Working hard? No, hardly working! ;)

An exerpt from a site I recently found called "Things my boyfriend says":
"You shouldn't buy me things. Save your money for unicorn rides or whatever it is girls spend money on."

If you're looking for a little humourous reading to break up the work day, go here. :)

Oooh stickers!

When I was a kid, I collected stickers. There were scratch n' sniff stickers (OK, so there is a wikipedia entry for just about anything...), puffy stickers, stickers with googly eyes -- you name'em and I had them. I'm not even sure what the appeal was, but it just was.

Well, now to satisfy that kid in me and the "grown-up" designer-lady in me, Moo has just come out with StickerBooks.



(Moo is the same company that brought us such hits as the MiniCards and Notecards that can be made from your own photos).

For $10 US, you get a little book of 90 stickers, for which you can use 90 different images of your very own! :) Custom stickers = Awesome. Or, if you're not so artistically or photographically inclined, then you can get their readymade packs with either photographic themes or art and illustration from different designers.

I like these Blanca Gomez ones:



If you order by the end of July, there's free shipping, which certainly sweetens the pot for me finding some images to make sticky...

Art of the Business Card

If you're looking for inspiration in the design of your own business card, or just want to go looking at some good examples of well thought-out, graphic design, take a look at this Flickr Group: Art of the Business Card.

There are over 500 images of different business cards. Most of them go beyond the simple little piece of cardstock that just gets thrown in goldfish bowls in restaurants offering a draw for a free lunch :)

Here's a couple of examples.
A clever use of props for this hair and make-up artist's card:


And a full set of company cards, indexed depending on which department you're looking for:


While there are some great ideas here, and some fanatastic-looking ones that are round or longer or bigger than your typical business card, like this manicurist's card(that puts die-cuts to good use):

the ones I like best are those that actually work within the normal parameters of a business card since the unusually shaped ones just don't work for practicality for fitting in rolodexes!

And the Award Goes to... an Award?

While browsing through the latest I.D. Annual Design Review, I was stopped by a photo of this beautiful, pointy object (page 103 for those who have access to the annual).



The shiny pyramid turned out to be the Vilcek trophy given annually to American immigrants who have made a lasting contributions in the arts and sciences. Also included with the award is a cheque for $50,000. I'm assuming part of this money is to be used to create a mantle worthy of such an award. It just wouldn't look right on an IKEA Billy bookcase.

The award winning award is individualized with the recipients name in the base. How is it made you ask? At least that's what I wanted to know. Turns out it's an extrusion using rapid prototyping technology that was then plated in silver. I was a little disappointed that it was that simple, but what an impact. A superb use of the technology.

The design is by Sagmeister, and here I thought I didn't like nything they ever did. (BTW not a big fan of his present website either, it really does a number on my astigmatism).

Are you going to BlogHer?

BlogHer is this big consortium of women bloggers, and every year, there's a conference where all the women bloggers meet up. This year, Cool Mom Picks is putting on The Great BlogHer Photo Scavenger Hunt.

What does this have to do with us here at Blend Creations? Well, you (and your partner, if you decide to work in a pair) could win a washi necklace of your choice as one of the prizes. Full details are here:


Have fun to those of you who are going to BlogHer and good luck to those of you who enter the contest!

Indie baby

I'm sure other parents of young children will agree that anything that you can do to help your child sleep and stay sleeping is worth it. We follow a routine of bath, stories (yay for Sandra Boynton!) and into bed where the bed part involves having a projection mobile overhead, a fan, and this:



This sleep bag is from Antemille Inc., a small Canadian company that makes all sorts of baby bedding like receiving blankets, pillows and the like. We've had Jack in a sleep bag since he was done with being swaddled. I'm a big fan of sleep bags since they kept our monkey from standing up in his crib for the longest time (though not any more), but more so because I think he associates the sleep bag with, well, sleep. (And then there's the obvious benefit of not having him tangled up/stuck under blankets). I like these ones in particular since they're available in the 'Grande' size of 6-18 months and have designs that are cute without being fussy or tacky.

