Stationery Scoop

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.

Happy Friday!

It's a quick post today because the day is jammed with interesting, exciting, equilibrium-changing projects, meetings and phone calls! What more could I ask for on a Friday?!

Check out the very cool plantable thank you cards that Botanical PaperWorks had the privilege of printing for designer Kal Barteski. It's such a pleasure working with a client's excellent design.

Maybe you're looking for some Earth Day coloring pages for weekend fun? I found these ones at Kaboose.com.

An interesting info tidbit - did you know that the term "Earth Day" is in the public domain in the United States, so anyone can print it on a t-shirt, card, write it on their face, send a balloon bouquet or whatever you want with the phrase, BUT....in Canada, Earth Day is owned by a non-profit organization, protected by trademark law and CAN NOT be used except with express permission of the organization? Did you know that? I did not, but I do now because we received a very nice letter from the organization's lawyer letting us know. Good to know, because I assumed (bad move there, I know) that Earth Day was like Mother's Day and Valentine's Day - open to everyone. Yes in the United States, no in Canada. The good news is that the restriction applies only to product intended for Canada, not on items that we print for America.

Finally, next week is Spring Break in our neck of the woods, so if you're looking for something to do with the kids, make some handmade paper with one of these cool kits. It even includes a how-to video.

Thank You for Friends

One of the things that I love about being in business is the network of friends and colleagues that I've developed. We meet up at different business events, sometimes we get together over coffee and we even run into each other at our kids' schools. It's an ever-expanding circle of support as one friend introduces me to another and so on.

That's how I met up with Kristen of Total She, a company specializing in gifts and jewelry available through catalog and home parties.

Much to my delight, Kristen designed a bracelet called the "Heidi", named after me. Here's an image of the bracelet, and as I type this, it is adorning my right wrist I love it - nice and light, adds some sparkle and the black fits in with my main wardrobe color. Another cool thing, Total She's new Spring/Summer catalog offers several of Botanical PaperWorks' plantable stationery products. Thanks for including us, Kristen! You can read her blog here.

Friends Michelle and Adriana from Tiber River Naturals Naturals donated bottles of the delicious-smelling (and paraben-free) Seafoam Lotion to an event that I helped organized this past weekend. Each participant was lucky enough to receive the item shown at right, a lotion with a Pixie Favor tag from Absorb Creative and the theme verse from the weekend. It was fun to talk about Tiber River to the women at the event, and then to introduce them to Tiber River's wonderful product (I'm a huge fan of Bottoms Up lotion for treating eczema).

On deck this week - many exciting things relating to our upcoming move and a short work week; Canadians get Friday off for the Easter weekend. Have a good one! ~Heidi

Let the fun begin!

I'm marking today as the first day of a new era for Botanical PaperWorks. On Saturday, we took possession of our new facility, a spacious, airy, bright, large space in the Warehouse District of Winnipeg.

We have lovely neighbors; the Costume Museum of Canada is right next door, the Manitoba Printmakers Association's Martha Street Studio is down the street, and the Manitoba Theatre Centre and Concert Hall are a couple of blocks away. And most delightfully, we're on the block right off of Waterfront Drive, a treed grassy stretch on the river.

Today, we're meeting with trades and IT providers, to get set-up for papermaking and customer care. It will be interesting and exciting!

Our thanks to the blog Bride to Bee for mentioning Botanical PaperWorks' plantable eco invitations in the posting "A Wedding Gone Green". Have a great day!

Things I'm Loving

Wow, there's so much to love these day!

My drink: Pina Colada Rooibos tea from Cornelia Bean. It reminds me of last week's vacation in Mexico with the warming benefit of hot tea. Perfect for a cold Canadian winter!

My music: Tower of Song, the Music of Leonard Cohen - a fantastic mix of artists reworking Cohen's greatest songs like Bono singing Hallelujah and Trisha Yearwood with Coming Back to You. It's an older album that I keep coming back to.

My game: I'm loving Scrabulous on Facebook. I love how I can have multiple games on-the-go with different friends across the country.

My card: The Plantable Mother's Day card designed by Kal Barteski. The delicious pink envelopes are now in so that when you order the pink version of the card, you'll get a premium pink envelope too! The orange and brown cards come with the premium cocoa brown envelope.