A German Bedding Crisis in America

As I've mentioned a few times previously, Laura's family presented us with the most incredible, cozy German bedding when we visited them in September. They presented Tom and me with our own individual "bettdecken," which is like a big fluffy individual feather bed. I can assure you that we'll never go back to traditional American bedding since experiencing the comfort of fluffy individual German feather beds.

Knowing this would probably be the case, and that we just might have trouble finding German bedding in America, Elisabeth and I spent a good amount of time during our last week in Germany (after Tom had flown home) shopping for bedding. Although we bought one fairly expensive all-white cotton set at the Kaufhaus in Heidelberg, my favorite two sets were purchased at Woolworth in Heidelberg and Nurnberg. For under €10 per set, we bought a total of four duvet and pillowcase sets, one of luxuriously soft blue and white dotted "flannel" (but nothing like coarse American flannel) and one of burning oranges and reds in a soft rayon blend. We should have bought the big, square German feather pillows then too, but Elisabeth had already worked hard to stuff the featherbeds into one-way super condensible packing bags that we just happened to have packed, and we knew there was no way we could fit two pillows into our luggage. So we left the Euro-pillow buying until we returned to America.

Big mistake! "Euro-shams" are definitely NOT the same as German feather "Kopfkissen"!

I have looked all over the Internet, even at Woolworth.de for more good deals on "Bettwaesche" and for the down pillows that we saw for €15, but decided not to buy, but I can't find anything! What happened to the great deals we saw when we were in Germany? Are they really not available on the Internet, or am I looking in all the wrong places? And to American stores like Linens 'n' Things and Bed, Bath & Beyond, why don't you carry this fabulous European bedding, both fedderbetten and Euro-sized pillows??

We sure would sleep better at night if we could only find them!

ADDENDUM: This post has received quite a bit of traffic over the years, so I thought I'd mention some related, subsequent posts:
An open letter to Ikea Customer Service
How to decorate your bedroom with a new color scheme each week
My obsession with German bedding gets a little out of hand
Am I getting a bit obsessive with this German bedding thing?
Reaping what I sew

And also some photos of my obsession as of late:

An Open Letter to Ikea Customer Service

Dear Ikea Customer Service,

I love you. Your meatballs are yummy and your kitchen knives are to die for. Our family adores trips to Ikea so much that we consider them "field trips."

But really, dear Ikea, why are you such a tease?

When we went to Germany last summer to visit our exchange student daughter who lived with us a few years ago, her family bequeathed upon us the traditional German bedding that we'd fallen in love with during our trip -- two fluffy individual down-filled duvets, each in its own zipped fabric cover, to be paired with matching large, square pillows. While in Germany, we purchased a few sets of duvet and pillow covers, but recently I decided to add to our linen closet by purchasing a few more sets at (where else?) Ikea.

I wasn't surprised that German-sized duvet covers weren't offered on the American Ikea website, but I expected that they'd be available on the German site, www.ikea.com/de, so I hopped on over there and began to shop. The choices were immense and I even had the added bonus of having seen many of the same fabrics in the bedding department of our local Seattle Ikea store, so I knew exactly which duvet covers I wanted.

Fast, easy... perfect!

Since I know some German, I easily navigated around the site, adding choices to my cart and heading to the "Kasse" (the check-out page), thrilled that I'd soon have new German bedding without ever even leaving home.

Once on the check-out page, however, I began to encounter problems. Even though I expected the primary shipping options to be shipping within Germany (or maybe Europe), I also expected that somewhere in some corner of the site there'd be a radio button or check box that would say something like "do you want to ship internationally?" Ikea is, after all, a global company with global appeal, with common merchandise across global markets, and with a worldwide faithful customer base.

Surely I'm not the only one in America (or any other country) who wants to buy German bedding at Ikea! And what about my expat friends in Germany who might want to buy American bedding at Ikea Germany? Does this global company really only allow shipping within one's own country? Why can't they ship to me in America if I'm willing to pay the shipping costs? (And hey -- with the dollar in the toilet as it is, there might even be an extra profit to be made here!)

Sure, I have a friend in Germany who asks me to ship him Levis once every few years and yeah, he owes me a favor... but must I really go that route? I really like those duvet covers with the cool red abstract design and I want to give you the business. So what do you say, Ikea Customer Service? If I can't count on you, who can I count on?

