Published stories

When, at long last, a story is published. At this time last year, our team arrived for three days of prep, plus two days of shooting at Heather and Brad Fox’s midcentury lakeside dream.

We loved how it turned out, but we have to wait to share any “behind the scenes” photos until after it’s published. I admit that can be hard because after all the work the homeowners and teams put it, it would be great to have some instant gratification, but I did store away some photos that I can share now.

Abbey, my lovely and talented assistant, and I working in all the pillows, throws, tabletop, and flowers.

Abbey as the stand-in for one of the boys!

The Fox boys doing their thing for the shot.

And the shot, as viewed on photographer Adam Albright’s monitor.

The Fox family pooch, Ivy, chilling on the pillows we had set aside for now.

Another shot on Adam’s screen

Tiff Mueller, who assisted with soft styling (thank the gods), while I look like I am not being helpful.

Everyone zero-ing in on the shot while Abbey and I overthink the sofa styling.

Behind the Scenes: Photo Shoot Season

While it’s true that photo shoots for magazines happen year-round, summer is by far the busiest season for photographers and stylists who work for shelter publications. It seems just as my peonies begin to bloom, I’m cutting them fresh to tote off to a location alongside other flowers I pick up at Twin Cities Flower Exchange, a Minneapolis-based wholesaler who works with more than two dozen local farmers. As I write this, we’re only half-way into summer and my shoots have ranged from an adorable Craftsman and a historic Bauhaus home in St. Paul to a refreshing before-and-after in Omaha and a colorful poolside dream in Austin, Texas, for three different magazines.

Some cuttings from my peony bushes out front often end up making an appearance in homes that we photograph.

The crew (here and below) at our Austin, Texas, shoot, where the day we worked mostly outside shooting exteriors broke a record for the excessive heat there. Yeehaw! Thank goodness for kind homeowners, who in this case, kept us plied with pitchers of ice water that we ended up pouring over our heads.

Poolside break at our Austin location.

A perk on this shoot in Omaha, Nebraska, was working with my longtime friend and colleague, photographer Kim Cornelison (right).

Producing photo shoots encompasses everything from planning the story and how it visually should play out, working with editors and photo and art directors, prepping by lining up teams (in my case, fabulous styling assistants) and prop shopping, then the not-so-glamorous part of packing props (sometimes very carefully to ship to the location or not-so-carefully by cramming into my car for a drive), then unpacking and staging. I love this part of my job, which is a mix of stylist, writer, and editor, because I enjoy being an active part of the team responsible for visually telling the story of the home. Make no mistake though, it is work, and much of it involves laborious schlepping of objects, back and forth from shops, my prop room, and ultimately to the locations and then back again. Below are some of the not-so-pretty moments.

The homeowner in Austin captured the not-so-Texas friendly temps.

The unglam part of the job—toting flowers from Minneapolis to Omaha, then caring for them overnight in the hotel room next to the AC the day before arriving on location.

Stuffing the car with plants and props to head out for the day.

I carried in most of the expensive/borrowed props as well as the plants and flowers to spend the night in the hotel room the day prior to the shoot.

Beginning to stage in the garage for the Omaha shoot for Better Homes and Gardens magazine.

The set-up behind the scenes to provide “sparkle light” by Kim Cornelison and her husband and digital tech, Alfie.

With another half of the summer yet to come, I am looking forward to more shoots, from homes to an Airstream that is scheduled for its up-close moment just before Labor Day, an ideal bookend to the this season.

Alfie and I have also known each other for about 20 years. Now we require reading glasses. #Old

My go-to talented assistant, Abbey, only needs fun glasses because #Young! Here she is in the Austin Motel where we stayed for the week while shooting for HGTV magazine with photographer Adam Albright.

The hotel pool felt pretty, pretty good after a long hot day of work. Order up: Frozen vodka slushies and people watching.

Le Petite Boutique

SENTi, founded by the multi-talented Jen Knoch, is a jewel box of a shop located in the heart of the 50th & France shopping center in Edina. While Jen was in Grasse, France, a few of us filled in for her at the shop. This is me, trying to look like I know what I’m doing, minutes before opening the shop in late May.

Recently, I stood in as the shop-keep for my friend Jen Knoch who founded SENTi, a fragrance (and a lot more) shop located in Nolan Mains in Edina. Jen was headed to Grasse, France, known as the perfume capital of the world, and leading a group of other creative women to tour the area and perfume museum (even mixing some of their own concoctions). Jen’s shop is a tiny jewel-box of a boutique, and she typically is there with her expertise to help customers learn more about the fragrances (many of them exclusive to the U.S.) that she carries. A few of her friends volunteered to take shifts at her shop while she was away.

My view from behind the counter—sweetness all around. I brought in a cutting from one of our hellebores because Jen typically has fresh flowers or food or drink for guests to sample. It’s all about activating all the senses!

