Author Archives: Shawn Nelson

About Shawn Nelson

Founder of Lovesac & Life on a Couch blog. Winner of Fox's The Rebel Billionaire Reality TV show starring Richard Branson.

Family Couchday 2.0

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Guest contributors Romy Raad and Natalie Neumann (Rad & Neu) are culinary adventurers who look at food the same way we look at the couch- as something that promotes happiness and brings us closer together. We are pumped to feature them here- head over to their blog for full version of this story (with recipes!) and a ton of other intriguing foodventures!

We, Romy and Natalie from radandneu.com, were absolutely thrilled to spend a funday with Shawny and his family in his beautiful countryside farmhouse!

Couching n’ Snacking was the theme of the day – by joining forces we created a joyful family outdoor experience, featuring four of our healthy, kids-friendly radcipes and some fabulous Lovesac products.

We prepared the snacks together with the kids, who discovered the fun of cooking as a team, while learning how each ingredient adds some magic to the plate.

Thanks to Shawny’s outdoor lounge setting, a regular couch afternoon was turned into a beautiful and lively outdoor experience – enjoying delicious finger foods with a side of sea breeze.

The detailed recipes for the healthy bites can be found on our blog www.radandneu.com alongside other rad&neu insights!

DIY Games for Parties

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Hello! Darleen here from Darling Darleen! I’m a friend of Shawn and call his wife one of my dear friends, and I’m excited to contribute this month to Life on a Couch.

This past weekend, we had a house full of family from out of town. Family time is so important to us, so this past weekend has been so fun; all we had to do to entertain us was Try Some Board Games! Every evening after we’d get kiddos to bed, we’d all congregate around the couch and laugh the night away with a good old-fashioned game night. We’ve got a cupboard full of board games, but many times we keep the laughs abundant by just playing card games or classic games like Pictionary or charades. We also have a HqDartBoard which has really bought out the competitive side in us all and because it’s electric, there’s no worry of sharp darts being left out.

All the essentials to get the games going!

It’s good to have a little healthy competition between family members or even friends! Maybe a little bit of low stakes wagering too! For this you could learn how to play live casino blackjack and have a “casino night” instead of “game night”. DIY games are a great way to liven people up, lighten the mood and get people talking. So when I host game night, I like to serve up easy-to-eat finger foods or party nibbles to keep attention on the game. I tend to go for the parlor food route and serve a cheese and meat plate along with a variety of nuts. Don’t forget the drinks!

Don’t forget the meat and cheese!

When it’s just myself playing, or perhaps my husband and I, there are so many games we can play. The list is probably endless! Sometimes we take ordinary games playing up a notch and decide to use online casino games to try and win a little money but to also seek a thrill. At first, we had no idea what we were doing so I had to search what does it mean when a game has a max bonus, or what does it mean when someone has a full house of cards, but now I’d say we’re somewhat experts! However, it’s hard to play those games with love with such a large group of people. Some of our favorite games are DIY games, or ones that we make up because we usually have a large group, or maybe we’ve played it somewhere before but they usually aren’t in the books.

Make up the rules as you go along!

Here are a few game suggestions that will get you and your party rolling on the couch in laughter.

Friends, food, and fun!

Nertz Playing cards-this is a great card game with multiplayer and a combination of Speed and Solitaire. It’s fast pace and quite addicting!

Scrabble with teams-each team begins with 7 letter blocks and makes words in a crossword fashion. Once one team using up all their 7 letter blocks, they shout out take two tiles and everyone takes two tiles from the center pile of upside-down word tiles and then continues to add the letters to their crossword. When the first team has used up all their game pieces and there are no more to draw, the game is over.

Dictionary-similar to Balderdash but you use a real Dictionary instead!

Bunco-it’s not just for girl’s night! A fun dice game to play with a group of people.

