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Okay – it has nothing to do with home decor, but I’m looking for a new watch. While I was ignoring a deadline scouring press releases marked "miscellaneous" to make sure I didn't miss anything important, I found this new limited edition Omega (above) that I think is too pretty not to post. The Seamaster Diver 300m “Vancouver 2010” has a sexy red-anodised aluminum bezel ring and a background of dazzling white (like snow, and ice – get it?) The back has an embossed Ilanaak, the symbol of the Games that represents the piled stone monuments made by Canadian First Nations people to greet visitors. I suppose I should be impressed that it’s equipped with professional diving features — it’s water resistant to a depth of 300 metres, and has a unidirectional rotating bezel and a helium-escape valve (don't ask me what that means - I think it's diver-talk).Even though I don’t have any deep sea diving plans, I want one. Oh dear, I just noticed it sells for $4,500. Maybe I’ll have to go with something from the Swatch Olympic line — perhaps the To the Top model shown below, which goes for $135. No, dang it, it’s the Seamaster I want. Speaking of the Oylmpics, what would your dream TV be for watching the events? Just curious....
There’s a huge trend toward more natural fibres, such as linen, in bedding right now (see the gorgeous example from Au Lit Fine Linens, at left). A little birdie told me we may even see something similar in the Dream Home at the National Home Show next month. If you like the the look, but prefer something crisper, choose a linen/cotton blend. While I love both the look and feel of linen, you do have to be aware of how to care for it. Well-made linen can be extremely durable, and can actually get both stronger and softer with washing, as the weave will shrink slightly and get tighter and smoother. But you need to understand your linen. Unless they were very dirty, I’d be inclined to wash linen sheets on a fairly gentle cycle, as linen tends not to like to be twisted around too much. I don't have linen sheets (yet) but I do have linen table linens that came from my husband’s Grandmother and must be at least 70 years old. They are in pristine condition. While I'm not over-protective of it (we use it frequently), I try to be respectful of it.
That means, for example, never overdrying it. I take my table linens (and cotton bed sheets) out of the dryer after about ten minutes and hang them over a door or — on a nice day — on the line. Even if you love that fresh air fragrance, though, don’t leave them on the line for too, too long. Sunlight is kinder on fabrics than chemical bleaches (although I’m not adverse to the occasional use of bleach when necessary), but too much of it can weaken fabric. I want to pick up some old-fashioned “bluing” – a laundry additive that’s supposed to brighten dull whites — to try on some cotton/polyester sheets I bought years ago that have become dull. I’ll report back soon on that. Those sheets were actually the last ones I bought with polyester in them as I find it doesn’t “breathe” that well, and that it tends to pill. (I use them as an extra set at the cottage now.) And when laundering your bed linens, don’t forget to wash your pillow covers once a month or so, and mattress covers twice a year. For more good information on linen care, go to The Linen Way, a family owned company that distributes linen - mostly from Eastern Europe - to higher-end retailers across Canada. Good points — and gorgeous stuff to look at!
It's a sad day at On the House. I just learned that a brilliant and much-loved Canadian writer Paul Quarrington, a man I was proud to call a friend, has just died. I loved Paul's books - found him to be a darkly funny guy and sharp observer of the amusing animal we call man. He was a keen satirist, but not a mean-spirited one. Mostly, he was a beautiful writer who could handle words like a juggler. When I first met Paul, he was dating one of my best friends, Dorothy, who would later become his wife. Naturally, I read one of his books, Home Game. I fell in love with it. So when I went to a book launch for him, I insisted- although I barely knew him - that he sign my copy of the book "To my friend, Vicky", telling him I wanted it be worth something when he was a Really Famous Writer. Later I found out that someone else has asked for the same thing, so at the next book launch, I insisted upon him prefixing "my friend" with "close, personal" telling him as he was getting more famous, the signed books would be worth even more one day and I wanted to cash in on knowing the Great Man. I wouldn't part with those books for anything. If you, like me, were a fan of Paul's, you can honour his memory by supporting the Quarrington Arts Society, which Paul founded in the months before his death to encourage and promote artistic endeavor and achievement by Canadian artists and Canadian students of the arts who work, as did he, in more than one artistic discipline.
In researching a column on bedding trends for this week's Hot Home Products column, I was pleased to learn that there's a new, slightly rumpled look for beds that's gaining ground.
Although the unmade beds at my house don't look exactly like the exquisitely disheveled linen bed sets from Au Lit Fine Linens(shown above and below), at least we're in the ballpark. When I told a friend about the new look, she said, "Oh great, now I don't have to iron the sheets." I said nothing, but inwardly I was responding quizzically, "Oh, you're supposed to iron them?" Bit like ironing your undies, if you ask me...
Oh well, to each his own. But don't these two images make you want to crawl into one of them with a cup of tea and a copy of Wuthering Heights?
More news later in the week on buying and caring for your linens. In the meantime, I'm off for a nap....
It sounds like the Ultimate Space Arren Williams is designing for the Interior Design Show is coming along nicely, despite the occasional bump. I can't wait to see the finished room. But in the meantime, I've gotta thank Mr. Williams for teaming up with Calvin Klein and using its men's cologne "Euphoria" as his inspiration. That meant, you see, that us media types recently got a bottle of the scent in a press kit.
I promptly turned the stuff over to my 14-year-old son, who has recently exhibited a heightened awareness of, and interest in, personal hygiene, a development which may or may not be credited to advice from his sister Emma that girls don't like guys who smell like an unwashed hockey bag. So, frequent showers and judicious use of the new cologne now mean my little man - and my home - smells like heaven. Thank you, Arren and Emma.
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