Linden Street

JCPenney and BlogHer gave me $500 to go blow on whatever my little heart desired, so long as it was from JCPenney's "Linden Street" (warning: soothing music) line. Trying to keep JCPenney away from the snark on my regular blog, I'm doing the review over here in a safe space. Onwards!

I went in planning on getting a chair. The Linden Street Friday Slipcovered Chaise is one of the most comfortable chairs I've ever sat in, and the green is attractive. I highly, highly recommend it. But it would've cost me $300 in addition to the gift card, so... instead I went for a lot of little things. Here's what I ended up with, after a shopping with a hyperactive child and a very helpful manager.

Towels

Oh my lord these are the softest towels ever. I think I can hear them purring, they're so soft. Maybe they're not as absorbent as the cheap-o towels they're replacing, but they're so gloriously soft that I don't care I might start sleeping on a pile of them. They're that soft.

Dishes

I used to spend a lot of time driving around thrift stores in Tacoma, looking for Homer Laughlin non-Fiesta restaurant dishware. We don't have dishes that match, and I think I like that... but it does look sloppy, I guess, and we don't have enough to go around on Thanksgiving. Here are some of my favorites:


And here's the new batch, "Heritage Park," which doesn't show up on their website:

I got two 16-piece sets, one yellowish and one off-white. The bowls are enormous, which is great. They're supposed to look rough-hewn (that can't possibly be the right word for dishes) and hand made but they're pumped out by a factory in China, so that's a bit odd.

The dinner plates are so huge they don't fit in my dishwasher, so they're just sitting in the box. Why would a store sell everyday dinner plates that are too big for a normal dishwasher? So I need to keep my old Buffalo china to use as dinner plates, and we're still mismatched.

Curtains

I bought the back-tab panel curtains for my bedroom closet and window, in pine green. The colors on their website aren't accurate -- the green is darker. The curtains are thick, and that's a good price for thermals.

A lamp

My desk, before:


My desk, after:


It's still ugly and messy. But it's much better lit, and that's really all I care about for now. The lamp is adjustable in all sorts of ways, can take a three-way bulb, and is sturdy. Recommended. But looking at these photos makes me wonder if I should've spent the $500 on a new desk.

(Yes, I write a blog making fun of other people's decorating and photography skills. Those who cannot do, mock.)

Candles and Candle Holder

My shopping companion was going nuts with boredom, I had $100 left to blow, argh what to get what to get and then said shopping companion picked up a candle holder and said "We could put this in the fireplace!"

So we did.

I like it. It's my favorite purchase of the expedition. They don't have it on the website. Here's another photo, so you can choose between "too dark" and "blurry":


The candles are also from there, and are blessedly non-scented. They look kinda classy. Perhaps even pretty. The iron (at least I think it's iron) candleholder looks good in our 1960s rambler without being self-consciously retro. Recommended!

Want your own candleholder, or a stack of the fluffiest towels in the history of... ah... towels? Head on over to BlogHer, where they -- and JCPenney -- giving away gift cards! $100 gift cards! Five of 'em! Go! Scoot! What are you still reading this for?

But if you're desperate for entertainment, here's this: