Pastoral mural, heirloom roses, romantic wedding tent and Piper

 Its been exactly one month since I last posted, and there is a very good reason

for the delay.  These dogs are running my life, and its just not right. Sure Piper

looks all innocent sitting calmly on the step, but she is a puppy in hyper mode a 

lot of the time.  In between puppy and dog care, we also hosted a funeral for 

my husbands cousin right after the book shoot, started planning a wedding for the 

courtyard in six weeks, as well as getting prepped for doing daycare for baby Reeve.

 Life is getting busier by the second!  So let me explain about the wedding plans,

my son Brandon and his fiance Mimi have decided to take the plunge after almost

ten years of living together.  They recently moved back here from LA, and they

are letting me plan it!! Woohoo!! 

So I came up with the idea of an enchanted courtyard wedding.

 The vows will be said on the upper lawn terrace in front of the arbor.

We will have a tent over the courtyard down below,

for an intimate outdoor wedding dinner after the ceremony at the end of this month.

I found this magical photo of a wedding tent, with a ceiling lined in tulle and tiny

white lights with chandeliers.  Mimi and I love the look, so that is what I plan to create.

The tulle is on order, and I will dedicate a blog post when I make it, so others can do

the same if they wish.  Essentially a rod pocket will be stitched and a nylon cord threaded

through the center of it, and then it will be hoisted up to the center pole and ziptied to that.

Tiny white string lights will be run over the pole framework first, then the sheer tulle will

go over the lights to create a dreamy effect.  I have an old gilded chandelier that I will ask

Mr. Maison Decor to wire and that will hang in the center of our snug 15x15 tent.

This inspiration tent is enormous...I wouldn't be so sure I could do a tent that big, but 

our tent is going to be manageable, or so I predict.  Stay tuned.  

 All of the furniture in the courtyard needs to be relocated to another area so the tent can

be installed and the tables and chairs laid out.  So that is the first part of the courtyard wedding.

But in other areas of our lives we are trying to get a grip on how active the dogs are as they grow.

At first everything was nice and normal, but once Piper was allowed up onto the couch, the shenanigans began in earnest.  Here they are acting all calm again.  This is not real life folks.  They had taken to running circles in this room and leaping up on the couch as they ran around and around chasing one another.  OY!! The couch was taking a beating, and so was the room.  

 As I planned to start watching my granddaughter Reeve in the fall, 

I had to think of a space that we could use together, without the dogs.  

For her safety and my sanity.  So it came to me....this room would now be OFF LIMITS

 to the four legged variety. I will put a gate across from the

 staircase to the front door to keep them out!  The french doors to the dining room 
will be kept closed, with the dog beds on the other side so they can watch if they like. 

I had a practice day for several hours with Reeve and it went great!

  She is an easy baby and I really felt myself exhale and just revel in her care.  

She is a little character, smiling and making fun faces and sounds. 

 Looking forward to watching her grow right before my eyes.

 Our roses came into full bloom at the end of August, and they are the finicky variety of 

David Austin.  Finicky in that if you cut them, they don't last but a day, 

so I mostly enjoy them in the garden.  Which kind of stinks, 

because they are amazing and I love to bring in a cut flower that smells like a rose,
which actually is rare these days.  The David Austins smell fantastic!!  

 The climbing rose on the arbor is New Dawn and it is finally getting established. 

 I am not sure how to train the canes to grow up and over...

I tied some twine to long branches and attached it there, but when Nora Murphy came, 

I untied them all as it looked ugly.  Anyone with knowledge on this process?  

 Piper is getting so big, she just jumps up the rock wall and has access to the terrace and beyond.

Colby never does this, even though he easily could.  For some reason he respects boundaries and borders and doesn't cross them, which meant life in the courtyard was easy with him.  But Piper has created a whole new ball game out here....I may have to install a rabbit fence in behind the bushes and trees up here to contain her.

 Since the dogs have been banished from the living room, their hangout couch is in the family room. 

This room has new IKEA sofas, and I purposely picked the color sand for the slipcovers to match Pipers fur color. Hahah!! Seriously, I did.  Again, here they are looking all innocent. Anyway, I redid this room for the Nora Murphy Country House book shoot, painting the walls the prettiest shade of green, new beige furniture, linen draperies in a similar shade as the walls. 

All these pics are with my iPhone, just because I don't have time anymore for setting up the camera and tripod. At least not right now. But this room is so pleasant to be in, and I wanted to show the mural that I painted.  There is a door behind it that was always a decorating nightmare.  So the mural was my way of making the door disappear.  I just love the calming effect it has on the room.

And I guess sometimes it may have a calming effect on Piper too?  The walls are Hollingsworth Green by Benjamin Moore.  Its a wonderful color and it continues the Swedish color palette I have used throughout the house. I used all kinds of paints to create the mural, wall paint and colors from my stash of Annie Sloan chalk paint too.  A spritzer water bottle helped the paint to move and give me a watercolory effect.  Its just so much fun to create, and when I get the chance to do that these days, I really relish the process.  I am hoping I will be able to post more often, so I can go into detail on the wedding plans, which is going to be romantic and rustic and elegant, all on a budget.  

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Our Home Tour 2017

Our Home Tour 
I recently updated the photos to show how our home looks now.
My rooms are always being redecorated for one season or occasion,
or simply because I am rearranging my furniture!  
Can you relate? 
I hope you enjoy the tour of our home~
From the courtyard and garden shed, to our small front yard,
take a walk around and come on in!

