I had a Home Depot gift certificate left over from my housewarming, plus a $50 gift certificate that was sent to me from a New Hampshire furniture store good towards any purchase (no minimum). I thought I might find a nice lamp on which I could get a good discount, so I traveled up there this morning.

The store is very nice, and the furniture, while not having the selection that the larger chains have, is decent quality and much less expensive. I wandered around, and all the sales clerks were very nice, but not obtrusive (as they are in a certain chain I won't mention, except it's called Bob's Discount Furniture). One guy took a shine to me, and asked me what I was looking for. I said I'd just bought a house and was trying to figure out what rooms need furnishing. He congratulated me, and then left me alone.

I found some pieces that might work, then fell in love with a black, 4-poster canopy bed. It's very masculine, as well as being kind of "old world", in that it has crown moulding around the top and very nicely turned bedposts.

I'd have to change the configuration of the room (my bed is currently under a sloped part of the ceiling, which wouldn't accomodate a high canopy), but I'm more than willing to do that. It's well-constructed, and is the same price for the whole bed as a headboard I've been eyeing at Pier 1 for the past month or so.

I told the guy I coveted that bed, and had to "take some measurements" (read: get some money), but I was pretty much sold on the bed.

I went looking around some more, and in their home office department, I fell in love with a lantern-style nickel desk lamp. It's huge and heavy and has a quality I just can't quantify, but I knew I wanted it. It was marked at $89, so I thought that, with my $50 gift certificate and an extra $39 of my own (no sales tax in NH, you betcha!), I'd have a great lamp I wouldn't have bought otherwise.

I found my little sales guy and told him I had a "tiny purchase" to make. I showed him the lamp, and he asked me how I was paying for it. "Cash and a gift certificate," I said, handing him the certificate I got in the mail.

"Tell you what," he said, handing me his card. "If you're serious about that bed, I'll knock down the price of the lamp to $50 for you. Call me when you want the bed; you don't even need to come by, we can just pay for it and deliver it with a phone call."

Score! People in New Hampshire (well, Salem New Hampshire, at least) seem to be a little nicer to me. At least today.

I love, love, love the lamp. It fits with the office perfectly. I'm definitely calling for that bed when I get the funding (it's $500, so if you have that lying around, there's a PayPal button on the right to donate. I'll let you jump up and down on it if you pay for it).

I then took my remaining gift certificate (given to me by my cousin Beth) to Home Depot for a table lamp for the living room. Since I already bought the floor lamp in brushed nickel, I got a glass and brushed nickel table lamp that's really cute, but doesn't throw a terrific amount of light. So be it; it fits the decor. That and some cafe rods for my sheers (I'm ditching half of the armory that doubles as curtain hardware in the living room) used most of the gift certificate. No taxes! I love New Hampshire!

I took my purchases home and started assemlbing my IKEA coffee table and end table. They go together really easily, but the smallish table I saw in the store turned into a GINORMOUS coffee table that made the current living room configuration completely unnavigable.

I assembled and rearranged and rearranged some more and got frustrated and finally decided to take a trip to Radio Shack so I could get enough cable to connect my TiVo (or have Laurie connect my TiVo) and stop by Bed Bath and Beyond, because I have this vision of apothecary jars filled with cotton balls and Q-Tips and other sundries on the empty shelf on the unit I bought at Target.

They had no apothecary jars. I don't know who sells such things. I've seen them on amazon.com (for which I have...a gift certificate!!), so I'll probably buy them there. Until then, I'll just Windex that glass shelf in the hopes it looks good clean, if not accessorized.

I did buy an ironing board (I have an over-the-door one, but I now live in a space that has enough room for a full one), some thin-mesh strainers and a butter dish. I was looking for votive cups in a rainbow of colors (I've seen something that has a rainbow of those votive holders before, but now it seems to have gone the way of the dodo), but they only had subdued colors, like sage green and gold, and I'm into the bright colors for the living room. Subdued is for people with more taste than me, I think.

I was going to buy some colorful curtain scarves (swags? whatever), but they're $70.00 apiece, and I'd need several of them to make the bay window look good, so I'm going to hit the fabric stores and ask Mom to teach me how to hem a window scarf appropriately (I assume it's a straight hem all around? It's been many years since Home Ec.). Customized and beautiful, I hope.

I got home and assembled the (also ginormous) end table, then finally found a furniture arrangement that works for the living room. It's an oddly-shaped room, and the furniture I'm borrowing from Laurie is quite wide, so I had to put the large chair in a place where it's difficult to see the TV. We'll work it out, somehow.

The bay window is now completely in view, so I put Chris' custom-made table in the middle of it, and it looks awesome. I'm going to buy some large-ish floor plants to go on either side of it, and it'll be a cool kind of niche.

Decorating! Who knew it was so much fun without a midnight blue and papaya yellow kitchen?