week 39 - small fans

so, this past weekend was actually christmas for my family! i know it’s early…but my husband and I are heading to south carolina for the 25^th. of course I took all the mesh goods down state with me! last minute christmas shopping from the dining table is the best way to go. turns out, my sister in law also has a new years eve wedding to attend…so she needed the glitz clutch that we have been dying for someone to own! i’m glad it’s gone to a good home.

my 3 year old niece tried on every piece of mesh goods on the table minus the earrings which she was very confused as to why she couldn’t try on. i told her she didn’t have holes in her ears…and she thought otherwise.

anyhow, the real excitement were the bangles. i know most of you have seen these already, but they were a hit with my four nieces, who thought they needed to wear every bangle at the exact same time.

last year, melissa and I worked with an artist in florida who hand paints one-of-a-kind bangles. her specialty is india mhendi. because i work with an organization that rescues and cares for vulnerable orphan children in india, we thought that hiring her to design this collection for mesh was a perfect fit!

a portion of the proceeds benefit the girl’s college fund in india. thank you to everyone who purchased a bangle this year. just tonight i wrote a check to the organization that supports these girls in support of their education! thank you for changing lives this christmas!

-sherry

on the table – 10 bangles left! $15 stocking stuffer sale!

week 38 - holiday traditions

with the holidays upon us, family traditions are in full effect...there is nothing better than listening to kenny rogers christmas carols with my parents or making the ever so famous mahoney irish creme with my husband's family.

as we all know, it is hard to find dull moment during the holiday season, which is what makes it the perfect time of year to be thankful for what we have surrounding us. it is so easy to get caught up in the logistics of gift buying for a handful of relatives that have everything they would ever need; cooking for a house full of people with different taste buds; or getting your christmas mailers out before you miss the USPS deadlines for delivery.

while this season maximizes potential for the inevitable family drama, it also creates extreme opportunities for memorable moments with the people you so rarely spend an entire day vegging out with. be thankful for all of the sensational gifts, food, and christmas cards you receive; and realize that everyone you have gifted, fed, and mailed to is thankful to have you as a part of their lives.

at the risk of getting too emotional for the monday night mesh blog, just remember to enjoy everything the holiday season brings!

-melissa

on the table | mesh packages to be shipped all over the country tomorrow!

week 37 - holiday party

so, all of us have holiday work parties to go to in the next few weeks. and so it begins…the hunt for the perfect outfit. it must impress. it must not break the bank. it must be memorable. it must not be questionable. personally, i’m going neutral with a classic sweater, but jazzing it up with a sensational necklace found from a vendor at this year’s bizarre bazaar. it is an asymmetrical floral number with a silk ribbon at the neck. it’s a one-of-a-kind show stopper.

i challenge us with just that. your holiday outfit is already in your closet. we all know the economy talk (blah blah blah) is all around us; challenging us to tighten our belts. doomsday!

well, here is what you should do about it! turn that frown upside down and accessorize! take something already in your closet and add some flair….(flair examples below!)

1. put feathers in your hair. classic outfit with an unpredictable feather plume. done.

2. the clutch. there are tons of metallic clutches out this season that will add a little sparkle to any outfit.

3. dangling earrings. they are mesmerizing. the longer the better.

4. glitz at the neck. wear your one-of-a-kind mesh piece that you bought at our show this year!

5. shoes. that’s all I’m saying there.

a BIG thank you again to everyone who came to our open houses this weekend! We had a great time and I’m glad you didn’t let the snow deter you!

-sherry

on the table | jewelry to be picked up from weekend orders

week 36 - mesh boutique...almost

for those of you who will be joining us this weekend in our newly developed living rooms/mesh boutiques, we can't wait for you to see all of the new and refreshed goods we have in store. as we have noted in many recent email blasts, blog entries, and facebook posts, we are getting geared up for a full weekend of mesh sales and holiday festivities. sherry and i are both hosting a mesh open house this weekend (check out our FB events for more details, if you haven't already). this monday's mesh production quickly turned into boutique merchandising in sherry's living room. sherry's husband tagging product, sherry coordinating displays, and me hanging t-shirts for the taking...rounded out of course by holiday tunes from bing crosby and the like! we are getting in to the holiday spirit over here at mesh. come visit with us in all of our glory on saturday and sunday from 10am to 2pm! looking forward to catching up over some peppermint coffee and mesh anniversary cookies (thanks to Cookie Cards in Palatine)!

on the table | every piece of current mesh inventory...including one furry medallion. yes, you heard me...one furry medallion...believe it when you see it in all of it's splendor this weekend!

week 35 - vocab 101

well, last week’s blog got me really thinking about the personality that mesh has become. even so much that my blackberry is a fan…it too recognizes the word mesh automatically when I email/text. sometimes i wonder what people think of us when we use the first two letters of each of our names (meshed together! ha!) as if it was a 3^rd business partner…well, I guess that is just what happens after 5 years!

