a minimalist movement

i’ve been feeling cluttered and bogged down lately. 

 it’s unforunately a lot of work to declutter, but i recently bit the bullet and put terra on the back burner so i could pay attention to my melissa life.  i’m on a huge mission now to rid myself of all the stuff i don’t need.  and this joint is filled with oodles of ‘stuff i don’t need.’  it just gets distracting.  it honestly is boatloads of work right now, but i’m hoping once the weight of it is gone…this will never happen again.  and i’ll have like a majillion more free minutes  in my day.   

in addition to the cleaning house, lots of home remodeling.  new brighter colors for the living room, living room curtains (i can’t believe i lived without them for like 7 years now), and a spacious new yoga area are giving me all kinds of happies.  next will be a new couch (much like living curtain free before today, i’ve never not had a hand-me-down couch) and a new dedicated terra home office.     

i already feel better, and i’m only like 2 rooms into this deal.  if you’re sleepy, cranky, overwhelemed, or all of the above, you should probably try this.  i bet you’ll like it. 

hearts and sparsly (but meaningfully) filled living spaces,

melly

my boobs were on anderson cooper

it absolutely makes my day to name a good shock value headline.

a few weeks ago, my crafty friend candra squire and i went to a prep class for a grant salty not sweet is applying for.  of course, after barely brushing my hair and wearing an uncharacteristically low cut top, we found out cnn was in town to do a piece on ray’s indoor mountain bike park. candra & i had about 2.1 seconds of national fame, on the cnn ‘building up america series.’ we’re those cool, if not maybe a little sleepy looking ‘first-time entrepreneurs looking to turn big ideas into viable small businesses’ you see about 1/4 way through the video.  the piece featured ray’s success in taking a risk to follow his dream, and cleveland’s attempt to reinvent itself.  i’m pretty damn proud of ray and cleveland.  and, my boobs.

this indoor mountain bike park deal looks pretty awesome, too.  one day, i might put on a modest tshirt and go try it out.  and probably a helmet.

oh, also, the cavs start round 2 today, and the team terra dudes are at the q, so here’s to them having a great time.  and anderson varejao,  you’re still totally the numero uno anderson by me.  maybe we can go mountain biking one day.

crossing the river

hey guys!  terra verde’s got a big friday coming up!  events on both the east and west side, all in one day- next friday, 4.16.

we were invited to participate in the 2010 green dream showcase, an eco-friendly showcase created and maintained by the beachwood high school marketing education/junior achievement class.

terra verde will be among the local and national vendors displaying their company commitments to sustainability and eco-friendly products.  the event will be held at the beachwood community center, 23235 fairmount blvd, beachwood, from 1p-7p.  come be green with us: bring documents to be shredded, learn about eco-friendly living, and enter giveaway raffles.  (terra will be contributing some giveaway goodies, hint hint, wink wink.)

looking for evening activities, perhaps on the west side?  come join us at the vanitylab festivus celebration at vanitylab salon in westlake.

the party runs 6p-9p at vanitylab, 2495 detroit road, westlake.  a portion of all proceeds from the event will benefit the cleveland spca.  lots of local art, a sweet  spa/salon location, and your contribution to a great cause!  terra will have it’s full line available for purchase, and credit cards will be accepted for all art/craft purchased at the event.

hasta viernes, kids!  wherever you live in the cle, we’re gonna be close, so come see us!

an ‘anchorman’ quote sign-off

dropped off some terra candles to geode gallery in tremont last night. met the lovely gillian and adam as they were prepping for yesterday’s tremont art walk. i missed the event on account of really sweet tickets to the cavs game (thanks, blaine & beth!), but can’t wait to go back for may’s walk.  terra may also be a featured vendor for geode’s june art walk fiesta, so stay tuned as june approaches for more info!

took kid brother jason to the cavs game for his birthday.  ate at winking lizard.  apri-hop on dogfish tap.  yummy.  btw, i’d like to state that i sincerely believe there is no finer microbrewery in the land then dogfish head.  thank you, sam calagione, for being awesome.  i’d like to visit your fine east coast establishment, in the very near future.  while i’m touting, any of you creative peeps with ideas floating around, read this book:  brewing up a business.

so the cavs lost, and moreso, there was a decent amount of pish-tosh (pish-posh?  both are in urban dictionary…) about being excited to go to such a late season game.  who the hell cares?  we had fun, minus when we thought we lost our $20 bill, more importantly known as ‘the only damn way we can get out of our parking garage.’  and anderson played, so the 16-year-old-smitten-girl part of me really coulda cared less what else went on.  that man can stand under the hoop, flat footed, and just hang on to the basket.  his arms aren’t even fully extended.  dude’s larger then life.  swoon.  we found that $20 bill, also.

and since the season is already clinched, the cavs actually didn’t lose, peeps.  telfair and green and other boys got valuable playing minutes against a first-string team shooting 3s like their bus ride back to indy depended on it.

i’m pretty freaking excited for post-season.

i’m also watching artists unload their work into the arts collinwood gallery right next to the salty shop.  i’m here til 10m esta noche.  come see me.  15613 waterloo road, in the gorgeous cle.

you stay classy san diego,

melly

wednesday cle date night!

we hung out on the east-side, b/c that’s what i am.

hiked the super-short but super-fun squaw rock trail at the south chagrin reservation.

muy bonita:

drove down shaker blvd to go to coventry. i honestly think huge houses are kinda silly. but i love tudor, and i shamelessly love to pretend i am affluent enough to live on shaker. i am not, even more so after having to cough up a nice fine for speeding down a road that was 10 mph less then what it, logically, shoulda been.

