Well. That was a whirl wind.

Whoa. We're on the victory side of four days of INSANE home improvement, followed by three days of styling and photographing with the very talented folks from Country Living, and finally-- our house is quiet.

It was an exhilarating/miserable/awesome week. It was like we were running our very own reality television show-- how many pillows could my mom make in a day?? How many boulders could my dad unearth from the garden in a week?? How quickly could we re-design my living room? How fast could I re-upholster nine outdoor chairs? And by god! How late is the nearest hardware store open???

And then just like that-- the people from Country Living arrived and whirled through the house-- tweaking this and adjusting that, with buckets and buckets of flowers, and lots of cute tchotchkes. It was fascinating and fun to see our house through someone else's eyes-- the stylist did a bunch of things I'd never even thought of-- brought in colors I'd never imagined and added little accents that made me think, "Of course. Why didn't I think of that??" (Like euro-shams on our master bed... DUH!)

So now there are two bummers. The first: I've got to go out and buy a bunch of euro-shams, and possibly invest in some red linen towels, which won't be cheap. The second: I'm not allowed to publish any of their photos until the piece airs (not until Spring 2016!!!) but I did attempt to recreate a couple of their shots, which I'll post over the next few days. Sadly my styling skills don't compare, nor do my photography talents... But you'll get the gist.