It’s that time again! When we take a moment to look back on all that we’ve done in the past month at a glance (and gather all the links in one handy place for ya). And of course we tossed in some never-before-seen stuff, just because we’re over-sharers. This month felt especially busy for us, with everything from painting, organizing, building, rearranging, crafting, art-making, upholstering, light-fixture-ing, coding, ORBing (yes, it’s a category of its own), and breaking stuff. So let’s take a walk down memory lane, with yearbook-esque superlatives, because we’re strange birds.
Most Illuminating: Clipping 320 clothespins in place to create our laundry room’s clothespin chandelier for our first ever Pinterest Challenge. Oh and you can scroll down to the bottom of the post to see over 500 (wowza!) other Pinterest Challenge projects submitted by you guys. So much good stuff. Gah.
Most Spoiled: Potato-stamping a fun little pattern inside Clara’s closet turned reading nook. Oh to be one again…
Most Likely To Win Mariah Carey’s Approval: This free butterfly art that I made out of a flier that I picked up on our trip to Natural Bridge, VA.
Most Likely To Win Carrie Bradshaw’s Approval: Adding shoe storage to our laundry room, courtesy of some Ikea recycling bins. Although Ms. Bradshaw would need about a hundred of them for all of her Manolos.
So Fresh & So Clean, Clean: Finishing our laundry room makeover. Woo hoo – one room down!
Most Likely To Be Committed For A Pillow Addiction: Me, as evidenced by these new striped pillows that I scored for $9 each at HomeGoods. And if making free art out of paint chips counts as treatment, then I’m on the road to recovery.
Clumsiest: John, who seems determined to break things lately, including this light fixture cover that fell while swapping out the fixture in our hallway.
Most Hard-Working: Our new Effecktiv storage unit from Ikea, which has the fun job of housing all of our files, printer, and miscellaneous office goodies. Oh the excitement.
Most Debonair: Dressing up said Effektiv unit with some black glass handles from Hobby Lobby Schlobby Bobby.
ORB of the Month: Giving our mailbox the oil-rubbed bronze treatment, along with completing a few other outdoor maintenance projects (which helped our yard look not quiiite as neglected – it’s still pretty bad though).
ORB of the Month (Runner Up): Several door handles, including the hardware on our front door, got a nice little face-lift.
Most Cheerful: Giving our front door the yellow paint treatment. It’s like our house is smiling at us whenever we come home.
Most Likely To Stockpile Swedish Things: Us, after our first trip to Ikea since John’s parents moved out of the area. Suddenly a trip there seems much more precious.
Worst Dressed: A video tour of our not-so-clean house (as well as some random old photos of us).
Most Likely To Get Worms: Creating a compost bin in the backyard using leftover shipping pallets. We’ve got some pretty sweet dirt going on.
Most Likely To Rock: The rocking chair that I FINALLY painted and reupholstered (after it sat around unfinished for almost a year).
Most Pictures In A Single Post: A visual comparison of our new house vs. our old house, which involved so many photos that it took down the site down for a good hour (ca-rashhh). Lesson learned.
Best “Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day” Reminder: A look back at our first house, 8 months in, and how little we had accomplished in that time. Ah, memories.
Best Moves: Switching up Clara’s furniture arrangement to help solve a crib-in-front-of-vent situation.
Worst Moves: Rearranging the office furniture in preparation for its makeover, which turned out to be a not so good solution. At least now we’re on the right track.
The “Thrill Of The Hunt” Award: Searching high and low for the perfect cabinets to turn into a built-in office desk. With a dog and a baby in our shopping cart.
The “Ripley’s Petersik’s Believe It Or Not!” Award: Scoring six whole cabinets for six measly dollars at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Alexandria, VA (well, they were technically $6.30 with tax).
Most Destined For Greatness: Our office cabinets, which we sanded and primed to prep them for glossy white paint. So excited to get these babies done. We’ll share pics early next week if all goes well! And you can catch a sneak peek of me painting them over on Young House Life.
