Just Call Me Charles Darwin

Survival of the fittest is my philosophy when it comes to choosing decorative things for my house. Anything that breaks, chips, hurts when it's dropped on a foot, or doesn't look better when enhanced with crayon or marker is out. Anything that bounces, can be knocked over without breaking or can withstand being stacked as high as it will go just to watch it tip over is in.

In the early years, I wasted a lot of breath on sentences that began with "don't." "Don't throw that in the house," "don't pick that up, it will break," "don't move that, it's fragile." One day my daughter Andie turned to me and said "well, what can I touch?" and I knew it was time for my accessories to evolve and adapt to their environment.

There are certain characteristics that enhance a decorative item's chances of survival in my house. They are:

Items that the kids like and don't want to see harmed. My number coasters fall into that category. I keep a few sets on the coffee table in a big bowl and my little Katie lines them up and counts with them. Even though they're ceramic, they've never broken. She's very careful because she loves them.


Things that you couldn't break if you tried, like the bowl of dried gourds in my family room. They look pretty, and are completely kid proof.


Things that look good when they're messy, like my favorite decorative device, the stack of books. You can't beat a pretty stack of books as a space filler -- they look great on a bench behind a sofa, under a table, stacked on shelves. A nice side benefit to having books everywhere is that it seems to send a subliminal message to my kids and they are big readers.


Things that are too heavy to move, like the vintage steel birdbath that's on my coffee table. When the kids are strong enough to pick that thing up, they'll also be coordinated enough not to drop it on their foot.


Our house has evolved to the point where the San Francisco Giants could play in our family room, and they wouldn't break anything. Now that's progress.

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