Our Home Tour In Better Homes & Gardens August 2017!!

28 Jul Our Home Tour In Better Homes & Gardens August 2017!!

I am SO THRILLED to be writing my first post on my redesigned website, and ECSTATIC to announce that we are August 2017’s home tour in Better Homes & Gardens Magazine!

It’s really hard to believe that I am typing these words, as I have dreamed of this moment for years! BHG kindly sent me a copy the week before the magazine came out, and I squealed out loud when I saw the opening photo of the eight-page article. I mean, pinch me. And for the first page to be a photo of my babies and I…all the emotions.

Even the blip in the Table of Contents is adorable and made me a little teary. (I’m going to apologize in advance for the cell phone images. When a national magazine is taking photos of your home, there is really no time for a fancy camera. 🙂 )

I found out Fall 2016 that BHG was sending a team to my home in Fort Worth, Texas to photograph our home for the magazine, so you can imagine my delight when at Thanksgiving last year, I made a shocking discovery.

We went to my parent’s house for Thanksgiving dinner, and while feeling sentimental about my childhood home, I located and opened up my old Barbie house I had carefully crafted linens for (out of Kleenex, no less – see this page for more about that 🙂 ). As I reminisced, I found some miniature, painstakingly created Better Homes & Gardens magazines, along with a letter inside a tiny envelope that said,

“Dear Better Homes & Gardens, please subscribe me to your magazine.

                                                                                                      Love, Barbie”

I don’t remember making these Lilliputian items, but it was so funny to reflect on the winding path that led me here. Clearly, design and creating has always been very important to me. I just had no idea what a huge part it would play in my life, and I’m so grateful!

In April, a team from BHG showed up at my home, and we were so excited! We had been prepping for months, cleaning and sprucing, and planting, so it was very surreal for the shoot to finally be happening.

The team was greeted with a sign on the door.

And before we knew it, our Garden Room was filled with props and flowers.

The flowers came in boxes, which was so cool. Kind of reminds me of being a kid and watching “I Love Lucy” and seeing flowers delivered in boxes. There was no bow around them or anything, haha, but it was neat to see.

Pictured below is Jessica Thomas (loved watching her work her magic!), who styled our shoot, and her darling assistant, Lauren Hedrick.

It was pretty methodical how we shot. They started at the front of the house and worked their way through. Not every room in our house was photographed, but it was interesting to watch the process and note every detail. Once a shot is set up, it gets tweaked and tweaked until it is just right!

The team was so so good to us! There was a couple of days for prep so the team could gather props and plants from local stores, we shot for four days, and then there was a clean up and return day. Everyone was very understanding of the fact that we are an active family really living in the house during the shoot. 🙂

Below, one of the stylists, Mike Grady, is talking so sweetly with my little K and getting to know her better. This girl has her own sense of style and loves dresses over leggings!

To further emphasize how kind this great group of people was to us, I was so touched that they set out this little stack of treats along with a dear note to celebrate what I call my “TGIA Day”. (TGIA = Thank God I’m Alive) Fifteen years ago, I was in a car accident that nearly took my life, and it took me quite awhile to recover. Every year on April 18th, I celebrate this day with my family, and this year, BHG’s team celebrated with me. I was very, very touched.

The kids were thrilled to be included in the photos, and since the August issue is BHG’s “family issue”, they got lots of opportunity! A similar photo to the one below is featured in the magazine, but I love her happy little face in this one.

David Tsay, the super talented photographer, was so sweet to show the kids their images.

As we moved through the house taking photos, you could see the story come together.

The last day of the shoot, we worked on the photo you see as the opener. Meagan Bechtel did my hair and makeup for me, which was such a fun treat!

She did a great job, and I was so happy to get to work with her! I felt so pretty and put together, which was nice.

The stylists set out new art tools for the kids to use during the playroom session, and it was a bit hard at times to get them to do certain things – look here, do this – because they were so involved in creating their work! 🙂

Getting this shot right definitely took the longest! As you can imagine, getting four little people to take the perfect picture is quite the feat! It took lots of direction!

They did such a terrific job though, I was so proud of them!

We took some great pics of the whole family, but none of them made this issue. You may see them at some point in another mag!

There is no way I could have done this without my Kent! Always the steady cheerleader!

In fact, the day we finished shooting, I had a sitter so Kent and I went to relax for a bit after everyone had left! We reflected on the ups and down of the last six years renovating the house, and what an amazing experience the shoot had been.

When it was time for the team to go, we were so sad. It was a joy to have this talented group in our house, and I will always be grateful to them for being a part of this exciting event in our lives!

I couldn’t talk about this experience without mentioning the amazing writer who penned our story, Paige Porter Fischer. Amy Panos, the wonderful home editor at BHG, told me I would love her, and she was so right! We talked and talked and talked, and I think her writing reflected the fact that she had a real feel for our style and who we are as a family.

The August issue is on newsstands now, and I hope you will read it and enjoy it! We are so thrilled to share our story with you!

Instagram

Before I close this post, I wanted to thank Michael Livesay-Wright from Lola Lorena who masterfully designed my new site! He so patiently listened to all of my ideas and notes and tweaks, and I am so grateful to him and his wife, Yvette, for all of their support. Lola Lorena designs websites, logos, custom paperie, and a host of other creative efforts. I HIGHLY recommend their work!

Please click around and explore the new A Storied Style, and if you would like, please subscribe to my site by entering your email in the subscription box. That way, you will get an email notification when I write a new article. 🙂 Please note: you will have to confirm your subscription – an email will come to you with very clear and very easy instructions.

If Instagram is more your thing, you can follow me here.

I’m still working on the site and adding to it (I have about three years of Portfolio work to add), but I hope you like the new look! If you notice anything that is not working correctly, or you have an idea on how the site could work better for you, please leave that information in the comments. I’m always very happy to get this feedback! Many of you have been reading here for years, and I am so grateful to you for your support!

Next post will be some tricks of the trade, if you will, that I learned when BHG was here. I discovered a few ways they make these photos look so perfect. Can’t wait to share!   😉

Until the next story.

xo, G