Most Likely To Be From New Jersey: Me, as demonstrated by my magnetic attraction to glittery pine-cones, which accompanied some simple leaf-y decorations that I made for my cousin Megan’s bridal shower. Oh yeah and I sorted M&Ms by color like a wackadoo.
Biggest Jerk: Hurricane Irene, who tore up our neighborhood. (Update: the tree was finally removed from our neighbor’s roof yesterday and they’re in good spirits but the house still needs a lot of repair. Thanks for keeping them in your thoughts)
Most Overdue: Redesigning our blog theme for the first time in over three years.
Here are a few not-it initial designs that we tried on and scrapped. So glad we went with the gray heart background and simplified the too-busy-header (too much change, too left-heavy with that pile of pics, and the ceramic frog felt less “iconic” than my beloved ceramic rhino):
Cutest Couple: Clara and her cousin John snuggled up post Hurricane Irene.
So there you have it. August at a glance. And yes, this was just as much fun as last months inaugural superlatives post. Dorks for life.
What have you guys been up to this month? Have you ever made a list of accomplishments to look back on? It’s so nice to take a break from adding things to our to-do list to look back on what we’ve already done. Just for a minute. True to form we were all over the place (nearly every room of our house got in on the fun). Let’s call it spreading the love (as opposed to lacking focus and bouncing off the walls), shall we?
Psst- You can check out July’s superlatives here.
Busy month! Looking forward to September! We’ll be doing some mailbox sprucing ourselves. Keep up the good work!
Great round-up! You did ALL that in a month? Amazing………….susan
I never realized how much you guys tackle in a single month. My goodness I feel like a slacker!
Biggest jerk is spot on….
No, don’t feel like a slacker! Remember this is our full time job! And we’re crazy people who like to do this stuff on nights and weekends instead of having a life! You’re probably just normal. Haha.
xo,
s
“we’re crazy people who like to do this stuff on nights and weekends instead of having a life!”
This made me laugh! :-) I don’t feel so bad for randomly deciding to try rearranging the spare room at 9pm the other night! Unfortunately that wasn’t so successful, though it did clarify that we need to make some changes to get what we want. So I guess that’s a win?
Haha- total win.
xo,
s
It’s definitely something I struggle with! Even with weekends, I swear we need a day to run errands, pick up supplies, etc. Then there’s usually some sort of wedding/shower/family party and just like that, weekend is gone!
Aww, I really like the busier headier, but I guess it would compete lots with the YHL hearts and I LOVE them so…
This month I did a bedroom switcheroo that I love! Can’t believe we didn’t so it months ago, and hung my pinterest challenge project above the bed. What I didn’t get around to? Taking pictures in nice light, so I only have this cave-like picture: http://annabelvita.com/this-is-the-story-of-a-bed
I also learnt how to make curry and cookie pies. Wait. I learnt how to make curry, and cookie pies. Not curry flavoured cookie pies!
AND I did lots of work shifts either starting at 5 am or finishing at 11pm. Glad to see the back of them, for sure.
Keep rocking in September, Petersiks.
Cute! It looks cozy in the dark. Haha.
xo,
s
Love the monthly roundup! You guys certainly squeeze a lot in and it’s nice to see all that you have accomplished in a few short weeks. I laughed outloud at the Mariah Carey reference. Hilarious! Can’t wait to see the finished desk :)
Whew! You guys were busy! My favorite project this month was Clara’s room, there is nothing sweeter than working on your little girls room.
I love these summarizing posts (I am biased to the New Jersey award). By the way, why do you keep calling Hobby Lobby Schlobby Bobby? I think I missed it.
I have no idea. John said it once and it just caught on. So much more fun to say.
xo,
s
For some reason I thought you weren’t allowed to say it anymore. You’re right, Schlobby Bobby is more fun to say!
Haha, nah. We’re just weird.
xo,
s
Another biased NJ fan here! Thank you for solving the Hobby Lobby Schlobby Bobby mystery!!!
