Reasons to be Cheerful – Ikea!

Oh yes. The house shopping has started.

Well, that isn’t quite true. We haven’t actually bought anything as of yet, but we’ve spent most of the weekend looking for things to buy for the house, and largely just gathering inspiration for things we might want to buy for the house, and honestly, that is just as much fun for me.

It’s kind of amusing writing this post after last week’s Happy Monday. Saturdays at Ikea are meant to be the height of boring, old married, couple-dom. Plenty of people would rather jab their own eyes out than take this on as a weekend activity. Not for me though. When Dan suggested we stop in there on our way back from Birmingham on Saturday I had to ask him to repeat himself because I wanted to make sure I heard right. But he was serious, and I let out a very over excited YES before doing a little happy dance in my seat. Because a trip to Ikea to me is basically the same as a trip to the seaside or a theme park – hours of endless fun!

I love walking around all example room layouts, gathering ideas. It’s especially exciting when it’s for a brand new home, because as of yet, whenever I picture it, it’s still got all of the sellers things in it. It still looks like someone else’s house in my head, so it’s been lovely starting to picture what it will look like once we get our own things in it and make it our home. Little by little I’ve been able this weekend to start picturing what life will be like once we’re settled. I can see us know, cuddling up on the big squashy sofa, surrounded by ALL THE CUSHIONS I’m going to buy (Whether D likes it or not…), pouring drinks for our friends from the bar we’re going to build to house my impressive gin collection, cooking dinner together in our lovely new kitchen. It’s all starting to feel real now. There is even talk of a walk in closet. I repeat, a walk in closet!

So for others, the idea of trekking round Ikea on a Saturday, surrounded by grumpy couples and tired, bored children, all searching through the endless choices of cupboard door that all look pretty much identical to the untrained eye, might be the very picture of hell itself, but to me right now, it feels like heaven. I pretty much skipped around the place, and even though we went home empty handed for now, we went home full of hopes and dreams (gross, that sounds like a Hallmark card or something – soz).

I even managed to resist buying yet another orchid, but only because I don’t have room left on my window sill. Lotsa spare windowsill space in the new house though! T-minus 5 days to go!!

Love,