The Winged Heart

Our new mattress

This weekend was fun.  Nick and I saw an ad on TV for a furniture store having a big sale, so we decided to go on Saturday and look at mattresses.  We’ve been sleeping on an air mattress we bought for $1 since we moved into our new apartment.  It’s actually a great air mattress, no leaks or anything!  But now that we’re both employed, we felt it was time to step it up before we give ourselves early back problems.  We went to the mattress store, not really knowing anything about what we wanted, and luckily a super nice saleswoman found us.  She directed us to the mattress area, which was in the very back of the store.  She told us that the whole store was 2 acres, and that we could’ve been wandering for hours and not found the mattresses, haha!  She was saying funny things like that the whole time.  Anyway, she showed us the Tempur-Pedic memory foam ones, and a few others, and then I asked about any eco-friendly options.  She showed us a new line of Vera Wang (yup, the wedding dress designer) mattresses for Serta that use soy-based foam and have some other, more nature-friendly features.  We basically narrowed it down to three of those mattresses: a plain soft one, one with a euro-top, and one with an even thicker euro-top!  The first and third mattresses were actually on clearance (the floor models) since they were getting ready to get some new ones in.  Our saleswoman told us they had only been on the floor about 4 months, so they were basically new.  We ended up deciding on the first one, since the euro-top ones seemed a little too plush, and our saleswoman told us the regular one would be more even throughout the whole bed.  We made our decision and bought an excellent Queen-size mattress and foundation for $500!  We can’t go get it until May 4th, since the replacement floor model won’t be in until then, but we can wait =)  I couldn’t believe how easy the whole process of buying a mattress was for us!  Nothing like buying a car!  I think we just stumbled on a great deal, and also didn’t really know anything about what we wanted, so everything seemed great!  Now I just need to talk one of my truck-owning co-workers into helping us transport it from the store to our apartment… We literally live across the street (highway) from the store, but the delivery fee is $99 no matter what.  Lame!

Mattress shopping got me thinking about other furniture again, mostly storage for my closet.  I got some hangers through Freecycle when we first moved in, but the rest of my clothes have been piling up or been put into cardboard boxes on the floor to keep them organized.  We went to Target and looked for some closet solutions, but I didn’t really see anything I wanted/that wasn’t made in China.  I almost got a plain, shelving unit with 5 shelves to put in my closet, but Nick kind of talked me out of it.  So we came back home and I frustratingly browsed through Craigslist and Freecycle, trying to find something affordable that I could fit into our car.  First, I found a totally awesome, old, octogonal mirror in the free section!  It’s not a closet storage solution, but it was something on my wish-list!  We have one mirror in the apartment, the one above our sink in the bathroom (two if you count the medicine cabinet right next to it), but there isn’t enough room to back up and see past your waist.  So I was mega-psyched to get a free mirror, especially one as cool as this!  I definitely want to clean it up a bit and maybe paint it.  It’s super heavy and seems pretty old.  I love it! =)

The coolest mirror ever

I picked up the mirror yesterday, and decided to do a little more Craigslisting.  I found someone selling a cube shelving unit and a wire rolling cart for $10!  I e-mailed them and ended up going to pick them up like an hour later!  I had only intended to take the cube shelving, but the wire cart ended up fitting in the trunk, so I took both! =)  I put the cube shelving in my closet and spent the rest of the day re-organizing.  Now everything is folded into nice cubes!  For the top of the shelf, I decided to put shoes that had straps or bows that I didn’t want getting smashed by the pockets of my hanging shoe organizer.  I put my two shawls and belts and stuff up there too, and it made it look like a little curtain/canopy for my shoes!  I love how organized everything is now!

Cubed!

Secret shoes!

I kind of wanted to put the wire rack/shelf  in my closet too and put all my unmentionables and accessories and such in there, but we decided it would work better in the kitchen.  The shelves slide out which is cool, but they need a little oil.

Metal cart, perfect for kitchen items

I am a happy camper now!  This furnishing weekend should hold me over until we can pick up our awesome new mattress!  And that should tide me over for a while until we have the money to get some desks for our computers, chairs, and maybe a bed frame.  I just hope we can find all that stuff used, I hate the thought of buying brand new furniture.  It seems like a waste of resources when there is tons of great used furniture out there.  The only issue is transportation!

Hello pretty shoes!