Monthly Roundups
October Superlatives: Better Late Than Never…
We’re nearly a week away from December, which makes rewinding all the way back to the beginning of October a little strange, but since a few book tour stops threw our productivity for a loop this month, our usual wrap-up of the previous month (in yearbook-style superlatives) is coming to you a bit late (ok, way late) in the middle of Thanksgiving break. As always you can read back through January of 2011 right here in just 21 posts instead of 700. Oh yeah, and we’ve also snuck in a clue about Monday’s giveaway at the bottom. Hope you guys are having a great Thanksgiving weekend with the fam!
Most Adventurous: Sherry, for braving our overgrown butterfly bush to get this picture before we started cutting away at it. I know what you’re thinking. What’s so brave about going into a bush for butterflies? Well, we found a snake in it later…
Simplest: This quick little key art project that Sherry whipped up, which represents the four Petersiks from left to right: me, Sherry, Clara and Burger (since he doesn’t stand upright like the rest of us).
Biggest Eyesore: The trash-filled Bagster that sat at the end of our driveway for a couple of days before it was hauled off. But the temporarily ugliness was all in the name of creating some long-lasting pretty-ness in our basement. #worthit
Hottest: According to this mood board Sherry whipped up, School Nostalgia gets this award (which is perhaps a subliminal reason why we do these yearbook-style superlatives?). It was our first shot at a round-up mood board like this, but there will be more down the road since you guys seemed to like it.
The Hand-Me-Down / Hang-Me-Up Award: Our old bedroom sconces. They never quite found a spot here in the new house, so we gave them to our cousins and even hung them up on a recent trip to their home outside of Washington DC.
Most Asked: “How do you know when to DIY something versus when to hire it out?” Since that was such a popular question, we finally dedicated a post to answering it using our french door non-DIY as an example.
Most Coveted: Some of the items spotted on a run through Target last month for one of our occasional Window Shopping posts. Arrowhead notebook, anyone?
Most Open: The oh-so-wide access to our deck, as demonstrated by this “after” photo from our french door installation.
Fastest: Sherry’s fall mantle decorating, thanks to the little time lapse effect that we applied to the process. Because who wants to watch her futz around for 30 minutes?
Most Satisfying: Finally, finally, finally hosting a yard sale to get rid of some of the “overflow” items that we’ve been accumulating around here – including things from the last house that after nearly two years have yet to find a home (and some things for my sister so we could put “multi-family” on the signs).
Most Satisfying (Runner-Up): Finally, finally, finally getting rid of some of the insane amount of liriope in our backyard… and discovering that our brick pathways are wider and more charming than we originally thought!
Oddest: This moose lamp found at a moving sale in West Virginia. But once it was sprayed white (and reimagined with a colorful shade thanks to Photoshop since we couldn’t reveal the real secret-book-project one) it went from odd to oddly awesome. At least for nature geeks like us.
Most Nerve-Wracking: Our book finally coming out. Sherry laid out all of our fears and anxieties about it finally being born in this post, with Burger capturing our sometimes-want-to-hide-under-the-covers feeling pretty perfectly.
Cuddliest: This baby squirrel? Admittedly we didn’t attempt to cuddle it, but Sherry really really wanted to. Thankfully it ran off and we could get back to more bushwhacking in the backyard.
Most Boring: I say this in the sense that it’s the project that required that I bore lots of holes… in pumpkins. There was something sickeningly awesome about drilling into a pumpkin and having all of its orange guts spill out (all so that Sherry could later weave fake snakes through them).
Manliest: Well, maybe “manliest” is a stretch – but this rundown on guy-friendly fabrics (at least, in my humble opinion) even included tips for honing in on a few not-insanely-girly florals…
Most Historic: Some of the items uncovered while cleaning up my basement workshop. My favorite is the fire extinguisher that was last inspected when we were about Clara’s age.
Creepiest: Sherry, in this Halloween photo from 1994 that she used to announce this season’s Pinterest Challenge. For the record, she was supposed to be a ??????.
Most Polarizing: This fast and free duck makeover that was a big hit with some of you and not quite as lovely to other folks. It was admittedly a bit quirky, but it only has to live in our house so… no harm, no fowl? #duckpunforthewin
Nerdiest: Both of us – well, especially Sherry – during our first book tour stop in Cincinnati last month. Among embarrassing photos like geeking out over seeing stacks of our book for the first time, overdramatic cooing for babies, stuffing chili into our chili-holes, and this photobomb near Cortney Novogratz, we had a grand ol’ time in the O.H.I.O.
