The older kids got to sleep in. The younger kids played and went to a birthday party. Hubby and I went chair comparison shopping. (Woohoo?) Yup, for us it was a Woohoo - at least me. I needed a new sewing chair. The one I have been using was great but just had no more life left. It's rollers were pretty busted and the seat had been fixed over and over and I just can't sit on that screw end poking up into the back of my thigh anymore.
But I have some pretty specific needs. I do a LOT of sewing and those hours add up. And a good chair can make or break your back.
*First, it cannot have arms - those get in the way.
*I need a chair with rollers to slide over my chair mat from sewing machine to serger to work table behind me. (Like a good "kitchen triangle" right?)
*I need a short seat so that my legs' circulation does not get cut off from reaching the foot pedals.
*I also need good back support because I lean over so much and that is not good posture, my friends.
So of course we looked in all the office stores and the big box stores. We had looked at IKEA a few weeks earlier and thought I saw the one I wanted - it was awesome! The seat AND the back were adjustable and when I leaned forward I got the support I need in my lower back - NO OTHER CHAIR had BOTH of these features) - but I just made the mental and written notes until I knew for sure, even though I had a hunch it would be IKEA. Hence the shopping yesterday. After which - I came to the conclusion that I could not find the chair I wanted anywhere else.
So we came home and watched Soul Surfer. Excellent movie. Highly recommend it.
Then we headed to IKEA. Now. IKEA had a deal going and this is why we waited until this particular weekend to go. The deal was if you ate at the IKEA restaurant this weekend, you could deduct the total on your restaurant receipt from your IKEA store purchase (minimum of $100 had to be spent in the store).
So we took the whole fam-damily and made a night of it. Everyone ate a lot of food. And it was yummy - have you tried their Chicken Strips and Fries - really to die for! And their famous Swedish Meatballs are so delicious! Of course there was cake and chocolate milk and soda and the kids were thrilled. (Not often do my kids have so many choices offered in one meal!) We even threw a few salads in ;). Between my husband and my teenagers and just BOYS in general, the 8 of us ate well.
Our food bill came to $99. My chair cost $139. So before tax, the chair only cost $40. Or I prefer to look at it as: my family ate for FREE - for a chair I was going to buy anyway! Win-Win for everyone! We love IKEA!
IKEA does this deal about five times a year. If you sign up for their IKEA Family card, which is also free, you get emails of special deals going on like that one AND you get even more deals at member prices. It is amazing because the prices are great anyway. We will be going back, because the mental and written notes have been taken, believe you me.
Another thing we like about IKEA is that you can go online and they actually have the same stuff as in the store (not what I found in the other office stores - I need to SIT ON THE CHAIR people! Not just "think it looks good online and order it and try it then send it back to the store". You can make a favorites list, print it and bring it with you. I recommend doing this unless you have all day. I promise it will save you so much time in that store if you already know what you want. Because it's hard to focus. You could spend all day there just looking at everything. Our trip to just eat and buy the chair took the 8 of us two hours!
So now we get to put it together and I can sew in comfort again!
Have you been to IKEA?
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