Cutie Pie Kiddos... and Designing with Clutter in Mind

Remember those photos I mounted last weekend? I got around to putting them up a couple days ago. Honestly they would have sat around a lot longer, but I was worried that some little fingers would mess them up. Nothing like your own sticky kids to motivate you to get things done!

So here they are. Aren't they beautiful? I love how they turned out. You know what else I love? Having the talented photographer Holly Isaacson as my sister-in-law. Seriously I wonder how she accomplishes all that she does, and still has time to take such beautiful photos and run an awesome art blog and still raise three fantastic kids. 

When I put up the frames up above Jonas' changing table in his nursery, I used the toothpaste method I found on Pinterest. A complete and total disaster. Not only did I get toothpaste everywhere (except where it needed to be), but it took me hours to get those photos just right.

This time around, I simply put up paper that matched the frame size (12x12 scrapbook paper) and arranged it how I liked it. Stuck a few nails through the paper that matched the hangars on the frame and we were done. It still took a bit of time with a ruler but overall SO MUCH EASIER.

Now here's the thing about design that really gets to me. When you see all those pretty photos on blogs and in magazines, the rooms are clearly staged. Stylists come in and arrange things just so and then nobody breathes or moves until the picture is perfect. The truth is no one lives like that. There is no way that anyone (at least anyone with kids) has a room that is that clean and that perfect for more than five minutes. And all those crystal or ceramic vases and bowls that are placed all around? Those wouldn't survive a day around here. As much as I hate it, clutter is a way of life. It just piles up.

So as I stared at the paper on the wall, I thought to myself that the photos should be lower. They look too high up and unevenly placed for the space. But then I remembered (actually, I tripped on) all the clutter I had moved to the floor.

If I don't live my life picture perfect like a magazine, why should I place the photos that way? So I decided to hang them with future clutter in mind. That way, when the clutter piles up like it inevitably will, the photos won't be hidden and won't serve as another reminder about how chaotic my life has become. None of us need one more thing staring us down and telling us we don't have our act together. The kids do that for me all on their own. Ha!

So higher up they went, and then the clutter got added back in. (I will confess that I did put some of it away.) Maybe I'm desensitized, but now I kind of like the clutter and how it looks all together. And in reality it's the way I live. It's why I have an office chair around my dining room table, why my coffee table is completely out of reach of the couch and why the vacuum doesn't have a permanent home and yet never gets used. Because it works for us.

That's why I love these photos so much. They remind me of what's important in life. So here's to you, cutie pie kiddos. I love you lots and I hope I always remember that you are everything I hoped for and more.