Differing Tastes

All I can say is that we will be in serious trouble if we ever get a place that we have to furnish from scratch.

On our priority list for the apartment were dishes and curtains.  Curtains because we didn't want Saphira and Thaddaeus waking us with the sun and dishes - well - you've got to eat.

The most frustrating thing about the dishes is that here in Ukraine they have glass dishes by Luminarc that you buy by the piece or in a set - but the sets don't normally come with breakfast bowls or you have fine China. Luminarc are supposed to be the unbreakable glass - like corell - but they scratch and the patterns aren't always nice and you still pay a lot of money for something you (ok Alister and I) aren't really happy with.  No ceramic, no stoneware, no everyday china even.  It literally goes from Luminarc to fine china with gold trim that you can't put in the microwave and why do you really want to pay $20 a plate for that? So we ended up going with Ikea again.  We had gotten some Ikea plate when we first got married (Thanks Mr & Mrs B.!) but all the bowls and half of the plates had broken (they were glass and so we were already a bit prejudiced against the glass luminarc).  So this time we got a set of ceramic Dinera imported over the border at 60% mark-ups (and that still makes it cheaper than some of the Luminarc sets even!) The most frustrating thing is that I can go onto Target's website and find 20 dinnerware sets that I like and  at least there will surely be 6 of those that Alister would agree on too.

It's an open market people- someone please come sell inexpensive and pretty ceramic dishes in the former USSR!!!

Our next quest was curtains.  Every fabric I liked, Alister thought was ugly and cheap and I likewise thought that his choices fell into the cheap and ugly category as well.  We finally found one we agreed on for our bedroom, a two sided fabric - that again I liked the side that we designated as the "back" and he liked the side we designated as the "front" best.  Alister compromised on the fabric and I compromised on the side.  In the end, hanging up in our window.  He is really happy with it.  I like it too - so in the end I suppose we came out with a win-win.  The drapes for the kid's room/office were much less important to me - it is Alister's work space after all -  and the key is just to block the light so Saphira won't start yelling: "momma, papa - Me awake!"  We chose deep blue almost blackout drapes.  The room is light pink with a red and gold couch bed - so we needed a masculine color to pacify Thaddaeus and Alister :-)  It also ended up looking nicer than expected.  I think the key is that hanging, you see the fabric from a distance - but in the shop you see it close up on a card.  It makes a difference.