Contest: Win $100 in Blend Creations goods

As I had posted earlier, we'll be having a contest for the month of June. This contest is heavily blog-centric since hey, now we have a blog and we figure a lot of you do too.

Here are the details:

Prize:
Up to $100 in Blend Creations merchandise, which we will ship at our cost to the winner of the contest.

Who can enter:
To enter, you must have your own blog - either via your own site, Blogger, LiveJournal, WordPress, Xanga, MSN spaces etc. etc. You must also have a mailing address that we can ship your prize. (Entries outside of Canada and the US are permitted -- we just need to be able to mail to you).

How to enter:
1. Enter by writing a blog entry anytime in the month of June (okay, starting today, May 31st is fine too), about Blend Creations. All we ask is that somewhere in this entry, you link to Blend Creations and the pages of the products that you'd like to win (totalling up to $100), either by text link or by photo.

For example:
"This pendant with this chain are so frickin' awesome that if someone gave me this, I wouldn't object!"







If you choose to link by photo, please do NOT hot-link the image (i.e. save the image to your webhost or a photo site like Flickr).

2. Once your blog entry is live on the interweb, email us with the link to your entry. On July 1, 2006, a winner will be randomly chosen from all those who enter. The winner will be notified via email, and we'll announce the winner on our site on July 3, 2006.

*Please note: we will not accept entries from blogs and sites with spam content or content not suitable for minors.

Benefits of entering:
What? besides the possibility of winning free stuff? :)
All those who enter will be added to our blog links under the heading "Read these blogs". These links will be added once a week in the month of June and will stay on our sidebar for as long as we can foresee ;) So if you'd like more traffic to your blog, enter the contest!

Designer stools: dream vs. reality

We have an area in our new kitchen that is crying out for stools. But, we don't want just any stools. Both Eric and I love clean-lined, modern looking furniture. And if we had our way, we would be getting a couple of these stools from Design Within Reach (DWR):



That's the LEM Piston Stool with the chocolate-brown leather seat. It's an award winning design by Shin and Tomoko Azumi and if it's possible to have a love affair with a stool, this would be my mistress. I love how the one-piece frame of the seat is also the foot rest. I love the base and the overall simple look, and the functionality of the height adjustment -- since it sucks to have to buy new stools should you move and have a new table or counter height to contend with.

But alas, at just shy of $700US and the cost of shipping, there are definitely other things that take priority over pretty 'dream' stools.

We found our 'reality' stools at Structube (located in the Byward Market for you locals). The Alice stool also has a chocolate brown leather seat, height adjustment and a foot rest, and overall a simple appearance -- and a much lower price tag at $119CAD.



I know they're not the same, but it'll certainly do for 'real-life' so that we can sit in our kitchen and still afford to stock the fridge.

Science geek chic

What seems like another lifetime ago, I used to be a biochemist. Yes, the kind that ran around in a lab coat mixed flasks full of enzymes and other stuff and tracked reactions and did a lot of spreadsheets to crunch data. Sounds like fun doesn't it?

I decided to leave that career and the accompanying life of glamour and persue a degree in design instead.

Every once in a while, a small part of me misses the lab and the science and the knowing why certain things happen when you get this reaction happening in a cell and all that fun stuff. Rather than go back to the lab, I'd prefer to show my science geek side with this:



For you really chemically-savvy types it's also known as this:


or estradiol, commonly called estrogen. The artist behind the necklace is Raven Hanna, who sells the estrogen necklace and others on her site Made with Molecules. Hanna, a "Yale-educated scientist turned artist" probably also couldn't stand all the glamour of being a scientist too ;)

Psst.. the next newsletter is coming

Our next newsletter should be arriving in our subscribers' inboxes on Thursday June 1st. In this next newsletter, we'll have a coupon code for a 15% discount off all of our mother of pearl and shell pendants. That's any of the pendants on this page. If you've been eyeing one of those pendants, then perhaps June is the month to get one. If you're subscribed to our newsletter before noon on June 1st, then you'll be privy to the discount info.

Also coming up will be the details to a little contest that we'll be having.
The prize? $100 in merchandise from our shop.

That's right. You choose up to $100 worth of stuff from us and we'll ship it to you for free... if you win the contest.

I'll also post details about the contest here later on, but if you really don't want to miss out, then you'll just have to make sure you join our newsletter!

I'll say this though, the contest won't be difficult, shouldn't take that much of your time, and if you're lucky you could get some free stuff :)

Art and Eats

One of my favourite restaurants in Ottawa is Oz Kafé (361 Elgin St.). It's a tucked away place that's sandwiched between two busy drinking spots - a pub and a Mexican restaurant. We've been going to Oz as regulars for the past year or so because the food is that good. Seriously. If you're in Ottawa, go there. Eat well. You won't regret it.

Besides that and the always-friendly owner Oz, there's always a rotating collection of art on the walls. Somehow Oz has befriended the local community of designers and currently she's displaying the art of fellow ID school grad Ilesh Parmar.



The show is called "Femmes Fashion Foliage" and all the artwork is vectorized digital illustration. Why is vectorized art so cool? Well, my friend, because you can make it little post-card sized prints or huuuuge prints if you'd like, all without losing any detail/getting blurry. Ilesh has a way with gradients that make you stare at the work and wonder at first if it's a photo, but then on close examination you see the care it's taken him to make this vector paths and this smooth-transition gradients to get perfect skin.

Beautiful.

Unfortunately, there's no online images of his artwork from Oz Kafé, so you'll just have to go there and admire it in person (and have a chocolate torte). In the meantime, make sure to check out Ilesh's graphic design work at his website.

