The Totally Indie Coupons program is run by the super talented indie designer Lindsay Landis who also handcrafts adorable dog and cat collars over at Pattern & Paw

And Lillie over at A Planet 4 Creation helps to mail all the boxes to us….plus she cuts everything up which is an indulgence I haven’t taken her up on.  She makes the prettist blue and white porcelain earrings that I just love and have several pairs!

New Hosting Company – I moved Botanical Earth from YahooStores to a woman-owned, carbon-neutral hosting company.  Acorn Host holds my beliefs of “conscious capitalism” and I can say their customer service and support is better than any hosting company I have ever been with in 7 years.  While I lost SEO benefits and exposure by going with a smaller company, their policies and quality of service out weighs any marketing with the big hosting giant.

New Design – Our new looks was created by Purr Design.  Lindsay took my ramblings and turned them into something I felt but never imagined.  No more conforming to what an eco-friendly business should look like.  If I see one more white, green and blue label, website or banner from a company claiming “natural” and their products are nothing but greenwashed synthetics, I ‘ll scream.  Purr Design gave Botanical Earth the push it needed.  I can’t say enough good things about my experience with this indie web designer.

New Packaging – You’ll notice more glass and less plastic in our packaging.  While I used plastics to help reduce shipping costs, I read one too many studies that people don’t recycle plastic as much as they do glass.  With flat rate shipping from USPS, I no longer feel that customers will be impacted with higher shipping by using heavier glass.  Also you’ll notice a lot of bio-degradable clear bags made of organic corn starch to replace the plastic – so now with some orders, everything from our product, packaging and shipping materials will be bio-degradable or completely recycleable.  New labeling is on the way too.

If you may have heard, our little town of Winfield Missouri was hit pretty hard with the flooding of the Mississippi River.  While we are not personally effected, our neighbors are and I have been working with the Humane Society and the Food Pantry to help out.

So thanks for checking in on Botanical Earth – we’re still in business.  The volume of business has increase so much that I had to make so changes in how I do business (thank you happy BE customers!) and needed some time to redesign our shop.

It just dawned on me, if you have kids going off to school, the Letter Sets would be perfect hints to write home….or to send thank you notes, or do people do that any more with cellphones?  They should because there’s nothing is better than a handwritten note on original indie art work.

Now with every order, you’ll receive a pack of Totally Indie Coupons loaded with discounts from 40 different indie designers.  We’ve participated previously and this time around Botanical Earth will be in both sets – so beside this first set of 39 designers (plus us makes 40), we’ll have another set of coupons for 39 other designers as we are in both Round 6a and b!

Shortly the entire list of participating indie businesses will be listed on the Totally Indie Coupon site.  Only by ordering from one of the stores involved will you be able to receive a pack.  I can say there’s a 20% off Botanical Earth coupon in there that’s good till August ‘08!

The clever woman behind this coupon co-op has a store of her own at Lindsay Designs – there you’ll find THE most adorable pet collars and ribbon accessories for people.

A plus for you - if you buy our Botanical Earth products on the Wonderland Retreat Etsy store??  I am covering the shipping to any domestic US address – so *free shipping for you!  All you do is pay for the basket and the shipping is free.  Now do be aware not all the items in the Wonderland Retreat Store on Etsy are offering free shipping, so read all the product descriptions carefully, or just email Alison and the gals at the store and ask if you have questions – they are super nice!  I was contacted a while back to see if I would donate items to help with a fellow crafter’s medical bills. Now that she’s up and going well again, I decided to leave our Lavender Gift Basket and Thank You gift on the Wonderland Retreat Store to help Elijah’s cause.

There’s lots of different goods in the shop all donated by other indie designers too.  I personally love the Vintage Obi Wallet by Kimono Momo and you’ll find paintings, necklaces, cards and much more.  Remember though, a lot of the handmade goods are one-of-a-kind pieces so if you like it, you better not wait.

Now don’t you want to feel good inside and out, plus get free shipping?? Go shopping at http://wonderlandretreat.etsy.com today!

