Persistence pays off

Mr A has hated my lampshades in the lounge since I first met him, but it's been an ongoing saga to find replacements that we both like.

I found these shades initially on eBay, but then we saw them on the Dunelm website for half the price; someone was obviously making a profit!

So off I went to Dunelm today and what a performance! The shades were meant to have an insert in the middle, but when I collected them (I'd reserved them online before I went) this was missing.
The girl on the till was adamant that this was how the shades were, telling me that they had 5 in stock and they were all the same, despite me showing her the photo on their website that clearly showed the insert.
I argued that if there wasn't an insert, how come you couldn't see the bulb through the shade on the website photos. Plus, they had a matching table and floor lamp, again clearly with inserts.
She wasn't having any of it, so in a bid to prove me wrong, off she went to find the matching table lamp.

She sheepishly returned about 5 minutes later and admitted that the table lamp did have the insert in the middle.
My options were to either go to Preston to collect them from there, or accept the ones I'd reserved, minus insert, for half price.

While all this toing and froing had been going on, I'd looked and thought that actually, I preferred them as they were. I sent a photo to Mr A and he agreed, so when she offered them for half price, I said YES!

They look good, and go really well with the new curtains and poles we've also got.
We've really grafted today to get everything up and sorted, so tonight is going to be a chilled out night, with a bottle of wine and a movie. We've earned it :-)