Addictions of the edible variety

I've never written about anything edible in this blog, because first off, I'm not really much of a cook. I enjoy really good food, but I don't think I can actually make really good food. Maybe just 'okay' food. I believe this is because it's impossible for me to ever attain the high culinary standards set by both of my own parents. The unfortunate thing is that their cooking isn't really recipes so much as what seems to be innate skill. If you do enjoy cooking, I highly recommend Oooh, you tasty little things (Never bashful with butter). I read this blog semi-regularly and more often than not, I'm drooling.

And while this isn't the same as cooking, I thought I had to share my latest addiction.


These damn things are soo good. They're thwarting my effort to lose the pesky remainders of my pregnancy weight. What I like best is that the nutritional info says "1 serving=56 chips". Now that's a realistic serving. They're not too greasy and just the right kind of crunchy salty goodness. (We buy them locally at the Bulk Barn).

The other food product I'm loving -- and unfortunately, we're now out -- is this mango chutney.


It is by far, the best chutney I've tasted outside of being in a really good Indian restaurant, and maybe even better than those. It's a good level of spicy and not overwhelmingly sweet like so many inferior chutneys. And, it's a fair trade product. It's available online from Peppermaster. (We got our jar from one of the local craft shows). It's $15 CAD, but soooo worth it. Excellent on salmon.

Of houses and wanting change

In a week, we'll have lived in our house for one year. This time last year, I was heavily pregnant, so we were happy to find a house where we could move in and not have to do much to make it liveable. Oh how things change in a year. It's not that it's not liveable, but it's not been made completely ours yet.

It doesn't help that I've recently discovered houseblogs.net, and more specifically, Nicole of Pink Love Brown's houseblog, Making it Lovely. Both are good ways to spend too much time on the interweb.

So I'm thinking and surfing and getting many many ideas... We've done a few things, and once I find the other lens for the camera (and figure out what to do with it), maybe I'll share some of what we have done...

But for now I'm eyeing this ceiling pendant. It's only $69 at Zonemaison (local in Ottawa), but possibly available for order online as well. (Zone has lots of lots of nice contemporary furniture and accessories).


I'm thinking of having it as a replacement for the ugly ceiling fan we have in the office. (It's white! it's brass! and it has THREE! ugly glass shades!)

The Beauty Within

I've been very negligent with the whole blogging thing. I've been leaving it all up to my better half. Once in awhile I would send her links to cool stuff, but that's been pretty much the extent of my involvement. Well there's no turning back now...

Just when you thought you've seen it all someone shows you something that was never meant to be seen. Like the early sketch of a painting, the complicated tools used to create the simplest tasks. These are often more interesting then the final product. There's something magical about the thought process, the production method. Along comes Kent Rogowski with his photographic art of teddy bears turned inside out.


Childhood magic lives on, albeit in a slightly twisted way. In his interview with Nicole Pasulka, Rogowski says that his work is more about the childhood icon represented by the teddy bear than about recreating the toy. I beg to differ, but I'm not about to turn my boo bear inside-out to test it.

Found via BoingBoing.

Beyond just a folding chair

I can't remember where I found this originally, but I did think it was cool enough at the time to bookmark it.



This is definitely a design I'd like to see up close and personally.

P.S. Happy fourth of July to our American friends!

Vincent Reardon

It was kind of neat, when in reading the Apartment Therapy blog, I came across some furniture designs that I actually recognized.

Now it's one thing to recognize a Le Courbusier lounger, or a Pantone chair, it's another thing to recognize a design because you'd seen sketches of it. By the designer. Because you had to sit in some boring classes with them.

Vincent Reardon is the collaborative efforts of Matt Pauk and Rob Tang, who recently debuted their furniture designs at this year's ICFF. Both are former classmates of mine whose furniture designs are fantastic. (And I've always been jealous of their sketching ability).

Here's just a couple of examples of their designs.
The slot sofa:



And the cuppa end table:



Check out their full collection here. I'm going to make a point of checking their site now and then just to see what else these guys design.

Happy Canada Day!

Have yourself a Timmy's or a Moosehead, wear red and say 'eh!'.



We're enjoying a long weekend here :) Happy Canada Day!