Stationery Scoop

Donating feels good

Have you ever had stuff that you knew you should get rid of, but you just couldn't part with it? Maybe it was a box of baby clothes or your high school trophies. Taking up space and no longer needed but associated with great emotion.

That's how I felt about the 14 boxes of discontinued handmade paper that were sitting in the back storage cupboard at Botanical PaperWorks. Every shape, size and color imaginable, all papers that were long discontinued, but each box held a ton of memories. Memories like: "Remember when we did this order? We struggled to match up the pink but then suddenly we got it and the order turned out so fabulously."

We'd had these boxes for quite a while. We moved them from our old location last year May into the storage cupboard. And there they sat until one morning, on the way to work at 6:30 am, I happened to hear an interview by Terry McLeod on CBC AM. He was talking to Andrea and Melanie of Arts Junktion, a very cool local organization that collects items discarded by local business and redistributes them to teachers and artists in Winnipeg.

I thought "Now that's reduce, reuse, recycle!" and wondered if they'd take our 14 boxes of discontinued paper. I called, they responded with a YES and came by on Saturday to pick it up.

I had a moment of "Maybe I should keep it and someday we'll do something with it" but then I got excited thinking about the art classes and studios that would benefit from our donation, and you know what? It was EASY to let it go. Good bye. So long.

Now we're 14 boxes lighter and I feel great. Thanks Andrea and Melanie for coming by, and I hope to be making many more donations in the future!

Company Potluck

It was a company-wide potluck yesterday, with the theme of Finger Food. Only food that could be eaten with your fingers allowed. There was quite an array, from cream puffs to devilled eggs to cupcakes. Here are some pics.


I'm a big cupcake fan and often check in on the blog Cupcakes Take the Cake. The next recipe on my list to try is the Chocolate-Mint cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart. Maybe a good weekend project....

Plantable Earth Day promotional products

We've greened up are here and it feels good. At the Botanical PaperWorks facility, we have added a number of green, fresh plants to our operations area. They thrive in the brilliant sunshine that beams in from the huge warehouse windows. It feels great.

These days, we're bustling with orders for Earth Day, coming up on April 22. Here are several eco-friendly plantable paper pieces from some of our clients. Each piece grows wildflowers or herbs when the 100% post-consumer waste paper is planted. Check out the entire plantable promotional products line.
Not to worry, Canadian Earth Day copyright owners - it's our American customers who are printing "Earth Day" on plantable promo products NOT the Canadians (apparently in Canada, the term Earth Day is registered and owned by this organization which rigorously defends its copyright ownership).

Gitomer sighting

Remember my post from November where I talked about having been to a seminar with sales guru Jeffry Gitomer? Here's something cool - the photo of me, Petra and Jeffry Gitomer appeared in this week's issue of Sales Caffeine. Scroll RIGHT to the bottom to check it out. Here's a little clip just to show you:

Thanks Cool Mom Picks

Thanks Cool Mom Picks for featuring our plantable birth announcements! I love their tag line: "We find it, you flaunt it". Here's the clip - click on it to go to the website.

Happiness.

Today is a day of happines! First, it's a holiday here in Manitoba, so I'd like to wish a Happy Louis Riel Day to you whether you're a Manitoban or otherwise.

Next, I've been thoroughly enjoying watching the director's cut version of Lord of the Rings. This afternoon, with husband and kids out and about, I'm settling into the last movie, Return of the King. I found this helpful entry on Wikipedia that lists all of the characters and actors. Very helpful for me, as I keep getting mixed up in the character names.

Finally, I'm LOVING this new plantable confetti that we sell at Botanical PaperWorks. I took home a couple of bags over the weekend and took some photos. The confetti is embedded with seeds that grow into wildflowers. Beautiful and eco-friendly, the perfect combination!

Tonight, we'll cap off the long weekend by joining my sister-in-law and her family for dinner and music at the Festival du Voyageur. Allons-y! [ed. note - that's French for Let's Go

Loving these

It was a slippy, slidey day in Winnipeg today. An unusual combination of just-above-freezing temperatures and a ton of rain created treacherous walking and driving conditions. I heard that MPI (Manitoba Public Insurance for vehicles) was expecting 800 claims by the end of the day. Remarkably, almost everyone made it into work at Botanical.

The above shot is of my current knitting project - cotton dish clothes for my mother-in-law, knit on my NEW bamboo knitting needles. I love the feather-weight quality of the needles and the quiet "swish" sound they make as I knit!

I am also LOVING our new Sweet plantable invitation collection! Here are the invitation and there is also a coordinating respond card and thank you card in my favorite yellow (many other colors available):

If you're a Twitter user, be sure to find me under "heidi_r". I'm just getting the whole Twitter thing figured out, and it's a fascinating communication tool, that's for sure.

AND - join me in congratulating Kal Barteski on the safe arrival of her new little on, Penn Lily. See the beautiful pics here. She's a cutie.

Snow angels

It was a cold day with fluffy, fresh snow and two kids filled with fun and spunk. This lovely wintery photo captures the afternoon's results of as my kids made snow angel after snow angel. FYI, that's my husband's shadow at left!
There's a festive Valentine's icon posted on our website for the countdown to Valentine's Day.

My monthly Potluck Group is doing a special themed dinner on Feb. 14. Elizabeth and Andrew are hosting this month, and here's what they told us:

Think of your favorite love story, in movie form.  Then, prepare the food that you believe they would have eaten in that movie, or in that city/country.  For example, if your favorite movie is 'Casablanca', then you could make some sort of Moroccon chicken or salad.  If your favorite movie was "When Harry met Sally"  then you could bring New York style bagels.  Get it?!!  O.K.  once you have determined your dish, write your favorite movie and the city/country from whence it came on a piece of paper, and seal in an envelope.  We will try to guess what your movie is by the dish prepared.

One of my favorite movies is [deleted for secrecy], but I can't figure out what to make because the movie takes place over several geographic locations. I'm thinking of [deleted] or [deleted], but I'll let you know for sure next weekend.

Breakfast TV and 40% off papermaking kits

Good morning you! I've just come from City TV and Breakfast Television where I did a segment with host Terri Apostle (you can read her blog here). It was a super fun time! The vibe there is relaxed and fun which put me totally at ease. Here are a few pics:

Terri did a great job of pulling a sheet of paper. We used discarded office paper, some tossed-out drawing paper from my girls, even a paper bag from local book seller McNally Robinson, whatever I could grab from our recycling bin.

Making paper by hand is such a great eco-friendly craft that I was inspired to offer our popular papermaking video kits for 40% off. This week only, email or call us to place your order (IT'S NOT ON THE WEB) for as many as you want at 40% off. We have about 20 of them, and once they're sold out, that's it, so don't wait to call.

On TV tomorrow

Tomorrow's my big day! Watch for me on Breakfast Television Winnipeg at 9 am. I'll be demonstrating papermaking, showing off our new plantable invitations and giving away a free papermaking kit. Should be fun!