Psst- Sorry for the slightly belated post this morning, two out of the three human members of our household have the flu. Boo! For those asking where February Superlatives went, here they are! We were just in Hawaii the week they were “due” so they carried over to this week. And boy are we glad February is over. Well, not the part where we ended it basking oceanside in 80-degree weather, but the part where our heads were spinning from three weeks of secret book project-doing and photoshoot-ing. Yeah, we’re glad that’s behind us. But since we survived all that (and lived to tell the tale!) in addition to prepping for a presentation in Portland
Archives for March 2012
Traveling To Maui, Hawaii With A Toddler
Since we took waaaaaaay too many pictures of our six night stay in Maui, we did our best to go through them all and majorly pare them down – but it still adds up to two posts (you know we like to over-share). We wish we could have taken you all with us in our suitcase, so I guess the next best thing is posting all about it. In this one, we’ll cover: where we stayed where we ate our “neighborhood” how we saved money And in the next post we’ll detail: all of the activities/adventures that we tackled while we were there (with a toddler in tow) the home-related purchase we made to remember
Tips For Flying With A Toddler
After getting lots of great tips from you guys about flying with a toddler, we thought we’d give you guys a recap about what worked well (lollipops!) and what didn’t (two words: red eye). We spent a lot of time in the air: six flights in total. Two on the way to Portland (layover in Chicago), one direct from Portland to Maui and then a whopping three on the way back to Richmond (with layovers in Seattle and Chicago). The flights between the West Coast and Hawaii were the longest at six hours each, and since Clara’s still under two, we didn’t buy a seat for her (we knew she’d be most comfortable in our
How To Install A Cork Floor
This is supposed to be the post where I declare “The floors are DONE… enthusiastic exclamation point!” But instead I’m here to say “The floors are almost done… sheepish period.” But they’re mostly down and they weren’t actually that hard to do! Seriously, anyone can do this. Since we last updated you, they’ve gone from this: To this: Note: Some of these photos have the cork looking more red/orange than it is in real life. But if you watch the video where we’re installing it (or the one with Clara in it), it’s probably the most true to life (a rich mocha color). We’ll try to take better pics next time! We thought we could
Can You Smell That Smell?
Yup, the faint smell of bacon, spray paint, and sweat can only mean one thing… it’s Pinterest Challenge time (not sponsored by Pinterest or anyone else, just dreamed up by Katie Bower to make us stop pinning and start doing). So let’s do this thing, people. Let’s do it together. In bikinis (let’s be honest, bikinis haven’t been an option for me since having Clara). It all started last June when Katie called me to say that she thought we should challenge ourselves to make one thing each season that’s inspired by all the gorgeous stuff that we’ve pinned (and call it… wait for it… The Pinterest Challenge). It’s a welcome slap of stop-pinning-and-start-doing. Because
This Land Is Portland
After all that sun we got in Hawaii, we almost forgot that we still have some adventures to share from a notoriously less sunny place. We already told you about our day at the Portland Home & Garden Show (you can read more about that here – and if we met that evening, our pic together might be here). And yes, Sherry is holding someone else’s baby and I’m wearing an apron (meant for Clara!). Between all of that presenting/meeting/greeting we actually had some time to take in the city a little bit too. So for anyone planning a visit (or just wondering what the heck we did) here ya go… We got into town
How To Spray Paint A Wood Box
This week’s first project for my little self-imposed Dude Get On That Already challenge is small – but it’s not animal related (so that’s something, right?!). It actually involves a fifty cent wood box that I found at Goodwill about three months ago and then… you guessed it… stuffed it into our playroom, never to be seen again. Until now. Here’s the only before picture that I shot with blue spray paint in it before deciding not to go blue… Nope, I didn’t go gray either- that’s just primer. Yup… I went yellow! I still had some leftover from this horse head bookend makeover of yore, and I thought it would look like a little
Fab Freebie: If You Were Here
***This giveaway is no longer accepting entries – see who won below!*** And the random winner who’s about to get their read and their DIY on is… Julie Smith (who said we’d see her at her desk in the office day dreaming of going home and painting her half finished bathroom project). Congrats Julie! That’s the title of Jen Lancaster’s latest bestselling book – and if you enjoy the story of a young couple renovating their first home (ya never know… you just might), this book belongs on your reading list. Jen never fails to crack us up and we were flabbergasted when we she mentioned us last year on her blog. So now that
Aloha Vacation, Aloha New Floors
See “Aloha” means both “Goodbye” and “Hello,” so… yeah… buh bye Hawaii and hello half-done cork floors. We’re back in Richmond (insert forced enthusiasm here – woot?) and we’re eager to tell you more about our trip. But we’re more eager to dive back into DIY and spill all the details about our big cork floor project that we started right before we left (about twenty four hours before we hopped on the plane actually). Oh and for those who didn’t drop in on us last week since our little vacation announcement, we actually did share two posts (along with a giveaway) while we were gone, so you can find those here and here. We’re
Why We Chose A Cork Floor
Why? Because we’re crazy. And coming home to a partially-finished floor is our idea of a good time. You think we’re kidding, but getting a jump on our cork floors by starting to lay them before we left for Portland/Hawaii wasn’t half bad. Heck, returning from paradise to the idea of finishing them and enjoying a rich, glorious mocha floor is downright titillating to nerds like us. They snap together and float over our old vinyl floors (which have an asbestos liner, so we followed safety recommendations and didn’t tear those up before laying the cork). And the floating aspect of our new snap-and-lock flooring means that our house sitters can just step on the