All roads eventually lead me to Pottery Barn... The Outlet, that is!

Many of you have written to say you miss my posts... Thank you for that!

So where have I been? Well, I don't mind telling you that after the

joy of welcoming back our dear Ranger from his deployment and

then immediately jetting off for what turned out to be an incredible

three-week long bi-coastal holiday, the blues set in for a while...

Missing my mom and dad is always more deeply felt in winter, when

the landscape looks as sad as I feel... Then there's the fact that I always

begin each new year being reminded of my age, since my birthday comes

exactly two weeks after Christmas! Now, don't get me wrong, I very much

prefer celebrating birthdays to the alternative; however, having pockets

full of gift cards to spend while every store's shelves are bare is no fun!

I've spent the past few weeks reading some of the many books we dragged

home from the Yellow Brick Road Benefit Shop in Carmel! Mom and I

spent a lot of time there while I was home. I almost hate to tell you about it

because I prefer to keep it all to myself... But honestly, it's a secret that's far

too delicious to keep! Partly because of the incredible deals you'll find but

mostly for the wonderful work YBR does to support hundreds of community

organizations. For a peek inside their store, you should check them out via

Facebook. Although there are always tons of things I'd like to drag home,

the absolute best deal at Yellow Brick Road is on their books! Not only is

the selection incredible, the prices get even better all day on Mondays and

Wednesdays after four o'clock when books are half off! Between us, Army

dad and I spent nearly $400 (at half price) and dragged home more than

200 pounds of books in our carry-on luggage! Oh, I also found books I knew

Ranger's girlfriend would love so I mailed them to her before we left Carmel!

I came home feeling pretty sure I wanted to add an area rug to the living

room after seeing how beautifully the one my parents added in theirs

enhances their furniture and acts to tie the whole room together. After

reading through all of the interior design books I dragged home, I realized

that very rarely is hardwood flooring left exposed underneath furniture!

So I hatched a plan to fix it! I say hatched a plan because explaining to the

man I just convinced I would never want carpet in this room again so that he

would rip it out and install hardwood for me required plenty of plan hatching!

Fortunately, timing was on my side because by the

time I had it all pulled together, it was my birthday!

Everyone gets what they want for their birthday... And my wish was

to take Friday off and spend the weekend shopping for an area rug!!

By the way, my birthday was fantastic! My bosses spoiled me

with beautiful flowers, fun cards and one of my bosses even

gave me a $50 Trader Joe's gift card! Then, when I got home, I

found these gorgeous flowers from Ranger's girl waiting for me!

And, after dinner we went rug shopping at Home Goods!

Of course, the first rug we looked at got me into a little trouble because

it looked exactly like the carpeting we just ripped out! This Calvin Klein

below was nice but there was a woman already having it pulled down to buy!

Since Greensboro doesn't have a Home Goods I had

find an excuse to go to Raleigh where there are three!

And, the best way to lure my husband into the Jeep for a 4-5 hour

shopping road trip is to mention all the antique shops along the way!

Sunrise Antiques in Raleigh has moved and

is now actually located in Dunn, North Carolina...

Which was another 40 miles out of the way...

Which was fine because there were plenty of interesting things to see...

Plenty of everything...

But incredibly, not a thing we wanted to bring home!

On the way into town I spotted this thrift

store, which on its name alone earned a visit!

It seems that everyone that has ever gotten married in Dunn North Carolina

consigned their wedding dress to Saks Thrift Avenue! Now, a few weeks ago we

celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary and I've never been happier so I'm as

far away from needing a wedding dress as a girl can get... However, I appreciate

beautiful wedding dresses and some of these dresses were stunning. As I looked

through them I noticed some pretty high-dollar designer dresses! Saks Thrift

Avenue in Dunn might just be the Filene's Basement of North Carolina!

Seriously!

After lunch in Dunn we made our way back to Raleigh and wandered through

a few of our favorite shops there. I'd just been talking with a friend from high

school about the glass corn muffin pan I always use and promised to find one

to send her. Sadly my friend is battling breast cancer so she's recently taken

a very serious interest switching from Teflon to baking and cooking in more

natural materials like glass. It thrilled me to be able to send this to her!

After we closed down all the antique shops it was time to get serious about

locating Raleigh's three Home Goods stores to do some rug shopping!

Nothing knocked our socks off but both of us liked

these two rugs enough to bring them home!

But before we went home, we stopped at Streets at Southpoint for

a second birthday dinner to use up the Cheesecake Factory gift card from

my brother! After we learned the wait would be forty-five minutes I ducked

into Sur la Table and watched a bit of the cooking class going on. Then...

I dropped into Pottery Barn! Because when it comes to things for

my home, eventually all roads lead me back to Pottery Barn!

Most of the time when you think of Pottery Barn rugs like this, you

immediately assume you'll have to spend $1,000. And, you could! But

see that Special Price tag there? It meant the two rugs I liked right

away were $200 off and, since they were available at the store I would

save on shipping too! However, explaining to Army Dad that I wanted to

squeeze in two more rugs on top of the two rugs he just loaded up for

me at Home Goods, in the pouring rain no less, just wasn't going to fly!

So I asked the associate to call up the Winston-Salem store to see if

by chance they had these rugs there. And guess what? They did! So I

paid for them by phone and then quickly ran back to the Cheesecake

Factory where nachos were already waiting for me at the table!

During our Penny-sighting, I casually mentioned that I may

have two other options waiting for me at Pottery Barn... Just

in case the two rugs I just bought didn't work in my room!

Then I quickly excused myself to visit the restroom before he could object...

When we finally got home at midnight, I took a few minutes to unpack

my antique-shop finds and checked the mail. You know how they say

when you do something nice for someone else something nice will

happen to you? Well, that very thing happened to me again! Because

while I was buying glass bake for my friend and a little Augsburg-thing

for my mom someone very special was thinking of me! Who was it?

