July Superlatives: Trips, Trucks & Toads

Ack. It’s August. Which means it’s almost September which means summer’s almost over which means it’s practically Christmas. Insert panic attack here. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but I still can’t believe it’s August. So it always helps us keep the ol’ momentum up and avoid burning out by slowing time down for a second to take an appreciative look back on all of our happenings from last month along with some bonus never-before-seen stuff. It may not stop the Earth from rotating (only Superman can do that, silly) but it definitely inspires us to keep plugging away! Plus it makes browsing our archives a lot easier (you can read back through January of 2011 right here in just 18 posts instead of 630). Woot!

Most Likely To Go Mad: Me, since this is apparently what digging all those holes for our deck is doing to me (especially during this second round of digging when the county inspector failed our first attempt).

Best Lungs: Katie Bower, who’s got quite the scream going on in this video issuing the Summer Pinterest Challenge. She hollers on a tractor, yells excitedly down a waterslide… yet is surprisingly inaudible over the sounds of “The Winds of Africa.”

Sexiest Accent: This feature in Jae’s house, which we crashed while in Atlanta. She painted the window sash in her kitchen black for an awesome high-contrast pop that we couldn’t get enough of.

Most Shameless: Sherry and Katie Bower, who weren’t fazed at all by filming a video in the middle of a Goodwill while shoppers mingled nearby (and occasionally walked into frame)

Modern Shakespeare Award: Sisqo, the one-hit-wonder behind the “Thong Song” that we referenced in this post about a crayon-holding truck we got at Goodwill in Georgia. Since so many of you seemed to have enjoyed getting that song stuck in your head then, we couldn’t resist doing it again.

Oldest: This sideboard we scored off of Craigslist for $150, which officially puts us on the “every room should have something old” train. Which is much less creepy than the “every room should have some mold” train (thankfully, it’s mold free).

Most Challenging: The Pinterest Challenge results, of course! It was back for it’s fourth installment and this time Sherry tried her hand at some DIY abstract art and you guys linked up with over 600 projects of your own.

Least Challenging: These simple wood frames I whipped up – in an attempt to accomplish it in the simplest, most basic steps possible – to house Sherry’s new Pinterest Challenge artwork.

The Math Geek Award: This goes to the arithmetic art that we spotted on our window shopping adventure at the Pottery Barn Outlet (and Mary Jo’s fabric store). It wasn’t the only cool thing we spotted… just the geekiest.

The Zoology Award: This is for some of you smarties, who were very sweet to point out that the creatures I rescued from my deck holes were toads not frogs (well, I guess all toads are technically frogs, but my apologies to the toads that I’ve offended by addressing them too generally).

Most Welcoming: Julie’s house, which we also crashed on our trip to Atlanta. It seems we weren’t the only ones drooling over her entryway.

Grossest: Me, after my return from the sweltering attic-tastic task of centering the light fixture in our bathroom. I’ve never felt so disgusting and exhausted in my life.

Most Improved-ish: Our bathroom. We called our mini-makeover officially complete after a bunch of small and inexpensive improvements were finally done, bringing our grand total for the upgrade to a whopping $230 (including a new toilet, new lighting, and new accent tile). That should definitely tide us over ’til we get the appetite for a bigger overhaul…

Sneakiest: Us, for slipping away for a week at the beach earlier this month. Gotta love blogging from your iPhone, right?

Biggest Heart: This should be a tie between Sherry’s Aunt Kay Kay and all of you who left comforting comments when she posted about her passing away.

Most Angelic: Clara, at least in this photo where she seems to be bathed in light as Sherry snapped photos of our craigslist sideboard all dressed up.

Most Decisive: Us, since it took almost no time to look at the two gray test swatches in our bedroom to pick one. Sorry Moonshine, but you were too light to win this one.

Most High Tech: Our fancy-schmancy set up for making a time-lapse video of repainting our bedroom a deeper grey color (Benjamin Moore’s Rockport Gray). Laptop teetering atop a stack of furniture? Best Cinematography Oscar here we come…

Thriftiest: Sherry, after our tour of thrift stores and other shops while on vacation in Bethany Beach, Delaware.

Messiest: Me and my little sister after having run the Color Me Rad 5K here in Richmond. While our bodies were getting coated with colored cornstarch, Sherry used it to make a canvas.

Most Unusual: This egg chair-ish swiveling papasan chair we found at our local Salvation Army for $30 that was much cheaper than versions at the store… and much in need of some TLC.

Most Secret-tive: Our post about design foreshadowing in our house, which many pegged as the “law of attraction” made popular in the book The Secret (while others just said it was subliminal decorating or a you-like-what-you-like thing). So interesting to read everyone’s theories!

Best Moves: My “hooray, I can actually kind of stand here” jig that I performed on the recently joist-filled deck. It was starting to feel like real progress (hence the jig).

Most Animal Friendly: The thrift store egg chair that Sherry painted white, apparently. It seems to have attracted a rhino, pig, chihuahua, rabbit and even a dog wearing sunglasses.

Most Tedious: All of the little preparations I had to do to the deck – like adding blocking for posts – before I could finally start laying deck boards.

Most Likely To Make You Crave Waffles: A post earlier this week about our take on what (and what not) to register for when getting married. We skipped the waffle maker, but after lots of chatter about them in the comments our stomachs were suddenly aching for some.

Most Stylish: Whomever wins this coming Monday’s giveaway. We’re not saying exactly what, but let’s just say this is a hint below…

So what about you? What was the story of your July? Some summer highs? Lows? Toads?