March 23rd, 2012 So. I wanted to blog again, so I created this one. And I had certain grand plans for it. Life, however, seems to have different plans lately, and I’ve not had time to blog nearly as much as I’d wanted to.
So.
I’m going to try to fix that. I’m going to do a redesign here (one reason I love having my own blog is that I can redesign it whenever the mood strikes; it’s like having another room in my home, and as any of my friends will tell you, I like to rearrange rooms. Often.) and will see about creating a more regular posting schedule. Of a sort.
For those of you who have stumbled upon this new blog, I thank you for coming by, and I hope to offer more regular reading in the future! 
Happy Friday,
Sara
March 13th, 2012 First and foremost…THE ETSY SHOP IS BACK! Woohoo!
Secondly, I have discovered a possible new obsession: butter LONDON nail lacquer (the polishes shown in my wishlist 1 post). I say “possible” since I’ve not actually tried their products yet, but seriously, what could be better than less-chemical-laden nail polish with a name like “butter” (I have a thing for real food + butter…more on that in the future!) and sporting such fantastic color names as “All Hail the Queen,” “British Racing Green,” “Frilly Knickers,” “Knackered,” “No More Waity, Katie,” “Snog,” “Toff,” and…oh dear, they’re all awesome! I think I’d love to collect them all just for the names.
AND they have a website this gorgeous:
Seriously. What’s not to love? I can’t wait to splurge and buy a bottle. Or five.
The more I work on building my own business, the more I pay attention to how others build theirs and promote them. That’s how I found out about butter LONDON—from other shops’ promos and shared links on social media. Love it!
March 10th, 2012
1. Magnet (Papaya Art); 2. necklace (Ruche); 3. floral flats (Ruche); 4. Seafoam heels (Ruche); 5. sticker sets in gorgeous tins (Papaya Art); 6. Butterfly ring (Ruche); 7. Trout Pout polish, Jaffa polish, Artful Dodger polish (Ruche) .
I absolutely adore inspiration boards, mood boards, color boards, wishlists, Pinterest, Polyvore, etc etc etc…and I decided to jump in and start creating my own.
Welcome to my Wishlist 1…with a decidedly spring flair!
Today I somehow found my way to Ruche, for the first time, and it was instant, uber love! (They need a button that “adds entire store to wishlist.”) Then I found myself over to Papaya Art, where I hadn’t been in ages, and after both visits, I was suddenly very, very glad that I don’t do credit cards.
However, a gal can wish, and pass on her favorite finds to you, dear reader!
Enjoy getting lost in either of those lovely sites.
Happy weekend!
P.S. The elephant magnet is near and dear to my heart, thanks to the Elephant Coffee Klatch…which will soon make its way back to this site. More on that to come! Until then, I’ve make two Klatch pinboards on Pinterest…one that’s all elephants, the other is just Klatch-inspired stuff. Erma looks forward to hanging out here soon!
March 4th, 2012 
I’ve been MIA here for a bit because I’ve been busy finishing up some client projects, plus I had to deal with an unexpected…situation, we’ll call it, haha…that currently has one of my Etsy shops off the map. While I know it’ll all be fixed soon, until then, I’m out a significant source of income.
I’d been planning for months now to create a standalone download shop for Moonsteam Design Studio, as a complement to the Etsy shop, for all potential customers who just aren’t Etsy shoppers.
I’d even started the shop…but I only worked on it sporadically, since it wasn’t a major priority.
And then this “situation” happened, and suddenly, having a “backup shop” became a major priority.
So I kicked up my development schedule (HA—that sounds so professional; it means, “I worked my butt off the last three days to get this thing going”), and the download shop is now open for business!
Check out the new Moonsteam Design Studio instant download shop!
…………………however, it only has a handful of items in it at the moment (my Etsy shop has almost 200).
It’s because it takes a long time to upload each of my digital files to the new shop so that they are available for instant download, and I am configuring the shop so that you can choose your paper size right then & there. 8.5×11 or 12×12. Grab & go!
So it’s going to be a few more days *cough*week-or-10-days*cough* before I’ve got everything added, but It Has Begun. And will be worth it when it’s all filled up.
And please, if you experience any problems with the shop or notice anything strange or out of whack, please shoot me an email right away at sara[at]moonsteamdesign.com or moonsteamdesignstudio[at]gmail.com! In my haste to finish setting up I’m sure I’ve missed something here or there.
Hope you had a lovely Sunday. Be back soon!
February 22nd, 2012  Win my Janeite balm plus lots of other goodies at Grace's giveaway! The lovely Grace of Grace’s Garden Walk blog asked me to contribute my Janeite balm to her Austen-themed giveaway, and I said sure!
Then I saw all the other goodies she’s put together for this giveaway.
Woooooow, so much Jane-themed goodness!
—–> Go check it out & enter! <—–
(And if you’re a really big fan, also grab my Jane Austen Keep Calms!)
(And I’ve got a Jane-themed collage sheet in the Studio, featuring 9 ATC-sized backgrounds to print & do what you will with!)
Dreaming of Pemberley,
February 16th, 2012 
Tea and kittens…that’s all.
