Less than 2 months ago I received an email from Annarita Triarico, an Italian journalist working for Lotus Publishing. She wanted to feature my home in one of their magazines, “Gli Speciali di Casa Chic.” At first I thought it was a joke, but I looked at their publishing site and realized it was a legitimate request. Unfortunately, this magazine is not for sale in the United States, but I’ll receive several hard copies of my own. As you’ll see from the pages of the magazine, my style is a mix of American Farmhouse and Gustavian – which is a blend of Swedish and French Country.
This is a cover of the magazine. See that small photo in the lower left – the blue mason jar with the cotton? That’s my photo and the cotton was a gift from Barb at The Everyday Home. Following are the actual pages of my home in the Italian magazine, “Gli Speciali di Casa Chic.”
The first two-page spread shows my living room. All the photos were taken by me, which thrills me to no end to have my photography published. That’s been a dream of mine for the past year and now it’s finally happened. I think I’m more excited about that than I am about having my home appear in an Italian decorating magazine.
Let me just say I was super nervous taking photos for the magazine. Granted, I’ve taken several pictures of my house but this was different. You really have to think about the quality of your photos since they’ll be displayed in print and not just on the web.
Not to mention the house needs to be spic and span! It took me pretty much all day to take the photos. Taking and re-taking the same shot to get it just right.
This photo shows the detail of the top of my decoupaged desk in the living room. Annarita wanted me to include DIY projects in the photos I sent her. She was so easy to work with and was very patient answering my questions.
The next few pages are from the family room. A lot of self doubt ran through my head after all the photos were done. What if they didn’t like any of them? What if they weren’t good enough quality for print?
I reassured myself that I did the best that I could. I took a deep breath, calmed my nerves, and finally clicked “send” to transmit the photos overseas.
Annarita emailed me soon after to let me know she received all the photos and layout would soon begin.
Again, that little voice in my head started nagging me. I sent a total of 57 photos. What if there wouldn’t be enough good ones for them to use? In addition to the photos, I submitted answers to a series of questions given to me to create a story.
But apparently my photos were fine because the next time I heard from Annarita, she had written the story and was emailing the pages to me to proof.
I was happy to oblige, but I don’t read Italian! Thank goodness for Google Translate.
I was able to translate enough of the Italian into something I could understand. Not a perfect translation, but I was able to follow the story.
I’m so grateful to Annarita for this wonderful opportunity to have my home featured in their magazine.
I received 10 copies of the magazine in the mail. Five are in Italian, and 5 are in French. I’m sure I’ll treasure them for many years!
Being featured in a magazine is definitely an honor and I’m humbled. I hope you enjoyed seeing my feature in the magazine.
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Hi! I'm Jennifer and I'm happy to have you here! I live where the suburbs meet the country, which affords me the best of both worlds. Come along on my journey where I share decorating, cooking, gardening and more as it relates to both city and rural life. 
Jennifer, this is awesome. Courtney of French country cottage blog was in that one, too I believe. Congrats!
Congratulations Jennifer. Your home is so beautiful and you deserve this honour.
Wow, that’s such a wonderful story! Your home is beautiful and so magazine worthy. Congratulations Jennifer!
Hi, i’m an italian girl and always I buy this Journal. I recently discovered your blog, and I think you have a very nice house. I think you have to be so proud of yourself! Congratulation from Italy, Bianca.
This is wonderful, your home has such a warm feel. I’ve never met an international design star before. Congratulations Jennifer, you should be very proud!
This is so exciting! The beautiful pictures you took are definitely magazine worthy. Thanks for the sneak peek.
Mary Alice
My goodness…lucky, lucky you! Your home is beautiful and you now are proudly displaying that beautiful Italian mag. button….Congrats!
JP
Awesome and fun, but I’m in trouble on the spic and span part!
Bliss
Awesome! This magazine gets translated in French and buy it every now and then. I’ll keep an eye open on the “decorating magazines” section to see when it’s on the shelves in France. Congratulations!
Congratulations, Jennifer! Your photos are awesome. I’m sure you’ll do the magazine proud!
Everything looks so FRESH and calm. A very cheerful place to spend winter. You did a beautiful job. I can only imagine how stressful and exhausting the experience must have been. The only experience I’ve had is having our old home on the home and garden tour. It lasted 3 days. It was fun but I have to admit I said never again haha. Well, our home is so tiny now I don’t think that’ll be a problem.
BRAVO!!!!! You’ll need more than one copy. One to go back to all the time and one for safe keeping.
Congratulations!!! What an honor. You must be floating on clouds. Your photos look lovely and your home does too ~ nicely done.
Cindy
WOW!!! Congrats! Your house is amazingly beautiful♥ I want a copy!
Wow! Congratulations! Your home looks stunning in the spreads. What an amazing opportunity.
