Zipcar Trip to Ikea, Home Goods, Dress Barn and Fred Meyer, and a couple of sights to see in my neighborhood.

Saturday, believe it or not, I decided to forego seeing the Porsches in Cars in the Park. I got myself a Zipcar and did some errands instead.


The Zipcar of the day, a Toyota Prius named "Plush," a hybrid hatchback. I only had to walk four tenths of a mile to get to the car--not bad at all, especially since the closer one, only one tenth of a mile away, showed up on Zipcar's Web page as unavailable when I searched for a car to reserve.


This was my first ever trip to Ikea all by myself, no son along to keep me on task, following the arrows on the floor, and not missing any details of the Ikea experience.


Here's what I got at Ikea, five additional Branas baskets for my Expedit bookcase, six more Ribba picture ledges, one table-top ironing board, one Antonius over-the-door hanging rack which just might work when I have Milton and Kay here in a few weeks, and one Lajban drying rack, which just might work if the other one doesn't. No one likes or needs or deserves a somewhat soggy bath towel.


See the C reflected in the back window? That's how I found the car again--I parked in a space near the C because I figured I could easily remember cool and/or crazy, both terms that have been applied to me, now and then.


At Home Goods, a store I had never previously shopped, I found one more over-the-door rack with an attached shelf, plus the cutest paisley fit&fresh Retro Chiller Bag which includes a lunch POD with reusable chiller pack (their capitalizations). That's the bottom of it that you see here. I figured out how to attach it to a strap on my backpack! Next I drove over and parked in front of the Dress Barn where I lucked out and found three tops, two on sale, one not but still comfortable and affordable. No photos of the Dress Barn plastic bag--I know you are thrilled at that turn of events!


I extended my Zipcar reservation by using the app on my iPhone, drove home and unloaded the back of the car, ate a quick lunch of tuna salad and saltines, accompanied by a small Mt. Dew in a can. Then I drove to the Hollywood Fred Meyer and shopped for groceries, etc. Once I had made my purchases, I filled the two rolling black bags in the anteroom, grocery cart area, exited for the Zipcar with the Northern and the Brawny and one of the bags in the grocery cart, pushing the other rolling black bag. That silver sliver you see beneath my rolling black bags and the bag of Brawny is the removable thing that you attach somehow to the inside of the back of the car so that what you have in the back of the car is out of sight--it goes up and down with the opening and shutting of the hatch. Of course, someone who drove the car prior to me had taken it loose, I am not sure how to attach it, nor did I really need it. One of these days I may have to figure it out, but not yesterday.


I unloaded everything with 15 minutes to spare, drove the Prius "Plush" to its home, and walked back to my apartment. As I crossed the street, something shiny inside the open door caught my eye. I walked in and talked for a few moments to the nicest woman inside the Tip Top Cleaners , locally owned and operated, on the corner of East Burnside and SE 20th Avenue. The sidewalk you can see is along NE 22nd Avenue, heading north. That's my path between the apartment the "Plush," the Zipcar Prius.


"These mosaics are great! Did y'all do them yourselves?" "I did," she replied, smiling. "This is Mt. Hood!" I exclaimed. The lady replied, "My Mama thought I was going too slow, so she put some things at the bottom (to finish it), but that's the thing with mosaics (it didn't hurt it)!" I agreed with her and asked if I could take some pictures for my blog. She gave the OK. The pieces of mirror on the sides of Mt. Hood had reflected the sunshine, catching my eye as I walked by on the sidewalk.


The other counter says, "Welcome." I wish I had thought to ask if she worked on the mosaics elsewhere or here on the base of the counters. I will stop by again some time and ask.


As I left, I told her how much I enjoyed their neon sign, a comment that garnered me another big smile. Then I took this photo and continued on my way, for a few steps.


Then I stopped, looked at the sign painted on the window, glanced back south on the sidewalk and decided to take this photo. See the white car in the distance, about to come out of the side street?


That side street is where "Plush" lives. The closer white car in on East Burnside."Plush" at home, behind the 76 station.


A close-up of the sign on the window. I really like how the outline paint's color closely matches the color of the neon at the bottom of the arrow. Besides going back to ask about the process followed in making the mosaics, I need to get back over there after dark and take a few photos of the neon sign. Then I'll share them with you.


In the meantime, here's the same photo as above, altered at Picnik with the effect known as Lomo-ish.


Another couple of steps and I couldn't resist this oh-so-professional-looking Alterations, expertly painted across the three windows which such confidence in its ability to make someone notice what it says.


One final colorful local place caught my eye as I walked by, Spunky Monkey Coffee Roasters .

Two Hansons, Lamont and I, took a trip to Ikea on Presidents' Day in his big ol' Volvo wagon, but we didn't eat Swedish meatballs for lunch.

Daunting task. Those two words fit shopping at Ikea. Not that I wasn't prepared. On Sunday I photographed the spaces where I felt I needed additional storage in my kitchen. I measured those spaces, then printed the photos and wrote the measurements on each one. Then I went to Ikea online to check out what was available. Having done so allowed me to relax a little bit about looking throughout the gargantuan 280,000 square foot building. I took this photo right after Lamont pulled into one of the 1,200 parking spaces! Thanks to getting almost all of mine and Mama's deposit back from our previous apartment (due to the great cleaning help of our friend Sarah and the length of occupancy--over four years), I had a decent budget for this shopping trip.


