a road trip to ikea.

i love ikea.
there is something about it that is......comforting? reliable? i can't find the right word but it just has that thing. it's the place you go to when you have exhausted all other options and just need to get it done. or in my case have no patience to hunt for the perfect pieces that you know are out there but have no time to find them. i have a list for the flea markets i want to hit up when they re-open in may. my problem? no patience!


just one word of advice about ikea.....go with a list and, for the most part, try to stick to it.

it is so easy to get sucked into the power that is ikea. you know your house, you know your style. but the people at ikea are sneaky. they put together a floor of beautifully put crafted rooms that when you walk around surround you like a hug and tempt you to whip out your credit card and shout "i'll take it! right down to that little candlestick - i'll take the lot!" {in fact might be wise to leave the credit card at home.}

our decision to take the road trip started with sold out fabric on-line - as, of course, all journey's seem to.
okay. okay. i feel your confusion so i will just start at the beginning.

almost two years ago we moved into our new house......maybe too far back?
long story short - we have re-painted light and bright, put up blinds {the nice white wood ones} and have slowly been decorating the main floor {and in slowly i mean s l o w l y......} and a month ago i said enough is enough! we need drapes, we need painting on the walls, we need warmth and most of all it needs to look like someone lives here!!! the husband agrees.

so i have been looking for the perfect drapes for the living and dining rooms. had no idea how hard that would be! how come all these stores can't look directly into my head and see exactly what i want and have that available? why??

one day an idea hit me - i can work a sewing machine.... i can work a sewing machine!!!! i can just make some drapes! now we are talking. a new approach. so i have been looking in the fabric stores around here and found drapes for the dining room but nothing for the living room yet.
then i found my way to fabric.com and there it was - THE fabric. so excited i found it. just had to run it by the husband.......and he finally approved it.
it sold out.
IT SOLD OUT!!!!
i finally found what i wanted and it sold out - are you KIDDING ME??!!!

and this is how we ended up at ikea. i was fed up. i wanted something up and figured that they would have something - SOMETHING i could put and make a home out of this house. a quick fix.

the kids love going to ikea. there is a ball room and playarea they get to go to now that they are out of diapers. ikea is not around the corner so we don't drop by often so it's definitely a treat to go there. they have a great system too - you sign your kids in, get a light up coaster thing {the ones you find in hip restaurants}, go about your shopping and it lights up when your time is over 45 minutes later, come back and sign your kids out. they are entertained, you can browse and get sucked into it all in peace - well as much peace as you can when the world also had the same idea as you had on a saturday.

i was about 10 minutes into my shopping when my coaster started flashing and beeping at me. what? is that me? WHAT???? why is that flashing? oh. my. god. what happened?!! why would they page me? someone's hurt!!! my heart was pounding. i grabbed my stuff and started running through the maze, trying to find my way out {i think i knocked a small child over, oops!}, yelling my request for an exit to anybody in a yellow t-shirt, bugged eyed waiting for the answer. finally i made it out to the counter, pushed my way to the front {they are all parents and i'm sure they understood} and shouted "what's wrong? what happened??!!!" of course i am thinking the worst, praying for the least. the lady there looks at me with a blank stare and goes "what? nothing. they are fine. oh, here let me reset that for you." she casually takes my coaster resets it, hands it back to me and gives me a warm smile. i stand there, mouth open, sweating, heart racing and catch a glimpse of my kids playing and having a ball.

day ruined.

i head back to try to find where i was in the maze of it all - the magic gone. i got my kids out of the ball room about 5 minutes early because all i wanted was them but didn't want to cut their time short because i was feeling vulnerable - and i knew they didn't want to walk around and breathe in all ikea had to offer. lunch as the next item on the agenda - we are suckers for the restaurant there - then downstairs to the market place to load up on treasures {no drapes included, bummer}, hang out in the as-is section on the couch they had there, which we 3 wanted, and i think we would have all had a nap there if not for all the people milling about, try to convince myself that i can stuff that half price bookshelf into my car, find the checkout, get ice cream cones, then head out the doors into the sunshine.

when we came home to go over our purchases i noticed that i did pretty good sticking to my list. not everything was crossed off and not everything bought was on the list but it seems like a good compromise. the one off the list item i am most excited about is my clock. do you like it? reminds me of a old classroom - i'm looking for those kind of pendent lights for the kitchen and entrance so maybe that's what drew me to it. the husband gave me grief over buying another clock - my sister predicted that softball, i didn't expect it. {did you know i have sisters? yeah, two of them! you'll meet them this summer, promise.} other than that though everything else was brought into our home, has found it's place and it's like it's been there for ever.

i had a few items stored at the back of my mind and have since spied homes for them so i think another trip is in our not so distant future....and since there where out of the frames that were at the top of the list with the drapes i have to go back anyways....really i do.
i'm just glad i got out of there credit card in tact and no an ikea themed room in sight. although i did get tempted......

