shabby chic

Because we rent out our house while we're not yet there fulltime, we've had to equip it with all kinds of kitchen items, linens, and some decorative touches, to make the place comfortable for our renters. Naturally, we've been careful to make these items, while hopefully attractive, serviceable and inexpensive, so we won't be too concerned if they get damaged or accidentally misused.

I enjoyed our blitz shopping at Soriana's and the consignment bazaars when we were down in January, picking up items to stock a kitchen, working at color co-ordinating everything, but doing it as inexpensively as possible. The result was a place that, in my opinion, looks quite 'put together', but which is more rustico than designer chic.

Rob would have been pleased had I equipped all of the house that way, but to me the fun is in acquiring items that co-ordinate on a budget, and unfortunately, that meant that I bought about as many items up here to take down with us on the plane, as I bought down there. Now some of the purchases were very sensible, such as linens. Although there are quite a few sheet sets and towel sets to be had Lakeside (we haven't yet ventured into Costco and Walmart in Guadalajara), and although I'm told that they wear like iron, the samples we saw when we were down were a little stingy on the thread count, and a little eccentric in pattern. I was able to give Rob my best "see?" expression when I pulled out of our suitcase a couple of sets of sheets from our linen closet at home (giving me a chance to buy some new ones for NoB), and the two towels I packed were very useful until we had a chance to supplement them with Soriana supplies a couple of days into our trip.

Even the pillows that I crammed into our case made some kind of sense. Yes, we bought more at Soriana's, but that first night, after a day of paperwork with the notario and real estate agents, our two 'from home' pillows were very welcome. We finished the bedding with 'cheap and cheerful' comforters from Soriana's, and a good night's sleep was ours. I admit the cutlery that I packed was probably unnecessary, and Rob was, in fact, right, and, Mexicanos do use knives and forks and they are easily obtainable Lakeside... but we had the extra set at home anyway, and they didn't take up much room.

Rob jokes about that line. Everytime I look at something in our house in Canada, and decide it would be useful in Riberas, I put it aside for the next trip and say, "It won't take up much room." So far, taking up virtually no space at all in our suitcase for the next trip, are a colandar, teatowels, a spice rack, a vase, and a clock radio. I've even minimized the space situation further by buying some of those bags that you fill with clothing and linens, attach to your vacuum cleaner, and watch while, miraculously, all of the items shrink to one tenth of their size for packing. When I demonstrated this gadget to Rob, stuffing a huge bag with pillows, towels, sheets and a shower curtain, and turning on the vacuum to watch everything turn into a pancake-thick slab that would fit in the bottom of our suitcase, I thought he'd be thrilled. Instead, he pointed out to me that, although they actually didn't "take up much room" , they lost mass but not weight, and the suitcase is in closer-than-imminent danger of going over weight limits. His, as well as the airline's.

He has reason to be concerned over this. When we went down in January to take possession of the house and set it up for the first time, I had a flurry of buying and acquiring items for us and our houseguests to take down. All fit into the suitcases we took, except for the dishes. I found a real bargain in a set of dishes at the local Canadian Tire store, in the perfect colours, in very sturdy ironware, at a truly remarkable price. I rationalized that we wouldn't find anything cheaper in Mexico, that we needed dishes immediately upon crossing the threshhold of the place, and that they 'wouldn't take up much room'.

Well, they did. And they were heavy. So poor Rob ended up wrapping duct tape around the box, creating a strap, and shouldering the dinner set for four as his carry-on luggage through 4 airports and three flights, so my cheap-and-cheerful kitchen would co-ordinate. That guy must really love me, you know?