Thank You Su Casa!

We made it to June 30th! The last day of the Su Casa blog contest.  We hope you have enjoyed reading our experiences with our sectional sofa over the past month. We certainly had more fun than we expected I have to admit.  It seemed daunting to have to come up with 30 or so ideas on how to convey the Su Casa experience, but Joe and I both really got into it. We have been emailing each other back and forth since March making suggestions for blogs and then we both would help the other edit and fine tune the idea. The coolest thing out of the whole experience was to see how supportive our family and friends have been.  They have logged on every day to read our stories, go to Su Casa's webpage, make comments on facebook and send comments to the store itself. We have had friends visit Su Casa and make some purchases of their own.    We even spread across the pond to our family and friends in the UK.  They alone have had 138 pageviews.  Now the Brits even know about Su Casa! We are so grateful for all that you readers have done to help us.

I think these stats say it all....
Since June 1st
Number of page views  6,489
Number of comments 345
Number of video views 359

In closing, if we haven't beat the point to death by now, this contest was about more than just winning a nice couch. We genuinely like Su Casa and have had an amazing experience the entire time. Friends and family who trust our opinion also have expressed that next time they need a piece of furniture, Su Casa will be the first place they look. Anyway, thanks again and enjoy one last video!


 

Blogging is Such Sweet Sorrow

A big part of our ability to generate traffic in this Su Casa blog contest was of course Facebook. When you're able to say in a quick statement what you're trying to do and also provide an immediate link to your blog, people (lazy as we are), will gladly exert the 1/2 ounce of energy to right click. So from time to time, Jamie and I would kindly remind everyone what we were doing and we tried to do so in a humorous manner. I rather enjoyed parodying some famous pop culture references for my Facebook reminders. Below are my favorites;

Bill Pulman addressing the Nation in "Independence Day"

(Actually waiting until today to post this one concurrent with this blog post). Good morning. Good morning. In less than a day, bloggers from here will join others from around the state, and you will be launching the largest blog contest in the history of Baltimore. Baltimore, that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences any more. We will be united in our common interest in Su Casa. Perhaps it's fate that today is the 29th of June, and you will once again be fighting for our furniture. Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution, but from other bloggers. We're fighting for our right to win, to blog, and should we win the contest, the 29th of June will no longer be known as nothing, but as the day when Baltimore declared in one voice, 'We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to blog, we're going to win.' Today we celebrate the end of the ‘Test It, Blog it, Win it Contest!’

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The Rifleman's Creed

This is my blog. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My blog is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I master my life. My blog, without me, is useless. Without my blog, I am useless. I must type my blog true. I must blog faster than my competition who is trying to beat me. I must blog them before they blog me. I will… My blog and myself know that what counts in this contest is not the words we type, the comments we get, nor the views we generate. We know it is the blogs that count. We will blog… My blog is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weakness, its strength, its options, its accessories, its homepage, and its backlinks. I will keep my blog clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become a part of each other. We will… Before God I swear this creed. My blog and myself are the defenders of this couch. We are the masters of our competition. We are the saviors of my life. So be it, until victory is the Iskow’s and there is no competition, but couch.

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Old Spice Commercial

Hello, friends, look at your couch, now back to mine, now back at your couch, now back to mine. Sadly, yours isn’t mine, but if you stopped shopping at big retail stores and switched to Su Casa, you could be like us. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re on the couch with us that you wished you owned. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s the remote and we’re watching your favoriteshow in unbelievable comfort. Look again, the remote is now an iPhone and you’ve got the President on the line. Anything is possible when you shop at Su Casa and not the other guy. I’m on a dog.

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Andy DuFrane's letter to Red in "The Shawshank Redemption"

Dear Friend, if you're reading this, you've got some time. And if you've come this far, maybe you're willing to read a little further. You remember the name of the store, don't you? (Su Casa) We could use a good friend to help us win our couch this month. I'll keep an eye out for you and the seat cushion ready. Remember, Friend, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever loses. I will be hoping that this status finds you, and finds you well. Your friends, Joe & Jamie.

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Direct TV "Don't Have a Grandson with a Dog Collar" Commercial

ATTENTION: Jamie and I are in a contest to win a couch. If you could go to our blog www.joeandjamieiskow.blogspot.com and leave comments, and click on the provided Su Casa links just to check out the store, that will help us win. And if we win, that means you can sit comfortably when you come to visit us. And when you’re comfortable, you’re relaxed. And when you’re relaxed, you have a clear mind. And when you have a clear mind, you have million dollar ideas. And when you have million dollar ideas, you become a millionaire. Help us win our couch so you can become a millionaire.

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And if you didn't like any of our blogs this month, Livy has one thing to say....

My Little Couch Potato

During the course of the this past month, we have posted a couple interviews from Couch Potato Digest that have helped give you readers some deeper insight into the entire Su Casa experience.

