Ikea: land of wondrous distractions....

[fajrdrako]

I just got back from a trip to Ikea. I had no need for furniture or lamps or anything major, though my friends did. And believe me, there was a sofa or two I could be persuaded to love. I needed a dish-rack and a saucepan. I got a saucepan, two semitransparent blue plastic trays, placemats, a lamp lit by tea candles (for the next big blackout), and a toilet brush.

And I had a wonderful time browsing. I love stuff there, even when it's things I wouldn't want to put in any house - like a bookshelf in the shape of a check-mark. Shelving, I adore good shelving - oh for a dozen sets of good bookshelves - and a place to put them!

I ran into an old friend named Shelley. "Phone me," she said. "E-mail me." She is a friend I have been planning or hoping to invite over for dinner for about two decades now. (Friends who haven't been invited over for a mere two or three years may cease to feel neglected, reading that.) This time I mean it. Can't e-mail her, I don't have her address, but a phone call is a real possibility.

I went into Michaels and swooned over their rubber stamping books. What is it that makes me love the art of rubber stamps so well? I make many greeting cards and gift tags and the like; pretty rudimentary stuff; I don't take the time to do anything ambitious. But how I love to see it. I was on a rubber-stamp mailing list for a while and loved seeing the terrific things people have made.

Another joy was discovering how good the food in the Ikea cafeteria is. I had an open-face egg and shrimp sandwich. Brings a smile to my face, really.

I had to think of "Fight Club", where the Narrator is referred to as "Ikea-boy". I can really relate.

Comments

[dargie.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, I adore Ikea! Try their Swedish meatballs someday. And I am SO going to get Ikea bookcases when I redo this place.

Rubberstamping, too? Girl, you and I were born to be friends.

[gem225.livejournal.com]

I've never been to Ikea, but now I want to go. I hope there's one near me, and I'm glad that you had such a good time. :-)

Sorry about the deleted comment. I got confused somehow and thought that you'd taken a quiz that you hadn't. My brain is not working as well as it might, but dinner will help.

[leela-cat.livejournal.com]

Interior decor by Ikea sounds exactly like my place. Walls lined with Ikea bookcases, except where the windows get in the way. Although one of the windows has a pair of low bookcases running below it.

My biggest problem with Ikea is all of the people you have to maneouvre around to get anywhere.

[jfc013.livejournal.com]

Gotta second the vote for the meatballs. Sometimes it's the only reason I go to IKEA. The lingonberry juice is also yummy. Last time we hit one was in Pittsburgh, and we got a toy tent (that now houses most of our Beanie Babies) and a chair consisting of inflatable plastic cylinders in a silver fabric cover. It's bizarre! I loooove IKEA!

[dargit.livejournal.com]

We were at "Linen Chest" and bought ourselves a new colander. We then could not resist wandering into Ikea. I also could not resist the "Singoalla" cookies. You know, the ones with the raspberry jam? *sigh* cursed place!

Rubber stamping

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

I was into rubber stamping for years, bigtime. I liked that it let me be creative without actually having to draw (which I can't do). I used to make my own Xmas cards, etc., and I used the stamps on the letters I wrote to my snail mail penpals, of which I had many all over the place, long pre-Net. I used to go to the rubber stamp conventions (the first ones were local in SoCal, now they have 'em all over) and spent a fortune. I had a good sized collection of Egyptian stamps in particular. My total collection at its largest was over 100 stamps (most gone in "the fire"). But when I stopped actually writing letters (or should I say, typing them), I just stopped using and collecting, because I had nothing to use them on. I still love the idea of stamping, but.....