... the Kwow will play. With her inner water colour artist that is. I have been on a quest to cover up the eye sore of the exposed electrical board since the day we moved in. I finally got around to hanging up a half painted acrylic painting couple of years ago but there it sat, half done, making me whince everytime I walked by it. Like, hundreds of times a day. Not psychically healthy! So with kids in bed, and a giant piece of water colour paper I busted this out in like half and hour.
I was feeling shy about doing this with Craig around and sure enough when he came home his first comment was that it looks like a three year painted it. Surely he's just jealous. So I suggested we have a paint off and the winner gets to hang his or her painting over the gaping feng shui nightmare of an orfice.
My painting guru suggested a different approach. Why not paint one painting together? Wouldn't that be romantic? Once in a while I'll dab some red on his nose and call him my little clown, and he'll giggle like a school girl. With one hand we'll paint, the other we'll feed each other organic bbq chips. And then, in the morning we'll hang up our masterpiece together while the kids clap their hands and we'll kiss.
And just as I was ready to post this I came across this tutorial on Beautiful Mess sharing five tips to photograph your home. I particularly like the point of taking the photo shoots one room at a time. The side bonus of it forcing you to tidy things up, declutter and then get to 'style' it to your heart's content. Totally works! The last shot of the hallway forced me to throw a load of laundry piled in the middle of the floor straight into the wash. Decluttering the pajamas off the kids came shortly thereafter.
And then, since I've been meaning to do some full on decluttering for a while now, it was also timely to find this excellent article that speaks to the common roadblocks to decluttering and their underlying core emotional issues. These include:
- I might need this later. That would suck.
- Someone gave this to me. Their feelings might get hurt (sad trombone sounds here).
- I paid good coin for this and it might up in value someday.
- I've had this a really long time. Like, long time.
Though it's techinically a spring cleaning article it's quite timely due to the cooler weather, in these parts anyway, that will call for more time spent indoors and everyone thrives in less clutter spaces. Think of the need to space your carrots to let them grow to their full potential.
Not to mention a less cluttered house is a more photogenic house and this winter you will probably tire after so many outdoor shots of my kids ridiculously bundeled up to the point of immobility in three feet of snow! Heads up for lots of jammy shots in a hopefully freshly decluttered, cozy abode.
