Tour Time

UPDATE: This post isn’t updated with recent tour info, so click here to see our official regularly-updated tour page.

It’s heeeeeere. That fateful day when we finally get to reveal the finalized tour dates for our book, fresh from our publisher’s mouth (er, email).

A few things to note are:

1. If it were humanly possible we would parasail/glacier climb/spelunk to every last crevice of the globe to thank each one of you personally for reading our blog. But given all the factors that go into planning and executing one of these things, we’re extremely grateful to be able to slide through all of the places they’ve scheduled us – especially since this was originally going to be a much smaller tour.

2. For anyone who’s bummed that we won’t in their city, we actually have a mac daddy giveaway planned for this coming Monday (why yes it does include flying one lucky winner and a friend to Richmond for the November 8th signing… amongst other awesome things like delicious meals and shopping sprees). Photo courtesy of the Richmond Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau.

3. There’s always the possibility that our tour could be extended again down the line (depending on how things go, more dates could be added). Heck, our Austin stop wasn’t even initially planned but pre-orders at BookPeople were so popular that they invited us out. Thanks people of Austin! So to anyone in a city that isn’t on the tour, you know we’ll keep you posted the second anything changes, which is definitely a possibility (ex: there’s talk of coming to the ATL area in Feb).

4. As for the blog while we’re away, we’re sure it’ll be a bit of a juggling act but we’re dedicated as always to keeping things fun around here. So we’ve squeezed in some extra projects (surprise!) that we’ll be unveiling while we’re touring. We’ve also lined up a pretty darn amazing gaggle of house crashings (check out a few sneak peeks below). Speaking of which… if you have an awesome casa in one of the cities that we’ll be visiting, please email us photos so we can possibly crash your house! And of course there will be window shopping and other travel adventures as well as some ridiculous/dorky video footage of some of our events/stops/flights, etc – you know we like to virtually take you guys with us wherever we go…

5. Clara and Burger will travel with us for some parts of the tour and will stay back with the grandparents for other more intense legs. They don’t exactly love planes, unfamiliar rooms, and missing naps/bug-hunting adventures, so we’re trying to shield them from as much of the insanity as possible. Leaving them behind for some parts of the tour will no doubt make us a little sniffly (neither of us have ever spent a night away from Clara, and Burger even came on our honeymoon!) but we’ve gotta do the best thing for them, even if it’s the hard thing for us.

6. We just learned that the folks who are making this tour possible and hosting us at each destination (ex: independent book stores, West Elm, Flor, etc) love when you buy a book at the event for us to sign. So if you’ve pre-ordered one already and would like us to sign it, we’re happy to do that (and so grateful that you did!) but it would be awesome to show some love to the host for getting us out there by purchasing a book at the event for us to sign as well. With the holidays around the corner, maybe you can gift the one you got on pre-order? Or ebay it for $100 (what? our signature is only worth 40 cents?). Or just use it as a decorating prop while you read the other one, like so:

Fun fact about the shot above: that’s not actually our book. It’s called a “dummy copy” and it’s basically just our cover printed out and wrapped around a completely blank book since ours are still off in Indiana being printed (right here in the USA, baby). We’re supposed to get our first preview next week, which will surely make us squeal like the Chippettes. John included (he fancies himself a Jeannette – I’m totally an Eleanor).

Update #1: Some folks are worried that books won’t be available for us to sign if the tour stops in your city before the book officially comes out on the 6th. The good news is that there will be stacks of books being sold at every single event (both at independent book stores and places like Flor or West Elm). Yay! But I better start practicing my signature since it’s nothing but a messy squiggle that looks different every time… ack.

Update #2: We wish we had more control over what cities we were stopping at! It really is all about who invites us where. So it really has nothing to do with how big a city is, it’s all about if a certain vendor or bookstore works with the dates/times/etc. The great news is that it definitely sounds like the tour might get extended, so stay tuned for those details as soon as they’re finalized!

Now, for those looking for more details about our stop in each city – here’s a deeper breakdown of each event (note that some of ’em require an RSVP).

