Quick note: Tomorrow (Saturday) we’ll be in Dallas at 11am at the West Elm on 5307 East Mockingbird Lane for cookies, cocoa and a book signing (more info here). We’d love to see you there!

Celebrating a New York Times Bestseller: Our Unforgettable Book Tour Journey

We’re thrilled to share an extensive update on our book, life, and ongoing tour. While our last update was just a week ago, so much has happened that we couldn’t wait to share all the exciting news and captivating pictures. Get ready for an overflowing post filled with moments that have left us both in awe and incredibly humbled.

Achieving a Dream: New York Times Bestseller!

We’re still pinching ourselves to believe this, but our book has officially become an instant New York Times bestseller! The news feels surreal, and typing those words still gives us goosebumps. While it will be formally printed in the paper on November 25th, we were fortunate enough to get a sneak peek image of the listing. The moment we found out, we immediately called our parents, and Sherry had a joyous cry. I might have gotten “something in my eye” too, but no, I definitely wasn’t crying! Afterwards, we shared a good laugh imagining the title of book #10: “Cat Poetry for the Win.”

As newcomers to the publishing world, we’re still trying to fully grasp the intricacies of how these prestigious lists are compiled and what this incredible achievement truly signifies. However, one thing is crystal clear: we are incredibly blessed with the best readers imaginable. This milestone is entirely thanks to all of you. Whether you purchased a copy, attended one of our signings, or simply offered an encouraging comment when we first embarked on this adventure, we owe you a monumental fist bump for your unwavering love and support. We genuinely couldn’t have done it without your incredible enthusiasm. Honestly, a part of us still feels like this might be an elaborate, wonderful dream sequence we’re caught in.

Recapping Our Latest Book Tour Stops and Memorable Moments

With so many exciting events blurring into a delightful mix of cookies and cocoa, it’s time to catch you up on our latest book tour stops. Let’s pick up where we last left off after flying back from Boston to Richmond last Thursday. After a brief moment to catch our breath, we found ourselves immersed in our first hometown event: “R for the Holidays” in Richmond.

Richmond Homecoming: R for the Holidays Event

R.Home, our local shelter magazine, completely surprised us by featuring us on the cover of their November/December issue. Seeing it blown up to such an enormous size at the event left us both with expressions of utter disbelief, something like this:

Years ago, we contributed a DIY column to R.Home, and we’ve attended every “R.Home for the Holidays” event since its inception, always as guests. So, to be invited as speakers for the evening was an incredibly surreal and humbling experience. Oh, and how adorable is Beansie on that cover picture? We couldn’t manage to get both Burger and Clara to cooperate simultaneously, so Burger was creatively represented by a sparkly chihuahua ornament nestled in the green bowl that Clara is actually reaching for in the photo. You can read a snippet of the article and watch a quick behind-the-scenes video here, and see a larger picture of the cover, including our “Faux Burger,” here.

Sherry also wants me to mention that when we shot the “Clara reaching photo” back in late October (here’s another Clara reaching pic, which seems to be her signature pose!), she had an absolute blast decorating those built-ins behind us for Christmas. The magazine specifically requested a festive theme for the Nov/Dec cover. As a result, they still largely look that way, and when we return from this tour, she’ll likely “add even more Christmas.” I truly married a Christmas elf!

DIY Projects for a Cause: The Auction

The event also featured an auction where we showcased some of the DIY projects from our book. It was a fantastic opportunity to put our handcrafted furniture and accessories to good use while simultaneously supporting a wonderful local cause: The School of Richmond’s Ballet, which provides dance lessons to children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford them. We auctioned off a variety of items, including two desks, two chairs, a bookshelf, a mirror, and a rug. As we previously mentioned here, our small auction successfully raised $500 for local children. Woot! Here’s Sherry diligently making sure no bugs are hiding in the drawers before the auction, keeping it real.