I figured shelves could go on the wall over the sink. Please note where the dish drainer is sitting. That is the only counter-top-like surface that came with the apartment, and it's so low that if it were really a counter top that I had to use, my back would soon be bothering me on a regular basis. In fact, that's why you see the pink dish pan sitting on top of a plastic covered wire shelf--I can wash dishes without bending over thanks to my creative problem solving skills! By the way, the two blue squares stuck on the back wall of the sink are some sort of plastic pieces that one of Mama's physical therapists gave her to use when opening jars and/or bottles. They stick to the porcelain sink very well and work like a charm.


Lamont is closely observing a Grundtal Wall Shelf and several attachments.

We got two of the shelves, which are stainless steel and measure 47 1/4" wide by 10 5/8" deep by 7 7/8" high.

We also got the Grundtal Dish Drainer, 16 1/8" wide by 10 1/4" deep by 13 3/8' high. You can see it on the right side of the photo with a couple of plates and a bowl in it. There is plenty of room to hang it so that it will drip into the sink or onto the drainboard.

Lamont's looking at the Grundtal Wall Rack/Dish Drainer. It doesn't slant like the larger dish drainer, but I know that I can find several ways to use it to my advantage. I got two of them.

I got two packages of S hooks to use on these shelves, plus two Grundtal Cutlery Caddies which are a flower pot sort of shape made of polypropylene which hangs in a stainless steel frame and hook. I got two of them.

This is a stainless steel Cutlery Caddy. It will either hang from a Grundtal or sit somewhere.


This is a stainless steel Kitchen Utensil Rack. I got one of these for taller utensils. I figure that I will wish I had a couple of them before I'm done.


Here's the white wooden cabinet with the enameled metal top. Today when we got home from Ikea, I cleaned it out and cleaned off the top except for the microwave and the toaster oven as you can see. I knew that I needed to get it ready for whenever they show up to take it out of here.


This is a photo I took at the store of the splendid free-standing cabinet that I got to take the place of the white wooden cabinet. It's called Varde Drawer Unit and measures 41 3/4" wide by 25 5/8" deep by 35 3/8" high. I can't wait for the maintenance man or men to move their piece out of here so that Lamont can put this one together and set it up in the kitchen. I will have a countertop at the correct height! The wood is birch, the drawer fronts are covered in stainless steel.

Above the Varde Drawer Unit, Lamont will hang two of these Broder stainless and galvanized metal shelves and the suspension rail, wall uprights and brackets necessary to attach the shelves to the wall. The shelves are 31' wide by 14 1/4" deep. We got the wall uprights that will hold two shelves spaced just right for whatever use. This photo is one that I cropped from a four-shelf set-up. Lamont will not arrange my shelves exactly like this, but it gives you the idea.


At first I thought I wanted a shelf over the stove, one to which we could attach an under-the-cabinet fluorescent light that I already have. But as we walked along I thought better of it, realizing how disgusting a wooden shelf would soon be over the top of a stove. And since I moved in, that light fixture has been sitting on top of the frig with its light shining up into the ceiling, providing a great amount of overall light. I decided to leave it there.

I got a Grundtal Rail which is 31 1/2" wide. Lamont will hang it over the stove and then hang one of the Grundtal Wall Rack/Dish Drainers on it and/or some S hooks to support some of my smaller sauce pans. We'll see.

Naturally today Ikea was packed with entire families, walking from one display to another taking in--and I quote their Web site --the 9,500 unique Ikea products set up in the 48 inspirational room settings and three complete model homes. While those homes ranged from not much over 700 square feet to not much over 200 square feet, I have to admit what can be done with all of this stuff amazed me.

We'd been there about an hour and a half, looking at my photos and at things I had found online and things I hadn't found online which might work here or there, when all of sudden I told Lamont I really needed to eat something. We made our way through the rest of the maze in another 30 minutes and came to the Ikea Restaurant which seats 250! The line snaked and snaked, populated with entire families and an amazing amount of noise. I looked up at Lamont and declared that I would happily soldier on.

We found somewhere to sit down in an inspirational room--a dining and kitchen combo--and looked through our notes, then he went back downstairs to the entrance to get a shopping cart so that we could pick up all of the pieces and boxes that we figured would work in the apartment. The Varde had to be picked up at the nearby Ikea Furniture buildong which we had passed on our way there. By the time we got to Killer Burger so that we could eat an exceptional American hamburger and French fries, we had been gone for four hours! We needed nourishment in the worst way, and Killer Burger supplied it successfully.


And once we got everything inside the apartment except for the Varde because right now there is no where to put it until the other cabinet is removed, Lamont put together a nightstand on casters which I had found online; it's perfect for my printer because it fits just right beneath my computer table and can be rolled out for scanning and or copying. Oh, the name of the series for the nightstand is Odda. Fits me to a T with that name, doesn't it?

Lamont also put together the Grundtal stainless steel shelves and held them to the walls, eyeballing where to put them so that I can reach things; he did the same with the Broders, too. Tomorrow he plans a trip to a hardware store to search out the proper hanging-the-shelves-on-the-wall items.

Before you know it, I'll have a kitchen fit for a queen, all organized.

Rolling Ad

Do you have these advertising trucks in your city? I've seen several different sorts here in Portland, from an entire Ikea room set up in a sort of box to these rolling billboards. I took this photo at lunch recently, while I sat on the bench in the park. I missed the Ikea truck, doggone it.