Posted by on Sep 10, 2012 in Lifestyle | 34 comments

Well hello there! Before I get started, I’d just like to take a second to poll the lot of you to figure out whether the “Weekend Warriors” posts I do every Monday are doing anything for you. Gimme the skinny and be honest! I will not be hurt. We just want to get a feel for who enjoys them and who would rather not hear about our crazy weekends so we can figure out if they should stay!

As far as weekends go, I’m pretty sure this one grew wings, because it flew by.

OHHHHH SNAP.

I did it.

Seriously though, it went by fast. One second it’s Friday and we’re attempting to learn Swedish shopping at Ikea and the next, it’s Monday and I’m back to yard and house work and not the much more fun projects and DIY stuff.

I guess maintenance is just as important as upgrades though, isn’t it?

*sigh*

Maintain this, life.

Our Ikea trip was the bomb (that’s Swedish for bomb). It wasn’t what I expected, but I doin’t really know what I expected. If I could sum it up, I would say it was fruitful and meatball and a whole barrel of Scandinavian fun. We did not receive a discount because of my Swedish heritage, so that was svag (Swedish for lame, weak), but we walked out with almost everything on our list.

I’m going to let the beautiful half of this relationship share the details with you tomorrow, but to sum it up, det var två katter slåss i den bleka månskenet.

For serious.

On our way home, we stopped by Jay C and picked up a few groceries, placed an order for pickup with Teena’s Pizza, a local pizza joint in Pekin, swung by and picked it up, and made our way back to inhale it and get crackin’!

By crackin’, I meant that we began assembling and decorating. However, not too long after we started did we find ourselves putting the movie on pause due to the threat of severe weather. It was probably a good thing anyways, because as soon as I made my way down to the fallout shelter  TV room, I was down for the count.

Not going to lie, I always stay up later than Cass, except for nights there are thunderstorms. It’s like the weather increases my body’s production of melatonin, because I fight to keep my eyes open when the thunder starts rolling. I feel bad too, because it’s severe weather and she hates it and I feel like I should be the one up and keeping an eye on it and protecting her so she can sleep.

BUT I’M SO SEEPY.

At some point (12:30 I guess?) we made our way back upstairs when the storm passed (that I didn’t even hear) and the next thing I knew it was Saturday morning and the fluffy one required her usual permission to get up on the bed with us so she could go back to sleep again, because she’s ridiculous. So, I let the two sleepyheads frolic in Slumberland while I drank some coffee and made like E.T. and phoned home.

I’m allowed to compare myself to E.T., right? I mean, Canadians are fairly foreign creatures in the land of the free and the home of the brave. We’re even called aliens, so the comparison is fair game, I say.

Plus, me and Reese’s Pieces are like this *crosses fingers* so step back, naysayers.

Saturday’s plan involved slapping some grey up on the great room walls and eliminating the pudding, because pudding belongs in a bowl and in your belly, not on the walls. But first, we had to drop some recycling off and follow that up with a date with ol’ rubber face (this is what I call the track at the high-school). So, with a cooler full of chocolate milk (Protein! Sugar! Calcium!) and coconut water (Electrolytes!) we made our way down there and brought the pain.

Er, well, we found the pain. I attempted to beat Usain Bolt’s 100 M record and my thighs weren’t having it.

I managed a 14.11.

Bolt’s WR is 9.58.

CLOSE.

Before we could head back, we had to drive into Salem and hunt for glödlampor (light bulbs) for some new lamps we bought at Ikea. We went to three different places, all the while checking on our phones for what exactly we were looking for and since we couldn’t find exactly what we needed, decided we’d just buy what felt right based on our research.

Our feelings were justified and the bulbs worked!

Huzzah!

At 1 o’clock (already?!), it was about damn time we started to paint, which I started on while the prettier one put a pot of delicious butternut squash and barley stew on the stove. Speaking of which, why didn’t any of you come for lunch? We waited patiently but no one showed up. So we started without you. And finished. We were just so sad we couldn’t share the experience.

Well, here’s a picture anyways. HERE’S A PICTURE OF WHAT YOU MISSED.

Painting took us a few hours, so we turned on the IU vs. UMass football game to keep us entertained. While IU did end up winning (yay!) our quarterback ended up leaving in an ambulance with a broken leg and will be out the rest of the season (not yay at all). Here’s to the second-string, yeah?

After painting was over, we decided to let it completely dry and look at it in the light on Sunday to see if another coat was necessary or not. The rest of the evening found us cleaning up and then sitting down to do some writing.

The Sunday morning light revealed that another coat was necessary, but we weren’t in a painting mood yet, so while Cassie did some photoshop mock ups of potential designs for an art wall, I worked on a little project that’s been floating around pinterest that allows you to conceal your computer peripherals, such as your modem and router and all of those ugly cables. Of course, it’s not going to be revealed til later this week, but here’s a beautiful before picture!

After wrapping that up and polishing off a second cup of coffee, we decided it was time to finish the painting so we could get our great room back to normal. Mostly because the fluffy one didn’t have anywhere comfortable to rest her sleepy face. So a couple hours and half a Colts football game later, the painting was done and it was time to redecorate.

Which meant it was time for me to push some furniture back, screw some face plates back on and sit down and watch Cassie do her thing. You’ll have to wait to see the result, but it’s super nice to have gotten rid of the pudding and replace it with grey. Especially since it allows all of our decor to stand out a lot more now. I’m not a total meanie and will show you a teaser close up of one little area so you get an idea of the colour.

After the painting and decorating was completed, it was time to do a little house work and writing and hope for some time to relax after a busy weekend.

Here’s to that!

Have you ever been to Ikea? What did you think?