Monday 9 May 2016

keeping it real

everything I look at online at the moment seems a bit picture postcard perfect. exquisite flat lays on instragram. gorgeous gardens on pinterest. perfect meals, of well balanced superfoods and not a messy kitchen in sight.  nothing like online pressure to make you feel like your life isn't quite as it should be.

Then Penny at homemadeheart posted a picture on instagram of her kitchen sink with the hashtag #reallifehome.

Light bulb moment!

I want to live a real life.
in a home and not a show home.
I never ever want to create a flat lay, my garden has the biggest crop of dandelions you ever did see, and I'm quite proud of that. and mess, oh I can create the best kitchen mess you ever imagined.


so in the interest of "keeping it real", here are some bluebells I picked from my mother in laws flood battered garden.  Transported home, and still elegantly displayed in the takeaway tea cup that was in the foot well of the car because the journey there was extra long due to the road works, and we had to buy tea at Scotch Corner services after sitting in stationary traffic for nearly an hour .........


As for the show home, well on Friday night it turned into a film studio for the teenage boy's course work, Every personal item, picture, cushion, plant and accessory got squirrelled away(stuffed in cupboards or dumped on my bed.............), to be replaced only by items suitable for the film's character - wine bottles, dirty dishes in the sink, takeaway menus on the fridge and a giant mess of dvd's on the floor..........  some of the furniture even got the dust sheet treatment.... thankfully the teenager put it all back again afterwards, and the house is mostly back to it's chaotic usual self, although there are still dirty dishes in the sink - guess that's my reality too.......


29 comments:

  1. What on earth are flat lays? My house is fairly tidy at the moment but only because I blitzed it this weekend, by the end of the week it will back to mess again. I like a bit of mess me, I don't live in a show home, I live in a family house, and I love the lived in look. Perhaps we could start our own club (or if that is too 70s whatever the word is nowadays!).

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    1. yes a reality club!
      flatlays are photographs taken from above of a view of perfect things - flowers, food, accessories laid out "just so".... imagine lined up petals and a tea cup, or a pen just at the right angle on a stack of papers..... pretty but..........

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  2. Oh wonderful, I like real life as well. Which is just as well as there is no show home or lovely stuff or immaculate anything around here. I do have a daisy collection in the lawn which may rival your dandelions though. The film making sounds exciting. More fun than anything I ever did at school. CJ xx

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  3. I am firmly settled in reality, tempted today to write my name in the dust on top of the telly cabinet. Have a great week.

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  4. No show homes around here either! Here's to real life; dust, dirty dishes, dandelions and all. xx

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    1. and daisies and buttercups and a mouse under the tumble dryer and a mountain of laundry!

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  5. I didn't even know those displays on Instagram had a name. I always wonder where they get such interesting, battered tables to lay their things on. I was raised to take good care of a table, and besides, I usually have a cheap vinyl tablecloth on mine, to protect it from the barbarians I live with. :)

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  6. Reality is so much more interesting!

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  7. Back to reality here too, after a sunny weekend, it's now tipping down and the saucepans are back in the sunlounge thanks to the leaky roof! Not to mention the cat's paw prints all over the window sills and a bath full of washing! :-(

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  8. Sharing real-life moments is what makes the best blogs, I think. Your son's film work sounds very interesting and fun. Our old house was turned into a film studio for a while (for a tv advert) – we had to move out! Sam x

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    1. having your house be a real film studio sounds exciting!

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  9. Love this post as I constantly live in a star of 'real life' mess. I could be one of those people who aspire to and dream of tidy and pristine being their mantra...but it will never happen. Real life is much more fun than worrying about a pile of dishes in the sink. Thanks for sharing :) x

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    1. real life mess is so much more honest than pristine........... x

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  10. I spent many years in pursuit of the "show" home and have long-ago decided that it just doesn't work for me. I think I have sewing or knitting stuff dropped in nearly every room. I've tried to keep track of it, but I just can't seem to get control of it. My dream is that maybe someday, when I retire, I'll schedule a few minutes each day to tidy things up. That, and I fear I may have to find myself animal-less then -- the cat hair we have now might kill me. {Sigh} I remember when I was a child, people would just "pop-in" unannounced for a visit -- thank goodness that rarely happens now -- it's always embarrassing when it does happen!

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  11. Great post! Nice to let the #reallifehome cat out of the bag! I am going to post a #reallifehome photpgraph every week in IG. Ironing pile next methinks....!! X

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  12. I had to look up "flat lay" - I was afraid you were trying for something else and got autocorrected! Love your bluebells. Now, do I scrub my filthy kitchen floor before the weary traveler returns, or just recline with a magazine...xx

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  13. Well, I don't do Instagram so have no idea what you're talking about {giggle} but I do agree that there is just as much online pressure to appear to have a perfect life as there is for youngsters to be too thin and look 'a certain way'.

    Right now there is not a single room in my house that is tidy; we're in the process of moving stuff around, waiting for decorator, carpenter, furniture delivery - but it is all relative, my idea of untidy might be someone else's perfectly acceptable.

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  14. Do you have a hashtag? There should be a hashtag. I have a picture of my draining board just crying out for this.

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  15. Ah. I only just now saw the bleeding hashtag.

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  16. Thanks everybody on your kind support! From now on I have a team of experts backing me up when my house is in a total mess!!!!

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  17. Keeping it real for me is accepting that we are eating more Crappy food until I get into the swing of cooking when I get in at 6pm. It is a slightly messy house and a pile of ironing that could block the sun! I love a blog that shares real life, much more interesting to read.
    My garden has daisies galore, far more interesting than plain grass.....

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  18. Great post Tess, and a lovely reminder that real life is beautifully messy! x

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  19. Things are always very real, far too real, round here too! And dandelions look very pretty, it's the nettles and bindweed that I could happily live without if ever my garden becomes slightly less real.

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  20. ha, my house is a tip!!!! I have been trying to create perfectish (as perfect as I can with 5 minutes of gathering appropriate clutter from around the house to place alongside books!) pictures of books with props on Instagram as I entered a competition where you had to do this (and I won a runnerup prize!) and I quite liked the challenge so I've continued to try and do it a few times but no house shots!

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    1. I don't think my mess would win prizes........

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