material girl

[metaphortunate]

Was talking on Twitter about how unfortunate it is that retail therapy totally works. :D: Only saving grace is that, at least for me, it's so much more helpful/satisfying if I'm filling a real need with whatever I'm buying than if I'm just impulse picking up some random crap.

For example, last week I bought a watch and a desperately needed new pair of work trousers. Behold, getting dressed in the morning is easier at least one day a week, and that is valuable to me. And the watch: I know people say watches are obsolete because now everyone has smart phones, and all I can say is, these must be people who don't walk around outside a lot or take public transportation. There are at least a couple of times almost every single day when I want to know what time it is and I really don't want to pull out my cell phone. Now I can!

In general, I am honestly a big fan of material things, as long as they are the right material things. Material things that are sort of what I want and sort of not just pile up in the house and make me miserable. Material things that are perfect give me a shot of genuine happiness every time I experience them or use them. Like:

• The gorgeous coat hooks on our stairs that Mr. E and I picked out together and he installed one day to surprise me and which mean that we have a completely convenient place to put jackets and hats as soon as we come in the house and which, incidentally, are great looking
  
• Chanel Cuir de Russie, which smells like old lady right when I put it on and within about 20 minutes has transformed into this rich, smooth, work-of-art leather aroma, so that for the rest of the day, no matter what kind of mess I look like, I smell like subtle, complex, recondite pleasures; and it makes my entire day better
  
• My purse, which took me forever to find the exact right one, and which is exactly big enough for my wallet, coin purse, sunglasses, phone, iPod, headphones, small pocketknife, tissues, hand sanitizer, pen, lipstick and enough room to pull one thing out without knocking everything else out, and not one bit bigger or heavier or more awkward
  
• Our drinking glasses, which are blue and have this smooth texture which is a small pleasure to touch every time I get a glass of water
  
• Dried persimmons, for obvious reasons!

What are your favorite material things?

Comments

[cofax7]

I love my red tote bag from Duluth Trading Company. It's red, and professional but not sleek; it will wear, and last forever.

I love the replica Mission-style sideboard in my kitchen. I got it free from someone in my book club, and it's beautiful and entirely useful. Even has wheels, which is vital for reaching the outlet behind it.

I love my red overcoat, which I looked for for a couple of years. Finally found it cheap at Nordstrom Rack, in a fabulous colour that makes even the greyest winter day a bit more cheerful.

I loved the multi-colored scarf my brother brought back from India. It goes with everything, and it's warm and lovely--and I can't find it! I must have left it somewhere, but I don't know where. :-(

[metaphortunate]

I hope you find it!

[rosefox]

The cool smooth pillowcases on the body pillows that I cuddle up with at night.

My perfectly comfortable bed, which I've had for 13 years now and hope to keep forever. It's just soft enough and just firm enough.

My tablet; it felt completely ridiculously decadent to get something basically just for playing games, but I love it and I'm really glad I allowed myself to do something that indulgent (and grateful to X and J for abetting me).

Pilot V-Ball Extra Fine pens in green.

My green green green really super green shiny new water bottle. It holds a little more than the last one and it keeps me hydrated and it fills my day with shimmering color.

Warm fleece-lined sweatpants that make me feel instantly cozy.

And if edible things count, desserts that combine textures and flavors and temperatures in fun and interesting ways: root beer floats, hot pumpkin pudding with vanilla ice cream, caramel ice cream in hot chocolate. My reward to myself when I finish this goddamn freelance project will be making coffee cake. I have been very into desserts lately, and I don't mind at all.

[metaphortunate]

I hope your coffee cake turns out great.

Man, escapism tonight.

[thistleingrey]

Dried persimmons are so delicious.

[brooksmoses]

I don't know about "favorite" exactly, but I have been doing a bit more retail therapy than I probably ought to be recently, and the summation is that eBay is a foul and unfortunately effective temptation. Because one decides to buy a thing, and then is tempted to go back and check whether it has stayed bought or not, and one must also eventually go back and pay for it, and there are all these opportunities at which one can be presented with more similar things to decide to buy, and there is no end to it. (Especially if one has learned how to save searches!)

