Butlering

Regular readers know much I love the idea of a well run home, of never having to scramble for basic supplies, clean clothes, fluffy towels or crisp sheets. I am far from that reality, but I have my little ways of reaching towards this goal, between regular drugstore.com deliveries and periodic visits from a housekeeper who is kind enough to wash the clothes and bedding. And I lose myself in a (fantasy) world of orderliness in books like Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management and Colin Cowie's Chic: A Guide to Life As It Should Be.

Always on the lookout for other outlets for fantasy, I could hardly resist the temptation to hop over to the blog The Butler Does It when Emily Evans Eerdmans mentioned it on her site the other day.

The Butler Does It is indeed a bastion of refinement, good manners and other components of the "good life". Written by an estate manager to the mega rich, this engaging blog covers the appropriate bar components (all bases should be covered so you have on hand the drinks of others in addition to your own), appropriate behavior to exhibit as a guest in one's home (never forget the home is not, in fact, your own) and good customer service (it means never hearing the word "no"). And as the butler in question is, in fact, also a fabulous chef, he graces his readers with the odd panoply of recipes on occasion.

My life is getting a bit closer to "good" with every post I read!