Do you ever stop to look around your house and just think: “BLAH.” It looks like its filled with stuff. Nothing important or special, just stuff. I know that I can’t be the only one that feels like that. It got me thinking, where in my life do things feel special, solid and centered the most? I immediately thought of my Grandma’s house. It has remained completely unchanged for as long as I can remember (which, lets be honest, will never be my house cause I love buying new furniture wayyyy too much.) So the last time I was there I snapped a quick picture of my favorite place in her house, the kitchen. I tried to get one of her standing at the sink, but she caught on to what I was doing and stepped out of the shot. Fast forward a few months and my friends at Shutterfly reached out about personalizing a space with some of their fun home décor products. I knew immediately that I wanted to have this picture of my Grandma’s kitchen professionally framed, and I knew right where I wanted to hang it.

THINGS THAT ARE DIFFICULT IN LIFE: realizing that adults have to wear pants 99% of the time, figuring out how to get stains out of kid’s clothing, finding the remote after someone other than you used it, and balancing post-school activities for multiple kids while still getting in homework and a dinner that doesn’t come from a drive through window. Know what’s worse? (well lots of stuff, but bear with me) Calling your husband to tell him you purchased an entire bowling alley lane — and that he gets the honor of helping you install it. Man, he was so excited he was just speechless!


Writing for online content is a world of amazing disillusion. You get this Cliff’s Notes version of a project. You see the finished item, show them all of our supplies lined up all nice and neat and then feature an in progress shot so everyone can see what it looks like in the trenches. It doesn’t matter if you write for a shelter, food or lifestyle blog — the process is the same. There are, of course, others who speak to us more rationally and we see them painting without makeup at 2am in a time-lapse video, but the truth of the matter is, the nitty-gritty of life isn’t pretty. How that translates to those of us at home, is this crazy void that’s filled with dissatisfaction about our progress on a project when it can’t be finished in wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am style! Myself included. So here’s a story about a bathroom that is half done, sticks out like a sore thumb and drives me crazy every. single. day. Yes it’s better than before and yes, I might have to pee with my eyes closed to quell the rage. Is that too much information? Yup.