Things-Everyone writes out a response like “things you wouldn’t do in front of Grandma…” or “things you wouldn’t do in high school….” Then put it in a hat and everyone guesses who said what. Fun to make up your own prompts!

Headbands-the adult version of Hedbanz. It’s a silly game and we like to make up our own cards and usually tape to the back of a person. Good to play this game…while playing another game!

Enjoy playing your next DIY game night with friends or family! I’ve included in this post a generic score sheet that you can download and use for your game night party! You can download it here.

Team Scrabble

What are your favorite games to play for game night?

Couch Food: 7 Steps to Mac & Cheese Perfection

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We’re all just looking for a little bit of comfort. [Guest contributor: Michael Majlak]

As someone who truly believes that a good meal can transform the human soul, I’ve been spoiled with a mother who can really kick it up a notch in the kitchen. I probably never really gave her the appreciation she deserves for creating some insanely impressive homemade dishes.

Comfort on a plate

It’s one of those cliché arguments you have with your friends as a kid, and I couldn’t imagine it any other way. Every child should go through their adolescence thinking that their mom is the best cook in the entire universe. I can remember almost getting into physical fights with other kids that thought their mom made better meatloaf than mine!

One dish my mom has had perfected since my birth was this gooey, ridiculously delicious Mac & Cheese. Since we’re quickly slipping into the season for food that will keep us warm, I thought now would be the right time to bring you the recipe for a plate that anyone can make- and EVERYONE will enjoy. My mom, Robin, walked me through the whole process in 7 simple steps and I’ve laid them out below with some pictures to get your mouth watering just a bit. Throw on some sweatpants, follow the recipe, and bring a big bowl of this cheesy masterpiece back to your couch for an ultimate comfort session!

Just don’t try to say yours came out better than my mom’s…

Gather your ingredients

Robin’s Mac & Cheese aka: the ultimate comfort food!

1 lb. Cavatappi Pasta
6 oz. Gruyere Cheese
1 small onion
12 oz. New York Extra Sharp Cheese
3/4 stick butter
1 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
Salt to taste
2 cups milk
3 Tbs. flour
1/2 cup Panko Crumbs

Boil some pasta

Preheat oven to 375º
Bring water to boil in large pot; add a splash of olive oil, cook pasta until almost cooked.
Grate cheeses, nutmeg and chop onion.
Melt butter in saucepan add finely chopped onion, cook slowly until onion is translucent. Add flour to butter/onion mixture and heat over low for 2 minutes stirring constantly.
Heat milk in separate pan or microwave until hot.
Add milk to pot with butter & onion and whisk until hot [do not boil]. Add cheeses, nutmeg, salt & pepper to mixture. Blend well and when smooth pour cheese sauce over pasta in casserole dish. Top with Panko, salt and pepper.
Bake 30 – 35 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling.

The money shot

Sprinkle, sprinkle, sprinkle that Panko

Bake it to crusty perfection

Enjoy!

— Michael Majlak

The Couch Life of a Modern Jacques Cousteau

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But what if I fail?

That question is one of the biggest obstacles we face in our lives. That fear of not being good enough or smart enough or strong enough suffocates us and stomps out our ability to achieve our dreams. As children, we had high hopes and extreme visions for what we would do with our lives. Some of us wanted to be astronauts. Others wanted to be chefs, or doctors, or dog trainers. But at some point, out of fear of the unknown, many of us abandon our dreams and opt for something more “secure”. Instead of shooting for the stars, we decide to take the safer path in order to avoid the risk of falling up short.

On a recent Lovesac business trip to Salt Lake City I sat down with Brent Andersen, the founder of the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. After talking with Brent for a few minutes, I quickly realized he was not one of those people who took the safe road in life. Brent spent his childhood couch life being deeply inspired by Jacques Cousteau and his underwater adventures. He created a strategy to build a chain of aquariums and a research vessel. His purpose: to help educate the world on our fragile ecosystem, with the notion that: “We are all connected,” and that we need to understand that.

