Anyone can do shabby chic in an airy beach cottage paying a little extra for the latest shabby decorative genius.
Combine a small, tacky efficiency (which has lost precious square footage over the years by the excessive layering of "fresh" neutral paint) and weeks of combing the dollar stores and you get shabby bad.
I read an entertainment book by Sally Quinn (OK, it's the only entertainment book I ever read)saying that low lights and multitudes of candles can forgive all sins. Since the landlord has already graciously provided only low light, all I needed were the candles.
There were at least a dozen candle choices at the dollar store so I choose the ones proported to have the most scent (in deference to having been assigned fragrant neighbors).
The wick on each lit, only to go out when making contact with wax. Apparenetly they last longer that way.
Thus began the quest. In a city of at least 50 dollar stores, one had to have scented candles that burned. On my fifth try I found an apple and cinnamon jar candle that lit up like the Fourth of July and smelled like... nothing at all.
Forty-five to go.


Copyright 2004 Judi Griggs