Blogging Your Way Part Four: Style and Shoot

Day two, Hannover, Germany. The snow fell as 17 inspired bloggers set to work on a styling and photography assignment during the Blogging Your Way Studio workshop with Holly Becker and Steffi Luxat at Holly’s home studio. It’s been almost two weeks since this event took place, and I have highlighted various aspects of it in previous posts, but I didn’t want the experience to go by completely without sharing this last batch of images. I really had the best time ever, mostly because I realised I wasn’t the only one who thought it was perfectly normal to take 72 photographs of a snowflake decoration! 

Our main assignment for the day was to style and photograph a vignette. We were allowed (an pretty much ordered!) to take Holly’s home apart as we searched for items we would like to style into a vignette and shoot. You should have seen it. It was like a bunch of kids on an Easter hunt! So I set about pulling together some items that for me told a story. The first thing I grabbed was a beautiful embroidered flower on cardboard, which was given to Holly by the talented Sania Pell, stylist, designer and author of The Handmade Home. I instantly fell in love with the simplicity of the artwork, and knew that it would form the inspiration for this styling assignment. 

Like everybody else in the group, I was in awe of Holly’s huge collection of washi tape, threads and fabrics. Her studio is an absolute dream to the crafter's among us. 

I added various bits and pieces from around Holly’s home to create a soothing vignette of soft grey, blue and ochre, and drawing upon texture as a common theme. I wanted to tie together the colors and textures of the artwork, so included fabrics and trimmings that would add pattern and highlight the soft color palette. Lastly, I threw in a tall wooden spool that I purchased the day prior on a shopping trip. (Actually, we were finished shopping and were enjoying the most delicious sweet treats made by Niner Bakes, when I spotted this little treasure in the homewards part of the cafe.)

This was such a fun exercise to do and has inspired me to put more time into styling and shooting my own vignettes, because the results are so soothing and lovely to see.

Have a wonderful weekend! I am sure you will be busy rushing around for the last of your Christmas presents like me!

Love, Holly

* All photographs by Holly Marder

Blogging Your Way Part Three: Stars in our Eyes!

There was a ton of creativity, love and energy flying around Holly Becker's home studio in Hannover this past weekend for the first ever Blogging Your Way Studio workshop. For this special event, Holly teamed up with Steffi Luxat of Ohhh Mhhh to bring a very talented bunch of blogging ladies expert tips, advice, ideas and inspiration for our blogging and creative careers. We saw first glimpses of Holly's home in Part One of this series, and in Part Two we hit the streets of Hannover for some shopping and sightseeing. I would now like to share with you a short video made by Steffi herself, which captures the vibe of #bywstudio just perfectly. 

Isn't it gorgeous? I am so honored to have been able to spend the weekend with these lovely ladies.

Be back here later on for Part Four, because we are going into the studio to check out what we got up to on day two.

Love, Holly

Music: In Peace, The Love & Happiness Mix (ft. Snowflake) by J.Lang. Video by Steffi Luxat.

Blogging Your Way Part Two: Out & About in Hannover

In my last post I wrote about the amazing weekend I have just spent with Holly Becker of Decor8 at her home studio in Hannover, along with Steffi Luxat of the blog Ohhh Mhhh and 16 talented bloggers for the Blogging Your Way Studio. I am so excited to share with you part two of this inspiring adventure, which has left me charged, inspired and energized! On day one, we hit the streets of down-town Hannover for an afternoon of shopping, shooting and soaking up the frosty surroundings. Apart from the frosty side of things, this was my idea of a good time!

First stop was a beautiful homewares shop called Coming Home. This tiny little treasure trove had a wonderful collection of goodies, from vintage trinkets to original Christmas decorations, fabulous lighting and so much more. It was a feast for the senses. I was so busy shooting, I forgot that shopping was also on the agenda! 

Weaving in and out of the shops was a treat, but out on the streets there was gorgeous surroundings to soak up, and I was stopping every five minutes to capture something lovely. My poor partner in crime, the sunny Inga from the blog Glomery Lane who accompanied me on this adventure. Even in freezing temperatures she happily allowed me to indulge in the gorgeous sights! 

Along the way, we popped into a florist, which was a great opportunity to bring together two of my great loves, flowers and photography. Inga, who writes about all things botanical, was in heaven, as was I and we happily snapped away. Don't you just adore this delicate wreath? 

I hope you had as much fun as I did exploring the shops and sights of Hannover! Be back here tomorrow for more studio time with Holly and Steffi, and all the amazing blogger ladies!

