I IKEA'd and Lived to Tell About It

Last Sunday, I left the house at 7 am to head to church with Mr. RH.  From there, we returned to his apartment (across town) for breakfast and then I ran off to work.

I put in my 8 hours to The Man and then proceeded to jump directly in a car to Indianapolis.  From there, we went directly to a yummy dinner at Mesh... and then directly home to the BFF's Indy apartment to bed. 

And by "bed" I mean a few hours of light facebook stalking and gossiping about people from high school.  Cause obviously WE have been such raging successes since 2005 that we need to talk about others to make ourselves cool.

Exactly.

At approximately 3 am, I popped up out of bed - and stayed that way.  It was extremely depressing.

At 8 am, however, we put our game faces on (mine with extra concealer) and set ourselves toward West Chester, Ohio - home of IKEA.

Now, I've never been to an IKEA before.  I'd seen and heard of the goodness, but I'd just never experienced it myself.

We pulled up and I saw what I was expecting.  In my estimation, I'd say an IKEA is about 2-3 Wal-Mart Supercenters wide and 2 high.  For comparison's sake.  Although really, there's no true comparison that I can think of.

Basically, IKEA is huge.

I asked the BFF's to take my picture in front of the yellow and blue goddess... but alas, my eyes are closed in both pictures.  So they are about to get blog famous.

We arrived just as the doors opened and were off to the races.

I wasn't exactly in NEED of anything specific - except for a kitchen table for Mr. RH's apartment - but alas it wasn't exactly on my shopping list.

So, we did a loop of the whole place before my blood sugar tanked and we had to refuel with meatballs.

 

Many thanks to @emshrock for her superb meatball shot. 

And then, we had to quick chill and recharge in the first display. 

Many thanks to bad angles and my long arm for this shot.

After that quick recharge, we had a second lap and really hit our stride.  I injured my pinkie toe twice (not really sure how, but hot damn it STILL hurts) and really had to throw out my elbows on the showroom floor cause some little kids were getting a wee bit feisty for my taste.

We had a fairly excellent experience - minus maybe one thing.  The overall staffing level at Ikea West Chester on a Monday morning was pretty dismal.  A couple of items were AWOL and we just wanted to find them.... but locating help was almost more difficult.

It wasn't too bad and fortunately we weren't really EXTREME shopping.  More like a light Monday trip with not enough money. 

We got to the checkout and there were a grand total of MAYBE eight lanes open.  It seemed like it was going to be a forever wait - but it really wasn't SO bad. 

My only tip for IKEA-ing is to bring as many reusable bags as you can find (especially if you find yourself shopping with two girls with much less self control than you have).  I grabbed my entire collection and we filled up every single bag.

We got to the car and loaded it up.... none to shabby, if I do say so myself.  There was room for another $200 merchandise and the back seat wasn't even full!

So, what did I buy?  Honestly, not SO much.  At this point in my daily life, I don't particularly need anything and anything Mr. RH wants is not likely to be found at Ikea.  

That being said, my entire haul is at his apartment, so you're going to have to settle for my verbal description of my purchases.

• Set of 2 small dressers/night stands that are unfinished and will go by Mr. RH's bed
• 2 sets of silverware
• 4 gray curtain panels to be used in the future (fell in love with the color, and they were cheap)
• couple of kitchen gadgets
• set of cheap wine glasses so I can get my drink on

I bought the least of the 3 of us but I'm already regretting it... I'm convincing Mr. RH to take me to Ikea when we go to Chicago in a week.  Wouldn't that be FUN?!

First, though, I need to stock up on sleep.  I'm worn out just remembering all that walking.  :)

Happy Wednesday!!