Smock co-owner, Debbie Urbanski, is an avid lover of nature and the earth as well as a lover of literature and the written word, so she was thrilled to pass along her first recommendation for this week’s installment of Smock Eco Reads. Debbie shared a bit of insight into The Wall, a 1962 novel by Austrian author Marlen Haushofer that she recently read and I know I personally can’t wait to read this novel after her review…

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So I’ll admit that the premise of this novel did not sound mind altering or gripping – something happens in the world to pretty much everyone, some kind of catastrophe, and this woman becomes trapped in the mountains behind an invisible wall with only a dog, a cat, and a cow for companions. There really aren’t any other people, other than the narrator, in the entire novel. And let me get this out in the open: though I love the world, the planet, and I’m a vegetarian, I’m not a pet person. I don’t really get pets. So a book about a woman whose major companion is her dog? I spent a week with this book on my nightstand, staring at the cover, wondering if I was ever going to get past the first page. But when I started reading, I found a book that was beautiful, moving, gripping, sad, quiet, and amazing.

It’s not a “hit you over the head” environmental book, but it does suggest the devastation and violence that people bring to each other and the landscape. And it does show how a quiet simple life in the middle of nowhere can be filled with complexity and beauty. And it also shows how small humans are, and how big the “other” is – the animal world, the natural world. And it has some of the best descriptions I’ve ever read of mountains — how they’re mesmerizing and menacing and jaw-dropping and scary and gorgeous. But in addition to this, it’s just a gripping read. There is hint of a tragedy that’s finally revealed in the last few pages and I couldn’t take the suspense–I had to read ahead.

The narrator is a meditative soul that I missed the moment the book was finished. It’s been a month or two since I closed up the Wall, and I still miss the book, and I really haven’t been able to get into another novel since. The one small tragedy of this book – I haven’t met anyone else who has read it, let along heard of it (I found it in a great list book called 500 Great Books by Women). So pick this book up, read it, and then pass it on to a friend. It looks like it’s out of print, but you can buy it used or find it at your library, which is more eco anyway.

I did some digging around and it looks as though there are a few used copies of The Wall available on Amazon as well as on Half, including some rare first edition prints. If you end up picking this one up, make sure to let us know!

Today we are excited to bring you the latest feature to Smock’s blog, our new series Smock Eco Reads. At Smock we recognize that green living extends beyond pretty letterpress stationery so we are thrilled to be sharing some of our favorite eco reads, the places where we gather inspiration and insight into all things eco. First up, two blogs I count among my personal favorites – Inhabitat and Inhabitots!

Naturally, Smock’s love for great eco design extends far beyond our own eco-friendly letterpress stationery and letterpress wedding invitations so it should come as no surprise that I am completely in love with both Inhabitat and Inhabitots, a duo of eco blogs centering on sustainable design. Covering a range of projects, products and inspiration from architecture and interior design to toys, games and clothing that are as child-friendly as they are eco-friendly, the team of Inhabitat/Inhabitots are always providing fresh insight on new ways to make your life increasingly green. From the serious to the playful, you are sure to walk away feeling educated and inspired to adapt real changes in your lifestyle for the greater good of the environment.

A couple of my favorite recent posts include these adorable upcycled umbrella raincoats for dogs, designed by industrial designer Taryn Zychal. I wonder if she can make one large enough for my full grown black lab?

And, seriously, how much prettier are these beautiful Easter eggs colored with natural dyes than the garish fluorescent colors you get with one of those grocery store egg dye kits?

I love the mantra of the Inhabitat crew that good design and green design should be one and the same and with Inhabitots they take it a step further, setting out to prove that becoming a parent does not mean having to sacrifice good style nor true sustainability. And if you ask me, they do a brilliant job at both. What can I say? I’m a huge fan.

Here at Smock we get to work with some pretty cool people throwing some amazing parties, which we absolutely love. In fact we find it so much fun that we want to share those parties with everyone else! If you’re hosting a great brunch, baby or bridal shower, birthday party, anniversary celebration, or a fabulous spring kick-off barbecue, we want details! Email us at hello@smockpaper.com and tell us about your event and you could be featured on Smock’s blog. Parties of all shapes, sizes, and themes are welcome! In the meantime, check out this fabulous baby shower at the incredible Thoughtful Day, a blog we positively adore.

We love this use of our adorable Liony letterpress invitations featuring hand calligraphy by our favorite calligrapher, Debi Zeinert of Blooming Quill, in Whimsy for a first birthday party. It’s simple and oh so sweet, and the perfect way to set the stage for a fantastic birthday celebration.

