Sadly, I didn’t inherit my mum’s talent for organising or her knack for neatness. And I am convinced I was at the back of the line when God handed out decision-making skills. The big move does have its perks though. Leaving the family home allows you to drag out all the bits and pieces you have had packed away for the day when you have your own abode.
The various sets of pasta bowls, plates and wine glasses I received from well-intentioned friends and rellies over the years are finally getting an airing — things that have been admired from the inside of a cupboard for a decade or more, just waiting for the day when they could be brought out and put to good use.
Setting up house is a journey in itself, but nothing compares to selecting that epitome of style, what really separates the domestic goddesses from the wannabes — the coffee table book. It’s important to have something for guests to peruse while the host is in the kitchen, making a cuppa or concocting a culinary masterpiece, or at least a microwave dinner.
Each page is a snapshot of cherished moments between mums and babies, husbands and wives, grandfathers and grand-daughters and the whole spectrum of family — pictures to make you smile, bring a tear to your eye and even laugh out loud.
I’d been itching to unveil M.I.L.K: (Moments of Intimacy, Laughter, and Kinship) Family since I bought it, but I decided to wait for that special day when I had my own place and it would be less likely to be bumped about and potentially wrecked.
But a good coffee table requires more than one book for friends and whanau to look through, so the hunt was on.
Breath-taking aerial shots of coral reefs, sand dunes and even rubbish dumps offer a different perspective on the world that will keep the geographers in my family transfixed and encourage my other half to travel the world with me.
Angela Lassig’s New Zealand Fashion Design got the fashionista in me all a-flutter and would be a good pick for trendsetters.
Hot pink ruffles set against a crisp white background form the front cover of this new coffee table staple, which takes you through some of Aotearoa’s biggest fashion brands.
If music be the food of love, play on, said Shakespeare, and every self-respecting Kiwi should have a book of their favourite band on their coffee table. U2 by U2 is a good one — who doesn’t appreciate the musical talent and timeless “cool” of the Irish foursome?
From mullets, leather jackets and jeans to their slicker 21st century personas, this book is a pictorial journey of Bono and the boys of U2.
I think four books is a good number for a coffee table, so I’m sorted. Now I just need a coffee table to put them on, but that can be my next project.
