When you first discover a new blog, you are instantly thrown into a funny sort of relationship with the blogger, because instead of the usual “nice to meet you” information exchange that often happens in face to face meetings – “This is my husband Bob. We live one block over. Bob’s a rocket surgeon who plays jazz trombone.” – you are thrown immediately into friendly and familiar daily chitchat – “So I finally finished that project I was telling you about. Bob despises it, of course… but then again, we all know how he feels about leopard…” (Wait? Who’s Bob? And why does he have a personal vendetta against leopard print?)
It can be a little confusing.
I know that when I visit a new blog, one of the first things I like to do is check out the blogger’s “About Me” page to learn more. As a reader, I LOVE the ability to “connect” a little more and feel like I’ve actually had the chance to virtually meet him/her – it provides context for their posts and helps me hear and understand their “voice” in their writing. Fun and engaging “About Me” pages are the best.
You might be able to tell that I’ve been giving this a lot of thought lately!
I’m excitedly full of plans to revamp my “About Me” page a little bit, and I’m hashing out a “Meet The Blogger” post idea to maybe divulge some extra fun personal details/stories/trivia. While you’re on the edge of your seats waiting for that to happen though, I thought it might be fun to formally introduce you to my often-referenced yet seldom pictured husband Bryan…
What follows is a nearly word-for-word transcription of a little interview I put together – pure and mostly-uncensored Bryan. My questions are in bold, his answers are in italic:
Who are you?
Man, that’s a really difficult question to answer. I’m Bryan….
[Further details redacted – what followed was an unnecessarily long diatribe on what he feels is a decaying sense of quality with regards to identity as is espoused in social media. In other words, he was being difficult.]
What is your role in/with The Gathered Home? (Is it “in” or “with”? In The Gathered Home? With The Gathered Home?)
To answer questions like that. You could consider me a prepositional consultant. Oh, also I move out of the way so that my shadow is not in the pictures that you take. And I wait patiently to drink the drinks until you’re done photographing them.
Nothing about how you tirelessly support me or anything?
Are you one of those journalists who already has the answers in mind? You type them, I answer them, okay?
Do you read the blog?
I have read it before. I don’t necessarily feel the need to most of the time because it’s mostly things that I already know – the blog is telling the story of what happened, and I was there for most of it. I do catch spelling and grammatical mistakes though, when I do read it. I guess you could say that I hear and I see The Gathered Home more than I read it.
What’s your role in DIY?
Definitely not so much the “doing”. It’s more like financially and physically supporting… I carry paint upstairs, I go to Home Depot, and then I get to enjoy the reactions and admiration of people who assume that I’m the one who’s working on things. I also bring you beer, water and food.
Describe your design style.
I’m not allowed to have one of those…
I like neutral colors, earth tones, darker woods – but really it doesn’t matter, because I like being in the dark. Because I am a vampire. You can design the house all you want to, but I want the shades closed, the lights off, and not a lot of stuff to run into. Last night I walked into a ladder. Twice.
Comfort is more important than appearance.
Describe your ideal man-cave.
English pub. Punched tin ceilings, dark wood everything, brass tap handles, worn leather. Guitars hanging on the walls, amps, framed iconic records. A victrola. Dimly lit. A nice Scotch collection on display. Yep, that’s it.
Describe Brynne’s design style. [And here we switch to the third person, momentarily.]
Eclecticism built on a foundation of midcentury modern. She also has a penchant – I would say a fixation – for certain things, such as malachite (which I’m okay with), burl wood (which I have grown to like) and leopard (which I abhor). She has a very firm position of form over function.
What’s your favorite project to date?
I like the plumbing pipe light fixture as long as it’s not turned on – those light bulbs are too bright.
My favorite project: the dimmer switch you’re going to install on it.
What was your favorite vintage find so far?
The card catalogs. Because they were very lucrative.
No, I meant aesthetically.
The card catalogs. Because money looks good.
—*sigh*—
The chesterfield. Those brass étagères – after you styled them, I didn’t care about them at all when we got them. Which just goes to show that an object of design is only as useful as the person who owns it and what they’re going to do with it… I see things for how they look – you see things for what they can become and what you can do with them. Which is something The Gathered Home has taught me about decorating.
[Editor’s note: I swear he actually said this, and I did not even pay/bribe him!]
The Arne Vodder desk was a great piece – I like the wood grain, style and shape. Functionally it was too small. Plus I had a mental breakdown at that desk.
