Hanging Postcards

My boyfriend has all these postcards that he collected/sent me from his cross country road trip a few years ago. In the old place they were just taped to the wall, but I wanted to do something a little classier here and hung them up, along with a few other memorabilia like photographs and concert tickets, using string and clothespins. This kind of display is way cheaper than buying lots of picture frames and putting lots of holes in the wall. I'm not sure where I originally got the clothespin idea - I know it's a cute wedding trend but maybe I first saw this in my former roommate's room. Gina, am I remembering correctly?

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My First Etsy Purchases

I've been an occasional browser of etsy and I see lots of pretty things on there, but I am what you might call an anti-shopaholic, so it requires a lot of deliberating and motivation for me to take the plunge and buy something. Which is why I'd never bought anything from etsy before until now - because I finally had the perfect reason.


After my friend Elaine's wedding, I really wanted to give her something handcrafted for her home, something made with love that would last a long time and be an heirloom in the making. She requested a wooden fruit bowl, considering her "current lack of fruit display options" so I scoured etsy for something just right and finally decided on this bowl, turned from reclaimed Georgia wood and finished with natural tung oil by MyTurningShop.


I wanted to give her a little something else too, and when I spotted this adorable lovebirdie vase, I knew I had to get it, since Elaine's invitations featured birds. The redhotpottery shop has some really awesome ceramics for sale, including heart-shaped ramekins, so check it out!

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Brown Paper Bag It

As much as I love all the open shelving in this apartment, it was getting to be a bit too revealing in places and needed some cover up. I have an entire wall of deep cabinets in the kitchen, perfect for storing random crap (yay for a NYC apartment that has storage space), but it looked kind of messy.



before 
I tried to create a cleaner look by shoving stuff into cardboard boxes (repurposed from moving) so one could gaze upon an array of brown boxes of different shapes and sizes through the glass. However, not everything fit nicely in the boxes, so I needed a new solution. I decided to line the glass with paper instead.

Here's where if I were a cute crafter I would have found some adorable printed gift wrap or wallpaper to work with. But I don't really have the patience for that. Instead, I hit upon a greener solution - I repurposed brown paper bags that were sitting in my craft drawer*. I knew I was saving them for a reason! (Well technically, I had intended to turn the bags into gift wrap come holiday season, but I can always collect more bags before then.)

Cutting up the bags totally reminded me of those days of being ordered by anal middle and high school teachers to cover my textbooks and notebooks with brown paper bags. Did you have to do that too?



after
Overlapping strips of brown paper were cut to fit the tall cabinets and then duct taped to the inside of the glass. You can tell the paper is crinkly but I don't care. It still does its purpose of hiding anything and everything I've been shoving back there. I love the clean look of the lined cabinets, and it really makes the room feel more open. I'm doubly happy that I was able to find an eco-friendly solution for this project by reusing materials I already had.

And before you hate on me for closing up open shelving, don't worry - the apartment still boasts plenty of other glass cabinets and little nooks and shelves that I left untouched to display our stuff, as you will see in tomorrow's post.

* Does anyone else out there save gift wrap, ribbons, paper bags, etc whenever someone gives you a gift? This stuff makes up the bulk of my craft drawer. It's a really smart and green alternative to needing to buy new giftwrap for your own gift giving endeavors.

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Heavenly Grilled Pizza

I think I finally found my perfect dough for grilled pizza - from smitten kitchen (and can anyone tell me exactly how she is still cooking and blogging up a storm while a million months pregnant?). Not too thin like this dough and not too soft like another one I tried. Even though I didn't give the dough enough time to rise into pliabe handstretchable dough, I simply used my rolling pin to roll it out to an amorphous circle the size of the grill, and it rose up well enough on the grill.

In true summer style, I topped the pizza with a base of leftover bruschetta - diced tomato, fresh basil, garlic,and olive oil. To that, I added grilled and diced eggplant to make it a little more hearty, and grated parmesan and gouda. My dining companions and I all mmmm'ed our way through bites of this pizza. I think it was the combination of rich gouda, lots of garlic, and fresh basil - a unique flavor profile that really works. Hopefully I can get one more grilled pizza in before tomato - and grilling - season ends.

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