How exciting Jennifer! YOu must be over the moon & you should be, your home looks amazing & the pictures came out beautiful!!!! Have a great weekend, Jen
How fantastic! Congratulations…the photos look wonderful.
Congratulations Jennifer!!! Your photos look amazing – and I think you’ve nails Shabby Chic to perfection so this is really SO deserving!!!
Hugs,
Suzan
Your home is just lovely. They call it a nest in Italian and and what a pretty nest it is. I’m a blogger living in Italy and painting furniture and interiors. I found you from Romantic Home link party. I love the Casa Chic Magazine, they have lots of fun ideas and fresh colors. I’ll look for the real copy here.
Very inspiring – congratulations.
Cograts Jennifer! Your home and blog is beautiful! You deserve this honour!
Congratulations! Your home is so beautiful, I am not surprised it’s going to be published. How exciting for you! Have a lovely weekend!
WOWOWOWOWWOWOW! This is so fantastic, you must be and have been just floating on air! Your photography is so pretty, really captures just how inviting and cozy your home is…I love that gal who said it’s called a NEST in Italian…is certainly is, a beautifully feathered and now featured nest. Congrats to you, you have a very special blog!!!
Congratulations! So happy for you! You certainly are worthy of being featured.
Blessings to you, Amy
how fabulous is that!! good for you and your beautiful home. Those Italians will be drooling when they read your feature!
Congrats Jennifer!!! You did a great job with the pictures….they are all beautiful!
Blessings,
Linda
I was not surprised at all….your home is fantastic!
I love and enjoy every detail.
Congratulations! Congratulazioni! Felicitaciones!
CONGRATULATIONS! I told you to watch out a magazine was going to snag you! Your photos are so professional and of course your home is super sweet! Good for you…go Jennifer!
I’m so happy for your realizing one of your dreams. That’s exciting and who knows what it will lead to next. Perhaps you just needed to get your foot in the door. Bravo! Your home looks spectacular as always!
Liz
Your home is absolutely beautiful! It is no wonder they wanted you in their magazine! I especially love the green tiles in your kitchen and beautiful blue on your walls!
Susan
Now this is exciting to say the least and your photos
are amazing. Bet you look at those pages wondering
if it is indeed your home…
Congratulations!
Sandy
how exciting for you! HUGE congrats!!!! and your green tile is awesome!!!
m ^..^
Congrats! Always love to see one of us locals do so well! Love the new blog look, too.
Oh Jennifer, how exciting for you. I’d be so giddy!! Congrats. Your home is luvly and the pictures came out wonderfully.
Cheers, Gee
jennifer! i bow down to you! this is soooooooo cool. congratulations, and i’m sure you are just gettin warmed up!
smiles to you.
michele
Congratulations! Do you know if it is available for iPads? I get several foreign decorator magazine on-line. It would be fun to look through it and see your home.
Congratulations! Gorgeous photos!
Jeanette
Congratulations!! Your home is so beautiful.
x
Congrats on your home being published in Casa Chic. I’m an avid reader of this magazine (haven’t missed an issue since since the very beginning!!) which I find to be beautiful and full of quality inspiration. can’t wait to grab my copy from the newsstand and see the feature of your gorgeous home. i love the photos you have shared. they look so professional!
rita
Yay for you…and the photos look great!!
How exciting, Jennifer! The pages you’ve shown here look wonderful! You did a great job with your pictures. Your home is so lovely to begin with. I’m sure it is hard to keep remembering to make the shot something that would be in a magazine. More closeups, I guess, that full room view shots. I always wish I could see more of a room in some magazine pictures. Congratulations!
Just think, people all over the world are going to be using your home as models for their redecorating!
What a lovely home you have! Now I want to go redecorate mine to look like yours!!!! Love the white with all the pale blue touches. So gorgeous!!!!
Sigh.
Congrats on your feature, but I’m sure it’s the first of many.
xox
Congratulations Jennifer!!!How exciting!Yes I have heard of the is magazine.Oh I wish we could get it here!What beautiful photos too!
xx
Anne
What a lovely honor, your home is beautiful…I love all the white…so clear and clean! Thanks for sharing, congrats.
Many congratulations! You have a beautiful home and your photography is stunning.
I found you because of your post from your old blog! That was a brilliant idea – I moved my blog to WordPress and as a result no one knows where I went… 🙁 so today I tried your trick – hope it works.
Good Afternoon Jennifer, Congratulations…..I am so thrilled for you. The photographs you took look absolutely amazing, you should be so very proud of yourself. It will be so exciting for you when you receive your parcel with the magazines inside, your smile will stretch from ear to ear.
Have a wonderful day.
