By K. Kittles/Main Line Meow columnist
Photos by BUP Photography

AML staffer K. Kittles is spearheading Main Line Meow, a new column bringing all the latest suburban business and people news to local desktops. Have a compelling tip for Kittles? Email him at: kittles@aroundmainline.com.

They say curiosity killed the cat. Well, not in my case. Let me introduce myself to the few of you (Main Liners most especially) who do not know me. My name is Kittles, K. Kittles, and I’ve been around these parts for the better half of eleven years. I’m a lucky little feline if you ask me. Besides my brilliant owners being hard core Villanova basketball fans (thus my clever moniker), they are pretty terrific people. Over a decade ago, I was hanging out at a local SPCA shelter waiting for someone to fall head over heels in love with me. At the time, I was still developing my looks and this handsome mug of mine—but I was pretty darn cute at five-months-old. So, a little coercing on my part behind the bars of my cage and a few coy little poses, and before I knew it I was whisked up, kissed an inordinate amount of times and on my way to my new forever and fabulous Main Line home.

Fast forward to today, May of 2009, and I guess you could say I’m a local celeb. There aren’t many people who don’t know me, or recognize my gorgeous green eyes, soft gray and black striped fur or sensational, confident strut. And, after ten years of hitting the streets (and I mean the streets), I pretty much have my paw on the pulse of what’s going on around these suburban Main Line parts.
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By AML Publisher
Photography courtesy of Bernadette Uzcategui Photography

The brains and beauty behind a brilliant business model are Main Line moms and Tymel co-principals Melissa Parker (left) and Tyra Hodges (right).

If there are two idioms that ring true when describing a successful entrepreneurial business model in 2009 it is the following: 1) Necessity is the mother of invention. 2) Timing is everything. With so many Americans astutely aware of reducing their carbon footprint, the green industry is thriving with creative concepts that speak to the nation’s environmentally-cautious consumer. Despite a down economy, all signs point positively towards a growing demand for socially responsible business models.

In the case of Main Line entrepreneurs Tyra Hodges, 45, and Melissa Parker, 40, their invention-fashion forward reusable bags made from recycled materials-was inspired by some timely conversations they had with their children. Hodges was unpacking her groceries one evening in her kitchen last spring when her (then 11-year-old) daughter, Natalie, commented on the amount of plastic and paper she was wasting. Parker had received similar feedback from one of her daughters a few weeks earlier after she completed a school project on the importance of recycling.
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