I am still recovering from this past Monday. And when I say “I”, I should really say “We”. Monday was the photo shoot at our house and I must say, I sincerely hope that I don’t have to go through something like that again anytime soon. Everyone we dealt with was very nice, and extremely professional, but man, oh man, the effort involved, all for one tiny little bathroom.
We had a busy weekend already, and didn’t really have too much to do to get the room ready for the shoot. M had touched up some paint where scuffed, caulked a bit, and I polished and shined for quite awhile. I got the floor nice and clean and declared it the last floor cleaning that I was going to do during this pregnancy. (Roomba takes care of most of the floor care around here, so that’s not too big a statement to make.) While I tidied up the third floor M tackled the rest of the house – and between his long list of things he accomplished, and my rather short list of things I accomplished (spattered with frequent breaks to catch my breath or sit a spell) we managed to get the place in tip top shape by midnight. However, midnight on a Sunday night does not bode well for the week that lies ahead.
It was a good thing that we went to that extra effort because once you let people into your home they can really end up in any portion of it. This included going through each of our personal closets and selecting suitable clothing for our part in the shoot (which were not the articles of clothing that we had ironed just before midnight the night before). And while the editor of the magazine told us over the phone that “the room looks so great in the photos that you submitted that we hardly need to style it at all”, the photographer came into the house that morning with a printed email from said editor with two dozen “requests” from the stylist. The photo above shows you all that did not make the final cut. Out went the shower liners, the toothbrushes, the toiletries, the toilet paper (no toilet paper ever makes it into their bathroom shots apparently – let’s all pretend we never really do what we do in our bathrooms). In came new towels, new soap, new toothbrushes, and shiny spray for all the appliances. Out went our toys – the globe, the buckets, the car wash and the crayons, the ABC’s on the wall and the bath mats on the floor. In came new toys, which looked surprisingly like our old ones. Not sure why, but E scored because she got to keep most of them. Camera equipment was set up on scaffolding over the toilet and the camera was operated remotely from the hall because of the tightness of the shots. E performed marvelously, having to spend an hour doing various “action” shots that required her starting said action and then freezing it for the duration of the extremely long shutter speed. At the end of the day we all donned our “new” outfits to pose for a family photo, and I was strategically located to hide my 7.5 month belly. One day I’ll have to apologize to kid two that he/she didn’t make the stylist’s cut, just like the trash can and the toilet paper. Perhaps to make up for it I’ll design the most fabulous nursery ever, enter it into another year’s contest and make the pages of the magazine again.
On second thought, maybe not…
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If published as promised, the feature should be in the September issue which will hit newstands in late July / early August and I’ll scan and post the cover when we get our issues.