The evening began with an inspiring talk by Adam Roberts, who transformed his acclaimed blog, The Amateur Gourmet, into the stunning cookbook, Secrets of the Best Chefs. His presentation was brilliant, incredibly inspiring, and utterly hilarious. Following Adam, we shared seven DIY lessons we’ve learned over the years, many of them the hard way! We hope to share a video of our talk once it’s available on R.Home’s website, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, the synopsis is this: we were our usual nerdy selves, possibly over-shared a bit, and were met with an incredibly smiley and supportive crowd. The person with the best mustache ever was also in attendance, which was a highlight.

Connecting with Readers: The Book Signing Experience

With both talks concluded, we moved to the book signing portion of the night, which is rapidly becoming our favorite part of these events. We get to connect with so many wonderful people, take amusing photos, and engage in conversations that range from “Did Katie Bower have her baby yet?” to “Nope, not yet – we just talked to her an hour ago!”

Amongst many familiar Richmond faces, we had the pleasure of meeting tons of new friends, including Hallie, the lucky winner of our “trip to Richmond” giveaway last month. If you feel even a tiny bit envious of her win, know this: she was sweet, bubbly, genuine, and a thousand other lovely adjectives. She brought her mom along for a whirlwind weekend in RVA, with Hallie flying in from St. Louis and her mom from Jacksonville. Sadly, our interaction with them lasted only about five minutes, but we later heard they had an absolute blast exploring all sorts of RVA activities around town.

This remarkable woman graciously accepted Sherry’s enthusiastic compliment of “You look just like Meryl Streep!” She confirmed that she hears it often and even has a Meryl reference on her license plate. Sherry insisted we take a photo so we could playfully pretend we truly met the star of classics like 1994’s The River Wild (arguably her best rafting-themed movie to date).

Beyond the usual book signings, we received a delightful smattering of unique requests, including signing ceramic animals and even a baby onesie! For the onesie, Sherry, naturally, opted to draw a baby-sized hammer near the hand hole.

Once again, we were overwhelmed by the kindness, craftiness, and general awesomeness of our readers. They brought us fun items like this Justin Timberlake bobblehead (there’s something in the box, if you know what I mean!), an inside joke from their office that they wanted to pass on to us because he’s small and ceramic. And check out the incredible sugar cookies that arrived, adorned with Burger’s likeness!

Windy City Adventures: Chicago Book Tour Stop

After Richmond wrapped up, we hit the hay and, about 12 hours later on Friday afternoon, found ourselves soaring over the beautiful city of Chicago!

In Chicago, we managed to squeeze in some blog-related activity before our West Elm event the following day. We had the distinct pleasure of “crashing” a familiar home that many of you might recognize from the wonderful blog, Making It Lovely. A full House Crashing post is forthcoming, but let’s just say it was incredibly cool to finally meet Nicole and her family. Simultaneously, it was quite nerve-wracking to photograph the same spaces that Nicole herself captures so exquisitely. We truly hope you’ll enjoy seeing some different angles of a house that so many of you already know and love.

Before our event the next afternoon at West Elm, we quickly darted out for a classic tourist photo in front of Chicago’s famous shiny bean (Cloud Gate). Sherry has a fondness for shiny objects, and we both appreciate a good bean, so it was an obvious choice for a quick sightseeing stop.

Dedicated Readers and Sweet Gestures in Chicago

Little did we know, while we were enjoying our brief sightseeing excursion, a line was already forming over in Lincoln Park. Christina deserves a prize for being the most prepared attendee! She drove overnight from St. Louis and began camping out at 5:30 am for a 1 pm start time. She recounts her epic journey much more hilariously than we ever could on her blog. We were simply overjoyed to know that after all that waiting, she wasn’t disappointed when she realized we weren’t an iPhone or a Harry Potter movie. Thank you again, Christina, for your incredible dedication!

The people of Chicago truly rocked our socks off – both the wonderful “Elmers” (as we’ve learned the West Elm staff are called) and our amazing readers. Despite an unexpected freak thunderstorm (it seems unusual weather events are a recurring theme of our tour!), most attendees thankfully stayed dry and enjoyed warm cocoa and delicious cookies. There are far too many wonderful stories from this stop to recount here, but we’ll share a few highlights. We received a virtual greeting from a bride who was getting ready for her wedding that day, sent to us via her hairdresser!

