I love Ikea. I really do. To those of you who have never had the pleasure of visiting one - you're truly missing out. Now, your good old pal Gossamer here is about as redneck as they come, but I do have streaks of 'designer' in me that nature or nurture would be hard pressed to stamp out. I heard the hype, several years ago, when Portland Or first got their Ikea. I wasn't sure what an Ikea was... or whether or not it was going to be something I'd remotely enjoy. I was leaning towards the 'not going to bother' because I really dislike the whole shopping experience. But I broke down once, on a whim, and walked in... and let me tell you, it was absolutely love at first sight.


The whole store is huge, first of all, and divided into two parts. Upstairs is by far the coolest. It has a series of rat-maze like rooms set up. What I mean is you experience the illusion of walking from one living room into another and into another. You can go poke into closets, see bathrooms off bedrooms, and explore kitchens. There's sections so all the bedroom/bathroom set ups with their special cool fake walk-in closets are all grouped together, then living rooms, then office spaces, then kitchens. You can open everything, play with everything, sit on the furniture and see all the different ideas for decorating. And every inch is decorated. The little stuff found in the rooms is usually stored in bins or islands in its various sections so you can see what you like, go a few steps walking out of the illusion, and pick it up. They give you bags to carry through the store to keep your things in. If they are larger items, like tables, lamps, couches, you can write down the numbers of aisle and row in the self-serve furniture area and go get them all boxed up just before you go to check out. There's a really cool restaurant upstairs that serves a mean ceasar salad and grilled chicken plate. I cant vouch for the rest of the food, but the one time I ate there it was great. We ate there because we'd just spent three hours wandering the store getting ideas for our new house, and picking out things.

Downstairs is a whole bunch of kitchen things, plants, pots, pans, and childrens' toys. There's rugs, towels, amazing shelving units for your kitchen, and all sorts of other things I can't begin to describe.

This place is so huge it will blow your mind.

So anyhow, its roughly 68 miles from where I live, so we planned a trip down today to pick up my husbands Christmas present. When your old married folk, like Gillar and I are, you learn to get them what they really want rather than try and surprise them with something lame or that they might be less than enthusiastic about. I had a great idea for a present for Gillar. He has a vast collection of vintage (for that word is important to Gillar - new toys are crap apparently) GI Joe figures, cars, planes, helicopters, etc. He loves them. I don't understand it, but again I have collections he tolerates without understanding much. And I wanted to get him a gianormous glass display case so he could lay out his toys yet keep them protected. He likes landscapes like miniture railroad folks create, plus he does custom figures by repainting old or worn toys which remarkably end up rather valuable (hes just one of many weirdos that love GI Joes I've learned.. its this huge underground culture).

Anyhow, I wanted him to LOOK at what it was before I got it for him. Collectors are picky. Certain things need to be just right. And so, you learn to Christmas shop like this for your significant other because they are indeed all aglow when they get this kind of present instead of say new socks and slacks.

So off we went. Plus, I had an alternative agenda. I wanted a footstool. You know, the great soft padded kind you can use to accent your living room by scattering them around your couchs. We have a nice deep cordiroy overstuffed couch and loveseat thats a deep blue with multicolored pillows to match. So I thought a red footstool would be great (matches the red in the overstuffed accent pillows) and the red throw carpet that accents the set and protects the beige carpet beneath. So off we went. I also had my eye on a kitchen island cart and matching shelf. We ended up in Ikea for hours, wandering, shopping, laughing, plotting.... I want to totally redo my bathroom now! And I loved it.

He found his display cabinet (black accents), and not only did he find a really nice one (as tall as he is, 8 shelves, very sturdy, built in light, about 20X20) it was incredibly inexpensive - about half of what I expected to pay. Can you imagine? He got two of them for that price. I got my footstool in the color I wanted (Im going back to get a second one after Christmas.. this one is perfect!), and the kitchen island cart and shelves came home to live with us too. And we got it all in my Chrysler, which was a victory since those cabinets were really heavy - and headed back home completely blissful.

And the funniest thing of all about Ikea is that all I could keep thinking about when I was shopping around was Tarot telling me that while he was NaNoWriMoing... he kept flipping to the Ikea Catalog to get inspiration for his NPC names.

I'm not into cheap furniture. Seriously. I have a sleigh bed that weighs about a thousand pounds (well, not quiet that much but its huge) that should last several generations if we're careful with it... and Iived for years with a bedroom set my grandmother's grandmother had. I refuse absolutely to buy furniture that is imported from China. It's not because I have something against The Chinese. I don't. But its because of two reasons. One, chinese furniture is usually very cheap and not built to last (nothing built of cheap thin particle board is). And secondly, I once heard an interview on NPR from a chinese furniture factory worker (who made .70 cents a day) that laughed and called Americans 'stupid pigs' for buying tons of furniture, then turning around and throwing it away after a couple of years, and buying new. They said 'Keep shopping, you gluttonous americans... we need the work. Chinese are more frugal.. we use the same furniture for years."

The reporter then went on to describe the worker's apartment where she lived with her husband. It had a single box spring mattress, a small shelf, a tv and dvr on a small nightstand, and no other furniture. Ironic. What was she really talking about? I can't support an economy that wont' pay its workers enough to afford to even buy the stuff they make. That's crazy. In the same interview, they talked to a US furniture worker that used to have a job (the same job that chinese worker was now doing) and he simply snorted (you could hear the rage in his voice) and said (and I'm quoting loosely here) "We have to throw it away because its so cheap it falls apart after about that long." So since then... and yea because I never forget someone badmouthing someone else that they don't know anything at all about. I could understand her anger, but not her ignorance. I haven't bought 'made in china' stuff unless I have had too since... and never never never furniture just in case it could have been something that woman made.

A recent revisiting of that factory (thurs in fact on NPR) updated us on its status. Ironically that furniture factory is closed now in China because our economy is so bad we stopped buying furniture. So... its filled with garbage, and the only soul anywhere near it is a security guard who the reporter interviewed. The angry rude chinese woman who bashed US spending was probably out of her job and back tending her rice paddy (thats where she was working prior to her factory job). Ironic. Bittersweet. And the guy who lost his job at the factory in the US is now working for Google after being retrained in IT - making crazy good money. Seriously. Again, I admire the chinese for a lot of things, but when someone doesn't understand their actions and how the world is interdependent and thus not doing so insults whats buttering their bread, I get a little mad. Okay, a lot mad. And I don't forget. I get equally as mad at people that cuss the company they work for yet gladly take their paychecks weekly. In my book, its absolutely the same thing. Color, race, location ... has nothing to do with it. Attitude is everything!

So... back to Ikea. What does this have to do with the price of tea in china as they say? Well, simple. Ikea is a Swedish Company and every single piece of furniture was stamped 'Made in Sweden." That's yet another reason I like it. I would like it a whole whole lot better if it was stamped "Made in The United States of America." But then I'd probably die of glee overload. I'd even take a 'Made in Canada.' But we settle for what we can. And I can tell you right now... the only thing I've put together thus far tonight is my footstool... but its not CHEAP furniture. How do I know? Although its GREAT, I'm not able to use it. My very fat lazy huge black and white tuxedo kitty Lucky has claimed it as his throne, and is unwilling to even share with my feet. That is the litmus test. Feline approval is a gold star.

And in the mean time... check Ikea out.