I knew it was going to be a good day when I happened upon a single but very important and now discontinuted TUPPLR drapery panel in the as-is room at IKEA. And for $10 bucks no less. I have been needing *one* of said panel for a couple of months and while I thought it was going to suck to have to pay another $50 for two panels and then only use one, it sucked even more when I went back to buy them and found the shelf empty (like three whole days later). Fast forward several weeks and several more IKEA trips later (yes, they practically know me there) and I finally track down an IKEAN in the drapery department who tells me they are discontinued. Badbadbad.
Anyway, drapery delimma solved and now I can get dressed and undressed without worrying about the neighbor kids seeing my butt. Whoohoo!

So, lookie what came today:


That's whole reason I went to IKEA in the first place, actually. My new little friend is a dwarf Meyer Lemon tree, looking a little travel weary after it's party in a skinny box with the UPS guy but happily nestled in it's chic new IKEA pot. Yes, I went specifically for the cool, $39 tall pot, but left $341 dollars later with the pot crammed onto one teensy corner of my pallet as just an afterthought. Don't tell the tree.

I've been interested in the dea of growing citrus indoors forever, and now that I have a little more space and light, I figured I'd get a start on it. What I really wanted was a real-life, full size tree of some sort, but apparently there's not much of a market for 20 foot tall fruit trees as houseplants. I had to settle for what they claim is a 2-3 year old tree that will reach 8-10 feet at maturity and is said to be a prolific fruiter. I'll be happy if I can keep the thing alive. Getting it to birth lemons will be an added bonus.

So, it is still my goal to procure something really, really tall (like 15 or 20 feet tall) for the living room. I've looked into a banana tree and that seems like a possibility, or maybe bamboo, but I'm a little freaked at the idea of a several hundred dollar growing experiment (even if it is legal).

I'll keep you posted.