Wrapping it Up!

I refuse to buy wrapping paper. It has such a short lifespan and I already have so much paper around, so I always dig something out of the recycling or my paper stash.


Idea #1: Make the gift wrap part of the gift!
Is there some type of fabric item your gift recipient would use? My dad usually carries around a bandana as a hanky, and we happen to make these great bandanas at the shop I work at. Depending on the size of your gift it could be a handkerchief or a scarf. Or maybe your giftee likes to sew, quilt or craft with fabric in some other way. Pick up some lovely fabric for their stash!

Fabric could also be a great wrapping solution for those you live with. If you save it, you can have a dedicated stash of gift wrapping fabric for years to come.

Idea #2: Recycled Pages
Just because most of the paper we recycle isn't big enough to cover large gifts doesn't mean hope is lost. Choose multiple pages to tape, sew, or glue together into a large piece of gift wrap.

This gift is wrapped with a recycled festival program. I taped the pages together with gaffer's tape (I'm obsessed with the stuff. It's classy, it looks like fabric.) I made the bow from cut strips of a brown paper bag and a single staple, taped over the point where my four pages intersect.

This one is made from magazine pages. I taped the pages together from the inside, so there would be no showing tape.

This one is made of book pages. I've done a number of projects with the covers of old books (like this hand-bound notebook), which leaves me with a a ton of old book pages I don't know what to do with. I sewed them all together with my sewing machine (it's really fun sewing things that aren't fabric!) These pages are from a 1969 edition of Reader' Digest Condensed Books. Flipping through, I was drawn to the illustrations for this one, The Day the World Ended, and today seemed like the most appropriate day imaginable for apocalyptic wrapping paper, being the last day of the Mayan calendar and all.

Idea #3: A Map
Looking for big paper? Maps are big pieces of paper! And they look super hip. This map was an outdated NYC bike map I found in my drawer. Score. You can get a bike map for free at any NYC bike shop. If you don't have any maps around that you're ready to chuck, public transportation authorities usually give out bus and train maps for free, or perhaps there is a map you could buy that your giftee would use.

Idea #6 Artist Paper
If you're looking for something a little cleaner and simpler, this is a lovely way to go. As an artist, and especially as a former art student, I have all sorts of art papers. I've got so many they're coming out my ears! In all different sizes, some quite large. In a range of neutral colors: white, black, shades of grey and brown. Many with subtly luxurious textures. This is a lovely black paper given to me by a German student, emptying his stash before moving back to Germany. I'm not even sure what it's for, but it's a smooth, rich black with a linen-like weave. Perfect for manly wrapping.

Idea #5 Grocery Bag
Remember covering your textbooks in recycled brown paper bags? Simply slice a seam, cut off the bottom and you've got a nice big piece of wrapping paper! Tie it up with string and you've got one of Maria's Favorite Things! For my tag here, I glued a pressed leaf to the paper and wrote on it with a gold pen.

For more on pressing, my pressed leaf was leftover from this project:

Happy Wrapping! 

Bless this House: Visible Storage

I've been seeing it all over the pages of Country Living and House Beautiful and the like: visible storage. It's cool to take the doors off you cupboards, replace cabinets with shelves and hang your possessions on the walls like art.

Of course, as a New Yorker with a habit of accumulating, visible storage is just about the only option. The added benefit is that your things become more organized! Spread things out, you don't have to be confined to cabinet space anymore. Put them in pretty jars with hand-punched labels. Hang your pans on the wall, and you'll never again have to take them all out just to get to the big one on the bottom.

But the real reason I do it is because I like my home to be busy and colorful, full of texture and pattern.  Why hide away all your things in closets and then wonder where to find art for the walls? The things you already own and use might be just the thing to bring some life to your home!

Happy Friday!

You can find the previous installments of Bless this House here:

Bless this House: Entertainment Center

I love rearranging furniture. It breathes a whole new life into a room and costs nothing! Now, if you're thinking, "I would, but I just don't think my furniture would fit or look good any other way..." Cut the crap, sister. I have spent the entirety of my adult life in minuscule NYC apartments, and I have a TON of stuff. And I still rearrange on the reg. Even when I think there's no other way, I push some things around, and BAM! Who knew?

The point is, the last time we rearranged, we took things to a whole new level. It literally blew my mind how great the new arrangement was and how not possible I thought it was when we started. One product of that rearrangement was the Entertainment Center.

It isn't an entertainment center the way you might think of one. It's more like a quick and dirty, rental apartment solution to the ugly electronics we can't live without.

We just clustered them all together! Why didn't we think of it sooner??? With the aid of nothing but a little bitty end table and a simple shelf, we transformed what used to be a smattering of small eyesores into one larger, more acceptable piece of "furniture". That typewriter really did a lot. I couldn't stand the sight of that cheap, ugly keyboard until it was paired with a lovelier set of keys.

With love,

Blanket = Sweater

So I have this funny little blanket. It's a nice, red wool tartan, but it's so strangely tiny it's hardly useful as a blanket. And then I was thinking...

ASOS Blanket Cardigan

Quiksilver Snow Blanket Cardigan

Kensie Nomad Blanket Sweater

Old Navy Printed Blanket Sweater

... just add sleeves!

I'll admit, it wasn't a roaring success. I didn't get the sleeve placement quite right, so it fits a little funny. But you've got to crack a few eggs, right?

But just think, had it turned out correctly, what a great little project! So quick, so easy! I had such a lovely little tutorial for you, dag-nabbit! Maybe I'll try it again sometime.

With love,

Update: See my second try here... Success + Tutorial!

Bless this House: Color Palette

I have a color obsession that I just can't seem to break from.

I tore this image out of a fashion magazine and pasted it into my inspiration book back in 2006, while still living in the college dorms at Pratt. There was something so irresistible about it, I kept coming back to it.

Those paint chips are from my first apartment. Without consciously connecting my color choices to this image, I chose them precisely, only realizing after all was done and painted that the dress had inspired it all.

Ralph Lauren Beach Yellow and Behr Wet Coral

The living room an incredible shade that balances on the precipice of warm gold and chartreuse, the kitchen teetering between coral and salmon.


Then, in my current apartment, after a lengthy back and forth with my roommates, we finally agreed on a color for the communal space.

Behr Mesa Sunrise

Look familiar?

It's close, but ever-so-slightly muted. It feels a little more warm, a little less brilliant. Comforting.



And then I painted my bedroom. I swear it's a different color...

Behr Fervent Brass

Also less bright then its predecessor, a little mustardy. It has a classy, European study kind of feel.



And of course, we just ordered Real Milk Paint in Yellow Ochre for our bedroom in Northampton. And I'll admit, I've got my eye on their Butternut Squash, but we did choose Moss Green for the living room. Branching out, I am!

With love,