Warm (as in under fluffy Ikea duvet cover) regards,

Carol

How to Decorate Your Bedroom With a New Color Scheme Each Week

As I've mentioned quite a few times, Tom and I sleep under fabulously cozy and fluffy individual down-filled European duvets that Laura's family gave us when we visited her in Germany last year.

I bought three sets of duvet covers while still in Germany, but have been unable to find them in America since returning. Not even Ikea will ship their German bedding to Ikea stores in America! How ridiculous is that?

After looking high and low for German-sized duvet covers in America (and online anywhere, with an option to ship to the States), I came up empty-handed. I finally turned to my dear friend Thomas, to whom I have shipped quite a few pairs of Levis over the years, asking him to send me some German bedding from Ikea near Nurnberg. He was kind enough to do that, so now we have five different looks for our bedroom:

White-on-white-on-white (with a touch of fluffy gray):

A yummy, soft blue and white dotted flannel. This is no ordinary flannel -- it's thinner and softer than American flannel, and has almost a slight "furry" quality to it. Delish in the winter!

This is my favorite when I'm feeling bold and colorful:

And when I'm feeling staid, proper, and mature, I put these on the bed:

And these are Tom's favorites because he likes the stark and simple look of black & white:

And added in February, 2009, after a trip to Costco, these beautiful paisley sheets, used with the stark white duvets covers mentioned above. Can you believe that the entire queen size set was $19.99?! (I gave Elisabeth, who also bought this set, the flat sheet, so she can make extra pillowcases.)

Which set is your favorite?

How often do you change the entire look of your bed -- and thereby the whole mood of your bedroom? I have a feeling this whole German bedding thing is about to catch on, not only because they're so versatile and easy (no more blanket-hogging!), but because they're an inexpensive and attractive way to give your bedroom a whole new look every time you change your sheets!

My obsession with German bedding gets a little out of hand

If you do a search for “German bedding” on my blog, you’ll discover that I’m slightly obsessed with the delicious individual duvets that Laura’s family gave us when we visited Germany in 2007.  I just love giving our bedroom a whole new look every week!

Thanks to my dear expat friend Jen, who I met in Frankfurt, along with other expat bloggers I’ve come to adore, I now have two more German bedding ensembles.  Jen, you’re feeding my addiction!  (And I thank you…)

These are the newest additions:

A happy sky blue:

The inverted (accent is patterned, duvets are solid) zoo look:

The ensemble I made from the fabric Marco brought me from India:

The softest, coziest polka-dot flannel on earth:

The stark black and white look (Tom’s favorite):

The spicy, on-fire look:

Another inverted look:

Snow white with kitty:

And the “we mean business ” striped ensemble:

Which is your favorite?

Am I getting a bit obsessive with this “German bedding” thing?

I guess I can answer my own question, given this this newest ensemble which uses the fitted sheet and four pillowcases from an American set, paired with German duvet covers and German sized pillow cases/pillows:

(Hey, these even match my blog background!)

Some women love to shop for purses or shoes or jewelry or sweaters.  But not me; I love to shop for textiles and dishes.  Weird, I know – and challenging, because you just can’t buy German-sized bedding/textiles in America.  So I get creative, mixing and matching what we have from Germany (thanks in large part to some of my German blogging friends!) with what I can find in the US. 

So add the above ensemble to these.  Pretty soon, if I don’t control myself, we’ll have a different look for the bedroom each week for a few months running!

A happy sky blue:

The inverted (accent is patterned, duvets are solid) zoo look:

The ensemble I made from the fabric Marco brought me from India:

The softest, coziest polka-dot flannel on earth:

The stark black and white look (Tom’s favorite):

The spicy, on-fire look:

Another inverted look:

Snow white with kitty:

And the “we mean business ” striped ensemble:

Which is your favorite?

Reaping what I sew

Last week, when Marco came to visit Seattle, he brought us a beautiful bedspread from India.

As you know, we use German bedding consisting of individual duvets, so one big bedspread won’t work on our bed.  Still, I absolutely love this fabric and was determined to turn it into duvet covers for our bed.

So I got to work.

First stop: Target, to buy a new sewing machine.

  I’ve had my old machine for about 25 years and it used to frustrate the hell out of me so I knew it was time for a new one.

Next stop: the fabric store to buy coordinated backing fabric.

Once I got home, I set up the new sewing machine and got to work.

Bailey was no help at all!

 

I measured once, measured twice, and measured again.  Then, scared to take scissors to the beautiful fabric, I procrastinated with Kat and went to the fabric store because she decided she wants to learn to sew now too!  :-)

The Mountain was OUT!

