Tuesday

Kid Culture Creates Workshops!

If you haven't heard already, Kid Culture has moved!
 to a beautiful new, spacious location at 
3124 Dundas St. W. 
Toronto, ON

Not just a store, Kid Culture now offers daily song and storytime. 
As well as weekly craft workshops for ages 3yrs old + 

I've stocked up on materials and prepared a fantastic list of simple projects for young ones who want to make and create. 

Each workshop is about 45mins - 1hr (about enough time to peruse the goodies in the shop) 
In every workshop, kids will create and complete their very own personalized project they can take home, use and be proud of. 
It's amazing what kids can make with a few materials and instruction - about the same amount of time to sit down and relax with a cup of coffee at the local shops in The Junction!


What workshops are coming up next?

For the Grand Opening of Kid Culture's new location 
on June 1st
we're having a 
Tote Bag making workshop. 

In this workshop, each student is provided with a handmade natural cotton tote bag to personalize and decorate using a heat transfer technique, transferring student’s colourful images from paper to the tote.

Space is limited for this workshop so don't forget to register.

To register for this or other workshops at Kid Culture 
call: 416-859-9006 
email: kidcultureboutique@gmail.com 
or pop into the shop 3124 Dundas St. W



email kidcultureboutique@gmail.com 
or call 416 859 9006 for questions and details

Read all about this Junction gem in this article from Karen Kirk of Canadian Living Magazine! 



Thursday

Ramen Party!

Ramen is one of my favourite foods. So when Lillian Chan, creator of Ramen Party asked me to help out with their project, I couldn't help but get involved.

So I'm going to tell you a little about Ramen Party and why you should know about it!

source
Ramen Party is a band and brand of characters created and animated by Lillian Chan, who studied at the province's best animation school, Sheridan College. Among her talented designs is Ramen Party a line, or rather a family, of characters inspired by traditional Japanese ramen
Now, this isn't your college roommates ramen. This is the real deal, the OG and classic homage to its country of origin. 
source
So what is Ramen Party?
Ramen Party is an Interactive StoryBook App designed especially for pre-school age kids. Because kids can be picky eaters. The app is designed to help kids discover and get excited about new and cultural foods, as well as the world around them.  
source 
Ramen Party is one of the lucky few selected to participate in the CFC's mentoring program ideaBOOST - an curated incubator for small businesses and big ideas based in social and transmedia. 

Submissions for the next round of ideaBOOST are coming to a close next month. 
For more info on ideaBOOST click here 

What is Ramen Party's kickstarter for?
Ramen Party has just launched their campaign with Indiegogo page and their reaching out for to you to help build this app! With the funds generated through the kickstarter, The Ramen Party Team will create kid-friendly... 
source
Feed me more info! 
Visit the Ramen Party indiegogo page for even more morsels of information. 

colourful prints & cards
custom Gelskins for your phone
Screenprinted Totes!
custom handmade Ramen Party Stuffie of your choice!
oh yeah I made these 
What are the perks of donating to Ramen Party?
Well! As you can see above, Ramen Party isn't just a brand or just an app. It's a project with legs and arms  and gaining momentum quickly! As part of the kickstarter campaign, The Ramen Party Team has lovingly packaged a delightful assortment of sweet swag, in appreciation for your generous investment and support, including signed prints, a custom thank you animation! and a packages that includes a custom handmade stuffie of your choice.

Early bird catches the worm! 
These items are in high demand, and won't last long. Some items are special editions and in limited quantities. So hurry up and shop for your donation before you miss out! 

So how am I involved with Ramen Party?
The Ramen Party creator, Lillian Chan had the idea to make these characters into toys. Because every kid loves toys! One of the packages available to claim,on their Indiegogo page, is a handmade Ramen Party Stuffie of your choice. And the hands in handmade belong to ME! For every package available, I will CUSTOM MAKE a Ramen Party Character stuffie of your choosing. 
But these aren't just any toys, these stuffies are made from an interesting selections of tactile fabric chosen for their resemblance to their characters. Among the fabrics are rich wools, light and shiny foil linen, colourful felts, and silky satins - turning these Digital Darlings into Tangible Toys.

And yes, Mr. Ramen is wearing a beautiful wrapped-yarn noodle suit! 

 


  

product photos of stuffies by Owen Deveney
Even MORE goodness!
Lillian has collaborated with multi-faceted husband, musician and Ramen Party Team member John Poon, to create a music video, to get YOU excited about the Ramen Party Project too. 
Their video is spoonful of adorable and the catchy-tune will have you hooked! 
And if you listen carefully, you can hear featured artist Kid Koala exercise is DJ scratching skillz on the track!
(if you like the tune, you can get the mp3 on the indiegogo site too!)


Heart, passion and ambition are all ingredients in Lillian Chan's Ramen Party. It's an exciting project, I hope you will get involved with. 
In fact, I'm so excited, I think I'm going to go eat a bowl of ramen right now! 

Please visit Ramen Party on Indiegogo and help support their project. 

Or visit them on facebook and give it a like! 

And of course, watch the video and link to their campaign on their new & official website RamenParty.ca


Hello again....

An impromptu trip to the Big Apple garnered an array of stunning photographs, documented by hawk-eye-behind-the-lens, Owen Deveney.

Here for your viewing pleasure are the highlights. 

IMG_8326

IMG_8094

IMG_8117

IMG_8215

IMG_8220

IMG_8241

IMG_8252

IMG_8264

IMG_8273

IMG_8358

IMG_8376

IMG_8427

IMG_8473

For even more photos visit Owen's Flickr page here

Tuesday

Always On My Mind - The Rest

Last year this pretty great band
got a bunch of people together including sharp-eye director Karl Richter 
to make a fantastic music video in just 24hrs 
for their touching and haunting song 
off their stellar album SEESAW. 


For your viewing pleasure... 
here is the fruit of their labour 


Listen to the album SEESAW on Bandcamp

Art in Transit

Over the next two weeks see my work in the Art in Transit exhibition, across Canada. 



From Jan. 14th - 27th 
in shopping centers all over the country
My animals heads as photographed by the best, Owen Deveney  
along with Andrea Vander kooij's photographs of her amazing skills in knitting, 
will be apart of  "Hard Twist: Greatest Hits
curated by Chris Mitchell & Helena Frei 
and Art in Transit, an ad/exhibition program 
with Pattison OneStop Network digital display billboards.

Read about the Art in Transit program and more about the artists involved 
in this Thursdays issue of  the Metro Newspaper 
or get it online here

Find out where to view the exhibition here

+

Make sure to see
Hard Twist 7: Touch Me, Feel Me
before we pack it all up on Sun Jan 27th. 
On now @ The Gladstone Hotel, Queen West, Toronto
3rd & 4th Floor. 
Try on a felted beard made by yours truly and post it on twitter #HardTwist


+

Owen has just posted a mountain of wonderful shots 
sharing them with us via Flickr
Please stop by and check them out here.

enjoy!


News about the Art in Transit program landed on the west coast.
read Vancouver's online new source Straight.com 
for all the details.