Recent styling work for Country Living Magazine
Ahhhh, sweet summer how I love you. Mosquitos and all.
The minute the boys walk in the back door from the last day of school, after the last final exam, may be my favorite day of the year. We did it! another school year in the books and we're ready for the sweet reward of sleeping in, swimming and spontaneous road trips.
In my mind it looks like this recent Country Living cover I styled from the May 2016 issue
Photographed by Annie Schlechter
A porch, a pony and a killer view. We shot this on location at The Prairie in Round Top, Texas, which was the perfect backdrop for the talented cover designer Andrew Howard. Classic wicker, blue and white pillows, the perfect little antique tea cart (thank you Kuhl Linscomb) and painted wood tile flooring.
That's Rooster the horse that lives down the road who came to visit on the day we shot. He's a big ol' retired rodeo horse that likes to munch on flowers so imagine us trying to distract him to get the shot before all the flowers disappeared. He was such a good boy and anytime we have a horse on set is a very good day for me.
Stylist Tip: The pink flowers on the coffee table aren't flowers but blooms from a crepe myrtle tree. They're one of my favorite stems to cut and bring inside and are plentiful during Texas summers.
In the June 2016 issue of Country Living is a sweet feature of the playhouse Houston designer Bailey McCarthy built for her daughter, Grace. The McCarthy's replicated the Texas dance hall Gruene Hall at their farm in Bellville.
Photographed by Buff Strickland
You can see more of this feature in the current issue and click here to see more images.
Spending the day with these little cuties sure made me miss little voices and watching Grace belt out tunes from Frozen brought back memories of the shows my sister and I would put on. Anyone else big fans of The Partridge Family?
Photograph by Buff Strickland
Stylist Tip: Old fashioned root beer floats are so delicious and simple to make. We used Mug Rootbeer (no caffeine!) 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream, lots of whipped cream and a cherry on top. Tasty and super cute in vintage mugs from HASbins, the popup shop of my assistant and her partners. Chill the mugs before you make these to keep the floats nice and cold.
I hope summer is good to you and that you get in lots of porch sittin' and ice cream eating and magazine reading.