A Day In The Life
Embarrasingly Enough…
Since we’re on vacay and the home-focused posts will commence when we’re back on Monday (more on that here), we thought we owed you a laugh at our expense in the meantime. That’s right, Sherry’s notorious “Care Bear Underwear Story” that so many of you requested more details about (mentioned here) is out. It actually came out during a comedy show that we attended a few weeks ago. Remember how we’re not famous, but we were invited to have some fun in that local improv comedy show (which we mentioned here)?
Well – it was AWESOME. The performers of the Richmond Comedy Coalition were crazy nice and pretty darn funny. The audience was quite full, quite lively, and more than quite flattering (you guys made us feel like rock stars as we stood up there with sweaty palms). It was a blast meeting so many of you, and we’re still sorry the show sold out before everyone could get in. But on the bright side, the RCC has posted photos and video so everyone can check it out (you know, if you’re into that sort of thing).
The format was basically us standing up, turning our awkwardness meter up to 11, and telling personal stories. Then the performers would take tidbits of our anecdotes to inspire completely new improvised scenes (they weren’t exact reenactments, nor were there any scripts). For example, they took the story of Sherry accidentally turning around in Target with two ornaments next to her face saying “It’s Christmas tiiiiiiiime” to a stranger (more on that here)…
…and turned that into a scene about a guy with two tree toppers stuck into the sides of his face.
You may have “had to be there” to get most of why they had us rolling. But just trust us that it was a lot of fun – and you should totally catch one of their shows if you’re a local. Just look at the good times…
Since I was in an improv comedy group in college, they even pulled me on stage to perform during the last act of the show. I was more than a little rusty, though I did get a few laughs when my “Knit Cop” character knitted a pair of handcuffs to capture a perp (weird, I know – maybe you had to be there for that too).
Actually, they did catch Knit Cop on video if you want to see it in action. Warning: some of the language is a lot more saucy than our usual Clara videos and fast-motion assembling-or-decorating-something vids.
And here are longer clips of the show if you’re interested enough to watch all three acts (again: saucy language alert). We chat at the beginning of each clip to kick each scene off, and the famed Care Bear Underwear Story is at the beginning-ish of the last clip.
It was so great to meet so many of you guys after the show. So glad we did it, sweaty palms and all.
Guess Where We Are?!
Last Monday, a surprise snowstorm (in the middle of a super mild winter) made for this picture out of our living room widow:
And Clara went outside and had fun doing this:
Fast forward about a week, and our view looks more like this:
And Clara’s sporting a different kind of outfit:
Yup, true to our anniversary resolution, we snuck off to Maui, Hawaii to celebrate finishing our book, our impending five year anniversary (in July), turning 30 (I will in March and John already checked that box in November), and any other celebration-worthy excuse that we could think of (Clara’s first four syllable words: escalator, helicopter, and anemone!). It’s actually the first time we’ve flown somewhere on a real vacation since our honeymoon to Alaska back in 2007, and it’s the first time we have ever announced that we’re taking a week off from blogging in the entire 4.5 years since we started this whole shebang.
We know – gasp!
We do plan to post a pic or a quick note here or there throughout the week about our little island adventures (and a few things that we wrote up to share before we left, like some small kitchen progress). And we lined up a pretty sweet giveaway (valued at nearly $500!) for you guys, which will go up sometime tomorrow (Monday) – although not necessarily at 10 or 2 (we’re 5 hours behind our normal schedule here in HI). But our main goal is to relax, unplug, show Clara a great time, and just generally seize the week that we’re here.
So we’ll return to our regularly scheduled home improvement programming next Monday and will just be popping in every once in a while until then (so please forgive us if we’re not actively answering comments). We can’t wait to come back refreshed, inspired, and ready to tackle everything from the cork floors in the kitchen to the three untouched bathrooms, the walk-out deck we want to build, our big carport-to-garage conversion, the crown molding and wainscoting we’re planning to add, a complete sunroom makeover, a total playroom makeover, and all of the other major projects mentioned at the bottom of this post that we chatter endlessly about when we lay in bed at night (yes, even here in Maui).
