Things a girl should know

Did you know that a full bed and a double bed are not actually the same thing?

I didn't.

Oops.

A little over a week ago I got into a tizzy over the sheets and comforters on the beds in the two guest bedrooms. For a long, long time I've wanted to repaint and really decorate these rooms. But for one reason or another, we just keep putting it off. So they have egg shell walls and mismatched lamps and pictures from college, and basically don't look like a grown up's house.

Add insult to injury, and I noticed when Vi stayed last that the sun had bleached a section of the comforter in our main guest bedroom.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Something needed to be done immediately. Forget waiting until Mike finally lets me redo the rooms. This demanded action. Even of the "buy it without telling him about it" kind. We're talking emergency here - lots of visitors in the upcoming month, all of whom I desperately want to impress. (and would impress, should I be able to redecorate the rooms, but I'll settle for new sheets and bedspreads)

That night I went to Macys on a mission to buy. Just buy. No comparison shopping, no seeing if other stores had different designs. I was leaving Macys with new sheets.

And while I was at it, the top floor guest bedroom had on it a just-awful set of sheets. Old, old, old. Don't even get me started on how atrocious that room is. It's easier to put out of my mind because I barely ever go on that floor, expect when I need to get a suit case out of the attic.

Ok, so that's actually, like, every other week. But still.

On the shopping trip I'm quite sucessful and walk out of Macys with two beds-in-a-bag. Not the best things in the world because I'm still holding out hope on the redo and I don't want to be boxed into designing around these. I imagined these beds-in-a-bag as more like a bandaid than surgery. A temporary fix.

Washed sheets for what seemed like two days straight. Needed to cave and ask Mike's help getting the bed skirts on, but he was surprisingly supportive of the change. (He did, of course, want to keep the old sets, "just in case," but I just raised and eyebrow and dumped them in the trash.)

Last night I tackeled setting up the top floor's bed, and discovered that I had bought a bed-in-a-bag for a "full" bed.

And that, evidently, I have a "double" bed.

There's a difference? I don't remember this. I don't remember having to care that much when I bought these sheets after college to put on the bed in the first place.

But, alas, they don't fit.

And of course I had already thrown away the "bag" of "bed-in-a-bag" (I needed something to put the old sheets in, afterall!) and washed everything. And cut the tags off the shams.

Oops.

Lesson #1 - when buying new sheets check they fit the bed before throwing them in the laundry.

The good news is, this was a super inexpensive bed-in-a-bag, on discontinued sale and such. So it wasn't a huge waste. And I can salvage the comforter at least. It's a little small, but it'll work until I can redo the room.

Or until I walk up there a few more times to get a suit case and can't stand it anymore.

Or until Melissa stays in two weeks and says, "Mo. No."

Since I expect the aforementioned (I'm sorry - I know I use this word way too much on this blog! But it just might be my favorite word. Right after heteroscatasticity. But that's a different post.) visitors next week, that means this weekend I'm on a mission to find double sheets that match the new bed spread.

At least the main guest room turned out nice. And in one of those great twists, Vi will be back tonight to stay with us, and will be the first to try them out!