What is it about IKEA?

How does IKEA do this to me, every single time?

I go there with one or two specific things I'm looking for. But once I'm there I end up browsing the various areas, spending minutes at a time considering this CD storage system or that salad bowl that I COMPLETELY DON'T NEED.

For example, consider this table lamp:Cute, right? And it's only $8.99! Ohmygoodness I could totally use an $8.99 cute table lamp!!

Except, no I couldn't. I have enough lamps, and not even enough table surfaces to put a lamp, should I need one (which, as previously noted, I don't). But still, I stopped and looked at it and picked it up and went through the house in my head, trying to find a place for it.

Or what about this children's step stool:

So simple! Subtle colors, really cute. And it's only $3.99! WOW! We totally need a step stool for Gabe to reach the sink...in 2 years. But I actually considered buying it - because apparently I think it's important for me to store the thing for 2 years, rather than let IKEA do it. And apparently I also think that in 2 years when we'll need a step stool for Gabe, no one will be selling them anymore.

Today I spent 2 1/2 hours at IKEA.
Two and a half hours.
Granted, 1/2 hour was spent feeding Gabe and chillin' in the cafe. Oh that's right, I said chillin' in the cafe. Because, when you go to IKEA and spend 2 1/2 hours there, you deserve half an hour just relaxing in the cafe.
Gabe was a trooper. He helped me look at pillow cases for some squishy feather pillows I saw, considered, walked away from, saw again further on, and then put in my cart. IKEA's brilliant like that. Little displays and bins of the same thing over and over as you follow that little path through the store, so that any self-control you exerted at the beginning of the trek is tested again and again until you give in.
I'm proud to say, though, that in the end I put the pillows back. Two things contributed.
1) IKEA's insistance on selling only weird Swedish designs. Sorry Sweden. It's not that I don't like you. It's that I'm a simple girl, and I don't seem to be drawn to the ultra-modern:
or the ultra-flowery:

and 2) I could hear Bret's voice in my head, lamenting about the number of pillows we already have and how he just can't understand why on earth I would ever think we'd need more. (Of course we don't need more...it's just that squishing into a bunch of pillows to read or watch TV is something I adore. However, I agree with Bret that the process of tossing the pillows off the bed when it's time to sleep and putting them back on the bed in the morning is a definite drawback.)

I did end up with hand towels, a storage basket, drawer organizers, and a bag of frozen IKEA meatballs that were not on my shopping list.

Interestingly enough, even though we have a freezer full of various types of meatballs, both store bought and homemade (Bret has been on a kick), he did not question why on earth I would ever think we'd need more. Funny, eh?