Seriously.
Go. Squee with me. Adorableness!
♥.
February 14th, 2012 Happy Valentine’s Day!
Do you have a Valentine?
If you think the answer is no…you are wrong, wrong, wrong!
YOU ARE YOUR VALENTINE!
I think all of us can use more self-love. Use today to love and appreciate yourself and all that you do!
And to help you keep your mind on love, how about some love-themed Keep Calms?
–> Click here to download the set! <–
Now that the question of your main Valentine is settled…
…feel free to add to your list of Valentines. Do you have others?
I do! I have…
…you guessed it…
Bast! My kitty!
Look at that sweet face…she’s the best Valentine ever:
She even puts up with cameras in her face…lol…
Awwwwwwwww………
She likes to curl up next to me on my desk while I work….and look at her side…can you see the heart in her fur? Oh yes, she’s a special kitty.
And look…snuggled on the couch, it’s 70s KITTY!
Hahaha…I had fun making this pic look 70s-retro. 
I hope that your Valentine’s Day is full of love for you and all the other souls, furry and/or human, that you share your life with.
With Valentine whimsy,
February 11th, 2012 I love birds almost as much as I love kitties, and I’m an avid bird watcher (although I could never do it as a sport, like in the movie The Big Year with Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson. Have you seen it? It was cute!). I worked for a seabird sanctuary in my early 20s, and that’s where I really got my soft spot for birds of all kinds. Helping rescue injured birds does that to you…
Where I currently live, I’ve got lots of my two favorite birds around: titmice and Carolina chickadees. And I’ve got bluebirds! I’d never seen a bluebird in real life until I moved to this apartment, and now I see them all the time. They’re on my “favorite bird” list now, too.
And the best birding part of where I now live? The Sandhill cranes!
In Florida, Sandhill cranes are protected, and they’ve been known to hold up traffic if they wander near roads since people will slow down and give them wide berth. Back when I worked at the sanctuary we used to get calls about Sandhills holding up traffic…hahaha…people would want us to come move the birds so traffic could flow. HA! Some people just can’t enjoy a moment, y’know?
Sandhills fly by every morning; I hear them before I see them, and I jump up to go to the window to watch. If you’ve ever heard Sandhills, you know that they have a very, very loud & distinctive call (and were one of the birds I knew by sound in the movie The Big Year…as soon as I heard it, I think I shouted “Sandhill crane!” at the same time as Jack Black’s character, LOL!). You can listen to it here.
There is a street nearby that I often walk on that has a small lake behind it; lots of Sandhills hang out there, and the people obviously feed them, because one day this sweetie walked right up to me:
 What a cute head tilt!
I wish I’d had a bird treat to give him, haha.
Sandhills are known for showing up on golf courses. There’s one by the path I like to walk on, and the other day I snapped this pic of three Sandhills enjoying the afternoon sun:
Sorry for that substandard pic quality, lol…my camera phone isn’t that great. At least you can see the cranes, though!
And then best of all, a few days ago two Sandhills landed in front of my apartment, in the little open gully area (ignore the unsightly back of the building, hehe):
Aren’t they just beautiful?
No matter how often I see them, I never get tired of them. I could watch them all day.
Happy bird-filled Saturday,
February 9th, 2012 Last year on the old blog, I’d talked about a chance rediscovery of an old dream of mine: to be a Weeki Wachee mermaid.
This is an “old dream” in the sense that I was under 10 years old when I dreamt it.
The basics: when I was a kid, my parents took me to Weeki Wachee, a kitschy Florida theme park famous for its mermaids who put on performances in the clear, beautiful natural spring. I loved the mermaid show. Took to it like a fish to…you know. And being the “fish” that I was (growing up on a lake and learning to swim pretty much before I could walk), I wanted to be a mermaid. Badly.
Of course I got older and forgot about the mermaids and the desire to be one.
Then last year I found out that Weeki Wachee holds a “mermaid camp” each year, for people of any age, where you get to be a mermaid for the weekend. Oh, you don’t get to use the underwater hoses that the pro mermaids use to breathe, since that takes lots of training plus scuba certification, but you do get to don a tail and swim in the spring, including learning some key mermaid moves, and you get to perform in a little mini-show for friends & family.
Sign me up! It’s on my to-do list for 2012.
It gets better
The best part of my old mermaid dream…I now live only five minutes from Weeki Wachee!
I did not plan this. When I needed to move late last year, being near the mermaids was not on my aparment-hunting must-have list. I was simply looking for an affordable place that wasn’t too far away from where I’d been living, and one that was cozy and homey and that I could enjoy for the next year or two.
It just so happens that I found such a place very close to the mermaids.
Mermaid kismet? Hmmm…perhaps…
I now feel an even closer connection to my wannabe-mermaid self…so I decided to make 2012 the year of the mermaid!
Do you like mermaids, too? Would you like to join me?
