Ikea, how I love thee!

Hello old friends. I should probably acknowledge the fact that I haven't posted anything in like 8 years. I have many excuses. Exhaustion? Laziness? Bedridden with sickness? Visiting family & friends? Christmas chaos? Traveling? Laziness probably wins.

But I have better things to talk about. Because today...today I feel in love. With Ikea. I know I'm totally behind the times with this one, but I had yet to make it into one. But it was worth the wait, let me tell you!

A little background story. My husband and I have 2 dressers. One is not appropriate for any person of the age of 5 to use, which I have conveniently hidden placed in our closet. The other is my college dresser which I bought at a yard sale for $7 ten years ago. Convincing my husband that we needed to replace either was like convincing Jillian Michaels that Little Debbie Snacks are good for you. But somehow, I did. (The former, of course.)

Traditional furniture stores and their somewhat "stalker" sales people kind of make me cringe. Which is why we set off on our maiden voyage to Ikea in search of a new dresser for our bedroom. We meandered through the store, stopping to look at, sit down, test out, & examine all the pieces in the showroom. The store is really set up like a maze, but it's very smart, in that you don't really ever feel lost...but you end up looking at everything they offer, even if you didn't want to. We were there for bedroom stuff, which in order to get to, you have to head through the living room, kitchen, etc. areas. I didn't mind. And not one sales person will bother you, pressure you, or stalk you. Genius.

And then half way through the store-maze they conveniently put the Ikea restaurant. Which is genius. Because at this point you are basically thinking...if only I had a snack to keep me going. And I must say the Swedish Meatballs are SO. YUMMY. And my husband and I both ate lunch for less than $8. When has that ever happened? (Never.)

The moral of the story is that we found our dressers. Yes, not ONE but TWO new dressers! They were such a great deal that we decided we might as well get two. We chose the Hemnes 8 drawer dresser and the Hemnes 3 drawer chest to come home with us:

Images from www.ikea.com

So I think we all owe a big thank you to the Swedes for bringing us IKEA, my new Hemnes dressers, and all 20 of those Swedish meatballs G & I shared for lunch. Yum, yum, yum.