! :)

♥,
melissa

psst, want a free chain? :)

i already posted today, but here's something fabulous!

the holidays are fast approaching, so if you're going to be buying handmade for gift-giving (i know i am!), pick up a few maoiliosa pendants! if you've bought from me before, you know everything arrives to you ready to give as a gift, or keep for yourself and feel special :). and this month is the best month to buy from my shop, because you can choose to upgrade your pendant to chain-strung for no extra cost!

SPECIAL OCTOBER OFFER! all month long, when you buy a maoiliosa pendant necklace, you can choose to have it strung on an 18" silver-plated chain at NO EXTRA COST! if you want the chain instead of the ribbon, tell me in the 'notes to seller' section upon checkout :).

the offer does not include clearance pendants, but the chain is still available in my shop for $5 separately.

i'm offering the free chains to see how many customers prefer them to the ribbon. with the help of your poll answers and the results from this month's special offer, i will be able to decide whether to:

• continue to sell the pendants on ribbon, but still offer the $5 upgrade
• switch all the pendants to chain-strung, but offer ribbon as a special request at no additional charge
• sell the pendants by themselves, and offer ribbon and chain necklaces as upgrades

thanks for your help, and enjoy the special offer! :D

♥,
melissa

september summary, october goals

is it really october already?! yes, the internet, it is! and i couldn't be more excited!

i'm getting married in just a few days, college is going well, and my shop is seeing much more success than in previous months!

to recap, here were my goals for september:

• sell 25 things in my shop and fulfill at least one wholesale reorder
• reach 560 hearts
• finish all the wedding planning
• finish most of my biology class, and be prepared to test out of all my french requirements for college
• redo all the primary photos in my shop.

i ended the month with 26 sales, so i met my sales goal! i did not reach 560 hearts (ended up at 525), but that's okay. i am (mostly) completely prepared for the big wedding day next thursday, also! and as for the biology and french - i only have to type up a few lab reports and mail them off, then take the final for biology, and i have studied french a lot over the course of the month. out of the 1000 vocabulary study cards i bought, for example, i readily know ~850 of them. the words i'm having the most problems with are adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions. studying my old french textbooks has helped a lot in jogging my memory, too. also, i did redo most of the photos in my shop! overall, i'd say i feel pretty accomplished for september.

looking ahead to october, here are my goals:

• get married! yay!
• push myself more with the french thing, and complete biology by mid-month
• register for 3 more courses
• complete my sociology (deviance) course
• sell 35 things in my shop
• reach 600 hearts
• redo the rest of my shop photos

also, please take a moment to answer my poll questions (at the top, on the right) if you haven't already. changes are coming, and i value your input!

here's to a fruitful october!

♥,
melissa

two questions

well hello, the internet!

i'm currently pondering some changes to my products, and i want your opinion! please take a moment to answer the two polls on the right side of this blog.

question one concerns shiny versus subtle sealer. i have always used a matte finish so that the design on the pendant speaks for itself, but i recently have been testing out a sealer that has a hi-gloss finish and *gasp!* is waterproof! i really like the idea of making my jewelry waterproof, as it makes each piece more durable in general.

question two concerns the method on which my pendants are strung. i currently offer a silver-plated chain upgrade in my shop for $5, but personally, i am starting to prefer the look of the chain to the ribbon altogether. do you think the ribbon is essential to a maoiliosa pendant necklace? or would a maoiliosa pendant on a chain be way more awesome? which would you personally prefer to wear: ribbon or chain?

i'd like to hear what you have to say on these issues! feel free to comment with an explaination of why you voted for your choices :).

♥,
melissa

changes

you may have noticed, the internet, that i changed the colour scheme of my blog. you may have also noticed that i haven't posted anything new in a little while. well, i have a good reason!:

as you probably remember, i'm getting married very soon (in less than 2 1/2 weeks!), and this major change that's about to take place in my life has made me think about changing other things, as well. kind of like spring cleaning. i just feel like now is a good time to sit and take note of the things in all levels of my life that need re-evaluating and adjusting, or scrapping altogether.


what this means for my shop is that i spent a lot of time improving it at the perhaps most important level: my photography. i have to admit that taking photos of each piece, from each and every angle, is the most tedious and unpleasurable part, i find, of maintaining a shop. however, while my old photos were okay, they certainly didn't represent my pieces in the most enticing way possible, so i spent a really long time over the past few weeks redoing all the item photos, paying special attention to the primary photo in each listing. here is the result:



this photo is much more appealing than the one it replaced (the pendant, in less-appropriate lighting, propped up on a clear box). i like how the river rock adds not only texture to the photo, but a better sense of dimension and depth, as well.

so all the pendants in my shop are updated with all new photos. my next task is the earrings, gift sets, and magnet sets. i didn't bother correcting the photos on clearance items, as it probably isn't worth the time :p.

also, it's good every once in a while to spruce up your profile and to make sure that everything in your shop policies section still applies. i spent a little time on that the other day, and even added a "shout out" section for some of my favourite etsians :). i'm super grateful to everyone who's made a positive impact on my life, and it's important to me that these people know they're appreciated!

especially with the holidays approaching, it is important for me to make sure everything in my shop is in the best possible shape. with so much competition, it's crucial to present your shop the best you can for potential customers!

so that's what's changed in my shop. also, i added more items to the clearance section to make way for new things that appeal to a larger audience, and i'm running a 10% discount sale through the end of the month.

for my life in general, several changes are in order. one obvious one is that i will no longer be "melissa a. rogers", but "melissa a. griffith". with that change of name comes a new sense of responsibility as a wife. there is room for improvement in how i treat brandon, and also how i treat myself. there's no better time than the present, right?

i don't know, i just think that autumn is the best time of the year to reflect and see about making some positive differences all around you. here in texas, we don't experience the gorgeous fall foliage colours that indicate that autumn has arrived, but i often dream about one day living in an area where i can watch the leaves turn, then fall. even just thinking about it is very cathartic.

can you tell i've been meditating a lot lately? :p

i encourage you,too, to look within and without yourselves and invite change in if there is need.

and hopefully you like the new blog look!

♥,
melissa