OUR SPACE ON IKEA FAMILY LIVE

Welcome! To the time in my life where nothing at all is even remotely realistic. None of it! The life I am living these days, it should not be legal. This July was stupidly fun.

Over the last week and change a lot has happened at la casa del Holbrook. We had Ikea come by to shoot our home for the winter issue of their Ikea Family Live magazine, we had Brandon's parents over for a quick visit, we had packing for a move and phone calls with movers, we had brokers showing our apartment at three minutes notice... and then we moved! And then we unpacked! On the plus side, I have done practically nothing all month long but spruce up apartments, which has been heavenly. It turns out tearing up a place then putting it back together is a little bit my specialty. Who knew?! Barry's new here but already he's all, "You cats be nuts." It hasn't been the most stable environment for a new adopted... deer... I suppose. This morning Brandon set Huck up with a small bowl of mini marshmallows for breakfast, and I keep thinking today is Friday. This is how we are doing these days. Moving right along.

I want to tell you about Ikea! Did you know Ikea has a magazine? I didn't, and now I do. It's a quarterly deal, in it they profile various creative types and their spaces. Pretty nifty. They emailed out of the blue, they were going to be in the city, last minute opening, etc etc etc, could they shoot our place for the cover? And I said sure! I mean, we're moving in a week... but... sure! The deal is they come over + take a look at what you got, swap a few things out for their Ikea counterparts (you know, because this is an Ikea magazine), style it to hell and back, and then take a bunch of pictures. And then you're like, What do I do with all these throw pillows? (Fun problem to have.)

I was most excited because I was dying to see what a professional stylist could do with the space. We have (had, (wee! Brooklyn!)) a real funky layout, heaven knows I had no idea what to do with it. I like to decorate, but I have no idea what I'm doing. When the team showed up--they were the kindest, most polite group of jet-lagged Brits I've ever met--they immediately got to work taking our whole house completely apart, and ironing all our sheets. It was amazing! Having never been part of a professional interiors shoot before, I had no idea just how much crazy they involve. So much clutter just out of every frame. Four mugs of tea on the floor just left of the sofa, and out of the shot five empty cardboard boxes stacked to the ceiling. So cool to see it in person. And it's amazing too to see how differently a styled corner looks in real life versus on camera. What looks visually pleasing in a photo is actually quite a mess in the flesh. Soooo many throw pillows. I pretty much sat there with my mouth agape, soaking it all up while they worked, also saying Can I get you a glass of water? and Would you like a bagel? at regular intervals. What a cool experience.

A few photos of what the place looked looked like during:

(These photos were taken on my cell phone, Buster Lord Voldemort (that's his name)).

And after:

(Taken on my nice camera after they left, before we moved. Our place looked really pretty for about five minutes. :)

And now we are in Brooklyn! More on that tomorrow. Right now it is time for Neighborhood Exploratory Pizza Expedition, Part III. Important things.