The things that I have lately been buying have been nearly-new Brooks Brothers shirts (if I need new shirts, and when I started this I did, I might as well buy really good ones, given that cheap new ones in stores and basically any used ones on eBay are all around the same price), and ties (which I am unlikely to ever wear, but shiny!), and old color slides from the 1950s that are artistically interesting and/or a look into that time that looks pretty much like a modern photograph instead of the typical black-and-white ones of the time. In particular, I tend to think of steam locomotives as old history, and it's nifty to have photographs of them as part of everyday life that mostly just looks like everyday life with the trees and mountains looking like the trees and mountains that I know.

I also bought a good used slide scanner for scanning the slides, which I should get set up soon. The fact that I haven't yet tells you something about the process of buying the slides, and the balance between intention and actuality that's occurring there....

[metaphortunate]

Uh oh. That does make eBay sound horribly appealing. :)

[azurelunatic]

I have been really enjoying my smartwatch. I haul out my phone less! I see what time it is! I see and feel incoming calls that I might miss from a phone in my cardigan pocket!

My soft leather sandals, which are the most comfortable shoes I have ever owned. I may need to get them re-soled, as all the tread has disappeared from the bottom. What I probably really need is to get another pair in black, and to get the current grey-tan ones re-soled, so I'll have a spare for emergencies.

The jacket which I located for Purple. It was sort of like putting a matte black, sophisticated, soft-touch cover on a slightly dinged-up Android -- it's still the same inside, but outside it looks so sleek and new, and you just want to touch and admire, and you know it's better protected now... *ahem* Yes, so my dear friend has a new fall coat, and he was just needing one, and it looks great on him, and he obviously likes it a lot. And I have one just like it. (Bless the swag gods.)

BPAL Fire of Love, which is summer wild roses all over.

Right after a shower, a fresh-out-of-the-dryer pair of the cotton underpants that I have stitched a cotton washcloth into, followed by an equally clean, warm, and soft nightgown and then straight into bed with my favorite microsuede-covered body pillow.

One of the little silver or black tungsten bangle rings which make me look deceptively married but most of all make me feel fully dressed while wearing them (otherwise my hands feel a bit naked).

A nice, fast, responsive computer with a good, heavy, smooth-gliding mouse and a comfortable, clicky keyboard.

[metaphortunate]

I like the jacket analogy. :)

[wychwood]

I'm really being converted to the value of finding material objects that are just right. For my dad's birthday last year, we bought him a set of salt and pepper grinders; they are ridiculous, and cost about £40, and are made by Peugeot (a car manufacturer). But they are also a genuine pleasure to use, every time. Beauty in the everyday.

[metaphortunate]

Yes, having beautiful things that you use is great in a completely different way than having beautiful art on the wall!

[antisoppist]

I have done quite a bit of retail therapy in the past year.

A handbag - after ten years of backpacks due to pushing a push chair up and down hills I suddenly realised I could have a shoulder bag again. Brown leather. Compartments for all the things, none of which are spare nappies or babywipes. I am tempted to splash out and get A Second Bag in a different colour but worry this would be extravagant.

Pyjamas - satin with geometric patterns on and matching robe. I realised I did not have to wear the cotton ones with an enormous rip under the arm forever.

Purple velvet coat - most recent and ridiculously happy-making

[metaphortunate]

Yes, the end of spare diapers/wipes will be glorious! It is not yet for me. The reason my bag is so small is that I wear it AND a backpack with a spare diaper and wipes and all the kids' food and gear in it.

Soon there will be slightly less gear and I will switch back from backpack plus small purse to the shoulder bag I wore when the Junebug was about a year and a half old, which is black cloth and big enough to carry my stuff plus a shitload of baby gear, but still slightly smaller than a backpack, and much less awkward in crowded conditions.