Congrats on accomplishing so much! We’re hoping to move to a larger apartment soon and I’ve been planning my future to-do lists. Thanks for keeping me motivated!
I was just scrolling through the photos, not really reading, and that broken plate.. well, I thought for a moment that you’d found some horrible avant garde painting. Not so. Lovely.
You have been extremely busy and can’t wait to see the new office!!
In the last month, I rearranged #3 son’s bedroom and I wonder why I never thought of the arrangement before now, bc it is so much better. I had an electrician center the ceiling light a few months ago in the dining room, and I finally got around to spackling and sanding the old spot. After three years of living in this house, I primed and painted a bathroom, which may have been the ugliest bathroom I have ever seen. And, I can proudly say I’m almost done making albums with about 22 years of photos that have been in boxes (sorted by years thank goodness).
I love seeing the side by side of Clara’s rooms. Before i couldn’t decide which I liked better….but I am getting the deeper, layered look in her new room and loving that! I noticed that she has a floor lamp in her new room. I have the same one and covered the shade with a piece of mod fabric and love the layered look of it in my room. Just an idea, but another fabric layer introduced, some spray on adhesive, and a little edging hot glued around the lampshade edges could be a fun way to take those layers deeper. Ok, now I feel pushy…..
Such a cute idea!
xo,
s
Wow, you got a lot done! Never mind the DIY stuff, I’m tired just thinking about you guys having to go thru 1000 comments from yesterday’s post! I don’t know how you keep your sanity! Anyway, re: comments, do you think you could add a way for us to quickly find our question/comment after it’s posted? You’re so good at answering questions but sometimes I have to spend a while trying to find my comment again. Thanks YHLovers!
We wish there was a button you could click to email-alert you of our response, but we have had issues with that crashing the site. So sad! We’re still working on it. Maybe once you post your comment try to see what page it’s on? Then when you come back go right to that page (it shouldn’t change, more comments should just be added after it).
xo
s
Patti-
Another helpful hint is just using ctrl+f or command+f (on a mac) and it will bring up a little search bar in the upper right corner. Search for your name. Like Sherry said, you will need to make sure you are on the right comment page, but I often use this if I am waiting to see the answer to a question.
So smart!!!
xo,
s
What I usually do is check what page i’m on, and then once on that page go ctrl+f (control +find), and type in my name. Takes two secondos. Even if I forget what page i’m on, ctrl+f makes the whole process a lot easier.
If only YHL wasn’t so popular :P. You guys must pinch yourselves every so often! Well, i’m very happy for you two (four) and your blogosphere success! :)
Such smart tips. Love it! And yes, we do pinch ourselves. Every day I think. Haha. Who would’ve thought.
xo,
s
Thanks for the inspiration to get off of this chair! LOL I love the rocking chair, by the way. Great job!
Hope you’re doing a special DIY dance to celebrate such a busy month! (or is that just me?) My favourite: the chirpy yellow door
I think August was also the most disasterific in general. VA had some craaaazy things happen!
Side note: being from the South, where kissin cousins jokes get made a TON, I laughed a little at the cutest couple award. Also, love that the bean is getting hair!
We’ve had an extremely busy month as well — to bad I can’t showcase it as well as you can! We purchased our new house back in July, in August we: tapped and mudded all the sheetrock, painted all the rooms, added crownmolding & baseboards, rebuilt a beam that ran the entire length of the house, painted cabinets (we’re practically twins!), had carpet placed, added brandnew interior doors & hardware, added cabinet hardware in the kitchen, got new appliances (YAY, not more white!!!) and just yesterday I’ve finally stained my dining room table & painted my coffee table. WHEW! Add my fulltime job & my 2 toddlers, 2 dogs and a cat into the mix – I’M POOPED!
Woah- you have been busy! Rest up this weekend!
xo,
s
cannot believe how much you guys did this month. Oh and I squealed out loud in excitement when I was waiting in my midwife’s office this week and flipped open August’s issue of American Baby to a two-page spread of YHL and Clara’s nursery!
