Alternative answer on graphics: you don't have to have Expression Blend.
You can use the vector graphic editor Inkscape:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkscape[
^].
This is wonderful Open Source product (incredibly fast and convenient) that now allows saving to XAML. As the vector graphics is based on SVG (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SVG[
^]), only certain subset of features should be used, because SVG is considerably more feature-rich than XAML.
—SA