Comic Con Take 2! Pregnant Edition

This was our 2nd year doing Comic Con. We bought tickets knowing I’d be 7 months pregnant when it came around and I will admit I was worried. I’ve never been preggo before. I had no idea what I’d feel like or look like or anything. Would I regret this decision? The answer…hell no. It actually was the best decision ever. Well, not ever, but a pretty great decision. I had been stressed out a ton from work and gotten a UTI which sucked, if you’ve ever had one you know what I’m talking about. Add a baby sitting on your bladder and it makes the whole thing even more confusing (do I need to pee after just having gone pee because of the UTI or the baby! AGGGHHHH!) All of this had included lots of pain, urgent care, antibiotics, keeping cranberry juice the top selling juice, and walking around like I just got off a horse. Needless to say, I was miserable. How could I walk around Comic Con for 3 days and one of those days in costume? The answer is…EASY. Comic Con is the cure for my woes. Literally. Just leaving town, I felt re-energized and less pain in my nethers. I forgot the fact that my bajango felt like it had been punched a bunch and was ready to rock the con!

I kicked it off with an Uber to a friend’s house to carpool together to San Diego. The Uber dude immediately says “Is this an emergency?” referring to my pregnant state. Seriously guy, would I call an Uber if I was in labor? Maybe that does happen. I hope I don’t have to Uber to the hospital when the time comes. Geez!  Alas, as most experiences go with a baby belly, people want to tell you all of their opinions on how to give birth, raise your child, and judge any of your own choices. The majority of people that do this are MEN, which I find amusing and annoying all at once. And I’d like to address it with a quick letter to all of these men driving me crazy with their opinions.

Dear kind sir, you have NEVER had a baby, please do not coach me on how I should conduct myself and my birth plan. You have not, will not, can not, ever know what it is like. Plus every woman is completely different. Perhaps you feel that you can pass on some sort of knowledge having witnessed a birth by your wife, but that doesn’t make you an expert. I will continue to find this advice from my doctor who has actually been up in the shit and knows my own personal situation.So while I appreciate your concern and where it comes from, I would like you to mind your own @#$%ing business. Thank you. – On behalf of pregnant women everywhere, Tiffany

I am actually starting to master the whole “ignore everything rude people have to say and just nod and smile” routine. He also told me how my husband isn’t my blood but my baby will be and that will make me love my baby more than I love my husband. Wow guy…uplifting shit you are dishing out at 6am on a Thursday morning. Granted this man is in his 40’s and resorted to driving an Uber for income due to being laid off from a high paying construction job. I felt bad for the guy. Tried to give him some inspiration that he will find something better soon. He would rather tell me how much he spent on his kid’s college tuition and that’s because he loves them so much. I get it…you love your kids. Ok! I’m starting to get the impression that he is worried I won’t love my kid or something. Finally we reach our destination (THANK GOD!) and I’m ready to hit the road to Comic Con.

We make it in about 3 hours with a few pit stops….thankfully everyone else had to pee as well. And it’s glorious. So many things to see. We walk around all day and I’m fine! Yay. Vacation is the pregnant lady’s answer to stress and pain. Also, hearing people say how cute your bump is and how tiny you are for 7 months pregnant helps too. Makes me think of that old saying…”if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Keep that in mind while talking to a pregnant lady.

You are so tiny! – Good

You are so cute! What a cute belly!- Good

WHOA you must be giving birth soon eh? – BAD

You are carrying wide…must be a girl. – BAD

I didn’t even notice that you were pregnant! – Good

Wow are you having twins? – BAD

You are the cutest pregnant lady I’ve ever seen. – Good

See where I’m going with this?

Also, I don’t get how these comments could have such range from not noticing I’m pregnant to thinking I’m having multiple babies. Bizarre. I really think that people just want to be evil. And I will never understand that.

Onto Saturday!! DAY 3 of the Con. The day I’ve been waiting for…Cosplay Day! I decided to create the Scarlet Witch from the comics when she is pregnant with the twins. I think I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. Not only was a it super comfortable (thank you sweet baby Jesus for the ultimate Amazon find in flat thigh high boots in the perfect shade of red!) but I felt like I looked good too. I was worried I’d just look like a big ol’ preggers hence a BLOB. Thankfully, it all came together for the greater good. That being my self-esteem. And just like last year, we were bombarded for picture after picture all day long. My favorite part. The highlights of the day included:

– Being asked for our picture over and over again while standing underneath the balcony where Ryan Reynolds was being interviewed.

