I T ' S O U T !

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last year we were approached by Better Homes & Gardens to have our yard renovation featured in their quarterly publication Refresh Magazine...well it's finally out on newsstands today!
our yard was shot last May...i think i was 3 months pregnant then. look at us now...parents of a 6 month old little girl! 
It's a much bigger article than i had thought! 3 spreads worth! i'm just a little bummed out they didn't mention designsmitten anywhere...i was looking forward to lots of new web traffic...oh well. tell your friends! over all it was such a fun experience...it really got us motivated to make a bunch of updates and really tidy things up in preparation for the shoot (though things have been updated a bit more since!). we got to meet some really fantastic people who were here styling, prepping, shooting...a job well done by all.

here's a few behind the scenes shots from the shoot way back in may 2013

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N I C E F I N I S H

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well the floor finish is lovely...while it's not exactly the look we were going for. there seemed to be such slim pickins for stain colors and then throw in the wrench of our wood being so old and yellow (110 year old southern yellow pine) that any color aside from dark brown would be tricky. It changes in different light but it goes from gray to blue to green...all pretty cool.

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T O O C U T E T H U R S D A Y

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E N O U G H A L R E A D Y

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i never thought i'd be sick of tomatoes but this is the 5th or 6th major harvest of cherry tomatoes this year....i can't even think of anything else to use them in!

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P R E T T Y C L O S E

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its been a tough few days around the living/dining room...the floors have been sanded, stain samples applied labored over and chosen (all while i live at a hotel with our 2 cats for 4 nights!), and final coating applied. 
here's a pic of the stain without it's finish coat of water based poly. the stain's been tough. we always had a vision of a gray wood floor...but the selection of gray stain is shockingly limited. hello? we really only had one gray to choose from but looked at some naturals and browns as well. so we took a chance on the one and only gray...it looks quite different in different light...blue in the evening, greenish at night and slightly more gray during the day. i guess the 'southern yellow pine-ness' is really showing through. plus our floors are so old (over 100 years) and the grain and knots so dense that it's not really taking the color as much as we'd like. i think under normal circumstances we'd be flipping out, but i guess this being kind of a rush job (because of a baby on the way and 30 people in my house for the shower in a month) makes for a more accommodating and relaxed perspective.
stay tuned for more....

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N E W A D D I T I O N

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while away on our vacation we stopped in this cute shop in providence...and picked up this awesome yellow squirrel. he's diggin' his new home in the yard!

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F R O N T D O O R . . . . D O N E !

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well the project that ate the summer of 2013 is finally done! what an ordeal! a bit of an anticlimactic finale but glad to be done with this project. it turned out to be way more than we bargained for even with the 'help' of a way overpriced carpenter...who really didn't do much expect talk and spend too much time making excuses. it's done!!

 

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T O O C U T E T U E S D A Y

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T O O C U T E T U E S D A Y

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T O O C U T E T U E S D A Y

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T E M P O R A R I L Y W O R S E

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it always looks worse but gets better when chris gets his hands on things. our doors are on week 6 after a 3 week promise from our contractor (who i will not recommend unless he pulls off a miracle). chris has been working hard with all his crazy materials and tools to make the surround smooth as glass. let's hope the doors are as good!

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M O L D I N G S U R G E R Y

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I N B L O O M

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mid june edition

vegetable patch....never really looks amazing.

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S U M M E R ' S P R O J E C T

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this summer's project is finally the double front doors. i remember the day we saw this house...this was the feature that really drew me in from the get-go. probably because we had seen so many houses that had these historic features removed long ago.
we're having the doors themselves stripped, repaired, repainted, and rehung by a carpenter. so temporarily our home looks like a crackhouse with  plywood doors.
while the repairs on the doors are happening chris is working on stripping, repairing, rebuilding, repainting the surrounding trim and frame. not an easy task especially considering there's lots of termite damage under all that paint.

termite buffet

the doors waiting to be loading into our carpenters van

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W I N D O W B O X S T A L K I NG

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you all know i'm always keeping my eyes peeled for a fabulous windowbox to photograph. this past few days it's been so gorgeous out (80 degrees in may?!) i've been ridding my bike to the train in brooklyn heights....which is prime windowbox stalking territory. granted, many of these are professionally done by caretakers, landscapers, and florists (it is filthy rich brooklyn heights) but they are absolutely gorgeous.

amaizng planters at this house...they always have the most gorgeous things going on

omg....perfection

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T H E B I G D A Y

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yesterday a small crew came to our house to photograph our yard/garden for a new quarterly magazine. which is why we've been going nuts in the yard the past 5 weeks trying to get it ready for it's closeup. i was contacted back in the fall about doing a little story about our place and tuesday the day finally arrived!
we had a fabulous stylist named brice, who i became fast friends with as she lives right in the neighborhood :-) , the photographer tria giovan (check out her other photo work here), and her assistant morgan. they started at 8:30 am and worked tirelessly til 5:30, cleaned and packed everything up for another hour, and done! it was exhausting...and really cool. i'm glad it's over!

shooting the little herb garden

shooting the back of the house with table all set up and pretty

tria, our photographer and her assistant controlling the harsh light with cards

brice the stylist had every option imaginable

photography gear took up much of our living room

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