Chit-chat Wednesday another year older and more organized

Hello,
Thanks for popping in. I had the loveliest birthday. Daisy woke me at a very early hour filled with great excitement, and ran to fetch the present she had wrapped for me (a cosmetic brush she had stolen out of my bag).
On the phone message bank came the welcome news that I had shortlisted again for the Sisters in Crime annual Scarlet Stiletto award. In previous years I have won the Scarlet Stiletto and other awards including the Kerry Greenwood Malice Domestic. For the last two years I have failed to place but hurrah, it looks as if my dry spell is over.
The Scribe and I dropped Daisy at her preschool and headed to Ikea. Regular readers will know I have never been to this iconic store. I almost felt as if I was back in Stockholm when we first entered the doors and found ourselves in the food section.
It was an incredibly overwhelming experience - but we were prepared! We had a list we'd been working on for months. We had our measurements and I had vowed not to be distracted by the 'pretty things' and think purely of storage.
We purchased as much storage as you could imagine, as you can see from the photo (which I have to admit isn't all we bought). Another two trolleys of flatpacks are not in shot. There was a time when I would have sniffed at the thought of Ikea storage and wanted antique or found objects on the street. But I have been living in such a cluttered little house for so long that all I want is ORDER. I felt like screaming "Everybody leave the store right now! It's my birthday and I need the storage more than you, so move out!"
I managed to restrain myself and we finally figured out the very complex method of buying things Ikea style. Who would have thought you do it all yourself? That was a shock! We did stop to buy some needed sustenance and that of course is the Swedish Meatballs. Truly, I could almost have been back in Sweden. Almost.
I bought no pretty things. I did buy a Pax , a Hemnes, a Trofast craft storage and an Extorp. And did I mention Billy? My new and favourite friend. We picked up an obscene amount of Billys and threw in a Benno for good measure.
We realised with horror we had run out of time and still hadn't packed our flatpacks. How quickly three hours doth fly in Ikea! I had visions of Daisy's preschool teachers waiting to go home with a fretting Daisy. With happy hearts we decided to return in the morning to complete our shopping list. Then I reasoned I will have time to head to the pretties. I am not a person who is good at practical things like storage and so I was thrilled with my buys (and faintly disturbed I was so thrilled to be in Ikea). But I do think that my trip to Ikea bought back many happy memories of our holiday in Sweden and made me long to return to the beautiful fairytale country.
Thank you for all your Birthday wishes. I am grateful to have made it through another year and feel very blessed. On Friday I will post a couple of rather beautiful books that the Scribe gave me for my birthday.
The postscript to this is the Scribe and I went out for our second trip to Ikea which nearly killed us. It was incredibly frustrating and where are the sales people when you need them? I think the worst job on earth would have to be an Ikea salesperson! We spent three hours just packing flatpacks onto trolleys and getting totally lost in all the bureaucratic madness of the store. I think my daughter's preschool teacher summed it up well when she said, "Ikea gives you the hope you are becoming the organized person you never do become." Or words to that effect.
It is very difficult for me to even think clearly after two days at Ikea. We have a delivery man arriving tomorrow and then the Scribe is faced with thousands and thousands of flatpacks arriving which he has to somehow assemble. Even an Ikea staff member who saw our trollies said, "Good luck with assembling all that lot." And after another four hours in the store I never did get to look at the pretty, frilly and desirables although I did take home some Swedish meatballs. And so I am one year older and hopefully more organized! xx