We’ve Been Shot
The Latest On The Book
We’ve dropped a few mentions of working on the book lately, so we figured it was about time for another post about the process. Our post two months ago mostly covered the journey to getting the book deal and the beginning stages of writing, but now we’re really in the weeds of things so there’s definitely more to share… and we don’t have to use pics of Burger to illustrate it this time! Sorry Burger.
At the time of our last book post two months back, we had turned in our 160-ish page completed outline and were beginning to coordinate the design process with our publisher. If you recall, the book is a compilation of 250-some ideas for “how to show your home some love” (everything from small art projects, little tweaks, and quick ideas to bigger makeovers involving paint & furniture). Things were trotting along nicely and our publisher, Artisan, was trying to figure out whether to keep our Fall 2012 release date or hold off until Spring of 2013. Sherry and I begged for the earlier date and they agreed – but it meant putting the pedal to the metal. So we buckled our seat belts…
- In a matter of two weeks (the two weeks that happened to fall over Christmas and New Year’s) we had to turn our finished outline into a completely written book. Yikes. But we put our heads down and two dizzying weeks later we had the manuscript done. Phew.
- When we turned the manuscript in to our publisher, she took the next week to read the entire thing and we braced ourselves for edits or rewrites.
- She finished without any major edits (really?!) so it went off to a copy editor – someone who would read it for nitty gritty stuff like grammar and punctuation. It spent a week or so there before coming back to us.
- As you saw in last Monday’s post, this baby arrived last Saturday as a hard copy. Our manuscript now officially lives as a printed document that has our publisher’s edits and the copy editor’s notes marked up in different colored pencils. Our task was to use our designated blue pencil (they included it in the FedEx box) to respond to any questions, agree (or disagree with) all edits, and make any final changes. Scary. Especially because as a single-spaced, single-sided document it’s 375 pages long. We thought it was really funny because we assumed it would all be done via email, so getting a giant chunk of paper overnighted to our house felt sort of official and old-fashioned, but that’s apparently how it’s still done these days! It’s actually a lot easier to absorb the info and catch errors while “really” reading it (as opposed to reading it off of a computer screen) so it ended up being really helpful.
- Once again, we hunkered down and plowed through. It was due back to the publisher by yesterday so we overnighted it to them on Saturday afternoon. Bless Sherry for having the focus to sit down for two days straight and do pretty much nothing but focus on that. It’s how she spent all of last weekend while I watched Clara (and did kitchen stuff while the bean napped).
- After 16+ hours (broken up over two days) just to read through the thing, we then scrambled to fill in some gaps and rewrite some sections just to further explain a few projects/ideas in the remaining four days. Then back to the publisher it went…
But the manuscript is only half of the book process adventure right now. It’s probably less than half, actually. Maybe a third? Because what’s really keeping us busy is prepping for the photo shoots that began yesterday morning. So here’s what’s been going down on that end of things:
- With the 250-ish ideas we’re including, about 100 are going to be photographed. Another 100 will be illustrated and the remaining ones are pretty self-explanatory tips that make sense without an image. So that means 100 of the projects/sets need to be done so we’ve got something to actually photograph. Can we say yikes again? Anyone with a blog knows that churning out enough projects to keep things interesting (maybe 3-4 a week?) is a pretty substantial task. But completing 100 secret projects on top of that? Crazytown. But things are really exciting and fun in Crazytown so we totally can’t complain. Or sleep. But sleep is so 2011. At least that’s what we’ve been telling ourselves as we whirl through projects into the early morning.
- We didn’t really start full force on the projects until after the manuscript was turned in for the first time after New Year’s (we didn’t want to do a project that we or the publisher decided to later kill for some reason). That meant we had about 30 days to do nearly 100 things. So on pretty much any night over the past month you could find us painting, hanging, sewing, cutting, and shopping for up to five projects. And that pace will continue for the next three weeks until shooting wraps (since many things have to get shot as “before” and “process” pics before being completed). But it’s fun because we’re transforming some pretty ugly things, like this old rusted thrift store table:
- As much work as it’s been, we’re not doing it completely alone. Our publisher hired a producer to help keep things organized (100 ideas doesn’t just mean 100 photos, since many have a before, process, and after shots attached to them – so it’s a lot to keep straight and schedule). We also have someone who has been a big help when it comes to gathering supplies for us. Sometimes it’s faster for us to just grab things while we’re out and sometimes we email her and say “ahhhh, can you help us get blank by such and such a date so we can sand and paint it in time to shoot it? Thanks!”