so, tonight’s blog is mesh vocab 101…consisting of commonly used mesh-isms and what they really mean to the public.

let us know if you also have one!...we’d love to hear!

are we meshing tonight? this is a weekly question to confirm that monday night is still ‘on’ for production.

what a mesh! this is the statement melissa’s husband makes when he arrives home and we are in the midst of beading and have destroyed the dining room on a monday night.

do I have the mesh goods? this is the question when i can’t decide whose trunk has what product in it?

we need our mesh. this is what our friends at mia-sorella in barrington say when they are nearly out of mesh goods in their boutique. they have established quite the following for us in the burbs!

this is the ‘me’ in my ‘mesh’. this is how i introduce melissa to friends and family in my life who are well acquainted with mesh…but have never met the other half of the creative process!

today we are meshma. this is what we call ourselves when melissa’s husband is helping us with a task such as photography or carrying large bags down 3 flights of stairs. we add the first 2 letters of his last name onto ours…

mesh delight…well, you know what this is from last week’s blog.

is mesh buying this? before an early morning bead buy, this is what we ask ourselves at the cash register at starbucks when we go to pay for our chai latte and grande bold coffee.

-sherry

on the table |cookie cards inc. order for the mesh open houses december 4th/5th

week 34 - 'delights'

i love that we have unconsciously come up with mesh-isms over the years of beading together. you may or may not have heard sherry and i discuss our mesh 'delights'... some of you may even have a mesh 'delight' in your collection of our one-of-a-kind pieces. a 'delight' surfaces through the process of presentation that we follow on a typical production night.

as we sit across the table from each other making our one-of-a-kind necklaces, we typically catch up on lost time while we dive knee deep into our collection of beads. as the beads mound higher and higher on the center of the table, we lose track of what each other is making. when we near the end of a necklace, we do a quick try-on/hold-up of our unclasped necklace for each other; to confirm that we have not lost our minds, and that there is at least one other person in the world that would wear this piece. generally the reaction to these hold-ups is an immediate 'switch this bead with that bead' or 'this should lay a bit differently on your neck'. but then there are the less frequent reactions that do not require a bead movement or a color swap...they are simply the pieces that speak for themselves as soon as they have been strung onto wire. there is no other reaction than: 'now THAT is a delight!'. there are 'sherry delights' and 'melissa delights'...there are even delights named after the source of our inspiration for the necklace, such as a more recent 'johnathan adler delight'.

to further explain...our 'delights' are the necklaces that are authorized to leave the kitchen without the security of at least two people in the world that would dare to wear them :) they are simply authorized for a departure into the world of mesh, out of pure curiosity as to who will fall in love with them, other than the designer herself. our delights have inevitably become our favorite collection of necklaces we have ever made....thee most one-of-a-kind, unique, and imaginative mesh pieces. out of our 650 necklaces to date, there is likely a collection of 20 delights out there gaining compliments on a daily basis. pictured above: the original '2005 melissa delight'...send us a photo of you and your mesh necklace...and we will let you know if it is an official 'delight'!

-melissa

on the table | mounds of beads dying to become a part of a mesh delight!

week 33 - special delivery!

i was thrilled to receive a special delivery at work today, via royal mail. i don't know why, but that kind of mail makes my day...not only because it is 'royal', but also because the only thing that comes to me via royal mail is beads from our friends richard and rachelle in london! you see, richard and rachelle are globe trotters that always keep mesh in mind when they happen upon a bead shop during their travels...this time the beads were from athens, greece!

the variety of colors and textural artifacts were a true sensation at our mesh production table tonight...r & r never cease to amaze us with their picks. as unique and eclectic as some of these pieces may be, they somehow seamlessly work their way into a mesh necklace with great ease.

these mediterranean finds gave us great inspiration tonight, which we hope many of you will be able to check out at our event this thursday night.

we are always open to special deliveries...a few weeks ago my parents came back from a road trip to south dakota with a bag full of red river jasper...perfect for our fall/winter collection of one-of-a-kind necklaces!

thanks to all of our mesh fans who think of us when you happen upon stones, beads, trinkets, treasures that you know we can re-invent within one of our pieces.

on the table | greek treasures!

week 32 - happy birthday mesh !

yes, you read it correctly last week when melissa just happened to mention that mesh is turning 5 years old this month!

well, tonight we made our 650th necklace! hard to believe this feat sometimes after an innocent brunch meeting together in 2005. little did we know a spontaneous scheming session about our un-named business venture which would later be known as mesh!

