Remember our sweet, never-hurt-a-fly ram Ramsey who watched over us (in a not-creepy-at-all way) while we slept?
He was a beloved part of the household and even inspired Burger to do yoga.
We’ll miss Ramsey.
And yes, losing him felt like one of those old little household tragedies all over again.
Except John didn’t sketch the event this time — because it actually wasn’t his fault. Yesterday we said a fond farewell to our TJ Maxx find after he somehow popped off the kitchen wall where he’d been temporarily hung above the fireplace for a book vignette. No one was in the room to catch him. It pains me he died alone. John’s a little sad too. He was a good little ram, and we loved sleeping beneath his all-knowing gaze.
We’d been surviving three weeks of nonstop photo-shoot madness. A house full of cameras, people, equipment, secret projects, and extra furniture is like trying to slither through a web of red lasers — chaotic and awkward. So it’s not surprising that on our second-to-last day of shooting (yes, today is the final day after three full weeks of photography at our place) Ramsey became our first casualty. Poor guy. What not-creepy-at-all ceramic animal will hang over our bed now? We’ll wait and see who catches our eye. For now, there’s a hole in our hearts (and on our wall) for Ramsey.
Speaking of the end of book shoots — can you believe our last book update was three weeks ago? — we thought we’d share a few photos from the last 21 insanely exhausting, amazing, exhilarating days of turning a pile of paper…
…into a real, tangible book. Next it needs layout and design, then off to the printer. It will be available for preorder this summer and in stores this fall. This blog is just about what’s happening at our house — projects, broken ceramic animals, photography chaos — so we wanted to update you on both ram-related injuries and our photo progress. Over the shoot we snapped over 2,000 images, of which roughly 200 will make the final cut. For every ten shots we took, we kept about one. We even shot three different cover concepts recently — all solid — and we’re excited to see which direction they choose.
We’re tempted to share everything immediately, but we have to hold back until the book’s release. So here’s as much as we can reveal about the chaos of the past three weeks. The playroom has secretly been painted about nine times. Not kidding.
Different parts of the room were assigned different colors to spotlight specific shots and vignettes so the whole book wouldn’t be dominated by the same few tones. Because of the shoot, items that usually lived in the playroom were relocated to the sunroom, guest room, bedroom, and dining room — total chaos. Around the fourth color we were tired of repainting, but by the eighth or ninth it felt like second nature. We even stenciled one wall last night for a special shot we’re taking this afternoon. What will we do with ourselves when we’re not repainting the playroom every few nights?
There was gluing, taping, spray painting, dyeing, stenciling, staining, and a lot of other behind-the-scenes DIY. We had to protect our hands during process shots so we wouldn’t look — as Clara would say — “messy, messy, Mommy!” Hence my dark nail polish lately to hide the gunk and John’s Dexter-style rubber gloves.
Clara loved checking everything out — and yes, those are my spray-painting clothes with fuzzy red socks. Our photographer Kip Dawkins became her favorite person; she’d squeal “Hi Kip! Hi Kip!” on repeat and learned everyone’s names and cars by the end of week one. She kept a safe distance while enjoying the action and was surprisingly resilient amid all the change. We’re grateful this project didn’t throw her off, and very thankful to John’s parents for stepping in when things got hectic.
For many process shots we laid projects on the floor and shot from a distance. That white backdrop you see is a seamless to keep the process images clean, while the finished shots were often styled in real rooms in our house to provide context — on tables, walls, near windows, or outdoors. A reflector overhead kept the lighting consistent; I liked to pretend it was a sail and we were on a tropical boat. Clara daydreams too — she sees fishies everywhere.
Burger handled all the visitors and props like a champ — even perching on disembodied Karl. We worked him into the book because what’s a YHL book without Burger?
About a week and a half into shooting we realized the house hadn’t looked this chaotic since moving day. That guest bed ended up in corners and rooms all over the place for different shots — it became a running game of “Where will the bed go next?” It also made the huge room feel even more gymnasium-sized.
That guest bed tucked against the fireplace blocked traffic but produced one of our favorite finished shots. We borrowed furniture from local shops for certain vignettes — a rectangular table for dining scenes and a standard sofa for some cozy setups — which also helped show how massive our sectional Karl really is.
To the crew who felt like family after nearly a month of living with us: thank you. And to you who’ve been patient while we juggled the shoot, a kitchen redo, a household bug that swept through earlier this week, and Portland prep — thanks for understanding. Also, shout-out to all varieties of dark chocolate — when you don’t drink coffee, you find caffeine where you can.
Have you broken anything recently or turned your house upside down? Met a group of strangers and learned their favorite music, food, and colors after a month together? It’s crazy how much has happened since Christmas. How is it already mid-February?
Psst — we’ve shared other book-related updates over the past year in earlier posts.