I’m in love with my photo studio.
This time of year, my home tends to turn really cave like, so I’m really grateful to have the light that this room offers. Light, bright, wide opens spaces, who couldn’t use a room like this?
Yes, I lounge in here with my matching cute white outfit (that makes me look 10 lbs skinnier), perfectly done hair and create the most amazing unique shoots. Then clean up the room again each and every time to perfection, only to go cook up the perfect dinner right out of a Pinterest board, in my spotless kitchen. Life is good!
Does this room, it’s neatness and my oh so perfect life make you jealous?
Yep, me too. Why?
Because the above isn’t reality. I’m totally messing with you. It really looks like the photo below all the time.
Yes, this is more like it.
It’s full of all my piles of finery…
and unfinished messes…
and even some building I’ve been doing for FOLK Magazine.
Right. And then there was that Google Hangout… The above lovely, quaint shot was total smoke and mirrors, friends.
Because this is what the room really looked like. Or rather… looks like! Including the rest of the house.
( I’m so glad I watermarked this because I think it’s liable to go viral on Pinterest )
Messes are hard to deal with. And stressful. I’ll often tease myself into being ok with it and to chalk it up that a messy home is a creative home, and all those cute sayings that give us license to live in a hazardous tornado zone.
But truth be told, there comes a time when enough is enough. So… I’ve been cleaning.
I’ve even got my son on board. He gutted the tupperware cupboard today and he’ll tackle something else tomorrow. It’s as if I finally woke up and saw what we had done all around us.
But I’ve been splitting it up. Cleaning, writing, creating, working, then cleaning some more. That helps me get through the stuff I really don’t want to do.
I didn’t take a picture of the exploded cupboards my son was working on nor me gutting the bathroom linen closet with towels and amenities spread throughout. We just quietly went about our business and started getting things back on track again. And it’s feeling so. much. better! Plus I can close my linen closet door again. Score!
But.. you know what I’ve gone and done now that the house was relatively clean, don’t you?
I’ve ripped out Christmas and am in it full speed ahead with no floor space in sight!
Ho Ho HELP
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I love that you’re so real..lol..and actually admit that you’re like the rest of us, with dust and messy houses. Not like a lot of TV ‘divas’ that are totally un-relatable. If you hadn’t had told us, we’d never know the truth! 🙂
I love! I think it is beautiful even in its ‘messy’ stage. 🙂
You are genuine, and that makes you special…
Débora
Donna, Thanks for always keeping it real! I figure if our craft rooms and workshops aren’t in some sort of chaos, then we aren’t creating and crafting enough! Hehe ;). Keep up the great work!!
Loved seeing “behind the scenes” of the google hangout. Organized, clean spaces really and truly make us breathe a little easier. Enjoy it!
Sharon @ mrshinesclass.com
I think you like it all messy and guess what, I’m kind of that too, but I liked it a lot in the first picture.
A white outfit makes you look skinnier???? I dress in white and I look like the Pillsbury Doughboy’s obese older sister! As an aside, chaos is the sign of a creative mind. Order is the sign of an accountant.
Ouch! I’m an accountant who has a craft/DIY blog! But I do have my messy rooms and my tidy rooms – bit of a split-personality I guess.
You’re so funny! It makes me feel better about my ‘creative mess/tornado zone’!
Oh the reality of being a busy creator…..my house is a mess right now, drywall dust everywhere, garage full of unfinished furniture pieces, basement a painting workshop for kitchen cabinet doors. But soon, soon, I’ll be able to dig through this and find normalcy (and maybe Christmas)
You are SO DANGED CUTE, what a fun post.
I can’t wait to put up Christmas, but it isn’t till after Thanksgiving here because we host it every year.
Have a wonderful week!
Gracias por publicar las imagenes reales de su estudio…me hacen sentir menos culpable con respecto al mio!!!Es muy lindo su espacio y su blog.
Saludos desde Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Amanda
I am so right there with you, Donna! Only for me, I often blame the four teenagers and the three beagles for the chaotic mess. Sure, they have their messes, but, being the “creative one” in the family, there are often, unfinished projects and various stages of decorating going on. Thanks for helping me to feel like I’m not the only one!