Brent Andersen and myself at the Living Planet Aquarium in Utah.

Brent is an entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. Even in the face of every possible adversity, he pushed forward to achieve his ultimate vision. As an entrepreneur Brent shared four things that were key to his ultimate success. 1. Think big 2. Persevere, no matter the cost. 3. Surround yourself with smart people, and other entrepreneurs. 4. Once you arrive, keep going.

His next step? Hopefully to take his dream to the next level, building more aquariums, and linking them with a network of exploratory ocean vessels roaming the world making new discoveries. Sound too ambitious? Too fantastic? It is. And that’s why I love this guy. The next Jacques Cousteau, and an inspiration to us all.

–Shawny
Founder, LOVESAC

Celebrity Couch Life: The Canavan Sisters

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Like everyone else in the world, the people you see on TV have a life on a couch too. Liz and Marie Canavan, the infamous twins from the Amazing Race Season 19, invited me to their place on Manhattan’s Upper East Side to chat about their couch life. We quickly found that when the girls aren’t on television entertaining millions of viewers, they spend time on the couch just like the rest of us. I never grow tired of seeing how reflecting on our couch life brings back some of our fondest and even most touching memories.

The Canavan twins could probably complete every sentence for the other. I think that in the 15 minutes that we hung out on their couch, they actually spoke in unison for some portion of it (something twins are known for). This interview spanned the entire emotional spectrum- carrying the girls from the happiness of sisterly memories on their childhood couch, through the heartbreaking moments they shared upon losing their father, and up to the current uncertainty they’re feeling as they pack up their apartment to live apart from each other for the first time in their lives.

Liz, Marie, and I in their Manhattan walk-up

Do you have a family couch in your life? One you inherited, got stuck with, or possibly stole from your family like the one that Liz and Marie are about to leave behind in their New York walk-up?

–Shawny

“Reading Set Me Free”

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With all of the distractions of our modern life, we bring in guest contributor Eric Bennion aka “The DiaryDad”, who reminds us the importance of reading on the couch as a family…

The couch acts a reading classroom…

Spending time on the couch with my family can mean any one of many activities is going on. We have movie time there, sometimes we play a few video games from it, we have even been known to throw impromptu dance parties around it. Our couch is definitely a place where we come together for good family fun. One of my favorite “couch activities” is reading. I like to read my books there, my wife and I enjoy curling up on weekends for a good Sunday afternoon read; the best however is when I read to my boys. In the last year we have completed the first Percy Jackson Series, a book on Greek mythology, and King Arthur’s tales. Just recently we began The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and almost every night they ask if I am reading a chapter (more often than not they convince me to read them two).

I think reading to and with your children is such an important activity. There is great freedom in developing the skill and ability to read. If it fosters enough enthusiasm in them to read – any maybe write – their newfound love could lead them to pursue literary careers when they get older, like becoming a line editor, copy editor, or maybe even a writer! When I was a little tyke I remember wanting to read. I wanted to read so bad I felt like it was killing me. My workbooks were hard, my flashcards were hard, my phonics lessons were hard; but then again I was only 5 years old. I saw people reading and wondered what it would be like when I didn’t have to ask someone to read a story to me. I wanted to know if there was something I was missing. I wanted to stop feeling like I was being held back by this inability to make funny black marks on a white page make sense.

They’re getting pretty good!

One day after weeks or months of struggling through phonics exercises and letter recognition with my mom and grandpa, I decided to have it out with a book. I walked up to the bookshelf grabbed a copy of “Fun with Dick and Jane” and went to the couch in our basement in a winner-take-all showdown. Either I would conquer that book or my brain would explode… and yes I read the hell out of that book. Then I proceeded to read the hell out of it to anyone that would listen to me. I read it to my mom, my grandparents, my dad , my brothers, and if I could have caught the mailman I would have read it to him too.

