A few weeks back, just about ten minutes after getting in and settled in our new place in Brooklyn, we had ourselves an interiors shoot for this damn book I wrote, which is coming out in March. March!!!! (March suddenly feels, like, tomorrow.) It was kind of a comical situation, because here we had just moved in, I wasn't sure I was sold on where anything had landed just yet, we have way more space than furniture and way more chairs than necessary, and we'd just barely had our interiors shoot for Ikea Family Live the week before in our old place on the Upper West Side. So, life was starting to feel pretty surreal there for a minute. Though the procedure was more or less the same between the two shoots, the feeling of the two were wildly different. For Ikea, the point was to spotlight the way we use Ikea in a tiny home. We had a ton of Ikea already, but any pieces we had that weren't Ikea but could have been Ikea were swapped out (i.e. our dining chairs, which were from Amazon but had a very similar counterpart at Ikea), and a few cozy touches were brought in to "winterize" our space, since we were shooting in the summer for an issue set for release in winter. (Ikea was able to get so much great material that our story will now be spread out over two issues--first a teaser in the winter issue, and then a full spread in the spring!) So, for the Ikea shoot, it was my space, their way. Which I sort of loved actually, I loved getting a peek into how someone else would style our aesthetic + layout. I mostly sat back that day and made sure the bottled water flowed like honey and kept my mouth shut. For the book shoot, it was all about whatever you want, Natalie, which is awesome and sometimes how I think things should always be, if you're gonna want the honest truth (hah! ;), but which was also completely, entirely terrifying. One of the feelings I had to ignore and push back the hardest when writing this book was this constant feeling of who the hell do you think you are, Natalie? Years of hateful words in forums, and a sense of inferiority that I think all of us deal with from time to time, if not always, plus the beautifully encouraging comments and emails I was receiving (and keep receiving!) from the coolest readers telling me they were so excited to read my words, to tell me what a difference my blog had made in their lives, it was kind of a complicated series of feelings to sort through. I still have a hard time sorting through them (and sort of I hope it never becomes too easy to sort through these feelings, that might be a bad sign of things). And I guess that had extended into my home, because I suddenly found myself feeling worried about whether or not it was going to be good enough, when really, I love it. And shouldn't that be enough? Uhh. Anyway. I am blessed with the neatest team. It was an intense day of rearranging, lighting, shooting, and eating bagels-- it was nothing short of amazing. So much creative energy and love in here, and as soon as everyone left and the energy of the day had drained, I suddenly felt like I'd been hit by a NYC sanitation truck. When Brandon came home he found me plastered to the bed with no pants on, while Huck watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the living room eating a giant carrot, and he said, "You look like a deflated balloon." But a happy deflated balloon. :) Here's what the day looked like. Photography assistant Nicole Cordier. Stylist and handmade coffee table/side table loaner Bronson Bigelow. Designer Abby Low and Photographer Lesley Unruh. My exposed rolling clothing rack was made last minute and delivered to my door by Patrick Glynn, who is rad. Favorite candle. Barrold the Deer. :) "Purposeful clutter," as Abby put it ;). Huck was a dream the entire day, I can't get over what a stud this kid is. He helped with all the heavy lifting, sang songs in the corner while coloring in his coloring book, and entertained us between setups with his impressive knock-knock joke collection. He fit perfectly inside Bronson's end tables and at one point had an entire bed made up in there. Pillow, blankie, penguin stuffy. Huck's little room. Corner of our kitchen. I'm a pretty lucky girl leading a very lucky life right now. It's so fun. I'm so grateful for all these experiences and for all the wonderful people I get to have as a part of my life thanks to this goofy little blog. Not a day goes by that I'm not completely blown over by it. So thanks, guys, for all of this. :) I like ya.