Silhouette School's Messy Office...Reveal

As a blogger, behind the scenes posts are one of those things that make you feel vulnerable. You're opening up your home..your life...your craft room...your mess to pretty much anyone that has an Internet connection. 

As a blogger you also form relationships with other bloggers to bounce ideas off of and help support each other with technical bloggy questions and such.  So I have this tight little group of blogging friends....some of us are moms, some of use are not. All of us are home owners and all of us like to show what nice little neat homes we have that serve as a sort of showroom for our crafts, creations, and DIYs on our blogs. (Bhahahahhaha)

Except it's not all like that. And so the idea of sharing what our homes really look like...beyond the lens of a camera focused on some perfectly staged recipes, DIY or project was born.  And I'm not just saying that because my house looks like what you're about to see...seven of my blogger friends are opening up their REAL homes and lives too to show you the day-to-day happenings, and the less-than-magazine-worthy-pictures. We're busy ... far, far from perfect, and wear many hats (just like most moms). So, grab your coffee, wine, or other beverage of choice, and join us for our 'Real Life' home tours (and feel good about your own home at the same time).

I'll start with my home since so many times I hear "How do you do it all? You have two little kids, a husband, a successful blog, a growing social media following, an Etsy store, and a local customization business. " Truth is - I also have an assistant, a book keeper, a house cleaner, five to six hours a day when my kids are in school or napping, and an amazing husband who often grocery shops on the weekend....oh and pile of laundry that has been moved from the bed to the chair and back again, a sink full of dirty dishes and an embarrassingly over-full trash can.  And, perhaps most importantly, a few tricks up my sleeve.

You see...when I share this staged photo of some jewelry dishes what I really did is set them up on a piece of wood grain scrapbook paper with some good natural lighting and some contrasting jewelry to add a pop of color and snapped a picture with my iphone (OMG don't let the other bloggers read that I actually admitted I didn't even use my 'big' camera!!) while completely laid out on my concrete front step or (on a rainy day or at the 11th hour) against the white wall and white canvas meant for a project that never was in my overflowing stockroom guest room closet.

And I'm guilty of doing this all the time..it's not like a one time thing haha...

Just outside the closet door to the left is one of three craft tables in the room.  I only had two until a few months ago.  I needed a third because the other two were full of stuff for a craft show. Truthfully.

It seems the more room I have the more room I use.  I try to keep it neat...by putting away hooks and rulers and scrapers and tape and scissors as I use them, but the truth of the matter is my 3 year old usually wakes up from a nap in the middle of some project and I hurry out of the room to usher him away from the area where there's a 100% chance he'll step on a pin or more likely a runaway vinyl letter that I've been looking for three days.

It's also the reason that I pretty much never empty the trash until it's about to this point. I even added a second trash can to the room. OMG I sound ridiculous!  I just honestly usually have my kid holding one hand so he doesn't step on a pin or more likely a runaway vinyl letter that I've been looking for for three days, the laptop and my phone in another, and that third hand to take out the trash continues to elude me.

Since my husband swears he breaks into hives every time he passes my craft room I just shut the door on the way out in order to ward off complaints and almost never think of that trash can again until the next time I'm working which usually ends the same way...and so the cycle continues and more vinyl backing, scraps, shipping tubes, and such continue to be shoved into the overflowing white can.

So while my office is pretty much the messiest place on earth in my house, I really try to keep the rest of the house pretty tidy.  That doesn't mean I don't fudge a few shots for the blog every once in awhile single day.


I may or may not have just kicked all of these shoes, boots, slippers, backpacks and God know what else just out of the camera's shot to grab a quick shot of my perfectly 'LOVE'ly front door with it's new vinyl house number.

It doesn't mean I didn't move everything from one side of the counter to the other so I could get a nice neat shot of my vinyl-labeled canisters for the blog....

....and it certainly doesn't mean that the pillows at my house are ever actually "arranged" on the couch.

So the morale of the story is don't let your Pinterest-feed full of lovely homes and gardens fool you into feeling down, because behind every white picket fence home on a blog is a mountain of junk that was just moved out of the way for that single perfect shot that lasted just a fleeting second.

If you don't believe me..pop on over to visit these ladies and see what kind of chaos (or lack there of) is happening around their homes:

Crumbs and Chaos ... A Real Life Home Tour from View From The Fridge

Please Excuse the Mess, We're Making Memories from Crafts By Courtney

Behind The Scenes Of A Creative Blogger from My Creative Days

Perfectly Imperfect Home Tour from The Blue Eyed Dove

The Many Hats of a Craft Blogging Mom from Delineate Your Dwelling

A Day in the Life of a Blogging Mama from 3 Little Greenwoods

A Real Life Page Out of the Dolen Diaries from Dolen Diaries

Our {Perfect}ly Imperfect Home Tour from One Krieger Chick

Thanks for coming to class today at Silhouette School.  If you like what you see, I'd love for you to pin it!