Most Improved: I’m giving this award to our backyard, which is looking worlds better after finally getting those overgrown bushes out of the way and making room for some grassy open areas. We can’t believe it’s the same place and it only took a few phases of digging, leveling, and seeding.
Most Obsessed: Sherry, particularly when it comes to Nate Berkus. Which is why we drove to four Targets before finding some new stuff from his collection to bring home.
Spottiest: This kid-friendly pumpkin project that we tackled with Clara this year (since she’s not yet old enough to get her carve on). The tissue paper polka dots were right up our little sticker-lover’s alley.
Biggest Flirt: Me, at least when I’m in the presence of my basement pegboard. Seeing my tools all organized neatly gets me so hot under the collar that I’m like this Kristen Wiig character named Shana around it. Side note: this post’s title (“Classic Peg”) was one of two SNL Justin Timberlake references of the month.
Most Pinteresting: Our project for this fall’s Pinterest Challenge. A scrap piece of plywood + some cheap framing lumber + stain + chalkboard paint = this rustic, oversized chalkboard for our living room. Plus we added some already-owned magnet paint to make it magnetic too.
Most Pencil-tastic: What? Your high school didn’t have this superlative? If it did, it would probably go to something like this shadowbox which we made to commemorate meaningful items from our book writing process – like the many pencils that we ground down while going through rounds and rounds of editing.
Most Adorable: We gotta give that award to Clara, er, Jessie for her homemade, Toy Story-inspired Halloween costume that Sherry whipped up. Oh yeah, and Burger’s Slinky Dog costume should get the “Most Likely To Require An Explanation” award.
Most Likely To Give You $200: Monday’s giveaway, which is coming from one of our favorite stores. And to make you work a bit to figure it out, just test yourself with this anagram below (i.e. rearrange the letters to form the answer). Hint: the answer doesn’t follow the same letter-per-word count.
So how was your October? Did you get anything major or minor checked off? Can you even think back that far now that it’s almost December?
August Superlatives: Accidents & Fish Baskets
Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! That means that both summer and the month of August are coming to a close. Let’s all shed a communal tear. But before we mentally check out for the long weekend, it always helps us keep the ol’ momentum up by taking an appreciative look back on all of our happenings from last month (along with some bonus never-before-seen stuff). It definitely inspires us to keep plugging away, plus it makes browsing our archives a lot easier (you can read back through January of 2011 right here in just 19 posts instead of 665). Woot! And below you’ll also find a hint about Monday’s giveaway, so feel free to guess away at what that might be…
Most Redeemed: Me, after Sherry’s little accident with the lamp made me feel a little less bad about my tendency to break things around here (a certain ceramic dog comes to mind).
Mood-iest: This mood board Sherry created to start planning what items would eventually go on our deck. There’s still some work to do, but I think we got off to a good start.
Freshest: Taking a trip to Ikea to check out all of their new stuff now that the 2013 catalog is out. And based on the comments, we’re not the only ones to have drooled over their crop of new chairs. Might wanna wipe those seats before you sit down…
Most Painful: The fall I took while starting to put down deck boards. Fortunately the big marks I got across my back and inner thigh from smacking them on some joists are now gone.
Least Musical: Sherry, after she managed to butcher The Brady Bunch theme song into a post about framing art around our house. Let’s hope none of the Bradys read our blog.
Most Blushy: Us, after the incredible response we got from you guys when we officially announced that our book is available for pre-order (and shared a little behind-the-scenes story about the cover). Seriously amazing. We’re so grateful and so excited to tell you more about it soon!
Most Organized: My side of the closet, now that Sherry upgraded me from a few woven baskets to these sleek white bins from Ikea.
Most Athletic: A bunch of you guys. I was so excited to see how many of you revealed yourselves as runners (whether casually or of the more expert variety) in this post about why I’m a runner.
Most Fun You Can Have With A Circular Saw: Finally finishing the deck boards. There was something so satisfying about ripping through a bunch of boards knowing that it put me that much closer to calling the deck done-zo.