– Getting to be in the Nerdist music video for Comic Con.

– While waiting for lunch, the host of an NFL show took our picture unbeknownst to us and posted on Instagram “how dare you make us wait!”

– Then running into the cast of Agents of Shield as they left a restaurant which ended up being where we ate lunch.

– The waiter that just served the cast of Agents of Shield being stoked over our table and saying “we made his day!” This I found extremely awesome because HELLO…the Agents of SHIELD had just been here! But WE were the ones he loved.

All in all, it was a very successful cosplay day. Surprisingly, we lasted even longer than last year in our costume getting on the shuttle back to the hotel around 8pm. I couldn’t believe I lasted on my feet in boots pregnant, longer than I did the year before as Black Widow not pregnant. Yay me! I think it’s things like this that make my husband forget that I’m pregnant and possibly think I’m not in any sort of discomfort at all. Granted, dressing in costume and getting lots of attention are my thing. I think I even forgot I was pregnant, which is why I say Comic Con is the cure for pregnancy pain! Why can’t I do this everyday?

Now what you’ve all been waiting for…PICTURES!

The inspiration for my costume.

We have arrived on the floor!

The Frame Guy exclusive.

Avengers Assemble!

Rob Liefeld everyone!

The infamous lunch wait pic found on the internet!

Lunch where the cast of the Agents of Shield had JUST been eating!

Scarlet Witch going solo for IGN.

Featured on Collider.com. Sweet guys.

Our album cover on the bridge.

My next pregnancy costume. We’ll give it a few years though. I need to push this little one out first!

Stay tuned for the Baby Shower post!

Featured in WOMEN ON THE VERGE

I love that title.

I AM a woman on the verge… of something that’s for sure.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting someone on twitter from the Preggie App. It’s an app for preggies, clearly. You can post thoughts, concerns, pictures, you name it. It’s a great community to be part of if you aren’t one of the fortunate ones to have 2 other pregnant friends in the same city as you to talk about all of your crazy pregnancy stuff. I’m sure my non pregnant friends are pretty much over it. But maybe I’m wrong. Is paranoia a part of pregnancy?

Well, without further ado here is the piece featured on WOMEN ON THE VERGE. Complete with the off the cuff video I entered into their contest for winning free stuff. I did not win this time. But I’ve entered about 50 contests for shit so far and one of them is bound to hit. I’ll settle for the powerball as the one that takes the cake though. Sweet powerball. Go check me out on the app!

WOMEN ON THE VERGE – Featuring ME!

The Belly is here!

Peter Venkman said it best

That’s how I feel about my newly emerged pregnant belly. Everyone said one day it will just be there. That’s pretty much how it went. Just in time for Hawaii so my sisters could get all the belly pics they wanted. Plus, after all that mall drama trying to find a swimsuit that covered my gerth, guess what I ended up sporting a majority of the time on the beach. My belly! On a whim, I brought two pairs of pre-preggs bikini bottoms and tops just in case I got ballsy and decided to go full blown belly. My husband surprised me the most. When I came out in my tankini the first day he said I thought you got a two piece and I said this IS a two piece. I mean to be honest I was partly doing this tankini song and dance to shield him from the crazy transformation. If I’m freaking out, imagine his reaction. I’m not the most body confident girl to begin with, plus with a belly, I’m treading the waters of the low self esteem version of myself from 5th grade. For anyone that understands my lifelong body woes (pretty much every girl except Gisele) you know that if YOU don’t want to see your body…you definitely don’t want a guy seeing your body at it’s most vulnerable. I used to be the girl wearing the oversized tank top into the ocean. Major sad face whenever I see other girls doing this now. Thoughts that run through my mind when I see this…that poor girl has no body confidence, I can relate BIG TIME. Then I think, I hope someday she can be comfortable with who she is. Then I think, what am I saying I still can’t bring myself to wear shorts in the summer. Uggggg….the struggle is real. It’s better than it was in 5th grade for sure, but I want that day to come wear I love my body so much, I can strut that ass without tripping and falling in a frantic flurry out of the water to grab my cover up before anyone can see my body.