Oh and since Clara’s here with us we’ll have to share all the how-she-traveled and how-she-adjusted-to-the-time-difference details soon (maybe next week on Young House Life). Due to quarantine regulations, we couldn’t bring Burger, which is why he’s at home snuggled up to our house sitters (we have some friends and family members who are taking turns moving in to hang with him the whole time we’re gone). You know we call him and talk through the phone at least twice a day though, right? Heck, maybe he can somehow inspire our house guests to lay some cork flooring while they’re there (he’s a pretty persuasive chihuahua). Here’s hoping!
To any Maui natives or fellow vacationers: you better say hi if you see us out doing the whole dorky tourist thing! Just look for the girl whose legs are so pasty white that they actually look blue and there I’ll be.
And yes, my skirt is twisted about three inches too far to the right. I can’t be the only one who fights skirt-spin, can I?
Petersiks In Portland
Wow, so yesterday was a fun little whirlwind. We spent pretty much the whole day romping around the Portland Home & Garden Show (minus a break to scarf down some much-recommended Voodoo Donuts – and yes we tried maple bacon – mmmm). The Expo Center here is stuffed with gorgeous gardens, cool green living ideas, and tons of friendly Portlanders. Or Portlandians? Portlandites? Whatever they’re called, the people here are crazy nice. We’ll give you an actual Portland shopping/stuff we did/house-crashing trip roundup once it’s actually complete (today’s our Explore-The-City day) but for now we’d at least tell you about our time at the show yesterday.
It kicked off early with some interviews with the local TV stations at 7:30 am. Despite having been up since 4 (we were still on East Coast time), it was a miracle that we managed to be coherent.
You can actually watch this whole segment below. We’re just proud we didn’t blurt out anything ridiculous and weird on live TV. We saved that for our presentation in the afternoon. More on that in a minute.
Our home base at the show was the Smart Home, a mini-house within the convention center that their crew constructed in about 48 hours (!) that showcases lots of sustainable and green design. Within the solar paneled roof and energy efficient windows & walls, there was also a pretty sweet house full of cool stuff that we wanted to take home. Like this universally designed kitchen (crafted by local cabinet makers) which was anchored by this stellar table (also handmade by local artisans).
Speaking of tables, the living space had another cool one – it’s sort of a quatrefoil made from wood cross-sections. If it would’ve fit on the plane’s carry on bin, we might’ve attempted to sneak that baby off in our backpack.
We also drooled over these pillows that were adorned with polished cork-like wood disks and colorful thread (they were surprisingly comfortable, actually).
We also really loved this display wall, which was made completely from locally reclaimed wood. It totally inspires me to save all of our scrap wood in the basement until we can use it for something this cool.
This Smart Home was just the beginning of the awesome stuff that was constructed in the midst of an otherwise ordinary convention space. One thing that immediately caught our eye was all of the landscaping and greenery. Partially because we’re on the verge of having the spring landscaping bug and partially because, well, it was pretty.
Can our backyard please look like this? Wouldn’t you swear this shot was taken outside? Nope, it’s in the middle of the convention center where they have mood lighting, gorgeous landscaping, and even brick walls and wood pergolas that were build by local vendors and artisans. We loved the big bulb string lights in the shot below, and also really liked that all the chairs at the table were casually mismatched.
Nestled amongst the landscaping displays was this crazy cool prefab home from Ideabox. Our pics totally don’t do it justice, but Sherry and I were about to move in, right there in the middle of the Expo Center.
Of course it didn’t hurt that the whole thing was furnished by Ikea (so a certain light fixture – also in the bedroom! – was already making it feel like home)
The kitchen was punctuated with a few bright green cabinets which added just enough color and fun without feeling like too much (everyone who slipped through with us was going crazy over it).
We were on our own for most of the day (i.e. Clara was exploring the city with my parents, who traveled with us to PDX) but she did join us at the show for a little while. She too was quite captivated by all the sights. Here she is playing landscaper.
