Upon first inspection this looked like a booth that promoted some lovely soy candles, but it was actually more than that. The soy candles, that come in many delicious flavours like oatmeal (that made Keira smell like cookies), cucumber melon, root beer, peaches, tangerine pina colada, and strawberry banana also serve as a skin moisturizer.

Photo Credit: Keira-Anne on Flickr

As the candle melt the “wax” actually becomes an oil. Simply dip your finger into the oil and rub it on like you would hand or body lotion. It doesn’t leave a greasy residue and the soybean oil is actually better for your skin as they are pure grade essential oils. Also the wicks are cotton, containing no lead, and the candles last longer (3 times longer than paraffin candles) producing less soot.

All in all these soybean candles smell delicious, providing aromatherapy and a smooth skin – my hands and arms still smell like pina colada as I type this. Mmm – mmm!

Unfortunately this particular company does not sell their products in stores, they simply do the trade show circuit and provide products for fundraisers so if you like what you see be sure to take advantage of the Green Living Show sale.

This post is also available on the happfrog Frogblog

Tonight I attended the Green Living Show with the lovely Keira-Anne. We got free samples, test drove assisted power bicycles and rubbed some lovely soy and coconut oil all over ourselves. I’ll be writing more specific booth/product reviews but for anyone who is planning on attending the event, here is a quick preview with freebies, swag, samples and showstoppers.

Where: BC Place (more info)
When: Friday, Feb 29 – 12 pm – 9 pm, Saturday, March 1 – 10 am – 9 pm, Sunday, March 2 – 10 am – 6 pm

When you first walk in at the field level of BC Place (make sure to pick up your free cloth bag), on your right for the first few aisles will be clothing and cosmetics, along with some food products like the organic (and 72% cocoa) dark chocolate samples provided by Whistler Chocolates. You’ll also come across some hemp and bamboo clothiers, and although their shirts and skirts look amazingly comfortable and are unbelievably soft to the touch, I’m not sure I can bring myself to pay $170 for a tank top (as noted at one booth).

You can get your skin hydration tested. Apparently my “arm” test was WAY above normal (which is good) and my “face” test was normal for hydration.

Back to the food, there’s a fair trade coffee company and samples of blueberry juice which is across from Natureland Organic Beer who graciously provided two rounds of samples to these here girls (more to follow in another post). Right behind the beer sampling is a children’s theater featuring Bobs and Lolo.

Around the corner Fetzer from Mendocino County, CA was also doing free wine tastings. Talking to their rep about their sustainable winery they sounded pretty impressive, from solar panels to bio-diesel powered equipment.

Be sure to also check out Manitoba Harvest Hemp Food and Oils, including hemp seed butter (like peanut butter) and hemp milk, although after the organic beer our stomachs didn’t take too kindly to this. There is also yogurt sampling, in which I did not partake since I’m not the hugest yogurt fan, and then free thin crust pizza at the Ocean Wise/Vancouver Aquarium booth.

In cosmetic land, Lush was handing out their “Sexy Peel Soap”, and Rocky Mountain Soap Company had a mini bar of Nature’s Treat Foot Butter for all. Toward the back of the showroom (opposite the entrance) you can test drive electric scooters and assisted power bicycles around a little track. Further along that wall you’ll run into “home improvement land” with flooring, insulation and cleaning products.

There’s some great stationary courtesy of Mr. Ellie Pooh (yes, paper made from elephant dung), cutlery made from potatoes, and what look like plastic containers made entirely out of corn. Side note about the cutlery, it’s endorsed by Mel Silverback whom you might remember if you watched NBC’s “Last Comic Standing”.

There is a food court area of sorts, although it didn’t quite soothe our craving for a hot dog, and next to that you’ll find “Scent with Love“. These are soy candles that can be used as a moisturizer when you dip your finger into the melted wax – or soy oil in this case (again, more to come in another post).

In the middle of the showroom there is a small “forest” refuge area, and at the North end of BC Place (near the theatre/stage) you’ll find more political/cause oriented booths where you’ll probably be asked to sign petitions and volunteer for campaigns.

All in all it was an enjoyable evening and everyone was eager to tell you about their product, hand out a sample, and answer any questions you might have. I’ll have individual posts up soon about Natureland Organic Beer, Scent with Love and probably something else I find a brochure for in my swag bag.

This post is also available on the happyfrog Frogblog

This morning I kept getting sent links, and emails and IM’s about the big news out of Surrey today. Admittedly upon looking at the urls (see the one for the CBC story below) I chuckled and shrugged off the articles thinking everyone just wanted to gang up on my hometown. I was wrong, apparently a huge cockfighting ring in Surrey was busted last night and once I realized this was actual news my second thought was, wait – these things exist? I thought that only happened on Seinfeld.

