birthday presents

massage gift certificate, leather journal, moonflower seeds, beautiful nyc travel book, and new charm for bracelet.

love this

the best ikea shopping tips

I've been to Ikea so many times, and since it's a 2.5 hour drive for me I've learned to prepare as much as I can to get the most out of my trip.

The very first thing I do is measure everything and anything in the house that I'm considering a purchase for.

Curtains?

• Window heights and widths
• Depths from wall to blinds for rod brackets...I've made this mistake before :(

Furniture, rugs, etc.?

• Room dimensions
• Closet depths and dimensions
• Available space for cabinets, dressers, anything you might be even just be considering...

Here is a view of my Ikea.com shopping cart. It shows store availability, and the print out list option gives you several ways to sort your items, by first added, area of pickup in the store, etc. This is absolutely awesome. It gives you a general idea of what you might spend right ;)...and you can use it to cross things off, I highly recommend it this great tool.

So in short, here is my go-to list for what I bring:

• My own measuring tape, just easier to use than the free ribbon tape they provide
• A list of projects and ideas I have
• Printed out shopping list from Ikea.com

And I still spend 5 hours there every single time.

ikea evolution of emotion

Nug and I had the best day at Ikea. He played at Smaal-land for a bit while I got some shopping done, then we hit the aisles all over again. Lunch at the cafeteria...with the promise of chocolate cake if he ate everything. This was him over literally thirty seconds. "Crying face", "Sad face", "Attempting a pityful smile face", and then "CHOCOLATE CAKE NOM NOM NOM face"...

happy monday

I can't remember life before her name.
-John Mayer

ikea trip

Off to Ikea! Got my printed out product list from their website and snacks, snacks (and snacks) for the 3 hour drive. on the hunt for 12 of these today (ikea ribba frame)...among other things. many other things.

best spray paint tool ever

I just bought saw the Rustoleum Spray Grip at walmart for $2.50 and it's amazing. It attaches to any regular spray paint can and it really does work. Some reviews say it isn't the best, but mine works really well so far (update 2 years later and still going strong). It doesn't seem to be the highest quality plastic, but for what I'm doing it's just fine.

I'm refinishing an old mirror from Kirkland's and the finish was very pretty but too traditional for me and I knew I wouldn't use it unless I changed it up.

One full can of glossy white Krylon Fusion and my hand and fingers aren't all cramped up and my fingers don't have runny spraypaint all over.