Today, I'm starting a new series that I'm kind of excited about and kind of nervous about. See, I love my blog and blogging. I love all the craftiness I get to display and skills I get to use. I love that I get to challenge myself, have a business, earn a little income and so many other things. It suits me really well.
There is one downside, especially when you name your blog "The Real Thing with the Coake Family." When blogging, it is really easy to only share what you want to with your readers. Which is a really great thing in most ways. However, as a reader, and trust me I read tons of blogs, it is so easy to be sucked into thinking that the person's blog whom you are reading has it all together, that their life is perfect and all neatly tied up, just like the gorgeous pictures and projects on the blog.
The thing is that for most any blogger you will meet, that is just not the case. We shove piles of toys or accumulated stuff out of the way to take that shot. We actually clean the table in order to show you our new centerpiece. It doesn't normally look like that. It normally looks....well normal and real, not fake and magazine glossy.
That is where this new series comes into play. I want to make sure that here at "The Real Thing with the Coake Family" we are keeping it REAL. I'm not a fake person by nature. I am generally a person that what you see is what you get and I mean what I say. I want that to shine through here. I don't want to be magazine glossy and perfect because that is just to damn hard and stressful (Yay, I swear quite a bit more in real life, but I usually keep it clean here so this can be a family thing, but now you know the truth). Yes, I will clean the table before I get pictures of my latest creation. Yep, I'm still going to shove the kids toys out of the way to get the picture I need, but you will know the truth, you will see the before shot here, you will see pictures of what the playroom, kid's room or dare I go there, even my room look like on a normal basis.
In this monthly post/series, I'm going to show the reality. I will take a picture of the mess before the glossy magazine (or the best photography I can get) pictures. I will share things with you that are part of my real life. Yes, I will still keep plenty private because I don't want to share EVERYTHING with you. I like you all, but not quite that much, and you wouldn't want to hear EVERYTHING either. lol!
Since this is a new series, I don't have any before pictures for you this month. Though I am working to get in the habit of taking some for next month.
This month, I wanted to share a bit of our REAL life something with which we are struggling. My kids are totally overtired and cranky and I am soooo sick of it! They started this new habit about a month ago. I have two girls who share a room. They are 10 (though she would want you to know she is almost 11) and 6. They are best friends. I love that! I do not love that they love to stay up late and 'party.' Their version of a party is to stay up late and talk and tell stories and such. It is really rather cute.
. They have such fun ideas in their magazine. My daughters opened up this month's issue and saw this idea. They loved it! I just happened to find the little mailboxes in the dollar section of Target the next day! Love when that happens. Then it was just a simple trip to 3 craft stores to find the candlesticks that act as a stand. Why couldn't they have had them at one of the first 2 stores? Oh well, we got them and they are done and super cute...so on with the tutorial for you. 
