Staying Organized & My Latest Shopping Trip to Ikea

Is it cold in your neck of the woods?  It sure is here in NJ and will remain so for the next few days.  I have been happily hibernating for much of this winter.  With the new puppy and projects keeping me busy at home, I haven't done much shopping.  But the other day the sun was shining and I hopped in my car and headed to Ikea.  The main item on my Ikea list was a new slipcover for the desk chair in our upstairs living room.

I bought this Dana Parsons chair at Pier One a while back, but I was over the green slipcover I had on it.  I realized that Ikea's slipcovers were for the same size chair, at half the price.  The black and white check fabric over the back of the chair is a scarf from Target.

I move this console table around my living room a lot.  When I am feeling the need to be more organized, I turn it into a desk.  I even bought some new striped folders at HomeGoods that say "Organized" on them in hopes that 2016 will be the year I finally get organized.  Each person has one folder with their name on it and I put all the miscellaneous papers that land on the kitchen counter into them.  When I realize that no one ever actually sits at the desk, I change it back to a console table.  What can I say?  That's the crazy cycle of things in our house.

On my Ikea trip, I also picked up a couple of bedspreads.  I like using them for layering patterns and texture around the house.  For now, the black and white check is to be used as a throw in the living room.  The blue and white stripe will be for our spring bedding.  I picked up a couple of faux plants too.  I had my eye out for some real plants, but the pickings were slim the day I was there, unfortunately.

If you follow me on Instagram, then you already know how excited I was with this find.  They had these faux cedar topiaries on clearance for 50% off.  So naturally I had to bring a couple home for our entryway.

I also took a quick walk through The Christmas Tree Shops because I ended up getting to Ikea before they opened.  They had lots & lots of spring decor out.  I was surprised to see these copies of the nesting herb crates that were so popular on blogs a while back.  They were very cheaply made and it also made me kind of sad to see them so mass produced.

Have you done much home shopping lately?  What are your favorite stores to browse around?