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 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...