Enough TBT talk, let’s get to the present body situation at hand. Hawaii was amazing. It helped me embrace my belly and get used to looking like a pregnant lady rather than someone who ate 5 flights of mac and cheese. I also had an epiphany. Pre-preggs me always wondered why pregnant ladies touched their bellies so much. I’d be like, that’s so weird why are they always rubbing it and stroking it and massaging it, like it’s Chris Farley’s naughty pet from Tommy Boy or something. That’s so weird.

NOT WEIRD!

Now that I actually have a baby belly, I’ve discovered several reasons for this previous unsolved mystery. I apologize to pregnant ladies for my obvious naivete. One of the first reasons I discovered about touching your baby belly is that you do it to show others that THERE IS a baby belly. You hold it…like oh hey my baby is growing inside this bulge…it’s not pizza. Making it more pronounced by putting a hand on top of the bump and underneath.

Second reason you touch it…cuz it’s weird! It’s new. It’s like it’s YOU but not you YOU …it’s like pregnant you and there’s another human forming in there. It feels hard but soft. It changes throughout the day depending on where the baby is. It’s just weird. You can’t help but touch it. Rub it. Massage it. Wonder what it looks like inside. Wonder what you will look like after. It’s all new. So you gotta touch it!

Thirdly, you feel kicks. I refer to mine as popcorn currently. You feel it in the middle then it comes suddenly from the top then the bottom. You look like a cat with a laser toy trying to catch the movement. Seriously, this is like half my day. I think I’m turning into a cat.

Another reason, which I’m sure the bigger it gets the more this is the MAIN reason, it sort of hurts. I like to give it support. I plan on getting one of those support belts to alleviate this issue. But it sort of feels better to just hold it. Like a bowling ball. I’m not used to having this tummy bulge, and my hands need to go somewhere so they just naturally hold it anyways.

It’s another one of those cliches in life. You don’t really understand something until you experience it yourself. You get told about it, try to relate, say yeah yeah yeah I get it I know what you mean. But the truth is…you don’t get it. Until it’s happening to you.

And that brings me to this song.

I remember watching this when it first came out. Pre-preggs me thought…hahaha yeah. Pregnant women are smug. WTF.

And now that I’m pregnant…I’m like the only SMUG ones here are those two girls. (insert a bunch of really explicit words here as I go off on a tangent about how smug they are)

Pre-preggs me thought it was funny. I mean I am in the comedy world. That’s my gig. Plus, I like to support other funny ladies in the industry. I look up to funny ladies for inspiration, motivation, and direction. I get parodies. I do parodies. I love parodies. I like to mock things. It’s what you do in comedy. Everything is a joke. Good for those girls for calling out pregnant ladies. Hilarious.

Cut to pregnant me. What the fuck! Why are you being so mean to pregnant ladies Pregnant ladies aren’t smug. They are going through alot. Of course we are going to say we want a healthy baby. Having gone to the doctor more in the last 6 months than my whole adult life, it’s a very stressful time. You have your blood drawn so much to find out if this is ok with the baby. Is that ok with the baby. Make sure it’s developing right. There is so much that could go wrong. Not to mention you could lose the baby! It’s a huge change. The change is immediate for the lady. Not so much the man. But the lady. Your body is doing things it didn’t do before. It’s getting bigger and continues to get bigger. The boob situation is just out of control. The last thing you want to happen is ANYTHING bad with the baby. You are in the shit now. This is happening. You want the best, healthiest human you can possibly make. So don’t call me smug. I’ve got a lot of other worries beside if it’s a boy or a girl. You smug smuggy smuggertons. Don’t even get me started on that pooping on the table part of the song. Why would you rub that in our faces??? That’s like my number one worry. Or should I say number 2…see what I did there. See I’m not smug. I get where they are coming from…but shut your fucking faces.

And another thing, it kills me when people get mad that we aren’t finding out what the sex is. How is this effecting you? It doesn’t. So move along. I don’t need your opinion on how finding out what it is will make the baby shower easier. Let me live my life. The only one that matters is my husband. He will be the one in the delivery room and for the rest of this kid’s life. So the only people our decision effects…IS US! And we are good with this decision. Thanks for your smug input. 🙂

But seriously, when you are on this side of the fence it’s a whole different ballgame. My pre-preggs self had no idea. And yes, pregnant people kind of creeped me out. Now I am one. At first I creeped myself out. Almost 24 weeks in…there’s really no turning back. I have nothing else to do but embrace it. Literally. I’m gonna go rub my bump now. Ewww creepy.

