life and puppies

On a much lighter note, my bees are now out of my bonnet!  Well, mostly.  Well, mostly as far as the bedroom goes, I guess.  I mentioned a few posts ago that I woke up one morning, tried to move my bed, broke it, tossed it and was waiting the arrival of a new one from CB2.  I also mentioned that I decided that the new bed would require new nightstands and new lamps.  I mean, obviously.  New bed would not have been happy with nasty old nightstands and pretty lamps, but ones that wouldn’t have meshed with new bed.  After looking around online a bunch, I had settled on nightstands and lamps from CB2, as well.  And, of course new bedding.  I’ve discovered that some folks change their bedding seasonally, some not at all and then some are like me.  I like to fall in love with new bedding and keep it for a few years until I tire of it and then opt for something new that I fall in love with.  Usually I keep the old bedding in storage, but this time I just tossed it.  It was pretty ratty and I was severely annoyed by it.  Wasteful?  Yeah, maybe, but I have a one-bedroom condo a little over two miles from my work so I don’t think I break the top 100 in terms of environmental offenders even when I tossed out the old bedding.   If you remember, and especially if you don’t, this is how the bedroom looked before Operation New Bedroom began:

Old bedroom

The bed was particle board or something, as were the nightstands.  They had to go.  I had had enough.  This is what the bees led to:

New bedroom

It’s not radically different, I realize, but in a room with a layout like mine, the only way to go radical would be to, say, hang the bed from the ceiling or something.  I really like the new look — I think it looks clean and sleek.  While I would have preferred nightstands with a drawer, I was trying to save money.  The ones I liked best are $199 a piece, while these are $99 a piece and actually, I really like them.  I would choose them again.  I’ll pick up some cheap storage options from Target to place on the bottom shelf to hide things I would normally have in the drawer.  The bed is really low, which I actually like because I think it makes the room look bigger, calmer and is better for Gracie.  And it’s all about Gracie, of course. 

A word on CB2.  They are simply awesome.  Crate & Barrel and CB2 are the Nordstrom of the furniture world, as far as I’m concerned.  I originally had purchased these wonderful, sleek, nickel-based, touch-switch lamps that arrived last week.  While I absolutely loved the look, they didn’t work very well.  They would turn off on their own, not turn on at all at times, and flicker when they were on.  I emailed the company and they called me (!) suggesting I not use them.  They said they’d send new ones and I should send the old ones back in the boxes that would arrive with the new ones.  And they said to call them when I am ready to send them back because they will come pick them up (!).  Note: these are $50 lamps.  So, the new ones arrived on Saturday, but the same problems occurred.  So, I called them up — on Saturday — and after some voice prompting I heard, “We’re sorry, but all agents are busy.  The next available agent will answer your call in … 20 seconds.”  20 seconds.  On a Saturday.  I’m not even sure it took 20 seconds, but soon I was talking to a nice woman who couldn’t have been more helpful.  She seemed genuinely concerned about my problem (even exclaiming, ‘Oh dear!’) and said she would send UPS to pick up the  newer lamps on Monday and all I had to do was put them outside with a note on them saying, “For UPS.”  She said she would have the warehouse send me boxes for the older lamps (since they are out in the recycling bin) and when they arrived I should call back and they would again have UPS come and pick them up at my front door.  And then she placed the order for the lamps I chose instead — creamy white and awesome — and they arrived today!  I recommend CB2 (and Crate & Barrel) for everything.  EVERYTHING!  Even things they don’t sell.