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Wow, it's been a very long time since I jumped into a Five on Friday post. Even though these are some of my favorite posts, life has just seemed like a sprint since we moved to South Carolina.
1. IKEA
One of the great things about our new location is that we are only about an hour away from Charlotte. And that means we are only about an hour away from IKEA. For years, I have watched as friends posted pictures of their adventures at the iconic store, and I've
pinned IKEA hacks over and over from fellow bloggers (especially for
children's rooms), but it wasn't until recently that I had the chance to have my very own first IKEA experience. My husband and I were in Charlotte doing some business research, but I saw IKEA in the distance and convinced him to walk through with me. Even though we had fun feeling inspired by ideas that we might want to implement someday, at the end of the afternoon, Alexander the Great remarked, "You need to make some friends, so that you can go to IKEA with them." The unspoken part was along the lines of "...so that you won't drag me here again." And he's totally right. The first trip resulted in only one purchase. Lingonberries. I've eaten lingonberries at almost every Christmas that I can remember because my Dad makes Aebelskiver every year, our traditional Danish food.
After that first experience, I knew that I would be heading back to Charlotte to bring some IKEA back to our house! And yesterday was the day! I am
finally finishing off the Littles' room (our 2 year old and our 7 month old). I have been eyeing the
Kallax cube unit forever and finally got it! Yay! The picture ledges I wanted to go above the Kallax cube unit were out of stock, but I got a few baskets, and I'm hoping that Hobby Lobby will have some similar shelves. I decided to spend a bit more and go for the IKEA Kallax instead of the Walmart or Target versions because the cubes are larger by couple inches and I think that will make a big difference for storing kids' toys.
I also found a
bath mat that perfect matches the kids' bathroom, a small black
picture ledge for my master bedroom, and a frame with knobs on clearance that I'll put in the kitchen to hang towels.
Next time, I want to pick up some of the kitchen wall storage to use in our main bathroom (i.e. the kids' bathroom). There is really no counterspace, so it's tough to organize the things we use most and don't want to stash beneath the sink. I'm trying to decide between the
spice racks and the
Bygel rail with a couple
colorful pots and
hooks, but I'm leaning toward the Bygel rail. Thoughts?
2. Pillow covers
I finally ordered pillow covers for my living room throw pillows that coordinate with the color scheme I'm moving toward. I need to cover four pillows, and I ran across some pillow cover designs on Pinterest, which led me to Amazon, which led me to some rather inexpensive pillow covers with great ratings. I'm super excited for them to arrive; the bummer is that it turns out that the pillow covers are being shipping from China. Oops. It'll be a month or more before they arrive.
3. Rugs
I guess the theme today is home decor and home organization! Our current rental house has wood or laminate floors except for in the bedrooms. I know that everyone else in the world
loves wood floors, but personally, I hate them. They are cold and hard. And high quality rugs are
so expensive. And if you know me, you know that I am a very thrifty, frugal person. For the past month or so, I have been hunting high and low for a decent rug at a decent price. Apparently, it is a rather difficult thing to do. I almost bought
this rug from Pier One, but after the shipping costs, no thank you. I also considered a few from Target. Because who doesn't love Target? Anyway, here are some of my favorites.
But that was before our daycare nanny told me about a local overstock/closeout place. One of things I had been struggling with was paying several hundred dollars for a nice tufted rug like I saw at the fancy rug stores or paying $150-$200 for something that was cute, but not high quality. And at this local store I found the rug. I joined their rewards program for an extra 15% and went home with an 8'x10' high quality tufted rug for under $200!
You find out how much I saved in my
post here. I was shocked!
Here's my not quite finished living room with the new rug. Next step, curtains and end table decor.
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| My new rug! |
4. This Mermaid Art
My daughter's theme is mermaids. (The Little Mermaid was my favorite movie as a child, and I have always wanted to have a mermaid/sea themed nursery.) I saw these on Zulily and fell in love; I haven't decided whether or not to order one or both, but I think they are just perfect for a little girl's room.
And then there's this . . .
And in another year or so . . .
5. Lists
I love lists. Love them. Right now I have about 7 of them for different categories of things I need to do. Over the weekend, I plan to cross off
a lot of items from the category of finishing our house. It's time.
Have a fantastic weekend all!