but a 99.98% (please don’t quote, that’s i think what the menu said) vegan grilled cheese sandwich from tommy’s definitely helped.

cheap date night: reason #4,238 to be happy in the cle. the mister and i had ourselves a lovely mild spring weeknight of it, for, like, less then $20.

speeding ticket excluded.

hang in there, haiti

from jan 13-feb 4, terra verde committed to contributing 25% of our sales to haitian earthquake relief funds. we’re still pretty new; pretty small, but i’m proud to say we raised $100.25 smackaroos, to go to the red cross international relief fund.

thanks to all for your support, and look for info soon on future donation efforts from terra.

hearts,

melly

get well soon, haiti. terra’s gonna throw in some support where she can.

terra’s contribution to some fund i believe in has been on the back of my mind since i started: always there, but quite honestly, pretty low on the priority list.

i wanted to support cleveland locally, i wanted to support human rights, i wanted to support the arts, specifically tiny tots’ access to.

that feels like an overwhelming pile to dig through, and my plate’s pretty full as is right now. but in logging on to check my email this morning, i was distracted by and compelled to read about the haitian earthquake disaster. i cried. i pretty much cry at everything, but this was quite worthy of the tears. i shifted the entire look of my day, consulted w/ team terra, checked out the red cross international response fund, and just finished updating my etsy site to reflect that a collection of 25% of my online etsy sales for the remainder of the month of january will be donated to the red cross international response fund, to go directly to haitian earthquake relief.

i’m choosing to use etsy as my forum for this as it will be a simple place for customers to find me, and it will be simple for me to compile the 25% of total sales at the end of the collection.  as stated on my etsy homepage, i will share this information at the end of the collection.

that said, my etsy sales are not huge right now.  i wish i could donate more than 25%.  but if terra were a baby, she’d only be in like, stage 2 diapers.  so baby steps.  i am happy that we can donate ANY proceeds.  moreso, i’m happy to finally be acting and not just pondering.

i’ll keep you posted via blog, facebook, and etsy with any updates, changes or extensions to this collection.

please forward this entry link and/or my etsy shop to your family, friends, and contacts.

stay safe,

melly

late december wrap up: terra’s first christmas

a photo montage of december:

hope we caught you at the cleveland handmade lmm, our last show of ’09:

where you were lucky enough to snag one of the soap dish sets before they sold out:

and that you caught us before we ran out of business cards:

we were green in more ways than one this year, and i promise we’ll be much more stocked next year…but thanks for a great first holiday season!

we’re now working on gift sets for the bazaar bizarre valentine’s show in february- more to come as details roll in!

[i have no photo for that one.  sorry.]

also still rolling up our sleeves to prep the salty shop:

in a culturally diverse neighborhood i have a huge crush on:

last minute gifts- local terra sale!

need a last minute gift?  we’re keeping the 4 for $18 sale through 12/24!!!

here’s how it will work:  email your order request to terraverdesoapco@yahoo.com.  i’ll then be parking it at the following locations, and you can come pick up your order:

tuesday, 12/22- willoughby brewing company, downtown willoughby, 630p-700p

wednesday, 12/23-  um, i’ll be in mantua.  and i’m not really sure a good location, so if you would like to meet up in this area, let’s have some side conversation about that.

thursday, 12/24- panera bread, avon commons plaza on detroit.  noon-1230p.

available bars:

-porter sets (vanilla & coffee porter)

-raspberry ale & mint

-hemp

-grass & pumice

-black clay & japanese peppermint

-patchouli oatmeal

-winter orange vanilla (only 4 bars left!)

individual bars are $5, or 4 for $18

i also have a few sets of the o-h-i-o soap & bracelet sets ($28) available for the sports fan you forgot to buy for, and you can still find our candles at the made in the 216 holiday shoppe, stash style, and finestra gallery.  (shoparooni‘s got some soap & lotion bars, as well.)

keep shopping local & handmade!

melly

blogertising- how to find terra in the l.c.

i was pretty sure i made that word up, but upon searching the inter-web, it seems others MAY have thought of it first.  cock-a-doodle-doo.

so original word or not, i’d like to blogertise terra’s new soap sets, premiering this week!

porter beer soap sets, made with glbc’s edmund fitzgerald.  vanilla porter & coffee porter set:

o-h-i-o soap set, with handmade buckeye bracelets, made by my awesome friend patti.  soap sets include the ‘o-h’ black peppermint soap and ‘i-0′ red cherry almond soap.

we’re bringing these babies to you- – if you live south of the city, crash our salty not sweet pre trunk show trunk show in cuyahoga falls, tomorrow evening, wednesday 12/2.

east siders- utrech in cleveland hts is host to the first ‘official’ salty trunk show!  thursday, 12/3.

west siders- bela dubby, lakewood, will have us saturday, 12/5.

the west side l.c. (that’s lorain county, if you are not hip to my street lingo)- terra will be at a craft fair supporting the american red cross at the abbewood in elyria on friday, 12/4.

the east side l.c. (lake cty…)- i mean, if i know you well enough to have shared my home address with you, feel free to stop by.

oh, and if you live either in or with good connections to quicken loans arena, terra is still looking to bid on becoming ‘the official soap of the cleveland cavaliers locker room’…

hint hint/wink wink,

melly

p.s.- the name of the november glbc bottle drawing will be drawn later this week…i’m the only one awake in this joint right now, and everyone knows that 2 peeps have to be present when drawing names.