Fellow indie designer: ZN Creative Arts

Yesterday I became the proud owner of this ring from ZN Creative Arts. The creative mind behind it is fellow indie business owner and industrial designer Grace Wang-Bishop.

Her jewelry is predominantly enamel work, and beautiful work at that. Now, I'm not normally a big 'ring person' or even a 'big ring' person, since at just shy of 5' tall, I have little hands to go with my stature. My own wedding rings are very modern/minimal.

However, there's something about this ring's floral prettiness that makes me smile. It's like picking a little blossom from a random garden and fastening it to your finger and I found when I was wearing it yesterday I was both consciously and unconsciously showing it off :)

Grace has a great collection of jewelry which she meticulously designs and makes, so go see it for yourself.

Wear your love of TV

The Mule Design Feed Store has a number of clever t-shirts and the Lost junkie in me loves this one. They've also got a Hanso Foundation t-shirt, which I think is much more subtle in its Lostness.

And while we're on the subject of TV obsessions -- for Eric's birthday recently I had to get him this:


The good Canadian kids out there will recognize this as Brent's uniform shirt from Corner Gas. I love Corner Gas, but I find that if I watch too many episodes in a row, then every cabbie that cuts me off while I attempt to walk downtown is a "Jackass!".

What will you find today?

Blend Creations recently joined up with Indie Finds! What's Indie Finds you say?

"Indie Finds is an innovative co-operative comprised of 90+ talented independent designers. Formed in response to big-box retailers, the members have teamed up to increase awareness of indie shops and to challenge the notion that quality is synonymous with size. Together, the group is a genuine rival to high-powered household names"

If you love the work of independent designers (like us!) go check out some of the other members. Or if you're also an independent designer yourself, it's certainly worth checking out. On the horizon for us is advertising in magazines such as Adorn Shop, East West and hopefully quite a few more :)

"As seen on"... a bunch of links

In the past few months, we've been featured on quite a few websites and blogs that were nice enough to feature our products and/or say some kind words about them.

These sites have included:
Design Spotter - A great source for up and coming young product designers.
Cool Mom Picks - These women have a way with words, and they do pick some pretty cool stuff, which makes them "cool moms" ;)
Thrifty Boutique Jewelry - If you're looking for different, and indie-designed jewelry, this is a great source.
Modish - Jena writes about some great indie stores. Check out her 'site of the week feature'.
Oh My That's Awesome - It's a site about cool shit. 'Nuff said. Go there, you'll like it.

Fellow indie designer: Izik Levy

One of the perks to being an independent designer is that you get to meet other indie-types who make some pretty cool stuff. It's even better when these people also happen to like the stuff that you make because then well, sometimes you get a great barter going on.

We've bartered with a few other indie-types now and I'm always impressed by the quality of goods. One of the first trades we ever did was with Izik Levy.

I met Izik when I was still in design school and as part of the curriculum we had to put on a seminar in which we invited students from a design school in Toronto, and Izik was part of that group. Of course, at the time, I only remembered him as 'the guy with the glass robot' -- he had said that he had made it himself and I thought it was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen.

When I happened upon his glass robots a few months ago, I knew it was meant to be -- I would have to have my very own.


Izik is a Toronto-based designer/glass artist who also makes glass sock monkeys, ducks, beautiful bowls and cups and other stuff. But alas, my favourite are still the robots. Go visit his site, or better yet, if you're in Toronto, go get yourself a nice piece of glass ;)

ICFF

I have to admit it, I'm a sucker for beautiful, contemporary furniture. And, two years ago, Eric and I went to our very first ICFF - International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Held every May in NYC (this year's starts this Saturday, May 20th), it's one giant, modern 'stuff' heaven. We went to last year's ICFF too, but unfortunately, this year, we won't be able to make it.

Sad to say, we'll be missing some of this year's new exhibitors -- and of those, these ones in particular piqued my interest:

The Pagoda60 lamp from Button Design of BC

Their Pagoda lamps have an Asian-esque look to it, and I guess you could say I'm really into that sort of thing :). I'm also drawn to the Button designs because they're Canadian and they use Canadian lumber in their products.

Another new exhibtor to this year's ICFF is Brooklyn-based Brave Space. I know I've seen this before, but the tinkling tetris music in my head and the wasted-youth spent playing the game means I just can't help but mention it here:

I love products that offer versatility and a means for the end user to customize its use. Again, there's a bit of an Asian feel to how they've set up this particular set of Tetris shelving since the configuration is reminiscent of Japanese Tansu chests.

Oh look, we have a blog!

The pre-amble to any blogging activity that may go on here is that we here at Blend Creations are not writers. No one pays us to string together sentences and there's no guarantee that those sentences will even be coherent. That being said, we plan on blogging about designs/products/art we like, or find interesting, news specifically relating to our online shop and perhaps the stray thought or internet tidbit that crosses our paths.

First up, here's a reminder for people to join our newsletter. Why? Well, for one thing, this month it's Asian Heritage Month in both Canada and the US, and to celebrate this, we're giving a 15% discount on our Asian-inspired pendants: washi, ox bone etching and mah jong pendants.








The catch is that you have to be a newsletter subscriber to know what the "magic words" (or discount code) are.

So now enough about us, let's talk about something everyone can enjoy: Plush! We found Jäke Henzler via Plush Rush. Jäke makes knitted toy art, each with their own little quirky personalities.

This one is my favorite:

Trevor, the effeminate koala, is quite in touch with his feminine side with his pink bunny slippers. Every man should be so secure in his masculinity to wear pink bunny slippers.