Messy Tuesdays

I have written before about “ideal home” blogs, beautiful blogs which showcase beautiful but for me also completely unattainable homes. For me personally, I have found occasionally some blogs have had quite a negative effect, rather than inspiring me and encouraging me they daunted me. My previous rented house couldn’t allow me to have room for a craft room and delight in the everyday was slightly diminished by the damp in the bathroom.

Before I go any further I should add that, I completely understand that for lots of people they choose to make blogs edited versions of life and that in celebrating simple pleasures, the focus is often on the picturesque and aesthetically pleasing aspects of life. This of course creates issues as the whole Brocketgate discussions exemplify and Needled articulates so so brilliantly. 

While I agree with the harlot that what you do on your blog invites people onto your "sofa" and opens up your life, I do also think that by only focusing on the beautiful corners of your home you are tipping over into hyper-reality and showcasing an aspirational lifestyle. Most people are aware that magazines show very selected products, photographed in particular ways and that models are airbrushed. The fact that we know glossy lifestyle/fashion magazines aren’t real doesn’t make them any less damaging in my view, it still portrays an unattainable lifestyle and something for women to put pressure on themselves to aspire towards.  And certainly for me some craft blogs have made me in the past feel inadequate.  For someone who spent her teenager years wrapped in teenage angst about not being clever enough, pretty enough or thin enough, the idea that my home won’t be beautiful enough, my craft not so well executed or my knitting up to speed has been at times quite tough.

While I am very interested in celebrating simple pleasures, I am also interested in looking at the potential in the more mundane aspects of life. The messy, untidy side of life is interesting to me – I like reading blogs and feeling like you are spying through the keyhole of the author’s life and I have also loved to see pictures of messy desks and workspaces of artists and writers. One of my most favourite photos is a photograph of Angela Carter sitting next to a desk full of scribbles and paper with an overflowing waste bin next to her.

I thought Kirsty and Felix’s posts about The Mundane Appreciation Society were really interesting about finding beauty in the debris in everyday life.

So, this weekend Felix and I have planned Messy Tuesdays, the opportunity to readdress the balance of the blogs.  Messy Tuesdays are for me about acknowledging that sometimes disorder reigns in my home and that sometimes working full-time, commuting and living alone is difficult enough without having craft as a distraction.

This Tuesday features washing up I should have done if I hadn’t been knitting… It was an either or situation and I chose the craft. Does this make me a bad, slovenly person? Not really, I’m just really terrible at housework ;)

I also love having an milkman but am less good at washing out the bottles.

So, join in with messy Tuesdays, bring out your photos of domestic chores unfinished, of spectacular mould, of households that look significantly less than perfect and celebrate and rejoice in the temporary chaos and disorder!

Comments

[Felix]

Hooray for messy Tuesdays! I just put my post up too. I hope lots of people decide to join in with messy Tuesdays... it's very affirmative somehow, at least for me, to see that I am not the only person in the world who makes a lot of mess in the process of being creative.

[ellen]

omg *hearts*! That is awesome. :D

[Liz]

I'm in!! It's always a messy Tuesday round at ours!

[Kate]

What a fab idea. I shall be joining you & Felix in some messy endeavours next tuesday.

[alice]

that's such a good idea. If I remember, I'll try it this week!

[Jeannette]

i'm in, thanks.

[boodely]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[mel]

Wonderful Post, I saw Felix's and am catching up on the other Messy Tuesday's so far, thanks so much for starting this, it really hit home for me and I appreciate you ladies being brave enough to show the messier side of life, because it's there for all of us in some way, shape or form, at some time or another - and for some of us more than others (like me!!)