**on a side note....i checked fabric.com and the fabric was re-stocked!
ordered and on it's way! {just checked now to give you the link and it's out again!!! so glad i got it when i did! that would have been awful!}
we are going to have drapes in the living room soon...i just now have to find a curtain rod for the bay window and OF COURSE they had every colour available in the style with the ball on the end EXECPT black. new nightmare set to begin.......

and paintings.....
i need a drink.

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fyi

yesterday and today have been filled with this:

i'm going to fill you in tomorrow. stay tuned.

and last night i decided to get it together, turn off mario cart and ignore the laundry, and spend the night doing this:

so happy i did. this is what it is all about. this is wonderful.

here we go.

this weekend, holiday was over.

i still can't believe that real life begins again - although the husband did go back to work last monday. since aydan's was still home and the fact the garbage men don't pick up the tree till today there was still a sense of holiday around here.

no more...it's all packed away.......

this was the scene in our entry way this morning:

back to reality.
oh and i took aydan to the bus stop in the husband's funky hat:

i know i had made the promise of a sewing weekend and the reveal of some pretty fabulous goods...but it didn't happen. i did get these wonderful fabrics though so soon enough.... :)! love the leaf pattern, reminds me of vintage tablecloths so it will be perfect for the dining room. and the polka dot for the bathroom - love this look of pairing it with another fabric.

also i came to a realization this weekend about decorating.  i was hung up on making my living room a little fancy but in all truths we are not fancy! we are casual, laid back and i hope a little funky. i want to make the house nice, casual with a little vintage charm and that's what i am going to do. we don't have a sprawling manor - we have a quaint suburban home and i am not going to try to make it anything but that. this has actually given me a sense of relief in a way. and i have already made my lists for the junk shops and flea markets i want to visit. and maybe a trip or two to homesense.
the first room to focus on:

what a blank canvas, eh? the only things to stay in this room are the sofas, coffee table, tv and painting. i am going to re-do the side table but we are hunting for a new rug {i think i found one on liquidation - i just have to get the husband on board...well i have to get the husband to the store!! a feat in itself}, tv console {top of this list for spring flea markets}, the light fixture has got to go! i'm thinking this one, and new drapes which i am thinking this fabric will make nice drapes for in here, with a panel of pale green for the top or bottom. and then something for the wall above the large sofa and a large plant. it's all been newly painted so now we are just window dressing.

for now i think that's it and i think that will take us into the summer - that and painting out the tv room. more to come on that later......

just had to share - aren't these stunning?

hunting for the perfect eyeshadow and mascara.

drapes. drapes. drapes. the ultimate quest for drapes. we have finished applying the lipstick and rouge to the main floor and now i'm looking to finish off the wonderful eyes into our house.

we have been sprucing up the main floor with new coats of paint and blinds for the front windows and now we have come to the drapes for the kitchen.

when we moved into this house the colours were very natural and very dark. lots of dark browns, dark sage green and dark taupe trim. we are a lighter type of people.

we started with the entrance way (a small 10x10 vestibule) with white and a hit of red - a colour i picked which shocked the husband.

in the living room we went light ocean blue and white trim - now our dark leather furniture really pop in the room and the light walls and white blinds help it to look quite large. the kitchen was a mix of dark taupe and dark sage green + the counters are the sage colour and the cabinets are a light green wood colour. all so very dark. here we forged ahead with the white trim in this room and picked out a stunning colour of buttermilk yellow - once done it looked like a whole new kitchen. i was shocked! it felt so much wider and much more modern. now the green kitchen doesn't feel so green. i was lobbying for a new butcher block style island counter top but i don't think that needs to be. also the cupboards almost have that silvery barn board look to them. (something i love!)

to achieve an even paint job and have it look professional i had to take down the vertical blinds covering the sliding glass door as they were mounted outside the frame, not in - right? it was all for the beauty of the paint job, for the overall aesthetics. and unfortunately they got a little damaged and thrown out. (oops!)

now we need to get something for there and i never dreamed it would be this hard to find the perfect drapes. i seemed to have exhausted all my resources and still have not found anything that has grabbed me. being such a large wall and the one you can see from the front door i want them to be perfect. i know the hardware i want to use and the overall look i just have not found them yet.

while at mecca on new years eve (that's what the husband calls ikea) i saw a style that caught my eye. we were in such a rush though that i am not sure i saw what i saw as they are not on the website. since then though i have had these in the fore front of my thinking that i might have to take a pilgrimage there just to confirm my thoughts. are these the perfect style for us? does this perfect style exist?

another option is the source out some material and make some a la sarah richardson. (i wish i just had the $$ to hire her and have it over and done!) only problem here is that i am new around here and don't kno the ideal spots for things like this and since i have 10 minutes of spare time i don't know if this can be accomplished.
oh fairy godmother - where are you when i need you!

stay tuned.