The Gift Certificate

Last spring when we were shopping for couches our new home, I registered to win a gift certificate from a furniture store in Grand Rapids.  Had I not registered immediately upon entering the store and waited until we had browsed through it first, I might have skipped it altogether.  As it turns out, we won the $250 gift certificate, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

We made two trips to the store following our great win and both times walked out shaking our heads and empty handed.  With a new house just waiting to be furnished, how could we not find something worth putting our gift certificate towards?! 

Maybe it's because even the silk plants were outrageously priced. 

After taking Jacob to the airport on Tuesday, we decided to try one.last.time. to spend the gift certificate.  I promised The Mister one way or another I would never make him browse through this store again.

After nearly a half hour of wandering around the store, this table was the only thing that didn't require us adding significant money to the gift certificate.  Problem was, I kept telling The Mister, if this table had been at a garage sale, marked $25, I would have talked the seller down.  I just couldn't do it.  $229 for a plant table?! 

Instead, we spend $14 on this pair of milk bottles.

And then had to spend the remainder of the gift certificate on fake plants.  This one was $50 on clearance.

This one is tiny.  It's much smaller than the picture appears.  It was only $7, but the funny part to me is that it is labeled on our invoice as being in a "self-watering pot".  Very important for a fake plant, indeed.  (And there's no way it's a self-watering anything.)

Finally, we spent the remaining $150 on this arrangement.  I shook my head as we walked out of the store.  These were all clearance prices.  This one was originally $399.  Maybe they never actually charge full price, but who in their right mind is spending $150 on a FAKE PLANT?!? 

In any case, we spend the gift cert.  I am certain we did NOT make our saleswoman's day.  We came home with some plants I cannot kill.  I suppose it's a win-win.  Someday way down the road, Jacob will be selling all our stuff, and he'll put a $25 tag on this plant.  And someone will talk him down to $15.  And that will even be too much.