When we got home it could no longer be avoided; I HAD to cut!

I’m not gonna divulge whether I made any significant cutting or sewing mistakes.  Just suffice it to say that if Tom and I ever start the German bedding company we keep talking about, I’ll be doing sales and marketing… not sewing!

Eventually it was time to stuff our duvets into the new “sleeve.”  (Hint: it’s easier to do this if the sleeve is inside out!)

Fluffy, eh?

Time for a mojito break – with mint form our yard! (Thanks Tom!)

And finally, the finished products!

What do you think?  This is look #7 (the other six can be seen here) – and I think it’s my favorite!  Thanks so much, Marco and Ayesha!  I hope you don’t mind that I cut up your beautiful gift, but I just had to!

Random Tidbits

I spent almost 12 (lazy) hours today cleaning the dang house, alone with my iPod and my chemicals.

Loved the iPod, hated the chemicals.

But on days like this I do a lot of thinking. The thoughts come and go easily, some of them lingering for a while and others fleeting before I can even grasp on to them.

Here are some of the thoughts that lingered long enough to actually ponder:

• I've been acutely aware that my blog is probably read by prospective and past employers, prospective and past co-workers, long-lost friends, immediate and extended family, and total strangers. And that awareness has driven the contents of my posts (and kept me from posting some content) far too much. I never began this blog for anyone but myself and I shouldn't start tiptoeing now. I started a post yesterday about how we've been relaxing in our parenting, allowing Aleks and Kat to stay out much later, and sometimes even all night (as long as we know where they are and who they're with), and how we've come to really trust their good judgment and maturity... but then I decided not to post it since it alluded to "drinking responsibly" and I wondered how that might come across to, say, a prospective employer. But you know, I should have posted it and not worried what anyone thinks. So no more tiptoeing. I yam who I yam and I write what I write. Deal.
• Hearing Bach's Tocata and Fugue in D on my iPod today (mid-floor-mopping) elicited the same emotions I had when I unexpectedly heard it played live in the church in Heidelberg last month. Instant lump in my throat followed by tears streaming down my face. Why does some music (most of it, but not all of it, classical) have such an intensely powerful effect on me? (Geoffry? Why?!) "To the core" is always what comes to mind when I have this reaction. And actually, as the music played today I was reminded of something that happened on our second evening in Heidelberg, as the organ player treated us to yet another "concert." (God, it was great!) Elisabeth and I were outside the church when a cat ran by us, headed very deliberately toward the church. Elisabeth tried to pick up the cat, "needing" to cuddle it, but he wanted nothing to do with us. He jumped out of her arms and ran to the huge, heavy church door. There he was greeted by a woman who seemed to be expecting him! She opened the door for him (and us), and we watched as the cat made his way, amid the very loud and powerful organ music, to the organ player's bench. He settled under the bench, sat perfectly still, and enjoyed the concert with the rest of us!
  
• Maybe I should go back to school and get a teaching credential (I already have a masters in education; how long could it take?) and teach 3rd grade. So what if I'd cut my salary in half or more?! (Yes, it's taken a while to get to this approach, but here I am finally.) I know I'd love it and maybe it's true what they say about doing what you love and the money following.
• Can I make money by writing? Given the choice, it's how I prefer to spend my time. But only when I write what I want to write, not when I'm told what to write. I'm stubborn that way.
• I love it when my daughters French braid my hair. I also used to love it when my students and "camp kids" used to fuss with my hair. They used to line up for a turn! Ah, bliss!
  
• I hate my new, expensive front-loader washing machine and I want to return it. Tomorrow I'll attempt to exchange it for a normal ol' washer AND dryer.
• Books I'm reading: Blink! (about the science of intuition... I just knew it!), Evening (because I thought the movie had potential), Good Grief, A Map of the World (not started yet).
• I adore our new German bedding (thanks again, Christiane and family!), but it's made me realized how much I used to shop for bedding, buying a set of sheets here, an "alternate" (pffft!) duvet cover there. I can't buy covers or sheets for our new bedding here (I stocked up in Germany, fortunately, but didn't buy the European square pillows, dang it, and they're crazy expensive here!), so it's an odd feeling indeed to walk around Bed, Bath & Beyond and Linens & Things, knowing that I can't and won't succumb to my shopping weakness!
• My Google Reader (and blog comments, come to think of it) seems to be much quieter these days. Has the blogosphere gone dormant or something?!