Etsy Love: Carolina Cottage

In this digital age, mp3's and dictionary.com have all but replaced sheet music and hard cover reference books, so what to do with all that paper when it comes time to purge it? The creator behind Etsy shop Carolina Cottage has no shortage of ideas. Her motto is "if it will hold still long enough, I will cover it with paper," as evidenced by the coasters, candle holders, trays and more that she creatively wraps with vintage music, dictionary pages and anything else she can find. Useful recycling at its best!!



I was initially drawn to Carolina Cottage by the Dictionary Tea Light Sets (Set of 4) shown above en masse and as a lit pair. The shop also offers Sewing Pattern tea light holders, which are equally delightful.


In additional to several Beatles tunes, Carolina Cottage offers this "Makin' Whoopee" Coaster Set, layered with sheet music and varnish, and backed with non-slip cork.


Other coaster sets feature vintage maps like this Map of Italy Glass Coaster Set.


This decoupaged glass tray is the perfect jewelry catch-all for rings and tiny studs that need an easily accessible home.


The sweetest vintage dictionary illustrations find new life as unique paper weights.

Green Weavers

My son's elementary school recently assigned a recycling project to all the grade levels as part of a school-wide environmental initiative. Needless to say, I'm stoked! We brainstormed a bit about the project a few nights ago, considering the only parameter of the project: make something cool out of our trash/recyclables. Easy enough.

Well, our garbage is fairly minimal (patting self on the back right now), so we looked to our recycling bin. We basically found cardboard food packaging, some junk mail, a few catalogs and a small pile of design magazines (I'm hopelessly addicted to them, despite the paperless e-versions now available). We recently made a giant, wall-mounted, 3D relief of our solar system completely out of found items already in our home (although sawing a handball in half for two of the planets was much harder than I had anticipated!), so I knew we could come up with a project requiring that we use only our trash. With paper recyclables being our only resource, we set on our sites on weaving up some boxes and baskets from them, as found in this crafty re-use project. Actually, I snipped and weaved experimentally myself for a bit and then thought "someone must have already figured out how to do this" and hopped online, delighted to find this wonderful how-to on Craft Stylish. We'll post the results here sometime next week.

Muji Eco-finds

In light of the recent devastation in Japan, my aim for today's post was to turn my attention on a Japanese brand, so of course I immediately thought of MUJI. I discovered their products in London over 10 years ago and have been in love with their practical, minimal aesthetic ever since. I was pleased to see that many recycled offerings have been added to their product lists and have included a few of my favorite Earth-conscious wares from Japan's infamous MUJI brand below. While the people of Japan are still reeling from the devastating effects of the tsunami, we sit comfortably in our dry, warm homes, wondering what we can do to help. From prayers to acts of service, to the donation of our fiscal resources, our country is dutifully stepping up. Supporting their commerce is yet another way to help.



Reused Yarn Tank Top $19.50



Recycled Paper Monthly Kraft Notebook $3.95 (made from recycled paper)



60 Colored Pencils in a Tube $27.95 (pencils are made from Cedar, storage tube is recycled cardboard)



Card Holder $7.25 (made from PET, 50% recycled plastic bottles)