And for all the belly pervs…here’s some pictures to feast your eyes on. 😉

Classic preggs pose.

I need to work on my belly heart. Why didn’t someone tell me I was just making a triangle.

Look at us all matchy matchy. MWA!

This was the first day of Hawaii when I instructed my husband to only take pics from the chest up. I got over it, obviously.

This month we celebrated our 9 year anniversary. I love a guy who will untangle my hair from a snorkel after I just swam with a turtle.

Our latest project is here!

I’ve been busy the last 4 months keeping a secret. The time to reveal our latest project is here! Check it out.

And big thanks to Samuel L. Jackson for being part of this project. 😉

House Crashers minus Josh

Holy moley cannoli! It’s September. I feel like August just flew by.

So I must have gotten the HOUSE CRASHERS bug in my system since it’s been a year since we had our sun room redone, and I felt those creative juices flowin. I redid 2 rooms of our house, with the help of my husband, but mostly me, right? hahahahahaha

Our bedroom got a makeover. And our living room got a major facelift. YELLOW be gone! I had to do a lot of research for all the pieces to come together. Things my husband doesn’t quite understand. I guess he thinks you just go, “I’m going to redo this room!”, and then BAM everything is there. I had to think…what style do we want, what colors, and where the heck do I find what was in my head!

We both went to some stores together to look at things and he kept saying, “What are you looking for?” I said, “I’ll know when I see it!” Well, this answer in clearly absolute absurdity to the man. “What? You’re just aimlessly looking at EVERYTHING?”….

Uh….yeah. It was like shopping with a toddler. So as most things go when I’m shopping for something I need and we are together and it’s not for him only, I decided to stop the search and come back by myself. SHEESH! What a waste of time he says….indeed. A waste of time, since now I have to come all the way back by myself another day so I can spend as much time as I need to think…will this bedspread go with this quilt and that sham and this throw and those sheets? And will this scheme look good with the color of our walls…but what curtains goes with this new color scheme I’ve constructed….does anyone know where I’m coming from?

All he kept saying was…when are the sconces coming…are we getting bedside tables… where are we going to get this stuff…am I just going to shit it out? I wish! Because if I could just shit it out he’d shooooosh!!! (That’s librarian talk for cut the yap buddy) Guys just don’t get it. I need to see things to get ideas. That’s why I took myself to the Pinterest boards. I created my scheme and then googled the shit out of anything that would match the pictures I found. Thankfully, and miraculously it came together like magic. Every time a box appeared on the porch my husband would say…are those the sconces? The man and sconces. You’d think sconces made a room suddenly A ROOM. Sconces do not make a room. Curtains do not make a room. And I didn’t dare put all of these things up one by one as they were all different colors and patterns and textures. I thought if I did that he’d have certain expectations of the room and the style it would be…so I waited like an actress waits for opening night. I did a dress rehearsal to make sure I liked it…then I staged the room for opening night.

Curtains in place. Sconces and lampshades installed. Euro shams, pillow cases, another sham…no…another pillow and then another pillow. Wait…maybe another pillow. Yes, then sheets, quilt, duvet and accent throw. Is the quilt too much…is it the wrong yellow…oh gosh…he’s gonna hate it…the quilt ruins the whole thing. No wait, the quilt is fine when you just show a corner. Oh yeah, that looks planned. Bedside tables free of clutter and will be painted to match the lampshades when I get the paint, but I’m not worried about that. It will be fine. Then get out all of the trash, laundry, fur and nonsense. PERFECT. Set the ipod to the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack “Come and Get Your Love” and fast forward to the part where he says “Come and get your love…” Table runner on the dresser, candles, Lego tree, and glow in the dark Groot. We are set to launch, people! Now to wait for the man to see it. Will he like it? He better…I didn’t spend all this time and money for nothing!

He came home and it was time for a moment of truth. I ran up the stairs and said wait right there I need to do something don’t peek. I hit PLAY on the song and TA DA!!!!! I said, “I’m going for Portland hotel room. Do you like it?” I forget what he said exactly at first…I think he was more shocked that the room was clean. But he said he liked it. He was like…”we finally have a nice room!” Then he saw the Groot and was like “there’s Groot and a lego tree.” Do I know this guy or what?

