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

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. :)

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

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


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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

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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

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Wow. That really could be my blog in it's entirety. Wow.
FYI, you can't take photos during a show, as it could distract the performers.

So, I knew I'd like it, I don't know anyone who didn't. It wasn't a shock. But what surprised me was the breath-taking beauty and artistic vision. It was amazing.

Our Debb-ster, Denise's sister Debbie, is well loved in this house. Not only is she really nice and supportive, she understands the soul of an artist. Gee, that so sounds like a pile of crap, but it is true. You see, she sent the tickets down for our birthday. It was our gift. What a wonderful gift.

Denise left wanting to write, even more than she does now, and I left yearning to paint. I love to sew, and it keeps me sane, but painting is my first love. A passionate, soul ripping, life giving, love.

Thank you Debbie, you are the best! Denise is lucky to have you for a sister, and I am beyond lucky to have her as an honorary sister.


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I love food. Denise loves food. I love to cook, Denise, not so much.

Last night I was craving something sweet like strawberry tart or pie. I had some left over phyllo pastry.... And I kept thinking, strawberry galet.

That is sort of what I made last night. I cut a cup and a half strawberries into a pot, threw in some sugar, heated to a boil, then tossed in some cornstarch n' water and stirred till thickened.

I had already had the other two cups berries cut and in the pastry, and threw a few slivered almonds and a drizzle of maple syrup on top. Then added the hot mixture.

Popped that into a over heated to 350* for 30 minutes. It was really good. Especially as I didn't measure anything. Yay me!

- Melina

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So last night Denise and I went to see Metallica live on Citadel Hill. It was so frigging awesome. Ok, it was raining (those plastic ponchos are awesome, btw), but it was so good.

Not that I expected it to be a bad show, but I was rather surprised how good a show Metallica put on. Excellent performers. James was all zen and warm and fuzzy. Kirk was all stoic and into his own thing. Lars stuck out his tongue a lot. And the new guy (sorry, I miss Jason still), was really good. Even though he isn't Jason.

On the way in some stoned guy was asking if Denise and I were sweaty under the ponchos?!? We weren't. It was way too cold. My sneakers got muddy, my new umbrella got taken ( just bought it 20 minutes before ), pushed through the huge crowd of people to about halfway up the hill.

We saw the last few minutes of Coheed and Cambria, who were good. Dude had some hair.

Then the sun came out (and down) and the rain stopped and Metallica took the stage. It was an awesome set. Lots and lots of early stuff. When I first saw James, I kept poking Denise, saying ' look, look it's James, it's James'. I did the same for Lars and Kirk too. And there was fire too. For 'One', there was amazing lights and guns shots and then fireworks, and just awesomeness as 'One' started.

They came back for an encore, and launched I into Misfits cover of 'Last Caress'. OMG. So good. So good.

When they tried to leave, James even played a little game with us, when he took the guitar off, we booed, when he put it back on, we cheered, and then he'd take it off again.... Playful James.

We finally left, I did have to help Denise up the rain slick hill. It was a really great night. It was worth the money. I'm planning to see them next time they come back. And they said they would!


- Melina

Yesterday, Denise and I rented a car, a lovely Ford Fusion, and drove down to the South Shore, and surprised the crap out of my sister, Melisa. She lives in a group home for the mentally handicapped or challenged. She might be challenged, but she is quick as a whip and has more mental facilities than a lot of 'normal' people I talk to everyday.






That, and she is just a complete rock star. Her life is pretty great. She competes in the Special Olympics, and goes to many a banquet and dance. She works, which I would pay money to see. There are several boyfriends. She has a roommate/bestie called Denice too. My sister kicks your sister's ass, sorry.






We took her out yesterday, bought her lunch in Lunenburg, visited our grandmother and walked her around the mall. Going to Hurtles beach was on our list, but it clouded over during lunch, and I did't want us to get rained on.





It was a really wonderful day. But for the first time, I wasn't yearning to move back. It is not my home anymore. The valley is my home in my mind. And where I want to go, ASAP. Don't get me wrong, I'd certainly have a summer home near a beach, but I wouldn't want to live there anymore. Weird.


-Melina



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