For a long time, we’ve been fascinated with creativity. What is it? How can we get better at “being creative”? How do we encourage and inspire others to explore their creativity – employees, kids and others? Is creativity something you are born with or can you learn it?
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Beethoven was Right About Walking! Read More »
We love colors and colorful reflectors are fun! So how do we make funflector® reflectors in all the colors of the rainbow when the 3M Scotchlite material only comes in clear (white), bright yellow and bright orange? (And the reason for that is that other colors result in material that does not reflect strongly enough to meet high standards).
funflector® reflectors are colorful because we put colored material under the clear reflective layer, as most manufacturers of EN13356 compliant reflectors do.
Some of our reflectors include a printed design and we also manufacture reflectors with custom logos and prints. There are different ways to do that and how it’s done matters to your safety. …
A Colorful World Where “HOW” Matters Read More »
Good reflectors should make pedestrians visible from a distance of 125 meters (410 feet), but we wanted to know if we could see our funflector® reflectors from even further away. Would they meet the 500 feet visibility target?
However, first let us be clear about why we care so much about safety reflectors:
That is how much of a difference reflectors make!
We found a dark street, straight for over 500 feet and with very little traffic. Here is what we saw of a pedestrian facing us with two reflectors hanging from front belt loops.The first image below was captured at 600 feet. We are very excited and pleased with the result since it is very important for us to provide as much safety as possible for our customers. A note of caution though: reality is rarely staged like this, so please wear at least two reflectors, but place one back and one front – OR- one left and one right. You never know exactly how you will be turned the moment the driver needs to see you! Alternatively, put a slap bracelet around your ankle, the visibility from all directions is pretty good unless you carry bags in your hands that hang low down.
500+ Feet Visibility! Read More »
Three middle school kids can result in a flurry of activities. Weekends are filled with soccer and little league baseball games. Week nights are busy with choir, band and orchestra rehearsals and performances. Last weekend, we had the pleasure to be blown away by the Highland Middle School musical “Hello Dolly” and “The Sound of Music” at the Chicago Lyric Opera. It’s also a season when it’s time to come up with fun, clever and personal gifts for dedicated teachers and hard working graduates.
We’ve collected a few gifts for music teachers, music graduates and music directors. The treble clef safety reflector is something all music lovers need as concerts and rehearsals often end long after sunset. Pair that with the most perfect thank you note and you are all set.
How fun isn’t this heavy metal rock band, and we love that it is made with reused pieces!
Silly questions require silly answers. Here is the T-shirt every cellist needs.
Big handmade mugs for coffee, tea or soup. There are even musical designs at the bottom of the mugs. Great for a slow breakfast after performance nights or to cuddle up with in the couch and your favorite music.
A gift card is not as personal, but sometimes a better option than filling peoples’ homes with “stuff”. Consider a a gift card from a local music venue to be used towards conserts, or one from you local music store to be used towards instrument repairs or sheet music. In addition to being a useful gift, it gives much needed support to organizations and small businesses in your community.
The other day, we found the most perfect thank-you note! When shopping at our favorite gift store for musical gifts, the CSO gift store in Chicago (On East Adams, just around the corner from the Symphony Center on 220 S Michigan Ave), we also help support a phenomenal orchestra. The cute card is perfect as is or with a gift card and/or a funflector® treble-clef reflector!
Elisabeth
# ps. almost forgot the footnote for those of you who want to look sharp… 😉 🎶
Gifts for Musicians and Music Teachers 🎁 Read More »
We are so excited that the 2014 funflector® wholesale catalog is off the press! We hope you are too! It has all our new (and old) designs and our first licensed line of reflectors from the Particle Zoo. New for this year is also an online flip book, (you just need a little bit of patience while it downloads) but we have stocked up with envelopes and stamps and will gladly mail a copy to your store! You can order it here or shoot us an email. 
2014 funflector® Wholesale Catalog! Read More »
This cute but geeky Valentine’s poem is a good reason for us to introduce one of our new elementary particle reflectors with Particle Zoo design: DARK MATTER!
Scientists believe the universe is expanding due to Dark Energy, which makes up as much as 68% of the universe. Only 5% is matter that we know and the rest, 27% is dark matter. Dark matter cannot be seen, does not absorb or emit light. So how do we know it’s there? Astronomers have noticed that the behavior of large astronomical objects could not be explained with the gravitational forces between all known objects, so a mysterious dark matter with plenty of weight was added to explain the gravitational pull. Guesses to what dark matter is range from never seen elementary particles to heavier objects although as late as November 2013, it was ruled out that they were large primordial black holes. So maybe fun-sized primordial black holes?