The great thing about that moment is that it set me free. Sure it was just a “Dick and Jane” book and sure it really lacked substance, but I couldn’t be held back anymore. All the knowledge that was out here in the world was available to me because I was a reader. I began reading books with gusto, and to this day there is great comfort for me in the pages of a good book.

Reading to the boys on the couch…

I remember watching this same phenomenon in my children, specifically my youngest. I remember watching the frustration as he worked to make meaning from those funny marks on the pages. When it finally happened I was more than happy to listen to him read the same story to me as many times as he wanted, because I knew. I had been there and it was a huge defining moment. Now both my boys are avid readers. So much so that it is a punishment to make them go to bed without the opportunity to read. One of the best “go-to” adventures for us is a “quick” walk to the library to load up on new books to read. Those trips never take us less than an hour even though the library is 5 minutes from our home and we never come home without a bag (or two) loaded with new books to read.

Whether at the library, the beach, at a park, in their bed- or on our couch, I hope that my kids never lose their love of reading. It has been fun to see the things that inspire them. What’s more, it is comforting to know that they have the same freedom that I gained those many years ago. Learning to love reading is one of my favorite fathering moments and it is definitely a hallmark of my family’s “Life on a Couch”!

For more “Dadventures” from Eric Bennion, go to his page at www.diarydad.com!

What’s the last book YOU read on the couch?

— Shawny

Change Your Couch’s Clothing

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Imagine for a second that you only had one set of clothes. You woke up every single day and you had one pair of pants and one shirt. No matter the weather outside, you just had that one set of clothing. During the 90 degree days of August, you had this one shirt. During the 20 degree days of January, you still had this one shirt.

Lucky feeling bored about another season with these covers

As you got older and your pants stopped fitting so well, or they lost color or shape, you still only had this one pair to wear. As the times around you changed- and so did popular style and design, you still had only this one outfit. And eventually as the fabric weakened and the pants and shirt wore through and were filled with holes, they were still the only clothing you had.

Pretty hard to imagine, right? Now think about your couch for a second. As the weather outside changes, can you change your couch with it? Imagine how nice it would be to have a cozy, furry couch to warm up in the winter- and then have a cool, breathable fabric to stay cool during the dog days of summer. Or imagine that when your tastes in style changed, you could change your couch along with them. Your couch is the place you can go to when you want to relax and watch tv on your high gloss tv unit. It’s your go to place, so why not change it up a bit every now and then? Why not get yourself a brand spanking new leather couch, maybe even in white? While we all love a white leather couch, cleaning white leather can turn out to be more difficult than first imagined, but it can certainly be managed.

Changing the covers

A few years back, this would have sounded crazy. People approached the couch-buying scenario with extreme caution, knowing that whatever they bought would live with them for the next 10 or 20 or 30…or 50 years. Now that Sactionals exist, everything has changed. When my wife and I had our fourth child Valentine this past month, we needed some extra couch space so we just simply added some on. But while we were doing it, she decided she also wanted to change up the “feeling” of the room a little for the summer. So just like that, we changed the clothes on our couch! …The same Sactionals pieces we’ve had now for nearly 8 years look new, smell new, and amazingly feel completely new again. (And they’ve seen some abuse!) Every time we change our Sactionals I wonder the same thing: What do people with normal couches do? I guess they just live with it. I guess they just hide that stain under a throw pillow. I guess they just try to get a few more years out of it until they can justify spending the money to get an all new one.

Pepper feeling excited about the new covers

You know, this blog isn’t meant to be an advertisement for my company, Lovesac or Sactionals. This blog is however, a reflection of my own real life and the things I find to be changing the way we look at our life on a couch–and real life in general. I have devoted my life to creating products that disrupt the staleness of classic furniture. The feedback I’m seeing from people who truly LOVE their Sactionals is a confirmation that we really have created something special that is shaping the way people live their life on a couch. What do you think?

