Spreading the {Young House} Love

aka The Day Ruby Inoculated John Petersik with Baby Germs

Let me back up a bit.  Hold onto your hats, people, this is going to be long.

You all know John and Sherry over at Young House Love, right?  I feel like we've been bffs for a long time (even though they don't know me at all).  I started reading their blog about four years ago.  I pretty much just stumbled upon it, and actually, it's what got me interested in reading blogs in the first place.  So good ole YHL has a special place in my heart.  Plus, without YHL I wouldn't have my beloved little burro tail plant, or The Visual Miscellanium book (the farty animals make me laugh every time).  I might not have known how yummy Mrs. Meyer's cleaning stuff smells, and though we rent our house, so we don't do any renovation stuff, I'm a compulsive DIYer, so they are right up my alley.

Then, a couple of months ago, they published a book.  I wasn't so sure it would be anything new or different from their blog, but I went ahead and asked Santa to bring it to me for Christmas.  And it is great!  I love that a huge amount of projects in there can be done by homeowners and renters alike.  Which means I can do a lot of them.  And if Little Miss ever decides to take naps, you can best believe I will.

Which brings us to today.  See, if you publish a book, you do a book tour, too, and theirs brought them to my neck of the woods.

This morning, in true DIY fashion (pun intended?) I dressed my best girl in some of my favorite DIYed things of hers, strapped her in the car, and made the 40ish mile drive down to the Tacoma Dome for the YHL book signing.

I'm not going to lie, I was kind of bummed that that's where it was.  Not so much because of the distance, but because I had to pay to park, and then pay admission to get into the Home & Garden Show, which I wasn't really interested in.  Plus, when we got to the entrance, they made me dump my cup of water out before going in.  I think it should be against the law to not allow a nursing mother to bring water anywhere.  But I digress.  I just wish it had been a cool venue like the Seattle West Elm, or a bookstore.  Moving on!

We arrived kind of early, not knowing what the crowds would be like, and my first order of business was to find out where the whole YHL thing was going down.  Which meant that we basically wandered around the entire dome before we found it, because the maps there were totally unhelpful.  I grabbed a spot at the end of an aisle, nursed my girl, and then, because we still had time to kill, we set up camp.

I put down Ruby's quilt between my chair and the stroller, grabbed her bag of toys (you can kind of see it behind her), and plopped her down there.  I am SO glad I brought that quilt, because she played down there for the duration of some really lengthy presentation from some other speaker about shrubs or something.  There was a little toddler girl behind us who was totally enamored with Ruby, and Ruby thought she was pretty great too.

Finally, it was time for John and Sherry to come out.  They were exactly the same as they are on their blog.  They did a little talk about 7 things they wished they'd known before busting out a paintbrush.  I actually didn't get to pay too close attention to what they were saying, as Miss Ruby was starting to get antsy and needed a little entertainment.  After all, we'd been there for almost 2 hours.  However, she just got wiggly, she didn't fuss at all, and I was super proud of her baby-patience.  She was being quite charming as well, practicing waving "hi" at people, trying to "share" her toys with them, and eyeballing their food (haha).

Then the talk was over, and we had to fight our way over to line up to have our book signed.  We scored a decent spot, and Ruby continued to try to charm everyone in her path.  There was a super nice couple behind us, whose names I wish I'd gotten, who waved to her when she requested, gave her high fives, and gushed over Ruby's headband that I had made.  They also were our photographers for the photos with J & S, and managed to capture the priceless moment alluded to in the "aka" title.

After what felt like a really long time (it probably wasn't, but I was so thirsty by this point!) it was our turn!  Sherry gushed over Ruby's cuteness, and I plopped her on the table so I could hand over our book.  We also handed over a hair clip similar to the one Ruby was wearing that we'd made for Clara - which, of course, I forgot to take a picture of! Sherry complimented Ruby's little boots that I made, and I faux pas-ed and mistook John's "rapper name" as J. Petersizzle, instead of the actual J. Boom (my bad), and then it was time for pictures.  We decided that Ruby should sit on the table with the book, but she was really interested in John and Sherry...

And then this happened:

Yep.  That hand that was just in her mouth, and was now covered in slobber?  Right into John Petersik's mouth.  This picture KILLS me, it captures that moment just perfectly (thanks kind strangers who were behind us in line and took it!).

Luckily for us, John is pretty awesome, and he took it in stride, baby slobber and all.  Thanks for being so cool about it, John!  Sherry and I cracked up pretty hard about it.  I was still too shocked to be mortified with embarrassment (which I kind of now am).  And Ruby?  Well, she pretty much just wanted to look at John.  And the table.  And anywhere but the camera, while our kind strangers were yelling, "Hey, Ruby!  Look over here!"

All too soon, I was back around the front of the table collecting our book, with Sherry requesting I email them those pictures because of the hilarity, and then it was time to go.  I could have stayed a lot longer and just had a chat with those two!  They really are exactly as down to earth as they claim to be.

As we walked away, a pair of women stopped me to compliment Ruby's "r" onesie, and to ask where I'd gotten it.  I told them I'd made it, and they wanted to know how.  That kind of stroked my crafty-ego.  Ruby's headband, onesie, and boots were all made by me, and all of them got some love.  I put a lot of time and love into making them for her, so that kind of gave me the warm fuzzies.  =)

And then?  Then Ruby tried to put her left hand in my mouth.  And I was like, whoaaaaaa.  Wait a sec, that hand was just in John's mouth, and so that would be weird...  And then I realized how totally embarrassing that whole situation just was!

Embarrassment aside though, the whole experience was really fun.  I got to spend a good day with my girl, and meet some cool people, bloggers and fans alike.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.  

John and Sherry, thanks for coming to town.  And sorry about the baby germs.  She is up to date on all her shots (well, the ones she's old enough to have, anyway).