Oh yeah we haven’t seen that yet. So excited!
xo,
s
I have to ask- the home with the tree on it- is that the house of the new neighbors? The ones that would have just moved in recently and toured your old house? Not that having that happen to anyone is good but if it is- total bummer!
No, it’s the ones behind us. They’ve lived there for years, but I still feel so bad!
xo,
s
These superlative posts remind me of clip-shows on TV. :-P
The Mariah Carey remark made me laugh, thank you. The fact that she didn’t name one of those babies Butterfly is still a huge disappointment to me.
Side note: You guys were in a dream I had last night. I was at Universal Studios with a friend and my kid and saw you guys. John came over and said he really liked my tattoo and I was like “Wait….wait…I know you..” and then even in my dream felt ridiculous for telling someone I recognized them from a blog. I woke up confused.
So…there ya go. lol. Hope you guys have a great weekend.
Haha, so funny. I wonder if John had a dream about your tattoo. Now that would be weird.
xo,
s
I am truly amazed at how much you have accomplished this month. I give myself a pat on the back for mowing the back lawn. Way to go!
Are the pallets left over from a project? I can’t remember…or maybe you haven’t revealed it yet. There’s a very cute porch swing made from one I saw the other day. Now just to remember who did it… LOVE the pic of the cousins!! Hope you have a very productive weekend. Or will you be resting for a change? You certainly deserve it.
Those were leftover from our patio project. They delivered all the stone and gravel on them. As for this weekend, we’ll be doing a nice mixture of both. Family time + DIY time = love.
xo,
s
Your pillows have reminded me that I haven’t been to HomeGoods ALL summer. Shame, shame.
Wow! What a busy month! It seems like you did some of those projects forever ago!
My favorite by far was the Pinterest challenge (because I got to participate)! I can’t wait for the next one!
So… what’s up for September?
Haha, well let’s see. We’d love to finish the built-in wall to wall desk in the office and complete the bedroom and outdoor projects we started last week. Not sure what else, we try not to think too far ahead for fear of getting overwhelmed. Haha.
xo,
s
Love what you’ve done. The paint chip picture is awesome.
As well as the clothespin light! And the reading nook. Love looking at your site. You guys are great. :)
Hey, you guys should bring back Reader Redesign, I really like those. They are good to ‘fill in the gaps’ when you guys are working on other projects!
People submit their before & afters over on Facebook now- it’s lots of fun to see them and even ask them direct questions about stuff! Since the move we’ve just had so many house things of our own to share that it was hard to make time to write up other people’s makeovers, but we still love to toss in the occasional House Crashing post (lots of rooms in one = yesss)! But who knows, we definitely might bring them back someday when our projects thin out! You know we love inspiration and eye candy!
xo,
s
Awesome, I love seeing how productive you are!
So… with the whole doorknob thing… that made me wonder… can you spray paint any doorknob? We have all the lovely brass/gold doorknobs all through our house. It’s too expensive for us to replace them all… is that something we could paint? Would it chip? Would it stay nice and smooth? I guess there are keyholes and locks on some to think about… but besides that, what do you think?
We have heard from folks who have had great success and others who haven’t – so I really think it depends. You’ll probably have the best luck if you sand with super high grit paper and apply primer + spray in super thin layers and give them ample drying time and even use a spray sealer to provided added protection. Good luck!
xo,
s
I have to agree with The “Petersik’s Believe It Or Not!” Award… such a fabulous find for a measley $6.30………
every time I check at our Habitat for Humanity in Charlotte, NC everything seems way overly priced for used items………….
but I’m still hoping to luck up on something as cheap and useful as your cabinets are going to be! I can’t wait to see the finished project.
