Shabby Chic

Has anyone seen this show? It served as my in-flight “entertainment” on my way back from Iceland and, to sum it up, it sucks.

Here’s the premise. A woman (Rachel Ashwell) wants you to be the ghetto Martha Stewart. Mining thrift stores, asian markets, latin grocers and other untrodden-by-the-muted-palette-set locales, this woman shows you how to blow away your guests with table settings and decorations that will surely be the envy of every “Living”-subscribing human around—all at a “slumming it” price!

Of course, she spends countless hours and money just getting the damned tables ready, not even factoring in the fact that one who is entertaining may want to focus on something more enjoyable for his or her guests such as FOOD, BOOZE or MUSIC. And she just goes on and on about it as well—like she thought all this stuff up and nobody had ever thought to give every guest at their tea party a pair of Vietnamese sandals.

It’s annoying to me, as somebody who both entertains and enjoys being entertained, to watch people dye the water in the votive candles blue with food coloring when they should be at the bar making my ass a margarita.