Sorry for the slightly late post this morning — two of the three humans in our house have the flu. Boo.
For everyone asking where the February Superlatives went: here they are. We were in Hawaii the week they were supposed to run, so they rolled into this week instead. And truthfully, we’re glad February is over — well, mostly. We’d gladly relive the part where we soaked up 80-degree, oceanside weather, but not the three weeks packed with secret book work and nonstop photoshoots. Still, we survived (and lived to tell the tale), all while prepping a presentation in Portland and keeping our kitchen reno moving along. So naturally we had to do our monthly look-back in classic yearbook-superlative style. We even included a few never-before-seen moments for fun. You can find all of our monthly superlatives back to January 2011 on our site if you want to browse an entire year’s worth of projects in a dozen posts.
Most Hooked Up: Clara — she earned a special spot to hang her coat when Sherry repurposed an old brown rail hook and spray-painted it white as part of a Dude, Get On That Already challenge.
Brightest: The horse bookends that got a yellow spray-paint makeover as another Dude, Get On That Already project.
Best Cover Up: The patch job we did on the holes in our ceiling where the old fluorescent fixtures used to be. “Best” might be generous, since the process involved more than a few globs of spackle raining down on Sherry — footage of the chaos exists, of course.
Best Cover Up (Runner Up): The cover we built to conceal our range hood. It’s funny to look back at how raw and unpainted it was when we first made it.
Best Supporting Role: The brackets we picked to hold our open shelves. Not everyone loves brackets (that debate is eternal), but we’re into them.
Most Open Minded: Us, when we finally hung our open shelves in the kitchen. Instant love.
Most Improved: The open shelves after we filled them with dishes, glasses and a few decorative bits. Unloading the dishwasher suddenly became faster — verdict so far: we love living with open shelves.
Biggest Quack: The wooden goose that we finally hung next to our front door.
The Close Call Award: Re-installing crown molding in the kitchen — we nearly ran out of matching scraps, which would’ve meant redoing much more than just the missing pieces. Big sigh of relief when that didn’t happen.
Biggest Splash: New kitchen art featuring a colorful swimmer and some imaginary fish — both Clara and some readers see the fish, and we love that.
Blingiest: The light fixture we ORBed and hung above the sink — it had been waiting for the perfect spot for months.
Blingiest (Runner Up): Our backsplash tile after some elbow grease and haze remover brought back its shine — the before-and-after is pretty satisfying.
Freshest: Tulips that brought a bright, almost-spring vibe to the kitchen.
The “It’s About Darn Time” Award: Our dishwasher, which finally got upgraded from bisque to matching stainless steel.
Biggest Potty Mouth: Me, for going on and on about replacing the wax ring under the toilet in our hall bathroom.
Biggest Smash: Poor Ramsy, our ceramic ram head — he was the one major casualty from the book photoshoots. Rest in peace, little buddy.
Most Organized: Sherry — she’s feeling very put together after falling for a non-grocery coupon-sorting folder.
Least Organized: Our tool drawers, still messy, though they at least live in a cabinet again instead of spread across our daybed. We gave the old wall oven cabinet a haircut and moved it to the sunroom as a new home for tools.
Class Clown: The Richmond Comedy Coalition performers who had us in stitches at their Richmond Famous improv show. Sherry might also deserve an award for “Weirdest Underwear Story.”
Most Flattering: The people of Portland, who went out of their way to make us feel welcome during the Portland Home & Garden Show. Meeting readers in person was a highlight — you all are the best.
Biggest Beach Bum: Clara — she couldn’t get enough of the ocean on our first-ever blogging vacation in Hawaii.
Longest House Guests: The book photography crew who effectively house-crashed us for three weeks. They took amazing photos for the book, though, so the chaos was totally worth it. Our house still isn’t fully back to normal, but we’re getting there — maybe by book launch in October.
How was your February? Was it as busy as ours? Do you keep a list of accomplishments to look back on? Share a few highlights in the comments if you like — it’s nice to pause and appreciate what you’ve finished instead of always adding more to the to-do list. We find it helps keep the momentum going.