Take Me Thursday!

So I have been contemplating for some time on how to incorporate a little bit more of "me" into the blog. I am a North Carolina native and love my home state. So on Thursdays, I am going to show you places in NC that are some of my favorites and hopefully, bring a little inspiration to you to get out there and travel a bit. It is called Take Me Thursdays! Just in time for the weekend. I do hope you enjoy! Please comment on posts as I can use all the encouragement (or criticism) as I can get for the blog!

This weeks destination: IKEA!

Ok, I know its not Thursday anymore, but I got side-tracked last night with another project (it happens to be holiday related so stay tuned for that coming up soon!) and well, its my blog, so I can procrastinate a little bit can't I? No judging please. :)

Anyways...

For Years I have heard of Ikea and all the wonderful-ness associated with them. Well, last weekend while in Charlotte for a wedding John and I had the opportunity to go and boy did we jump on it!

This store is H U G E. If you've never been, it is a must. It can take you all day. Seriously. Its like a museum. A museum for the thrifty or the decorator, or the organizer, or well, anybody. I could go on all day about this place. Seriously. Ask John. He was the recieving end of my (jumping up and down and screaming the day before we went) excitement.

After about 3 hours wandering, poking, oooh-ing and ahh-ing we were able to make our way to the checkout.
After a 2.5 hour drive home and unloaded the car this is what we got:

• I large lumbar pillow in a pretty floral pattern. I dont know what I will use it for but for 5 buckeroos I'll find room for it SOMEWHERE.
• 2 rolls of christmas wrapping paper. A buck each! Wahooooo!
• 2 black canvas storage cubes. We originally bought them for our laundry room, but they are quickly finding other homes to keep our crap in where we need them more. 6 bucks each.
• And my Pride and Glory buy. Our NEW kitchen light fixture for over our table. I cant wait for you to see the before and afters. It was 40 bucks.

Total for Ikea trip: Just under $70. I could have spent TONS more, believe me. We took $100 with us and that was all we could spend. Our goal was to find a light fixture and since we found it with such a great price tag, we were able to pick up some other things that we could use too. A very successful trip I believe!
So this picture was taken the week we moved into our house. Please dis-regard the mess! But it gives you an idea of our chandelier. Old. Like 80's old. With some glass missing. Oh. It was N.A.S.T.Y. looking. We hated it.

Enter the LOVE of our lives. This is it up and working. We (I mean John) put it in Sunday evening while I was cooking dinner, so please ignore the place settings. Hey, things get done when you can do them, right? It now sports some new cute lampshades too. I'll update it soon so you can see the "finished" project. I think it took about 20 minutes start to finish. Ahh, so lovely, so clean, so pretty. Goodbye old lamp. You will (not) be missed. Hopefully you can make some new friends in lamp heaven.
So get out there to Ikea. If you live in NC the only one is in Charlotte right off 85. Literally. Right off the highway. On Ikea Boulevard. Seriously. I think we need to make this trip a couple times a year. If for nothing else, the hot cinnamon buns at checkout that have you drooling the entire way through the store. And for 25 cents a pop, you know we got some. Ahhh Ikea. How I love you.