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

week 14 - creative quilt t

one of the core philosophies mesh stays true to is transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary...the forgotten into something memorable. This exact concept inspired one of our favorite mesh t-shirt lines. we lovingly call them our quilt t collection.

amazing what a stroll thru a flea market can do! one day we found a stack of quilt pieces that had never been fully assembled into blocks…or a quilt for that matter. they were beautiful fabric pattern and color combinations, each one different.

immediately, mesh came to mind as these are certainly in the same vein of our one-of-a-kind necklace collections. how great would it be if you were the owner of a one-of-a-kind t shirt!

so, we had a sewer stitch them onto fitted t shirts and the rest is history. they are great layering tees and add a punch of color to any outfit. if any of you are having trouble envisioning these as a quilt…check out the quilt i saw in galena last month that reminded me of where these quilt blocks were originally intended to go.

check out our facebook page for other styles and samples. interested in your very own? email us and we’ll send over photos of the ones we have in your size! $20 each


-sherry

on the table | new rings and clutches for tuesday's sale

week 13 - post stay-ca

well...it's mesh monday, post stay-cation. i have to say that i am excited to get back into the swing of my 'real world' schedule. as much as my stay-cation was a breathe of fresh air, there are always more things to accomplish than a week off can accommodate. after purging through our storage cage in the basement of our building; having a family garage sale; re-working the inteiors of our condo/mesh headquarters; catching up with long lost friends (shout out to kelly and kathboat); a day at the beach; a day at the blow-up pool in my niece's back yard; my 28th birthday; my 2nd wedding anniversary; AND my best friend's 30th birthday party, i still felt like there was more to enjoy and finalize during my week off of work.

so, week 1 post stay-ca = multi-tasking! beyond a hectic week back at work, we have a big mesh week with a home | show in the herman miller showroom (thanks to alli), as well as prep for our knoll home | show next week. shout out to all of our ladies at the mart, who are always up for a bit more mesh in their lives.

our pieces have taken a completely new vibe for summer. our colors are bright and cheerful, and our styles are full of ribbon and trinkets that add a much needed splash of energy to any neutral ensamble. here's to making a splash this summer with mesh!

-melissa

on the table | nyc strands of beads combined with ANYTHING that will make them a compliment catcher!

week 12 - trinkets and treasures

everywhere i go i always have my eye out for anything i can put on a necklace. who says just beads go on necklaces? that’s crazy! does one type of topping go on ice cream? of course not. this is what makes us mesh! collectors of all trinkets and treasures…reviving them from their old life, into new pieces of art.

melissa and i created mesh during a brunch discussion at The Breakfast Club near my house. right between bites of french toast and crispy bacon, there it was...mesh was born. we quickly headed straight over to our favorite neighborhood salvage shop (http://www.salvageone.com/) to pick up a few trinkets. we found tons of old pieces of door hardware, hinges and keys to use on our necklaces. since then we started collecting all sorts of items…earrings from grandma’s jewelry box, keys from the sheds on my uncle's farm and broaches from the flea market.

over the last five years…these are the pieces that don’t stay in our possession very long. the combination of old and new, soft and hard, shiny and aged…that’s what people like. there is a story behind each piece. who’s door did this come off of? and just how many layers of paint are really on here?

just this morning i found a vendor on line that is sending me vintage watch faces. SENSATIONAL! look out for the next round of mesh pieces sporting these trinkets! this is what makes our pieces one-of-a-kind treasures.

on the table summer beads and bright colors

-sherry

week 11 - day job

i am always invigorated when i come to the realization that i am accomplishing great things at my day job. more often than not, i feel as though i am simply going through the motions as I head out in the morning to my interior design job…get done what needs to get done…and then go home at some point in the evening. i rarely step back and think about what i am really doing in those 9+ hours away from my husband and home. it is amazing how much time we spend working in our lives, and really don’t think about what we are getting out of our occupations. this is part of the reason we started mesh...we needed something outside of the day to day grind to remind us how creative we were!

recently, my day job brought me a much needed additional release of creative juices. my co-worker nici (shout out again) and i have just finished up a high design project (if we do say so ourselves) that has helped revive our creativity at our day job. we are realizing now how lucky we have been to get the opportunity to showcase our creativity through the interiors we are designing. why not make something of EVERYTHING we touch...it's all in the details!

there is so much creativity to be had by everyone...day job or side job, create something new today (and tomorrow...and maybe the next day...)!

on the table | posting barcelona ts on etsy! order yours today :)

-melissa