- And of course we’ve got a pro photographer who’s going to make everything look prettier than we ever possibly could with our little Nikon. So our “crew” of helpers aren’t exactly elves who do all the projects at night (we wish!) but it certainly takes a load off to have such a great team. Since we’re ultimately the people who have to choose all of the items, do all of the projects, decide what rooms/corners to shoot all of the photos, and style all of the shots, we’re still burning the midnight oil.
- As for where things for the book are coming from, we have a pretty modest book budget so we’ve been stalking craigslist, thrift stores, and even borrowing items from some of our favorite stores with their blessing (they’ll be returned in three weeks when shooting wraps). The nice thing about a modest budget is that it keeps us honest (there are a good amount of under $50, under $25, under $5, and even some free projects in our book, so that’s pretty exciting to cheap-os like us). And yes, sometimes Sherry gets hyper when we’re picking out accessories (our aim is to style things so they look fresh for you guys, since reusing all the things we already have around our house that you’ve seen a million times would be kind of stale).
- And our house? Well, it’s a mess. We’ve got projects at mid-completion here and there (we need to save some that are halfway done to shoot progress photos, so we can’t just knock them all out at once). We’ve got tons of thrifted furniture piled in the sunroom just waiting for a makeover. There are a bunch of fabric and frames and accessories stacked on the dining table. Paint cans pepper the floor. We even have frames missing from the hallway where we’ve repurposd them for book projects. Nothing is sacred. Haha. Again, in a word, it’s a mess. But it’s pretty exciting chaos.
- Being the over-sharers that we are, we’d love to tell all of the details of every project right now (#ohmanit’skillingus). But I’m not sure our publisher would be very happy with us ruining the surprise. So here are a few hint-y sneak peeks:
- Our guestroom has kinda become home to all of the completed projects. The dining room is home to all of the things in progress and the sunroom is where we’re housing all of the things we can’t touch until before photos are taken. Here’s sort of what they look like (well, as much as we can show ya)…
- So that thing that Sherry mentioned at the end of yesterday’s post that lasts three weeks is some pretty crazy-but-exciting book photography. Most of it will be going on from 8:30am to 6pm four days per week for the next three weeks, so nearly our entire February will be spent on a photography set. Well, actually the set is our house for the most part – so it’ll be three weeks of being in our house-turned-photo-studio. We finish just a few days before flying out to Oregon for the Portland Home & Garden Show, so it will definitely be a jam-packed month. Thank goodness it’s only 29 days long!
- Yes, we’re pretty much hosting a little crew of people in our house for the better part of a month so we’ll have to tell you how that goes! They’re all awesomesauce so far, and yesterday we banged out a ton of before photos and as soon as they left we were painting and upholstering and doing all the things we can now do since those “before” shots are in the can. Gotta tell ya, it feels good to get this thing going – and we already can’t wait for the book to be out so we can spill the beans about all these secrets. We’re taking lots of behind the scenes photos to share with you guys this fall when it comes out!
Update: Lots of folks are asking what we’ll be doing with all those secret projects/items once the book is shot. We’re actually hoping to do a giveaway with some of them (not sure how shipping will work though) and some items have to be returned, etc. Maybe one or two especially sentimental ones will stay at our house, but they’re all “bonus” projects (we didn’t “design” any of them to fit into our house, which is actually really freeing since we can have fun with lots of color/fabric/textures, etc) so it should be fun to see where they end up!
