Has it really been 6 years?!

 

As the great Leslie Jordan would say, “Well SHIT.” I don’t even know where to start! How have you all been?… That’s nice. We lived through a pandemic 😷 and here we are. I first got COVID before we knew what it was. I was sick for 2 months straight and refused to go to the hospital. By the time I recovered, the government ordered a lockdown. 

I’ll never forget when we heard the news. It was raining like crazy in March 2020, the day of my eldest daughter’s birthday party. We rented out a recreation area at a family friend’s condo. There was a kitchenette, a giant billiards table, music, TV (the news was on later that afternoon) and we were in great company. My Covid battle left me weakened, but gladly I was still able to walk and chat. Word was spreading that businesses were going to furlough everyone if the government issued a lockdown. My middle daughter was working, with her partner and his relatives at the time, at Burke Williams Day Spa. Her sister, my eldest, was recently hired and awaiting a call from their employer about her on-boarding/ training dates. It was around 6:30 PM-ish when they received a series of texts and calls saying that they were going on lockdown until further notice. Another guest who worked at Chipotle at the Fairfax Farmer’s Market said that they would temporarily shut down, but would be expected to return if they fell into a special category.

You see, during the Covid-19 pandemic, governments categorized businesses into operational tiers based on public health risks: Essential or Non-Essential (or Non-Restricted and Restricted). These designations dictated whether a company had to shut down, transition to remote work, or continue in-person operations to support critical infrastructure.

We would be surprised to learn that both a spa and burritos were “Essential”. After all… massages, facials and gentrified Mexican food “supported critical infrastructure”, I guess! So there we were, celebrating life while being faced with the gravity of a global pandemic that threatened our lives. The days that followed were filled with chaos around the city. Stores were raided for toilet paper, rubbing alcohol and hand sanitizer. The shortages of face masks spurred an explosion of online sellers of handmade masks (such as small companies like So Ill, of which I own a pink one). Bleach and anti-microbial disinfectants were also scarce. And the loss of life in our community…

We would lose one of our own beloved neighbors, Ernest Flowers, to Covid-19. His daughter, a CNA, came home from work and was ill. She would inadvertently infect their entire household. Ernest, a recent cancer survivor, would shortly succumb to the virus in the hospital. I’ve known Ernest most of my life. His mother was the tenant before me in my current apartment. Musically talented, in his youth, he played in a band. One of his band mates, known as “Calypso Louis”, would go on to become renowned Minister Louis Farrakhan! Ernest was the most fragrance-loving person I ever met besides myself. He had quite the collection! Every fragrance he owned had a story, a connection, a conversation. He embodied the essence of  “The Power of Fragrance”. He would inspire my future endeavors in fragrance retailing.

So much more has happened and far too long to include here. So, I’ll see you soon with more to share.

My Mom-Life

I've been a Mom for about 21 1/2 years now and I've been so blessed to call these some of the coolest years of my life. Aside from the sprinkle of years of minuscule annoyances from their fathers, my kids are 3 of the most amazing individuals I have ever met in my life. My eldest is 21, my middle is 18 and my youngest is 9 ( "Soon to be 10!", as you'll hear him exclaim ). All three so different, yet they possess such strong core foundation values that they could lay a smooth checking on the oldest of adults stepping out of line.

My eldest is my first college student in her 3rd year. She is concurrently working at her 2nd job where she has excelled far beyond her GM's expectations. This fine young woman has managed to recruit 2 of her most dedicated comrades to the workplace, thus improving their location's throughput and sales. She is a light brighter than anything her co-workers and management have ever seen. In her personal time she is an accomplished artist, small-business owner ( she runs her own accessories shop ), and cosplayer. She does all this while pursuing a Fine Arts degree. Empathetic and emotional, she can shed a tear or two with the best of Pisces'. If you need to be in touch with your feelings, she's got you covered. She can find the words to help you work through unintelligible feelings, work through some of the most challenging family relationships, encourage patience when dealing with emotionally charged situations and help you find your place in the world. This creative soul can find colorful ways of living, so that you can live your best life most fulfilling for you. She breaks all of society's norms which makes her the perfect life chameleon to consult when you feel like your life is in a tasteless rut. While most live their lives in shades of gray, she's NEON; bright, happy, out-there, EXTRA, neon. My responsible girl, I can trust her with anything and I know she's able to hold down the fort when necessary.

My middle and sweetest is ever the fashionista freshman Matador! She could out-style a Kardashian if you let her. If anyone embodied the core tenets of my Theta sorority house she does completely. While she is neither neo, nor soror her spirit of sisterhood and championing for the meek are one of the things we love about her.  She seeks truth in all things and helps others find their voices when they feel drowned out by society's noise. If you ever want a Muhammad Ali spirit in your corner, she's the one. No one will push you harder or encourage you to dream bigger.  Hard working and perfectionist, her drive for the best is shared throughout every person in her circle. Her own growth has made her into this young woman who is stronger and more badass than even she expected. When she found her voice, there wasn't a soul within earshot who's bones didn't tremble at her word. Her vision is vast, no success is too great, no challenge insignificant to conquer. When you're with her you know you're in great company. Everyone eats at her table, all are their own special brand of beautiful and everyone prospers.

