LCY Presents: "Pure Style Home" based on the true story of Lauren Liess

So excited to present our next LCY Presents: My Life As A Movie post! Please welcome the lovely and talented Lauren Liess of Pure Style Home.

1. Who would play you in the movie about your life and why?

I'm torn between choosing Heather Graham because we have a similar hair/eye color or Jennifer Garner because I think she would be more "me." I think she [Garner] could capture my true weirdness perfectly.

2. Who would play your love interest and/or best friend in the movie and why?

Jason Statham would play my husband, David. I felt a shirtless picture would be best.

And I really don't know any baby/toddler actors but here are pics of our 2 sons who would also have a starring roles ; )

Justin Alexander ..... almost 5 months old:

Christian Patrick ..... 2 and a half:

ON LOCATION

3. Where does the movie primarily take place and why?

Ok, the movie primarily takes place at our house in a Virginian suburb right outside of Wasington, DC. It's a pretty "normal" family neighborhood where neighbors love to stop and chat. Think SUBURBIA.

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4. Where do you go in the vacation scene that inevitably

takes place in every movie?

If there were a vacation scene, it would be in the Outer Banks in North Carolina... but I doubt our movie would have a vacation scene.

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COSTUME DESIGN

5. The first scene is a shot of your feet walking down a street - what shoes are you wearing and what street are you on?

I would be barefoot and walking down the sidewalk of our neighborhood with my boys. I'd be dressed in a t-shirt/ jeans with no make-up. Definitely a pony tail. It wouldn't be pretty.

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6. What are some key wardrobe pieces you'd insist your character wear?

Some key wardrobe pieces my character would wear...

a basic t-shirt,

jeans of course,

a slipper...

and I really mean "A" slipper. I'm constantly losing slippers and it's not abnormal for me to walk around the house all day long with only one on, hoping I'll come across the other. I only realize that it's odd when someone knocks on the door and see myself though their eyes. Oh so embarrassing.

For a special event, I LOVE Grecian-inspired dresses, especially in white. And I love makeover scenes in movies!

MEDIA

7. What song plays during the opening credits?

Mr.Pitiful by Matt Costa plays during the opening credits.

--EDITOR'S NOTE: I've been listening to this song non-stop since hearing it for the first time last night! So good. Starts at around 0:19. And he's pretty adorable.

8. What section of Netflix will the DVD be filed under: Action and Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Musical, Romance?

I wish I could say that our movie would be an adventure/epic-type movie (because I LOVE them!!), but it would probably be more of a romantic comedy. Maybe a bit of a comedy-of-errors/cheesy-good-girly movie like Devil Wears Prada or 13 Going on 30. (Hence, Jennifer Garner!)

9. How big a role does your blog, Pure Style Home, play in the movie?

For my blog, I take pictures of our house in perfect order but in reality it looks as if a bomb's gone off on most days. I write about organization & how to get there simply because I write what I've discovered works, but not because I'm a neat/ organized person. I'm a MESS!! I have to fight my inner nature (that wants to wreak havoc on my home) daily. (I.e. trying on 5 things and throwing them all on the bed/ floor.) I'm a workaholic but I love my husband and boys more than life. Like most women, I'm pulled/ stretched in so many directions that the situations I find myself in are at best ridiculous and at worst down-right gross.

Example here: (Skip if you're squeamish please)
On my 26th birthday my son Christian woke up really early and I decided I would just shut my eyes (at this point I only had 1 baby)...

It was my birthday... I deserved it, didn't I?? I was in our child-proofed living room with my little crawler babygated in. I figured for just a minute...

Well, I woke up (who knows how much later???) to the sound of the phone ringing... and to asmell. A bad one. I didn't have my contacts in and had misplaced my glasses. I couldn't really see. But I could smell.

And then I looked at my dog and she was eating something. Was it... a diaper????? Then I looked at my naked diaperless baby and he had brown smeared all over his face and head. I looked down at the white sofa I was sitting on. Oh yeah. It was everywhere. The rug too. Even the dog was covered. Really????

I wanted to cry. I floundered: what to clean first?? Sofa or baby?? Rug?/ Dog?? Baby won but not by much. I coudn't find my camera because I still really coudn't see and wanted to clean as quickly as possible. I now wish I'd taken a minute to find it.

...So anyway, I'm sure in the movie version I would have had a client coming over for a meeting just after this happened, but in reality (Thank God!) I did not. I quickly emailed one of my best friends to tell the tale and to this day she won't let me forget the last line of the email: "PS- Am I a bad mom???"

...So I guess this just sort of sums up the crazy situations we might see at home in the movie. Sometimes I feel like I'm just "playing house." Like it's taking every ounce of energy just to keep things running. I strive to live a certain way and inevitably fall short. On my blog, I write about the things we do that I love. I don't write about the messes and the nights we order a pizza & watch movies. I've recently met a few blog readers & in meeting them I realized that they thought my house was perfect and maybe that things were simple/ smooth around our house. It coudn't be further from the truth!! (I quickly informed them ;) So the movie would be about appreciating life and its sometimes not-so-pretty realities.

These scenes of me (as a total mess with 1 slipper on and one slipper off) would be juxtaposed with scenes of me meeting with clients in their pretty homes where I actually have matching shoes on and have put together an awesome design... Then followed by scenes of me coming home to the sweetest husband ever who's made a romantic dinner (pancakes & bacon for dinner- can you beat it??)... When dinner's finished said-sweet-husband cleans as quickly as he can while I put the kids to bed, in effect, actually reading myself to sleep as toddler runs free. The husband sighs and puts the toddler to bed and helps sleeping wife (me) into bed. Just another day. (not that I'm speaking from experience or anything ;)

Scenes of me working on the computer in the home office while my husband plays with the kids and waits for me to be finished... Scenes of endless emails, phone calls, working. In the movie there would probably be some big important client/ job that I think I want so badly, but in the end it will turn out that some things just aren't worth sacrificing time/ family for.

SO. The young, time/sleep-deprived husband & wife learn to balance work, home, children and love and all ends well. The laundry piles still exist. The house is still a mess on most days. The business might not be as big as it could be. But they've got their priorities and they're sticking to them.

10. What is the name of the movie and its tagline?

The movie called Playing House, would be about my real life & my professional/"blog" life... A balancing act of wife, mom & interior designer/blogger. (Read answer 9 for full plot.)

...Okay, I am sorry I went on so long!!! Jeesh and now I'm too tired to add any more photos, so I'm sorry for such a long photo-less post. Thanks Alaina so much for inviting me to come over & do this fun post. (haha kind of an eye-opener!)

xoxo,
Lauren

p.s. I promise it's not as bad in real life as it is in the "movie"--- I don't do that to my husband every night! But movies need some good drama, right? ; )