Feeling so blah...

[Ginger_79]

Gaah, I'm suffering a big moment of "Why can I not be so crafty, stylish, overall inspiring and cool like the pictures from blog and magazines???"

Sometimes I look at Etsy stores, pinterest collections, fashion shots, scrap blogs (just discoveed the awesome Ali Edwards blog, though I kinda knew about her before) and all that. And then I feel uncrafty, my home is boring, I don't cook my own marmalade or sew cool skirts. My pages look uninspired, I never got to write that Fantasy book I dreamed of as a teenager and my fashion style certainly isn't very unique.

I KNOW most of these photos are 100% staged. I know a blog shows ONE aspect of a life and hides a million others. And I know all these things don't necessarily make me a better person. But grrr, do they all have to APPEAR so perfect?

So, do you ever dream those dreams where you float along in wonderful dresses, crafting the most beautiful things to displasy in your beautiful home. In which you serve excellent food to your beloved guests. In the middle of very creative table decorations of course. Or in the garden with lampinons in the tree... And what do you do, when you discover that reality has obviously never read the right catalogues?

Sorry for the babbling, I just needed to get that out.

[NeverendingJen]

*snort* I can relate to this so much. I'd lvoe to have a totally perfect crafty house, where I always have great parties and cooke xcellent food, but the reality is, I'm just lil old me. I do what I can to make my house perfect to me...slowly my style is evolving and I am making mroe things how I want them to be in my dreams, because thats all I can do, is do my part to makes things how I want them

[adrianka]

I totally get you. It's *so* hard not to compare oneself with others, but the key to happiness is trying to avoid it as much as possible. You know that people usually show the pretty and tend to omit the ugly. With the arrival of blogs, social networks and such it's even harder, because the comparisons are EVERYWHERE. I am myself sometimes totally overwhelmed, but am trying hard to ignore it as much as possible. I know this sounds like a bunch of banal things, but I mean it. Sometimes I'm so angry how I seemingly fail in comparison, that I have even written two raps about peer pressure to let the steam off. :-)

*hugs*

[adrianka]

P.S. And do these perfect people even exist? Each time I talk to people, everybody feels the same, but WHERE are those perfect ones then? :-)

[nietis]

Oh Inga, I totally get what you mean, sweetie. I feel totally like you too! I even wonder how do people do that?

[LenaGardner]

Oh I can so relate! I love Pinterest but it can also be depressing LOL!

[LenaGardner]

p.s. you look like Amy Adams.

[jovi_girl]

Can absolutely relate. I so badly want to be the perfect lil homemaker, with a house filled with craftiness and colour, and my own little business selling things I've sewn. When in reality, my garden is overgrown, there's a pile of washing taking over my lounge and anything I sew is normally crooked!

Do these people have kids? Bet they don't have toddlers! Anything I want to do is limited to nap and bedtimes and I'm normally too buggered to do anything then!

[kristijoy]

Yep...it's so hard not to think we can have the perfect life! I follow a few blogs (mostly SSD designers) but if a blog just makes more desires or makes me feel inadequate I stop following. I always have to go back to what really matters to me and let everything else go. To me simplicity is what really helps. If I throw great dinner parties but ignore my own child, what good is that?

[MamaBee]

*sigh* I totally understand... I look at some of the things on the blogs that are created and I'm like, "Man! why didn't I think of doing that???" I use to be pretty good at decorating, but since moving into the house that I am (8 years ago ) I'm just not happy with it... or it could be that it has been over run by someone who is 42 inches tall... I should stop following some of the scrapping sites that I do have in my reader... I just get depressed that my work doesn't seem to compare.

[mrs_jb]

Oh I totally know where you're coming from. I think that feeling exists in ever facet of life... there are perfect parents, perfect crafters, perfect Christians, perfect cooks... and I definitely hit those moments where I feel like such a mess that I want to smack one of those people... LOL!

I actually have an old friend from high school who I only "talk" to on FB and she is pretty much the next Martha Stewart... it drives me insane sometimes... but I usually can pull myself back from the ledge when I remember that no one is perfect, no one, and I would much rather be honest and upfront about my life and say, hey, I'm a disaster... but I still LOVE life... than killing myself to put on a nice face for everyone else all the time... because it's just not real, ya know?

The other thing I try to tell myself is that I am the person that I am for a reason... and even if that reason isn't known to me, this is who I'm supposed to be. I try to embrace that though when all I want to do is be just like someone else, who seems to have it all together! LOL!

[mrshobbes]

Originally Posted by LenaGardner

p.s. you look like Amy Adams.

OMG Thank you, Lena! I've been thinking which celebrity she resembled, lol. Gorgeous

And I totally get what you mean. I have tons of these blogs in Google Reader, tons of pins of perfectly arranged spaces, crafts, food, etc and I get so inspired. Then my attempts fall flat or I get overwhelmed and then start beating myself up. I'm not craftsy at all, so I settle for just ogling. I don't really cook or bake.

But at the end of the day, I think about what I AM good at. What I DO have. Makes it easier to handle, otherwise I would just freak out on what kind of a wife I am.

[julia]

Oh I totally get what you mean! In fact, I have 2 friends that blogs about interior and home projects, one that sew adorable outfits for her little girl, goes to yardsales, find the most unwanted little things, turn them into beautiful and creative stuff in her home. She also makes the most wonderful meals, and invites her neighbors over for a glass of wine in the evening. I on the other hand, always have a messy house, no money to start re-decorating (I would love to change colors on the walls/have some walls covered with wallpaper), no patience for sewing, don't enjoy cooking, do not know my neighbors to invite anyone over for wine and if I did know them, I just don't see where I could have time to do so. I can't understand how she is able to get all this done.

I have given up on trying to keep up with her. I stress too much if I think about everything I'd like to do that she's done. I focus on creating beautiful LO's and keep my son busy with fun activities. That's us, and I'm happy with that... most days

[Ginger_79]

Awww, thanks ladies. The good thing about writing it down once in a while is, that next day you can look at it and realise how incredibly foolish it is, to think that way.

Also, 95% of the time such blogs inspire me to take the possible from it and just enjoy the look of the impossible. I know I am insanely blessed with my life and funny enough, those perfect ones? Were never the ones where all of the friends really ended up. The best and most regular come-togethers happened at those imperfect, heartfelt homes. I do like who I am and how my life is. Can just get overwhelming sometimes to think of the super-duper optimised you.

Btw, the Amy Adams thing is SO funny to me. Because an online friend, who only knows photos, kept saying one day she imagines me being a non-Hollywood version of Amy Adams. I thought, that she will be very disappointed meeting me for real, because I can't see any resemblance. BUT everyone I told that story says: Oh yes, there are some features...and very similiar smile. I take it as a compliment, because I actually like her a lot.

Off now to do a Ali Ewards inspired mini-book about our Belfast photos. Take that, Martha!

[LenaGardner]

Originally Posted by Ginger_79

Btw, the Amy Adams thing is SO funny to me. Because an online friend, who only knows photos, kept saying one day she imagines me being a non-Hollywood version of Amy Adams. I thought, that she will be very disappointed meeting me for real, because I can't see any resemblance. BUT everyone I told that story says: Oh yes, there are some features...and very similiar smile. I take it as a compliment, because I actually like her a lot.

Yep, she's totally pretty!!! I wish I looked like her LOL.