a lot has happened in 5 years! we moved from only designing one-of-a-kind necklaces to purses, then bangles…to selling pretty much everything a girl could ever need! personally we’ve both gotten married, traveled the globe, and become great friends. spending every monday night together for years does that! i also have learned that melissa’s husband makes a mean peanut butter & jelly sandwich every monday night for work the next day…and i might add is a real enthusiast about his nightly ironing! (shout out - i’m thankful he puts up with us at their home weekly!)

mesh marks its birthday by the annual show we participate in at the merchandise mart called IIDA bizarre bazaar. it’s where mesh began! In honor of our birthday month, we will be celebrating by marking ALL mesh products $5 off for the entire month of November!

don’t assume we will be taking this birthday lying down! we have big plans for 2011. the monday night scheming has continued. look for some big news from us in the spring. but in the meantime, we are thankful to our loyal supporters and blog readers!

on the table | dreams for 2011

-sherry

p.s. i googled 'five' tonight. despite the findings including the jackson five, five guys burgers, and hawaii 5-0...i thought i would stick to these more literal images.

week 31 - readers

this post is dedicated to kathy and kelly...and all of our weekly readers. we deeply apologize for the short post last week, and hope to make up for it today. really, i can't believe how many of you are out there and depending on our monday night post to make your tuesday morning a sensation...okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, although i am truly impressed that we have readers at all...so thanks!

sherry and i have been off of our weekly beading nights, due to busy travel schedules over the past month or so. we see each other at our shows as we haul our goods out of our cars and into our venue for the evening. we have been meshing for so long now that we don't really have to see each other to run this side business of ours as a team. we are already coming up on our 5 year anniversary show, IIDA bizarre bazaar at the mart (november 11th, 5:30-8:30pm). i can't believe it has been that long already...this was our first show in november of 2005! yowsa, how time flies.

we are doing everything we can to inspire ourselves and keep everyone surrounding us intrigued. we have a spectacular new year of products around the corner and can't wait for you all to share in the excitement.

as i was beading our six-hundredth (or so) one-of-a-kind necklace tonight, i can't help but think of where they all are. i hope they are not in your dresser drawers waiting for a special occasion, because tuesday is an occasion enough to make a mesh statement...even if it is faceted glitz, offset by multi colored felted wool balls...work it mid-week!

on the table | over-stated combos

-melissa

week 30 - countdown to christmas

so, it’s 67 days until christmas. and guess what…? mesh is making this really easy for you.

you can complete all your shopping for the women on your list the first weekend of december. that is, if you attend our two day / two city open house!

saturday, December 4th 2010 | sherry’s house
(chicago’s west loop)
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
RSVP @ meshdesigns@yahoo.com or on facebook


sunday, december 5th 2010 | melissa’s house
(oak park)
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
RSVP @ meshdesigns@yahoo.com or on facebook

in addition to our one-of-a-kind necklaces, come browse our scarves, earrings, bracelets, cuffs, clutches, ear mufflers,headbands….well, every type of woman’s accessories! scarves make a great stocking stuffer...and all are $20.

FREE mesh T-SHIRT to all attendees!

-prices range from $20 - $150 -cash, check & credit card accepted

on the table | everything listed above!!

week 29 - shanghai

as you have read in the past few posts, i survived my first trip to shanghai. although it was a 14 hour flight there (12.5 hours back), it did not feel at all like I was half-way around the globe. in fact, the city itself was a bustling mecca of everyday people working their tails off to make a living...much like those in the u.s. of a. it actually reminded me a lot of nyc, as it was filled with lights everywhere i turned (other than in the slightly creepy dark alleys). there is led lighting on the river boats, the buildings, the cabs in some cases, etc... in fact, there is a code there that every new building must light up to some extensive degree from dusk until 1am...the place is truly ablaze. other than the fact that i could not read the signage...i would have thought i was in the middle of times square at midnight.

as i mentioned, the alleys were a bit less lit than the bulk of the city, although far too thrilling to avoid. we were guided through the 'secret' shops by our very own 'personal shopper'. he was dedicated to us, to say the least, and actually may have been the only reason we made it back to the hotel that night...slightly sketchy. it was quite fun to see all that these little hidden shops had to offer; whether it was silk scarves we were looking for, or discs of tea leaves, or jade and pearl necklaces...our guy knew exactly where to find it all. the people in these shops were more than friendly when they saw our faces walk in the door...little did they know that we knew how to barter with the best of them...even with a slight language barrier :)

i can't wait to visit the city again to discover all that the true markets have to offer...stay tuned, as i believe my next trip will already be in a few weeks.

-melissa

on the table | quilt square clutches prepped and ready to go to their new home at Salon Rhapsody in Frankfort, IL.

week 28 - travel inspiration

i am always inspired after traveling! over the past few weeks melissa and I were both traveling…and to two completely different places with very different experiences. I was fall foliage hunting in Vermont, while melissa was in shanghai for work (more to come on this topic in next week’s blog I’m sure…!). either way, both trips were very inspiring!

i’ve grown up in the mid-west and thought we always had the most beautiful fall seasons…that was until this past week! I have never in my life seen fall colors like those in new england! wow! i recommend this fall trip to everyone! every turn we take along the road is jaw-dropping!

