Stationery Scoop

Reward and fun, all in one

We had a fun and rewarding day yesterday (Thursday). Here's a quick recap and the balance of fun vs. reward:

1. Visited the Traveler's Immunization Clinic for my last booster of Hep. B and an MMR shot (ouch - the MMR really stung) - REWARDING because now it's done
2. Went school supply shopping and scooped up some craft supplies at Michael's - FUN
3. Had lunch and spent time with my Granny - REWARDING and FUN
4. Heard about family in need of school supplies, so donated supplies purchased earlier in day - REWARDING
5. Signed up 6-year-old for music lessons - REWARDING, because I could check it off my To Do list
6. Decorated pencil boxes with daughters age 4 and 6, as seen in blog Flipflops and Applesauce - FUN

Today is an in-the-office day today, and on these days, I tend to focus my time on meetings with my team members. I have a marketing meeting with Petra, a meeting with Toni and a few others.

It's an exciting time at Botanical PaperWorks because we're growing and expanding our operations. As we do this, we're finding that we need to broaden our understanding of the science of papermaking. We're looking to other industries for assistance with improving our pulp processing, paper drying and inventory management. I speak often with the members of my EO forum for advice, as well as with clients and contacts of my husband. As a corporate commercial lawyer, John knows a lot of entrepreneurs and I'm grateful to each one who is part of my ever-expanding network.

This weekend is the September long-weekend, so we'll be packing up and heading to the lake for a few days. No blogging until Tuesday. Have a great weekend!

Words to inspire

Hello Thursday! This week is just flying by and to ground you today, I'd like to share this quote. I hope that it inspires you to stay focused on what matters most.

 

Customers are saying...

On this beautiful Tuesday, here's a lovely comment from customer Karen Howe that I have permission to share:

Hello Janelle,
I just want to thank you for the beautiful favors that I ordered!  They came earlier than expected, and I very much appreciate your putting my order through so quickly!  It's been a pleasure working with you!
Best Regards,
Karen Howe

Karen ordered the Celebration Grow Favors in the Love design for her event. The design and text are printed in cocoa brown (this photo looks black, but the print is actually brown) on seed-embedded paper made with 100% post-consumer waste.

Seeing Céline

So I promised to tell you my story of "meeting" Céline Dion this past weekend. On Friday, I was returning from High Tea at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City when I was suddenly aware of a large group of people gathering in the hotel lobby. I asked someone "Que se qu'il se passe?" and they murmured reverentially "Céline". It was rumoured that famed chanteuse Céline Dion was staying at the Chateau and that she soon would be leaving for the free open-air concert taking place that evening on the Plains of Abraham.

So what to do except give my husband a peck on the cheek and say "See you upstairs in a few minutes...I'm just going to see what I can see". I'm not a huge fan, but to be so close to seeing someone famous (and not Woody Allen whom I had seen several years ago in New York) was too tantalizing to pass up.

I got in line, asserting my way to the front. This was my view across the pathway:

I did my best to make conversation in French but by the time we hit the 90 minute mark, my French and my make-up were melting in the heat. Then suddenly, the doors to the elevator opened, some camera men walked out backwards and all of the security people were on high alert. There she was, the Diva of the North holding hands with her son (he's the one with the long hair) and her husband/manager.

 

It looks like a picture from Perez Hilton, but assure you, I was the photographer. Here's another from one foot away; the older woman next to me reached out and touched Céline's son sleeve like he was the Madonna.

 

After snapping the above photo, I ran outside and took this one of her limousine and 15-piece police motorcade.

It was a thrill, I have to admit, and I'm SO glad that I waited it out in line, even just for a glimpse of fame.

On our way home

It's Sunday night and I'm waiting in the Quebec City airport for our Air Canada flight to start boarding. John and I are on our way home after four lovely days here, enjoying French cuisine, walking around the historic Plains of Abraham and revelling in each other's company. I think I've put on a few pounds, what with the five mini-croissant that I ate for breakfast (they were MINI!) and the pate  and maple syrup mousse that I downed yesterday. But who cares - this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Tomorrow, I'll post pictures, including a story about meeting Celine Dion up close, along with her husband and young son. I have a picture of that, plus pictures of the Chateau Frontenac where we stayed, the afternoon tea that we enjoyed on Friday and much more.

For now, I'm going to grab my iPod and my copy of Vanity Fair and catch my plane!

Up, up and away

So it's Thursday and I'm off to Quebec City for four days of celebrating me and John. Yes, we're celebrating 15 years of marriage, which feels like quite an accomplishment and something that should be celebrated. I actually lived in QC back in 1992, and my apartment was right in the old quarter called Vieux Québec. The scene from cote de la Fabrique looked like this:

And leaving the city today is sweet because my girls are happily having an extended sleep-over with their grandparents, and at home and work yesterday, I DEMOLISHED a few projects over which I have been seriously procrastinating:

i) I got up again at 6 am and walked on the treadmill, even though every bone in my body said "sleep, you deserve it".

ii) After 6 weeks of "meaning to get to it", I wrote my first draft of the new, revised Employee Handbook. This helpful resource gave me a great outline to work from.

iii) I finished my packing with enough time to get into bed at 9:30 pm. This is huge. Typically, I fritter away time packing because I hate it so much that before I know it, it's midnight and I'm madly throwing stuff into the suitcase. Maybe it's my new toiletries bag from LL Bean that made packing more fun? I bought this one in the 2-3 day/medium size in 3-alarm yellow so that I wouldn't leave it behind in the hotel room.

iv)  I bought myself a necklace from Lisa Leonard, the cherry blossom one to celebrate my kids' birthdays. I like to celebrate myself while we're celebrating them, because I want to acknowledge the 22 weeks of morning sickness and the hard work that goes into being the best parent I can be.

