Midwest Living | Our Home | Christmas 2014
I will say that having a magazine come to your home might be the best motivator ever to finish up all sorts of little odds and end projects. For the last few months I've been checking one item after another off the list in anticipation of their arrival. I was a little nervous about the whole thing, this is very unfamiliar territory for me and as much as I wanted everything to be just right, there were a lot of unknowns and that can be a bit stressful. I wasn't even sure that everyone and their equipment would fit in our small home! (they did. barely.)
^^one project was getting slips made for the red bergere chairs in our living room^^
^^another was adding a couple antique ladder back chairs for additional seating, when needed, to the dining room. I also had cute seat skirts made.^^
But the stars aligned the last few days and it was pretty darn amazing. We had a hefty fresh snowfall the day before they arrived, enough to paint all the rooftops white and cover the branches and greenery full of powder. The skies were bright blue and the sun shone every day. (though it was freezing!!) MWL chose the best photgrapher, Helen Norman, to shoot the story. I'm not just being politely complimentary, her work is to die for, her photos are magical. No other words. Pure M-A-G-I-C. I was floored looking at the shots on the monitor. I've been a long time admirer having seen her work in other shelter mags, so to to have her photographing mine, well, that was just the bees knees. My boys adored her too and wondered where she was today. I think they thought she moving in. The best part about Helen though, is that she has every reason to have an ego and she has none. As down to earth and genuine as they come. I have a feeling she leaves every job friends with the people she just photographed.
I also worked with with two very talented, creative, and super kind women from MWL (Hi Tara! Hi Geri!). I'll be forever grateful that they saw something in our home that made them want to capture it at Christmas time. I appreciate all they did to make it the prettiest it has ever been while fully respecting my style and letting me take the lead with the decorations (though they made everything so much better, just wait till you see what they did with the playroom!) and involving me in all the decision making. I feel they made every effort to show our home the way we live in it and the way we celebrate this time of year. For me, I will cherish that this moment in our lives was documented in such a special way. Christmas is my favorite time of year, it is when I love our home most. I'm looking forward to sharing it with others and as a midwestern girl, I'm especially honored that it will be in their magazine! Heaven help me though, I can't stand to wait a whole year!!
I've been asked on Instagram, so I will go ahead and say it here too, Midwest Living has national distribution so if you live in the US you should be able to find it, it just might be easier if you are in the midwest. Just in case you can't and want to be sure you see the issue, you can subscribe here.
ps. it is so difficult to post my own images now that I've seen what our home can look like. just saying. they will have to do for now. boo.