Finding Fabulous at CSN Stores - Part Duex

Incidentally, it was completely unintentional to make this a 2-part ridiculousness. However, it's true when I said I was tired of shopping and I looked at so many pages on CSN that I had to close out of Explorer about 5 times during one of my explorations. (I think part of that was perhaps more like overwhelmed on the decision making process versus all the possibilities.) The other biggie was just not being very good at blog know-how (like positioning pictures).

SO, without further ado, on Thursday I took a stroll with refreshed eye, down the Lighting aisles. I think I found a new love for lamps and I definitely think that an entire room could be build around a beautiful lamp. Here are just a few of my findings.







Prices on the lamps above were: 1st row: $637.60, 368, 2nd row: $99, 164.70 & 3rd row: $558, 217.55

WOW. A lot of pricey lamps, but they are more like works of art. My favorites ended up being from Robert Abbey, Lite Source and LumiSource.

I also loved this one and if it had been in green I would have been in trouble, because at $191.40 each that's way out of the price range for bedside lamps.




Then I ran across this one and it is the very one I used in this moodboard. It's only $35.66 but since it is for a future room and really doesn't match anywhere in our house right now, I'll have to table it as a future purchase.




The price range for a lamp search ranged between $9 - 37, 814. Of course I had to see the lamp that costs as much as a car. Hmmm, definitely cool, but great enough to warrant that price tag? It must be the brand, but I don't know much about lamp brands. Shoes, now that's another story.





Once I looked at my office moodboard, a light went off in my head. I LOVE the look of a world globe in an office. I know we definitely will have this in a home office someday but there is definitely a place in our house NOW where we can put one (like in our current home office/guest room/everything room). So I did a search for globes under Decorative Items & Home Accents and JACKPOT. I probably spent over an hour researching all the choices that were available around the $40 gift certificate. However, since I was already in the home decor area because the globes reside there, I OF COURSE looked around in candles, vases, and all things home decor that make one happy!

Here were a few things of interest I found under Vases, Statues & Figurines, and Candles & Candle holders:



Kokoware bowl $58.65, Blomus candles, set of 3 $61.01





Zodax Medium, Set of 2 $49 (add the small set of 2 and large set of 2 pictured for $39 & $59, respectively.) I guess if you wanted the look in the picture and had a friend that liked them also, y'all could order them and split them...

LazySusan Prickly Eggs, $32 small, $64 medium, $80 large (I do LOVE these but that's quite a price tag if you purchase all 3!)

There are so many great home decor items out there, but I narrowed down a few names that kept popping up in the various departments that had really cool style: LazySusan, Kokoware, Blomus, ZACK, Zodax and CAKE to name a few. Why name any? Because with over 1000 choices for candles, figurines and vases and over 600 choices for decorative bowls, you should narrow it down somehow!

As I realigned my focus to the globes that I originally went searching for, imagine my excitement when CSN had a whole aisle dedicated to just globes, all 327 of them with prices ranging from $5 to $8089! I knew I wanted it to be larger than 10" and I knew I did not want one that stands on the floor. I also knew I wanted one that had a metal or wood stand and axis, no plastic here.

For S#*ts & Giggles, here is the $8089 version which measures like a medium sized desk and weighs in at 65 lbs!






At first I really wanted one that is tan in color and this one fit the bill coming in at 12" and costing $48.99.





But when I found this one I knew I could live with the blue. This one has the metal stand, 12" diameter, rings in at $52.25, but also illuminates in the dark to show the celestial skies. That may sound random & corny to some, but my husband is into constellations and the solar system and even has a high-powered telescope which will no doubt be part of the future office decor. {Sidenote: Don't go classifying him as 'dork' b/c he was an ultimate frisbee player in college. Yes, the opposite side of the spectrum from dork!}








Whew! After weeks and days of shopping, I have finally found my treasure. I've ordered the Celestial Globe for our home office. When I came up with my office moodboard, I did start shopping around for globes. I found them easily enough at Walmart, Homegoods and even one on Craigslist. They were all in the $30+ range. So for $12.25 ($52.25 - $40 gift cert), I definitely got the best deal around!

Also, since I HATE paying shipping, I theorized that the $9.99 that I would have paid in shipping (free ship starts at $69) could go towards the 18-piece Pyrex Storage set that I mentioned in Part 1 of this post. Those are $29.99, less the $9.99 saved on shipping, so I'm essesntially paying $20 for something I would eventually buy anyway (and I don't have to waste my time going to buy them). To further justify to myself the extra item in my cart, the current price on the 14-piece Pyrex set is $29.99 at our registry store. Therefore, I'm getting 2 more bowls and lids & saving $9.99!! Double Score.

So there you have it. A short story about shopping made into a very long mini-series story. But it was so much fun looking around the site. Thanks again to Sunny over at Life in Rehab and CSN Stores for the gift certificate. I really like the store and I'm sure I'll pop back over there for other house decorating items! If you haven't witnessed it enough through my TWO posts about it, it really is a one stop shopping experience.