One of the things we most love about our Smock letterpress wedding invitations is the complete versatility in design. By selecting the patterns, envelope linings and ink colors of choice, a bride or groom can dream up a totally new version of a Smock design that is unique to their personality and their event. Lately, we’ve been seeing a lot of gorgeous adaptations of the lovely Vettore design and wanted to share one that we find particularly fun. The original Vettore design is printed in midnight and sea mist ink for a pretty, classic look.

In this Vettore customization, the couple chose mango and clover inks for a look that is much more modern and bold. By using calligraphy accents the design remains a bit traditional and yet completely updated.

The bold mango patterned backing in our Willoughby pattern is an exciting and unexpected touch when guests open the envelope, which is beautifully lined in clover Willoughby.

We adore this version of Vettore, customized by RSVP Studio in Toronto and their client, for its fun and festive nature. It’s somehow strikingly bold and quietly tradtional all at the same time and we couldn’t love it more.

We’re all for color this season, but we absolutely fell in love with this letterpress wedding invitation design that celebrates all that is good and beautiful about neutrals. This invitation is based on our Haddington design — the invitation is letterpressed in espresso ink with an elegant blind deboss palm tree at the top. All of our pocket folios are custom, so we can add whatever patterns & ink colors you’d like to the folio exterior and interior. With this invitation, we left the the folio exterior unprinted, which means the focus is all about the warmth of the bamboo paper. The interior of the folio features the champlain pattern in a gentle sand ink. Pair that with a lined envelope that mirrors the interior of the folio (champlain pattern, sand ink) — and you have an invitation that is pure sophisticated pleasure and harmony. Sent to us by our ever creative friends at JAM/Mindy Weiss in Los Angeles.

The Rhon has been such a fun letterpress wedding invitation design to customize – we’ve printed it in blues, hot pinks, grays, and greens, and it’s made an awesome letterpress Bat Mitzvah invitation too (see all the Rhon customizations here). But we loved this idea of printing the Rhon design as a 1 color invitation (and horizontal too – cool!). All of our 2 color designs can be printed as 1 color to help keep costs down and keep the look elegantly streamlined. And our reply cards, or any of our pieces, are fully customizable to fit as much text as you need. This letterpress invitation was sent to us by our friends at Write For You in Washington DC.

This is the Haddington letterpress save the date printed in a vibrant raspberry ink. We often print the Haddington design in dark inks — blacks, grays — but wow, it’s so pretty and cool in raspberry. We also love the mixture of fonts (the serif Inigo font + our Smock Spencerian font). And we love that it’s a double-sided save the date too, with accommodation information on the reverse side of the card. We can easily make any of our letterpress pieces double-sided — a nice option which saves paper and saves money too, when compared with the price of two separate cards. This save the date was sent to us by our friends at Events in Houston.

Designing and letterpress printing menus is one of our favorite things to do here – the weddings become so real at this point, and our clients have really, really good taste in food. Letterpress menus generally evoke your wedding invitation design and bring things full circle. On occasion, menus double as place cards and have the name of the guest calligraphied at the top of the menu. We think these letterpress menus would be fabulous for other occasions – milestone birthday parties, for instance, or even a really unforgettable dinner party of the year. We often do cool customizations like edge painting (go gold!), corner rounding, or even back printing of patterns. Here are a few of our favorite letterpress menus of late!

(designs from upper left: Engadine, Helani, Burstell, Nevis, Nevis, Helani)

Here’s a great customization of our Rhon letterpress wedding invitation (check out the original Rhon here). The inks are a cool pewter and sky blue (pewter is such a great color to letterpress in!), and the san serif font really gives the invitation a modern elegance.

What a great idea to print the letterpress invitation in two terrific colors, and then letterpress the reply card in a single color. This keeps costs down and keep the invitation very, very special. This invitation was sent to us by our friends at the Write Image in Rockville, Maryland.

Want to see other Rhon customizations? Check out the Rhon save the date letterpressed in pewter (a perfect color!) and raspberry; a Rhon letterpress Bat Mitzvah invitation; the Rhon wedding invitation in pewter and grass; and the Rhon letterpress invitation in a custom neutral ink + eggplant. Rhon continues to be one of our best selling letterpress invitation designs this year!

We’ve had many inquiries about letterpress Bar Mitzvah invitations, so we’re happy to feature this classic and masculine Bar Mitzvah design. All of our letterpress wedding invitations can be customized for any social occasion – including Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah invitations – or we can easily create something letterpress and custom, by choosing your favorite fonts, inks, and patterns. This design is letterpressed in midnight ink, and features slate edge painting + slate envelope lining (in the Windermere pattern). Sent to us by ORRganics in New Hope, Pennsylvania.