Monday, April 23, 2007

OM home on Hostess with the Mostess



Thanks to Jennifer Sbranti over at the Hostess with the Mostess blog for her amazing graphic spread of OM home's surprise giveaway. Congratulations to Taylor for picking up a set of four OM home placemats!

Be sure to check out this hip hostess' new website with awesome entertaining ideas, great job!

Bon Appétit, Sweetspot for Chocolat, Home and Décor, Montréal Gazette

WOW, we're incredibly thrilled with recent features in Bon Appétit, Sweetspot for Chocolat, Home and Décor and Montréal Gazette.

Thanks to the gang over at Bon Appétit who are super nice and down to earth. Getting a plug in their magazine was a huge milestone for us! An added bonus was their story on the Plateau section of Montreal in the same issue (this May).


Sweetspot was one of the first publications to feature us and we sincerely appreciate their continued support, thanks ladies!


Susan Semenak over at the Gazette did a great job of focusing on the human element of OM home and her story was much needed encouragement for me to continue on my path to help artisans in India and to revive a dying artform, thanks so much for the support.


Amy Tokic over at Home and Décor in Toronto featured OM home as a highlight at the IDS. US? a highlight? WOW, that is soooooooooooo cool. Thanks!

Monday, April 16, 2007

Rachna





Every once in a while, you meet a person and immediately feel as though you've known that person for years. That's how I felt when I met Rachna.

Last year, we both attended the Yes Montreal business seminars aimed at budding entrepreneurs like us. While the seminar was helpful at the time, I admittedly don't remember much from the series. I was probably excited to have made my first friend in Montreal more than anything else.

Rachna Vohra is a dreamer and she dreams big. Fortunately, her tenacity and talent are a winning combination and she will surely realize whatever dream she sets her sights on, no matter how big.

Already on the road to living her dreams, Rachna spends her days as a technical writer for a large clothing company (which explains why she's always so well dressed) while building her ever growing editorial and translating business, S'apostrophe. All of this ties into one amazing thing: Her writing. Holy smack, this chick can write!

Rachna says, "I started writing when I could hold a pencil, and I started editing people's papers and projects when I was in grade school! I officially started my company in 2006 because I realized that proper grammar and spelling are lost in today's world. I can't read anything without editing it (even friends' emails!) and I am a writer at heart, so I thought to put it together and start up in this business. (and holding that red pen makes me feel so powerful - but that's a secret!)"

When she's not marking up other people's work (surely, this blog will need to be edited), she finds the time for her writing. Some of her work includes, The Distance Within and The Acorn and the Caterpillar and next month, Rachna will be a speaker the Kriti Festival, an event for South Asian Writers.


She's also got a huge heart. A few years back, she spent several months with the Parikrma Humanity Foundation teaching English to street, slum and orphaned children in India. Since then, she's joined the Make A Wish Foundation, donated proceeds of her book, The Acorn and the Caterpillar in memory of a friend as well as contributing to a book aimed at raising Breast Health Awareness. It's no wonder the United Divas website named her Diva of the Month!

She credits her parents for her unwavering drive to success and all creative dream seekers (and realizers) for her source of inspiration. She recalls an inspirational meeting with author and animator Jessi Thind, "It was wonderful to see a local writer stepping over boundaries and obstacles as if they were pebbles in the road. He encouraged me to start taking my writing to the next level...It was a wonderful feeling to become friends with a successful writer because it gave me the motivation I needed to believe that I could actually go somewhere with my passion."

And she has!