We were also touched by incredibly sweet DIYed items, like a sparkly portrait of Burger and a homemade horse puzzle (crafted by the gentleman in orange, a high school shop teacher). Clara and I have already had a wonderful time putting that horse puzzle together, by the way.

And sadly, this picture doesn’t fully capture the beauty of this gift: a magnificent handbound book featuring all of Clara’s photo projects, from Week 1 all the way up to Month 29! It was so thoughtful and yes, Sherry definitely cried.

How’s this for an incredibly cute story? Before coming to the event, this gentleman surprised his girlfriend with our book at the shiny bean. Inside the front cover, he had written – wait for it – a marriage proposal! Yes, these lovebirds got engaged that very day, and our little book got to be a part of their special moment! They then came to our signing and shared their amazing story with us.

Amidst many fun photos, there were also ceramic animal milestones, such as reuniting with the twin of our dearly departed Ramsey.

And this fantastic group requested a crazy picture. I think we nailed it, don’t you?

It’s also becoming a cherished tradition to capture an “End of the Line” group picture, a special shout-out to the incredibly patient people who waited until the very end. We truly love you all!

The Chicago event wrapped up just in time for us to race to O’Hare and catch a flight that brought us back to Richmond late on Saturday night. While waiting at the gate, I made sure to send a postcard to Granny from each of our tour stops. To date, she has received eight postcards from our out-of-state events, receiving one every other day or so.

International Stop: Toronto, Canada!

Sunday was designated as a much-needed “rest day,” which we had specifically requested from our publisher. We didn’t want to be away from Clara and Burger for too long. However, it quickly transformed into a busy day of catching up on laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping. Thankfully, Richmond blessed us with beautiful 70-degree weather, allowing us to sneak in some precious quality time with Clara and Burger, who had been holding down the fort with the help of my parents while we were away. We enjoyed some fun at the park, a nice long walk, and even managed to unpack our suitcases just in time to pack them again for the next day. Yes, Monday morning brought another early departure from Richmond International Airport. This time, we were truly utilizing the “International” part as we headed to our next stop in Toronto, Canada. Hello, CN Tower! My, what a tall antenna you have.

We didn’t actually make it up the tower itself (Sherry had been before, and we’re both somewhat heights-averse enough to agree on admiring it from below). However, we did have a lot of fun interacting with some moose friends (or perhaps enemies) in the gift shop. The mountie moose proved to be much less aggressive, thankfully, just look at that smile!

We also enjoyed some simple pleasures, like me, still ten at heart, posing proudly under a sign with my name on it.

Our Toronto hotel was pretty amazing – perhaps all hotels up there are incredibly unique and non-chain-like? In fact, it was so awesome that between it and a cool restaurant we stumbled upon, we’re actually planning to feature them in a future post, perhaps “Hotel Crashing” or “Restaurant Crashing.” But since we know you love a sneak peek, here’s a glimpse of the double-sided glass shower located right in the middle of our room. It actually had blinds you could close for more modest showering if desired… did we or didn’t we?

Warm Welcome in Toronto: West Elm Signing

By evening, it was raining, which, at this point in our tour, no longer surprised us. We made our way to the Toronto West Elm for that night’s book signing. The Canadians we met, along with some Americans who drove up from New York, proved that friendliness and generosity truly transcend borders. Folks brought us wonderful treats like maple donuts (my absolute favorite!) and this beautiful watercolor painting of a worm for Clara. We can’t wait to see the look on her face when we give it to her this Sunday.

We even had our very first FaceTime “guest” in Toronto! It was a delightful surprise when a smiling face on a phone suddenly started talking to us out of nowhere. We took a picture holding the phone, playfully posing “together.” Such good times!

Oh, and Sherry met her Canadian twin! Perhaps not so much in the hair or height department, but in the blazer, striped shirt, and skinny jeans area, they could practically be born from the same egg.