Love, Holly

* All images are by Holly Marder

Blogging Your Way Part One: Studio Impressions

This past weekend was spent in absolute heaven, with lovely Holly Becker of Decor8 at her home in Hannover for the Blogging Your Way Studio. Along with Steffi Luxat of Ohhh Mhhh, Holly gave 16 blogger students the weekend of a lifetime, shooting, blog critiquing, shopping, styling and eating amazing food. I met so many talented women, and came back refreshed and energized and ready to tackle an exciting future with my business and blog! I thought I would share with you some impressions of the weekend. I will do a three part series, because I came home with a billion photographs, and I will need a few blog posts to get through all the amazingness of the weekend!

Holly's home was wonderfully styled and set up for our special weekend. As she operates her business from home, Holly has inspiration filling every corner. You can tell the moment you walk in that she is passionate about decorating. 

Holly's passion for books is just as evident as her love for styling and decorating, because there are books everywhere, stacked on shelves, displayed on tables and piled high in corners on the ground. I could have stood in front of this bookcase all weekend browsing her amazing collection. One of the tasks we were set prior to the weekend was to put together a mood board of our blog. Holly and Steffi displayed all of our moodboards so that we could all be inspired by each other. There is mine, right in the middle!

I thought I would share snippets of the moodboard I created for Love, Thomas. I wanted to convey a sense of lifestyle, incorporating interiors with photography, food and craft. These are all things I am passionate about and would like to share with you here at Love, Thomas.

Holly's studio was beautifully set up for her enthusiastic students with goodie bags filled with gifts for us from her sponsors. From books, including Holly's brand new Decorate Workshop, to notebooks, stationary, trinkets and pretty treasures, it was a sight to behold.

Over the weekend, we were assigned a 'partner in crime' who we would work with throughout the workshop. My partner in crime was the delightful Inga from the blog Glomery Lane. On the last day one of the other bloggers, the charming Rincy of A Little Bird,  came up with the idea of doing a photo booth. So Holly brought out a bunch of fun hats for us to wear and we all posed like goddesses in front of Holly's immensely talented photographer husband, Thorsten Becker. As you can see, I was having a little too much fun. It must have been the hat...

As you can see, it was all just a great big bundle of fun, hanging out with these talented and creative ladies! 

Should you fancy having a wander and checking out the work of my fellow BYWStudio bloggers, here they are:

Louisa ~ Westegg INTERIORS
Sabine ~ Housing Needs
Orit ~ Tweelingen
Geraldine ~  Little Big Bell
Louise ~ 30s Magazine
Elisa ~ 7 Things for 7 days
Dani ~ And Cute
Susanne ~ Lieschen Marries
Rincy ~ A little bird love
Inga ~ Glomery lane
Jana ~ Cookies from my soul
Gudy ~ Eclectic Trends
Brigitte ~ Little Star Blog
Nic ~ Luzia Pimpinella 
Magda ~ Nice and nicer

Meet me back here tomorrow for the next installment of #BYWStudio. I'll be taking you out onto the streets of Hannover to discover the sights, tastes and textures I was busy soaking up.

Love, Holly

* All images are by me, Holly Marder, except for the last three, which were taken by Thorsten Becker

Sneak preview: Rustic and Romantic Christmas goodies

Hello! It's been a busy week over here at Love, Thomas! In between preparing for the much anticipated Blogging Your Way Studio next weekend, getting work wrapped up in time for a {much needed} Christmas break and a triple photo shoot scheduled this week, I have been a very busy bee crafting goodies for an upcoming Christmas feature for Houzz.

The task was to create a 'Rustic and Romantic' Christmas tree setting, using hand crafted decorations featuring vintage music sheets and a colour scheme of naturals, gold and and a bit of Christmas sparkle.  The piece is set to feature in the next couple of weeks, but here is a sneak preview of what I came up with.

The feature will include a full step-by-step 'how-to' on making the fabric and paper star ornaments, washi tape goodie bags and paper ornaments yourself, so keep an eye out because there's loads of time to get creative!

This is the first time I have ever done anything like this, so it's all very new to me. What do you think?

Very Martha Stewart, I must say!

I hope you enjoyed your weekend! Mine was spent hunting down the perfect tree to show off these goodies, and watching my one-year-old be inundated with new toys at a family Sinterklaas (Dutch Christmas celebration for children) party. Looks like a week of sanity ahead while she plays herself silly!

Love, Holly

* UPDATE: Read the full article {here}.