A Few Magazine Features...

We were really excited this past month or so to see our work featured in a few different spring magazines. We were in the June issue of Romantic Homes along with the lovely Amy, from Maison Decor. It was fun getting to see some of our chalk art featured along with photos from Jamie's baby shower and our porch and master bedroom.

 Also my copy of Celebrating Everyday Life with Jennifer Carroll arrived. It is so thick and a gorgeous magazine. Honestly, if feels more like a coffee table book than a magazine. It was fun seeing our lemonade stand from last summer in print.

And also, Matt and Meredith's kitchen makeover that we featured last year on our blog was in Consumer Reports. They did such an amazing job updating their kitchen and it was so exciting to see it in such a big magazine. Our Barnes and Noble had it on one of their center displays with tons of copies out! (If you are new to our blog you have to see the before and after shots of their kitchen. You won't believe the transformation!) This one was fun for me too, because along with using our photos they asked me to write the text for a couple of words.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We spent most of ours packing. I can't wait to have this part of the move behind us!

Better Homes and Gardens is Out!

 I am so excited! Not quite a year ago we received an e-mail from an editor at Better Homes and Gardens saying they were interested in photographing our home for their 2012 Christmas Ideas issue and a few days later spoke with her on the phone. As a girl, I never dreamed of being a movie star or any of other "normal" things,  I dreamed of being the first girl in the NBA (I snort now at such a thought) and of having my home be featured in a magazine...yeah, I was a very strange kid. =) And even though it was my dream I never thought it would actually happen. Even after speaking to them, I kept thinking it was too good to be true or at some point they would call and say they had changed their mind. After they came and photographed our home back in January I still kept thinking maybe once they saw the finished photos they would realize our little townhome didn't belong in a magazine and tell me they'd made a mistake, so it wasn't until I saw a proof earlier this summer and then saw the actual magazine that I finally believed it! It really was a dream come true. I couldn't get over how easy the photographer and stylist made it. I am so grateful for not only the opportunity but for what an amazing experience it was!

Here are the first two pages of our ten-page spread! I can't believe how little Lorelei looks!

The magazines we found in VA look like this:

And the ones we found in NH looked like this:

You can also read it online here.

Two of my favorite bloggers, Marian of Miss Mustard Seed and Melaine of My Sweet Savannah's gorgeous homes are featured in the magazine as well!

Also, we've restocked our "As for me and my house..." pillow covers:

I hope you all are having a lovely week!

Fresh Style Magazine and Give Thanks

I have my photography Q&A post almost finished but just need to add in a few more things. I had hoped to have it ready to go off this morning but unfortunately although it's completely written I haven't had time to transfer the photos of my camera and lenses onto my computer so I can upload them into the post. I may have it ready to go tonight but if not then hopefully tomorrow morning first thing!

Anyway, in the meantime I wanted say a thanks to Karen Callaway of Fresh Style Magazine for writing a wonderful little article about us that was in the Fresh Style Holidays Issue that came out this week. My mom picked up a few copies at the grocery store and it was fun to open up and see. If you are wondering about the main shot of the living room and thinking it didn't look like our home, that's because it is my sister Jamie and her husband Josh's house taken when it was set up for Lola's first birthday party. I wouldn't mind stealing that room for myself, though, if I could! =)

If you are looking for some fun holiday decorating ideas I would recommend picking up a copy. There are quite a few project ideas in there that I cannot wait to try! And two of my favorite bloggers, Disney from Ruffles and Stuff and Kate from Centsational Girl are in there as well!


Also, although we will also be introducing some new fall and winter items once they are ready we also have officially started restocking some of our best selling fall and winter items from last year. We finally have the first set of give thanks pillow covers finished and available. 

We've already sold quite a few but there are still some left. We will continue to keep you posted as more and more items are finished and ready to be listed.

Also, I haven't forgotten about August's quote. I hopefully will get that finished soon and will be able to post it this weekend.

I hope you all have a fabulous Thursday! Hopefully I will be back either this evening or tomorrow morning with the finished photgraphy post.

Better Homes and Garden's Shoot and Hot Chocolate Bar

 

A couple of months ago we got an e-mail from Better Homes and Gardens asking if we would be interested in having our home photographed for their Christmas Ideas Issue. It seemed too good to be true and to be honest I kept thinking it might fall through but the last two days we had a stylist from Better Homes and Gardens here and today we had a photographer and a second stylist here as well! It was so exciting getting to watch such talented people work their magic and they were incredibly sweet and easy going and so wonderful with the girls. I had feared that Lillie would not want to have her photo taken when it was time but instead she hopped right up in her window seat and smiled and posed and did everything the photographer asked - he was so good with her! At one point she even had him sliding down our stairs "on his bum-bum" like her and he pushed her around on his cart once he was done! I can't thank them enough for making it such an easy and enjoyable experience. Now for the hard part - we have to wait 8 or 9 months for the magazine to come out!