Speaking of births, this was perhaps our favorite photo of the night. This mom-to-be supplied the signs, allowing Sherry to playfully squash any pregnancy rumors for good (and allowing the reader to announce her own exciting news!).

And on the topic of Sherry’s blazer, she wants me to tell you all that yes, it’s the same one she wears for every signing, and yes, it’s from Target. Her philosophy is that it’s akin to an athlete wearing the same jersey for every game. Her blazer gets to travel the country, and she simply changes her earrings, shoes, and the shirt underneath. So there you have it. My wife is wonderfully unique, but I love her just the way she is!

Creative Signings and Poutine Indulgences

A funny thing happened in Toronto where, somehow, folks in line received an accidental instruction to outline their desired message in the book, in addition to the usual post-it note spelling their name for us (the typical drill is that people spell their name, and we write the dedication ourselves). This self-imposed “tell us what you want us to say to you” method created a few awkward but mostly fun moments. For instance, Kaylee and Mike suggested a Mad Libs-style entry for Sherry to fill in. I believe someone also playfully tricked us into inviting them for Christmas dinner, and another couple had us declare them our BFFs for life!

When the event finally wound down (and the rain mercifully stopped!), we were thoroughly exhausted for the day and couldn’t muster the energy to sit in a restaurant for dinner. Fortunately, we had saved up our daily food allowance, and our hotel offered room service that included the quintessential $9 Canadian staple: poutine (french fries, gravy, and cheese). It was absolutely delicious, and I admit, I ate entirely too much of it. This was only our second time ever ordering room service, making it a surprisingly memorable night, even if it was just nine bucks worth of fries covered in cheesy gravy.

Lights, Camera, DIY! Our Global TV Morning Show Appearance

The West Elm signing wasn’t our final stop in Toronto. We had been invited to do a short segment on Global TV’s “The Morning Show” with only about 20 hours’ notice. I’ll admit, being from the States, I hadn’t heard of it, but it felt roughly equivalent to “Good Morning America” or “The Today Show.” Let’s just say, equivalent enough that I required makeup, and we both became quite skittish and clammy, much like Burger gets around cats.

We’ve never done a big live show like that before, so we were understandably nervous about messing it up and immediately being asked to leave the country! Adding to the challenge, the props we had shipped didn’t arrive as planned, forcing us to improvise with only about 10 hours’ notice. The hurricanes (vases) you see below were borrowed from West Elm at the very end of our signing the night before, and we scrambled to cobble together some filler with items from a grocery store (lemons, limes, pistachios, apples, etc.). It was all assembled backstage moments before we went on air.

The segment was a whirlwind, showcasing our DIY lessons and book. It was an exhilarating experience, even with the last-minute prop adjustments. We’ll be sure to share a link to the video once it’s available online for you all to see.

Looking Ahead: Dallas, Minneapolis, Houston, and Beyond!

As we wrap up what has been our busiest week of tour stops, we want to extend our deepest gratitude to all of you. Words truly cannot express our thanks and how incredibly surreal this entire journey has been. Without your support, there would be no book, no signings, and certainly, our names wouldn’t be on that incredible New York Times bestseller list at the start of this post. So, yes, rock on, you lovely people! Our gratitude is immense, and the reality of this experience continues to astonish us.

We’re concluding our largest week of tour stops tomorrow in Dallas, TX. This means we’ll have another exciting update for you about our experiences there, as well as in Minneapolis and Houston, in another week or two. We are having an absolute blast meeting all of you and have certainly done our best to keep the blog updated while we’re on the road. So, thank you again to everyone for bearing with us, for your incredibly kind words, and for being such a huge part of making all of this happen. Seriously, are we dreaming? If we are, please don’t wake us up!

Psst- Many people have inquired about how they can obtain signed copies of our book if they don’t live near a signing stop. An awesome local bookstore here in Richmond called Fountain Books is now shipping them to anyone who’d like one. Here’s that link for your convenience.