I’ll Be Freezing For You: Meeting Young House Love

As you may or may not be able to tell from my awful attempt at a Young House Love inspired pun (sorry I’m not as witty as Sherry), I got to meet the wonderful bloggers, Sherry and John Petersik, behind my all-time favorite blog, Young House Love.

John and Sherry just released their first book, a diy home decorating tip collection, and have been touring the country signing their book for thousands of their fans.  As soon as they announced a stop in DC at the Flor store in Georgetown, I hopped right on over to RSVP sooner than you can say “ceramic animals” (because this might be the coolest thing that’s come to DC since Bill Clinton’s saxophone).

I was lucky enough to get on Flor’s list for this event before it was completely sold out so I didn’t think Mr. A and I would have a problem getting into the signing if we popped down after work.

Until we turned the corner to Flor and were met with this insane crowd.

Hundreds and hundreds of people had already lined up for the signing and it technically hadn’t even started yet.  Apparently, the RSVP was more of a head count for FLOR and not really a guaranteed in…opps.

Since it wasn’t too cold yet, Mr. A and I hunkered down in line, figuring there was no way it would take long to make our way into the signing.

The first half hour of waiting in line was pretty entertaining because we could see people getting their books signed.  Sherry and John were stationed upstairs at a table in between the middle and right most window.  It was hilarious watching just how animated everyone was in their conversations with them.

It became pretty clear after watching a few of these encounters that there was no way we were going to get through this line quickly

Luckily, when we made it around the corner, we found a cookie truck calling our name. Now that the sun had officially set, we were starting to freeze so the mister went over to truck to pick up some hot chocolate.  Turns out that Flor was paying for this cookie trunk to hand out free cookies and hot chocolate to everyone standing in line.  Pretty awesome, no? And it didn’t hurt that the owner of this truck was the nicest, happiest guy I’ve ever met–who doesn’t love a grown man in a cookie monster hat? So big thanks to Captain Cookie.

Even after eating our cookies and sipping our hot cocoa, we weren’t even close to the Flor front door.  Thankfully, we had the most hilarious people standing in front of us.  The girls had us cracking up all night. But I’m not really surprised that everyone around us was super friendly and sweet because that’s exactly how John and Sherry come across on their blog.

Nearly 3 hours and several frozen toes later, the mister and I finally made it inside the Flor store, where we were greeted with the most delicious glass of wine–and that’s a lot coming from someone who hates wine, what can I say I was just happy to be in the heat.

And also clearly happy to take cheesy pictures–the cold had gone to my head.

It took another 30 minutes to get upstairs to John and Sherry.  But it left plenty of time to take lots of stalkerish pictures of them.

This picture cracks me up because Sherry looks so serious (which is totally opposite of her cheery disposition).  I think this is her explaining where you can get their book for the cheapest–they are always looking for a bargain even if it’s their own product.

And then of course I snagged a picture of Sherry signing a ceramic animal–it’s a running joke that she loves all things ceramic animals so hoards of fans have been bringing animals for them to sign.

At this point, we were about three groups back from meeting them and Mr. A turned to me and asked me what I was going to talk to them about.  I stared back at him blankly.  Even though we had stood around for 3 hours, I literally had no idea what to say.  And before I could formulate a thought it was our turn.

Thankfully, Sherry totally saved me and complimented me on my dress, which featured a bird print. The irony is that I wore it purposefully because I knew that she loves graphic prints and I thought she would get a kick out of it.  Bird dress for the win!

Sadly, I was so nervous I blanked on the rest of what I wanted to say–you know like thanks for the inspiration, love you guys to pieces, I want to be you when I grow up, etc. I guess I got a little starstruck. So Mr. A stepped in and told them congrats on their success–I knew there was a reason I kept him around.  Guess I’ll have to be better prepared for the next book signing

Despite my total brain fart, I still managed to get my book signed and get our picture taken.

I thought I couldn’t get any happy until I saw this message pop up on my phone the next day.

Gah, did I seriously just get a reply from them? And it wasn’t just once, it happened again.

I seriously died.

I can’t say enough good things about Sherry and John and their blog.  They are honestly just as nice and humble in real life as they are in the blog. Even though they had been signing and talking to people for 4 hours, they were still smiling ear-to-ear and chatting it up with everyone.  Not to mention the fact that they still had hundreds of people left to meet. So thank you so much Sherry and John for being so warm and welcoming and such an inspiration to me and so many other people.  I hope that I can grow into half the blogger that you guys are.

Special props also go to my hubby for standing in the freezing cold with me for 3 hours without complaining–because we all know that if the situation was reversed I totally would have whined the entire time and we never would have made it inside.  You are such an amazingly supportive husband and I’m so lucky to have you.

Even though we froze to death together, it was all worth it to meet John and Sherry and to get a tweet from them.  Thank goodness for the bird dress.

P.S. If you haven’t checked out Young House Love or bought their book, what are you waiting for?