Stationery Scoop

Photo shoot sneak peek

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

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!

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

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

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

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

What the last tomato looks like

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...

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

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?

Enjoying spending time

Out for a walk on the weekend, we took this picture. It was lovely to spend time together, enjoying being with each other. The air was crisp and cool but not uncomfortable. The conversation was pleasant and fun. And the food was delicious and satisfying.

Thank you everyone for sharing your thankfulness sentiments last week. I'd like to send all seven of you a little something from Botanical PaperWorks. Could you email me your name and address to heidire@botanicalpaperworks.com? We'll get that out to you this week.

What does the rest of the week hold for you? Tonight, I have my run club where we'll be pushing ourselves to Run 5 minutes, Walk 1 minute. Considering that we started weeks ago with Walk 2, Run 1, we're come a long way!

All the best and have a great day,