[rmc28]

I have a watch and I use it a lot. I don't want and sometimes physically can't be hauling my phone out when I'm wrangling two children and we have to be somewhere (so basically every day).

Icon was taken when I got a working wristwatch after 5 months of not having one and OMG I was so happy. (Sadly, child 1 broke it about a year later, and I am now wearing a different and not as nice watch because my personal preference in watches seems to be out of fashion at the moment.)

[metaphortunate]

Yes, that is another issue!

[jae]

Impulse purchases make me feel guilty. But if I buy something I've been thinking about buying for at least a little while, I usually feel really good, even if I didn't need it at all. (My most recent example: this gorgeous coat in a bright red.) It's funny how these things work.

I know people say watches are obsolete because now everyone has smart phones, and all I can say is, these must be people who don't walk around outside a lot or take public transportation.

I'm not parsing this: am I not supposed to want to take my phone out while walking around outside? while taking public transportation? Both? (For what it's worth, I walk around outside all the time, AND take public transportation, and stopped wearing a watch several years ago.)

-J

[metaphortunate]

Uh, yes! At least in my neck of the woods, not to victim blame, but it greatly increases the chances that some enterprising capitalist will punch you in the face and run away with your phone. There are regular announcements not to come up the escalator at one of my daily stops staring at your phone because people get picked off as they get to the top.

[skygiants]

I have discovered thrifting in the past couple years, which has the benefit of giving you an emotional shot of false virtue during the purchase - "I did need a sweater or a purse, and I could've paid four times as much for it if I hadn't found this one right here in the thrift shop!"

Also I have been making a resolution to buy more art, because the stuff I have that I really like makes me so happy.

[metaphortunate]

Oh god, yes. Deals have such a spurious feeling of virtuous satisfaction.

[starlady]

I just bought a cast iron teapot (purpole wash on black ground) and it makes me very happy indeed. I've wanted one for a while, and I got this one, and it's perfect.

I need a smaller bag for not carrying my laptop around in Japan, which means I have the pleasure of picking one out.

[metaphortunate]

Yay, perfect things!

[ironed_orchid]

My phone ran out of battery on Friday evening, which meant I really wished I had a watch.

I love finding objects that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing. Right now I love my tangerine summer dress, my set of Global knives (which we bought with a gift voucher when they were on sale), and my bright orange bone china coffee cups, which are the perfect colour, have a great mouthfeel, and are clearly a coffee cup and not a tea cup.

[norah]

My spirit level necklace and my wooden necklace. My favorite earrings. My delicious perfect shoes. My phone & it's nifty wallet case. My MacBook Air (so light & shiny!). GPS. My re-usable coffee cups (one of which came from you!). My briefcase bag. Good origami paper. Honeycrisp apples even when they are pricey. Some things never fade on the hedonic treadmill.

[metaphortunate]

And I have your Dick and Jane coffee mug still, and I think of you every time I use it. :)

[kate_nepveu]

I found a clothes maker this summer that made dresses that flattered me and were consistently sized and that I could order online, so I bought quite a few, and every time I got dressed for work this summer I was happy to be looking nice instead of resigned to be looking sufficiently-covered.

Sadly their long-sleeved dresses do not look nearly as appealing, but someone just recced another online store and I have hopes.

[metaphortunate]

Yes - it feels really surprisingly good to look better than just sufficiently-covered!

[cahn]

Oh man, I love material things. I think one thing is that I always kind of have a running list in the back of my head of Things That I Am Reasonably Sure Would Make My Life Better, so when I do retail therapy (which is way too often) I generally try to pick something from the list rather than just get something random.

For the last year or so I've been buying clothes (right now it's tunic-y things that I should *crosses fingers* be able to wear even after kiddo's born) so that I can, well, actually look like a halfway attractive person instead of slumming around in baggy T-shirts and the like, which is what I always used to wear. I am starting to have a list in my head of Gaps in My Wardrobe so that I can fill them when I get a chance. It's a wonderful feeling not to look in my closet/wardrobe and have it full of things and feel like there's nothing in it I can wear!

