Stationery Scoop

Fortitude

The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes fortitude as "Strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage".

This flower, growing against all odds in our rain gutter, embodies fortitude for me. And with some of my favorite people, I see examples of fortitude on a regular basis:

- the friend that undergoes chemo treatments that ravage her body on the way to healing
- the neighbour who spends time in her beloved garden even though it causes her significant physical pain
- the entrepreneur who cut his salary to nothing in order to save his company and pay his employees and suppliers first.

I'm thinking that we all could use a little fortitude right now. I greatly appreciate the writings of David Emerald about The Empowerment Triangle/Drama Triangle which have helped me (especially during tough times) make a conscious decision to move from Victim to Creator. You can read more by following the above link or in this book.

On this Friday, I wish you boat-loads of fortitude with whatever you're facing today. Just like the flower, you can thrive and survive too.

A week at the art gallery

This is a picture of my supplies for today. Add to that a pad of Canson drawing paper and a can of unscented aerosol hairspray (as a fixative) and I'm all set for a week-long, all-day art course on "Color" at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

I'm VERY excited. After committing in January to make time in my life for "Recreation and Creativity" (one of the dozen areas of focus for me), I signed up for this workshop back in the Spring. At the time, August felt like a very long time away, but here we are, and tomorrow I'll report to the WAG at 10 am and meet my fellow workshop participants along with instructor Milly Giesbrecht    .

What am I in for? I have NO idea. But whatever happens, it's going to be GREAT! I'm excited about giving my right brain an entire week to have fun. And I'm excited to show my left brain how letting loose and living in shapes and color can be a great way to live. I hope to share some pictures this week, so please join me in this adventure!

Doing my thing

Monday was a day where I "did my thing" in front of several cameras. In the morning, we met with Randall and Jimmy and from WorkerBee TV who came to tape a segment for EO TV. Once edited, the segment will be very short - one to two minutes, so I felt that it was important to make every sound bite count. Here we are setting up the shot in the Botanical PaperWorks studio store.

In the late afternoon, I ducked out to Old Navy to find a top in turquoise, since this color brings out the blue in my eyes and I wanted to look good for my headshot that evening. My Mom Mary and I met up with photographer Ruth Bonneville to do a shoot in the gardens at Corydon and Lindsey. There, we met gardener Albert Süs tending to his wildflowers, herbs and vegetables. He kindly let us pose in the flowers and when we left an hour and a half later, the sun was setting, the mosquitoes were biting and Albert was still gardening. It was an amazing evening.

Even my mom was put to work, holding (what I called) the "deflector shield" to direct the fading rays.

In the end, we got our shots and the bites on my ankles from the mosquitoes weren't that bad. Ruth put me at ease and made the shoot fun and my Mom was a good sport and awesome to have there for moral support.

Getting there

Construction is proceeding nicely across the street at Sky Waterfront Condos. You may remember my photo from last summer when day after day, they pounded piles into the ground. It's amazing how loud pile-pounding can be. Now, things are pretty quiet across the street and it's fun to see the progression each day.

Now arriving: 1000 lbs of scrap

Late Monday afternoon, this arrived for making into plantable seed paper:

What's up at BPW?

I'd like to welcome Jorge Lozano who joined our team on Monday. Jorge is our new Customer Care Manager and along with team members Laurie and Janelle, the Customer Care Team is here to help you with your orders. I'll post a picture when I can get the team together for a mug shot.

We're settling into the new facility at 111 Pacific Avenue very nicely. Some of my favorite things about the new place:

• HUGE south-facing windows through which sunlight pours in all day long
• The garage door that we open in the afternoons for fresh air; we get a kick out of watching people walk by and surreptitiously peek in wondering "what's going on in there?"
• A spacious staff lounge with not one, but TWO microwaves. No more standing in line to nuke my left-overs!
• My lovely office with a meeting table and chairs, white walls primed and ready for colorful artwork and a pothos plant that is thriving on my desk
• A bright and welcoming retail space into which we are proud to welcome our clients

We are so privileged to be this welcoming, inspiring place. Friends and clients in Winnipeg are welcome to come see us any time.

Last minute packing

Last night, everything was packed except...!

Thursday move day

It's Thursday and it's move day. We're preparing and shipping orders until 4 pm today, so don't hesitate to contact us. By Friday morning 8:30 am Central Time, we'll be up and running with (hopefully) nary a hiccup! Here are some recent pics of Priscilla packing up the shipping crate, and the view from the front of our new place. Makes me think that we need to wash the windows!

How's the move going?

It's a question I've been hearing a lot lately "Hey Heidi - how's the move going?". With less than ten days to go until the big move, I'm happy to report that things are going very well. Operations Manager, Stephanie Roehr, has done a fantastic job of setting up the new facility. She's improved and expanded our papermaking area so that we can make more paper, faster. This benefits our customers by giving them access to a large supply at great prices.

I'll be posting more information about the move next week, including information on how to get a hold of us on move day (we anticipate phones being down for less than 30 minutes while they make the switch from the old facility to the new). For now, you can rest easy knowing that production and order fulfillment carries as always and will for all of next week except on April 25, the big move day and the only day that we won't be shipping.

It's very exciting and I promise to post pictures as get packed up and make the big move. Have a great day!

Feeling good

Is there anything as emotion-evoking as music? I'm sitting at my desk at the Botanical PaperWorks offices listening to sky.fm's Mostly Classical radio station and on comes Mozart's Salzburg Symphony. The music immediately connects me to the movie Out of Africa and evokes all of the feelings of the majestic, sweeping views of the African landscape. It was like I was right there. I've never been to Africa, but I watched the movie and my brain seems to have made a lasting connection between the Mozart piece, the images and my feelings.

I wrote yesterday about color, and like music, color is a critical, emotion-evoking presence in my life and in yours too mostly likely. We're moving the Botanical PaperWorks offices later in April and it was very important to me that the new facility use color [+space] to give a good "feel" to the place. There are huge windows, lots of light, neutral-colored walls with the plan to use punches of feel-good color on the wall art and accessories. We've put an emphasis on good layout that makes work as comfortable and easy as possible with things like ergonomic keyboard trays and papermaking equipment just where it's needed.

What's important to you in your space? Whether it's an office that you've personalized with pictures or a corner of the kitchen that you've claimed as your own, I'd love to hear about what you've done to make your important spaces feel good and right and perfect.