by being a regular contributing member to our PBS station....
 

I won a free gift card to target for $500!
Jeff and I went into the store and found a vacumn cleaner that we liked, came home and went on line to order it at a discounted price along with a futon cover and a new bookshelf. We are very happy with our purchases. every thing was on sale and free shipping!
Should be here in 2 weeks.
bizi

And I still have $200 left on the card.:)
bizi

Wow! Congrats on the prize! I can't believe you guys were able to get so much good stuff for $300! :)

Every thing came in.:)
Love the vacuum! It is a sharp and has a good reputation.
The book shelf was time consuming for hubby to put together and they did not drill a long enough hole at the top of the case and now there is a hole at the top and hubby is very upset about that. He is going to get wood filler and try to repair the hole. sigh. I would have just taken a black sharpie to it and filled it in. Not him.

The new futon cover is beautiful we removed the old one and realized that the futon it self needs to be replaced. We could still smell cat pee from 18 years ago! Hobbes was a great cat even though he peed on things!
So we went shopping around town to different stores looking for a futon and quickly figured out that we needed to order one on line.
So we went to target.com on line and picked one we liked....trying hard to figure out if what we have now is a 6 or 8 inch thick mattress.
We ended up ordering the 8 inch mattress...They could not tell me the dimensions of the cover just that it was meant for a full size futon.
sigh
we will just have to see when it comes in if it will fit or not. We can always return the cover to our local target.
I really, really hope it fits because it is very decorative, a print with brown and tan colors, kind of an indian print. If it doesn't fit then the futon is plain tan. Which will be fine, boring but fine.
It should arrive in 7-10 days. Free shipping!
There are bolster pillows, long and round tubes. They needed to be replaced as well. So, while at bed bath and beyond we finally found 2 pillows similar with pretty birds on them, they will go with either outcome.

I still have $35 left on the Target card! I think I will just get a few grocery items with what is left.
bizi

I can't believe how well you stretched that gift card out!!!

I think 18 years is a long life for a futon! I bet the new one will be nice... we bought mission-style coffee and end tables from Target about 12 years ago, and they are solid, sharp-looking, and very good-quality for the price we paid. I hope you get to use the cover you bought because it sounds really pretty :)