This shouldn't be so difficult.

When we moved, we jettisoned our sofa and love-seat. They were a ideal dimensions and an OK colour (sort of a rusty brown shiny leather) in good condition... but we hated them. They were the furniture most likely to eat things (in fact one swallowed our cordless phone and kept it hidden for 6 months) and the seat cushions were forever sliding off. So off they went to someone who would give them a welcome home (my Mother in Law) and we set out to find a new sofa and love-seat set.

We had in mind something simple, square-ish, in brown (espresso?) leather or similar (honestly with a pet and a child and being so clumsy myself, I think I can live with "bicast" leather which really is synthetic but offers a similar look for a fraction of the price). In general, a shape something like this:



But... this has proven to be a challenge. One of the biggest issues is size -- our last sofa was 6'2" from arm to arm; most we've seen now are over 7'. How is that useful when more and more people are buying small condos? Or is it a reflection of the average North American "seat" size? Hmmm.

Anyway, in the past two weeks we have sat on a lot of sofas in a lot of stores. Some sag in the middle (crummy plywood frames), some have as much give as a concrete pad, others seem to swallow a body whole. Some have poorly placed back cushions or no support at all. Most of those that are comfortable are ridiculously expensive (and by ridiculously expensive I mean over $3,000 for a sofa; this may not be ridiculous to some readers, but I am not used to seeing price tags with numbers that high).

We've been combing second hand stores and online classifieds as well as every furniture store in the city. The closest to look and comfort we've found was at the Brick but we hate that company enough to not want to give them a nickel, even for the "right" furniture. We haven't given up yet... but we may have to give in a bit and rent some furniture for a few months because we have grown very tired of sitting in one of three largely uncomfortable chairs currently in place.

Surreal World....

Some pretty (and pretty weird) things to look at:

Kent Rogowski had the brilliant idea to turn stuffed bears inside out and photograph them for a series called simply Bears.

In the lead-up to the much-anticipated Simpsons movie, several 7-11s have been remodeled into Kwik-E-Marts.

I never thought of etsy as a marketplace for furniture, but there are some great, whimsical items there -- Birdhouse Garden Bench; Puzzle Tables; Curvatura (plant table); Etsykids Rocking Chair -- but I'm not sure how I feel about the Fake Bowl of Fruit Loops.