Appreciation Nation
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
You know, we love what we do. Denise and I love creating and designing. We also take much pride in the quality of what we make. Nothing makes either of us happier than getting positive feedback.
Denise loves making unique and beautiful pieces, and she gets all shy with all the compliments she invariably gets.
I love when a customer notices and mentions that my item is well made. Not being a gentle flower, and I make my products to withstand my own use. And, I like the pretty as well.
We got some of the best feedback the other day from a happy customer who loves her new knitting needle roll. This totally made my week! How awesome. This is not the only reason we do what we do, but, man, this is friggin' awesome.
This was the appreciation photo we got from a customer. Yay!
- Melina :D
Posted in Etsy by Melina and Denise | 12 comments
Sister, Sister!
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
You know, having sisters is a good thing. I myself have one, fab, rock star of a sister. Her name is Melisa and she can kick your ass.
Denise has four sisters. Debbie, Donna, Darlene and Diane. Yeah, she can't mock the Melina - Melisa thing, not with five D's. Strangely enough, this didn't carry on in the grandkids, but maybe we can cross our fingers for the great grandkids, eh, Carol? ;)
So, with so many sister's and owning an accessories company, we do quite well with orders and or requests for various occasions.
This week we are prepping stuff for sister-Diane to pimp at her book club meeting. She is one of those natural salespeople and tends to talk us up a lot, which is a darn good thing. Making tons of earrings, and will have the extras going into what will hopefully be a busy season. Which earrings does such a sister think will do well?
These were actually not on the site any longer, but sister-Diane kept selling them when people saw hers so we thought What the Heck! Bring those babies back!
These have been around for awhile but still do really well.
All of our sisters are pretty great. We won't be returning any. :)
by Melina and Denise | 18 comments
Either We're Crazy or We Have an Addiction
Thursday, September 15, 2011
We want to get to the country. We dream of moving and work our little butts off to get there. And when we get there we would like the aforementioned butts to be in fabulous shape. With this in mind, I downloaded some Zumba workouts. I had heard that it was fun, and as both Melina and I love to dance I thought 'What the heck, how hard can it be?"
Stupid stupid question. Zumba kicked our rapidly improving butts! And yet, as we struggled for breath, we still managed to have fun. WTF! Is that even possible? It was at this point that I began to question our sanity.
Fast forward to last week. We had been drooling over the Zumba Exhilarate 7 DVD set. I had trolled the internet daily trying to find the best deal and thought it would be Amazon. But of course by the time we had the money available the price had crept upwards. Huh? Was the world conspiring against our having nice bottoms?
Now, I never check Kijiji. I know people get fantastic deals but when you don't have a car it is just impossible to arrange for pickup. I don't know what made me check, but how surprised was I to find a great deal on what we wanted within a walkable distance!! Hallelujahs! *say that like Lafayette on True Blood, please.*
We told her we wanted it and arranged for pick-up. The only time she was available was between 8:30 and 9:00 AM on our day off. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? People are awake at 8:30 AM? Don't they know there is a better way to live?
So it's official, either we are crazy or we are addicted. But we have the Zumba set. And will soon have great butts.
~ Denise
Posted in zumba by Melina and Denise | 1 comments
Sephora Heaven
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Last week, Denise and I went to Sephora for the first time. It was love at first smell I think it would be fair to say.
Finally, hot and cold running vegan lipgloss. Eyeshadow, mascara, blush, eyeliner, oh my. Bliss. The perfume section was delicious. The vanilla coconut was my fave. Denise squeaked when she saw the Dior Hypnotic Poison one. She pronounced that this was hers. *hairy eyeball from one of the shop girls*
We didn't even get to all of it, as we had other stuff to do. Wow, it was so great. The line up for the cash was deadly, all those little trial sized goodies. So tempting.
I was telling some of the ladies at work about it, as I'm so excited about it. I got a gasp because of how much my Urban Decay red light lip gloss was. Whatever. I love it. It is like a candy store with no calories, it's just that sweet.
- Melina :D
- posted while I'm ruling my own media empire!
by Melina and Denise | 14 comments
Flag Day
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Ok, so I made some navy and white bunting flags for some pretty awesome folks I know. Here is the process. It was lengthy, but we got there in the end.

First step was making the patterns.

In different sizes.

Then the cutting and pinning.

And some more cutting.

Then came the sewing, because of the fraying.

After the sewing, I had to crush the seams, so it would be flat when ironed. Yup, those are pliers. You can by a fancy crusher thingie, but pliers work just fine.

We then moved along to the ironing.

Ohh, flag-a-licious-ness is in sight!

Then more pinning, and some measuring.

More pinning, with the measuring.

Then came the clipping.

Fine flags, no?

These are flags that are fine. I am proud.
-Melina. :D
- posted while I'm ruling my own media empire!
by Melina and Denise | 16 comments
Who Are We Working For Anyway?
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Hello, my name is Solstice. I am the most important cat in the world. And clearly the most beautiful. What I do is help my moms try to make lots of money to make me happy. I've been trying to teach my stupid brothers to be my assistants in money making. Cuz I love money.

This is a photo of me, being beautiful and helping my mom Denise, write her novel. She doesn't know I fix everything. Mom's are dumb.

Hi! I'm Banshee. I do what Solstice says, cuz she hits me. And I'm the cutest.

Oh, I didn't think you'd be here already. I'm Vanian. I always try to help my moms.

See, this is me checking moma Melina's work. She's not so smart.

I have to re-check her math. Hmmmmm.....

Yeah, that looks right. I better go hide the calculater.

And now I've go to go fluff the fabric.

It's a lot of work. But I love my moms.

I'm Banshee. I'm cute.

- Melina
- posted while I'm ruling my own media empire!
by Melina and Denise | 16 comments