That was the beginning of Labor Day weekend HOUSE CRASHERS Solo Edition.

P.S. I had before pictures my phone died and everything got wiped out! Sooooooo….I will give you some pictures of some cats enjoying our bedroom before the makeover.

Bros on toes! That’s a shot of our bedroom pre-makeover from a “being in bed” POV.

This is from the front of our bed from an “I’m in a drawer” POV.

Here’s an overhead shot of the top of the bed “cat on my head” POV.

Looking at the bed and the former lamp on my husband’s impromptu bedside table. “Bed bathing.”

From an Eowyn POV looking at a cat hiding in our curtains.

THE BIG REVEAL – AFTER PICTURES

NEW BEAUTIFUL ROOM! Bedside tables. Sconces. Black out curtains. New sheets. New quilt. New duvet. Comfy throw. Cute pillows. Accents. LOVE!

My side of the bed. A closer look. Beatles lyrics. Hedgehog candle. Cute clock. LOVE!

This side of the room awaits a gallery wall display. But I wanted to show the ipod with the GOTG soundtrack playing. Glow in the dark Groot! And Lego tree that my husband was so excited about. LOVE!

And the key ingredient if you hadn’t picked up on it…LOVE!

Stay tuned for part two of our Labor Day Weekend Makeover…the living room. House Crashers Husband and Wife Edition.

San Diego Comic Con 2014

SUPERHEROES UNITE!

First timers here. It was our first time going to Comic Con ever! (Wonder Con was like a baby Con to get a taste of the Con life). Plus, we teamed up with our well-versed Comic Con friends to cosplay together and create a killer ensemble. So they were first timers in that respect. We had such a blast too. It was like camp for adults. Surrounded by childhood cartoon characters, toys, costumes, inside jokes, rummy gummies, graham crackers, and just general hotel shenanigans.

Each of us took special care in creating our costumes to make them the best of the best. And it got us noticed. We spent our whole Caturday of Comic Con getting our pictures taken with our “fans.” That’s what it felt like anyways. We were stopped walking to the bathroom, cornered against barricades, halted in crosswalks, IT WAS AWESOME!!!! I didn’t want it to end. But one can only stay in a skintight catsuit for so long. And the bathroom breaks…eeesshhh, I stopped drinking liquids after the 2nd time because I was annoyed by myself and how long and tedious it was. And I felt like George Costanza having to get practically naked to go to the bathroom in public. It was worth every minute though. I think you should just see for yourself and let our pictures tell the story.

The road trip started here.

Hotel bathroom door. So it begins…

Caturday morning, Black Widow needs her caffeine!

Captain America can do venti because he doesn’t have bathroom woes.

A little parking lot superhero selfie.

Booty poppin!

Fight!

Black Widow x2. Human vs. Doll!

Black Widow and Cap!

Guns a blazin’

Some of our awesome fans.

A little Winter Soldier action.

Black Widow’s day wouldn’t be complete without Hawkeye. Caught Jeremy Renner leaving after the Avengers panel.

Lunchtime princess photobomb. Disney & Marvel together forever.

Found this gem on instagram. Thanks fans! 🙂

Rogue and Black Widow. Besties.

Sunday Comic Con finds!

How we feel after Comic Con…

How Maddy feels now that we’re back from Comic Con.

Links to places you can find us!
Human vs. Doll

Black Widow on Auto Spies

Best Cosplay of SDCC 2014

If you found us somewhere please comment with the link!

Needless to say, we are officially obsessed with Comic Con. And plan on cosplaying as soon as we possibly can. Yay!!!

WORLD CUP MADNESS!!!!

It’s WORLD CUP man! Are you as stoked about it as I am?

VIPS!

We got the soccer bug after seeing WORLD CUP years ago on one of our trips through Europe. We saw firsthand, the crazy fun everyone was having in the pubs watching all the games. We came back and started watching it ourselves. Then David Beckham came to LA Galaxy and we were sold. We’ve been season ticket holders ever since, even without Becks there.

And now with WORLD CUP 2014, it’s soccer mania. So many good games going on. We were lucky to get VIP access to the LA Galaxy viewing party to watch the US match against Portugal. This is us with our crew. Yup, we got official security too. Guillermo from Jimmy Kimmel. He plays soccer with my husband, who went as Captain America of Soccer.

World Cup USA Viewing Party. Hosted by LA Galaxy!

