week 18 – it’s never too hot for style

the oddest thing happened this past week. melissa and i took part an awesome home | show in la grange. not to mention it was held on one of the hottest days of the summer…tipping a sweltering 94 degrees. (i think it was actually still that hot outside when we left at 10:00 pm….that’s how hot it was!)

as mesh was setting up for the show we laughed at ourselves as we set up a display of scarves…thinking “who is going to buy a scarf on the hottest day of the summer?” well, we convinced ourselves...they are ‘summer scarves’…lightweight and airy. and we had just gotten a new batch of large checkered patterns…very transitional for the summer/fall season. let’s try it. so we left them out on the table.

[insert drum-roll here]

we sold so many scarves on thursday night! I think it was our highest scarf sale night to date.

then i got to thinking….what is it about the summer scarf that is so attractive these days. we used to only wear them in the winter to keep warm or as an attempt to add a bright accent color our black wool coats. i personally own about 20…and think i continually need more.

these are the reasons we've decided we love summer scarves...get yours at the next mesh show!

1. you feel a little fancy wearing them.

2. can’t decide which necklace to wear…no worries, use a scarf.

3. cost is no issue! you can get great scarves for under $20.

4. get too warm? take it off and tie it to your purse bohemian style.

5. best defense against the pesky air conditioning vent at your favorite restaurant.

6. easiest way to show your creative personality through texture, color and pattern.

7. there are a gazillion ways to wear a scarf. a woman thursday showed me a pretzel tie. be creative.

8. one-size fits all. (how much do we love this ladies?)

9. all the hollywood stars are wearing them. does jessica look great or what?

10. it's another excuse to buy new winter scarves. you can’t wear summer scarves in the winter!

-sherry

on the table | the brightest chunky necklace i've ever made

week 17 - something blue

for those of you ladies who may be engaged or standing up in a friends wedding in the next few months...you are in luck! mesh is in the midst of launching 'something blue'. This is our latest one-of-a-kind collections for weddings. we are marketing these pieces of art to local bridal boutiques that think outside of the box. as we noted in our week 6 blog, we love when brides get creative and take their 'big day' to a level beyond the standard...brides that make the ordinary extraordinary! our something blue collection is for the bride that has dreamt of wearing a splash of color on her wedding day or bridesmaids that want to spice things up a bit. we are creating these pieces for the bride that wants her wedding and her wears to be remembered. we will keep you posted on our progress with this collection, as there will always be something new with a bit of blue to share. each necklace will have a tiny blue faceted crystal bead at the clasp, so you can take care of your 'something blue' with mesh!

on the table | grosgrain ribbon and baubles galore!

-melissa

week 16 - neck ache

i woke up sunday morning morning, sat up and immediately wondered “why does my neck ache?” yoga perhaps? i couldn’t be (shouldn’t be!) that sore as it had been 3 days since my last class. then I realized the pinching pain was from the massive amount of beads we were carrying in shoulder bags saturday morning at the bead show we attended to buy summer/fall mesh raw inventory.

don’t get me wrong, look at the beads we got!....it was worth the pain!

saturday morning, melissa and I attended one of the great quarterly gem and jewelry shows that comes to chicago. vendors are there from all over the world and have the best beads hands down…they have the beads we cannot typically get in any chicago bead stores even! there is every shape and size bead at this show. other than this event, we mainly get our big and chunky beads from our trusted new york vendors. we even met a woman from nepal this trip. she was carrying our favorite worsted wool beads which we typically order from portugal!

anyhow, this was our best ‘buy’ to date. all the beads we typically search for were right in front of us! we got such an amazing inventory of beads….so much so, that I didn’t even put them away when I got home. I laid every strand on my island counter. (my husband must be wondering by now when we will eat dinner at the counter again...sorry!) i went straight ahead and made a necklace (#590) from these great citron stones. they are that perfect yellow that is found everywhere in fashion right now. intermixed are light gray striations which make a perfect warm and cool color combination. this piece will transition right into fall.

we have three home|shows booked over the next 30 days and we're thrilled to unveil the new products.

-sherry

on the table - more beads than I ever thought possible to carry

week 15 - tech savvy

as much as us mesh ladies hate to admit that we are not the most technologically advanced business women out there, there are times that it is far too blatant to ignore. as i have been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to figure out why my wireless internet is not working, even after plugging my laptop into the ethernet cable (i know that terminology, because the cable has a sticker on it that says it is an ethernet cable), brian brought it to my attention that i was in fact directly plugged in to our new blu-ray player (using terminology again that the machine sitting in front of me is labeled with). i am now sitting with my legs under our new 'entertainment credenza'...showcasing my impeccable posture...due to my amazingly tight wire management work completed earlier today. i thought i was being extremely neat and efficient, until I actually had to utilize the wires that i had 'managed'.

so, now i type...we have been updating our place/mesh headquarters over the past few weeks, slowly but surely. it is a very inspirational project, until i run into hiccups like above. today we took a field trip downtown, to take care of all of our errands within a 10 block walking radius. so that is why people live in the city. it was great to be out and about on yet another day off of work this summer. we hit up jayson home and garden, cb2, and the container store, all of which are inspirational hot spots in their own way. it is so much fun to check out the eclectic simplicity of jayson home and garden, while wondering what it would take to find a similar piece at a flea market for a fraction of the price. it is equally as energizing to wander though cb2 and figure out how you could possibly make a chartreuse cube table work in your home. the container store is not to be a forgotten store of bland, but amazingly functional items. i could wander around these stores for hours on end looking for nothing, although today we were on a mission...and brian was with me, which typically means we are walking ten paces faster than my standard stride, and we are getting through our to do list in record time. it was a very productive day, and i am looking forward to a more than productive week scheduling upcoming mesh shows and adding custom ribbon to our latest and greatest selection of baubles!

on the table trying to figure out how to get mesh onto the fox news ladies tonight...they are in desperate need of our help!

-melissa