Archive for August, 2009
Ride With Us To Texas, Won’t You?
After mentioning our near cross-country road trip last week, did you find yourself wondering how we entertained ourselves for over forty hours of driving? Well, we filmed a lot of it with our trusty Flip video camera. And we spent this past weekend not in the car (hootie hoo!), but trimming down all that footage into a little musical montage video of our road-trip-on-steroids.
For those curious enough to take the journey with us, we can promise you’ll see:
- Some less than healthy drive-thru decisions
- A bit of behind the wheel dancing
- Grade A nerd behavior in the form of a geographic-tastic driving game
- Sherry in bed with another woman
- Obligatory Burger footage
- Absolutely zero footage of Sherry driving (because it never happened)
- Fast-food inspired decorating ideas (we didn’t say they’re good)
- Sherry with her hair down (yes, for all you why-don’t-you-lose-the-ponytail peeps)
- Visiting cultural attractions – scratch that, visiting a Pottery Barn Outlet
- A preview of our adventures with the Bowers and my cousin’s wedding, which we’ll share more of soon.
So, without further ado, please enjoy the virtual road trip below (or watch it directly on Vimeo)…
And while we’re on the subject, tell us where we can get a sneak peek at some of your summer travels. Got any good road trip stories to share? Photos posted somewhere to view? If anyone else has iMovied a little road trip video, we’d love to see it. Long live long drives!
Fab Freebie: I’ll Drink To That
***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries***
Sherry and I can’t stop talking about how good the toasts were at my cousin Casey’s wedding in Dallas (Wedding Crashing pics to come…). There were five in total (two groomsmen, two bridesmaids and my other cousin, the bride’s teenage brother) and each was remarkably funny, articulate and touching. Most weddings are lucky enough to have one of those, let alone a handful. So in that spirit, we think this week’s prize from Mikasa Crystal & Dinnerware is quite fitting.
Mikasa’s been dishing out classic and stylish servingware for over 60 years (perhaps they were even on your wedding registry?) so we were stoked when they contacted us to offer up some free goodies for you our lovey readers. This week we’re serving up prizes to three lucky winners from Mikasa’s new Cheers Too line of glassware. Each set of four crystal drinking glasses features simple, modern designs that just make you wanna throw a dinner party. With lots of “beverages” on hand, of course.
- PRIZE: Your choice of the Cheers Too White Wine, Double Old Fashioned, or Highball Set of Four by Mikasa
- TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “I’ll DRINK TO THAT” and…
- BONUS QUESTION: Tell us about a memorable toast you’ve heard (or given!) and what made it great. We could all use a few good toastmaster tips, right?
- CONTEST CLOSES: Wednesday, August 26th at 8pm EST
- NUMBER OF WINNERS: Three
- PRIZE SHIPS: United States only this time.
- THE USUAL: One entry per e-mail address is permitted. The winners will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday. Good luck!
Get more info on our freebies at our Giveaway FAQs page. Images courtesy of Mikasa Crystal & Dinnerware.
Amy’s Design Dilemma: Solved
When Amy sent us pictures of her living room a few short weeks after we whipped up a custom mood board for her space, we couldn’t wait to share the goods! Here’s her letter:
I’m so excited to share my “after” pictures with you! I absolutely LOVE my new room and so does everyone else. I had a party Friday evening and the changes were a big hit. Funniest comment was “now that you’ve changed it, I just have to tell you that the brick was horrendous!” That cracked me up because I had to agree! And using your inspiration I was even able to save money and repurpose some things that we already had. We already owned round coffee & end tables, so I used them. And I used some advice from your ‘How To’ section to spray-paint the existing fan using Rustoleum for a whole new look. I love the wall color you picked so much (BM Sepia Tan 1116) that I painted the entryway the same color and am about to paint the hallway walls the same color too. We also loved your idea of a darker accent wall near the kitchen, and went one shade darker (BM Classic Caramel 1118). I haven’t hung up any artwork yet, but I plan to frame some of my photography soon. The makeover was a LOT of work (especially the brick!) but so worth it! I’m actually on the sofa emailing this to you while watching a movie. We never hung out in here before because it didn’t feel cozy or welcoming. Now we want to be in here and my husband keeps saying how awesome it looks and he didn’t even want the brick painted at first! Thanks again SO much! You’ll be hearing from me soon in regards to my kitchen! -Amy
To refresh everyone’s memory, here’s Amy’s living room before the overhaul:
And here’s the same space after our custom mood board makeover:
Didn’t Amy do an amazing job?! We love everything from the freshened fireplace to the cozy patterned rug, and of course the golden wheat tones in the curtains and on the wall (especially that accent wall near the kitchen) really add a lot of warmth and ambiance to the space. And you know we’re loving that Amy got all DIY on us and spray painted the existing fan to make it work. Love that!
So what do you guys think? Any favorite parts or kind words to pass along to Amy in return for sending her fabulous after photos our way? Let’s give the girl a round of virtual applause!
Update: We sadly can no longer find the time to take on client commissioned mood boards (we now whip up general inspiration boards instead) but if we ever reinstate them we’ll make a big announcement!
Another Reader Redesign Goes Glossy!
Better Homes & Gardens has again tapped our (web) pages for their (glossy) pages. But we can’t take any of the credit, because it’s Jessica’s incredible kitchen transformation that we featured back in May which deserves it all. Just like last time, someone from BH&G spotted Jessica Christian’s (not Christianson’s) smokin’ redo on our site and contacted us for her info so they could feature it in their special interest publication called Kitchen + Bath Makeovers.
So head on over to Jessica’s blog to learn more about the process and to check out a large, readable scan of the article. Congrats again on your open, inviting and now-published transformation, Jessica! Can we have your kitchen’s autograph?
Another Whirlwind Weekend
It’s only been a week since we told you about our last whirlwind weekend and we’ve already topped it with an even crazier weekend adventure. In fact this one was so nutty that it actually lasted six days, took us through ten states and required forty hours of driving. Yep, you read that right. Four. Zero.
What possessed us to embark on such a trek? My cousin was getting married in Dallas, TX and I had some spare vacation days. And what can we say, we’re suckers for a good road trip. So last Thursday we set out westward from Richmond spending about 10 hours in the car on each of four legs of the trip. We took a day long break in Nashville to see the sights and eat some BBQ with two of our favorite home bloggers (where we were spotted and nearly outed on our secret romp across the southeast). We finally pulled into Dallas for a gorgeous Sunday wedding before jumping back in the car for two more days of driving back towards Richmond, this time via Birmingham.
Yes it was a lot of driving, but it was also a lot of fun. We got back to Richmond late Tuesday night just bursting at the seems with stories, pictures and videos to share with you guys. From the funky hotel we stayed in with the Bowers and a quick how-we-travel-with-Burger video to my cousin’s beautiful DIY wedding decor, we can barely decide where to start. And that’s not to mention the footage we captured of our four ten-hour driving days courtesy of our homemade dashboard camera (fashioned from a tripod and some classy white duct tape).
So as we like to say around here, stay tuned. There are a slew of home-related posts about our days on the road to be written. We promise to get started just as soon as we stop seeing road signs in our sleep…