WATCH THE CHANGING PROCESS IN JUST 20 SECONDS…

— Shawny

Our Baby Valentine

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Introducing baby Valentine! Excuse me while I wax personal for a moment:

Sleeping baby Valentine

On July 17^th at around 2:15am our fourth (and final, so I’m told) child was born. We named her Valentine Nelson. My wife, Tiffany, is doing well. She is an amazing mother and I am so grateful for her willingness to go through with it again, and again, and again—as if once wasn’t traumatizing enough. I just wanted to take a minute to celebrate life, publicly. It is times like these that afford me the rare opportunity to reflect, and to contemplate the things that matter most.

“Babies,” everybody loves “babies.” Even if they don’t love babies its inhuman, un-American and practically unforgivable to say it out loud. Baby Valentine would be the first of my kids to end up on my Instagram page as a newborn, and judging by the reaction I’d say people are naturally baby fans (at least in moderate doses). “Family” is another one. Who can argue against anything “family?”

Tiffany, Valentine and I on our outdoor Sactionals.

Because of this, there is no special, unique, or original way for me to say it…this will probably just sound like another “nice thing to say.” But in case anyone out there is feeling distracted, stressed-out, stretched-thin, or otherwise confused about things, let me say this: It really is all about our family, relationships, people…love. Everything else is dust.

Yeah, we all gotta earn a living and we all gotta make ends meet. I make couches. But in the end, if you really think back, the relationships we build with those closest to us are the things that not only makeup our fondest memories, but they are the only things that endure.

Our baby Valentine is the newest piece of our family, and at just over one week old, she has already joined us for an evening or two on the couch. (We’ve added another Base to our Sactionals just to make room for her.) I feel blessed and I feel grateful. In case it is not clear yet, this is what #LifeOnaCouch is all about, for me.

What does #LifeOnaCouch mean to you?

— Shawny

Twitter.com/Shawny_Nelson

The Lovesac Tour Bus for $1

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Goodbyes are never easy. In the case of the 1998 Gulf Stream F5 Tour Bus used for our promotional tours in the first years of this millennium, saying goodbye will be extremely tough. In an effort to focus funds on brand expansion, we’re auctioning off the vehicle which saw coast-to-coast trips throughout the early 2000’s as the brand was built. The auction started at $1 (although it’s gone up a little since then) and there’s no reserve set- it has to go! The list of celebrity visits, near-death experiences, and straight-up lunacy that occurred on this bus is extensive, some of which can be seen on the Lovesac Bus Blog. For those of you who are like me and don’t like prancing around the Internet, here is a list of my most memorable moments from the Lovesac Tour Bus:

The Lovesac Tour Bus

5. The Trip to Huntington Beach

Each year in the early years of Lovesac, it was a tradition for me to personally visit each and every store across the country. Once we acquired the bus, I decided to just start driving it on these cross-country tours. Most of the tours ended in Huntington Beach, California, where I actually lived for a short time in 2002. Surfing the Pacific Ocean is something I’ll never forget.

Surfing at Huntington Beach

4. Safe Driving Techniques

Much of the fun we had with the Lovesac bus came just from actually driving the bus. We tried our best to follow all posted speed limits and traffic laws, but it didn’t always work out as planned. That’s why it can be handy to know someone who is an expert on driving laws in Georgia, or where you’re going along the way. One night we rolled upon an iced-over, vacant lot in Omaha, Nebraska, and a little bit of madness ensued- resulting in the Director of Retail who was filming nearby almost getting run over by the gargantuan rear-end of the spinning bus.
These types of accidents can’t be helped sometimes due to weather conditions, even if you allow change to your routine things can still go wrong. However, some people don’t care about the changing conditions and will still drive like everything is normal! This eventually leads to massive accidents and violations, meaning that they may be required to go back to driving school either in person or online, like this driving course website – https://www.myimprov.com/traffic-school/lowest-price/. Luckily no-one was seriously hurt with our accident and we all came out intact, just shows it can happen to anyone at any time.

