Animal Coasters That Won't Kill You With Twee

Any pedants keeping track of the many weaknesses that I detail here on Domestic Sluttery will have completed their first exercise book and enjoyed a slight stationery frisson as they open their second. At least Superman concentrated all his weaknesses into one - kryptonite - mine are everywhere around.

Place mats are one. For many years mugs took over any space I had, until I settled on a number of Dunoon's giant Glencoe ones. But oh my goodness - coasters. I love coasters. Years ago I bought my friend some of these beautiful Just Noey ones, and the one souvenir I brought back from my trip to Singapore was a lovely set from Raffles Hotel.

Maybe it's an organisation porn thing. Still, having coasters hasn't prevented me and my visitors getting stains all over the lovely ottoman my mother made me one birthday (any dead-cert stain removal tips would be welcomed; they ain't budging.)

These coasters are my new favourites, from the wonderful Superfumi, who I fell in love with at Brixton's Crafty Fox Market (Sel wrote about their other goodies last year).

I love all the things in their speech bubbles - although I've decided to stop drinking the booze, so I shall just remember them fondly (not fondling, as I just wrote, that would be illegal and weird). But I really do love the designs. They're sweet without being disgustingly so. I stared at them for too long in Brixton, and my teeth still failed to fall out of my head.

If you absolutely must have something more twee, the Enchanted Forest coasters are lovely, without setting your teeth on edge by being overly primary school. I adore the colour match of the fox against the stark black and white of the trees, and I've never seen such a terrifyingly dead-eyed Bambi outside of my nightmares. In fact all the colours here work really nicely, and again, you can mix and match.

Superfumi's coasters are £4 each and UK postage and packaging costs £1.20. Worldwide p&P is £2.20.

Now. Can someone tell me how to get the stains out of my ottoman?