If you saw the game, you know it was an intense match. I nearly fainted from cheering so hard at the US goals. WOW!!!! Plus, it was like a sauna in that bar, so it actually felt like we were in Brazil sweating our asses off. Sweaty Betty up in here.

It was a great experience to watch the game with over 500 people smashed into a building cheering til your voice is gone. Best time ever…until that last 30 seconds. UGH! Complete and utter shock. I think my jaw was dropped open for like 5 minutes. But, I can’t wait til the game on Thursday. GO USA!!!!!

Knuckles up! I don’t know what that means… but it was a cool camera thingy at the viewing party. An animated photo if you will. And if you do will, click it and stick it. Now I’m just being silly. I think I’m delirious from WORLD CUP MADNESS!!!!!

#KnuckleUp America! @LAGalaxy Party in full effect with @beatsbydre. #USMNT http://t.co/3QxPcCkwPJ #USofLA #LAGalaxy #USAPOR

— Tiffany Price (@TiffanyAPrice) June 23, 2014

P.S. Cats love soccer too!

P.P.S. a throwback to Becks….my pal.

See….we are friends.

P.P.S. This guy actually plays for USA! GO OMAR! Kick ass tomorrow!

P.P.P.S. This guys SHOULD be playing tomorrow.

Gotta love his sense of humor. Have you seen this?

National Hug a Cat Day!

How did I almost miss this day?

Well, I didn’t. I found out late…but I was able to redeem my tardiness with lots of cat hugging.

As you can see…National Hug a Cat Day was made up by humans. The cats, not so much into it.

View this post on Instagram

Riley reached her hugging limits. 5 hugs is one too many. #nationalhugacatday #catsofinstagram #unreal #cats #friday #kitty #boundaries #crossedtheline

A post shared by Tiffany Melius (@tiffstrum) on May 30, 2014 at 5:10pm PDT

Needless to say, I documented the event. Enjoy.

And go hug a cat! Or 10. Make it 100. If I was a volunteer at a shelter that would be a reality. But then my home might become a shelter because I’d want to take ALL of the cats home. I’ll just continue volunteering at my own house and taking care of my own small cat village.

Ok, enough typing…back to hugging. What was I thinking? Here kitty kitty kitty.

View this post on Instagram

Not impressed that I need to use their stairs. Pay the toll. #catsofinstagram #love #cats #friday #kitty

A post shared by Tiffany Melius (@tiffstrum) on May 30, 2014 at 7:57am PDT

P.S. if you want to keep up on my cats activities check out my instagram as shown above! ^..^

HOUSE CRASHERS…Part 2

My friends were right! I had nothing to worry about. All of the things that we filmed that I was scared would make it to air, did not! PHEW! Bullet dodged. Thank you kind editor. Crazy cat lady is still just a one woman show I wrote! Now I can talk about what they did show on the show (that’s a lot of the word “show”) which was a few cats, me as a hyper spaz, lots of sweaty hard work, and an amazing room.

BEFORE

AFTER

Several people have asked if we really just happened to be shopping at Lowe’s or if it was planned. It was pure luck! We had been shopping at Lowe’s super early on a Caturday. My husband MUST get to all stores when they open as to avoid crowds. Since I am not a morning person, this is difficult, but he’s got a point. You have the store to yourself which is super nice! If you give me a latte…I will enjoy the early shopping even more! We had been at Lowe’s for over 2 hours and were getting close to leaving when we saw a camera crew pass by on another aisle. I looked at my husband with that crazy look in my eye and said “OMG it’s probably one of those shows I watch where they fix your house oh man oh man I have to pee so bad! I’m going to the bathroom don’t let them leave!!!!”

As soon as I left for my Austin Powers pee (longest pee ever…damn latte), they approached my husband, of course! I had left my journal with him. My personaljournal of writings and such that you wouldn’t really want anyone else reading and the only reason I took it to the store is because I wrote all of the house notes on what to get at Lowe’s in it according to each room. Dumb idea. When I came back from the bathroom, Mr. Josh Temple of HOUSE CRASHERS was reading my journal. AAAAGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

This is the HOUSE part of the journal, Josh!

I immediately started running after him to get my journal back. You can see a small part of the chase on the show. It went on for awhile. He wasn’t giving it up! Once we both caught our breath he said “This must be the wife!”

