tracylynn's Profile

I don't understand why people think they need to be in their "permanent" home before buying quality furniture. I moved around every 3 years growing up, you find new ways to make your furniture work in a new home; that's part of the fun of moving! I still move around every few years and I'm definately slowly acquiring nice pieces I hope will last a long time.

IKEA is incredibly useful and affordable, I'm not saying I don't go there for things I need occasionally, but many of their items are cheaply made "throw away" pieces and I'm trying not to waste money on things that will be trash in a few years.

Hee. Frotum.

I think the "ribbing" that CanadianMango is talking about is to keep you from burning yourself.

I actually find the knitted covers quite charming. I just learned to knit and think I will do hot water bottles and cashmere covers for my girlfriends next year.

My sister is good at this, she gave me both my garment steamer (fantastic convenience, saves a lot on dry cleaning), and a set of simple human kitchen cannisters.

Nutterbuddy...they did, the Mario Batali one was $110. I'm sorry, you're not going to find an enameled cast iron dutch oven for much less than $100 unless you get it at a thrift store or inherit it. Sometimes you pay for quality. It is one of those things you buy once and have for life though.

Decent kitchen utensils. You don't have to provide a million gadgets, but the beach house in the Outer Banks my family rented last week had no decent knives at all, could barely cut a tomato, and that made cooking a chore.

Beach towels are a great idea.

Decent, not expensive just decent, bed linens. Again, the place last week had itchy old-hotel polyester coverlets on the bed. Not comfortable.

Note paper and pen for shopping lists in the kitchen.

Local takeout menus.

Don't forget Western Interiors...they sent me this new magazine, Luxe, in its place. Am not happy.

http://farmtable.com/ in Northern VA.

I never put my phone on the table when eating or even just grabbing a friend. We have these wonderful things called voicemail and email that will collect those messages for us to read at our leisure later. Insisting on having the phone on the table says "someone more interesting might contact me, so I can't give you my full attention".

I love the rotary-phone-on-the-table example, but also consider that you show up for dinner and your host brings a stack of mail to the table and proceeds to open envelopes and peruse his/her cable bill while you're sitting there. Same thing as checking email.

Best. Picnic blanket. Ever.

I swiped my Dad's old USAFA blanket when I left home...it lives in my car and gets pulled out for every picnic, trip to the wine country, outdoor concert, and emergency event. Incredibly useful.

Once a week...on Sunday afternoons I do all the laundry.

Oh, and whoever asked about sheets wearing out...I've had kinda basic cotton Bed Bath and Beyond sheets for years. The older they are, the more washes, the softer they get but I've not had any holes.

And you should wash linens with 1/2 cup of vinegar and no fabric softner. Fabric softner weakens the fibers and the vinegar (which you will never smell, I promise) helps clean and soften the sheets.