Bear makes a Monster

Yesterday, training day, bear and his friend played with nerf guns, raced around, ate hugely, played on the computer, hung around and had a blast.  One of the things they did was 'make a monster.  You put together the cardboard bits (Muuuuum, can you do this bit?) then add some solution (I definitely did this bit) and crystals grow around the Monster, called Snarl, apparently.  I'll give it a few days before it disintegrates.  However here is the Monster itself.

Then off to IKEA, where bear didn't have room for much at all and I couldn't eat anything much either but DH enjoyed a large plate of meatballs and I enjoyed keeping him company.  We got a chair.  I whimpered as we paid - £130!  but it fit in a box that went into our boot and went easily through our complicated front door.  DH assembled it really quickly and bear was impressed.  I got this image off the IKEA website

Bear likes red.  It's his favourite colour.

Normally I have an upside to everything.  And we did get out of IKEA with only a chair and the cost of a meal and a few drinks.  But I saw the kitchen I wanted.  It isn't desperately expensive, but by the time I've messed around with all the structural stuff I suspect is going on in the kitchen I need to save up thousands and thousands.  It is very low on the list.  However now I have a target and I'm considering cutting out the picture from the catalogue and pinning it up as an inspiration, or using it as wallpaper on my computer so I see it whenever I hover over ebay.

Far worse, we need to replace the lap trays as the ones we bought a few years ago are leaking tiny polystyrene balls everywhere, and the ones from IKEA are lovely.  I can see £9 each happening very quickly.  And far, far worse, we need to replace the cushions on the sofa - and IKEA do lovely 100% cotton with a sturdy feel  in the sort of pattern I fancy for £7 per metre, 60 inches wide.  It looks like this, image again from the IKEA website.

It's a sort of blue, red, white stripe with a really solid feel to the fabric.  There were lots of other temptations there as well.  Some were a bit too girly to inflict on DH and some were a bit too modern for my taste, but some were absolutely gorgeous.

I also was seriously looking at the duvet covers and curtains to re-purpose.  The website doesn't have the same quantity as the store, and I can't find my favourites, but I think this one (image from IKEA website) would proved a large amount of high quality fabric for a very reasonable outlay (who am I kidding).

 

It £35 but for that you get four metres of fabric two metres across from the duvet cover, plus the pillow cases.  The quality felt pretty good as well.  It is still quite a lot of money, though, but I suspect I am still living a bit in the past when you could get stuff for £1 per metre from the market.  It wasn't that good, and I'd really like something sturdier.

Of course, I then start browsing places like fabric land online (http://www.fabricland.co.uk if you are interested) where you can get 10 metres of 94 inch wide sheeting for £27.50 and I'm tempted to get something like that at some point just for practicing.  It is looking like it will be more cost effective than buying old duvet covers from charity shops.  I think I can hold fire on the fabric for now, though.  I still haven't got a place set up for the sewing machine, even after all this time (though a lot has happened, to be fair) but when I have, well, I still will be trying not to spend the money!  After all, I will have a picture of my dream kitchen posted to inspire me!