Behind-the-Scenes at my Holiday Open House
I hope you were able to watch my Holiday Open House last night on Hallmark Channel. It’s always fun when friends drop in and this year’s special guests were the very lovely and talented Jennifer Garner and Claire Danes. The show was filled with really great ideas for creating unusual holiday crafts, delicious foods, and unique ways of decorating your home. We shot this special at the farm in early October and getting the set ready took a lot of planning and hard work. The crew did an amazing job of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. Here’s a peek at some behind-the-scenes.
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- Jennifer Garner and I always have so much fun together. Here we are mixing the batter for the cream cheese lemon bow cookies. http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/cream-cheese-lemon-bows Photo: David M. Russell/MSLO
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- Jennifer loves cooking and crafting as much as I do. Here we are decorating charming paper cottages that double as cookie boxes. http://www.marthastewart.com/article/christmas-cottages Photo: David M. Russell/MSLO
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- Here I am with the giant cassoulet, about to move it into the oven. Photo: David M. Russell/MSLO
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- Claire Danes and I had fun creating elegant acorn ornaments from velvet and hollowed out eggs. http://www.marthastewart.com/article/egg-corn-decorations Photo: David M. Russell/MSLO
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- Another nice photo Photo: David M. Russell/MSLO
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- In another room, Aaron Caramanis hangs giant mercury glass ornaments.
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- Tamara Dilworth is busy with bins of pine cones.
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- In the kitchen, yellow-ware bowls were filled with pine-cones and ornaments hung from the peg hooks.
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- Adorable fuzzy felted sheep
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- Decorating the set for the holidays required many hands. Here, Paul Moreno is decorating one of the lovely trees.
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- Nora Singely and Sarah Mastracco, TV chefs, prepare to move all the cassoulet ingredients onto the set.
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- With all the film equipment set up, this rather large kitchen became quite small.
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- All the browned meats that go into the cassoulet.
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- Nora seems to be wondering just how heavy that copper pot is and how heavy it will be when filled with the cassoulet.
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- Bowls of nuts on set
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- The teleprompter – Julia Child called the cassoulet ‘that best of bean feasts.’
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- A rich coconut cake with toasted coconut shavings
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- Golden cream cheese lemon bow cookies
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- A really dense fruitcake
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- Those bowls of nuts looked really good on the monitor.
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- Anthony Sorenson, my hairdresser, arranging my tresses
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- Party guests Maggie Converse and Jamie McAvey enjoying a bit of bubbly
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- The holiday music was performed by the amazing Carte Blanche.
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- And here’s the finished cassoulet with its crisp breadcrumb topping. It was really exceptionally delicious! http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/christmas-cassoulet
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- A great mantel decoration using those wonderful polar bears from the Martha Stewart line at Grandin Road – http://www.grandinroad.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=6397&path=1,2,474,6385%2C6397
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- Beautiful and tasty breads
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- The gift wrapping table
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- This year’s stockings were made from a lovely faux bois embossed velvet.
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- Snipping a beautiful satin ribbon on a fragrant rosemary wreath – perfect for a kitchen!
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- An antique hanging shelf decorated so whimsically
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- Rehearsing camera angles and lighting – Those windows look out into the tent outside. It looks like night time, but it’s actually day.
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- A tent was erected for all of the camera equipment.
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- This tent, attached to the back of the house, was set up there to control the environment inside the house by blocking out any natural light that might enter the windows.
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- The windows were frosted so artfully.
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- This fireplace and mantel are stunning.
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- A great photo
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- This tinsel tree the ornaments are also from Grandin Road. http://www.grandinroad.com/jump.jsp?itemID=30988&itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID=30988&path=1%2C2%2C163%2C474%2C6385%2C6395
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