Olive & Love on the Cover of Country Living Magazine

A dream come true... My shutter wall is going to be featured in Country Living Magazine!  It is scheduled to be on the cover of the April issue and should hit the newsstands March 13th.  I received an e-mail last June, while excited beyond belief, I couldn't fathom what I was reading and assumed my husband or friend invented the e-mail but in fact it was Jourdan Crouch, senior editor from Country Living.  A few e-mails were exchanged and then I didn't hear from them again until December.

Country Living is my mom's favorite magazine.  She has saved every issue and has stacks and stacks in her garage.  See?  I come by my hoarding issues genetically.  Anyhow, I think my mother had nearly given up on them calling back and blamed it on my misspelling of the word dining room.  Or is it dinning room?  I always forget.

The first Saturday in January, Country Living Stylist Natalie Warady arrived on a delayed flight from New York.  We (Dan, Natalie and I) had dinner at Campo, a short tour of downtown Reno (complete with multiple Elvis's) then fondue at The Chocolate Bar.

Sunday we opened a plethora of boxes filled with goodies.  After a quick trip to Pottery Barn for some dishware we met Photographer Bjorn Wallander and assistant Ching for a late lunch on the beach at the Hyatt in Tahoe.  We had planned to go on a hike, but opted for hamburgers instead.  Kind of the opposite but oh so yummy.

 It was an unusually warm day and it felt very much like spring, except for the lack of snow on the mountains.  Natalie and I then met with Aaryn Walker, owner of The Red Chair here in Reno.  She's been a helpful participant in the process and would send me messages of encouragement as I prepared for this exciting event.

Monday morning was the scheduled shoot date.  Everyone arrived between 9 and 9:30, giving us some time to get the kiddos off to school and for me to wash and dry my hair (quite a process).

While Natalie got to work arranging the flowers, (shipped in by Jenny Barker from Magical Blooms)  I started a little fashion show, trying on about 20-30 outfits while restraining the urge to give up and run screaming to J-Crew.

I finally settled on a pale yellow blouse, olive green sweater, light grey skinny cords and cute little slipper shoes.

I did my make up while sending pics to my friend Deniece to give me the thumbs up (or thumbs down).  ...more blush...more lip color...

The photo for the cover took the longest.  These guys are hard workers and total perfectionists.  Sometimes a flower needed a micro millimeter adjustment.  It impressive to watch them work and now I have a greater appreciation for the photos I see in magazines.  You can see in the above picture how my kitty Bella was a huge help.

All photos went straight to Bjorn's laptop, which made the shot complete with the Country Living title on top and UPC code in the bottom right corner.

When it came down to shooting my picture, I wasn't as nervous as I was in trying to find an outfit.  In fact I found the whole thing quite humorous.  Here I am, in my dining room, getting my photo taken by a world renown photographer for a feature article in a national magazine.  I kept giggling so it wasn't hard to smile.  Bjorn made me feel exceptionally comfortable as his natural smile was evident behind the camera.

Overall I had an amazing time.  Natalie was so much fun.  She takes pictures more then I do!  Here is a photo I took of her taking a picture of the full moon.

I'm so thankful for an opportunity for a dream come true.  I've always wanted my home to appear in a  magazine.  And to think that Jourdan found my blog all on her own!

I want to give a shout out to my life long friend Jennifer Schleicher, for sitting me down three years ago and teaching me how to start a blog.  Thank you Jen!