So, I've Got Some Big News . . .

I may have been holding out on you, but I just had to wait until the right time to share my news.  We had some special visitors in the Clark household last week.  Are you ready for this?

BETTER HOMES & GARDENS came to shoot our house!

 

Perhaps I’m supposed to play cool, like I expect these things to happen. . . But, this was a major event for us! (I say “us” because the whole family was involved (more on that later).

So, how did this come about?  Here’s the story. . .

About two months ago, I received an email from a BH&G editor, who had received a link to my blog from one of her good designer friends who thought she should see my house.  (Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Sherry Hart!  She did this without me knowing; now that's a good blog buddy.)  I read the email approximate 278 times and then quickly got over my disbelief and sent her lots of before and after pictures of our home, family shots, etc.  At this point, I decided to be thankful she ever looked at my blog and put it out of my mind.

 

Then, three weeks ago, I received another email from her saying that all of the editors had given it the thumbs up and the photo shoot was a go—and was happening in just 1 ½ weeks!  I, of course, started mentally picking apart my house and everything that needed to be done.  In the end, I decided I didn’t have time to fool with any of it and just had some curtains that I had “stitch-witched” actually sewn with real hems. 

Her email also mentioned that they would be doing some family shots.  My husband was on board and quickly went to get a haircut for his big moment.  I spent some time explaining to my kids how exciting/important this was and with fingers crossed, showed them pictures of other kids in BH&G happily playing in the photographs. 

Lauren Liess (featured last December); photo by Helen Norman

My kids weren’t quite as impressed as I was, so I decided the less I built it up to them, the better.  Our family photo sessions often end with atleast half of us in tears, so I had my doubts. . .

 

Remember our Christmas photo session from last year?  I think this explains my worries. . .

My friend/assistant Katie also became my stylist for the event and we headed to the mall for a marathon shopping trip the weekend before they came.  The email said to wear “non-seasonal” clothing, so we decided on this long gold top, belted with cuffed jeans for the pictures.  Looks simple enough, but a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this decision.  (Did I “blend” with my house?  Did I look stylish enough for a magazine, but casual enough to be hanging out at home?  There’s a lot of pressure when you’re going to be “immortalized” in print!)  Does everyone in the magazine freak out this much?  I surely hope so.

I went shopping with flat hair. . . .Or, maybe it fell after our 3-hour mall excursion.

The day of the shoot arrived and our game plan was for Katie and me to hang out at the house, while my husband kept the troops busy elsewhere.  I had this reoccurring vision of my two-year-old pulling their camera equipment over and figured it was less stressful for everyone if the kids just came in for their pictures later in the day.

We set up bagels and fruit for them, drank coffee and watched an episode of the Real Housewives reunion while we waited for them to get there.  (Somehow, it helped to calm my nerves to watch other people acting crazy. . .)

Waiting for everyone to arrive.  Katie was nice enough to document the experience with her phone camera :)

Alright, this post is getting wordy.  I'm out of commission tomorrow but will post about the details from the day of the shoot on Wednesday. . .  

(to be continued. . . )