Ways to celebrate a mermaid year
Here are a few of my ideas for how we can make this a year of mermaids:
- I’m going to buy a year pass to Weeki Wachee to help support it. It’s supposed to be one of the last of the “Americana” roadside parks; bigger attractions like Disney have made most of them extinct. I don’t enjoy local Florida attractions nearly enough, and this one’s so close that I don’t have any excuse not to go regularly. I’d also love to plan to take friends there when they come visit (and encourage you to visit it, if you’re ever in the area!). If you live in Florida, consider making a trip to Weeki this year.
- If you don’t live close to the mermaids in Florida, are there any small attractions that you do live close to that you can visit this year to support them?
- You can support Weeki (or just support a mermaid addiction) by buying one of the beautiful Weeki mermaid calendars.
- Download my mermaid-themed Keep Calm mini posters.
- Read Weeki Wachee, City of Mermaids: A History of One of Florida’s Oldest Roadside Attractions (added to my 2012 reading challenge list).
- Read about real-life mermaids: Hannah Mermaid and MeduSirena.
- Read about a mermaid-author’s experience at mermaid camp.
- Read about the mermaid convention in Vegas! And check out this recap of last year’s inaugural con, including some fantastic pics (I love that the mermaids are carried around!). And…maybe plan to join me there this year? I’ve not been to Vegas yet, but I think going to attend a mermaid convention would be just the thing!
- Subscribe to the new magazine Mermaids & Mythology.
- Find an ocean charity that you like and start yearly donations to it.
- Read Kim Antieau’s beautiful novel The Church of the Old Mermaids, a story about a woman who lives in the desert but who hears from the Old Mermaids all the time. I first read this a few years ago, and I need a refresher, so I’m going to re-read it this year. I just saw that Antieau has written three more books in the Old Mermaids series, so I’m adding The Fish Wife, The Blue Tail, and First Book of Old Mermaid Tales to my reading list as well.
- I’ve started a Pinterest mermaid board; if you’re on Pinterest, consider making one, too!
- Be a mermaid for Halloween: get the lovely mermaid costume created by Bridget Marquardt. I really, really want this…and I’d find more excuses to wear it than just at Halloween!
- The ultimate way to make this a mermaid year? Get a mermaid tail! Ah, now that’d be living the dream…
- And last but never least, watch Splash lots of times throughout the year.
Is there anything else I can add to the list?
Let’s get our mermaid on in 2012!
February 6th, 2012 “The more you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
– Dr. Seuss
I have a thing for books. I admit it.
I used to have a lot. Seriously. Three tall bookshelves of them, plus two smaller bookshelves, all full. Here’s a pic from years ago when I had that many, showing two of the tall bookshelves (and Bast, of course!):
But after a series of moves since then, I now have far fewer books. Only 3 smaller bookshelves’ worth, haha.
But it’s still a lot to many people; a friend who visited months ago commented, “Wow, you have a lot of books.” To which I replied, “Oh, this is nothing compared to what I used to have…”
I grew up surrounded by books because my mother was a voracious reader. She instilled a love of reading in me, and I’ve always loved to do it, and I’ve always had books.
So why do I need to “challenge” myself to read?
Because life has been getting in the way of reading.
In 2011, I challenged myself to read 12 books: one book a month. And I did it! So for this year, I’ve challenged myself to read 25 books, a little more than 2 per month average.
Not only do I plan to read fiction—finishing up my beloved Wheel of Time fantasy series (last book will be published this year)—but also lots of non-fiction. I keep coming across reviews of books that I think I’d like, and I usually think, “Oh, I’d like to read that.”
It’s time to change that thinking to, “I am going to read that!”
Two recent examples…
The Artist’s Way at Work: Twelve Weeks to Creative Freedom by Julia Cameron: I love the original The Artist’s Way, which is a book chock-full of inspiration and encouragement for creatives. It’s a sort of “bible” for living a creative life. So when I came across reference for this book, The Artist’s Way at Work (published some years ago), I had to add it to my list. I’m currently waiting for it to arrive, and I’ll probably blog about it once I’m into it.
Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie of TOMS Shoes. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the exciting possibilities of “community”-based business, my various creative projects, and where I’d like to see my projects go; one thing on my to-do list this year is to start yearly donations to charity (both personal and through my business). I’m also intrigued by the idea of maybe starting a non-profit one day, thanks to the inspiration of Kimberly Wilson. She recommended this book and it seems to be exactly what I need to read to go along with my current ideas of exploring the various directions I could go with my work. I’ll be getting a copy of this book in the next week or so & can’t WAIT to read it. And bonus…for every copy of the book that is sold they give a book to a child in need, just like they give away shoes for every pair purchased via TOMS!
I love novels, and I’ll always read them. However, I also think that a steady intake of non-fiction is a way to never stop learning, to expand ideas of what’s possible, and to add to creative inspiration. So part of my reading goal for this year is to read a good number of non-fic in with the novels.
I’m going to be keeping track of all my books over on the side of the blog via Goodread’s widgets. A lovely little visual reminder to myself of all the treasure tomes I want to enjoy.
Are you doing the Goodreads challenge? How many are you aiming for? I’d love to hear!
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To Read in 2012 The ever-growing and changing list of books I would like to read this year...
Books Read in 2012 Here's my list of finished books for 2012. You can read about why I'm keeping track here.
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