So our apologies to anyone who left a comment yesterday and took a little longer than normal to see it pop up or get a response! We’re definitely juggling things over here when it comes to keeping the blog and the book (and the bean) attended to. And as nuts as the next month is going to be for us, we’re so grateful for the opportunity and so excited to share the whole crazy journey with you guys as we go. Anyone else dealing with someone visiting them for weeks on end? Or keeping 100+ secrets that are slowly burning a hole through their brains? Tell us about it. Or just tell us how crazy our house looks. Go.
Psst- Thank goodness our bean sleeps the night away so we can get stuff done (check out her technique over on Young House Life).
Another Post That John Wanted Me To Name Stool Boom
Here’s why John likes to name things Stool Boom. Anyway, a while back I redid a stool that wasn’t ours. It just showed up in the mail and I spruced it up. More on the mysterious mail thing in a minute. First here’s how I got ‘er done. This is a terrible before shot, but picture an old beat up periwinkle blue stool with nails and holes and a rotting wood top:
The first thing I did was get all the old nails out with the back of a hammer:
Then I primed it and painted it a rich navy color (I just grabbed a $3 test pot of paint in Benjamin Moore’s Santa Monica Blue). Ignore the crazy-bright blue color going on in this picture – it’s a very strange camera trick. In real life = navy. Anyway, after my two coats of paint were dry, I dug up some extra loft batting (originally from JoAnn) that I already had and some fabric that I had around as well. Why? Because I’m cheap. And it’s not my stool. Haha. If you’re keeping track, so far, I had sunk $3 into someone else’s stool.
Then I got fancy and picked up two $1.79 boxes of decorative nail heads (from JoAnn). I know, I splurged. What can I say, I’m a giver.
I figured I could use these guys to secure my batting and my fabric along each side of the stool. So I just cut the batting and the fabric about two inches larger than the top of the stool on all sides, and pulled the excess down and folded it under for a nice clean line. Then I tapped each nail head into place to keep things secure. I spaced them about 2″ apart (and used a 2″ piece of cardboard as a spacer to keep the gaps consistent). About thirty taps later I had done one side…
I continued to tap my way around the other three sides and I was left with a sweet little stool to not call my own. Total cost: $6.58. Except I have no earthly idea why she looks royal blue again. See the pics above – that’s probably the most true that the blue looks. So it’s a nice rich color but not too bright in real life.
Here’s a full shot from the side (the same pic I should have taken as a before instead of a zoomed in crazy one):
Then I hugged her, kissed her (more than once), and lovingly sent her off. Sniffle. Weird stool business going on, right?
Well, it was actually for the fine folks at Do It Yourself magazine…
… where we have a Q and A column called “He Said, She Said“…
… but in our column we don’t redo furniture, so the stool was for another article they were running in their winter issue about makeovers by a few bloggers who all received surprise items in the mail to redo. There were some pretty amazing fellow bloggers in the mix, like: Style Me Pretty, Centsational Girl, Jen Geigley, Renegade Handmade, and Lori Andrews. It was really fun see what they did, like this two-tiered-table turned cake stand from Style Me Pretty:
And here’s my little stool makeover. I love how they styled it with yarn because of all the craft stuff that I have in our house, I have zero yarn. Haha.
Oh and really savvy folks might even recognize the fabric as one of the ones we used for Clara’s weekly pictures. We love how it looks like water and the bean looks like she’s swimming in this pic.
After making her quilt and birthday banner there was still more than enough for a surprise stool makeover. Gotta love it. What furniture have you guys been making over lately? Any painting or reupholstering going on? And kiddos swimming around on fabric? Hey, if it makes ‘em happy…
Psst- We might be biased, but we think this video of Clara singing a medley of songs is the cutest thing ever. That girl loves to sing!
Pics & Pixels
The following images make me wish I could carry a professional photographer around in my pocket at all times. But since I can’t, at least we had the pleasure of having one over for the afternoon. Local-ish photographer Andrea Hubbell (she’s from nearby Charlottesville, VA) is doing a series of “living spaces” photo shoots and asked if we wanted to participate for fun. Since we’re (a) not too camera shy – at least when it comes to our house and (b) always excited to see our home through someone else’s eyes (especially someone a lot better with a camera), we gave an enthusiastic yes.