And that’s how it all started. Hyper, sweaty, and full of fun. Me, in my workout clothes, flip flops, and no makeup going to Lowe’s with my husband. Yikes! Who knew I’d end up on TV!?

Next part of the show… taking Josh back to our house to check out the digs. I was trying like crazy to sell the kitchen as the room to redo…but Josh says kitchens are boring to redo. He wants a challenge. He wanted the sunroom. A blank canvas. The challenge was the bowflex. How would he incorporate it…well as you saw. He didn’t. It’s in the garage now.

But back to decisions decisions. WHAT ROOM WOULD BE PICKED? Since I was convinced I sold them on the kitchen I didn’t say much about the sunroom because I had no thoughts on the room. You don’t see it in the episode but we were in that sunroom forever with Josh trying to get ideas for what we’d want to do with it. My husband had Josh going pirate theme with peg legs, mermaid kegs, and all sorts of stuff I did not want in that room. That’s when I said “I have a surfboard!” since I needed to interject something to reflect my style in this Caribbean crazed image I was getting in my head! It also took forever to shoot him looking at the house because we couldn’t stop laughing which carried over into the 3 days of remodeling the room. Once the construction crew arrived the party was on! They were a bunch of really great happy go lucky guys doing what they love on camera which I totally appreciate and of course, envy. SHE HULK!!!! You get to bash the shit out of things and make it into awesomeness. How cool is that?

My parents!

My parents came out all the way from Arizona to help out. Glad they did. We needed it. I had some friends, including our realtor that sold us the house, come out the morning the crew arrived. But it was a Thursday and most people had to leave to go to work. My poor parents got stuck putting together the bar for 2 days. When I’m jumping over from the poolside to go make the pirate rug with Josh, that’s where the huge undertaking of building the bar was going on. It was a lot of Ikea drawers and cabinets. And if you’ve ever done an Ikea build…you know what I’m talking about. They also put together the foosball table and helped paint and stain a bunch of wood. Thanks Mom and Dad for coming out and working in the middle of the summer heat like worker bees. Thank you to the wonderful friends who came out over the 3 days to help with what you could! You are appreciated. 🙂 One of the friends, the red head you see here and there, is my co-star from CRAFT LADIES, Miss Lauren De Long. We got to carry a bunch of wood. CRAFT LADIES love wood. We are strong. We are crafty. We got sweaty!

Craft Ladies in action

There was a lot of wood involved in all the projects, the wall, my rug, the game table. My husband was nailing the slates to the wall all night with Josh. Yes, Josh actually stays and works his ass off. Some people asked me if we just “work” during the shot and then the crew really does the projects when the camera isn’t on. But the homeowners really do work. And if they have parents…they work. And Josh…he works til the job is done. Their is a huge crew of awesome people that work. There’s just a lot of busting ass. A lot of sawdust in your unders too.

And THAT RUG! So much work for a rug. Made of wood. Who has a wood rug? Well, we do now. I have never used a skill saw. Terrifying. I was horrible at using it because I was scared to cut something off. And watching the show, it looks like I almost cut my phalanges off a couple times. Hence, almost getting fired. I also almost put a huge hole in the wood rug by putting the router down on it while it was still going. Hey, I’ve never used power tools before. Hammer, nails, screwdriver, wrench things, that’s pretty much the extent of my previous tool experience. Now I know how to use a router, a skill saw (questionable), a palm nailer, belt sanders (damn they work your abs), regular sanders, nail guns…man I got to use a lot. And I like to sing nonsense songs with no melody according to Josh apparently.

Punch to the face, Josh!

Oh oh another part you don’t get to see much of, is all the work on the deck. Dave from Dave Clark Construction was the dude I helped make the deck.

Dave and Brandon! Cool dudes!

That deck seemed like it was never gonna get finished. When Josh says you have to push on day 3…it is no joke. So much just comes together like a construction miracle. Dave and I are guilty of having too much fun too…we made a band. I’m the lead singer and he’s on guitar. We made a ‘self entitled’ album called “90lb dead baby.” The 90lb dead baby comes from when I had to pour cement into all of the foundation posts for the deck. It was a 90lb bag and I was like SHIT! This is 90lbs of dead weight! It reminds me of those flour bags you had to pretend were babies! I had to pour like 6 of them or something ridiculous. I think I was delirious by the end of it and that’s how 90lb dead baby was born. We have a whole album of songs.

