IKEA Me Out

Whew!!

At the end of our IKEA excusion Ryan was like this:

And I was like this!

But let’s back up.

First of all, note to self: NEVER go to IKEA again on a Saturday. It.was.insane. We had to park literally two miles away in someone’s grass:

Yep, it was insane.

Ryan was literally speechless in the store. And I’m not sure that was a good thing. The words “this is a cattle call” or “this is a rat maze” frequented his lips while we forged on.  Being the gentle, sensitive girlfriend that I am, I just kept pushing ahead with him at my side.

He said no

However, we did get a plethora of greatness including a coffee table, a bookcase (for all my cookbooks! Finally!) and a huge gorgeous photo/picture of Paris. All for $200! As a reader just informed me on Twitter (follow me here!), IKEA is magical. Yeah, the quality of our new $49.99 coffee table might not be perfect, but its perfect for right now and my budget likes that a lot.

Since we were literally in the store for 3 hours, I had to bust out a snack because I was starving!

Oh goodness, this raw granola bar from One Lucky Duck was fantastic. It was a mix of almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, raw honey and raisins……major yum! However, this bar was enough to feed a small family so I only ate half as snack. It was filling and delightful!

We spent about 20 minutes getting all this stuff into Ryan’s tiny car and then another 30 minutes trying to get it out and upstairs. Once we did we both set to work—

I’m just really not an “assembling furniture” type of girl. I’m sort of missing that part of my brain, actually. I tried to assemble one from Target in college and let’s just say for the year I had it, it was missing a drawer.

I was so excited to find a wine that I tried and loved at the Wine Festival last weekend!

Remember when I told you that Torres wine from Spain was very passionate about going green? Well, I was happy to support that! And I just love this wine, which is a blend of Gerwurtzaminer and Muscat. Goes perfect with some raw rosemary “quackers” from One Lucky Duck, wouldn’t you say?

And what doesn’t go with hummus?!

(in my defense it was almost gone)

A bunch of you have asked about the Murphy-Goode position….if I’ve heard anything back yet. The answer is no. But… they told me I wouldn’t hear from them for awhile while they screen all the applicants for the top 50 candidates! So let’s keep our fingers crossed and please continue to vote for me!!!!!

Anyways, here’s the finished product…..I think it looks awesome and I ADORE this picture!

The best part, by far, was filling the bookshelf with some cookbooks! I have boxes and boxes at my parent’s house still and only brought my most treasured ones here a few weeks ago when I moved in.

We didn’t get done setting everything up until around 8:00 and then went out to meet some friends at a Japanese steakhouse for a late dinner. I have a love/hate relationship with these places because on one hand, the food is SOOO ridicuously good but on the other hand, I always stuff myself to oblivion and have to hurry home to put my elastic waist pants on. No?!

When I sat down I ordered a steaming cup of jasmine tea to sip on—

Then out came the 500 courses! First, the yummy soup—

Then salad with ginger dressing—

And habachi shrimp with veggies and fried rice!

I honestly wasn’t that hungry until my shrimpies were ready. I really didn’t eat the soup or salad but then inhaled all the shrimp and some fried rice, too. I never really eat fried rice often but its soooo good at Japanese steakhouses because they do the whole thing on the griddle with plenty of garlic butter, soy sauce, egg and veggies. A very worthy splurge indeed!

After eating a massive amount of food I was about ready to fall asleep at the table and we all decided to call it a night. I nibbled on a bite of organic dark chocolate when I got home and am about to hit the sack!

See you in the morning…..we have a busy day tomorrow!

Tagged as: dinner out, redecorating, Snack, wine