Linda Anderson in black and white

Today we'll all experience Poppy's new-found lust for black and white damask in the guise of a catalog review. Yay!

It's not often I see something new in the catalogs that piling up this time of year. What with targeting marketing and customer lists being swapped around all the time, every catalog I get reminds me of another one.

So at first the Linda Anderson catalog struck me as just another gift/decorative accessories/ladies' casual clothing and jewelry emporium. Along the lines of the Sundance catalog, except not as western. Or like Charles Keith ... but not as Southern. Then it sort of reminded me of Ballard Designs.

The truth is, Linda Anderson carries a lot of unique merchandise that is vaguely reminiscent of other things I like. That sounds like faint praise, but it isn't. For example, these bookends remind me of Ballard Designs. They look sort of 1920s, and sort of Frenchily-ooh-la-la, if you know what I mean.

Adorable bathing beauty bookends that would be perfect for my black-and-white kitchen--so handy for holding up my cookbooks--plus they would remind me not to eat any of the goodies I cooked for fear of POPPING OUT OF MY BATHING SUIT--except the website told me they were out of stock. And maybe they're a little kitchsy, anyway.

And it isn't often that I see a double page spread that makes me think "ooh, I want those. And that. And that." But this did it:

Black and white damask-patterned plates and mugs

"Parisian Table Lamp"

There were some other lovely black and white damask home accents in the catalog, but I couldn't find them on-line. Which means I can't show them to you. Which is annoying.

It's bad when things are out of stock. And it's worse when the catalog and the website appear to exist in parallel universes. Note to retailers: If you have a print catalog and a website, we expect to find more merchandise on the website, not less.

I rate the Linda Anderson catalog "F" for frustrating.