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Sara...

  • ...is a happy, ordinary, middle-aged, suburban woman who paints odd pictures, gardens in a straw hat, lives with the love of her life, is owned by one cat and the ghosts of several others, and walks a little funny 'cause she has a fake leg. She started this website because there's more to life than what we lose, and we need to let each other know what's possible, even if it's only a happy, ordinary life.

November 2011

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Contact

  • E-mail me at:

    sara at saraarts dot com

    Make sure the subject line of your correspondence is clear and specific. I do not open e-mails from strangers unless I can tell in advance that I want to read them.

Shameless Self- Promotion

  • I Took The Handmade Pledge! BuyHandmade.org

Good reads, grownups only

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Comments

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leslee

Yay! I've still never been to Ikea, even though I've moved twice in the past 16 months. My former housemate K went (with $50 of mine for a coffee table, which was amazingly easy to put together) more than once and has quite the assemblage of Ikea furniture. But you do make it sound even more inviting and I may have to go next time I'm willing to part with any money on housewares.

Anyway, this was way fun to read. Hope you're enjoying your new, um, wastebaskets and recharged phone. :-)

TheQueen

Ah, I have missed you...

Sara

Thank you, ladies!

Leslee, while we were lunching, D. kept saying to me, "Do you KNOW how LONG I've been trying to get you to come here? DO YOU REALIZE?"

"I know, I know," I replied. "And I wanted to. It's just -- I never really needed anything they have until now."

"Oh, Sara! No one really needs ANY of this stuff!" And then she clapped her hand over her mouth and looked around quickly to see if she'd been overheard.

hee hee

Kay Olson

IKEA! *squeeee*

IKEA restrooms! *swooon with delight*

The meatballs! Lefse! Lingonberries! *you get the idea*

Stay away from lutefisk and this sort of Scandinavian joy can be everlasting.

So happy to see you reporting in on such a happy "life list" (heh) adventure.

Also: "winkle" *snort*

Sara

Hahahaha -- lutefisk.

Yeah, I think that stuff is like the Japanese food natto, which is fermented soybeans and which I've heard even people of Japanese descent describe as "barf-like," or like the Scottish food haggis that's comprised of an animal stomach stuffed with other foods and cooked whole, the thing that prompted Mike Meyers to say that most Scottish food is something most people would only eat on a dare.

(I'm trying to think of what is the Jewish equivalent. I have to say that pretty much anything with discernible globs of chicken fat floating around in it would make my list.)

But while lutefisk is certainly nothing I would consider a "delight," my father used to take great delight torturing my mother by asking for it every time we went to the local smorgasbord, every single time.

For those from L.A.'s South Bay area, that smorgasbord was Curt Elming's Swedish Corner in Torrance on PCH. I wonder if it's still in business; anybody know? That was the first place I ever tried Swedish meatballs or Swedish pancakes. It was an all-you-could-eat place, of course, and when I think about how much of each of those particular delights -- and limpia, and herring, too -- that I used to eat in one sitting, it makes me faintly ill. Great food, though, and great fun. :)

Leslie

I like Ikea - very rarely get there but still....

sorry to hear you're so tired and having eating miseries but glad to see a post!!!

Becca

i too, love Ikea and am sad there isn't one in Alaska

kathy a.

wonderful report! we can never get out of ikea without browsing the entire store, and buying quite a lot more than planned. there is so much wonderful stuff! but my cheapness -- and the knowledge of my own susceptibility -- and teh sheer overload of the experience -- all add up to the fact i haven't been by our ikea for maybe 3 years.

i think you should have gotten more trash cans. you can never have too many, is my motto.

very sorry that you have been struggling with the fucking cancer so much. yeah, same old enemy, and i love your spirited defense more than i can explain. what helps? xoxoxo

Ron Sullivan

OK, I'm still giggling. Also coming thiscloseto the heebeejeebies because I just logged on after staggering home from our local IKEA, where I hadn't set foot in at least a year. Joe's in Sacramento today, though, so I squared my pants, hitched up my shoulders, and ventured in because we'll be needing candles soon and I wanted some closet gadget that apparently hasn't been invented yet.

Joe is a white-knuckle shopper and I figured I'd seize the day. The place always gives me a headache, though, and the damned wind has turned around again and is blowing from the east, which means 1/wildfire red alert and 2/sinus hell.

I think the usual headache's because the place is by the freeway circus in Emeryville, the combination of red and pink or red and orange or pink and orange sets my teeth on edge and so do all those hinky little faux-'50s patterns (I lived through the '50s once already, thanks), and the place has an odd suspended second-floor floor that wobbles under your feet when you're in the middle and it's such a maze you can't tell you're in the middle except for the wobbly floor under your feet.

And I didn't find out about the damned thing until I asked a clerk the third time I was there. He said they'd had a trainer from Seattle who'd had to go home early and take some pills the first day because he got seasick.

But. Jars! Spicebottles and a cabinet beside the stove! Wall cabinets above that! Ivar the Bookcase all over the walls of the office and guest room and Ivar's little hinged table for Joe's desk! (Because we furnished the office when he was still at his day job and I was the principal user.) (I love the way their furniture all has first names.) A small but sturdy saucepan! Assorted kitchen doodads! Stepstool in the pantry! Cute chrome-y toiletbrush! Magazine files! Shadowboxes! Cachepots! Curtains! Organizing devices! Lordknows whatall else! And a rag rug or three too.

OK, so not only that but I got your earring retainers in the mail! Seeing your signature was even better than getting the things, in a hand-decorated envelope yet. Thank you!

And you left me a comment and here you are posting too, and making me giggle.

Made my fuckin' day. Even better than finding two primo aloha shirts in the Goodwill on the way back. And getting the senior discount on them.


Abi

I love the way you use a pre-packaged sponge to prop up your furniture - not only is it apparently a suitable size, but the packaging should keep it clean in case you ever want to use it.

The Ikea toilets are wonderful, but make me a little sad. When I was a first-year undergraduate, the Ikea toilets were so much nicer than the ones I had to use every day that I felt a little deprived. It didn't seem fair, somehow. It did make a pleasant change, though.

I'm glad you enjoyed Ikea, and congratulations on your apparent lack of going wild and buying lots of furniture you don't need.

xine

The red trash can looks like an upside-down Devo hat, yes?

I love the family bathrooms at IKEA. Even have free diapers. And now that Cole is finally potty-trained, I can abandon both my kids at the playroom and actually shop!

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