Geez, you guys have been super busy. Hoping your motivation will rub off on me!
http://www.amandadovewells.com/?page_id=45
Love the “Most Likely to be from Jersey” superlative – as a fellow Jersey Girl I love glittery pine-cones! But if you start doing the Tray-Tease (Jerseylicious), I might become worried for your sanity! Thanks for the morning laugh & keep up the awesome posts!
Bwahaha. Jerseylicious = hilarious. Never watched it but the name cracks me up.
xo,
s
Wackadoo! The sorted M&Ms were a nice touch–be proud!It’s the little things, right? When I’m doing something especially wacky (I’ve sorted M&Ms too), I like to sing “Do Wacka Do”. I’ll own my crazy. It’s cool. My poor mother had to listen to me sing a circus song for her when I thought she was being crazy and now I’m singing “Do Wacka Do” to myself! Yikes.
I just have to say that the picture of Clara and her cousin is the absolute cutest! I can’t believe all of this happened in one month too… that’s a lot of work and fun!
Amber from Amber interiors just posted about her office project today…very similar and cool project. http://amberinteriordesign.blogspot.com/2011/09/o-o-office.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AmberInteriorDesign+%28Amber+Interior+Design%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
LOVE it so much! Gorgeous! Here’s hoping ours turns out half as well!
xo,
s
I love these monthly recap posts! It really motivates me to realize how much you guys can do in a month.
… and how little I do to my own pad a month. Haha! I’m on the edge of my seat to see how the cabinets come out!
I love how much you all get done in a month!
I want to borrow your superhero cape for a month to do all my projects. hahahaha… Actually, a month may not be enough, because one of my projects always creates another project. Oh well. I love your blog :)
i feel so lazy after seeing all you accomplished during the month of august! at least i stayed on top of my family’s laundry….
Haha, see and I totally didn’t! And Clara is overdue for a bath! Haha. Better get on that.
xo,
s
August was a my secret-mission month. While my husband was at work, I would carefully peel back the carpet on our stairs and remove the tacks, nails, and padding underneath. My husband gets overwhelmed even thinking about starting a new project, so I was careful to hide the evidence. When I was finished for the day, I would just fold the carpet back over the stairs (minus the tacks) and he didn’t even notice. Finally after reaching the 7th step of 12, the carpet was so loose that I was afraid he would break his neck unknowingly slipping on the stairs so I told him. He wasn’t thrilled but I pressed on. The next day I finally took off all of the carpet, tacks, etc. from all of the stairs and yesterday when I got home from work he had sanded all of the risers and had plans to finish the treads. So with that our stair makeover is under way–just call us stairmasters!
Aw that’s such a sweet story! I love that he got in on it at the end!
xo,
s
That is hilarious! I can imagine you were just hoping we wouldn’t figure it out. Oh how funny it must have been when you told. No turning back then. I hope it turns out great.
I love these monthly round-ups! You guys are such ard workers and accomplish so much…you keep surprising me.
WOW!That’s a crazy list and one with some great projects – not to mention an earthquake and hurricane thrown into the mix! I do hope you’ll find a moment to rest on the long weekend – or would it be sitting while talking about what’s next?
Haha, I think we’ll always be scheming about the next project. We just can’t turn it off! Haha. But we do have some nice family time planned too.
xo,
s
Pretty sure the exact same fabric you used on the rocking chair is on the cover of the new Ballard Designs catalog. You’re visionaries! And their’s is $28/yard (on sale) versus your $2. Great score!
Isn’t that funny? It cracked us up that there was actually a chair being reupholstered in it on the cover. What are the odds?
xo,
s
I love, LOVE the superlatives posts….they seriously crack me up. Not sure about the Carrie Bradshaw one though. Can you seriously imagine her putting her Manolos in plastic storage containers? Lol. I think they are awesome though, but then again I don’t have Manolos…such is life I guess.
Also love that you embrace your Jersey gaudiness…you are too funny. I have never been to Jersey,but I hear it is wonderful. I am so glad you guys weathered the storm okay (no pun intended, but kind of funny now that I re-read it. You were very lucky and I will continue to keep praying for your neighbors and everyone else impacted by Irene.
