BH&G Christmas Photo Shoot...The Beginning!

Monday morning we began the week long photo shoot with the tear down of much of my original Christmas decor only to redo everything with fresh greens and to "tweak and twist" to make things camera ready before the BH&G Style Director arrives to do all the final "zshooshing"...

I would like to introduce the initial "Style Squad"...for a project this BIG it takes a team! By Thursday there will be 7 or 8 of us in all...but most of the initial work will have been done by Hilary (our fearless leader on the far left)... Hilary is an amazing talent with years of experience running design-oriented projects and photo shoots and she's a "soon to be co-author" on a design book)...plus.. she is one cool chick! She and I have worked together on some other photo shoots in my home and garden in years past and it's fun having her around!



 Dean, Designer Extraordinaire who dressed in pink today to match my living room! Her background includes stints with Kelly Wearstler, HGTV and Capitol Records. Dean blogs herself at My Little Apartment.com. She also recently opened her own design firm in Chicago but freelances for projects like these once in awhile...lucky me!

Amber, on the far right, was on the hunt for all the items needed for this photo shoot. Not only was she visiting multiple stores she drove MILES out into the country to find the only tree farm willing to sell us a tree post Christmas and then drove it back into the city on the top of her car in hours of traffic! She also ordered all the greens from North Carolina and California...her tree trunk sawing skills are pretty stellar as well! You gotta love a gal who saws in orange suede ankle boots!



and who said designers have it easy?....

Here I am with "the girls"....taking a minute break for a photo op! A minute is really all we have too...there is SO much to do!!! It has taken all four of us two days to get this far!

The new tree...

The backyard patio became the "styling station"...we built wreaths and stored a lot of the greens that arrived...

in big boxes...that filled one corner of the patio...

Dean and Amber ...Green Goddesses...

who are also great with garden tools...

The kitchen hearth is getting some garland...

Hilary, Dean and I worked on getting the hall garland up again...I must say this whole experience feels a little like the movie...Groundhog Day...

My living room is filled with boxes...

and bins...with ornaments fresh off one tree waiting to go on another...

We got the tree up pretty quickly...although it is a very PRICKLY Blue Spruce...I am missing my FRASIER FIR for it's soft branches...although the new tree smells heavenly.... for purposes of the photo shoot it is being placed in my family room with a bit of a different design aesthetic...more on that later...

the best part of the project is seeing (and smelling) the large assortment of white blooms all over my Maison...waiting for use....here is a small sampling...

One side of my basement is brimming with all the elements we may use during the shoot...tbd...it is great to have a selection of almost everything...as you begin to "play" with options...

Tomorrow, the BH&G Style Director.."Monsieur S" arrives to work with the style team to get things ready for the camera crew who arrive on Thursday and Friday....stay tuned! Now I am off to bed...early wake up call tomorrow!

P.S. For more "behind the scenes" click here!