September 2014 {Let Spring Begin} "I Love You" Box

Let Spring Begin! The flowers are blooming, the temperature is rising and our chunky scarves and leather boots are slowly being replaced with colourful cardigans and pretty pumps. It’s a wonderful time to be outside smelling the beautiful perfumes of jasmine and honeysuckle, drinking tea in the afternoon sun and spending some quality time in your garden. We wanted to get our subscribers outside in the month of September, to quite literally, smell the roses! We went green this month and focused on recycling, DIY and kind gestures.

Let’s take a peek at what flourished from our September Let Spring Begin “I Love You” box:

1 x large hessian custom screen printed bag
7 x herb sticks
2 x "from my garden" growing paper tags
2 x "it’s a beautiful day" growing paper tags
2 x round stickers
1 x growing paper confetti bag

Is there anything better than cooking with fresh, bright and organic produce from a local market? We wanted to encourage our subscribers to venture beyond the usual grocery store and pay a visit to a lovely local market. Markets are great for finding wholesome, honest and great quality veggies, fruit, cheese, poultry – you name it! We’ve designed a stylish hessian bag to accompany you on your little trip. The bag also carries a sweet message, “It’s a beautiful day”, a lovely reminder to look for the best in each and every day. Take a sister, husband or friend along on a sunny weekend to get some fresh produce for the coming week’s menu and enjoy a glass of wine on the grass at a market near you. OR, if markets aren’t for you, just use it as a chic shopping bag and do your bit to recycle by ditching those pesky plastic bags. OR, pack some fresh veggies or anything homemade from your kitchen and take it along to a dinner party. Hey, you can even use it as this Summers beach bag.

Challenge yourself to grow some herbs in the coming months. Not only do they add great flavour and colour to your dishes, they also look great in your garden. Don’t have a garden? Not to worry! Herbs look fab in some terracotta pots too. To make your home-grown herbs just look that tad extra special why not pop a nifty herb stick in the soil? We designed and laser-engraved seven herb sticks for our subscribers to give their green yield a name in the spotlight.

GREEN TIPS for months ahead:

Pop a sprig of rosemary in a cup of boiling water and drink it early in the morning to awaken your creativity!
Thyme leaves can be used in making a lovely homemade toner for your skin!

Photo : Top Right - kindly taken by Lauren Kim for Lovilee

Here at Elephantshoe we love to celebrate spring and all things beautiful. When we think of beauty and spring together we think of growth, and we think of FLOWERS. A bunch of fresh blooms can go a long way. They can say “I’m sorry”, “You’re cute”, I’m thinking of you”, “Thank you”, “I Love You” and so much more. It’s not about a big bunch of the reddest roses or extravagant arrangements, it’s about the gesture. Picking a single stem from your garden (or even swiping a little flower from your neighbour’s garden – SHHHH your secret is safe with us!) and giving it to someone special, is a wonderful way of saying you care. When you’re next invited to a friend’s house for lunch or dinner think fast and think green! Grab a bunch of lavender, rosemary or coriander – you name it – from your garden before leaving home and attach a beautiful tag from your box.

Whether it’s a sweet little tag either saying “It’s a beautiful day” or “fresh from my garden” – it’s bound to make any bunch of herbs or flowers look wonderful! Want to know what makes these tags even more special? They’re completely recyclable as they’re made from growing paper – essentially, two gifts in one!

Take some time to make the simple things in life, delightful. A bunch of flowers from your impressive garden will look spectacular wrapped in some brown paper (our favourite!). Pop a cute sticker on that says “fresh from my garden” and give it to someone that needs a little pick-me-up.

Spring calls for cool cocktails, floral dresses, flowers in your hair and garden parties. What better way to celebrate spring than to throw a little party (we do love parties!). To complete your soiree in the sunshine we’ve popped something extra in the September I Love You box for our subscribers. Something so wonderful that basically screams HOORAY! YIPPEE! and YAY! Look inside to find spring confetti! You have your own bag of confetti to sprinkle in your garden and take care of. Soon you’ll be looking out onto your colourful alyssums and poppies growing in your garden!

We hope you’ve had a fantastic spring so far and that you’re taking the ‘thyme’ to be a little greener in your own lifestyle. We want to encourage everyone reading this to be GREEN – not green with envy but green with growth!