So, as I’ve said on more than one occasion, it’s been a roller coaster year, and this was the cherry on top of it all.  I’ll take you back to the beginning.

You know those days when you’re just randomly eating minutes by browsing the www? I was having one of those days, but instead of getting lost in the bowels of Perez Hilton, his website, not his anatomy, I was being semi-productive.  I found my way onto the website of one Sherry Hart:

a fabulous Atlanta interior designer.  I have no idea how I got there, I just know I got there.

So, Sherry has been published about a bajillion times and I just thought I’d ask for a little advice from this rock star designer.  Not only did Sherry actually respond to my query (fairly rare), she forwarded my website and blog to Lisa Mowry, a regional editor for a ton of big time design magazines and what do you know, Lisa emailed me too!  This internet is a crazy thing when it actually works!

Lisa started reading my blog (pretty amazing when people you’re not related to actually read the thing) and discovered our shared Wake Forest-hood….weirder still, she was at Wake with my big sister, Louise.  They didn’t really know each other – that would just make this story too impossible – but you know, sometimes those little coincidences just make these things seem meant to be.

Lisa, who although I haven’t actually met her yet, will have a place in my last will and testament, took a shining to my kitchen and submitted it to Better Homes and Gardens!! 

 Even if the story were to end there, it would be a pretty good one….BUT NO my friends, we’re not even half-way there.

One night a couple of months later, I was on fire with yet another bout of creativity and sitting in my leather recliner watching tv (it’s a cool looking recliner, OKAY), when I get the text telling me that I was approved for a feature with BH & G!

You can imagine, the next couple of hours were spent in a frenzy of calls and texts while I let everyone I even vaguely know that I was going to be in a NATIONAL MAGAZINE!!!!!  And then I let all of my clients know that my rates had pretty much quintupled.  Just joking.

So then the wait began for the photoshoot as my laser eye scanned all of the booby traps in my house that would prove to anyone involved that I was a fraud and DID NOT in fact belong in BH & G.  Oh Lawdy….there were A LOT of booby traps, not even including my general slovenliness and lack of organization.

So the prep began….

I had one of these upside down booby (that’s the third time in two paragraphs that I’ve used the word booby) lights in my kitchen. 

Not good….remedied that with some recessed cans.

The painted wood surrounding my 24” oven in a 30” space finally got a nice stainless steel frame(thanks Sally Spiegel and B and H Metals!).

My dining room carpet tiles had long been eaten or had all sorts of other indignities done to them by my dogs, so about three tiles were left.  Enter a brand new carpet.  The mudroom was nothing short of tragic…enter some matching bins to hide all my junk in.

Then I started thinking….they’re just taking pictures of my kitchen and dining room, but they have to walk through my living room to get to the kitchen and dining room, so that pretty much as to be made over too right?  Why don’t we just repaint the entire downstairs, rejiggy the built-ins, and replace that schlumpy sofa while we’re at it?

                               Still-life with schlumpy sofa and dog

Done, done and done! 

Admittedly, that white sofa needs to get out of here pronto….I have my limits and although it looks terrific, I’m sure it won’t for long.  In fact, the blanket I threw over it already has a strawberry jelly stain on it…oops…stupid jelly.

Seems ridiculous, I know, but I have to say I am so thoroughly enjoying have a snazzy living room to go with my snazzy kitchen that the stupidity of redoing a room for a photoshoot in the next room over has been lost on me.  Sort of like having on clean underwear in case you get in a wreck….nobody’s probably ever going to see it, but you never know. Sort of?  Maybe not.

This takes us up to D-Day when fancy people come to my house to take pics….that deserves its on post on its own day.

Stay tuned…..