And resting on a bed from the Smart Home.
And crowning me as DIY Daddy of the Day.
And taking a faux shower.
Oddly enough, this is not the only Petersik-in-a-shower-at-the-Portland-Home-and-Garden-Show picture of the day. In fact, there are two more.
Sherry update: I’m not prego! Since a few folks have guessed my trench was hiding something: it isn’t. Portland is just cold and rainy. Haha. And apparently my coat isn’t as flattering as I thought.
Yes people, we have no shame. Speaking of which – the weirdness and semi-coherent rambling continued into the afternoon when our blogging seminar started. The organizers of the event invited a few dozen local bloggers so that we could share some of our thoughts on “taking your blog to the next level.” It looked something like this (and yes, that’s a picture of a teenage Sherry’s airbrushed jeans with winking eyes on the buns and me on the toilet). No shame I tell you.
Remember when I said that we blurted out a few ridiculous things? Well, that was all Sherry. Somehow during a little mention of not blogging about things just because they’re “trendy” or “in” – the examples that Sherry pulled out of thin air were “you know, don’t start a blog about being green just because you think it’s a trend if it’s not really something you love and are passionate about – or you know, just because something like being… lactose intolerant might be popular, don’t just start a blog about that.”
Then there was a nice long pause while we laughed about the idea that lactose intolerance was randomly referenced as a hot topic. Other strange suggestions that worked their way in there were “insert Ninja Turtle references” and at some point Sherry said “a pile of crap” while not meaning to refer to dung (she said it in regards to the piles of stuff that we have hoarded in our playroom). But amidst all the weirdness, I think we actually gave some real advice that was helpful. And at the end of the hour we got to meet everyone and chat a little. Once again we learned that Portlandanians are nice folk.
We also got a chance to chat with some of our fellow bloggers afterwards. We even got a sweet “Welcome to Portland” print from these lovely ladies. In true Portland fashion, they put a bird on it.
In addition to being mighty friendly, this city is mighty green too – and, if I may get all Jack Nicholson on you for a moment, it kinda makes me want to be a better greener man. Like that this guy for instance. He’s Jim of Northwest Cedar Specialties and he rescues scrap wood by dumpster diving at construction sites, home remodels, or wherever (like in the picture he’s holding below) with the construction-folks’ blessing, since a ton of stuff actually gets thrown away. Then he constructs cedar planters from the scrap wood. And how can you not like a guy whose flyer says his reclaimed materials come with “a lot of respect and loving care.”
I was also really into (like kinda too much so) these living walls from Seventh Wonder Gardens. Makes me wish we had a huge sun-filled atrium somewhere in our house that I could blanket with these guys. There’s also a cool time lapse of one of them growing in on their website.
As much as I was charmed by a wall of plants, Sherry was all over this chicken coop. Until we remembered that Richmond isn’t quite as progressive as places like Portland and owning chickens isn’t allowed in our county (unless we have about 4 times as much land as we do). Boo. Maybe someday…
We got a break for dinner (and to upload some pictures from the day) before we had a fun little meet and greet in the evening. I promised Sherry I’d include this photo of me looking exceptionally nerdy. Who walks around a convention with a giant backpack, open laptop, and a giant camera around their neck? Yep, this sexy blogger does.
That’s pretty much the last picture we snapped of the day (great way to conclude, right?) because all of the pics that we took at the meet and greet were taken by the show’s official photographer (they’ll be posted on their Facebook page sometime today) or by the lovely people that we got to both meet AND greet. Fortunately some are popping up on Twitter, like this one from Katy at The Non-Consumer Advocate who helped “Keep Portland Weird” (apparently that’s a popular bumper sticker around here) by asking us to pose next to a bed instead of in the courtyard where we were meeting and greeting. Since weird is practically our middle name, well, this happened:
Seriously though, this was probably the most fun part of the day because we got to chat with some of you guys – and even put some faces to commenter names that we’ve seen time and time again. We were very flattered that any of you cared enough to come see us. It made us even more excited to tour with our book in the fall, which means that we’ll get to see you guys in some other cities too… and maybe even come back to Portland (it’s all up to our publishers where we go, but we’ll keep you posted!). It’s fun here. And actually not as rainy as we expected.
