My Trip to Ikea

I think Wednesdays are my new favorite day.  Paige is now in preschool until 2:30 on Wednesdays and with Bryce going to school for a full day now, until 2:45, I have almost the entire day to myself!  No babysitters needed!  So what did I do on my very first Wednesday to myself?  Took a trip to Ikea.

But first, I must cross a bridge.  Is it just me that has a phobia of driving over bridges?  Okay, not just any bridge but the Richmond/San Rafael bridge in particular.  Every time I drive to the east bay, upon arriving at the bridge entrance, I think awful thoughts like what if the bridge collapses while I'm on it?  What if I'm in a accident and my vehicle is somehow launched over the side rail to the water below?  It's terrible, these thoughts I have.  I don't know if the reason behind my thoughts is that this bridge is a narrow two lane, double decker bridge or what?  The Golden Gate bridge certainly doesn't bring on thoughts like this for me.

So, if I want to go to Ikea, I must cross the bridge.....anything for shopping I guess.  Snapping photos of the bridge while driving across it actually helped my anxiety.  I know, I know, such a smart thing to do right?

Thirty minutes later I have reached my destination.

My goal was to find organization tools that would work for my home. 

I recycle most of my magazines but I do keep every single cooking magazine I have and right now they are stored in various stacks throughout my house.  This needs to change.

I searched, I found, I bought magazine holders.

I wanted to buy some of these, but I didn't.

I did buy a few of these CD/DVD holders.  One for each of the kids for their story books on CD.  They were only $2.99 each!  What a deal!

I only go to Ikea once or twice a year and when I do venture across the bridge to go, I look through every section of the store.  You never know what great ideas you can pick up just by browsing.

Bedding section.

Lighting section.  Isn't this hanging light cool?  I think it's made out of bamboo or some sort of wood.

This I had never seen at Ikea before.  Cow hide rugs.  Yep, that's right, real cow hide.

The rugs are backed with a suede leather.

I kind of wanted one but believe it or not, they don't really go with the decor of our house.

Ikea is like a MAZE.  It took me a good 20 minutes to find my way out....no kidding!  Of course I believe it's designed this way purposely because you must walk through EVERY section of the store while following the arrows announcing Exit & Checkout.

Well their design plan worked because I left the store with a few items I wasn't planning on purchasing.  Like these neat little bead projects for the kids.  They're going to love creating different colored hearts and the watermelon could be a lemon or lime if one uses yellow or green beads.  How fun!

When I saw these, I HAD to buy them for the kids.  My kids love putting on puppet shows so I bought them each a package of 10 finger puppets for only $4.99.....that's 50 cents per puppet!

I finally found my way to the checkout counter, finger puppets in tow.

Back over the bridge again, the upper deck this time, which is even scarier than the bottom deck for me.

But I made it.  With time to spare before pick up time at preschool.

Happy Thursday!