We got to thinking... what a weird expression that is, "couch potato".  

We decided to translate it literally for you into a work of art. 

Behold, the miniature couch made out of a real potato.....

2 potatoes actually:)

If you were wondering, yes Joe and I are both gainfully employed and manage to fit these weird activities into our schedule after we have put our baby to bed. And if we don't win our couch in the blog contest, we will most likely be putting this one in it's place. At least I will always have an easy to grab snack. Those mini pillows look yummy. 

Mad Men

Like many college graduates, I spent four years pursuing a degree I ultimately wasn't able to use. That degree was in marketing and I had aspirations of getting into sports advertising/marketing. The problem was that no one ever told me that the majority of those jobs require a minimum year unpaid internship. Having just spent four years in college and away from Jamie, that wasn't very appealing. For some reason I was anxious to move forward with my life of bills and expectations. That said, one of the fun parts of this contest (as seen with our goofy commercials) is that I've had the opportunity to exercise that part of me, even if just for fun.  

For our latest blog, we decided to tackle print advertising. It's no coincidence that Mad Men is set in the 1960s, that had to have been the best time to be in advertising. There weren't half the FCC limitations companies face today but it was also a time when, how shall I say, people just seemed to be classier. Well, I am a product of the 80s and the 50s & 60s to me seems like milkshakes and soda pop all day long. Kind of like Pleasantville, even though I am certain that isn't true. Anyway, I looked up a couple examples of advertisements from that era and then Jamie and I set to create our own ad for Su Casa. Thought to myself, "what would a Su Casa ad from the 1960s look like?" Keep in mind, this was way back when it was okay to talk about gender stereotypes, smoking, and drinking.

"Kroehler, for the housewife who likes to lean on furniture and wait for her husband". 

If we still haven't perfected the sofa bed, can you imagine what the first drafts must have been like?

I looked it up and yes, Kroehler is still making furniture.Mildly concerned no one is keeping an eye on that child who is clearly playing on the edge of an infinite abyss of darkness and couches.

Bingo! There's only so much you can do with limited time and software, but we had a good time putting this together and given more resources, I think we might have been able to fool some people into thinking it was a real advertisement! And yes, this is us in the pictures!

Livy Videos

The pediatrician told me at our 6 month visit that it was safe to try and start to get Olivia used to the water.  I did some research and apparently if you blow in a baby's face it causes them to hold their breath for a second or two. So that's why I am blowing in her face before her swim! I delayed doing this for a whole month because it made me so nervous, but I want to get her used to the water.....

Talking to Dada...

Talking to Mama...

Su Casa Sunday

On Father's Day, we went down to Ellicott City for some lunch and shopping. Of course we had to stop in and check out what was new at Su Casa.  I tried to take some pictures of our favorite things so you could a better idea of what they have to offer. It's not just couches people! Ok here we go...

This cracks me up. It's a cutting board for OCD chefs. You can cut each piece of food the exact same length and width with the measuring guides provided on the board. As Joe takes over the cooking more and more, I can see this in our kitchen in the near future. My vegetables usually look like I ripped them apart with my teeth. He's into having the sharp knives that aren't supposed to go into the dishwasher that cut the veggies with razor sharp ease. 

These molds let you make square cupcakes!

Joe has been talking about these maps for weeks. He really wants to frame one of them and hang it up somewhere. We haven't purchased one yet because we aren't sure which one to get and we don't know where we would put it yet. 

So we did end up getting 2 of these hooks in light blue to hang on our bay window to hold our new white curtains back. I thought they were very unique. 

It's hard to tell in this picture but we both like this ferris wheel.  It's just a cool piece for a desk or table and it spins around. 

This was an area rug we both agreed on.  We would want it in front of the couch for Olivia to have something bigger to crawl on. It was on sale too, but we aren't impulse buyers anymore! So we will see. 

The upstairs area is full of clearance furniture. We went up to check it out and Olivia was in need of some playtime while we were there. 

Cool wine rack... and it hold a lot of bottles in a small space. My current rack only holds 6. But in our house it would probably be a budlight and vodka rack. 

Need a clock??? They got plenty!

A part of the store is set aside for babies and kids. It's called the Corduroy Button. They have really cute outfits and toys for kids.  

I am LOVING these whales. Maybe my next nursery theme will be whales??:)

Affected by Cantsitdownia?

We would like to present our infomercial for the Su Casa blog contest. And if you want to get the full intended experience, watch this at 3am on repeat for about 25 minutes. If you are able to get through it there is a discount offer for a couch at the end for $19.99 if you buy now.

A huge thank you to Michael Eller, one of our longtime family friends for filming these three commercials for us.  We discussed the idea one day and he was at our house three days later to make it happen. He gave us his very limited free time and we are extremely appreciative for it! He is clearly great at what he does and took our scripts and ideas and with the right filming and editing turned our vision into something far better than we even thought possible.