[Details redacted]
I can’t think of any more questions. Here’s one – what question didn’t I ask that I should have?
“What’s your favorite crayon?”
Do you know what my favorite crayon is? It’s one of the first questions I ask people. It’s an indicating factor for whether you really know someone or not. It’s like knowing their middle name or their birthday.
Cerulean
Correct.
Is there anything you want to ask or say to the readers of The Gathered Home?
What’s your favorite crayon?
So that’s Bryan. Love him to death, hate that he and Bob both share such unenlightenment when it comes to leopard print…
And, just for the record…What’s your favorite crayon?
Julia Konya says
Loved this post, so fun. I love to hear things about the significant other too.
I mention mine here and there. I call him King Konya on the blog. He kinda hates it which makes it even more fun.
http://cuckoo4design.blogspot.com/2013/02/valentines-day-my-birthday-and-giveaway.html
and he wrote a guest post http://cuckoo4design.blogspot.com/2013/05/surprise.html
Thanks Julia! I love the "King Konya" nickname and I really enjoyed clicking over and reading those posts! The Valentine's story is hilarious! We aren't big Valentine's celebrators either 🙂
Teehee- this is too cute!! I love it. And to answer his question- my favorite crayon is the silver one- it is my favorite because I like the way it melts! http://davenportdiy.com/2011/09/diy-art.html
Loving your blog- you have some amazing finds on here- I wish I had the patience/ability to find such amazing stuff!!
Emily, I love the crayon art! The ones with the flowers are SO cheerful, but the melted metallic one is just too cool as well!
Thank you for the kind words and for following!
I loved reading this! You're right, I need to make a better "About Me" page. I don't really have one right now, just a little blurb under my picture. I think I shall work on one now!
Oh, and my favorite crayon ties between Macaroni and Cheese, and Red-Orange.
My favorite crayon is Macaroni & Cheese!!! Love it!
I can't wait to check out your new About Me page! Let me know when it's live so I can stalk ya 🙂
One more thing… I always feel weird because my boyfriend is in a career path where he is actually supposed to remain anonymous as much as possible, especially online. So I have to be secretive and I can't really post photos of him. It's kind of difficult to restrain from talking about him all of the time! The good thing is we don't live together right now, so it's not like he is involved in my DIY projects at all. He knows I have a blog but we definitely do not see eye to eye on a lot of my decor choices. He always wonders why I like "old things," especially anything overtly 60s or 70s. He is quite the "Logic Man" so if I show him something like my pink and orange couch, he responds with, "It's pink." Yes, it is. "It's old." Yes, but it's perfect condition! That is pretty much all he has to say on the matter, lol! He doesn't enjoy the bright colors, which is totally opposite of me. It will be interesting when we eventually move in together. I plan on taking over…
Ooh mystery! You should create a fake name and details about him… Or just photoshop Ryan Gosling's face onto all photos of him… What? That's totally not weird, right?! 😉
Hopefully it's all good to share deets about Bryan on this blog and no future employers will read them and hold his distaste for leopard print against him…
P.S. The "It's old" thing really cracks me up because I'm pretty sure Bryan and I have had that exact same conversation!
Great idea about Ryan Gosling-ing the photos…. Muahaha! I'm sure it's fine with most people's employers and whatnot. My boyfriend is military so things are a little different.
Anyhoo, I made the about me page, just for you. 🙂 Here ya go: http://rentalrevival.com/about-me
Such a fun idea! Nice to meet you, Bryan! 🙂
Brynne, you surprise me at every turn. This post was friggin genius! Your hubby is adorable- in a non-threatening I have my own smiley man kinda way haha.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading more about Bryan. I'm sure his name will now be tossed around at our house (in only good ways since my blog friends are put on pretty pedestals). Bryan and Brynne, the names couldn't be more perfect if you tried, eh? Now first born something like Bryson or Bryanna.
Like Megan, we keep the beaus name under-wraps for different non-military reasons. I think it would be fun to let him pick a nickname instead of the beau.
Since recently 'finding' my blog style and voice– it may be time for a refresher on the dusty about me page. But here it is for your viewing pleasure: http://www.blackandwhiteobsession.com/p/blog-page.html
Thanks Trisha! Having our names so similar can be very confusing – it's crazy that they even start the same three letters! Not to mention, people who aren't sure how to pronounce my name often say "Bryan", lol.
I really love your About Me page! It goes into more depth than the typical short blurb, so it really lets your readers get a good sense of who you are & what you're about!