And boy are we glad we did. Not only was Andrea super nice (and very stealthy too – we almost forgot she was here a couple of times) but her photos are beautiful:
Of course we loved seeing the wider-angled full room shots, but what was most amusing for us was seeing all the little details that Andrea picked up along the way. You know, the things we hardly notice and never think to shoot and share. So we thought you guys might get a kick out of that too. What’s a trip to the Petersiks without a shot of Sherry’s pile o’ paint chips after all?
Be sure to hit up Andrea’s blog to see the rest of her photos of our house (barely half of them are shown here). They were taken about three weeks ago, which is why some rooms (ahem, bedroom and living room) are already looking semi-out-of-date and others (this means you laundry room) aren’t shown (since our little built-in shelves were just getting started when she arrived). Oh and here we are with Andrea. Most surprising thing ever? Sherry’s not wearing a black shirt. Crazy, right? I hardly recognized her.
But wait – there’s more. Andrea wasn’t the only person to capture our house recently. We got a very sweet email the other day from a 16-year-old reader from the Netherlands named Karlijn. She’s an avid fan of the video game The Sims, and thought it would be funny to use her Sims-ing skills to virtually recreate our house. And considering the limitations of the game (she said she would have added a Burger if she could have), we’re pretty darn impressed by how close she got!
First we have our guest room with the teal walls, green headboard, and two slipper chairs that look almost exactly like the ones we have:
We chuckled at the accuracy of the “alley” on the left side of this screen capture of our living room (complete with a big gray sectional, a green rug, the bedroom door, and a giant paned window just like our house):
And how true-to-life it is that our windowless kitchen is pretty dark with the lights off? Maybe you don’t know that so I’ll answer for you: very true.
Our favorite is probably the Sims-ified space that is Clara’s room (although the highway that leads into her window kind of cracked us up, since the view is a little different in real life- but we’re sure Karlijn didn’t have much control over that):
And perhaps Karlijn was dropping us some decorating “hints” along the way too. Like maybe we should add a zebra rug in the bedroom? Ooh la la.
Or some outdoor lighting to the patio? (Totally agree with her on this one, btw – we’re thinking about big bulb string lights).
Maybe some Sims players out there can find Karlijn’s place in that giant Sims universe to virtually drop in on on our house. Is that how it works? I’m so video game dumb it’s not even funny. Last time I played The Sims it was called Sim City and I think I gave up after a tornado and a monster attack simultaneously took out all of my skyscrapers. Anyway, we’re sending out a big thanks to both Andrea and Karlijn for taking the time to capture our home using their respective talents. It’s always fun to see a familiar place through someone else’s eyes. Have you guys ever tried to recreate your house in a video game or with online room-planning software or anything? Or seen photos that someone else took of your house that make you take notice of little things that you’d never really “see” on your own?
Psst- We announced this week’s giveaway winners. Click here to see if you’re one of them.
Two Girls Walk Into A Thrift Store…
Ok, I keep mentioning that Katie B and I had some fun stared into each other’s eyes for 48 hours straight and she posted about the whole shebang right here (update: Katie’s blog is giving her issues, so maybe try clicking over later or tomorrow instead of right now). And by whole shebang I mean the part where Will went to the bathroom in the tub (numero dos) while bathing with Clara. And how Jeremy and John accidentally wore the same exact beverage themed shirt on Sunday…
She also touched on our pedicure adventures…
… and mountaintop enjoyment…
It’s all here (update: just remember to click over later or tomorrow since her blog is giving her grief).