I had only worked at the shop as her assistant one other time, and it was packed with customers out for her special May Day celebration where everyone enjoyed cocktails and flower crowns as part of the festivities. I was a bit nervous to be running her shop solo this time, especially on a Saturday for seven hours. But, just as Jen assured me, her customers were lovely, patient, and kind, so even though the day was busy (and my 10-year-old son saved me on a couple of occasions from what could have been a tech meltdown), I had a ball showing new customers around the shop and meeting new people. The people-watching out her large display windows was also a treat. I knew I loved the shop as a customer, and now I hope to return one day behind the counter OR better yet, join Jen on her next trip to Grasse!

Wall Flowers

One wall in the entry is papered with pages from an old paperback copy of Pride and Prejudice, one of many copies I had picked up over the years. I bought this copy for $1.25 years ago at the Planned Parenthood Booksale in Des Moines.

Initially, I had planned to install peel-and-stick paper to the plain gray-painted walls of our entry. That was eight years ago when we moved in, and by last winter, I had yet to do anything. After looking at some wallpapers at the store, I didn’t see anything that appealed to me. Then one day, I had the idea to paper the wall with book pages—it would be inexpensive and I could do it in an afternoon (I’m all about instant gratification).

On another wall, I used bits of John Derian wrapping paper and stickers from his book to cover the wall.

About a week later, I decided the wall adjacent to the book papers needed a lift but didn’t want to do more or even another book. I have always loved John Derian, the books he creates, and his decoupage line. And I had some of his wrapping papers and a sticker book he recently published, so in the space of another winter afternoon, I took on the second wall.

Our split-level was built in 1956, and you can see some of that existing architecture in the front foyer. I don’t love the doors or hardware, but it’s all in good shape, so we likely won’t replace it since this isn’t our forever home.

While this look might not suit most people, I am glad I did it. I miss the quirks of older homes we’ve lived in prior to moving to Minneapolis. We had a 1930s bungalow in Dallas and later, a 1920s cedar shake cottage in Des Moines. I had always wanted to live in a mid-century house but now that we’ve been here, I know it’s ultimately not for me. I prefer the layers and oddities old homes inherently breathe into a space. At the same time, I wouldn’t change the architecture of this house to suit that look, so instead, I use furniture and other decorative layers to make it our own.

“Mood Board” wallpaper by Mind the Gap gives the look of a collaged wall without having to piece one together. Photo from Mind the Gap

Here’s another example of pre-made collage-like Atelier Jean wallpaper. I love the sketchbook style of this one. Photo and paper by Pierre Frey

Collecting scraps

Most of my visual notebooks are in actual notebooks, like this spiral-bound gridded version. I have filled five of them. I also work in composition notebooks and Moleskines.

Have you ever run across something—a book, a piece of worn ledger paper, a magazine photograph of a room you would want to be in—and felt an emotion so viscerally that you wanted to make it tangible, own it, and preserve it somehow? That’s how I feel about the ephemera I keep in a visual notebook. Even the act of creating a page is a satisfying escape; I could spend hours with torn bits of paper or carefully trimmed cutouts and glue.

My grandmother first introduced me (when I was about 10 years old) to scrapbooking, in the old-school way. Or at least old-school as it was during the early 1980s—putting down printed photos and arranging airplane tickets from our trips onto sticky cardstock under a clear sheet protector. My nostalgic memories felt safely preserved in those three-ring binders, even as the glue gave way over the years and the photos would inevitably spill out of the pages.

Beginning in my mid-30s, I was traveling more for work as a magazine editor and collected inspiration and nostalgia along the way—a cocktail napkin from the Algonquin in New York, a bookmark from Heirloom Book Company in Charleston, South Carolina, part of the dinner menu from Cochon in New Orleans. Instead of letting the papers pile up, I began keeping visual diaries of my trips, but soon I wanted the notebooks to be more than just visual travelogue. I wanted the pages to evoke a mood and seem like a room I had made with layers of visual inspiration. I’d tear out pages in magazines and puzzle everything together onto a page in my Moleskine then date-stamp it and move on. The goal wasn’t perfection. It was messy, worn, and stuffed until sometimes the binding broke free, I’d hold it together with a big red rubber band.

“Scrapbooks have been in my life forever. They are visible manifestations of my parents’ desire to create memories, order them, and bind them into actual decorative objects—objects by which they desired to be surrounded.”

— Alexa Hampton

Among others who contain their inspiration inside the pages of a journal is legendary interior designer Charlotte Moss. I have several of her books, but one that I refer to often is A Visual Life: Scrapbooks, Collages, and Inspirations. In it, Charlotte recounts a quote from Henri Cartier-Bresson, “There are no new ideas in the world, only new arrangements of things.” She writes she’s been long influenced by strong women throughout history. “I’ve studied their lives and taken bits and pieces from each, collecting them in my own personal handbook of women who had flair for living and lived it with flair. Some of these thoughts and visuals have been physically collected and collaged in my scrapbooks—working documents that have been essential in my evolution as a designer.”

Alongside images, I like to collect inspirational quotes and missives.

Another benefit to keeping visual journals is as reference material. I’m often amazed that when I feel like I need some extra inspiration or a creative spark, a dip into some of my completed journals—even ones that are now 15 years old—leaves me with a new idea or insight. It’s like paging through magazine that that was created just for me. Sometimes creating a room of your own is just a notebook and a good glue stick away.