Now that it is over, I have to say I am exhausted. It has been so crazy trying to get everything finished up in time. Once they left yesterday I started taking down all of the Christmas decorations. I am just about done and then I can start figuring out what to do to fill all the bare holes. In some ways it is such a good feeling to have it all down and to get everything clean and organized but it also does make all of the rooms seem so empty and cold now.

I didn't take any photos while they were here yesterday but I did take some photos last week of the hot cocoa station I added in our dining room.

 

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

The Last Day of Christmas...And New Items in Our Shop!

 

Whew! Today is finally the last day of Christmas here! I think poor Lillie is so confused. I can't wait to tell you more about it but for now I have a million things to finish up before the photographer and stylist arrive but I did want to quickly let you all know our Oversized Ruler Growth Chart is now available in our store as well as a new pillow!  And if you have e-mailed me I promise as soon as today is over I am going to start getting caught up so you will hear back from me very soon!

Here is our Oversized Ruler Growth Chart:

(Please Note: The price of the ruler factors in the extra cost of shipping an oversized item. Your actual shipping charge will be the same as if you purchased any other item in our shop).

 

And here is our Burlap Heart Pillow with a Ribbon:

'

And Without a Ribbon:

Have a wonderful Monday!

A Magazine Shoot and our January Family

As I mentioned last week, we have some exciting news. A couple of months ago we received an e-mail from an editor about photographing our home for their Christmas issue! It was a magazine I have purchased and read in the past so I was absolutely thrilled and so excited, to say the least! They will be coming later this month to shoot everything so our Christmas stuff will remain up for another two to three weeks. In fact, I still have several projects that I still need to finish. So, the posts I do over the next few weeks will still be kind of "Christmasy" or there will probably at least still be Christmas lights in the background. =) I didn't want you all to think I was that crazy person, though, that never takes down their Christmas lights.  I will share more about it once it gets a little closer and will definitely give all of the details after they come and shoot everything. I am going crazy trying to finish all sorts of projects now - ahhhh!!!!!

We also have another new thing we are excited about. This year, each month we are going to choose a different family/organization/cause to donate a percentage of EVERY sale made that month. At the beginning of each month we will share where it will be going.

I had already planned in my head who we were going to donate a portion of all of January's sales to when I saw a Facebook post on my friend, Ashley's wall about a little boy that she had recently photographed that completely touched me. I couldn't get it out of my head all day yesterday and seeing how we hadn't announced it yet on our blog or our facebook page we decided to switch it. So, this month a portion of all our sales will be going to Ethan and his family.  Little Ethan had surgery to remove a tumor above his eye on December 22 and was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH), a rare cancer-like disease that affects 1:200,000 children. Ethan will most likely be starting chemo on Friday, which is his 3rd birthday. My heart just breaks for him and his family. If you would like to know more about Ethan and his family click here. Please keep him in your prayers.

Also, we have restocked some of our Briar Hats in black:

I can't believe how young Lillie looks in these pictures. She's grown up so much!

I am finishing up a free download for January and hope to have it available tomorrow.

I hope you all have had a wonderful start to 2012!

A Magazine Mention, The Lorelei Tutu and a Winner

 

A few days ago someone commented on our blog about seeing us mentioned in the newest issue of Romantic Country. I assumed they had just gotten us confused with someone else. Well, Monday night I took Lillie to the bookstore for a little bit and I flipped through a copy of the Fall issue of Romantic Country and was completely shocked and thrilled to see Dear Lillie mentioned on page 20! I was also excited to see Lu's gorgeous home featured in this issue and my lovely friends Anne and Kat is in it as well. Anyway, to say we are grateful and excited would be an understatement. I have to admit, though, I got credit for making the tutus (which my mom does) and the hats (which my sister, Dana does) but fortunately they were equally as excited to see Dear Lillie in a magazine and Lillie's photo so they didn't care! =)

On another note I have tried a couple of evenings now to photograph our newest tutu, The Lorelei, but still haven't gotten the shot I want. It will be available when we reopen our shop on September 1st. I love the soft, vintage look it has! It is ivory and has a pixie cut and is accented with a muted rose and lace ribbon. Here are a few photos of Lillie wearing it:

 

I tried to get some shots of both girls wearing it but didn't get any good ones.

Enough of this!

Lola was much happier snuggling with Mimi!

 

I am hoping I will get some shots that show the tutu a little bit better soon!


And now for the winner of out tutu giveaway:

HILARY!

CONGRATULATIONS! Send us an e-mail at dearlillie@hotmail.com letting us know if you would like the gray Lillabel Tutu or the Hot Pink one and your address and we will get it shipped on out to you!

Thank you all for entering. We have several more giveaways planned for the coming weeks!

I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday. I will be back either tomorrow or Friday with the first of two tutorials from projects in Jamie's Great Room. I have all of the photos ready to go I just need to finish up the text.