I’ve always said that a messy desk is the sign of hard work! I’ve been tackling my own messes by doing it in 15 minute time slots. I can do anything for 15 minutes! 🙂
You know for years I had the perfectly clean house but no time to create. I now cut myself some slack and live in a mess for awhile if I am creating. I had a girl friend who was always creating the most wonderful things but her house always looked like a tornado went through it. It is all a balance. As long as you are doing what makes you happy I think it all works out.
Ho Ho Help! Ha! I am so with you. I’ve decided to axe my studio, convert it to a master bedroom, and consolidate everything into a craft closet. Such a waste of square footage when half the time, I have to jump hurdles to get to anything in there. Lord knows, I can’t shoot photography in there! Really. It’s like a boot camp training zone. As always, love that you keep it real!
Love your honesty!
I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one with a cupboard devoted to Tupperware!!!
You described my life to a T! Jack and I have great intentions but it never comes to pass. Slow and steady sounds like the correct game plan. Thank you, as always, for the inspiration! OH…well done with FOLK. I am loving it, Donna. Happy Thanksgiving from your friends in Indiana!
You are so lucky to have a light filled room!!! I have light “zones” and only one of them has a decent enough backdrop to use. I have three teens and nine indoor pets, things get pretty chaotic here too 😉
I was at a Bible Study this morning at the home of a mom with a 2 year old and she was lamenting having/needing to clean. It just reminded me that life is full of seasons. The stage of raising little kids doesn’t usually sustain a lot of “clean.” I remember! I love clean and neat so I’m enjoying having teenagers (and adult kids) who were taught to pick up. But one day I’ll have grandkids and it’ll all start over again!
Thank-you for sharing…I feel better, all of my crafting spaces look as if a tornado hit them. Just as I was getting in the mood to straighten up a bit, I fell and broke my foot…now I can’t clean up and having to look at the chaos is driving me nuts. Why is being creative so messy? I have long talks with myself when I get things organized, about how I will reform…then I start working, get in that zone and well…it’s not pretty. The most frustrating part is I never can find what I’m looking for, I think I’d get more accomplished if I could create neatly!
wow – what a perfect life you lead…ha! crack me up! it’s so nice to see how very REAL you are! love it!
Thank goodness your human Donna like the rest of us!!! Your amazing and you inspire me all the time. Thanks for being YOU!!!!
Christine in Toronto :o)
Thank you! I keep looking at my big wonderful airy craft room and thinking how it could be a magazine example… if only I didn’t have piles of debris EVERYWHERE!!! I must have left the windows open on a really windy day, because surely I didn’t make this mess! Or perhaps the room is haunted by a very project-minded ghost.
Love your photo studio! You go for it girl! Keep it as messy as you need…then clean…mess…clean. That’s how it goes at my house. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Leslie
houseontheway@gmail.com
You just got to get a book deal….I can see the title now…My Real Life, Funky Junk and all the other stuff…your writing style is so fun to read
What a beautiful room. I like the curtains over the natural sunlight. I can only imagine how expensive that would be with studio lights!
“Less mess is less stress”. It’s so true. We’re working on decluttering and getting rid of some things too. Started with the attic space two weeks ago. Feels good to just let stuff go.
You had me laughing so hard! Now I don’t feel so bad about my house LOL
Precious post. I appreciate your desire to make your followers feel good. So many put on a show and many BELIEVE their act and feel inferior. Your honesty makes them feel good. good job. 😉 mary/the white barn-oklahoma
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Reality! For sure…we are all there with you, Donna. Cute post, thanks for de-stressing me!
Oh I thought I was the only one!
Martha Stewart comes to me for hints!
Have a joyous Thanksgiving
Vicki
Doing the same thing (except teaching instead of writing/creating). Your messy is perfection compared to mine. But it still gave me a chuckle that I am not the only one that cleaned up just to pull all the Christmas boxes out to cover the clean. Life is good. Thank God we live with people that understand or at least tolerate! Ha!
Love your blog. Such inspiration. Good luck and don’t give up on the declutter/clean thing.