We've had a bit of an exciting day today. After weeks of preparation, the very talented and lovely Holly Jolliffe visited us to take photographs of the house for Ideal Home magazine. And the equally talented and lovely Louise Rastall came to style the shoot.

Even though I have a horribly sore throat (and the silliest of voices) it was all extremely good fun. Louise and Holly made the whole process so easy that I was more than a little sad when it was all over.

The shoot lasted all day, with Louise styling it all so that the house looked so much better. And with me spending as much time as I could trying to hide all the junk that I can just never find a home for. That said, I'm quite relieved to say that it really was a case of fine tuning, rather than a complete restyle! I was a little nervous that when Holly and Louise arrived they'd be disappointed by the place and need to change everything!

Even though we've spent quite a lot of time over the last few weeks sprucing the place up and finishing off as many of those unfinished jobs as possible, I still ended up cleaning and decorating the rooms right up until Holly and Louise walked in to them (and whilst they were setting up the shot at one point!). And it goes without saying that I was still sewing right up to the wire too! Not that I needed to worry, Holly's photography skills are so good that I'm sure she could make a cowshed look good.

I'm not sure how pain free Holly and Louise found it, with 6 of us crammed in to a small terraced house, especially when 2 of those people were inordinately loud and over excited, but I certainly enjoyed every minute of it and would happily do it all again.

It was so very much worth all the work and of course the added bonus is that we actually now, for the first time in years, have a house that is almost finished. And almost clean!

I'm not sure what the girls thought of it all though, except that Bella is very excited about the fact that she's going to be famous!!

Unfortunately she's going to have to wait a while though, as it looks like the piece will be in the January issue next year.

By the way, check out Holly's vintage shop - it has some lovely bits and pieces in.