• CINCINNATI: Saturday, October 20, 10:00 A – Books by the Banks Festival, Duke Energy Convention Center. Talk, meet & greet, and signing. More details here.
• NEW YORK CITY: Thursday, November 1, 6:30 PM – FLOR, 142 Wooster Street; Book Party, Signing & Raffle (we’re unveiling and raffling an exclusive FLOR rug of our own design!) with wine, popcorn, cookies, and soda. More details here.
• WILTON, CT: Friday, November 2, 9:30 AM – Wilton Library, 137 Old Ridgefield Road. Talk & Signing. For details, call the event partner, Elm Street Books, at 203-762-3950.
• BOSTON: Wednesday, November 7, 6:00 PM -West Elm, 160 Brookline Avenue. Cookies, Cocoa + Crafting Ideas: A festive talk with signing and refreshments to follow. RSVP here.
• RICHMOND, VA: Thursday, November 8, 7:00 PM – R*Home for the Holidays at The Visual Arts Center of Richmond, 1812 West Main Street. Talk, Signing & Silent Auction: we’re offering up some of our favorite finished projects from the book to support the The School of Richmond Ballet. Wine & Hors d’hoeuvres will be served. Tickets here. Update: we’re working on a second Richmond event as well, details to come.
• CHICAGO: Saturday, November 10, 1:00 PM – West Elm, 1000 W North Avenue. Cookies, Cocoa + Crafting Ideas: A festive talk with signing and refreshments to follow. RSVP here.
• TORONTO: Monday, November 12, 6:00 PM – West Elm, 109 Atlantic Avenue. Cookies, Cocoa + Crafting Ideas: A festive talk with signing and refreshments to follow. RSVP here.
• MINNEAPOLIS: Wednesday, November 14, 6:00 PM – West Elm, 3879 Gallagher Drive,  Edina, MN. Cookies, Cocoa + Crafting Ideas: A festive talk with signing and refreshments to follow. RSVP here.
• HOUSTON: Thursday, November 15, 6:00 PM – West Elm, 3910 Westheimer Road. Cookies, Cocoa + Crafting Ideas: A festive talk with signing and refreshments to follow. RSVP here.
• DALLAS: Saturday, November 17, 11:00 AM – West Elm, 5307 East Mockingbird Lane. Cookies, Cocoa + Crafting Ideas: A festive talk with signing and refreshments to follow. RSVP here.
• WASHINGTON, DC: Wednesday, November 28, 6:30 PM – FLOR, 1037 33rd Street NW. Book Party, Signing (we’re raffling an exclusive FLOR rug of our own design!) with wine, popcorn, cookies and soda. RSVP here.
• AUSTIN: Tuesday, January 8, 7:00 PM – BookPeople, 603 North Lamar Boulevard. Talk & Book Signing. To reserve your copy and RSVP, call 512-472-5050.
• MIAMI: Wednesday, January 9, Time TBD – Books & Books, 265 Aragon Avenue, Coral Gables. Talk & Book Signing. To reserve your copy and RSVP,  call 305-442-4408.
• FORT LAUDERDALE: Thursday, January 10, Time TBD – Books & Books at the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, 1 East Las Olas Boulevard. Lunchtime Talk & Book Signing. To RSVP call (954) 262-0255.
• GRAND CAYMAN ISLANDS: Friday, January 11, Time TBD – Books & Books Grand Cayman, The Town Centre at Camana Bay, Grand Cayman. Talk & Book Signing. More info here.
• TACOMA, WA: Friday, January 25, 1:00 PM – Tacoma Home & Garden Show. Talk & Book Signing. More info here.
• PORTLAND: January date TBD, 6:00 PM – Rejuvenation, 1100 Southeast Grand Avenue. Talk & Book Signing. For more info call (503) 238-1900.

***Please come. And bring your friends/parents/ceramic animals. And be as awkward as possible. I’m telling you guys, no one will be more nervous and sweaty than me. No one.

UPDATE: This post isn’t updated with recent tour info, so click here to see our official regularly-updated tour page.