Comfiest: This new chair that we snagged for the corner of our kitchen. It sure beats the old too-small one that had been sitting there since we moved in and plopped it down.
Longest: Our house to-do list, which we updated for you this month. There’s definitely more crossed off, but there’s still lots to do… like tackle the third bedroom (which looks a heckova lot more chaotic than this pic, because it’s now full of secret book projects that we’re saving for a charity auction this fall).
Most Improved: The mirror situation in our kitchen. We didn’t realize how small the existing one looked until we replaced it with this larger spare from our guest bedroom.
Best Deal: This $295 outdoor lantern that we scored for $19 and hung in our carport so that our too-tiny light could finally get the boot.
Most Likely To Get Vertigo: Anyone afraid of heights (like my sweet wife) who crossed the bridge on the High Bridge Trail near Farmville, VA (she felt much better by the time we shopped the huge furniture outlet nearby).
Most Fascinating: Learning the origin of the basket that we used to make this new DIY light fixture in our kitchen. Apparently they’re used to catch fish – just check out this Flickr photo to see it in action.
Most Egg-sessive: Sherry, at least when it comes to egg chairs – hence this post with an egg-tastic update, including egg chairs for Clara’s dollhouse (gotta start ‘em early!).
Most Versatile: These $5 tulips that Sherry had fun reimagining a trio of times.
The “Goliath” Award: The finally completed deck, which this “David” finally knocked out after ten sun-drenched, sawdust filled weeks of figuring out what the heck I was doing. But unlike the classic story, I’m getting pretty friendly with this giant.
Most Well Traveled: Us, although only in the sense that we sure do get around when it comes to hitting up thrift stores in Richmond. Here’s a recap of our six-store tour of the River City’s thriftiest spots.
Most Moroccan: This cool little side table that we found a thrift store (we especially loved hearing everyone’s ideas for what they’d do to him).
Wordiest: This award could probably go to us for every post we write, but this month we’re giving it to the text-y art hack that Sherry performed on the painting in our dining room.
Most Delayed Gratification: Using this teak oil on our new deck chairs (along with polying our table) to help prevent them from getting damanged over time. Sure felt like lots of rubbing for little results… for now – but we hope it’ll add up to less work on the back end.
Most Likely To Include A Gratuitous Burger Shot: This little mantra that we shared in this post about how we decide what to post about.
Future Fashionista: Clara (who actually insisted that she bring her purse to Home Depot yesterday). And here’s where we spilled the beans on where and how we buy clothes for our little lady.
Most Chillaxed: Burger, who’s already testing out several relaxation spots on the freshly furnished deck.
Most Likely To Result In Underwear Chatter: This post about how the wife whipped up a “so so shiny hoop” for the bean. Leave it to Sherry to bring underwear into it…
Most Cryptic: This visual hint for Monday’s giveaway. Let’s just say there are three distinct clues in this image…
How did August look for you? Did you get any major projects completed? Make any particularly fruitful shopping trips? Or did you just enjoy the last few weeks before the kids went back to school to their fullest? Can’t believe our little one goes off to preschool for two mornings a week in a few short weeks. Sniffle.
July Superlatives: Trips, Trucks & Toads
Ack. It’s August. Which means it’s almost September which means summer’s almost over which means it’s practically Christmas. Insert panic attack here. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but I still can’t believe it’s August. So it always helps us keep the ol’ momentum up and avoid burning out by slowing time down for a second to take an appreciative look back on all of our happenings from last month along with some bonus never-before-seen stuff. It may not stop the Earth from rotating (only Superman can do that, silly) but it definitely inspires us to keep plugging away! Plus it makes browsing our archives a lot easier (you can read back through January of 2011 right here in just 18 posts instead of 630). Woot!
Most Likely To Go Mad: Me, since this is apparently what digging all those holes for our deck is doing to me (especially during this second round of digging when the county inspector failed our first attempt).
Best Lungs: Katie Bower, who’s got quite the scream going on in this video issuing the Summer Pinterest Challenge. She hollers on a tractor, yells excitedly down a waterslide… yet is surprisingly inaudible over the sounds of “The Winds of Africa.”
Sexiest Accent: This feature in Jae’s house, which we crashed while in Atlanta. She painted the window sash in her kitchen black for an awesome high-contrast pop that we couldn’t get enough of.
