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...

week 24 - weekend excursion to geneva, il

do you believe it is labor day weekend? how did that happen? what did you do? mesh is also enjoying a monday night off due to labor day. my husband and I took an excursion to the suburbs all day saturday and visited geneva, illinois.

if you haven’t been to geneva you should definitely put it on your list to go! it’s easy to drive and is also on the metra line. one of my best friends used to live in geneva, so it brings back good memories every time i’m there. (but i always wish she was with me when i’m there.)

third street is my favorite. there are tons of shops that have found their place in old homes along this wide boulevard. you just go house to house, store to store…

i went to all my typical stops on third street; cocoon, paper merchant, little traveler to name a few. the houses are filled with home accessories, holiday decorations, gourmet foods and any other trinket you could think of. i did happen to find a new ‘must –go’ called grahams. it is the local handmade chocolate shop…and a door or two down is grahams coffee and ice cream restaurant. i would recommend the espresso con panna.

another change on third street (well, it was new to me) was the restaurant called fiona’s. it’s in a beautiful old home that used to be a shabby chic type of furniture shop….but now is a restaurant. the home sits at an angle on a corner lot. it just beckons you in. we went in there for a relaxing lunch and each had really great sandwiches. i recommend the mediterranean chicken with olive tapenade. it also happened to be voted best new restaurant in 2010 (west suburban living magazine). it was a good find.

hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! mesh is looking forward to our thursday show at kimball.

-sherry

on the table | beads of all fall colors