Let's Wrap This Up: Eco Friendly Gift Wrapping and Etsy Finds

Inspired by Karen's Christmas pledge over at The Art of Doing Stuff I am trying my hardest to stay ahead of the holiday madness and not over commit myself this year. She's pledged to be done (DONE!) her christmas preparations by December 4th so she's free to enjoy the holidays.

I'm inspired, but as the earliest we can put up our tree is the 12th, we're doing it a little differently.
Around here the promise is to not leave things to the last minute along with not starting any new projects this year. We're ploughing through the list and nothing anyone can say will entice me to host anymore meetings, make anymore crafts, or host anymore dinner parties than I'm already committed too. Sorry but this doesn't mean I'll finish my Christmas cards on time, it means I'm simply not sending them.  Also, we'll be breaking tradition with no Christmas renovations.

So, on that note today we starting wrapping and wrapping might be my favourite part of Christmas.

Wrapping is serious business round these parts.  It typically involves folding bones and guillotines.

After coming across a really nice download for these little birds from Lisa Rupp over on thatshappy I printed some off on the kraft paper all the Cubit's seed packs are made of and we were off!

Some cutting resulted in a nice pile of kraft paper birds that was mounted on black mi-tients paper (I'm a total paper nerd if you don't know that already). All our supplies came from the local Danforth location of Deserres Art Supplies where I worked for a few years in my former life of working with/for other people.

Then some more cutting and voila! Bird tags.  Nice black backs to write on with a white pencil crayon. Preferably the omnicrom water soluble ones, but I'm also a pencil nerd so feel free to ignore me.

Our shopping this year has been pretty enjoyable.  We've been able to do a ton of it on etsy and some coworkers from another gig in my former life have opened a fabulous toy store just down the street from us and right beside the art supply store.  This could be dangerous.

All the little girls on our list are getting skirts that were handmade in Alaska by Bohdi Handmade along with the some critters from Tracey and Shamie's great new Danforth toy shop Silly Goose Kids.

I love how so many etsy purchases come wrapped so beautifully.  This is Rebecca's new apron from local etsy seller BirdbyJill and something special from Leah Duncan. Almost seems a shame to wrap them.

Good bubbles are important (also from Silly Goose Kids).

Good Earth's Good Jam all ready to wrap along with some nice tea and Leah Duncan's gorgeous design.

Combined with oodles of rick rack and a stack of washi tape (also from Deserres) I'm pretty pleased with it all. Cute and environmental friendly what with the 100% recycled paper, reusable cotton rick rack, paper tape and reused bags.

That's it.  I've wrapped quite a bit and am almost feeling on top of it.  Now to host that one last party, meeting, pack these orders and finish the renovations so I can show you my pimp that preserve entry and get on with Christmas.

Black Friday Cyber Monday 2011 Seeds on Sale in our Etsy Shop

To help you Shop Local, Buy Handmade, Shop Indie and Support Small Business Saturday (I think that's all the tag lines) we're having one last promotion before the holidays and it's a big one!  

Use coupon code BLACKFRIDAY20 for 20% off all seeds in our etsy shop.  Each order placed between Black Friday, Novemeber 25th and Cyber Monday, November 28th will receive a free package of organic basil seeds and another coupon for 20% in the new year!

Order one of our package deals, seed of the month subscriptions, or gift certificates and receive free shipping on your entire order.

Cheerful Cloth Napkins and a Giveaway So You Can Have Some Too

Sometimes the simplest things can make you happy.

 Like 20 year old cloth napkins stolen from your mother.

 Or actually using all those vintage handkerchiefs for something.

 Trading seeds for napkins on etsy is also nice.

 As is receiving kitchy gifts in the mail from Rosa.

 Matching dishes with napkins is strangely satisfying.

Gillian of Craftzilla agrees and she's whipped up these charming summertime cloth napkins for one of my readers. Simply visit her new etsy shop and then come back here and share either what you like best in her shop or one of your simple summer pleasures.  Like napkins, or mismatched spoons.  Don't forget to include your email or twitter handle so we can find you if you win. We'll pick a winner at random on Friday September 2nd, 2011.

Wordless Wednesday: Red Russian Kale

Red Russian Kale in Sarah's garden.  Gorgeous stuff.

BARN SALE! As in we'd like to buy a barn so we are having a sale.

First step in buying this barn so my dog can do this all the time?

Clear out some of this extra stock from our etsy shop:

So we're having a sale! A fabulous sale! 

A limited time offer of 9 packs of our fabulous Organic Seeds for only $25! That's well over $5 of savings.


These are surprise selections of our favourite rare, heirloom and organic seeds for your garden. We're over stocked on some varieties and would like to clean up our inventory. 


