I spend a fair bit of time procrastinating and one of my favourite procrastinating activities is delving into the archives of simple living/slow living/crafting blogs. I love love love the thoughtful meditations, the sharing of oh-crap stories and oops stories, and of course most of all the lovely pictures of homes and traditional crafts and creativity and natural materials weathered through use and care.
Oh the envy.
The pictures on my blog sometimes show glimpses of this, but there's so much imperfection in the background - the IKEA furniture filling the gaps amid the second-hand finds; the clutter; the plastic tubs that I so want to replace with earthenware pottery etc etc. (See the clearly terribly messy cupboard top below).
However, going right back to the earliest archives does help - it looks not far off where I am now, which suggests that a home filled with natural materials and handmade or antique treasures is definitely achievable. For now, I reckon most people reading these blogs have the same reaction and they should be taken as inspiration rather than example.
I am completely with you - with three Smalls we like in borderline chaos most of the time and actual chaos some of the time. I think the trick is to remember that you can't see the mess that is just off camera, or the pile of junk on the floor that was moved off the table for the photo. AND who wants to live in a show home (even of the upcycled furniture and handmade accessories variety) anyway? I'd mess it up in a minute! xxx
ReplyDeleteGlad it's not just me! I hope everyone else is staging and editing photos the same way... I agree that show homes would be boring, no scope for having fun or doing anything messy. At least you've got the smalls as a very legitimate supporting argument. We're two healthy able-bodied young adults...
Delete