In the early universe, dark matter was evenly distributed but the passage of time has left its mark and gravity has pulled it into clumps and empty spaces. Our Dark Matter funflector thinks life is good!
Cosmic Rose & Dark Matter Read More »
Having grown up in Sweden, I would have loved a skate safety reflector instead of a boring hard circular reflector. Even in the very south, skating and skiing was an obvious part of most winters. No classes or fancy outfits, just hanging out at the neighborhood soccer field which had been turned into an good-enough ice to skate on. We skated, we cross-country skied on the fields and had snowball fights – and watched winter sports, especially the Olympics.
After 4 days of the Sochi games, the Canadian and the US hockey women are looking good! We have also already been blessed with some spectacular figure skating performances. 15 year old Yulia Lipnitskaya stunned us all with a perfect performance. Equally amazing and mezmerizing was Meryl Davis and Charlie White’s ice dance!
Do you know we now have both a black hockey skate reflector and a white figure skate reflector? Order yours here>
Elisabeth
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As some or our customers were quick to discover, new colors of the reflective slap bracelets are in stock in the funflector webshop. Slap bracelets are always fun, and these double as quality pedestrian safety reflectors!
New Reflective Slap Bracelets Read More »
The old world has come back to Chicago! The German Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza is open until Christmas and offers authentic German wooden and glass ornaments as well as Bratwurst, Pretzels, Strudels and Glühwein (mulled wine). See our blog post from last year about the Chicago Christkindlmarket.
For the second year, the Swedish American Museum also has a booth at the market and that’s where you go to get your Tomte fix. Tomte can be translated to gnome, elf, Santa, Father Christmas, nisse, Heinselmänchen depending on what language you prefer. Today, I volunteered in the booth and tried to count the “Cute!” (or “cuuute!”) but quickly lost track. The tomtar are all handmade in Sweden and come in many styles and sizes – and they are truly cute!
Traditional Angel chimes, modern moose or dalahorse chimes are available as well as wooden toys and books. Since most Swedes wear reflectors, the museum has teamed up with funflector.com to spread some Swedish safety culture and offers a wide variety of funflectors! There is even a tomte funflector!
The Chicago Christkindlmarket is open every day from 11am to 8pm (to 9 on Fridays and Saturdays). The Swedish American Museum Booth is #52. located outside the main market, East of the Daley Center, close to the intersection of Randolph and Dearborn. Stop by next time you are downtown Chicago and say “Hi” from The funflector Blog!
Elisabeth
Flying to the moon is a dream for many, reality for only 12. Buzz Aldrin, the lunar module pilot on Apollo11, is one of the lucky. On July 21, 1969, he walked on the moon following mission commander Neil Armstrong. The Swedish American Museum in Chicago is celebrating Buzz’s Swedish heritage with new permanent exhibit, “Exploration: Buzz Aldrin, Space Visionary,” at the Brunk Children’s Museum. They will blast into space for the first time on October 27th 2013 and children will be able to imagine what it would feel like to be an astronaut when they count down to blast off, collect moon rocks, and explore the moon. Click here for details about the Buzz Aldrin Exploration Exhibit Launch. Not only was Buzz’s mother’s maiden name Marion Moon, his Swedish ancestors on his fathers side came from Stjernsforsbruk, which means “The Mill at Star’s Rapids”!
Over the summer, we had our own blast off at the glimling office and launched a rocket ship funflector reflector! White and red rocket ships are available in the funflector webshop and at the gift shop at the Swedish American Museum. Hang them on jackets and backpacks to inspire big dreams and to increase your visibility in traffic at night. Reflectors are must-haves for Halloween and all other dark nights – and there a quite a few of them ahead.
We can’t write about Swedish astronauts without mentioning Christer Fuglesang. He was the first Swedish citizen to go into space when he blasted off with the STS-116 Space Shuttle mission on December 10, 2006. He was also the first engineer and physicist in Sweden with a rock star status, which was amazing to witness. Even preschoolers knew everything about Christer’s space walks and his record of keeping a frisbee floating longer than anyone else. What an inspiration for kids who hadn’t given much thought to science and engineering before!
We have one more amazing image to share below! Look (you might need your glasses) how the earth and our moon are hanging out together with no close neighbors. It’s taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft close to Saturn.
Dream big and stay safe!
The funflector team
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