(travel tid-bit) despite the lack of starbucks in this region, i am supplementing with apple cider at every stop...and maybe the occasional pumpkin donut.

this is the best part…so, you can take the ski lifts up to the top of the mountains to view the fall colors! It was breath-taking! (enjoy a few photos from an elevation of 4,241 feet!)

anyhow, I think the traveling was a much deserved mini-mesh break for us…as this week we begin the official holiday mesh shows!

we are excited about all the shows we have this season and the opportunity to show off a bunch of new product!

on the table | chamomile tea

-sherry

week 27 - animal print

love it or hate it…animal print is back (again). everywhere I turn I see it roaring on jackets, sweaters, scarves, and my personal favorite…shoes. let’s face it. everyone needs a tiny little kitten heel in cheetah or the like. i am yet in need of this in my wardrobe for this season.

psychologists believe that fashion's obsession with leopard print is because the pattern is simply in our DNA — way back to a time when our ancestors were hunter-gatherers and animal skins were a necessity for warmth. (according to telegraph's hilary alexander in her september 06, 2010 feature "leopard print? it's spot on")

huh? no, my theory is that girls like sassy accessories. done.

here are the keys to rockin’ the animal print ladies…seems intuitive, but we’ve all seen it done wrong. let’s remember these few tips.

1. don’t go overboard on the animal print…one print item per outfit.
2. nervous about being too trendy? keep it to accessories….scarf, shoes, belt…always classic.
3. tone it down. always complement with classic black or brown.
4. jury is still out on leopard tights in my book. pair them with confidence and I think it works.

now, if mesh can figure out how to incorporate this trend into the fall/winter necklace line we may have something exciting on our hands!

thanks to everyone’s support in october. we are super excited about our four (!) home|shows…

-sherry

on the table | a weekend’s worth of new necklaces

week 26 - braids

i was sitting on my sofa last night, annoyed that i had nothing hanging on my recently painted living room walls. as i stared at my incomplete living room project, i decided to take matters into my own hands. i have been meaning to make cords to hang our artwork from, as my parents once gave me a few antique molding hooks to utilize for this sole purpose. i love these old brass hooks. they simply hang directly off of my crown molding, to avoid nailing holes into the walls that we just had painted.

i needed material to braid! so i started wandering around my 800 square foot (on a good day) condo. you would think there would not be too many places to hide a collection of textiles, although you would be sorely mistaken. i have project materials in every nook and cranny of this place (amazingly unbeknownst to my minimalist husband). i was able to come across a pile of cotton tank tops of every color that i had been meaning to take to good will. at first this seemed like a bad idea, as there are plenty of people that could utilize barely worn tank tops, although I figured i would still be putting them to good use... so i started to cut them into strips.

soon enough I had three 8'-0" knotted strands of jersey knit material...ready to braid! the braiding itself was slightly easier said then done, due to the length of material... before I knew it i was braiding both ends of the fabric strips simotaniously. i had to take it a bit slower and keep my braid as organized as possible to avoid further knotting.

once i finished the extensive braid, i was ready to hang my first piece of artwork...so rewarding...and also addicting! i started my second braid this monring, and i don't intend to stop. i have decided that this is also a perfect solution for necklace 'clasps'! i will not utilize my tank tops for future mesh wears, although i am so thrilled with the outcome of these braided cords made out of miscillaneous materials...why not secure strands of beads with braids!

on the table | jersey knits ready for a new form and function!

-melissa

week 25 - careers

as most of you know, sherry and i both have full time day jobs aside from our flourishing mesh business...i'm an interior designer working for an corporate interior architectural firm, and sherry is an interior designer working for a not-for-profit organization that happens to be changing the world one child at a time...slight extension to our mesh responsibilities, but we are of course managing with no sweat :) we have so much going on in our day to day lives and we rarely take the time anymore to simply catch up on what is happening outside of mesh. as we sat at the kitchen table tonight, creating our one-of-a-kind pieces of inspiration, we were discussing the recent responsibilities we are taking on, such as a radio interview that sherry is helping to coordinate tomorrow morning that will raise money for her girls in India, or the trip to shanghai that i have coming up for work in less that two weeks. we don't know when our lives became so busy, although we are very aware that we are both self-made fillers of time...we don't like to sit still, because when we are sitting still, we are not accomplishing much. i can't believe how far we have come with mesh while still making sense of our everyday careers. we can't wait to find out what's around the next corner of our journey!

-melissa

on the table | new supplemental bling and an anthro catalog full of endless inspiration...