Haha it’s true. Hers would probably be walnut. Or made entirely of rhinestones.
xo,
s
Nice recap! At least i can live vicariously through you all because I just can’t seem to have luck with any projects lately.
Hey you said scroll down to the bottom to view other’s pinterest challenges but I am not seeing it? Dying to see what everyone else did.
Mucho thanks for constantly inspiring me and feeding my creative mind!
Oops I meant at the bottom of that post we linked to (the clothespin chandelier). Sorry for the confusion!
xo,
s
I feel ya for a busy month! We moved to Richmond, had stolen AC drama, not up to code laundry, ants x 4, earthquake, hurricane, flooding and back to school! A lot in 4 weeks. pheww.
Woah, that’s a lot! Here’s hoping next month is more restful!
xo,
s
ok. i must say that i LOVE Clara’s expressions. the cart photo is priceless…what a cute lil lady you’ve got!
Holy smokes, when it’s all combined it seems like so much! You guys are all-stars, like the back in the day Larry Bird in his free-ballin shorts.
This month has had me scrubbing primer off every inch of my i’m-messy-when-I-paint limbs on a regular basis, our foundation on hold for go-to-h-e-doublehockeysticks-irene and me trying to close a deal for a private branding of soap with an international company…while working full time and keeping up with regular house stuff, harvesting and dog playing. This weekend I fully expect to be painted head to toe like an an eclectic art student live art project and hopefully, my livingroom, kitchen, laundry/pantry and the like will get just as much.
I love the little trip down memory lane:)
But totally unrelated, I need your advice! My family is on the hunt for a house, and yesterday I found THE perfect home. 2500+ sq ft home, with a room for everything. Sunroom, game room, play room, guest room, plus all the bedrooms, etc. the list goes on, and it’s immaculate 1959 original everything, plus wall to wall hardwoods on the main floor that are currently covered in the softest, but ugliest blue carpet ever. It’s just screaming for personal touches. It’s an estate sale, so we think they are willing to negotiate. However, we just learned that the estate subdivided the lot and sold the portion without the home. (It was a HUGE lot, especially for Seattle.) Our agent thinks it is really risky to buy a place not knowing what is going up next to it, but also knows that the house has been on the market a long time and thinks we could get it for $100k under the current asking price. Would you roll the dice and jump in?
Hmm, that’s scary but exciting! Do you know if the land was purchased by a person or a corp? Is it zoned for something like an office or store or would it just be a new home (or group of homes) going there? If it’s the latter I’d be tempted to take the gamble. Hopefully it’ll just be a nice house next-door someday…
xo,
s
I looked up the county records of the sale, and it was purchased by a couple. It is zoned strictly residential, which is nice, with highest and best use as single family residence. We’re half tempted to get the listing agent to put us in contact with the buyers of the lot so we can potentially see what their idea is for it. Who knows, they could just leave it as land and never build and we could have the opportunity to buy it back! Assuming we buy the house of course:)Here’s the link….http://www.johnlscott.com/propertydetail.aspx?GroupID=255322906&ListingID=300847498&CMID=-1&Sort=0
The pictures don’t do it justice at all. I mean, the house has an indoor BBQ!
Yes! I would totally see if you can find out more about the intentions of the new land owners! Good luck!
xo,
s
I feel like I should start tracking what I do in a month! It’s amazing to look back and see all what you accomplished. Of course my current list would be like ‘unloaded dishwasher 500 times, did laundry, changed diapers’ haha. Although in truth, that’s probably why it’s good to keep track – it’s a great little summary. Love all you guys did this month.
Do it! It totally helps with the feeling accomplished thing! Sometimes it seems like you can barely keep up with your list, but looking back is so nice (it really keeps morale and motivation up!).
xo,
s
bahaha. you guys kill me.. “most likely to get worms” and “most likely to win mariah carey’s approval”. too funny
phew! you guys are just full of energy. nothing but admiration over here!