live, from JFK

apartment therapy adventure, continued
thanks to free wi-fi at JFK airport, i can continue to recount my furniture adventure while i wait for my flight to maine! this terminal just might be my new favorite place, with net access as well as illy coffee and the muji store. what more could one need? it’s 8:28 AM, and already i’ve bought some coffee, a cute umbrella, a toiletry case, and 5 multi-colored pens (of course), so i might as well settle in and blog.

yesterday really was a long day! josh and i started it early with a refreshing run on the charlotte greenway with kath. i did meet kath through her (very famous and wonderful!) blog, but consider her more of a ‘regular’ friend at this point, if that makes any sense. i love her ideas and her overall zest for life, and i think we get the same degree of pleasure out of the ‘little things’ — good food, beautiful running scenery, and fun tools for organization and inspiration.

anyway, we are a great match pace-wise, so i figured what better way to gear up for our IKEA takedown than a rousing run in the october fresh air? we did a swift 10K through mostly paved trails and the time went by super-quickly as we chatted. i was super impressed that my polar accelerometer and her garmin (satellite) were both synced very nicely with the mile markers. they weren’t 100%, but very very close.

catching a quick stretch . . .

post-run. representing duke! we were stopped by an old man at the end who, eyeing my t-shirt, told us his dog was trained to attack people wearing a certain string of 4 letters. he was quite the carolina fan! but it was all in good fun, i think. we escaped unscathed!

IKEA rules
seriously? it does. i don’t care that the quality is not quite up to heirloom standards. i don’t care that it’s basically big box retail in a pretty swedish disguise. the designs, the prices, the energy, the swedish meatballs — this place won us over, hands down. we ended up buying out the place (seriously . . . you’ll see!) and spending only a fraction of what we would have spent on a bedroom set alone in high point.

here are some shots taken during our frolic through the swedish wonderland. our strategy was to do a pre-lunch walk-through, and then to mull things over and come back.

lighting options galore

room of books. i want a library in my house someday!

we left the first time with a pretty good list of basics. there were certain pieces that spoke to us right away (bedroom set!) and others that took a little time to agree upon (dining room table + chairs). we needed some time to think, and some fuel. so we set out for a . . .

lunch break!
you can read kath’s eloquent recap of our meal here. also, you will notice that the photos are of much higher quality than usual — that’s because they are hers!! i wish i had her talent AND her camera! we hit up a vegan place with raw options in charlotte called — appropriately — real food charlotte.

me + josh, not looking TOO dazed by our shopping experience

kath + matt! okay, i DID take this photo

matt was fresh from his great harvest shift and even brought us some fresh dakota bread and a gooey/amazing-looking dessert bar. [side note: already had some bread and it was FANTASTIC! so fresh and . . . to use kath’s term . . . doughy! thank you both so much!]

back to lunch! here’s the menu, which contained an intriguing array of healthy-sounding delights. we had to ask for explanations before ordering!

fun drinks! the light-colored one is an avo-colada, a very tasty blend of avocado, coconut, and who-knows-what-else. the darker is a verdant blend of greens and citrus.

here’s my choice: harvest plate. hummus, bread, salad, and avocado. i was happy! it’s been quite the restaurant fest pour moi and i needed a little detox.

josh’s raw plate!

i think he liked it, but i will admit that both of us were chowing down on swedish meatballs and frozen yogurt several hours later. in our defense, furniture shopping is tiring!

IKEA: the final frontier
after digesting our food and our apartment preferences, we headed back to the scandinavian fortress (how many names can i come up with for this place? hmm) and set out all business-like: it was BUYING TIME! and buy we did. here we are in line, 4 carts full of flat boxes:

and then we put it all in my volkswagen. just kidding! we are having most of it shipped (will arrive this friday). all in all, we got:

☑ a bed
☑ 2 cool-looking nightstands
☑ a dresser
☑ a mirror
☑ dining room table (no chairs! we are going to have our current ones reupholstered)
☑ a desk
☑ lots of lamps + lighting

i feel like there was more, but i’m drawing a blank right now! anyway, i will definitely post pictures once everything arrives and we can set it all up! there is going to be a bit of a transition over the next couple of weeks, but i think it will be worth it.

time’s up
it’s time to catch my flight! off to portland (maine) to party with my college girlz — it’s WEDDING TIME!!