Stationery Scoop

Hello December - a bulletin board to kick things off

Welcome December 2009! It's the last month of the year - a month of fun and festivities, sugar and spice. There are a number of fun things happening this week, including:

Tiber River blog - Michelle and Adriana are having a give-away here for their very lovely skincare products (I'm a huge fan of Bottom's Up lotion as my everyday body lotion).

Kal Barteski - her art show in Wednesday and is sure to be an evening to remember. All the info about this amazing night is available here.

Botanical PaperWorks Christmas Party - takes place this Friday night starting with an Italian feast, followed by a sleigh ride, and ending with hot cocoa and desserts. It's going to be a celebration of our great team and a successful year.

I'm done my Christmas shopping except for a few teacher gifts that I'll pick up from here, and Christmas cards to write and mail out next week. What about you? What's on your list for December?

Savor the last day of November

It's the last day of November and the first week of Advent around here, and what better way to get ready for the busyness of December than to steal away for the weekend. My extended Reimer family went to Elkhorn Resort for Friday, Saturday and Sunday to celebrate my Mom's milestone birthday and to enjoy being together. The weather was mild with just enough snow to feel cozy. We snapped this photo on the bridge at Clear Lake, where the air was so quiet we could hear the ice undulating in thin sheets on the surface of the lake. It was a glorious get-away and I feel refreshed and ready.

Let's go shopping!

Thanks to Style At Home for featuring Botanical PaperWorks' plantable holiday cards in the December issue. It's a gorgeous issue chock full of decorating and shopping ideas, just in time for the holidays.

If you missed our video from Monday, click here to watch me and Customer Care Manager Toni talk about our favorite items on the 2009 Green Gift Guide. PLUS, click here for a 20% off coupon to use on ALL items in the Gift Guide between now and Monday...so don't delay!

 

Start your eco-holiday shopping now & save 20%

Save 20% on all eco-plantable stationery products and gifts in the 2009 Green Gift Guide. This offer is valid for just 5 more days!!

 

Happy Thanksgiving

To all of our American friends celebrating today, we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. May you take the time to appreciate and give thanks for the many blessings in your life. From all of us at Botanical PaperWorks, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

As featured in Chatelaine magazine's Gift Guide

Thank you to the editors of Chatelaine magazine for selecting Botanical PaperWorks' eco-savvy plantable Think & Write & Grow journals for the Holiday Gift Guide in this month's December 2009 issue. The cover of this magazine is so sparkly and festive, it jumped off the shelf at Safeway. And the editors outdid themselves this year with the magazine content - every page has something interesting and useful. You can access online content here.

You can shop for the plantable Think & Write & Grow journals here - and did we mention that the cover of each journal grows wildflowers when the paper is planted? 

 

Save 20% on plantable stationery - until Nov. 30!

Woo hoo....20% off all items in the 2009 Green Gift Guide! We're talking about plantable, eco-friendly gifts and holiday cards, gift tags and journals, ALL made with post-consumer waste and embedded with wildflower seeds. Use coupon code bpwnov09 as many times as you want between now and November 30.

Other links you may enjoy:

• How to buy holiday gifts that help, not harm the Earth
• How to plant your paper and grow wildflowers
• Read about what our customers say about their shopping experience
• What editors from top magazines are saying about Botanical PaperWorks

As seen in the National Post, The Ampersand

Thank you to the National Post online - The Ampersand "Wish List: Greet 'em with a green card they can plant" featuring plantable holiday cards from Botanical PaperWorks.

Video: 2009 Green Gift Guide

Enjoy this video from me (Heidi) and Toni as we highlight a few of our favorite stationery products from the 2009 Green Gift Guide. And check back tomorrow for a special discount coupon on ALL products in the Gift Guide.

Shop the 2009 Green Guide Guide

We're living life and having a good time doing it

Customer Care Manager Toni and I had a hoot yesterday shooting a video for the 2009 Green Gift Guide. We had a LOT of laughs and a many moments of fun - customers coming into the shop (always happy to see them!), staff clunking up the stairs to the washrooms (I never noticed how loud our footsteps are) and a few tongue-twisting word flub-ups. We could put together a funny bloopers reel! The video will be ready for you on Monday.

This week, I've been uplifted and encouraged by so many people around me, from the Women's Fund Giving Circle celebration on Wednesday night to reading this post about a "should-free diet", I am grateful for the friends, family and good people in my life.

With just five weeks until Christmas, I hope that you take the time to enjoy the people in YOUR life. I'm going to be doing just that with breakfast tomorrow with long-time friends and brunch on Sunday with newer friends. All the best to you!

Give Santa a hand with these green gift ideas

We love the new eco-friendly holiday gift-giving guide from Slice.ca. How great to have 10 fantastic ideas for holiday shopping - all green and eco-friendly!

Go check out the list and you'll see that Botanical PaperWorks' 2010 Plantable Eco Calendar made the list at #7. Thanks Slice for including us - we appreciate it!

 

2010 Plantable Eco Calendar, as seen on Slice.ca

I Found Wings art show - Kal Barteski

What could be better than starting the day with a breakfast with two inspiring women with whom I can laugh and dish and get advice on where and how to buy great jeans? So it is with friends Bonnie and Kal and I'm lucky to spend a little time with them each month.

If you're fortunate enough to live in Winnipeg, you MUST COME to Kal's art show on Dec 2 called I Found Wings. Click here for all the details on the art, the birds and the venue - it's sure to be unique and inspiring event with fabulous art for sale (perfect for Christmas gifts...for others AND yourself!).

Today is another sunny day with balmy September-like weather. I promise to enjoy every moment of it and I hope that you do too!

As seen in GardenWise

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

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

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.