My youngest is quite the gentleman, a deep-thinking intellectual and forever the tinkerer. He can engage you in hours of conversation on computer coding, Minecraft tech and Colonial-American genealogies. At times one forgets they are actually speaking to a child, as his conversations easily undulate from subject to subject with seamless relevance. Over the past year he has amassed more information on various topics than I expected. He could tell you all about Star Trek, give you his projections on the estimated growth of Kanye West's Yeezy brand; tell you all about his Scottish, Mali, honorary Seminole, Spanish, Kikapu and Mexican ancestry. While content and confident in his ancestry knowledge, he does pity those who don't know where they came from. While other times gets frustrated and irritable with those who cannot see the significance in knowing where they came from. He says, "Its not the bad people who make a culture, its the good people who make that culture great. Anyone can leave you, but your culture never will." He is wise beyond his years and I'm really looking forward to seeing the Man he becomes.

I'm so blessed to have the gift of balance with my children. While most parents are pulling out their hair, feeling listless, like complete failures.. Here I am. The most beautiful family of imperfection anyone could dream of. I'm the luckiest Mom in the universe.

Fresh Off The Hook

The recent cool down we've been experiencing here in Los Angeles, California has inspired Fall vibes all around. We're seeing it everywhere from the grocery stores ( pumpkin Spice- everything ), cafes, retailers to my favorite cleaning YouTubers posting "Fall Clean + Decorate w/ Me" videos. What does that spark within our souls here at M.Elisa & Co? 

A harvest of crochet pumpkins and autumn leaves...

Oh yes, while the weather is nice right now we've pulled out the Fall decor with Halloween kitsch decking as much as we can before the Angeleno heat wave returns tomorrow. We're in for a long Summer, a hotter Fall; so we're keeping cool and our hearts comforted knowing that Halloween is just a little over a month away. 

Have you gotten your costumes yet? Are you just not into it or are you over it? Comment below and tell us what your favorite Fall things to do are.

My Chemical Romance

During my latest "Netflix and Chill" sesh, I had the pleasure of watching "Stink!", a documentary about chemicals in the everyday products we use. "Stink!" goes into depth how companies conceal the cancerous, toxic chemicals that go into their products that contain "fragrance". As someone who lives with OCD, my compulsion to clean and sanitize our home and things we use on our bodies often leads me to use cleaning products with chemicals that could possibly harm myself and my family. I had not known the extent to which these products harm the consumers until now.

You could read labels until your eyeballs fall out of your head, you will miss many of the caustic chemicals hiding in your household items that include your clothing. One way these companies deceive us is in scents that spark nostalgia or prestige. The "new car smell", the whiff of Davidoff's Eternity when walking through Abercrombie & Fitch, that new shower curtain liner, to your fabric softeners, dryer sheets, perfumes, my Burberry Brit or Jo Malone perfumes, all personal care products; new clothes smell, reed diffusers, Glade plug-ins; all the way to my beloved Febreze plug-ins. All of these products are killing us softly with their off-gassing while corporations are living their best billionaire lives on top of the phthalate laden corpses of our loved ones....

When I think about the lives in my families that were lost due to odd, outlandish bouts of cancer, this gives me great pause. My father, while he was super-morbidly obese, was the ONLY Morales to have cancer EVER. Medically, there is absolutely no family history of cancer on our Morales bloodline. NO ONE on my Morales side had ever suffered from cancer. Back in 2004 when Daddy first told me he had colon cancer which quickly spread to his liver, I was in shock. This meant a great deal to me and I was perplexed. How did this happen? During that time I was a Licensed Vocational Nurse simultaneously pursuing my BSN. I assumed that it was his eating habits and years of morbid obesity that may have lead to his illness. Its almost too easy for us as healthcare professionals to blame the fat in the room. But over the years I've been thinking...

I had my own bouts of early stage cancer and immune disorder which makes me susceptible to simple diseases caused by common bacteria and viruses in our environment. I have allergies to food, prescription drugs and various plants. I became the 2nd Morales in my family to have cancer and I was only 35 and not morbidly obese. In fact, I wasn't obese at all and my diet was mostly plant-based. Hell, I led a pretty healthy lifestyle and I exercised regularly. What was going on with my body? My doctor said that my weak immune system may have contributed to my diagnoses. This didn't sit well with me. I deeply pondered the things I had in common with Daddy that we both enjoyed and used frequently. My Dad and I both enjoyed fragrances. He used cologne and I used perfume, and lots of it. An inside joke was that he couldn't live without his Aramis and I'd die without Burberry Brit. Those statements are so ironic...

