fess up friday - chez v

Have I got a yarn to weave for you today. I've got my partner in crime <a href="http://chezviviv.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Emily from Chez V</a> over for Fess Up Friday today and we've got a good one for you. Freshen up your drink and enjoy. And <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck" target="_blank">Zuck</a>, if you want to use us for a Facebook commercial, we're open to offers. Emily, fess up with Part 1...<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAbbtBx0ciVZTNwD9it5w7lWVN7ZfkL7UTb2UeOwI8yNJeDSMldF8FkCEaLx2teaBuY_t9riY_vemWRb0R9X7UyLYlw-K0yupvDmJ_gNb7DFeItk92dVMAOmZ3RSyFbVIvBNYprbkXrqKT/s1600/FessUpFridaylogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAbbtBx0ciVZTNwD9it5w7lWVN7ZfkL7UTb2UeOwI8yNJeDSMldF8FkCEaLx2teaBuY_t9riY_vemWRb0R9X7UyLYlw-K0yupvDmJ_gNb7DFeItk92dVMAOmZ3RSyFbVIvBNYprbkXrqKT/s320/FessUpFridaylogo.jpg" width="160" /></a></div><br /><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Is there anything better than the thrill of the chase?  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Well here is a little ditty for </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">you about </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">a desperate chase, the </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">power of social </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">media, </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">and the<br />kindness of strangers.  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">As a linking participant of the <a href="http://www.callingithome.com/2013/11/one-room-challenge-linking-party-pretty.html" target="_blank">One Room Challenge</a>, I was on </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">a </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">frenzied search </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">to locate a pair of </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">affordable sconces for my bedroom plan aka Project Chinoisy Safari Chic.</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuaCKVCS8EgszIA-yd8NLylvPBd6veHD2hxeR1yZuH3Tt3j-P8UDGU8vrVQcI_q6vwzT2xJlAc2l1aSLOPneDBpe-_b1uW17Jv_6g7LW6yzNloNsvjZAtR_iYH6a6E8BWhUnxnVIg__fY/s1600/ORC+-+Week+1+Graphic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuaCKVCS8EgszIA-yd8NLylvPBd6veHD2hxeR1yZuH3Tt3j-P8UDGU8vrVQcI_q6vwzT2xJlAc2l1aSLOPneDBpe-_b1uW17Jv_6g7LW6yzNloNsvjZAtR_iYH6a6E8BWhUnxnVIg__fY/s640/ORC+-+Week+1+Graphic.png" width="388" /></a></div><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">With little time, I knew my search would be a lot like trying to avoid bread and cheese.  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Not </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">gonna </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">happen.  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">On a Wednesday, mid-challenge, I headed to <a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/" target="_blank">IKEA</a> in search of some drapes to hack.  Imagine my glee when I stumbled across the </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20231325/" target="_blank">Ranarp</a></span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">clamp </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">spotlights.  I was </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">complet</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">ely smitten upon first sight considering </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">all the other sconces I was </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">contemplating </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">for my </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://chezviviv.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-big-reveal-wk6-orc-challenge.html" target="_blank">ORC room</a> </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">carried hefty price </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">tags</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">and long lead times.<br />The </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Ranarp</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> - $19.99.  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Say what?!  Done and done.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVcHNlE0JUwMzcIsdtUSGLwyvh73cBsuuJuXTjwfiCykHxI755ER43E3scq9fypStz4nd8PsFxRZyIxGup4bpYV41kNnhH1Fn3DIAvsf-KmekRVEkGEQm1rREwASTX2Ct2LkpvEyHVUw/s1600/Day+186+-+ORC+Link+Up+-+WK3+-+Ranarp.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVcHNlE0JUwMzcIsdtUSGLwyvh73cBsuuJuXTjwfiCykHxI755ER43E3scq9fypStz4nd8PsFxRZyIxGup4bpYV41kNnhH1Fn3DIAvsf-KmekRVEkGEQm1rREwASTX2Ct2LkpvEyHVUw/s400/Day+186+-+ORC+Link+Up+-+WK3+-+Ranarp.png" width="300" /></a></div><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">But like all too-good-to-be-true dreams, </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">I awoke from my design euphoric nirvana state only to realize that </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">they </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">were sold out.  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Of </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">course you are, little gorgy industrial glam thingy, you!  