Eee! Monsters!

As you may have surmised from previous posts, we do love our unusual plush around here. (As a side note, we've adopted a Woof Man since that post, though he prefers to be called by the name 'Logan' for some reason).

Eric recently came across Cotton Monster (via Modish) -- the work of quilt/monster maker Jennifer Strunge. Jennifer makes a range of monsters that vary in size and price (between $35US for a baby monster and $80 for a more grown-up one).





The monsters are all made with recycled clothes and linens. A much better use for a fleece that's been outgrown, I'd say.

Make sure you check out the Monster Care guide and the Cotton Monster blog. Jennifer's got images of some crazy big monsters there and other fabulous creations.

Boob tubes

I'd seen these Hannspree TVs a while back and I was reminded of them when I thought of how a friend's three-year-old had asked for a Dora the Explorer TV last Christmas (though, they didn't indulge that request). While the Dora TV was merely a pink TV with 'Dora' decals, the Hannspree products take 'theme products' to the next level.

Some of these sets are pretty neat looking:


Like this Retro-looking Mickey 10" LCD TV (on sale for $180 US) since it lends some styling without being too over-the-top.

Other Hannspree sets though go way overboard to the point where the look of the TV could tend to interfere with the whole idea of watching what's on it.

Red Apple 10" LCD TV, $400


Semi-truck 10" LCD TV, $400



Of course, that might be what you're after if you'd prefer to have your kids look at a TV that's off...

Stuck in my head

You know how sometimes, you get something stuck in your head and the only way to get it out is to expose yourself to the offending tune and hope that your brain gets satisfied and flushes it? Well, it doesn't work. The other thing to possibly do is to make other people get the same thing stuck in their head.



Misery loves company :)

It's nice to be acknowledged

In checking our stats recently, I noticed that we've been receiving visitors from E-Auction-Air -- a site/indie talk radio program that covers all things E-Bay, online auctions and e-commerce.

Host, Michael Donahue basically says that our little Blend Creations site is "is a simple, elegant site worthy of serious study for anyone planning to go it alone in e-commerce" in his September 17th show. You can listen to the radio segment here. I consider that a compliment since it comes from someone who's probably seen more than their fair share of online shops.

It's nice too since neither Eric nor I have a professional background in doing e-commerce (and hopefully you aren't able to tell). Though we are both designers and do know a bit about user-interface and general 'good usability' in design, it does make us feel good that hey, someone likes us for our business end of things :)

So, thanks E-Auction-Air for inflating our egos a little. Go check out the site if you're at all interested in tips about selling online.

Multi-functional furniture

There's something functionally cool about furniture that does double duty for different functions. In the most recent issue of dwell magazine, we saw an ad for some pretty cool products by the European furniture company, mobelform.

Many of their pieces are suitable for very small European-type spaces and makes great use of very tight spaces. Of course, there are some hefty price tags to go along with such ingenuity, unfortunately.

First up is the Nuovoliola at $10,180. It's a wall-bed unit that went put away is a little love seat with a shelf on top. Pulled down, the shelf is a support for the bed and a shoe rack. Nifty.



This next piece, the Doc Divano ($5470), is kind of fun since it's a sofa and a bunk bed all rolled into one:



Finally, the Spazio 05 ($6020) is a neat idea, but I think it only works well if you can keep a desk uncluttered enough to withstand the movement up and down.


The listing of mobelform's latest products is here, or you can view their full catalogue.

Newest Blend Creations employee

I'm back from my little blogging hiatus, although chances are that the posts may be less frequent and somewhat sporadic still. During our little break, Eric and I have found some pretty cool designer-y stuff thanks to some decent time spent perusing some of our favourite design magazines.

It's not to say that that's all we've been doing in our time off from the blogging. During our hiatus, we added a new employee to our staff here at Blend Creations, although we're still not sure what his job is.



Little Jack here is the reason I needed to take some time off to chill and take it easy. He was born in the afternoon of September 6th, 2006 and weighed in at about 6 lbs 6 oz.

I would've said he was a 'Blend Creation' except that he's not for sale :)
Though, don't ask me during one of those late night feedings...