There are 5 different packages to chose from:

a rainbow of our heirloom tomatoes

a cornucopia of all our seeds

herbs

for the vegetable garden

greens and lettuces

This is a great way to prepare for next year's gardening season or get a late planting in with our great heirloom, rare and organic seeds.

FREE SHIPPING IN CANADA AND THE USA!

{ sale ends June 30th, 2011 or when sale stock runs out }

Free Basil Seeds!

Just because my readers and customers are so awesome, all orders placed today and tomorrow will get a free pack of basil thrown in. Visit us at www.cubits.etsy.com.  Perfect for pesto (check out our recipe) and companion planting with your tomatoes.

That's orders placed on Sunday, April 10th and Monday April 11th, 2011. Thanks for a great spring!

Something fun in the mail today! 1920's seed pack labels!

Look what came in the mail today:

from Simply French Vintage.  Who are actually English and spend their summers in France antiquing.

Vintage 1920's seed pack labels!  Check out the fabulous carrot illustrations.

French breakfast radishes are apparently not called French in France.

Cauliflower, Chantenay Carrots, and a lovely Tomato.

Red Lettuce (oops, actually Chicory) and Basil.  I'm going to add some of these images to my listings.

A big part of why I like these so much is because much of the inspiration for Cubit's came from watching the kitchen gardens go by out the train windows in France.  I had been working on the business idea for a little while but those gardens really helped me narrow things down.  Growing food, no matter where you live,  is what it's all about.

Here's an Etsy treasury I made for Euro Week celebrating those same gardens.

Stay in touch

Dear Blog,
so sorry I have been ignoring you.
It's just that it's almost spring and people need their seeds. Desperately.  The smell of soil is in the air.


We have taken some time tonight to make some fancy new buttons. They're over there on the right -->


If you click on them you can keep us with us on twitter, where we talk way too much, on facebook, where you can find and add all the gardening resources you want, and on flickr, where we want to see your seedlings sprout and seed stashes.


I promise to write a real post soon.  Perhaps about potatoes or what to do when your baby eats dirt.
yours truly,
Laura

Brains behind the business

Things we love: Bare Organics & ClaireandJanae

Back in the fall we came across a booth at the Royal Winter Fair selling the softest organic cotton baby things and certified organic skin care products.  It was the booth of Bare Organics, a mom run company out of Thunder Bay in North Ontario-i-o.  Having no need for anything at that moment I took their card and moved on.

Currently many of my friends are starting to have babies so baby showers are a constant in my life.  Normally I would pick up a copy of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding and call it a day, but the latest gift was for our friend the midwifery student whose head might explode if she reads another word about babies right now.

So I looked up the card and ordered the softest nursing pads I’ve ever seen.  Karen was kind enough to send along some of their super soft baby wipes and organic baby balm for us to try out.

We’re done with diapers around here, but we’ve been using it for everything else: chapped baby cheeks, little eczema patches, it’s a great cat scratch balm.  It’s really nice to have something that’s free of parabens without having a million ingredients and is unscented.

Our soon to be nursing friend is actually going to be having two babies, so I added a little more to her gift.  First, I made a few of the felt wool balls I’ve been perfecting. 

I promise there’s a tutorial coming up but here’s a teaser:

Then I went Etsy shopping.

ClaireandJanae is actually mostly Janae, whom I met over on twitter while talking about what else than nursing babies.  Her shop is adorable and when I saw that she had made some baby tie-dye I knew the babies needed them. 

Needless to say the whole gift was a hit and I can’t wait to see mama and babies in action. Oh and danger parent papa in action will be great too.

A peek into our business.

Did you know that all our seeds are hand-packed and quality checked by handsome bearded men? 

They are fuelled by light beer and spaghetti and accompanied by a large dog who keeps them from leaning back on the couch and a non sleeping toddler who steals the occasional pack and fills it with cereal.

 They each have fancy art degrees which makes them perfect for the job; glorified cutting and pasting.

I make them work really fast, too fast to photograph.

Project 365: week five: January 29th - February 4th, 2011

Project 365: week five: January 29th - February 4th, 2011


I am uploading to flickr daily, check it out.

January 29th, 2011 Franny and Zooey: Love cats

January 30th, 2011 I was very sick so Becca stepped up and answered all the convos.

January 31st, 2011 Ladies (& Dax) came over with lunch and picked all the seed orders while I laid on the couch.

February 1st, 2011 Not-So-Tiny-Rebecca in the Tiny Prints box my business cards came in.

February 2nd, 2011 Snow Day in Toronto. 

February 3rd, 2011 Hazel, the face of Cubit's is ready for the post office.  This is what 3 front pages in one week look like. 

February 4th, 2011 I like getting seeds in the mail as much as I like sending them.  Blue Tomatoes! I can't wait!