 French Courtyard

Garden tool shed 

Rose arbor and wire bench

White picket fence for the dogs

Our new addition,  little Piper, an English Cream Golden Retriever

Living room image via Romantic Country Magazine Spring 2017

A piano, painted white, is played by our son.

French chair in living room in my favorite toile!

Antique and rare, our blue opaline chandelier drops and goblets.

We use these goblets on Easter to celebrate.

Dining room, french romantic style. 

Purple transferware is my obsession,
as is antique lighting.

 One of many sets of curtains for the dining room, these in pink linen

Our two year old boy, Colby

Purple transferware on the hutch, decked out for Christmas with greens

 French settee I purchased from Designer Matthew Mead, 
which led to our friendship and many adventures

It sits underneath cabinet doors removed from an old built in.

Hallway in the kitchen with an old green bench.

Our cottage kitchen, accents of green

Green and purple do so well together

Piper in the tv room, underneath a landscape mural I painted

A sisal runner in grey for our busy household 

 Our master bed with pretty Belgian spread,
aquamarine is the order of the day.

My favorite antique~this painted table

A restful escape at the end of long days.

Master bathroom countertop has touches of aquamarine as well.

The painted cabinets are a pale Duck Egg blue with gold hardware

His and hers, sinks and chandeliers!

Thanks for visiting! 

Photographs by Matthew Mead and Amy Chalmers. Please do not use without permission.

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A Stunning Photo Shoot with Nora Murphy

 A quick recap from where I left off~ Nora Murphy asked to shoot my house for her

new book, Nora Murphy Country House Style (not exactly the title) which is featuring

her amazing house and four others thrown in for a dose of varying country styles.

(Read more here)

Weeks followed of preparing, editing, tossing, editing some more, painting, gardening, 

fretting, daydreaming of the end result.... the time had finally come!

The photo shoot was a two day affair over the weekend, and I prayed for good weather,

and I was happily rewarded with perhaps the nicest days in the summer thus far.

The last thing I had to do was to buy flowers for the shoot.  Flowers are the jewelry of a

photo shoot, and these had to be above and beyond the basics.  So I headed to Mahoney's Garden Center and visited their florist department to select whatever struck my fancy.  

Giant pink hydrangeas, pink and white Cantebury bells, purple Pincushions and one amazing

heirloom rose that resembled a peony came home with me for their big moment.

 A large clear glass cylinder vase showed off the pink hydrangeas to perfection.

The other blooms were mixed with some white hydrangeas I picked up at a supermarket.

Their effect was glorious.  

A last minute vacuum and a goodnight's sleep was all that remained.

 Oh, and one more thing...move the darn grill and add some more pretty pillows outside.

 Nora arrived bright and early and as I was fixing the curtains I heard a knock at my front door.

NORA!!!! (I yelled through the closed front door)

I ran to open it and give her a big hug.  

She and her crew came inside and I gave them the tour 

so they could figure out where they wanted to being.  Nora came with an art director, 

a photographer and her charming son, Conor, who helped do the needful.

Just like that, we were underway.  They started in the bedroom and went on from there. 

 I can't share many photos, but I snuck in a few.  Nora gifted me one of her beautiful candles, 

in Pink Peony, as she said that seemed right for me.  

The first day of shooting, there were no dogs or fancy clothes to distract from the business of getting the shots.  The second day was another story.  Nora and I had to have our portraits done, and I kept Piper at home, while my husband took Colby off on a road trip, just the two of them.  Turned out, Piper was so good at posing, she had many "star turns" as she stole everyone's hearts.  Apparently she is a natural as a dog model.  Who knew?  Still, its not easy to catch her in a still position, and with the fancy camera settings, you have to be like a statue.  Piper handled herself as professionally just as Nora did, with amazing poses and an overall likability factor of 10.0!

 Look at how cute Piper is posing in the hallway in her dog bed.  

I am standing out of view holding her kong filled with peanut butter. 

 The tricks we had to pull to get her to do her thing were silly 

and made for light hearted moments, especially when the photographer made her "kooky" noises. 

We learned that if you called Piper to look at you, she would just run to you. Which was bad. 

But if you made a noise, she would often look at you without moving, 

wondering what the heck you were doing.  

Lots of "noises" were made, and we got the pics we needed. 

Here is the camera set up to capture the dining table.  

And this is the result.  Pretty amazing, right?  

I snapped a few screen shots off of the computer monitor

so I could share with you on my blog, which is why it looks grainy,

but you get the general idea. 

The monitor is set up tethered to the camera and is always close by, but out of the shot.

This was a closeup of the place settings.  So many beautiful shots were taken, I can't

imagine how Nora will pare it down to just a fraction of those taken.

After two full days, it was all over.  I could relax and let the dogs play with their toys,

and let Mr. Maison Decor take his boots off by the door and throw his stuff on 

the table.  No more worries for keeping things perfect, it was finally a WRAP!!

A big hug goodbye to Nora and her amazing crew, and it was time to celebrate

being part of the Nora Murphy Country House Book.

No better place than our courtyard.  Hubs had his wife back, so he was smiling ear to ear. 

 I was smiling because I had pulled it off, and Nora and her team brought out the best in my personal decorating style that would be forever saved in a beautiful book.  

So many times Nora would say to me when she wanted something a little bit more from the shot:

 "We need something to Amy-ize this " or 

"It needs some Amy added to this shot, what do you have that we could add?"

I had become a NOUN!!! 

Now that truly is something, isn't it?

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