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Immediately, I </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">sent out a request on </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://instagram.com/chezviviv" target="_blank">Instagram</a></span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> asking if anyone knew of any in stock anywhere.  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Like the </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">shot heard round the world, </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">my fellow design soldiers started rallying to the call, </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">one of which </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">was one of my </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">favorite gals in all of </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">blogland</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">, </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Elizabeth.  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">It seems she too was on the hunt for the coveted <a href="http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20231325/" target="_blank">Ranarps</a>.</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">  </span></div><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">In </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">the meantime, </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">while my little was busy hopping herself up on a cinnamon roll, I </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">sweet talked a very accommodating IKEA customer service guy into doing a country wide inventory search (</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">which </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">I do not necessarily suggest as it took </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">forever and garnered </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">a </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">lot of </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">evil side </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">eye from the long customer svc queue</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">) </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">only to discover that the </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">lamps were indeed, sold out everywhere with the exception of </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">17 </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">in Paramus, NJ and </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">3 in Houston</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">, TX.  I shared this info with Elizabeth and thus began a dual mission to score these lamps through one of our varied networks.</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"></div><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">We schemed, we commiserated, we called, emailed, <a href="http://chezviviv.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">blogged</a>, </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://instagram.com/chezviviv" target="_blank">IG’d</a></span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> and </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/chezviviv" target="_blank">FB’d</a></span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> in an attempt to reach anyone who had peeps near Paramus, NJ or Houston all to no avail.  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">I even contacted </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">my master finder-of-all-things </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">bestie</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> in Berlin, Germany.<br />This is the </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">kinda</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> gal who has a vast network of contacts willing and ready to do her bidding.  She said, yes, she could probably pull it off but to keep checking with other sources as it would take a few to orchestrate.<br />Meanwhile</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">, </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">on Friday </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">evening of that same week, at 7pm, </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">my sister’s father-in-law, who lives in </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">NJ, happened to be near the Paramus store, and agreed to go pick some up, but would I mind calling to verify stock first.  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Hoo</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">-ray!!!!  No problem!!!! </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Except when I called IKEA another very nice customer svc lady informed me that no, in fact, Paramus did not have ANY in stock.  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Is it possible that all 17 sold out in 2 days?!  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">No, turns out that when my customer svc dude did the country wide search, the 17 he ‘found’ in the Paramus, NJ store where actually in the Elizabeth, NJ store.  