But back to our little Goodwill excursion. We decided that trolling the aisles of a thrift store in search of stuff that was take-home worthy might be blog worthy (“might” being the operative word). So here’s what we came away with: an 11 minute video of two giddy weirdos who giggle like 5th graders whenever some sort of innuendo slips in. So to answer your impending questions: no, we don’t know what our malfunction is. And yes, this regression is probably Freudian. So think of us not as adults and mothers but as two immature gals who can’t calm down for thirty minutes to make anything remotely polished and posed. For those at work who can’t watch it, just envision twelve year old girls braiding each other’s hair and jumping on the bed while having a pillow fight after applying sparkly nail polish and swooning over a Bon Jovi poster. And for those who can watch it: I’m sorry. We just can’t help ourselves. Tweens may get hyper after too much sugar during a sleepover, but we’re like that at Goodwill at noon.
A few things to note:
- We used our usual insane method of video entry by squatting and then standing up into frame (first established here).
- Somehow we managed to reference male parts, maxi pads, and bras in under eleven minutes of tape. Yes, we’re ashamed.
- Katie’s shirt is from the J Crew Outlet (I loved it so much I had to ask, and I figured you guys would too).
- We used a bleep. Somehow they just make everything funnier (but maybe only if you’re us).
- The way John walks through frame holding Clara while I’m talking about those tiny chairs kills me (it’s his Vanna White expression).
- I’m wearing Katie’s flip flops, which is why they’re a little big (my wedges weren’t “proper attire” for running around all day).
- There’s a dorky Friends reference in there. Almost immediately. Please tell me you noticed.
- Katie is about a foot taller and ten times more glamorous than I am (aka: no need to comment about my short shorts + pasty leg combo).
- People walk by. The intercom blares. But not one employee asked what we were up to or told us to stop. Even when we filmed at the checkout. Gotta love those friendly Georgians.
- At one point you can hear the song “Yackity Yack” playing in the background. Sweet soundtrack, right?
And now for a Yackity Yack dance break (the visuals are kinda boring, so might I suggest scrolling down as it plays?):
Oh and we meant to work a little end section into the video about what NOT to buy at Goodwill, but since the video was waaay longer (and substantially more embarrassing) than we expected, we didn’t want to drag it out. So here are a few shots of what NOT to buy at Goodwill:
All in favor of not buying those things, say I. Oh and you might wonder how Jeremy, Will, John, and Clara kept themselves busy while we Flip cam’d our way through the store. Well, things like giant wooden spoons kept them entertained:
Seriously, every time John brought it near Clara’s mouth she opened wide like a bald little baby bird:
And while we’re on the Goodwill hunting topic (I’ll pause while someone says “how about them apples”), what treasures have you found at Goodwill or Salvation Army or other places of the like? Have you seen anything that was so mind-numbingly crazy that you actually had to pick it up and examine it more closely to make sure it was, in fact, real (for me it was the gilded ceramic double unicorn vase – I thought they only existed in alternate universes). Come on, it’s Thursday afternoon. Let’s gab.
Psst- A big fat thanks to sweet Katie Bower for being such an amazing host and friend and fellow weirdo. So glad we met thanks to this crazy world of blogging and actually surpassed the “blog friend” title to become real life BFFs. Miss you already girl. And you didn’t burn that fajita meat, it was just well done. Just the way I like it.
Psssst- To watch some other terrible KB + SP = gigglefest videos, here’s one, here’s another, here’s yet another, here’s one more, and here’s another one. That’s a lot of giggling.
Newspaper & (Some Big) Paper News
Considering that delivering The Washington Post was my first real job (because what 6th grader doesn’t like getting up at 5am everyday?), it’s kind of an “is this real life?” full circle moment for me that my current gig (this blog) has landed us in the pages of that very same newspaper. My dad (a.k.a. my newspaper delivery partner) has never been more proud. We had no idea it would be such a big write up (with a giant cover picture in the Local Living section, but after we got over our vanity (is my hair weird? does Clara look cute?) we couldn’t believe how awesome it was. Who are we and what did we do to deserve this? But enough blabbering. I gush when I’m excited.
Here are a few shots of the paper for ya (click ‘em to enlarge) and of course you can see them in the flesh if you get The Washington Post. And you can read most of the article online here, here, and here (there are three parts to the story, but some of the pics are different than the ones in the actual newspaper article). And if the article has been archived, you can download PDFs of the text here, here and here.
