Stationery Scoop

As seen in GardenWise

2009-11-13T07:54:33-06:00

Our thanks to GardenWise magazine for featuring Botanical PaperWorks' Plantable Holiday Party Favors in their very festive Winter 2009 issue.

Speaking of holiday party favors, my husband and I are hosting a party in December and we're going to order these Plantable Christmas Flat Cards to put at each place setting. I love this favor because when guests plant the tree, they'll grow spruce trees as a lasting memento of the event (each tree is studded with spruce tree seeds).

Hope you have a wonderful Friday!

Doing the Christmas baking

2009-11-12T06:00:00-06:00

In addition to remembering yesterday, we did a lot of Christmas baking at our house. Gingerbread men and women, butter tart square, soda bread and chocolate cake to be made into a chocolate trifle, aptly called Easy Chocolate Trifle. Speaking of this trifle recipe, I'm not a fan of Cool Whip but the recipe is truly easy and always gets eaten up when we bring it to potlucks. So it's become a holiday season staple in our household.

Have you noticed that I've been putting the Botanical PaperWorks logo on most of my pictures? I experienced one too many cases of PHOTO RIP-OFF and decided to put on our logo in an attempt to make plagiarism a little more difficult. Have you had people take your photos without getting your permission? If you have any tips on how to combat this issue, please share. Thanks!

Remembering

2009-11-11T09:50:30-06:00

We attended a Remembrance Day service yesterday where my youngest daughter had the privilege of closing out the service by singing Let There Be Peace On Earth. I found this background piece on the song and its powerful lyrics, which were moving and meaningful to everyone in attendance.

As I was preparing this post, I found the above photo that we took in the summer during a photo shoot. It was by chance that the Live Passionately plantable card was on top, and the image now serves as a reminder to me to live each day with passion. It's something that I want to remember during the busy times, the quiet times, the happy and sad times, particularly after remembering the men and women who gave their lives for our country in wars past and present.

How to buy holiday gifts that HELP, not harm, the Earth

2009-11-05T12:19:24-06:00

As you're buying holiday and Christmas gifts this year, you have an amazing and exciting chance to make choices that HELP, not harm, our Earth. Every time you spend your money on junk, you're telling the manufacturer to make more junk. But every time you spend your money on the good stuff, you're opening the door to more good stuff being designed and produced.

So here's what's on the top of my list of gifts to avoid because they harm the Earth:

Kids' toys packaged in layer after layer of wasteful plastic and cardboard
Artificially-scented candles that contain chemicals harmful to people and planet
Cheaper than dirt t-shirts that were made by low-paid labour working in poor labour conditions, shipped half-way across the globe

Happily, I have lots of options with gifts to enjoy & give because they help the Earth including:

Boston fern and English ivy plants that add a feeling of coziness to a room and clean the air of pollutants and toxins
Natural health-care products like lotions and lip balms that contain healthy ingredients
Good books that will be shared and passed around amongst my friends and family members as part of our informal lending library.
And of course, plantable paper gifts from my favorite shop Botanical PaperWorks

To help you find Earth-friendly gifts this year, we've put together the 2009 Green Guide Guide featuring our best plantable stationery products.

Each product in the Gift Guide was made with 100% post-consumer waste, is embedded with wildflower or herb seeds, will grow a colorful plant AND is packaged in reusable or compostable packaging.

Click here to read the 2009 Green Gift Guide.

As you shop for your loved ones, remember that with each gift you buy, you have the chance to make choices that help, not harm, our Earth. Best wishes to you this season!

Press in Best Health magazine

2009-11-04T06:00:00-06:00

Thank you to the editors of Best Health magazine for this feature in the November/December 2009 issue. Shown below are our Plantable Christmas Cards (red and brown), Plantable Holiday Cards (blue and gray) and Plantable Holiday Gift Tags.

Here's the page with the product feature. And check out on the smoothie recipe on the right - it's simple and yummy and I think I'll give it a try this week.

There are 7 1/2 weeks until Christmas - just enough time to shop now for plantable Christmas Cards and stationery gifts. Enjoy!

November is here - check out the bulletin board

2009-11-02T16:21:16-06:00

November is here and what a delicious feast of sites and smells. From the luscious red leaves to my favorite Pumpkin Spice Lattes, there is delight every which way I turn.

Thanks for your nice comments (via the blog, Facebook and in person) about the picture that I posted Friday. It certainly was fun working with Ruth Bonneville; local Free Press readers will recognize her lovely pictures in the newspaper on a regular basis.

Have you checked out the 2010 Plantable Eco Calendar yet? I'm getting ready to place my order for Christmas gifts. It's my gift of choice for my kids' teachers.

Treat yourself to something nice this evening - it feels like the perfect night to do it!