Which was no where near where my sister’s father-in-law happened to be at said moment.  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Wha</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">wha</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">wha</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">.</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgifNWY6lLSrzOL77shOyzxj9lNiHv4oHn_T8HyBe7SuQ7H-Zvi2E44w_UlGgody9QzZfoutv3cXaaq_x3bP8nkxvDsatur9AZR6kmcy5EaVcp5dA-NyIYtE0gQuO40K4mcWN2y1z9wUeU/s1600/royvey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgifNWY6lLSrzOL77shOyzxj9lNiHv4oHn_T8HyBe7SuQ7H-Zvi2E44w_UlGgody9QzZfoutv3cXaaq_x3bP8nkxvDsatur9AZR6kmcy5EaVcp5dA-NyIYtE0gQuO40K4mcWN2y1z9wUeU/s400/royvey.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.thejimbolist.com/?p=415" target="_blank">via</a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Are you still with me?<br /></span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">I know, me neither.<br />I am exhausted just retelling it. <br />Clearly it was time for wine and more commiseration.  Off went another email to Elizabeth detailing how the Holy Grail had slipped through our fingers, yet again.  At which point, I hand off the story baton to her which involves that Friday evening spent feverishly exchanging updates via email over many glasses of wine on my side and probably many G &Ts on hers while my much ignored and frustrated husband could not understand even a little bit about what all the fuss was about.  </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Thankfully, Elizabeth’s </span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">hubster</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> could!</span><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #d99694; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-style: italic; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 5; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #254061; font-family: "Century Gothic"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Century Gothic"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 4; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">kisses,  </span><span style="color: #254061; font-family: "Satisfaction Pro"; font-size: 36.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Satisfaction Pro"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 4; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">mrs.</span><span style="color: #254061; font-family: "Satisfaction Pro"; font-size: 36.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Satisfaction Pro"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 4; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> V</span></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #254061; font-family: "Satisfaction Pro"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Satisfaction Pro"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 4; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSgy0iOEwC0Cg_2DT7geX5i8O1e_An1nPZMSUaRsVZWFSF0eKtgnlJvvDvbrF5isj5NDbWGv-_68apKyU7Xtwj-dVmLcfN8x2NqFkhjDX2bq7RO1_2UYQwZ2AXSQ6UJ48eGxbkoRKbRoQ/s1600/Slide2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSgy0iOEwC0Cg_2DT7geX5i8O1e_An1nPZMSUaRsVZWFSF0eKtgnlJvvDvbrF5isj5NDbWGv-_68apKyU7Xtwj-dVmLcfN8x2NqFkhjDX2bq7RO1_2UYQwZ2AXSQ6UJ48eGxbkoRKbRoQ/s640/Slide2.PNG" width="480" /></a></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #254061; font-family: "Satisfaction Pro"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Satisfaction Pro"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 4; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: #254061; font-family: "Satisfaction Pro"; font-size: 14.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: "Satisfaction Pro"; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 4; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz39VbzK0lKVwJPYyOju9XW8AUSgRJ_5Pv6kr43iiVbjxzh77cbP4kYs6SQNpE2Mqylsc2ZWFVN0wRrblzL4Z-k4_X9lnlSxQruQNONJNxUv_e8vfInnEsloODaj_axW8DZnw9V7SCydQ/s1600/Sunny+ORC+pictures+045.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz39VbzK0lKVwJPYyOju9XW8AUSgRJ_5Pv6kr43iiVbjxzh77cbP4kYs6SQNpE2Mqylsc2ZWFVN0wRrblzL4Z-k4_X9lnlSxQruQNONJNxUv_e8vfInnEsloODaj_axW8DZnw9V7SCydQ/s640/Sunny+ORC+pictures+045.JPG" width="424" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj05iiJ5U8S_4Ptk2Zyt7kGzChrkIX0mQdkJTdPxEWVqOVq_tomUjefJmaerylKON7whbcp3RwQuVN3XroTHqbUnf9jLBllhOzQi7b8fupfifxqo6NsMbiidc0_gMDz7hXFl00xQfiNdcw/s1600/Slide7.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj05iiJ5U8S_4Ptk2Zyt7kGzChrkIX0mQdkJTdPxEWVqOVq_tomUjefJmaerylKON7whbcp3RwQuVN3XroTHqbUnf9jLBllhOzQi7b8fupfifxqo6NsMbiidc0_gMDz7hXFl00xQfiNdcw/s640/Slide7.PNG" width="480" /></a></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidQsgmRw1Ed46p8KKgqDGuOe3cBTJ4eIIzCRLSQ1u_PrpcUR9WXm2YTe2tw_Jujko2vIuJeD69r5lgpNTQJu8J51C-26JmGYBpAgyW1eRNhNRGmQOgyDiq4Gicy_ddYccLpVFhEG5UoxM/s1600/Master+Makeover+001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidQsgmRw1Ed46p8KKgqDGuOe3cBTJ4eIIzCRLSQ1u_PrpcUR9WXm2YTe2tw_Jujko2vIuJeD69r5lgpNTQJu8J51C-26JmGYBpAgyW1eRNhNRGmQOgyDiq4Gicy_ddYccLpVFhEG5UoxM/s640/Master+Makeover+001.JPG" width="424" /></a></div><div style="direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><br />Part 2...