random thoughts – Day 1,551 – (Monday) – pillows and pancakes

Ik*a Stockholm pillow.

As much as I think I like the Swedish-based furniture store that I am now afraid to mention by name for fear of being deleted (again) by the cyber overlords, in my entire adult life, I have been only twice. The first time was around 2011 during a trip from Tennessee to Chicago with a friend to visit another of her friends over the Independence Day holiday. It was magical. So many products! Room displays set up by square footage! 

I bought two black and white Stockholm pillows which looked great in my old living room; a wall mounted magnetic knife rack that has still never been taken out of the package; two light timers, one of which is still in daily use; and a ladle/serving spoon set. Oh, and the blue square duffel and the big tote. 

The second trip to the blue and yellow paradise was with Mom to the one in Stoughton on June 17, 2014. The drive from Fitchburg felt like it took forever, even though according to online mapping, it’s only 60 miles and tracks at a little over an hour,. Something about the highway made it feel really far. Like a million miles far. Ten years later, we still laugh about it, and say, “Ugh, it was sooooo far.”

That day with Mom at Ik*a, I had Swedish meatballs for lunch and bought a plastic drying rack that looks like an octopus and some frozen Swedish pancakes to take home so we could see how they compare to the Finnish crepe-like pancakes Mom and I each grew up with. Except for being much larger, the store pancakes are very much like Mummu’s Finnish lettu, for which I have the recipe but am usually too lazy to make for just me.

Ik*a Swedish meatball lunch (2014).

As I house shopped (2015-16), I naturally assumed a trip to "the place" would take place for the stuff I would need for the new place. And some of the frozen Swedish pancakes. Despite being in the house since September of 2016, that trip to that store has not yet happened, even though I think about it every time I grab that ladle or big serving spoon. Not to mention the full 10,000 times I have thought about those frozen microwave pancakes in the past 10 years.

It turned out I didn’t really need anything for the house, thanks to all the crap I schlepped from my former larger house in Tennessee, then stored for three years while searching for a job and then a house. Some of it still lives in boxes, including those big square black and white Stockholm pillows that I still love, but which don’t really go with the undefinable "style" of décor that seems to have accidentally happened around me. Sigh.

I might try justify the drive for the chance the food market section will have the Swedish pancakes in stock. The temptation of the entire rest of the store might be too much to handle, though, and won't help with the current overabundance of stuff. But … the pancakes!