Move Over Ektorp

After this weekend, all I gotta say is poor Bryan. Ya know, I've dated a few guys. And a few of them were serious. But none of them had what it took to deal with me on a daily basis. Bryan is so carefree, I envy it. He worries about nothing and rarely does anything affect him. Life just rolls right over his shoulders. Whereas, I am a tightly knit ball of stress because I feel like I have to pick up all the slack of his lackadaisical-ness and really, it's very, very hard for me to relax when I know there are things to do. If the house is a mess, if there is laundry to do, if dinner needs to get cooked.. whatever it is, if there is something hanging over my head it is hard to really, truly relax.

This weekend, I had the best of intentions to get stuff done in my house. And while I continued doing loads of laundry, not much else happened. When I start getting revved up about getting something done in the house, I end up getting so overwhelmed that I just don't know where to start! It's hugely intimidating and paralyzing. And then I get mad at myself for just not doing ANYTHING. I'm smart enough to know that doing nothing gets you a whole lot of nothing.

While I should have been working on the house but wasn't, I did managed to stumble upon a little sale. I told Bryan that I wanted to go to Visalia so we could hit up Best Buy for these ridiculously expensive screen protectors for our phones and he jumped at the chance to not only get the phone accessories, but to go to Guitar Center. I told him to drop me off at Pier 1 and made him promise not to dawdle. I ended up finishing at Pier 1 before he was done at Guitar Center so I meandered over to World Market.

World Market just so happened to be having a furniture sale. 50% off! My wheels started churning. I've looked at WM's website many-a-time after a random blogger had an entry about it. I've even drooled over their furniture before, even though I knew 1. they are really expensive and b. I didn't know if their furniture was reliable.

I looked around, half hoping I would find some amazing deal or that I would hate everything and this sale wouldn't affect me. I walked around the entire store and then made my way up to the front and I saw it. Not too big, not to small. Clean lines, modern yet classic, slip covered for easy cleaning - not to mention easy decorating.

There were two key tests that must be conducted. I sat. It was firm, but comfortable. I was told that you should buy firm furniture because it breaks in and gets comfortable over the years and ends up lasting you a long time.  The pillows are filled with down. It was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. The price was right. Two of these bad boys in my living room would create a lot of seating, but it wouldn't make our space feel cluttered with bulky items of furniture.

Wanna see it? Here. Feast your eyes.

 The couch is a really pretty charcoal gray color that would not only work well with the cool colors that I already have going in my living room but would work with warm colors should I ever decide to switch things up. It is a tad smaller than the couch we have right now, but since I am wanting to buy two (which will give us a sectional feel) they are the perfect size.

Obviously, I'm sitting there in the front of the store, stewing over how I could decorate my living room and how many different ways I could put the furniture. In each way, there is a side missing. It would just be open and awkward. Chairs. I need two comfy single-seater chairs. I immediately was up and looking around and of course, I found these babies:

Again, I sat. I mushed myself down on these chairs and got comfortable. These are also slipcovered, which is a God-send for our critter-loving house. The chair design matches the couch I'm loving and they are narrow enough that they would fit the space. I'm digging that that they are neutral and can be dressed up with some funky pillows. I also love is that if I ever change my mind and want to get two chairs that have a bold pattern, I can easily slip one of these guys in a guest bedroom and the other in Bryan's office and they'll work perfectly. Gotta love investing in furniture that can be used in multiple rooms!

Anyways, I mentioned them in passing to Bryan, trying to hide how my mind was reeling and we popped over to, drum-roll, HOBBY LOBBY. Yes. Visalia has a brand spanking new Hobby Lobby and I was giddy with excitement. All I hear about some from of my favorite blogs is how they adore HL and now we have one! Unfortunately for me but many kudos to them, they are closed on Sunday to allow their employees time with their families and time to worship. Which I respect! Hopefully we'll make the twenty minute trek there again soon, because I want to go!

Back to the poor Bryan part. As soon as I got home, I started googling reviews of World Market's LuxeLuxe Slipcover sofa gives Ikea's Ektorp (the couch I have been using as a template for what I want and for a saving price point) a run for its money! It also had a link to an article the LA Times wrote about the best, highest quality sofas $699 and under and guess which sofa made the list?!

The entire time I'm finding all these nuggets of information, I keep reading them out loud, barraging Bryan about how these sofa's are turning out to be quite the deal! Then, all day Monday, I kept going on about how we should go to Visalia and get them. That by that night we could be cuddling on our new furniture watching a movie! Of course, he wouldn't budge. "We need to plan." He says. "We need to figure out what we already have saved and if we can pay it off completely next month." "We need to figure out where we are going to put the furniture we have right now!" UGH! Him and his adult thinking. Why can't we just go for it!? Figure it all out later?

I suppose it's because we are adults.

RATS.