Matthew Mead Magazine, and so a Party

It's here!!

 The postman delivered all the issues I ordered from the publisher

Saturday afternoon at the shop while I was working! 

I will be shipping out all the orders I have sold online 

as well as selling in the shop until I am out of stock. 

The first issue sold out in 36 hours, so this time I ordered

three times as many.  Look for it where ever magazines are sold: 

Walmart, Barnes & Noble, CVS, Walgreens, Publix etc. or visit me.

This is the cover so you know what to look for.  Matthew says it is the 

culmination of his 25 years in the the business, so that makes me extra

proud to be included in this advertisement free issue!

 It is $12.99 an issue and well worth it, for you will find 130 pages of 

decorating~tips, ideas, home tours, and more.  My home is featured and 

there are 12 amazing pages!  

 I was like a kid on Christmas morning when I finally found one of the first stores

to carry it.  Hubby drove me over to pick it up and I couldn't stop smiling, which

made him have the same condition.  I got home, kicked off my boots and socks and 

hopped up on the couch with Tobey and started to take it all in, page by page.

Floored, overwhelmed, humbled....all these emotions swirling inside.

Here is the opener page~what a pretty shot of our dining room chandelier.

I added the strand of amethyst crystal drapery trim and some amethyst drops

to the old French basket chandelier a while back.  When Matthew was shooting

I asked him if he thought I should remove it, but no, he agreed it was what 

made it just a bit more special.  Each shot has a backstory from the day of the 

photo shoot, and some day in the future, perhaps this summer, I will revisit this

magazine photo by photo and tell what was going on behind the scenes.

 For now, I will show just a bit of that day and how it went.

Of course I had cleaned and decorated like a maniac before Matthew arrived

for the photo shoot.  The other times I had been in Romantic Homes I had

taken all the photos myself.  So with nerves on high alert he arrived and 

quickly we settled in to a natural groove.  

No need for nerves, it was turning out to be quite lovely and fun.

 Once we commenced shooting Matthew would shoot a room, then 

when finished he would enter the next room and you could see

his mind just absorbing and deciding what and how he was going to shoot.

 Sylvia and I watched him focus in and shoot a bunch of pics at a time.

My dogs, Dillon and Tobey were taken off premises for the shoot

by Mr. Maison Decor as Tobey likes to bark and Dillon will just

want to sit on the couch and that wouldn't work today.

Justin and Madison's dog Sylvia got to stay and hang as she is a bit more relaxed.  

 Shots from my dining room, living room, master bedroom and bathroom 

all made the cut.  Later I will share out takes as Matthew is giving me 

all of the images he shot that day.  How nice of him, right?

You will see some shots from my master bathroom, different from this

one that I took the day before he arrived.  These closet doors

were a project I was working on right before I opened my shop

about 3 years ago to the day.  Time flies!  

Now they are captured forever in time in this beautiful publication

by Matthew Mead.  I am so honored.

And because I think he is sooo talented, I want to have a magazine launch 

party at the shop to honor him.  I am working on a few things to make the party

special and it will be a tribute to Matthew as well as all the participants in his 

March and April issues.  The invites have gone out to the amazing creatives and soon

we will be gathered together to celebrate this very exciting time for all involved.

It will be coming up soon, and I will be back to share my ideas of how

I turned my shop into a pop-up party location.  Its a design spin off from my 

magazine feature~Reflections of Glamour.