Our old large nonstick frying pan had gotten destroyed a while back (by someone else who apparently had never been taught how to use them, grr) and we finally bought a nice new one, and life is so much better now.

I'm kind of weird this way, but my life actually tends to be much better with some shiny things in it. In particular, the intense blue sapphire ring I bought five years ago makes me happy every time I wear it (which is most days).

(Also: COAT HOOKS YES. Life is so much better with them!)

[wired]

I keep a trello list of things I can buy myself at various pricepoints, when and if I have money.

* Kaffe Fasset fabric, just to frame and hang on the wall of my sewing room.
* BOOTS
* A really nice, fast charger set for each of the places I sit regularly, in bright colors.
* A hoodie from Costco which is heavy cotton knit lined with fake fur, except for the sleeves, which are properly lined with slippery lining.
* $60 Kai sewing shears, which I swear to you, make the sound of cutting. Like if you had to imagine a sound that went with the word "shear", these have it.
* $40/yd silk, which I am sewing for a wedding. It's so much nicer than I expect it to be, every time I touch it.
* Handleband to mount my phone to my bike. Simple, elegant, useful.
* Clothes I have made myself usually make me really happy. I frequently wear them when I need courage.

[metaphortunate]

BOOTS. I need some. No, literally, my podiatrist says basically I need to wear boots as work shoes every day forever. I am a bit sad about never any nice flats, but...at least I am determined to find myself some damn fine boots, if that's all I get to wear.

[laurajv]

Earlier today, I inventoried my sweaters, which fell into several categories:

1. worn out and shredded from being worn so often
2. worn often but purchased recently enough they are not in dire condition
3. basically worn if I absolutely cannot find anything else to put on my body

I decided to analyze those in 1 & 2 to figure out what was so great about them, so I could get more like them.

All of them except 1 were cardigans, or I had cut them into cardigans with pinking shears (and that last one I'm going to do that to -- I wear it less than I would if it was a cardigan). None of them was the standard basic cardigan shape. All of them were soft and fluid but had nice structural elements to them to keep them from shapelessness. None of them were too heavyweight. All of them were neutrals, but usually with some kind of texture/pattern to them -- heathering, tweediness, or stripes of two neutral shades. All of them were longer lengths -- past the high hip.

Then I went and ordered three cardigans that fulfilled all those characteristics online. I'm very much looking forward to them.

edit: Oh, I should have said, my winter hiking boots. I gritted my teeth and paid through the nose for them -- they were somewhere over $350 -- and every time we have terrible cold weather I think how much of a bargain they are. They're Fryes, super-comfortable, real shearling, grippy soles, can walk in them for hours, can accommodate socklessness or Giant Alpaca Fluff Socks. They can easily keep my toes toasty warm in horrible, horrible weather.

[metaphortunate]

Wow. What a very good idea!

Fuck, I am angry about Fryes! A couple years ago I gritted my teeth and paid through the nose for some because I had heard such good things about their durability, etc. Well, turns out they hurt like a motherfucker and if they last forever it just means I'll have these goddamn boots that hurt too much to wear forever. I want to sell them but last time I went by my local thrift shop they had, seriously, two identical pairs on the rack. I think I must have the lemon of Fryes.

Leather seems to do it for me

[jesse_the_k]

In particular:

• perfect bag I finally had made for me this year (gray, smooth)


• funky "captain's" cap (black, suede, at least 10 years old)


• slinky slinky Arcopedic booties, which are warm and yet soft as socks (last year, matte black)


• dramatic yet completely functional cape which covers all the way from my ankles in front to over my back and down to the bottom of my rear bag on my chair (patchwork, dark dark mahogany, more than 10 years)


• the smart femme sleek zipper jacket (smooth, intense purple, 14 years old)

Those of you who know me from WisCon never have a chance to see me loving my leathers!

