During the recent Memorial Day long weekend we had lots going on. Three birthday get togethers including a breakfast, beach party and country western bar/restaurant get together at night. Saturday was our marathon day (we even mamaged to squeeze and IKEA visit).

#1 Picking up some pallets

After going to breakfast in the morning to celebrate my brother in law’s birthday we stopped by My hubby’s father’s house. They’re remodeling the living spaces and I happened to spot some pallets in the huge construction trash container they have sitting in their driveway. After the visit I had everyone dumpster diving looking for discarded goodies. It was a good thing cause my hubby’s stepmother found some pieces of full tile that she could keep as a backup. And realized she needed to order extra tiles just in case. I got a couple of tile pallets in great shape and have two more waiting at their house. I’ve already got some projects in mind for them.

#2 Key lime pie stop

After that we drove 1/2 an hour to Bob Roth’s New River Grove in Davie, Florida. Which we discovered recently driving by on our way somewhere else. I saw this place on the Food Channel’s ‘Best Desserts I Ever Ate’ Show, and it was supposed to have the best key lime pies in the world or something like that. Key lime pie being one of my favorites, I just had to try it. Besides it was in the vicinity of the country western place we were going to for dinner later that night.

The place is really quaint and has a fruit stand, food bar and lots of homemade jellies, honey and treats. They even have a fudge room, yum!

We of course sampled the pie. I was disappointed that they only had full pies and small tarts, I would have loved to have had a whole slice.

But it was actually the perfect size and was delicious, we’ll definitely be picking up a pie for our next get together.

I got some local honey and key lime juice (with a recipe for key lime pie on the bottle) so I can try to make one at home.

#3 Ikea visit

Next we were off to, drum roll please…IKEA!!! My favorite place on earth, I totally think it’s better than Disney World.

It was close to the key lime place and only 10 minutes away from the country western place, so we just hung out there for a few hours until it was time to go to dinner.

We’ve been doing a little spring cleaning in all the closets and I wanted to get some storage ideas and plan out how we’re going to store what we keep. I love these new smokey blue storage bins, they look so pretty next to the paper bag coloured ones. These are definitely going on my list.

Well that was until I spotted these cherry colored boxes. Darn it, I wish I wouldn’t I wouldn’t have seen these. Now I don’t know which ones to get!!!

Update: I went back today and got the cherry ones. They’re for really fun project I’m working on that I’m super excited about. Will be posting about it next week.

I thought the new catalogue had come out already but it won’t be coming out till August along with all the new items. But we still spotted some new stuff during our Ikea visit.

Happy summer servewear

Very trippy lighting!

Tres cute postage postcard art

Butterfly cutouts (I think I like my butterfly art better)

And industrial art

This Ikea visit was originally a window shopping/idea gathering trip, we didn’t intend to buy anything. But of course we did.

First we spotted some salt/pepper grinders to replace the one that broke recently on top of my spaghetti. I had to fish out a ton of peppercorns that fell all over my pasta. The second set of items we got were two long wall hooks that were perfect for holding our folding chairs in the second bedroom closet.

Here’s our pitiful bag with only 4 little items, it was sad really.

Just when hubby was making a mad dash to the check out line (obviously he’s not as big a fan of IKEA as I am, I think it’s more of a pulling teeth kinda thing for him, lol). I said wait! Let’s just take a quick lookey in the as-is section just for the hell of it.

And that is when the heaven’s opened up.

I couldn’t believe my eyes, I ran to where my husband was sitting and whispered to him “come quick and help me load these up into the cart, they’re only a dollar each.” I didn’t want the lady sitting next to him to hear and of course he couldn’t hear me either. So I dragged him to the where they were trying not to draw attention to ourselves. I didn’t want anyone else to realize what we had found until we got the set.

There were three colors blonde, black and chestnut. Just as we finished grabbing them someone else took notice and was getting the black ones.

Solid wood (or least I think they’re solid wood), really heavy and in perfect condition, 31″x10″ shelves for only a dollar each. SCORE!!!

You would think that’s the end of the story, but it’s not.

#4 Back to Ikea

We loaded our finds into the car and were on our way to dinner when hubby and I started imagining all the places we were going to use these shelves in. Just as we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant when we realized we only had six shelves and way more ideas than that. So what did we do? We went back to IKEA of course!

We made a beeline to the as is section and found that by some miracle the chestnut shelves were still there. Phew!

#5 Western Themed bday

Luckily the restaurant was only 10 minutes away and we still got there on time, shelves and all.

Here’s a shot of the awesome cake my brother in law’s girlfriend got him for his birthday, isn’t it cool? I was real yummy too.