3. MC Hammer/Vanilla Ice Reunion Concert

In 2009, it was someone’s twisted idea to get MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice to reunite for a 90’s concert in Salt Lake City. We’re not going to mention any names, but someone at Lovesac decided it would be a good idea to sponsor the event. So for a couple days in March of 2009, the touring Lovesac crew hung around with Mr. “Too Legit to Quit” himself on and off the bus and witnessed a whole bunch of Hammer Time.

MC Hammer and the Lovesac Bus

2. Winter X-Games Taxi Service

During the 2009 Winter X-Games in Aspen, Colorado, Lovesac was doing various promotional events in the areas surrounding the annual action sports extravaganza. These events required the Lovesac bus driving from the nearby village to the contest itself. At one point we thought it would be nice to help taxi some of the people walking and trying to get to the same destination as us. At one point we had over 50 people on the bus, disco light spinning, and the music blasting. Being at Winter X was definitely a memorable point for a lot of the Lovesac crew- and the bus made that possible.

1. Jessie James Tour Transport

During the rise of pop star Jessie James, we teamed up with Def Jam and used the Lovesac Bus to get her around the country for various shows and interviews. We zig-zagged our way across the southeast starting in Houston, going as far down south as Miami and finally finishing in our Country’s capital. The tour was packed full of radio station visits, performances, Impromptu Lovesac Lounges, pranks, great food, stories and lots of laughter. Easily one of my favorite moments on the Lovesac Bus.

Jessie James on the Tour Bus Sac

The people we met and the places we saw while touring the country on this bus are memories that will last a lifetime. The bus itself is fully-loaded in every way imaginable, from thousands of dollars worth of electronics to Sactionals, Sacs, and pillows- even the motorized disco ball is still hanging in there! Read more about the eBay auction for the Lovesac bus by clicking here. Good luck to everyone bidding, and to the winner- take care of our bus, it helped us become the beloved brand that we are today!

The inside of the Lovesac bus

– Shawny

A Soldier’s Couch Life

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With the 4th of July upon us, we pause to recognize the extreme bravery of men and women who stand ready to defend this great nation of ours, and our privilege to feel safe–on our couch at home. We think of the soldiers that have given their lives to protect our freedoms and the troops still fighting on foreign soil today, as well as those ready to ship out when called upon. This year I found myself pondering what exactly it is that drives someone to devote their life to something so dangerous as going to battle. What makes a man or woman, a son or daughter, a father or mother give up the safety of civilian life and place themselves in harm’s way?

To understand this I sat down with Lance Corporal Michael Lucas, an Aviation Support Operator for the Marine Corps Reserves. In his early 20’s, Michael took a temporary leave from a fantastic job at Sikorsky Aircraft in Bridgeport, Connecticut and started training to serve our country. Although he is in the Reserves, Michael still devotes his time to training and preparing in the case that he is called upon to fight. During our conversation, I asked Michael what a soldier’s couch life consists of. I also asked him what drove him to join the Corps, and his answer echoed the response that has been given by so many before him- “I love this country”. That patriotism of our troops, that belief that this country is worth giving a life for, is what has allowed us to remain the “home of the free” for as long as we have.

Lance Corporal Lucas and fellow Marine near 29 Palms base in California.

It’s sometimes easy to get into the swing of a holiday, grill up some tasty food, and fall into a comfy couch. But it’s so important to remember the true spirit of the 4th of July, a victory of independence from Great Britain, and the lives that were given to gain that freedom as well as the all those devoted to protecting it. Thanks to Lance Corporal Lucas for sitting down with me and telling your story- God Bless you and every other soldier that makes our comfortable lives on a couch possible.

Lance Corporal Lucas after graduating boot camp.

Lance Corporal Lucas with his nephew after graduating boot camp at Parris Island.

I am patriotic–and I am grateful.

— Shawny