Apartment Therapy Room for Color Winners

So I didn't win Apartment Therapy's Room for Color Contest 2012. But I did come close! I came second in my division. The room that beat me was Allie's "Contrasting Neutrals" Room. The winners are chosen on how many "favorites" they get.

Here's a round-up of how the voting went, and the rooms that made it to the finals in their division.

That's my room above. 2000+ pins, 224 favorites (votes), 49 comments (all positive apart from one person rolling their eyes at my color-coded books!).

Allie's room beat mine to win in the light division. Um, not much to say about this room. And lucky for Allie she found a loop-hole in the voting system (although it's still against the rules).

I like Amit's room probably the best out of the four. It was a little plain, but had the best design in my opinion.

Dana's Room was one of the most controversial hence the large number of comments. People felt that it only won because of her large blog following. But that's not against the rules. What is against the rules is getting people to vote multiple times for your room which one of the finalists had done (this enabled them to win their division).

Kellie's room won the whole contest. I don't think it was really people's favorite judging by the comments. I think it has some nice elements to it, but a tad over designed.

I probably won't enter again next year unless Apartment Therapy changes how the winners are decided, or does a better job of monitoring the voting. The only one that I felt truly merited their win was in the international division. Jane's Room was bold, daring and fun.

Obama Vs. Mitt Romney

Yesterday marked a momentous occasion for my husband and I.  It was the first time we got to vote in an American election since moving here 18 years ago!  This is probably one of the main reasons we decided to become citizens in the first place.  And we were of course thrilled with the result.

The boys have been learning about the election and the process for many months now and probably know more about the electoral college than I do.  I love how their teachers have encouraged them to watch the debates and participate in political discussions at school.  Roman was particularly interested in the dynamics between the two candidates, so much so that he penned a few cartoons.

This first one was inspired by his own defeat in the class election for student council representatives.

He wrote the one below after watching the second debate.

And finally he did this last night after some of the stations had declared Obama the winner!  No wonder he was tired this morning.

Mitt's comment on the top right hand corner is "darn it".  Sorry my scanner cut it off.  But couldn't you imagine him saying that?
 
If you want to see more of Roman's cartoons or drawings you can visit his blog Roman's Road of Adventures.

Roman & Callum's First Official Gig

Roman & Callum had their first official gig in a bar!  Yes I'm so proud.  Sounds weird doesn't it?  Fortunately the bar was full of parents and kids and only a few unsavory types.  The boys' band that they were playing in is called Sound Chase and is made up of a bunch of kids from 3rd to 6th grade.  It was a Halloween themed gig so they performed Monster Mash & Ghostbusters.  You can barely make Roman out on the drums and Callum is playing guitar on the right.  I thought all of them did an awesome job.  Unfortunately I only got half of the last song because my camera was playing up, but here they are.

Rock on!

Happy Halloween 2012

Normally I go all out decorating the house for halloween, but that didn't seem to happen this year, for one reason or another.  Next year, I promise.  I also didn't have to spend any money on costumes because Callum wore the costume that I bought him last year (which he didn't wear last year, yes I know buying 2 costumes, but I couldn't resist this one seeing as he's such a monkey fan).  And Roman's costume which I had ordered 2 weeks ago didn't turn up!  So I got a refund.  Instead he decided to go as Slenderman (I have no idea who that is, but apparently he has no face and wears a suit, hence the white mask).

The weather was unseasonably warm for Utah and so the boys managed to score lots of loot.

Notice Callum's methodical sorting.

 Yeah, we hit up some pretty richy houses (not in our neighborhood).  Full-size candy baby!

Roman's costume looks much better without the mask.  He actually looks like a Beatle from their fab days.

Roman sorted his candy into piles too.  No explanation needed.

Wanna trade?

Yeah, it was a pretty good day.

The boys have their first official gig tonight playing at Mo's Bar & Grill.  So excited for them.  Wasatch Music Coaching Academy are putting on a showcase featuring 11 bands!  The boys get to play on 3 songs, all covers of course.  I'll post the video tomorrow.