My Dirty Little Secret

I'm not sure why I'm telling/showing you this because it's SO embarrassing--but somehow I'm doing it anyway...

My bedding is out of a horror movie. No seriously--it's BAD.

Now, in my defense, it started out as beautiful bedding from the Pottery Barn and I loved it. But we've had it for years...and years and it's probably been washed about a million times. But I still loved it because all that washing made it super soft.

But recently and kind of suddenly it just started wearing out--like getting a little threadbare, so I started looking into buying new bedding. Point blank--shopping for bedding is NOT fun. I tried zillions of Internet searching, moved on to department stores, back to the Pottery Barn--nothing. Nothing I even remotely liked.

The search continued and the bedding deteriorated rapidly--to the point where it was literally in shreds. I didn't know what to do. On the rare occasion I saw something I actually liked, there was always a glitch--like they didn't have the right size, or it was discontinued, or dry clean only. Or--OR--hand wash and line dry only! Can you imagine? Where/how was I going to hand wash and line dry a king-sized duvet cover??

In a moment of desperation, I almost went through with that hand wash purchase--but then I had visions of an all-too-familiar scene: kid at my bedside in the middle of the night--"Mommy I feel like I'm going to throw up" and then blah all of the bed. Then I pictured myself hand washing the thing in the bathtub at 3 a.m. and I quickly dismissed that idea. I contemplated getting "interim" bedding until I found the perfect thing, but it's all so expensive!

Meanwhile, the whole top part of our duvet cover had ripped open with loopy strands that threatened to strangle us in the night. Don's pillowcase was in tatters and the sheet was even falling apart.

Proof:

The shredded sheet:

ohmygodi'msoembarrassed!

The remnants of Don's pillowcase:
The mangled duvet:

When I got up this morning, I couldn't take it anymore. I decided that nothing was going to stop me--I was not going to sleep on the bedding another night.

My first stop was Anthropologie--a store I love that seemed to have some cool funky bedding. Of course, nothing was easy there. The one duvet that I kind of liked was out of stock in my size and there were just no other options.

But then I noticed the way one of the display beds was done up--the duvet I liked (it was kind of plain) with a multi-colored quilt folded at the bottom of the bed and lots of funky multicolored pillows. I thought maybe if I got the quilt and pillow stuff there, I could go elsewhere for just a plain duvet.

So that's what I did! I bought the quilt and some pillow shams and headed off to Bed, Bath and Beyond with Pickle in search of some sheets and the duvet.

I think Dante made a mistake and left Bed, Bath and Beyond out as one of the circles of Hell in his Inferno--it's horrible in there!

The florescent lights and the commingling of the ten thousand candle scents and the extreme lack of employees! Not to mention that despite the fact that the word "Bed" is prominently showcased in their name--they have little to no bedding. Everything was either butt-ugly or so picked over there was nothing in my size (or both).

Somehow I chanced on a weird little clearance rack with a plain cream-colored duvet cover. Then I scrounged up a sheet and some pillowcases--and finally my bedding quest was over!

Way better, right?
Pickle thinks so!