We’ve had a lot of requests for a monthly roundup to make it easier to find posts and quickly see what we’ve been up to. While out to dinner—our first night alone since Clara was born—we joked about giving cheeky nominations to our projects, and the idea of monthly superlatives was born. Also, we resolved to stop talking about the blog on dates. Progress?
Speaking of superlatives: John was voted “Friendliest Male” three years running by his high school marching band, and I was labeled “Best Friends” in the yearbook alongside Jenny Czajkowski, who once highlighted my hair in her sink with mustache bleach. But enough about us—here are the July superlatives:
Most Cheerful: Painting the Laundry Room a (Pretty Darn Happy) Greeny Yellow Color
Most Improved: Adding Laundry Room Built-Ins (then painting them and filling them with things we already owned)
Nicest Legs: ORBing the Parsons Chair Legs
Most Likely NOT To Succeed (At Least The First Time Around): The Guest Room Light Switcheroo (and the subsequent ReSwitcheroo)
Runner Up, Most Likely NOT To Succeed: Framing Our Anniversary Note Cards (then reframing them without borders)
Most Likely To Please The Queen: Tea-Dying Pillow Covers (an inexpensive, delightfully regal trick)
Most Likely To Result In A Crack Joke: Filling Patio Cracks with polymeric sand
Runner Up, Most Likely To Result In A Crack Joke: Caulking the Laundry Room Ceiling (which kicked off a few other laundry projects)
Most Outdoorsy: Spray Painting the Patio Furniture (you guessed it—ORB)
Runner Up, Most Outdoorsy: Our Mini Porch Spruce Up
Class Nerd: Coding a Room Gallery
Most Boob-Centric: My Breastfeeding Post — who expected that little diary entry to spark nearly 1,000 comments?
Most Free Spirited: My Unironed Ribbon Chandelier (still delightfully un-pressed, despite my usual tendencies)
Most Controversial: Priming and painting our laundry cabinets, switching the hardware, and hanging our ironing board — which sparked a surprisingly spirited directional debate
Most Glamorous: Painting Clara’s Closet Pink & Playing With Champagne “Stencils” (update: I experimented with homemade stamps and have completed about 20% of the closet; planning to finish soon)
Most Embarrassing: The Pinterest Challenge Video. Hands down.
Most Spontaneous: Around the beginning of July, Clara suddenly decided to walk after a stretch of funny one-legged crawling. One day she wasn’t walking, the next she was too cool for us.
Most Immature: The Whole Twig & Berries Thing (spray-painting frames and mats and temporarily misplacing our duvet)
There you have it—July at a glance. This was probably more fun than we should admit. Dorks for life.
What about you? Have you kept a monthly list of accomplishments? We’re used to always adding tasks to the to-do list, so pausing to notice what we’ve already done felt nice. It’s interesting to see the tiny, inexpensive wins (tea-dying pillows, painting the laundry room and Clara’s closet, making a ribbon chandelier—some of those cost under $2 total) alongside larger projects (custom built-ins, the inspiration gallery) and everything in between. We were all over the place this month, which is exactly how we like it.