mschatelaine's Profile

I've been with my husband for (gulp!) 24 years. I'm glad I've kept the love letters and photos from previous relationships, more as a testament to the parts of my life than anything else. But, we've moved so often, I haven't the foggiest where they are anymore...

The very best post and article about the position that I am trying to articulate here is -- "Breastfeeding and the cult of total motherhood" based on an article by Joan Wold "Is Breast Really Best?" --

http://www.skepticalob.com/2008/09/breastfeeding-and-cult-of-total.html

I used to have a brilliant little table, from bon appetite or some other food mag. It was a magazine insert, and you just wet it and affixed it to the inside of a cabinet. It had ALL of these conversions, and then some! It was brilliant! Sadly, it got lost when we moved.

Now, I am stuck with google.

My husband drives me nuts with this. For 24 years, he has me saving every darn receipt for everything; the receipts take over prime real estate in our kitchen -- i.e., one of our large top drawers. Over the years, he has occasionally inputed the data into a budget spreadsheet, but really, given that we pay electronically, we don't need the actual receipts - every total is available in our online account. So, keeping grocery receipts, unless you are trying to track certain types of items, is a waste of an organizing system.

Receipts for things you may return or need for warranty purposes, sure, keep those filed away according to the type of good or service.

Here are some AT tips on this sort of thing from earlier this year (not sure why the video requires a password?)

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-organize-your-receipts-86588

Thank you Portlandrules for mentioning it... the High Cost of Cheap.

Imo, cheap furniture doesn't really exist. Manufacturers like Ikea and Walmart have just found ways to exploit our anemic legal system to make things appear cheap to American consumers who seem to be near sociopathic in their lack of empathy. Hope everyone read that Ikea used east german prison camp labor for years. Now they're using labor in China-where women are locked in factories or...

They're still digging out the bodies in Bangladesh, 1100 and counting, and no one mentions the exploitation of workers endemic in the manufacture of cheap goods?!

IKEA wraps itself in the Swedish flag, insinuating that its workers are protected by enlightened Scandinavian social welfare values when the truth of it is that the company is registered in the Netherlands so that it can avoid Swedish corporate reporting regulations, and is as -- or even more -- rapacious as Wal-Mart in terms of how its subcontractors treat the employees who actually manufacture their goods. And oh -- it is largely structured as a non-profit, making the private (and secretive) foundation into which the profits are channeled the largest and richest in the world, usurping even the Gates Foundation.

Combine that with the environmental cost of furniture created to be regularly replaced, often "inspired" by the work of other designers, and uncomfortable to boot, well, IKEA furniture comes at too high a cost.

But, here's the thing. Do you really want to live with any piece of furniture forever?

Well, actually, yes.

I fell in love with a sofa (from the much-maligned Ligne Roset, as it happens) at the age of 8. When I moved out, I had saved up to buy it. After 19 years, my husband and I replaced it -- in a different colour. I've loved the same sofa for 35 years (husband for 24, btw).

Even if you don't want the same piece of furniture forever, if it is well-made, you can re-sell it.

What always astonishes me, and somewhat disappoints me, is how little beauty is valued in our culture. In other places, the pursuit of beauty in daily life doesn't have to be defended; it is accepted as valid, as is making a sacrifice for the sake of being able to live in grace and beauty. But here, we don't dare "waste" money on "mere" aesthetics, lauding our practicality, frugality and "good sense" instead.

And so, whenever Maxwell posts one of his "finds", he usually gets criticized by championing something expensive. But rarely does anyone engage on the sybaritic or aesthetic aspects involved.

It's hard to change over two centuries of entrenched pioneering values, but maybe if we do, we'll open ourselves up to another set of values -- for example, the value of public beauty in the form of good urban design. Or, at the very least, we won't constantly debate the validity of spending money on beauty, making those of us who espouse it, constantly having to defend our views.

At least, that is my hope.

I miss French butters -- they have a higher butterfat content and are better for baking. Gosh, they are good!

Plusgra, a riff on the French "plus gras", literally means "more fat", and is a North American pastry chef's attempt to to create a North American butter with 82% butterfat.

Kerrygold is good, Plusgra is better, but the French butters are the best.

I'm thrilled that you've highlighted the Togo.

I fell in love with the Togo when I was 8 years old, and two separate sets of my parents friends owned it (circa 1975) -- one set in blue and white gingham, and another in a beige-y velour. I vowed it would be my sofa as soon as I moved out of the house, and so it was. After 19 years, my husband and I replaced our dark grey canvas version with bright red alcantara.

With 24 years of living with Togo under our belts, I can attest that it's been great through cats and kids, and is perfect for couch potato-ing. Personally, I find the back support great, but it's not ideal for people with knee or joint problems, or who are pregnant. Definitely for a relaxed lifestyle.

I love how you have married ivory walls and white trim; it is elegant and soothing, and very beautiful.

The babovka forms are wonderful... (yes, Czech girl here :-) -- but oh, how I envy you the painting of your grandmother!

Kids grow out of their nurseries before you can blink...

Babies sleep in their rooms, and may have diaper changes there, but really, how much time do they spend there? I've always thought that decorating nurseries is more for the parents than the babies...

p.s. We now use only Fine Paints of Europe, Farrow & Ball, BM or Pratt & Lambert (how come no one mentions P&L!)