<br /><br />It was not a good night for Emily and me. As y'all may have gathered, I can get myself a wicked case of tunnel vision when I want something. I am like Miley Cyrus when she sees a foam finger - I cannot be stopped.<br />After days of back and forth, and a Friday night spent emailing at a rapid pace, we were left empty handed. Damn that IKEA customer service rep and his lack of New Jersey geographic knowledge. My New Jersey adjacent sources were tapped as well and worst of all I was running out of gin.<br /><br />Luckily this happened just as the hubs was finishing his movie. "Are you two still talking about those dumb lights?" he said (in an ultra supportive voice). I updated him on the latest and he said, "let's just put this on Facebook". And like that he sent out an SOS on his feed.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHDVpCnb_RiMKDUstohKBPKLRhbsCQP4WRdx8CxsJRv3OHzd3OWYDl7tWXH4XT1hHmZLIHGYDNwpxpEdFZ2vVgjBIizH9OBiB-MwcFY4r1mn7eXknSCRHexbHs5ZndHuTVG4ip7FKqimd/s1600/lukefb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSHDVpCnb_RiMKDUstohKBPKLRhbsCQP4WRdx8CxsJRv3OHzd3OWYDl7tWXH4XT1hHmZLIHGYDNwpxpEdFZ2vVgjBIizH9OBiB-MwcFY4r1mn7eXknSCRHexbHs5ZndHuTVG4ip7FKqimd/s640/lukefb.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Just an hour and a half later he had a response from a friend from high school (which was in Chicago) who now lives in Dallas. Yes, Dallas is not Houston, but <i>she</i> has a friend who lives in Houston who would probably be up for it. "She loves to shop."<br /><br />Good lord, we might have a winner. I told Emily right away and we both held our breath as my husband texted Dallas and Dallas texted Houston and back again. Houston was in, we just needed to confirm in the AM that the IKEA store did in fact have the lights in stock and she would be there as soon as they opened.<br /><br />So a perfect stranger agreed to go to IKEA on <strike>the worst IKEA day of the week</strike> a Saturday to pick up three lights, the LAST three lights in stock in the lower 48, for two crazy ladies in two different states that she had never met. Emily and I squealed and lit a candle that some early bird Texan wouldn't get our lights before our shopping angel arrived.<br /><br />I had already committed to go to an auction that morning with a client so I called IKEA on my way and they were as (un)helpful as ever, telling me that it '<i>looks</i> like there are 3 available' but they couldn't be sure. Awesome.<br /><br />So we waited, and waited, and just as I lost a bid on some fab ginger jars this popped up on my phone.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHHc-TRI6w4Nop4vKz-7toLCdNHKZmG4yOtAdFnDXvSo0VqTvSmjLGYnUQhGYd6vqtvt1p8PKfD_Ks0vJP4ykBnucO_j1t6Y5gtNhx3mgFjoeAtceQyK1IJ0Mo16fayaL5o7nPp2OmTDjM/s1600/IKEARANARP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHHc-TRI6w4Nop4vKz-7toLCdNHKZmG4yOtAdFnDXvSo0VqTvSmjLGYnUQhGYd6vqtvt1p8PKfD_Ks0vJP4ykBnucO_j1t6Y5gtNhx3mgFjoeAtceQyK1IJ0Mo16fayaL5o7nPp2OmTDjM/s640/IKEARANARP.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><br />Three left and they were all ours. I cheered silently and forwarded the picture to Emily. IKEA, I love you again.<br /><br />As if this woman couldn't get any better, she sent a few more texts asking if there were any other forms of the RANARP we wanted while she was there (the desk lamp is especially lovely). Can this wonderful person please move to St. Louis so I can hug her?!<br /><br />She shipped them out first thing Monday and on Wednesday morning I had the best package on my doorstep along with the sweetest note (on fab monogramed stationary I might add). Not only did this woman make this trip for people she doesn't even know to a store that is crazy on a quite day but she did it all while sick. And my favorite part - "I took it upon myself to also buy the lightbulbs that were recommended for the light, just in case." I love her.<br /><br />So in the end this<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxe0lsbDl7QFTIiOOU9FCGHbqTlpKyJKho8rFwvdOQSB7T7gjRRqRhw4924FzkkiFd_EDZF7LR8uOvvGdM1f-1qYyLvcxDLeyjH9npRnyyQGVW_PxhQAx_RkYiGfXIYVttoIL9KDqgcxUu/s1600/creativityismessyfinal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxe0lsbDl7QFTIiOOU9FCGHbqTlpKyJKho8rFwvdOQSB7T7gjRRqRhw4924FzkkiFd_EDZF7LR8uOvvGdM1f-1qYyLvcxDLeyjH9npRnyyQGVW_PxhQAx_RkYiGfXIYVttoIL9KDqgcxUu/s640/creativityismessyfinal.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />and this<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisn0B2WfIaJlC04gMUc9N_ItVFBV3YSH3GAN6UY7ne7brreT6a841Sc_UjZO9twhOkoKu9FGkywEu0Pa-ctLtxhTJfJO2kqd5_zAHZEmIiVnrSvOXFDGCyE7jOwGJK_Kv0F1nlNyCtjYCX/s1600/Slide2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisn0B2WfIaJlC04gMUc9N_ItVFBV3YSH3GAN6UY7ne7brreT6a841Sc_UjZO9twhOkoKu9FGkywEu0Pa-ctLtxhTJfJO2kqd5_zAHZEmIiVnrSvOXFDGCyE7jOwGJK_Kv0F1nlNyCtjYCX/s640/Slide2.PNG" width="480" /></a></div><br />would not have been possible without our little slice of heaven in Texas. Thank you Marnie and Ann for your kindness. Emily and I would like to buy you ladies a drink.<br /><br />Have you ever been desperate to get your hands on something? Ever need something and then when you find out it is hard to get it becomes an obsession? Ever want to kiss a stranger?</div>

fess up friday - chez v

Have I got a yarn to weave for you today. I've got my partner in crime Emily from Chez V  over for Fess Up Friday today and we've go...

Read more »