Has anyone hit up a home and garden show lately? Or been to one in the past that they especially enjoyed? If you’re here in the Portland area you can still catch this show through Sunday. And anyone in the mood for another home and garden show can take a look back at what we spotted at our local Richmond show waaay back in 2008.
Ram Down!
Remember our dear sweet never-hurt-a-fly Ramsey who watched over us in a not-creepy-at-all way when we slept?
He was a beloved member of our household and even inspired Burger to do yoga.
Well, Ramsey will be missed.
And yes, it totally felt like this tragedy of yore all over again.
Except John didn’t draw a depiction of the event…
… because it actually wasn’t John’s fault. But yes, yesterday we bid a fond farewell to our TJ Maxx find when he somehow popped off the wall in the kitchen where he was temporarily hanging for a book vignette above the fireplace. No one was even in the room to attempt to catch him on the way down. It pains me that he died alone. John’s even a little sad too. He was a good little ram. And we loved sleeping under his all-knowing gaze very much.
We were doing so well over the last three weeks of photo-shoot madness. A house full of cameras + people + equipment + secret projects + extra furniture/accessories is definitely like Catherine Zeta Jones trying to slither through those red lasers in that scene in Entrapment (you know the one). Except more lurchy and uncoordinated. Which is why it’s no surprise that on our second to last day of shooting (yes, today is our very last book shoot day after three full weeks of photography here at our casa!!!) Ramsey was our first casualty. Poor guy. What not-creepy-at-all ceramic animal will we hang over our bed now? We’ll just have to wait and see who catches our eye. But for the time being, there’s a hole in our hearts (and on our wall) for our dearly departed Ramsey.
Speaking of the end of our book shoots (can you believe our last book process post was three whole weeks ago?) we thought it would be fun to share a few pics from the last 21 insanely exhausting yet completely amazing and exhilarating days of essentially turning this pile of paper…
… into a holy-cow-it’s-real book that now just needs to be laid out/designed, sent off to “the printer’s”, and will be available for preorder this summer and out this fall. Ahhhhhh. And you know this little ol’ blog is just about whatever’s going on at our house (projects, broken ceramic animals, miscellaneous photography-related chaos), so we had to alert you to the latest (both in ram-related injuries and photography progress). As our shooting marathon draws to a close, we have shot over 2,000 photos (!!!) out of which 200-ish will make the final cut (we got lots of angles and progress pics and variations of things, so for every ten shots that we took, we usually just kept one). We even shot three different cover concepts yesterday – all of which we managed to worm our way out of (haha, we were so freaked out by the idea of seeing our smiling mugs on the cover of the book for years to come). They all came out really great – especially without our awkward faces in them – so we can’t wait to see which one they pick.
And you know over-sharers like us want to spill those pics and deets rightthissecond, but alas, we’re not allowed (gotta save it for fall when the book is out). So without further ado: here’s as much as we’re permitted to divulge when it comes to the chaos that was our lives during these past three weeks. Um yeah, the playroom has secretly been painted about nine times. Not kidding.
Different parts of the room got different colors that we assigned to spotlight specific shots/projects/vignettes (so the whole book isn’t full of Moonshine and Sesame and the other few colors in our house). So yes, part of the reason we’re tackling more Dude, Get On That Already challenges is definitely because all the items that used to live in the playroom have been offset into other rooms while we paint/shoot in there (the sunroom, guest room, our bedroom, and the dining room = crazytown). In keeping-it-real news, about four colors into it we got sick of repainting. Haha.
But oddly enough by about the eight and ninth ones it felt like second nature. Last night we even stenciled one wall for a special shot that we’re taking this afternoon. Yowsa. What will we do with ourselves when we’re not painting the playroom walls every few days after Clara goes to bed?