While today I am cancer free, there has always been that thought in the back of my mind that something was amiss with a product or products I use daily if not weekly. The chemical industry is killing us and we don't even know its happening. Or we know its happening, but so much of the chemical industry controls lifestyle products that it feels nearly impossible to change our ways. I'm a Capricorn, so this was just a new challenge for me to conquer. Like the patient goat, climbing the side of this mountain is an ongoing stride. For each product I replace with a natural counterpart, that's one more rocky knot conquered for our lives. I don't know if I'll ever be able to eliminate every chlorine or pthalate engorged product, but I cannot afford not to at least try. Even if it buys us a few more years, a little can go a long way.

Legacy

My story starts with a special memory of the best gift I had ever received from a significant person in my life, my Grandmother. She taught me how to crochet. Affectionately called “Mami” by me, Mami made these beautifully intricate lace pieces by hand. She struggled with arthritis and oftentimes would grimace in pain from her hands cramping. I’m a born solution creator, so I offered to help her if she could teach me to do what she did. It was difficult to watch her suffer and my little 9 year old self wanted to alleviate some of her pain. Laughing at the prospect, Mami sat me down next to her to teach me what would be days of practice and learning to bring out her vision, and eventually what would become my own. Fast forward 30 years later I had to say goodbye to my dearest Mami on August 21st, 2017 at 2:30 am. She passed away from a heart attack, as a result of a lifetime of battling Angina and numerous additional health issues. It was one of the most heart wrenching moments of my life, next to the passing of my Daddy, John “Eddie” Morales.

This amazing soul of a woman, cherished and forever missed left me something very special that would get me through months of solitude and internal grieving. In that dark place of sadness was a light, a glimmer of a small moment in time where I could hear her laugh, see her smile, feel the bond I had with her again. At first it didn’t feel like much, just picking up a worsted weight yarn ball and old crochet hook that one of my daughters had. I chained my first 25 stitches, picking apart every moment of those memories of sitting next to Mami and trying to remember her instructions through the veil of cloudy images. After all, it had been 30 years since those first few lessons! After a few days of practice the heaviness of grief and isolation was beginning to lift and I started to seek out tutorials to improve my skills. By the end of the week I had completed four small, practice projects. All of which my kids implored me to begin making for others to enjoy.

“Making for others to enjoy.” Isn’t that the whole point of every gift, to share? And share I did! M. Elisa & Co. Est. 1979 is my grandmother’s legacy, in honor of Sra. Providencia Ruiz Machado de Rodriguez who shared all of her gifts, talents and boundless LOVE with anyone and everyone whom she came in contact with. There’s a bit of her love in every item we design and create, Mami’s spirit, Mami’s joy. She’d want us to share that with all of you.

M.Elisa & Co. Est 1979

It is with great anticipation that I introduce the Spring / Summer 2019 accessories collection. Each week more exclusive, one-of-a-kind merchandise will be unveiled. Browse and shop at:

M.Elisa & Co. Est 1979 Insta Shop

Exploitation of the "Influencer" Community

In these times of "influencers" and social media, I have been appalled by the audacity of some brands. The last time I checked you are supposed to compensate people for their time and work. But there is a new "tech slavery" on the rise called "Buy my merch and mention us for a free coupon code"... What in the entire fuck? Essentially, you are to ( for free ) invest YOUR time, YOUR skills, YOUR money and YOUR reach to promote ( advertise ) MY items to YOUR followers ( did I mention all for FREE? ). Am I missing anything here?

This is a grotesque practice I'm seeing in the retail community and as a responsible business owner for many years this is a disgusting practice. These CHEAP ASS ware-peddlers and carpet-baggers accost profiles with large social media followings and beg them to run an ad campaign ( that's essentially what the "influencer" is doing, lets be honest here ) without financial compensation. Both my daughters are DM'd on Instagram regularly by brands and boutiques wanting them to work for free. The tip of the iceberg for me was when an online boutique "Gia Monae" I recently began following on YouTube and Instagram admitted to this atrocious practice. It's unconscionable, don't ever fall for this.

If you're ever approached, don't be a fool and decline immediately. You are signing up to NOT being paid for being their model, photographer, set director and advertising agent. All of those positions cost lots of money, money that you deserve to earn if you're doing those jobs. The sickening part of it all is that they poach upon young people ( tweens, teens and young adults ) to slave for them. Predatory and shameful to say the least!

For those of you business out there exploiting the "influencer" community, you deserve your business licenses revoked ( if you even have one ) forever. You are a sludgy shit stain on the retail business and should be ashamed of yourselves. Exploiting people for your own personal gain is deplorable, you deserve every calamity that befalls you. If you can't afford marketing and advertising, don't go into business!!!