I Heart Ikea

Our family loves Ikea. We love it so much, that we have a pet name for the store - Fun-kea. We must go there once every 1-2 months and one day I believe we spent 6 hours there - including lunch AND dinner. I would have to guess that at least 1/2 (maybe 2/3) of our furnishings and kitchen items (down to our laminate flooring) are all from Ikea. Jeff really must love me to put up with this obsession.

Therefore, it came as no surprise (except for two shreekingly gleeful daughters) that we would spend the afternoon at Ikea while waiting for Jeff to fly back from Las Vegas on Monday - the store is about 10 minutes from the airport.

Once there, I obliged my 7 yr old daughter by first stopping by the toy department to collect "Ratty", a stuffed rat that she's been enamored with since seeing him at the store about 2 years ago. We explained long ago that this is a "store pet" and he won't be coming home in a big blue bag anytime soon due to our 10 stuffed animal limit. Both girls understand and put their animals back each time our trip is over and it's time to check out.

Did I say how much I love Ikea? I love walking though the isles downstairs and the maze upstairs just looking at all the gadgets and furniture that I don't really need but look so Scandinavianly cool.

My goal for this trip was to find an inexpensive compost container for the kitchen counter. I'd love one of those attractive ones with the handle and charcoal filter from Gardener's Supply, but I don't want to spend $25+ on it either. I wound up buying this container for $6. The frosted sides hide the coffee grounds, egg shells (our chicken's egg shells!), and other bits and it's too small to sit around for days on my counter with decomposing organics inside. Now we just have to start the compost cooking again and we'll have black gold ready for springtime planting!

Oh, and the meatball dinner was as delicious as always with mashed potatoes and lingenberry sauce. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. Thank goodness for their frozen take-home bags!