Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Shoot Days 1 & 2

Well, "Christmas" is finally here again!  (Below, the boxes that have been arriving at our house for the BHG shoot)

 Better Homes & Gardens Assistant Editor Joanna Linberg and stylist Jessica Thomas arrived at our house yesterday!! Joanna is writing the article & assisting Jessica in the set up, and Jessica is running the show.   The first thing we did was walk through the house & answer all the questions Jessica had.  She's incredibly detailed  (She even made sure we had enough chalk to write on the fridge!)  and I am floored by how well she nailed down my style.  (She's insanely talented & I'll be doing a post on her & her work soon!!)

Jessica checked out our wardrobe options and we didn't have what she was looking for :)  Since it's a Christmas shoot, of course we should look super-cozy & wintry but I'm not really fitting into any of my chunky winter sweaters right now and Dave's sweaters aren't so wintry.  So our task was to go shopping last night for winter sweaters. 

But before we did our family clothes shopping, Jessica needed some extra pieces for styling.  So I took Jessica & Joanna to some of my favorite shops:  On a Whim & the Old Lucketts Store.    (When they said they were going shopping I totally invited myself along!! I was way too excited to stay home ;)  Our first stop was On a Whim (below) owned by Donna Troxler who was so kind to let us borrow the items for the shoot free of charge.  We found the most beautiful ironstone pieces to use on the tabletops & to supplement the whiteware in my kitchen.  Donna's store is full of one-of-a-kind treasures & I never leave empty-handed.  Here's a pic of Joanna & Jessica choosing some pretty pieces:

Next up was Old Lucketts Store.  We were greeted by a smiling Lisa (below right) who always makes me feel so welcome.  They told us that during the snowstorms some of the women who worked at Lucketts had a  few-day-long slumber party in the Design House to ride out the storm & get the place shovelled out for customers!  (They had good food & wine & watched movies- how fun is that?!!)  Jessica found more goodies at Lucketts (how could you not?) and it was time to say goodbye.  Heather & Lisa helped check us out & were sweet as can be to let me take a pic with my phone:

     

When we got home, Joanna & Jessica headed out to run errands:  meeting with the bakery & a trip to Target among other things.  Dave & I headed to the mall on a search for winter sweaters.  It was bleak.  The stores have moved onto Spring clothes.  But we did it!  We found some good winter clothes. 

This morning after getting some of the custom things I'd had made by my workroom, I headed to my mommy work-out class with Christian & Justin.  When we got home at around 10:30, this is what we found: 

Joanna & Jessica had been hard at work & had turned our family room into a prop room!  And my laundry room (below) is now a flower shop!

 

Oh my goodness!!  Check out all these paperwhites:

And the cabbages:

The cut flowers were delivered locally and the Christmas tree & wreaths and greenery came from North Carolina.  They flew into the airport! ha!

My friend Amy (below) who works as a landscape designer at Merrifield Garden Center has been hard at work...

...  growing these:

Aren't they amazing???

WOW.   So today we pretty much just started setting everything up.  (I saw "we" but I was pretty worthless-  the baby does not want to be put down.)  They've also been incredibly sweet with Christian as he follows them - the "Homes and Gardens Ladies" as he says- around. Jessica let him eat some of the props today (clementines) and I think he's got a new favorite fruit.  (Joanna & Christian below): 

So, for now, the tree is up & decorated and the food is here.  (mm mm mm!) The rest of the things will be set up tomorrow when the photographer arrives.  And I'm ready for bed!!!  I'll keep you posted on the rest of the shoot, and Michele from My Knotting Hill's Guest Blogger Before & After post will be up later on this week!

xoxo,

lauren