Lately: Wildlife, new projects, and balms…BALMS!

I’m a total geek about wildlife. Always have been. I’m pretty unashamed about it, too; I’ll squeal over cute baby lizards & birds & even snakes if I see them when out & about. One thing I love about where I currently live is that there are lots of turtles around…I constantly see turtles digging their holes (well, I see sand flying out of holes, so I know there’s a turtle in there somewhere), wandering around eating, and just generally being turtles. I was even ready to run out & in front of a truck when the power company was here recently, doing various maintenance work, and they had to drive through the big open rain gully that’s in front of my apartment. Where the turtles live. The trucks had been parked off to the side for a few hours…one of the turtles was out & about, eating…I saw the men get into the trucks to leave…I was ready to run out & keep them from running over the turtle…but thankfully they saw the lil guy & went around him. Points to decent human beings.

So ok, I’m not just a wildlife geek, I’m one of THOSE wildlife geeks. ;)

I’ve seen one of the turtles come onto my patio before, and I’ve opened my front door to see one on the sidewalk that comes to my door. They’re my favorite neighbors.

The other day, I went outside, saw the big one was on his way up the little hill in front of my apartment, so naturally I ran back in, grabbed my phone, and recorded this:

So. Dang. Cute!!!

He just chomped his way on up the little hill, right toward me, literally right up to my feet. Even funnier? There was a neighborhood cat lying at my feet! Big Turtle didn’t care a whit.

Another of my fav things to do is enjoy all the birds that come to my feeder. Many, many years ago (20 or so) I used to house-sit for a woman who had the most adorable small log-cabin-like house among all these trees. Her living room had huge floor-to-ceiling windows & she’d set up several bird feeders in perfect view of those windows (part of my job was to keep the feeders refilled). To this day I remember thinking how much I loved that whole setup, and so ever since then I’ve planned to have feeders I can see from living room. And I now have it! I’ve had all kinds of birds visit, and while my favorites are Carolina Chickadees & Tufted Titmice, I do love the cardinals that come by daily. Usually it’s just one pair, but of course a pair means “mating pair”…and now it’s baby cardinal time!

 

*faints from cute overload*

So while all the wildlife fun has kept me happy & giggly (I mean really, how can one not giggle and “ohmygoshlookhowcute” continuously when baby birds are being fed?), I’ve also been working on a couple of new projects. Little by little I’m working on them, hoping to have them both going early in September. One of them involves stuff already for sale in my Etsy shop but kicking it up a notch (cannot WAIT to show stuff here on the blog when it’s ready!), and the other one involves…

…wait for it…

…dun dun dun…

BALMS!

As in Moonsteam Alchemy lip balms! As in the things I used to sell back in 2010/2011 but then stopped and people still ask about.

These:

I’m going to sell them again, at least for this fall/holiday season.

Why?

Simple reason: I WANT THE BALMS MYSELF. Heh.

And buying all the ingredients just to make a few balms for myself is, ah, ridiculous. Most of it would go bad before I’d ever put a dent in it (the supplies only come in bulk).

So there was one natural solution. Buy the stuff, make balms for me, and then sell the rest! :)

And so I am. :)

I’ve started making testers—it’s been years since I made these so I want to test all my recipes again—and I’ve got an idea for a new flavor this year, partly for my birthday and partly for Halloween, and I really hope it comes out as good as it sounds in my head. I’ll share when it’s ready (if it comes out good).

I’m also bringing a couple of Geek Bliss flavors to MSA—Geek Bliss was my first Etsy shop, selling geek themed balms. I’d had some personal favorites in that shop, so I’m going to make those again & just tweak their names & packaging to fit MSA.

I wonder: does all of this mean that my lip balms bring the wildlife to my yard?

Could. Not. Resist. :D

Ok on that silly note, I’m off to make more balm testers & do settle into work. Happy almost-fall!