Real Life vs. “Styled” Life

 

I tried my best to cover all of the details in Monday’s post on my home office, but wouldn’t you know the number one question I got was how do I plug in the lamp on my desk? :)  It’s a great question, actually, and here’s the answer:

 

 

In the days where any picture you post on your blog or online could live forever on Pinterest, I think the art of styling your photographs is more important than ever.  For that reason (and because I don’t know how to Photoshop them out), I carefully used electrical tape to bundle and hide the cords.

 

I only recently added the desk lamp and am still testing it out.  A floor outlet may eventually be a possibility but for now, I just run the cord down the front leg of the table and to the side wall where the window is.  The chair in the corner helps to disguise it, and it actually doesn’t bother me that much. 

 

 

 

I have the same problem with my laptop cord, which I also run to the side wall when I need to charge it.  But, that’s life.  Real life.  In fact, here’s some more real, “un-styled” life for you since we’re on the subject:

 

The foam for my girls’ headboard project has now landed in our foyer and is a favorite toy. . .

 

I always get comments from people saying they don’t know how I get it all done.  I don’t!  And, I would never want to make anyone feel like they’re not doing enough.  Projects are unfinished.  The house is a mess.  It’s impossible to live life at a break-neck speed and it look like anything else. 

I went to a friend’s house yesterday (we had coffee and at the last minute, she asked me to come look at a few things in her house afterwards).  She has four kids, and apologized over and over for the mess, but I honestly wasn’t phased.  It made me feel better.  (In fact, I wanted to take her over to my house right then to assure her mine was at least ten times worse.)  The thing about messes are, they don’t bother me at all—unless they’re my own.

 

More real-life for you. . .

 

My desk on a typical day.  A defective lampshade, work projects, my kids’ artwork, randomness. . .

 

 

 

You know how I loved a beautifully styled coffee table.  Here’s ours this morning.  Catalogs, our Bible story book, toys, shoes, and clothes that they’ve outgrown that I started sorting two  nights ago.  This is a small coffee table; just imagine what we could do with a big one!

 

 

 

Something strange is going on under the pillows on our sofa.

 

 

 

To save time and effort (apparently), we keep all drawers open at all times.

 

 

 

Perfect! Plastic grapes in my closet.  In case I get pretend hungry while I’m getting dressed.  There’s a surprise around every corner, really.

 

Does this make you feel better, or think worse of me?  Sorry if it was all TMI.  I just want to assure you that everything you see on this blog (and others) isn’t necessarily what you would get if you just happened to show up at my front door on a random afternoon.

 

Back to our office makeover (and a pretty picture to end this dreadful post). . . .Another good question from one commenter was how does the open space work with small kids running around? 

 

 

When we first looked at the house, my thought was to someday build walls and close it off more. But, I’ve actually learned to like being in the middle of everything that’s going on. It does mean that I have frequent visitors sitting in my lap while I answer email. Of course, I do most of my blogging and computer work after the kids go to bed or the days they’re all in school.

 

 

 

View from my lap. . .

 

Wow, this post was just suppose to be about my lamp cords and I kind of went off on a tangent.  Sorry about that.  I should go clean my house now.