The arrival of a new baby usually means an arrival of another kind -- loads and loads of brightly-colored, plastic, and usually bulky baby items. Before you know it, your sensibly decorated home has become a circus of primary or pastel colors with tiny little animals trotting across every surface.

Some parents don't mind this change and welcome it as part of new parenthood. Others, like Fiona Rattray, are horrified at the thought of their well-designed living space becoming cluttered. Rattray recently wrote a "diary" of what it was like trying to find gear that she could live with in her designer home.

Rattray depended on modern labels, such as Stokke's Tripp Trapp high chair, but also on secondhand stores to find items that fit her taste. Her diary is funny, though some of you my find yourself rolling your eyes; I can respect her quest to find peace between her desires and her baby's needs.