It was none other than my sweet friend Dani... As in Sweet Dani B!

Yes! Dani sent me her super-cute New Year Love Angel cookies...

And, some of her Polar Vortex Confetti Cookies!

They looked so good I brewed tea at 1AM for them! Dani's Love Angel

cookies are now on display; however, these babies... They are long gone!

By the way... Dani has designed a whole new collection of fun cutters

for CopperGifts.com and I expect it'll be a challenge to get her new

heart shaped cutters (they are to die for!) in time for Valentine's day

if you don't hurry and order them now! Finally, while I offer my own

decorating kits via my store, Oui, Sugar!, I'm thrilled to say Dani now

offers her squeeze bottle kit at CopperGifts too! You can find it here! 

You won't believe this but I'm going to tell you anyway... The promise

of Dani's cookies and a cup of tea is all it took to motivate my husband to

move furniture at 1AM so that I could see the rugs we bought before bed!

This option didn't quite work and the orange rug worked for me even less!

My husband disagreed, saying he liked it a lot! So I told him that

if he liked it so much, then he could have it for his library!

Suddenly, he liked it less!

Li-Li Coconut thought we were both nuts and just wanted to go to bed!

As I slept on all my rug options it hit me!

Before I go pick up the rugs I paid for at my Pottery Barn, why not

call the Pottery Barn in Gaffney to see if they have them for less?

So I called! And, while I was told they did not have the Malika or

the Adeline in the store, they had an over-stock of rugs right now!

But how on earth would I convince my husband to

spend a second day driving and shopping for rugs?

Cue the antique mall ploy!

After all, we said the shops in Belmont, NC were on our list...

And, Belmont is on the way to Gaffney!

Our first stop had to be Catawba River Antique Mall...

Because it was recommended by John, the vendor I met in Atlanta!

He told me he has a booth here with a lot more of the great

antiques and maps he sends back from his home in Germany!

And, I found it!

I could have rummaged through John's booth all day!

The first thing I noticed was this glass scoop spice rack. I remembered my Oma

had one in her kitchen so there was no way this wasn't coming home with me!

John's booth did not disappoint!

After delivering my spice rack to a clerk for safe keeping, I went back!

Just look at those beautiful Hungarian and French bread boards,

walking canes and that fantastic enamelware potato bucket!

I loved it all!

There were so many great things to see I almost lost sight of the real objective!

Get down to Gaffney and to my Pottery Barn Outlet!

If you're in Belmont, I highly recommend a trip to the Abbey Monastery and...

The second shop on my list was Piccolo's

where I immediately had a copper moment!

Would we ever make it to Gaffney now?

Focus, Janet!

There are area rugs waiting for you at Pottery Barn!

I could hurry myself along... But let's not forget that I wasn't alone!

I was with a man that simply cannot walk past a book without picking it up!

I began hiding books in booths ahead of him!

Which worked for a little while!

Then he went downstairs and found more...

So I rushed down to get ahead of him and covered up more books!

Finally, we were out of Piccolo's and into our last stop...

Blythe Gallery, which is housed in the old Stowe manor!

Touring this beautiful house was a treat!

The collection of antiques and other goodies is extensive!

Every room is decorated as if someone

still lives here and yet, everything is for sale!

I love gallery trays and Blythe Gallery has a lot of them to choose from!

Check out those leaded glass windows there on the landing!

Speaking of rugs...

I needed to get going!

But I couldn't not peek into every room first!

I'd buy that sink!

But I'm afraid it's one of the few things not for sale!

By the way, the only reason I was last to leave...

Is because there weren't a lot of books at Blythe Gallery!

Finally... We made it to the Outlet! And, get this... After shopping

in the pouring rain for two whole days, the moment we pulled up to

the Pottery Barn Outlet in Gaffney, clouds parted and the sun came out!

Coincidence? I think not!

The second incredible thing to happen was a flash sale posted just

moments after we arrived! 40% off the lowest price, one day only!

I couldn't point to rugs for the staff to pull fast enough!

I was holding court... First in line! Everything went down for

me first, while other guests began to gather around... Each one

asking, Are you going to take that one?... If not, I want it!

Hands off! This one is mine!

Then I saw it... It was the Adeline I bought the night before, the

one I was told they did not have when I called! Regularly $599, but

only $249 at the Outlet plus, 40% off while I was standing there!

As much as I wanted to call it mine, the rug I pulled before I found it

spoke to me a bit more and it was bigger, which also appealed to me

since I really wanted the sectional to sit on top of my new rug! But I

didn't let Adeline go... Instead, I snapped a picture and posted it to

my Facebook page and sent a message for my friend in Monterey to

take a look. I knew she'd love it and, I was right! Not only did she call

up and ask my friends at the Pottery Barn Outlet to send her Adeline,

she chose another rug on my recommendation too! So... How did I do?

You tell me... I picked up this 10X14 for just $449 after my 40% discount!

Deduct the $100 Pottery Barn gift card my boss gave me for Christmas

and the $168 statement credit I had for overpaying my bill in November,

and I ended up paying next to nothing for my new Pottery Barn area rug!

And that my friends is how you do it!

Deals for me, deals for my friends... It's a good thing!

Army dad made out on this jaunt too! His 8X10 Hastings choice normally costs

$999... Outlet priced $449.99 but only $269 after our little 40% off flash sale!

Talk about being worth the trip and effort!

I love this rug! And, I'm sure you can imagine how much fun it was to call

my Pottery Barn store for a full refund for the two rugs I never picked up!

I've been asked to give my word to never want

to move the furniture out of this room again!

And, I did. For now...