Photo shoot sneak peek

2009-10-30T09:33:43-05:00

I received the contact sheet from Ruth last night and the photos are awesome. We've selected six to send to the Toronto Star and a few others to use as head shots. Here's a peek at one of the set-ups in the kitchen. Clothes are from Poppy Clothing in Winnipeg, selected with the help of savvy owner Cecily. The necklace belonged to my great-grandmother. I'd been meaning to untangle and repair it for months now, but the photo shoot gave me the kick-in-the-rear to get it done.

Just a reminder to you that Christmas is just around the corner and if you haven't ordered your Holiday Cards yet, now's the time. Check out the selection of plantable eco-friendly holiday cards here. All the best to you!

Grey day but it's okay

2009-10-28T14:04:37-05:00

We're just finishing up the photo shoot for the Toronto Star piece and I'm loving what I see so far. It's such a grey day out there that we delayed the start by 45 minutes hoping that the sun would come out, but guess what - it just got greyer!

I took the above photo at the cottage on the [Canadian] Thanksgiving long weekend. I loved the stark lines of the majestic tree with the grey background. It's an image that seems to fit with today.

My prescription for a grey day - pick up something warm and creamy from Starbucks, get into a pair of comfy leggings and curl up with a satisfying book. I may just go do that now....

Ready, set, photo shoot!

2009-10-27T10:26:46-05:00

I'm delighted that Ruth Bonneville (remember her from my late-summer photo shoot?) is coming to my home tomorrow to take photos for an upcoming feature in the Toronto Star. After hearing the great news about this feature, my husband John and I went into high gear making the place photo-ready. Believe me - you look at your house very differently when looking through the eye of a camera.

In the end, the photo shoot provided us with the much-needed motivation to finish up those last things after moving in three years ago. Things like getting some art framed, replacing the aging TV with a more compact flat-screen and resetting the bookshelf so that books aren't piled two-rows deep.

I came downstairs this morning and looked around and felt satisfied. The place looks gooood. And ready for a party. Let's party!

Don't take no bull

2009-10-26T06:00:00-05:00

Good Monday morning to you! This week promises to be an exciting-interesting-adventurous week with a little bit of everything. Designing. Interviewing. Planning. Teeth cleaning. Nothing like going to the dentist in the middle of a jam-packed week, but at least my teeth with be sparkling white and plaque-free.

The less-than friendly fellow in my photo lives at Boonstra Farms, the petting zoo/corn maze/family farm that we visited yesterday as a family. He was a really magnificent creature and I'm officially making him my Animal Of The Week. Feel free to make him yours too.

Hang on for the ride. It's going to be a wild one!

Montreal Fashion week - Soia & Kyo

2009-10-23T12:03:47-05:00

We did a cool plantable gift tag job for Soia & Kyo, an eco-friendly fashion line that showed at Montreal Fashion Week October 13-15, 2009. The tags were attached to the show gift bags. Check out the photos above and visit their website at www.soiakyo.com.

Here's a close-up of the plantable hang tag:

It was wonderful to partner with a company like Soia & Kyo who share Botanical PaperWorks' values of creating stylish products while caring for the environment.

Video Hello

2009-10-20T10:38:56-05:00

Hello! We prepared this "Welcome" video last week. Enjoy!

What the last tomato looks like

2009-10-19T12:09:33-05:00

We ate up the last of the garden tomatoes this weekend. Doesn't the photo above capture the juiciness of home-grown produce? I grabbed my camera and snapped this pic and then made the most delicious toasted tomato sandwich.

Some little packages of paper products are going out today to our Thanksgiving commentators. To the lucky recipients - use the products to get a head start on Christmas and the holidays. It always feels good to be organized and ready!

Speaking of getting organized...have you thought about Christmas cards and party favors? Check out these plantable ones, each made with 100% post-consumer waste and embedded with wildflower seeds and spruce tree seeds. The designs are eco-fabulous!

Here's what happens when the teddies are in charge...

2009-10-16T14:36:11-05:00

We celebrated Bring Your Teddy To Work Day today at Botanical PaperWorks. And while we were enjoying our Teddybear Picnic lunch, we left the Teddies in charge!

If you called Botanical PaperWorks and someone answered but then said nothing, it was probably Polka Dot. She was left in charge of the phones.

Everlyn won the contest for Biggest Bear. Good thing she got a ride to work today. The bus driver would have charged her for an extra seat!

Erin tried to keep the bears in Assembly in line, but they insisted on putting together some plantable Valentine's Day cards. I guess they [heart] them as much as we do!

Those teddies - mischievous, but so unconditionally loving!

71 days to Christmas

2009-10-15T13:09:17-05:00

I checked the calendar today and counted 71 days until Christmas. Not bad - that leaves plenty of time to organize a gift list, write Christmas cards and get the orders into Amazon and Toys R Us.

Speaking of cards, thank you Spaces magazine for featuring Botanical PaperWorks' plantable seeded Holiday and Christmas cards in the October issue.

Our Christmas/Holiday card collection this year includes these beauties in red and cocoa brown:

and these lovely ones in grey and ice blue:

You can buy the cards in a set or in singles so please click here to get started.

What's on your Countdown-To-Christmas list?