Best Wishes
Daphne
OMG! This is so HUGE! Congratulations on having your home featured in an Italian magazine! Every single detail of your beautiful home looks exquisite, and your photography is simply stunning. Wow! I’m just bowled over by your talent.
Congratulations! You did a beautiful job both decorating and photographing. You can be proud – dreams do come true!
Congratulations, Jennifer!!! How exciting for you! Your photos ARE absolutely gorgeous!!! Funny thing….I think this is the same gal who wrote to me in late autumn asking for photos. I just figured it was spam and someone trying to use my photos for their own use…..so unfortunately I didn’t respond. 🙁 But I’m soooo glad that you did and got published!!!!
xoxo laurie
OH Wow! Congrats! Your space is truly amazing. I am so happy for you!
I would love if you link this to my link party Monday morning!
XO
Isabelle
Congrats on this awesome feature! Your home is definitely worthy–the pics are so crisp and beautiful!
Bravo JENNIFER !
félicitations pour cette publication !
Petit bonjour de France où nous aimons déjà toutes ta jolie maison, pleine d’inspiration.
Wow, beauriful pictures of your beautiful home, congratulations you deserve it.
Blessings from Canada
Bernice
What a wonderful opportunity! And those photos are marvellous, your house is truly stunning! =)
Jennifer, how wonderful your home is being featured on an international level! Just goes to show, there is no geographical limitation for appeal of true beauty. I still have your site as one to follow for my blog roll, but it seems I have not been getting the latest posts for awhile. Since you weren’t on my reading list, I clicked on my side link and visited you today. Congratulations on your feature!
How exciting, Jennifer! I imagine, as nerve-wracking as it must have been, surely it was better than having a troop of strangers stomping through your house, rearranging things and waving you out of the way so they could take photos?
Your home is beautiful – and now even italy knows it!!!! Congratulations – what a neat honor!
gena
How special to have been selected for an Italian magazine. You never had to have held your breath. We out here could have toldyou Ooolala!
Oh Jennifer! I am SO SO excited for you! That is just so amazingly awesome! And I totally understand how you feel about them using your photos being almost more exciting than being featured! It’s a dream of mine too 🙂 What lens do you use if you don’t mind my asking – I’m getting ready to upgrade mine.
Dear Jennifer! I just bought this morning in Deauville (Normandy coast) the french version of the magazine called Maisons de Campagne. Your article is great! if you want, I can scan it and send it to you. Glad to have discovered you website, I love it
Best. Anne
Absolutely gorgeous! Your house is to die for. 😉 Congrats on the publishing and fabulous photos!
Congratulations! I am a reader to your blog for some time now and I just discovered that your beautiful home is featured in my favorite french magazine “Maison Chic- Maisons de Campagne” A very interesting article and beautiful pictures!
Greetings from Germany, Monika
Thanks for linking up Jen! I love your space. So bright and airy!
Congratulations! Your home is so lovely. Your photos are amazing! I wish we could get the magazine in the states. I do have friends in Italy though maybe they could pick up a copy for me. Thanks so much for sharing your lovely home. Visiting from Whimsical Perspective. Blessings, Wanda
Incredible spread! Congratulations!! I’m just as excited, this is the same mag that slate me to go in too! EEEEE!
I need a BIG NEWS alarm that goes off so I don’t miss things like this. How wonderfully exciting. The house is positively glowing. The pictures show how much, love care and attention your home has revived. So happy you got this opportunity!!!!
that’s awesome! you are so blessed. what an honor!
This must be so exciting! Congratulations are in order! What a great experience this must have been.
Your rooms and photographs are beautiful. A surpurb job!
Donna Allgaier-Lamberti, Small House / Big Sky Donna
Small House Under a Big Sky
White Oak Studio Designs
Congratulations it is so lovely I wish I could live in that house, the Italians published because they were great , you must be a pro , ain’t you?
This is awesome Jennifer! Very well deserved…it must have been so exciting!! I was just over @ Midwest Living’s FB page and you were one of 2 friends that liked it. So then I checked out where you live…I live in MI 🙂 I didn’t realize how close we are. Or possibly forgot, it’s hard to keep track! Anyhow…congrats on this Italian feature! You are so talented!! ~ Julie
I am so excited to discover your website!! Congratulations on your success! You will forever have WONDERFUL memories!!
Cookie
Julie, where in Mich do you live. I’m in Va now but will be moving back to Mi very soon. Some cwhere an far east side. More like North East toward Port Huron. Someplace like New Haveen, Richmond. Hope I get there before the snow falls. It will be a long ride for my dog and I but I’m so excited to be going back home where some of my children, grand and great grand kids are. And by the way Jennifer, I love your home and I hope mine will look just have as pretty and nice as your. So clean and cozy and warm.looking. love you blog. Congrats. On the book
How wonderful and thrilling for you(and us)