We especially loved this cool call-out thing they did with our old den about where we got stuff/what we paid for it:
As for the pics, the Washington Post scooped us on a few things. Haha. It takes us a few days for us to do projects, take pics, and write posts – so they slipped through and snapped photos of things we’ll be sharing in the next few days. Should be fun…
Anyway, thanks to Terri Sapienza for the write up (us? really?) and for coming down to our house to hang out for the interview (which couldn’t have been less scary even though it sounded crazy intimidating when we first heard that she wanted to do it). She was a blast to have over and we realized that her husband and I lead eerily similar lives (beyond being married to women with rhyming names).
Oh and how insane is it that they actually called Nate Berkus for a quote about us (remember when we met him here)? Sherry just about died when she saw that. There were no words for about ten minutes, which is a total record for her. Consider us flattered (or too giddy for our own good if you’re Sherry- really she’s doing that uncontrollable giggle thing over here). Here’s his quote:
“First of all, they’re adorable,” says talk show host and designer Nate Berkus. In the fall, the Petersiks appeared on “The Nate Berkus Show” as DIY experts and judges for a design challenge. “Their delivery is particularly charming and endearing, and their information is delivered in a smart way,” Berkus says. “ . . . I think Young House Love could easily transition into a TV program.”
How crazy is that? Seeing the paper this morning was like an out of body experience for both of us. We also think it’s hilarious that Nate thinks YHL could be a TV show, because we’ve actually been approached a few times about that over the past few years but are always quick to decline. We’re definitely TV people (I mean we like to watch it) but we don’t want to actually be TV people (as in, be on it). We’re much more comfortable hiding behind the safety of our computer screens. And as Sherry likes to say “we don’t wanna Jon & Kate ourselves, ya know?!” Besides, putting the blog on hold for weeks of filming might leave us with a serious case of withdrawal.
Side tangent officially over. Anyway, you may have noticed some other paper-related news revealed in the article: we’re in the very early stages of writing a book! Like a real one. That they’d actually have in Barnes & Noble. How crazy is that? When a few book agents and publishers approached us over a year ago, we figured that with all of the writing that we’ve done online each day over the past 3.5 years (over 1,752 posts and 891,000 words published) perhaps writing something offline could be a natural side project for us – especially if the topic is DIY and home stuff. Because you know that does it for us. But don’t worry, the blog will still be priority numero uno. After all it’s our first baby (well second, the birth order goes: Burger, YHL, Clara).
So after over a year of fine tuning our book proposal (yeah, it took forever, and ended up being 150+ pages long) we sent it out, held our breath, and were shocked and awed to be signed by Artisan/Workman. For a few weeks we were scared they would come to their senses, realize we’re dorks, and say nevermind – but holy bananas, it’s a done deal. And the process was kind of crazy and interesting, so for anyone else out there who’s looking to write a book proposal (and eventually a book), we’re planning a post about how it all went down and what that experience has been like for us.
There’s still an entire manuscript to be written, so it would be premature to say exactly what the book will be about, but we do know that it’s not going to be some fancy interior design coffee table book or a sordid behind-the-scenes tell-all novel like this (yes those are our faces, but most definitely not our bodies).
Like how I’m tied to the pole? Sherry did too. And she thanked me for not having that hair in real life.
But back to the book. We’re aiming to capture the don’t-take-yourself-too-seriously DIY spirit of our site without regurgitating a lot of stuff that you’ve already seen slash read here (we want it to feel fresh and new). And of course it’ll have budget friendly ideas along with fast & easy projects that anyone can do (except if you’re tied to a pole). Since publishing a book takes much longer than publishing a blog post, we’re scheduled for a fall 2012 release – and we’re mucho excited. We couldn’t wait to spill the beans to you guys after lots of months spent biting our tongues and keeping cats in bags.
So that’s the news up our sleeve at the moment. I guess it’s only polite to ask – what’s new with you these days?
UPDATE: Check out this more recent post about the book-writing process.
Slightly altered romance novel cover from here.
