IKEA or BUST.

As I am in the process of starting a new fabric store and sewing lounge, I decided I needed to make a pilgrimage to IKEA, the Holy Grail of cheep furniture that is perfect for start us businesses and first time home owners. Sadly, Albuquerque does not have an IKEA so Rosie and I loaded up The Mama Hart’s SUV and trekked to Denver. Luckily, our friend Allison lives in Denver and offered up her extra bed room to two weary travelers with a furniture mission.

Even though we arrived in Denver around midnight, one of the first sights to greet us to the city was the shiny new IKEA store.

Cause it’s gigantic, and blue, and yellow, and ginormous, and impossible to miss.

I had never been to IKEA before and only had an inkling of what to expect.

We started our IKEA adventure by fuelling up on coffee and bagels.

 We thought that would hold us over until Swedish Meatball time, but we were wrong.

About half way through we had to stop and take a nap on the fold out couch. It is quite comfy if you care to know.

 IKEA is massive people. It was a good 2 hours before we even made it to the Swedish Meatballs. By that time we were all on furniture overload and our severely hurting brains were loopy and our wallets were already feeling the pain of the upcoming purchases.

So we took a much needed break to enjoy some fabulous IKEA treats.

After refueling we were ready to head forth and conquer the remaining levels of this colossal store.

We spent 4.5 hours in IKEA that first day, and sadly our mission was not entirely successful. We ran into one little bookshelf hiccup: We had no idea if all 8 of my desired bookshelves would fit into my car, and, as the car was sitting peacefully in front of Allison’s house, we had no way to measure it.

We had to go back to Allison’s house and measure the back of my car. After careful measuring and planning over a draft or two we came to the conclusion that yes, I could fit all my IKEA treasures into the car. Although that may have been the booze and fatigue talking.

So the next day we prepared to tackle IKEA for a second time. This time we had learned our lesson and geared up with a proper breakfast.

 

See those pancakes? They are butternut squash pancakes and they are amazing.

I purchased all 8 of my bookshelves and took them to the loading dock where a friendly IKEA loading man was waiting to help me get my loot into the car.

Unfortunately, the friendly IKEA loading man was only able to get 6 of my 8 bookshelves into the car, and he managed to cut off all visibility in the process and one shelve was dangerously close to my head.

Luckily, Allison had brought her truck along so she could purchase the comfy fold out couch and was able to take my remaining bookshelves as well.

 

Something had to be done about the packing job so Rosie and I did a little bit of rearranging.

Somehow we managed to fit 8 massive bookshelves, plus 8 chairs, plus all of Rosie’s purchases, plus all our personal junk, plus two people into the car.

AND we had perfect visibility on the drive home.

So we gave ourselves a gold star for packing.

I would like to take a moment to thank the Sandia Prep outdoor staff for teaching us important life skills.

 Like packing.

And camping.

But mostly packing.

I’d show you what I got, but I haven’t yet been brave enough to attempt assembling any of it so you’re just gona have to wait!

Happy Shopping

~Melisa & Cordelia