Country Home Magazine Shoot on Cape Cod

 Life is sooo glamorous these days!
During the week, sandwiched between babysitting

for my 2 year old monkey Reeve (which entails peanut butter sandwiches and diaper changes), 
I was invited to be a model and play a "guest" at a photo shoot for Country Home magazine
 by my friend Matthew Mead, the multitalented superstar in the magazine and book industry.  Matthew was producing this segment for CH and the location was 
my friend Sandra's beautiful home on Cape Cod.

 Sandra's home is quite famous now.

It has appeared in several magazines and has a devoted following on

Instagram at her account called Old Silver Shed. 

Even I wrote a blog post about it with lots of pics when I first visited it after 

both of our homes were featured in Matthew Mead's DECORATING magazine together.

(You can read that post here.)

 This house overlooks Old Silver Beach and its simply spectacular inside and out!

The CH shoot was about a summer Pie Party on Cape Cod.  

Just like a little movie, the magazine shoot has a script and Matthew Mead was the producer. 

 He advised me to come in a blue and white gingham shirt and to arrive at noon.

This side porch was to be the setting for the "Pie Party", and it is a porch I know well,

as I have slumbered in the dreamy room that leads out onto the stone pillared porch.

Yup, this is MY ROOM when I stay at Sandra's!! Yummy!!

There are French doors to the right that lead to the side porch.

So when I arrived I walked through my bedroom (lol)

and this was the scene, with the ocean as a backdrop.

While Matthew was getting the props together for the shoot, I grabbed

a pic of him with our hostess.  Matthew was going to have one of the pies

cut up and placed on the antique blue and white plates that all the "guests"

were to gobble up while being photographed. Ha! Have you ever seen 

pictures of people actually eating?  I myself cannot wait to see how we all

look at this Pie Party, eating and laughing at the same time!

Sandra Cavallo, Amy Chalmers, Ellen McHale

One of the other guests is also one of my favorite people, artist Ellen McHale.

I met both Sandra and Ellen through Matthew 

when he was doing his own magazines on decorating several years ago. 

 Flashback to 2015.

This is the night we all met up at a party I threw for Matthew Mead 

for the magazine launch at my old shop Maison Decor.  

Read about that party here.

We had so much fun that night, laughing our heads off.

We have remained good friends and our point of connection is style guru Matthew.

 We aren't supposed to share too much of the actual shoot, but I wanted

to show you part of the styling Matthew did.
 Those antique silver glasses were scooped up by Sandra 
at an antique place and they have quite a story to them. 
 They are sailing trophy glasses from the Beverly Yacht Club.

Her kids are into sailing and she loves anything that has a meaningful story behind it, like I do.

Which is why we both are drawn to using vintage in home decor, its so much more interesting!

 He also used a fabric by the fabric designer Paula Arndt 
that is similar to the one I upholstered my Swedish trundle bed. 

You can order fabrics and samples from her Spoonflower account. 
 I ended up choosing the faded blueberry gingham
at the top for my sofa.  Isn't it pretty? 

You can see it in the background at my dining room table. 
Anyway....I digress.

 Ok, here is one shot including a pie....
but really, look at the porch view!! 

OMG

For the last scene we shot, we were all sitting out on Sandra's lawn in the 

old weathered Adirondack chairs and waiting to be handed plates of pie. 

That will be one of the shots in next summer's issue of Country Home magazine.

Which is something to look forward to after the fall and very long 

New England winter....sigh.

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My Country Home Magazine Feature

 Country Home magazine's April to July 2019 issue is featuring so many great 

country homes, and it is a big thrill to have mine included!  

The story is called "Aged to Perfection" and that is because my country house

is not an old country house, but a prefab that I "aged" with vintage decor accents.

 The photography was done by Duanne Simon, who shot all the homes

in Nora Murphy's best seller, Nora Murphy's Country House Style. 

The story in Country Home was written by Deb Engle who interviewed me 

over the phone for an hour.  She did a beautiful job capturing where my sense

of decorating comes from, and how together with my husband we did the various

DIY projects that changed our house into a "country home".

I have saved Country Home magazine issues from decades ago, as it

was one of my very favorite magazines when I was a young home maker 

and decorator.  I loved the way country decor could give my home 

personal style using older things, inherited things, and unique ways to present

decorating ideas using everyday items, like the cover above illustrates.

And here is a note of personal interest....

Covers from December 2005 and 2007                          
My pal Matthew Mead was a Style Editor for years at Country Home.

He was invited to work there by none other than country decorating icon 

Mary Emmerling!

Many of the magazines I saved had covers he created. 

So COOL!

  Its amazing to think of the points of connection I have with him,

and this is just one more, and it was before we had even met.

Little did I think he would take me to a party for Mary and I would close

out the night sitting on a couch with Mary and Matthew chatting away.

Another super cool thing is that Matthew Mead is working for Country Home

today for a Christmas feature for them.

Its like a freaky full circle moment over here!!

Looking at the list above of Country Home players in 2007,

 I noticed other recognizable names, including talented

Sandra Soria, who wrote my story when I landed the cover of

Romantic Country magazine in the Spring of 2017. 

 Sadly this magazine is no longer being published.  

Which brings me to suggest, if you like particular magazines, 

like Country Home, then please subscribe.

This will help keep a magazine in business, and the price for issues is so 

much less than buying off the shelf.  

The current issue should be in stores where magazines are sold any day now.

Subscribers always get their issues ahead of the stores, and that is how 

I got mine yesterday.  After texting my sister Ellen, 

she went shopping for it and said she couldn't find it anywhere....

and that is why.  So give it another week sis, and you will see it

at Lowes or Home Depot, or at your local drugstore or bookstore.

Then fill out that subscription card and get future issues delivered to your door!

Read about the night we went to Mary Emmerling's party in NYC here.

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