LIFESTYLE CONTENT
Producing photo shoots and speaking with experts to write and execute lifestyle, how-to, and DIY content.
How to Make a Succulent Wreath
If you’re over evergreens, let us suggest something equally verdant but more unique for your holiday trimming: succulents. These days, the trendy water-plump plants can be found at most floral shops, however, their use in seasonal wreaths and arrangements is only just catching on–which means that yours could be the only door on the block to rock one!
DIY Steps, Styling & Photography: Jeff Powell
*This story was shared on the main Nordstrom Instagram account, and the image I photographed quickly became the most liked and engaged with Nordstrom Instagram post in history, with just under 35,000 likes and 1,500 comments.
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HOW TO MAKE MACARONS, THE PERFECT HOLIDAY AND HOSTESS GIFT
A pretty plate of homemade cookies is just about the nicest gift one can give or receive during the holidays. But if you’re the type of giver that isn’t satisfied with just nice, you might want to skip the traditional frosted Christmas cookies this year and step it up with a batch of traditional European macarons. As colorful and lovely as your sprinkle-topped snowmen cutouts, these meringue confections aren’t as difficult as their preceding reputation.
Copy: Britt Olson | Production, Styling, and Photography : Jeff Powell
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How to Host a Kentucky Derby Party with Style Inspiration and Menu Planning Tips
One day each year, folks dress in their spring finery and head to the racetrack. Or, for about two minutes, some with otherwise no interest in equine affairs turn to their televisions. Mint juleps are poured. Bets are placed. Rapt eyes focus on Louisville, Kentucky, where for over a century 20 of the most beautiful and athletic horses in the world compete in the first of three races that form the Triple Crown.
Copy: Britt Olson | Production: Jeff Powell | Photography: Elizabeth Rudge
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DIY Paper Ball Garland with a Local Crafter
Some of you eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that our November Holiday catalog featured papercraft and garlands running throughout as a unifying theme. Since it’s the perfect time for a little festive DIY-ing, we got back in touch with the master crafter we commissioned to create these garlands for our photoshoot: Laurie Cinotto.
Laurie’s work is featured in Martha Stewart Weddings and a ton of other publications and blogs, not to mention her very own book. She was kind enough to take some time out of her full-time crafting career and herding cats(really!) to give us a simple tutorial, with step-by-step images that are here to help anyone create some DIY décor. Read on for her easy guide.
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How to Throw a Friendsgiving with Recipes and Plan-Ahead Tips
While our model friends in Treasure&Bond were out on a morning forage photo shoot for part one of our Friendsgiving, our blog editor Jeff Powell was in the kitchen whipping up a Friendsgiving feast with seasonal ingredients and garnishes common enough you might find some right in your backyard.
After putting together a full three-course menu from dishes in our What’s Cooking series, he’s sharing our restaurant team’s recipes so you can cook your own lavish dinner. It’s a meal fit for any special occasion when you want to break bread and give thanks with whomever you call family. Bonus: we have his tips on how he prepped in advance so our entire dinner came together in only four hours on the day (and how he survived to tell the tale).
On the day of our photo shoot, we had a crew of about 14 including our models, stylists, hair and makeup artists, photographer and blog team, so there were a lot of hungry people by the end of it. While we may not actually have gone out foraging for every ingredient, I did want to make a real dinner that tasted on point with in-season ingredients that were as local as possible and included touches you could find in your own—or your neighbor’s—backyard (think bay leaves and rose hips as garnish for the turkey platter, sprigs of rosemary, etc.).
While I’m a big fan of cooking, I’m much less a fan of cooking and being stressed out. Once I had a menu in mind, I got to planning what I could do in advance to save as much time (and sanity) as possible on the day of our shoot. Here’s the menu we had at our Friendsgiving with links to the recipes, along with ideas for keeping things as easy as possible, so you can actually enjoy your time with all those people you’ve invited into your home.
Copy: Britt Olson & Jeff Powell | Production: Jeff Powell | Photography: Matthew Sumi
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