Re: Leather seems to do it for me

[metaphortunate]

I want some photos of these! They sound gorgeous.

[wordweaverlynn]

I love my Calphalon pots and my cast-iron frying pans. (Well, they're

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<lj-user="gramina">') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

I love my Calphalon pots and my cast-iron frying pans. (Well, they're <lj-user="gramina">'s, really, handed down from her grandfather the cattle rustler.)

I love my beautiful Mission oak filing cabinet (bought at a scandalously low price off Craigslist). I especially love old things I can rescue and make happy again.

I love the foaming soap pump I bought for the hall bathroom and the lemon-basil soap I keep in it.

I love the <a href="http://www.needlestack.com/WebStore/Thread/DinkyDyes_Silk.html">variegated</a> silk <a href="http://www.needlestack.com/WebStore/Thread/CC_Waterlilies.html">embroidery floss</a> I use in geometric patterns. The shifting colors and the texture of the silk make cross-stitching an adventure.

[wordweaverlynn]

Why the HTML problems?

[jedusaur]

My skaaaaates! I did a shitpile of research before I bought them that all seemed to boil down to "whatever feels right to you," so I found a store with a decent stock and tried on every single one they had in anything resembling my size. Sure enough, after a bunch that weren't quite right I totally Goldilocksed on a pair of Reebok 12Ks and I adore them.

I threw down $60 on a decent chef's knife a month ago, after five years of using a set of the cheapest knives on Amazon, and it has made cooking so much more pleasant. I also got a wok and oh man I had no idea I needed a wok so bad. I use it way more than I thought I would.

I have bought way too much Coyotes merch lately, and wearing it is grounding and comforting to me on some strange psychological level I don't fully understand. The team has been distressingly awful this season--shouldn't I want to avoid thinking about them? But no, apparently that is not how Being A Sports Fan works. They are mine, warts and turnovers and gift-wrapped breakaway shorties in the last frickin' minute against frickin' Dallas god frickin' *ahem* and all, and wearing that logo on my chest makes me feel more firm in myself no matter where we are in the standings.

I have a big pile of stuff I'm planning to get rid of on Craigslist and eBay when I get a spare minute, maybe the weekend after next when my grad school apps are done, and I'm actually really looking forward to that. I enjoy passing things along to people who can use them when they aren't useful to me anymore, and the free section of Craigslist is really good for that. It kind of pings me in the same way as acquiring useful things for myself does, that sense of needs met and problems solved.

[jedusaur]

Scanning up over the other comments I'm seeing a lot about bags--while bags are not a particular interest of mine, I have a good friend with a bag addiction who works for Tom Bihn, and she's passed along something like 5 really nice-quality bags to me, including a shoulder bag Mike takes to work and two laptop bags (one just laptop-sized and one with plenty of extra room for books and stuff) that I use all the time. It's not something I really think of as a material indulgence, but I am certainly very grateful.

[liseuse]

I am such a fan of material possessions when I can get just the right one (wails of anguish about how the world is so unfair, when I can't, however).

Currently I am always pleased by:
~ the grey nail polish I found a while ago. I'd been sort of haunted by the idea of grey nail polish, and kept shoving it to the back of my mind, telling myself I didn't need it. And then one day I saw the exact shade I'd been thinking about and reminded myself that I wanted it and had the spare cash. Now I look at my fingernails and smile. Win!
~ my winter coat which I was really happy to get out of the cupboard and back into rotation. It's got this gorgeous collar, and it swishes around my knees and it makes me feel everso slightly more glamorous than I ever am.
~ pairs of hand knitted socks, whether they are for me or for someone else. I suppose, technically, the yarn falls into the material possession category because I then do the work of turning it into gloriously cosy footwarming items, but I get pleasure from buying the yarn (choosing it, fondling it, thinking about it), from the knitting of it, and then from wearing it. Happy sigh.