Most Shameless: Sherry and Katie Bower, who weren’t fazed at all by filming a video in the middle of a Goodwill while shoppers mingled nearby (and occasionally walked into frame)
Modern Shakespeare Award: Sisqo, the one-hit-wonder behind the “Thong Song” that we referenced in this post about a crayon-holding truck we got at Goodwill in Georgia. Since so many of you seemed to have enjoyed getting that song stuck in your head then, we couldn’t resist doing it again.
Oldest: This sideboard we scored off of Craigslist for $150, which officially puts us on the “every room should have something old” train. Which is much less creepy than the “every room should have some mold” train (thankfully, it’s mold free).
Most Challenging: The Pinterest Challenge results, of course! It was back for it’s fourth installment and this time Sherry tried her hand at some DIY abstract art and you guys linked up with over 600 projects of your own.
Least Challenging: These simple wood frames I whipped up – in an attempt to accomplish it in the simplest, most basic steps possible – to house Sherry’s new Pinterest Challenge artwork.
The Math Geek Award: This goes to the arithmetic art that we spotted on our window shopping adventure at the Pottery Barn Outlet (and Mary Jo’s fabric store). It wasn’t the only cool thing we spotted… just the geekiest.
The Zoology Award: This is for some of you smarties, who were very sweet to point out that the creatures I rescued from my deck holes were toads not frogs (well, I guess all toads are technically frogs, but my apologies to the toads that I’ve offended by addressing them too generally).
Most Welcoming: Julie’s house, which we also crashed on our trip to Atlanta. It seems we weren’t the only ones drooling over her entryway.
Grossest: Me, after my return from the sweltering attic-tastic task of centering the light fixture in our master bathroom. I’ve never felt so disgusting and exhausted in my life.
Most Improved-ish: Our master bathroom. We called our mini-makeover officially complete after a bunch of small and inexpensive improvements were finally done, bringing our grand total for the upgrade to a whopping $230 (including a new toilet, new lighting, and new accent tile). That should definitely tide us over ’til we get the appetite for a bigger overhaul…
Sneakiest: Us, for slipping away for a week at the beach earlier this month. Gotta love blogging from your iPhone, right?
Biggest Heart: This should be a tie between Sherry’s Aunt Kay Kay and all of you who left comforting comments when she posted about her passing away.
Most Angelic: Clara, at least in this photo where she seems to be bathed in light as Sherry snapped photos of our craigslist sideboard all dressed up.
Most Decisive: Us, since it took almost no time to look at the two gray test swatches in our bedroom to pick one. Sorry Moonshine, but you were too light to win this one.
Most High Tech: Our fancy-schmancy set up for making a time-lapse video of repainting our bedroom a deeper grey color (Benjamin Moore’s Rockport Gray). Laptop teetering atop a stack of furniture? Best Cinematography Oscar here we come…
Thriftiest: Sherry, after our tour of thrift stores and other shops while on vacation in Bethany Beach, Delaware.
Messiest: Me and my little sister after having run the Color Me Rad 5K here in Richmond. While our bodies were getting coated with colored cornstarch, Sherry used it to make a canvas.
Most Unusual: This egg chair-ish swiveling papasan chair we found at our local Salvation Army for $30 that was much cheaper than versions at the store… and much in need of some TLC.
Most Secret-tive: Our post about design foreshadowing in our house, which many pegged as the “law of attraction” made popular in the book The Secret (while others just said it was subliminal decorating or a you-like-what-you-like thing). So interesting to read everyone’s theories!
Best Moves: My “hooray, I can actually kind of stand here” jig that I performed on the recently joist-filled deck. It was starting to feel like real progress (hence the jig).
Most Animal Friendly: The thrift store egg chair that Sherry painted white, apparently. It seems to have attracted a rhino, pig, chihuahua, rabbit and even a dog wearing sunglasses.
Most Tedious: All of the little preparations I had to do to the deck – like adding blocking for posts – before I could finally start laying deck boards.
Most Likely To Make You Crave Waffles: A post earlier this week about our take on what (and what not) to register for when getting married. We skipped the waffle maker, but after lots of chatter about them in the comments our stomachs were suddenly aching for some.
Most Stylish: Whomever wins this coming Monday’s giveaway. We’re not saying exactly what, but let’s just say this is a hint below…
So what about you? What was the story of your July? Some summer highs? Lows? Toads?