I won't be blogging now until Monday afternoon, but I promise that I'll post some pictures of Quebec City. We'll be visiting a few stationery stores, of course, eating some great meals and enjoying each other's company. Salut!

Hot summer

Yesterday was a hot one and today promises to be the same so yay for wearing flirty sundresses and flip flips and drinking lots of water to stay cool and hydrated. I'm getting thirsty just looking at this frosty pitcher from last evening. I'm going to need a few of these today to survive in my un-air conditioned office. [Landlord Bob, if you're reading this, could you please, PLEASE send the AC repair guy over TODAY? Thank you.]

I have a new day-timer and it's pink and I love it! As a lover of stationery, I get a lot of joy from writing in a journal. So forget the Blackberry, it's Quo Vadis all the way. Most years, I go with a weekly format, as I did this year. The thinking behind that is that it allows me to look at all of my projects and to do's a week at a time rather than the microscopic one day at a time. Stephen Covey has some good writing on this.

See the line drawn from Aug 21 to 24? That's my notation for the trip to Quebec City that I'm taking tomorrow. My husband and I are celebrating a very special anniversary [15 years!] and wanted a little vacation that would feel like Europe but keep us in Canada, hence Quebec City.

Have a great day and stay cool, especially if you're where I live, in Winnpeg!

We love it when you....

write to us with feedback on your order, both the good and the constructive feedback. This helps us do things better. Here's a nice note from customer Karen Howe:

Hello Janelle,
I just want to thank you for the beautiful favors that I ordered! �They came earlier than expected, and I very much appreciate your putting my order through so quickly! �It's been a pleasure working with you!
Best Regards,
Karen Howe

This is how you brand

Hi there! It's Tuesday and a great day awaits us. I'm so thrilled with the branding afternoon yesterday - me, Petra (Marketing Manager), Stephanie (Operations Manager) and Toni (Customer Care Manager) spent the afternoon doing a branding exercise. The goal? To define our values and goals in order to give our customers a consistent [and amazing] experience with Botanical PaperWorks.

Stephanie's gazebo was the perfect place to get the creative juices flowing. I felt as if I were summering in Nantucket, with the fresh white walls, colorful toss cushions and artful touches.

 
Petra lead the afternoon and took copious notes which will be transformed into something she calls the Brand Pyramid. We'll use this pyramid to communicate our philosophy and values to others.

The laptop was great for Petra's presentation on branding and she programmed it with questions to get us thinking and brainstorming.

 

We snacked on WAY too much chocolate (65% and 86% cocoa!) but balanced it out with a veggie tray.

Today, I'm having lunch with my grandma, something that you'll find me doing most Tuesdays. My girls come with me and we visit until home care comes to give her a bath. We're also going to get back-to-school haircuts and veg out with books. I'm still tackling that Michael Porter book that I mentioned yesterday. Maybe make a smoothie with the strawberries we picked. Maybe organize something around the house. Maybe not. We'll let the day lead...!

It was go, go, go

Phew, what a weekend! This mom, business owner and cottage-goer went full-tilt from one end of the weekend to the other, starting Friday night when I ordered in a little sushi for me and made ham sandwiches for my girls, age four and six. Surprise, surprise...the six-year old asked to try the sushi and before I knew it, she had devoured half of my order of Dynamite Rolls and a bunch of the avocado and cucumber rolls. Next time, I'll have to order more knowing that she now eats sushi (at age 6, I never would have thought...).

Proceed straight into Saturday, which was spent busy being leisurely (yes, I realize that's a contradiction). Here's me in my various poses:

And in this picture, I feel compelled to explain that I had switched to Oprah magazine after taking a break from the very serious Michael Porter book Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors (lest you think me all fun and games):

I'm totally mesmerized by the rocks at my parents' cottage on Lake Winnipeg. I couldn't resist sharing this photo. Notice the range of color and texture. Simply beautiful, aren't they?

Saturday night, I spent some time getting my lists organized. Have you read David Allen's book Getting Things Done? I read it in July and I've been working on getting all of my to-do's out of my head and onto lists, thereby freeing my brain for more interesting and creative thoughts than "Don't forget to return the library books" etc.

Sunday was filled with more relaxing and we capped it off with an engagement party for my cousin Matt and his financé Lauren. I forgot to take pictures of the people, but I did get this one of the cake. It tasted as good as it looks!

So now it's Monday and work promises to be fun and interesting today. The morning: emails and my regular Monday morning operations meetings. Afternoon: five straight hours of branding lead by the dynamic Petra (our marketing manager) and hosted by Stephanie (our operations manager) at her house. I'm in charge of the snacks, so I'd better not forget that. Nothing worse than a bunch of managers grumpy because "someone" forgot the nibblies. I take my job very seriously!