There was also gluing, taping, spray painting, dyeing, stenciling, staining, and a bunch of other secret DIY bid-ness going on. And we had to protect our hands for process shots throughout so we didn’t look – as Clara would say – “messy, messy, Mommy!” – hence all my dark nail polish as of late (to hide the grub under my nails) and John’s Dexter-ish rubber gloves.
Clara had a lot of fun checking things out (and yes, those are my snazzy spray painting clothes, complete with fuzzy red socks). The photographer’s name is Kip Dawkins and Clara loved following him around squealing “Hi Kip! Hi Kip! Hi Kip!” on repeat (kind of like kids asking “are we there yet?” every two minutes on a road trip). By the end of week one she not only knew everyone’s name, she could identify their cars when they pulled into the driveway (“Marcie’s car! Kip’s car! Susan’s car!” was a normal morning refrain) and was surprisingly good about keeping a pretty safe distance while still enjoying all the action. We’re so grateful this insanity didn’t completely wreck Clara’s life (and very very thankful for John’s parents, who snuck off with her whenever things got really hairy). But she did amazingly well with so much “change” at home – in fact, I think she might ask where everyone went when they stop coming by every day.
Here’s how we shot some of our pics to demonstrate how a few of our projects were done mid-process. The bigger ones got laid out on the floor and shot from further away. That white thing in the background is a “seamless” so the process shots look simple and uncluttered, while most of the after shots are things that we “styled in situation” – meaning they’re somewhere in our house to give those photos some environment (ex: on a table/on the wall/in a room/near a window or door/outside/etc – but they’ll probably only look vaguely familiar as being in our house since so many things like furniture arrangements and wall colors and accessories have changed). Oh and the thing over us is a reflector to keep the lighting consistent throughout the book. I liked to pretend it was a sail and we were out in the tropics on a boat. I guess I’m just as guilty of daydreaming as Clara (who saw fishies here).
Burger was also pretty cool with all the new folks and extra stuff in our space. Look, here he is perching on disembodied Karl like it’s no big deal. We worked him into the book like a champ. What’s a YHL book without some quality Burger shots up in there?
It was at this moment about a week and a half into shooting when we realized that our house hadn’t looked this crazy since moving day. Yup, that’s our guest bed in the corner of the living room. We carried that thing all over our house for different shots. It became kind of a game. Where can we put the bed next? The funny thing is that the bed shows how giant this room really is. It’s a gymnasium-sized room.
Here’s that same guest bed up against the back of the fireplace, completely blocking traffic. That finished book shot is actually one of our favorites. It was two projects in one being shown in that picture (neither of which are visible here of course). Oh man, is it Fall yet? Can’t wait to show you guys.
Look, no more bed in the corner, but that’s a drop leaf table back there. We had some dining scenes to shoot and since we have a giant round table we had to borrow a regular rectangular one from a local shop for the day to make normal shots easier to snag.
Oh and look, that’s not our sofa! It’s another borrowed-from-a-local-shop item that we used for a few vignettes. This sofa also shows how giant Karl the Sectional is (we have eight of those pics hanging above Karl, as contrasted with the three over this standard-sized sofa).
So to the crew who are practically like family after nearly a month of “living” with us: thanks for everything! And to you guys for bearing with us while we’ve juggled this and the kitchen redo and the bean and “the bug” that tore through our house earlier this week and all of our Portland prep (which means we were a little slower on comments from time to time): thanks for understanding! And to any and all varieties of dark chocolate: we couldn’t have done it without you! Hey, when you don’t drink coffee you have to grab a little zing of caffeine anywhere ya can.
Have you guys broken anything lately? Or completely turned your house upside down? Or gotten to know a group of total strangers over the course of a month to the point that you know their favorite music/food/color/quotes/movies? It’s so crazy how much has happened since Christmas. Is anyone else still scratching their heads that it’s mid-February? How did that happen?
Psst- You can check out our other three book-related posts over the last year here, here, and here.