Photo Credit: Mussels on Flickr

Animal welfare officials say as many as 37 people could be facing charges after police raided a B.C. operation that animal welfare officials are describing as Canada’s largest-ever cockfighting ring…

…The Surrey ring, raided earlier this week, may have been operating for the past three or four years, officials from the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BCSPCA) told a news conference in Vancouver Friday.

Some of the 1,270 fighting birds found on three separate properties in the Cloverdale area of Surrey were fed steroids and kept in a perpetual state of excitement. [CBC]

Now due to the specific words in this blog post I am fully prepared for the mis-matched Google searches that will now find their way to my site and I won’t even quote the Canadian Press article because it’s just too incriminating SEO-wise.

But in all seriousness, this is pretty horrible news especially since the BC SPCA‘s orders were to euthananize all 1200 birds found on the premises. When it comes to cruelty to animals, my stomach just turns and I just wonder who actually gets a kick or thrill out of this so-called “game”, “sport”, or “event”. I also think about the societies that work so hard to try and curtail these activities and how low they are on support and funding given the work that they do. For more information about the Surrey SPCA, please visit their website, and I hope I never again have to report on a sickening story like this coming out of my hometown.

Ever since last summer at BarCamp, or maybe even before that, there’s been a buzz around town about Strutta. They’ve hosted all of the Launch Party events so far and even supplied me with one of my best-fitting t-shirts to date back in November. But just what exactly is Strutta?

Last night they held an event for some of their closest and most trusted friends and colleagues, however they were sure to write some rules of conduct on the white board in the corner, “…Feel free to blog what you see tonight….but….”.

First things first, the Strutta crew is comprised of many hard working people like Danny Robinson, Maura Rogers, Lyal Avery, Jordan Behan, Alexa Booth, and all those brainiacs behind the scenes that don’t get website bios with a clever headshot.

I’ve known Jordan since his TellTenFriends days and have come to know Maura over the course of the Launch Party series (and I think they’re both pretty great, especially since Maura is originally from Massachusetts). Lyal and Alexa are also always to fun to bump into at events around town. So now that we have the people covered, here’s what they’ve been up to.

With Strutta you’ll be able to view, upload or record videos on the spot but that’s all a part of something a little bigger. The idea is to participate in games, and your video is your entry into that game. Do you have the best celebrity impersonation? Record or upload your video and allow others on Strutta to say if yes, you are the best OR they can submit their own video and try to outdo and outrank you. Think YouTube, meets Hot or Not, meets Digg but it’s more sophisticated than that, and what they have so far looks really slick. It’s also complete with many more functions (which I cannot divulge) and there are some key components to the UI that make it sleek, smooth, and just plain clever in its design.

The Strutta folks aren’t quite ready to release to the world but the shroud of secrecy will slowly be lifted over the next few weeks. There are bugs to fix, and kinks to iron out, but this is all a natural progression and will add even more value to their product when it’s ready to launch. Watch for a post on their blog from Jordan, including some screenshots and I gotta hand it to these guys, the parties, the fab Gastown office with the amazing mountain view, and now they’ll have a great product to boot.

Update:Top secret super screenshot!

Strutta.com

Everyone is talking about it, from musicians to geeks and social media fanboys and girls, it’s the uber popular SXSW (South by Southwest) festival and it’s happening next week.

The SXSW MUSIC AND MEDIA CONFERENCE showcases hundreds of musical acts from around the globe on over fifty stages in downtown Austin. By day, conference registrants do business in the SXSW Trade Show in the Austin Convention Center and partake of a full agenda of informative, provocative panel discussions featuring hundreds of speakers of international stature. [SXSW]

The Flaming Lips @ SXSW 2007 – Photo Credit: Kris Krug on Flickr

Phillip beat me to the punch on listing all Vancouverites/Canucks who will be in attendance so here’s who he has listed so far:

My favourite Vancouver musician and yours, Matthew Good will also be performing on March 15th at Momo’s and be sure to watch out for Raincity’s party, representing Canadians and lovers of a good time everywhere (read more on Raincity’s SXSW 2008 preview).

But there’s more than just parties and concerts, there’s also the interactive portion. To give you an example of ONE day’s schedule here’s a link Tod passed along including such sessions as: How to Bluff Your Way in Web 2.0, New Dogs, New Tricks: New Media Goes to the Movies, Unleashing CSS: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love IE 7, Commercialization of Wikis, Ruining User Experience, From Tags to Riches: Life After Code and hundreds more! Did I mention this is all just from one day out of ten? Yeah.

Photo Credit: Robert Scales on Flickr

To keep all of us insanely jealous folks back home up to speed on the goings on in Austin I have recruited two bloggers who will be guest posting and cross posting their updates and entries from their own sites: John Biehler (iPhone master, tech and gadget guru) and Colleen Coplick (the queen of PR). Watch for their entries next week when SXSW gets underway. If you are attending and would like your name added to the “blog watch” simply leave a comment below or over on Phillip’s post.