Sunday, April 06, 2008

thin line

So, I know there's a line somewhere between "eco-chic" and "cheap and tacky," and I aim to find it.


This is what you get when you realize you have 5 minutes to wrap a sizable wedding shower gift, you have no wrapping paper or tape or ribbons (unless you want to go climb into the garage attic), and you spy scattered possibilities: a pile of newspapers waiting to be recycled, your glue stick and some an old sheet from the thrift store. The flowers out of the garden are an attempt to nudge toward "chic" and away from "tacky."  'Cause fresh flowers can't be tacky.

The piece you can't see is that the card is custom-made, too--out of the same old sheet.  God bless the person who figured out that you can run cardstock through your sewing machine and use it to attach fabric.  So easy, and so stylish.

At least one person at the shower said it was "so Anthropologie."  I think that's good.

You decide.

[As a side note, while hanging clothes on my line today, I gave a little prayer of thanks that I live in my, um, diverse and disadvantaged neighborhood.  Hanging clotheslines violates no CC&R's.  Neither does planting your front yard in vegetables.  I love this place.  Except for the children's party across the street that has been playing Mexican Chipmunks music all afternoon.  I didn't know the Chipmunks sang in Spanish.  But boy, do they.  They cover all kinds of music you might have liked before this afternoon, if you lived on my street.]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, prolonged exposure to chipmunk music is considered torture in some places...

Krista S. Givens said...

I think your wrapping job is lovely, not tacky. anything that doesn't include silver bells and glossy, pre-made wrapping paper cannot be tacky. Keep pushing that thin line.

And... chipmunks in Spanish!!! Brilliant.

karen said...

I, of course, think wrapping in newspaper is beautiful! I especially like the prominence of the crossword puzzle.

You know how my pondering sometimes makes me several minutes, sometimes hours, sometimes even days behind in a conversation? Well, I'm a few posts behind on this, but this is testament to the power of art.

I do many things to try to reduce, reuse, recycle, but I have to say I don't think twice about disposable coffee cups from 7-11, Starbucks, etc. Today, buying my 7-11 coffee, I noticed a 99cent reusable mug that is shaped very much like their normal size cups and has a sturdy lid. From now on, the refills are 99cents. I bought it, debating which was worse all those disposable coffee cups or one non-recyclable plastic cup. I went with the one over the many. That is the power of art, because it was that link on an earlier blog to the artist with the shocking depictions of consumption that reminded me to think twice about my coffee cup this morning -- and that was BEFORE coffee!

So, thanks, and thanks for reusing and recycling with such beauty and art.

feminist_mom said...

wow.....imagine the chipmunks in ukrainian or russian or bosnian... or nebraskan, or in fargo, ND? i love the conceptual art too.... used my cloth bag yesterday at super save and my old string bags.... a few yet from ukraine when we were so thirsty and needed to carry our ukrianian juice we found in a little village on the boat ride on the dneiper river many moons ago. Remember the great things from niger africa made from throwaways? love,mom