Team

Team Laura

Rachel Artise

The Czar of Decorative Plates

Best memories include meeting Rachel and her husband Joe a week after she gave birth to her first born Zoey in PA while I was going through graduate school. She was the type B/C and I was the type A but she got me and helped me learn how to laugh at myself; keeping me balanced! Meeting in different cities in different States including: Virginia, Dallas, Floria, and Chicago. We traveled so well and with such ease. I am looking forward to our next meet up spot!

Brittney Di Bella

Inventor of the American Girl Doll Hair

Memorable moments include downtown outings living in Bradenton while she was going through med school, summer visits while I worked in Delaware, followed by celebrating 4th of July in Long Island where I experienced my first time clamming Brit and her husband Adam. Brit is admirable and inspiring; she is calm, cool and chill and she is true to herself and makes you want to be honest with yourself and confident about it.

MK Dwyer

CEO of Tuxedo Shirts and Co.

Dancing on the ledge to Dirty Dancing soundtrack sharing many homemade pasta nights, Sunday dinners, biking through the streets of St.Pete, beach days, and S&F photoshoots. Also known as “Murk”, she’s creative, innovative, loves to cook and naturally, bush diving! Mary Kay is the hostest with the mostest. She truly has become one of my great friends in St. Pete, we can always relate, enjoy some wine and watch old movies. A true friend who is real and part of the 1%.

Jasmine Moksim

Gold Metal Winner in Finger Walking Marathons

One of the three peas in a pod, starting in Linguistics program, co-writing papers, watching Sex & the City, living in South Korea, Singapore wedding/travels, and catching up in Pennsylvania, Ontario and London, England. Jasmine is a girlie girl at heart with make-up and fashion, strong in the gym, always so rational and logical. I love how is so open minded and is able to accept others perspectives even if they differ from hers.

Nancianne Chin

Collector of Candied Fruit Cake Toppers

One of three peas in a pod, rolled in on roller blades at Carleton University, graduated together in the linguistics program, then taught together in Sangju, SK, sparring partners in HapKiDo, and roommates in grad school at Edinboro University. We experienced our adult milestones in our 20’s together; as classmates, roommates and long life friends.

Nicole Tomaselli

President and Co-Founder of the Scrunchie

Costa Rica United volunteer outreach roommate and spent 21 days together, got along so well even with so much time together. My Soul Sister. My favorite is visiting Nicole and her family in Center City Philly each year. An exciting moment shared was when we bumped into Wanda Sykes while walking through Philly. She’s witty, a great cook, sensible and easy going. I’m grateful for having created such a bond with this beautiful soul in such a short time that I know will last for many years.

Thomas Paterek

Unofficial St.Pete Mayor

Thomas and I met at Crescent Lake playing Flag Football on his “Anti-Valentine’s Day”. While he invited the players (whom he knew) to his place for a BBQ, I took this offer to be literal and showed up at his house. I wanted to become more involved in the community and Thomas helped me engage in a millennial conference, become a committee member for Surfrider, participate in beach clean ups and community outreach, volunteer and travel to Nicaragua to provide Clean Water, get weird on nights in the Burg- on our bikes, exploring art shows/venues, local events, became initiated and apart of an official Spirit animal tribe, jumped off bridges with Kojak dressed in a human life vest, going to more concerts in these few years than in my lifetime, experiencing loss, transitioning from chapters of our years, making, gaining and connecting with old friends. It’s been a whirlwind. So glad for him to be one of my best friends and part of my family.

Zoey Artise

Zoey moves to the beat of her own drum; I love her independence, strength, kind soul and thirst for knowledge. It was 11 years ago when I met Zoey and she was one week old, the same day I met her parents – Rachel and Joe. Zoey and her brother Levi have made me feel like I’m apart of her family. I adore her and Levi.

Team Ryan

Davey and Angelina

Co-Creators of the First Hand-Woven Wig for Canines!

Ang and Ryan were two young nerds, scouring the human spectrum for meaning as peers at USFSP’s Anthropology Department. Davey and Ryan met each other, late one night in a parking lot, connected through the power of the sweet confectionary desert known as the cupcake…gluten free. Sound seedy? Likely. For the past decade or so, they’ve been a tribe. You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your friends, and then sometimes they become family.

Brian Fazekas

Author of Snitches Get Stitches: How to Be Calm Like a Bomb

Ryan and Brian spent many years, many sleepless nights, running calls on the rescue truck for the Fightin 34 B-Shift. It wasn’t easy, but we flowed, our next step unspoken and anticipated, movement through chaos choreographed. We leaned on each other when life got challenging, we worked out together every day, and gifted each other minor to moderate traumatic injuries vis-a-vis a little game called, “Lights Out.”

Brian Davies

Creator of the Self-Help Series, “Before I Loved You, I Loved Myself, My Dog, and My Pocket Knife…but then I Definitely Loved You.”

Brian and Ryan have a knack for dropping off of the face of the earth in some unsecured disaster zone, striking fear into their fellow family members. They also flew into a tropical storm on Friday the 13th, in a 5 seater, single prop plane, over the Atlantic, that was overloaded by approximately 4oo lbs. That is all you need to know.

Dominic Briganti

World renowned decorative fruit designer.

You might be wondering, “Is that really a 180 foot waterfall behind them?” Never fear, we wouldn’t do anything silly like stand on the edge of that slippery rock, with tonnages of water cascading over the precipice 18 stories down to a rocky floor…we merely placed ropes down the middle of the deluge and rappelled. We also like third wave coffee and artisanal food. Quality over quantity…except for when its the amount of water we can redirect down the path of a rappel, then its quantity.

Dave Richardson

First to discover 8×11 loose-leaf paper, on an expedition, deep in the jungles of Borneo.

Dave and I go back many years. Various stents on the rescue truck slowly stole pieces of our soul as we stumbled through dark hallways and sleepless nights. However, we also discovered the local fruit stands and made prickly pear lemonade in between calls, sustaining ourselves on bulk medjool dates, as we drove into the moonlit night. We’ve ridden fire engines and ladder trucks, rescue trucks and John Deers affixed with emergency lights, and, without fail, we’ve always found laughter, calm, and ease with each other…we also like a fine cup of coffee and yes, the mustaches are real — deal with it.