You’ll find a lot of fun and creative ideas along with fashions for kids and moms – it’s mom, kids and indie designer focused.  I don’t have children, but I do have friends with little ones, and Boutique Cafe has given me some great sources for gifts throughout the year.  There’s a blog and an active forum to browse along with podcasts.  I love finding new designer things for my friend’s children instead of all those mass market baby/kid gifts at the malls – you’ll find lots of fun things at Boutique Cafe if I say so myself…..now back to the business of soap making.

It’s a great co-op marketing for small businesses like Botanical Earth.  Lindsay Landis over at Lindsay Designs puts it all together for everyone.  Besides running TotallyIndieCoupons.com, she also has a fantastic website where she creates unique acessories for people and pets.  I love her fabric dog collars….but back to the coupons!

So who are the designers in the coupon pack you’ll receive when you purchase from Botanical Earth? You can find a list at the Totally Indie Coupon site by following this link http://www.totallyindiecoupons.com/ti5a.html.  I can tell you there is a 20% off Botanical Earth coupon in the mix too!!

But no worries, I do have diversions while oils and lye are cooling.  My diversion?  It’s the premiere edition of Craft Magazine.  Marie at HomeOfTheSampler contacted me about reviewing a new DIY Craft magazine.  I’ll be the first to admit I am not “crafty”, but I really liked this first edition.  It arrived Saturday and the first thing I noticed….was the quality of the paper, ok the cover is pretty cute too!  It is not one of the cheesy woman’s mags with thin paper and glossy photos - it’s actually like a really nice text/manual I use to own in college with great quality pictures….not what I expected.

As far as subject matter, it covers just about everybody and every taste.  It’s alternative crafts with flair and practicality built in.  The title is no joke – and that ’s just a bit of what this little mag covers.  I really liked the article on the LED blouse…not that I am young enough to carry something like that off with any sort of dignity, but it was very cool and I would have been all over it in 1980! For those with little ones, I had to have a laugh about the Punk Up the Plastic photo on the back page….how wonderful are mom’s creative ideas?  Fashion designer Winter Rosebudd totally punked out a Lil Tyke Kiddie car for her uber adorable son.  If I had a child, I would do that!  All the directions for each idea is laid out well and with a logical flow, pictures of what you need, little quote boxes with extra info and usually length of time to do the project.

What’s great about this magazine to me are that all the reference spots are right in the article…I hate having to “go to the shopping section to find resources” of other magazines, Craft Magazine has all the references right with the articles – makes life easier.

I was I little surprised at the off the rack price of the magazine at $14.99 at first.  But once you start to look inside, it’s worth it.  Why?  Besides the fun, inspiring crafts that aren’t stenciled table clothes of autumn leaves (a pet peeve of mine),  but the ads are all in the front or back…..it’s great.  And the ads that are there are not bothersome like with other magazines – yeah they are there, and they have to be, but the way Craft handled it was quite nice in my opinion.  I will certainly look at the ads as I am not bothered every page. Why can’t more publications understand that?  I understand pimping your advertisers/products, but have some class when you do it.

Ok, probably not the most fun review, but the little things are what matters to me.  I know in their next issue,  I will probably not be bombarded with inserts everywhere, ads every other pages and when I pick it up, it will be special because of the feel of the paper.  I actually have to pay for the next one, and I will.   Strange I know, but things like that make this magazine stand out to me.  There’s a ton of craft/DIY mags out there, and you can go to a thousand different websites or forums on the web to find craft ideas, but when you receive something that feels special it just makes it worth it.  And I do like to receive things in the mail…maybe it’s old fashion and not terribly eco-friendly but it’s nice to look at pictures, flip pages and sip a cup of tea without a computer screen blaring at you.

So, good job to Craft!  You can find their website at http://www.craftzine.com/ and there is so much just on the website and the blog that it will keep you busy!  The blog is done by a variety of upcoming indie designers so there’s always something new.

While I subscribe to ReadyMade Magazine personally, I didn’t know their blog had such options for dining ( check out their Gross Anatomy )….my sister loves Grey’s Anatomy so maybe this will be appropriate for her this 31st!