Mocking Josh…my husband laughing behind me.

Gosh, it went by so fast. We worked long days and it was worth every minute. When you see the reveal, we were actually really surprised at how amazing it turned out. They made us leave before all the furniture was placed and finishing touches made so we would be super surprised. It worked. When people at the end of the show say “take Josh home!” it’s true. How could you pass up an opportunity to get an amazing remodel and the experience that comes with doing the show. I honestly wish I could do it every day. Sawdust in my unders and all. I would totally do it again! If Josh ever wants a sidekick, I’m totally in. And I’m not joking about doing a show called “CAT CRASHERS” where I help people redo a room in their house that’s cat-functional yet trendy and live-able.

POST SHOW NOTES:
We sold the fur-ton to some college boys from Craigslist. I had my friend, Kelly, who also helped on the show present in case they tried any funny business. The only funny business they tried was telling us they do funny videos on the internet.

As I said, the bowflex lives in the garage now. Makes it less convenient to just pump some iron. But sunroom. 🙂

The room remains the same. We heard some people take things out or put things back in. But we love it so much. It’s staying the same.

Josh wanted to know how long it would take before the cats were allowed back in…because of my husband, like a week. But they definitely aren’t allowed to just hang out in there all the time like they used to. It’s semi-decatified.

PROOF!

Kitty in sunroom!

Stay tuned for the next post…Alley Cat Birthday Crawl. It’s my birthday March 25th!!!! MEOW!

P.S. If you watched our episode of HOUSE CRASHERS on HGTV or DIYTV and loved it, please leave a comment. I’d LOVE to have my own show for reals. 🙂 Thanks!

House Crashers…Part 1

We got our house crashed last year and now it’s time to show the world. Well the DIY Network watchers of the world. And maybe some cat lovers too since the title of our episode is “Cat Crazy Convertible Sunroom.” I swear I didn’t name it! I’m a little worried about how the show will turn out. Will I look like a crazy cat lady? Or out of control hoarder? Or she-hulk? Or bad impromptu rapper? Or weird dancer that loves surfboards? Because that was all captured on camera from what I can remember!!!

My friends assure me the episode will be fun and awesome…I sure hope so. And thanks friends! But there was a point in the 3 days we were taping where the camera crew went into the room where the cats were being stashed (due to open doors, construction, people everywhere…you know for safety purposes) and it was July, it was hot, and the cats were not havin it. Fur flew! Literally. I think I got hot flashes from being in the room with a camera crew and so many cats and the havoc they created from being locked up in a room cluttered with nonsense from our recent move. I was like, “what was I thinking taking everyone up there to see the cats?” Bad idea! The adrenaline of tearing down our sunroom, getting an awesome new room by the end of the weekend and yes, the cameras rolling, was making me do crazy things. I really hope they don’t show that part on TV!!!! Not to mention my House Crasher rap. Oh my gosh, I did a rap for Josh Temple. Again, at the time I thought it was a good idea…but then they beat boxed for me and it threw off my groove and now I”m thinking, What WAS I thinking? I’m just a maniac!

Ok, now that I’ve gotten my panicky panic out. I can honestly say I had the MOST fun doing the show. The crew, the projects, everything was so awesome. It made me want my own DIY show. Perhaps where I go to people’s houses to help them create cat rooms! How fun would that be!!!??? I have a crafty side thanks to my mom! I’m not a licensed contractor my I am a self licensed CAT LOVER! I’m thinking I could help the non-crafty cat lovers of the world become crafty by showing their furry friends how much they care by building them a cool functional habitat in their home! I see a cat pub dining room, a crafty cat room, a catio, a catty family room, I mean let’s get crazy people! Cat crazy! I’m your host, of Cat Crashers!

Doing my HOUSE CRASHER homework

Oh my gosh…that would be awesome. I just came up with that and I LIKE IT! Maybe DIY will love the idea too. Hey, crazier things have happened. Why not give a cat lady a cat show? BOOM. YES. MEOW.

Watch House Crashers Monday March 10th 7:30PM PST on DIY TV. That’s channel 230 where I am on Direct TV. You can also catch a glimpse of CRAFT LADIES getting down and dirty with wood in their safety glasses!

Stay tuned for House Crashers…Part 2. What I thought of the episode!

And this is why kitties don’t get to help with construction. Ladder kitties!