Issue No. 1 Expert - Stephen from Top Chef

We were so thrilled when Stephen Asprinio agreed to be our first guest expert. Known for being an expert in pairing ingredients with fine wine, Stephen almost made it into the final round of Bravo's first season of Top Chef. We knew that he would be the perfect person to advise our readers on a range of peppery wines in our first issue of MerriMail. How exciting when he said yes!

Plus with his entrepreneurial spirit, Stephen seemed like a perfect person to feature. Food has been his passion from a very early age. After training in many of the leading restaurants in the country, it is exciting to see that Stephen is launching his own venture - FoodReal. Be sure to visit his web site to learn more about his new restaurant, which is opening in 2007. And for all of you Top Chef fans, Stephen also features his insight from each episode. Enjoy!

Our site is up!

Isn't the menu for our web site sweet?

We actually launched the MerriMail web site a couple of weeks ago, but we have had a busy couple of weeks creating a sample idea card for the first issue to share with vendors at the Atlanta Gift Mart. We have lots of fabulous guest experts and wonderful gifts that we found while we were on our trip. Eris and I are both very excited about the first year of MerriMail. I am in the process of adding the subscription page so that it will be very easy for you to subscribe.

Our New Logo!

Eris and I finalized the MerriMail logo today! Time to celebrate. Just one baby step keeps us moving towards our Fall launch. More details to follow.

Originally published on Beyond Friendship Gate on

Merritt Studios

Eris and I first started talking about working on a business together over a year ago. I called her with an idea after watching the intro episode of The Apprentice in 2004. Now two years later, the idea is finally starting to evolve into a reality. We had our first weekly conference call this morning to determine our action items. One of my tasks was to register the Merritt Studios domain name with Webmasters. Done.

The name Merritt Studios comes from our mom's maiden names. They are sisters. And, needless to say, we loved playing together as kids. Among our discussions about Duran Duran, Guiding Light and our upcoming Barbie weddings, we also discussed starting a business together. How exciting that it is finally coming to fruition.

The picture above is from my second birthday party. Eris is to the far right, climbing into the chair. I feature this picture on my fortunehearts about page.

Originally posted on Beyond Friendship Gate on Tuesday, February 28th, 2006