Real Women of Blogger County: Laura’s Crafty Life

Welcome to the Real Women of Blogger County Series!

Hello! I am Laura and I blog over at Laura’s Crafty Life. You will find posts about crafts, DIY, organizing and a little life thrown in. I am a stay at home mom to two kids – 7 and 4 years old. My family is my world. I squeeze in blogging and crafting during nap time and after the kiddos are in bed at night.

I am really excited about being here for the Real Women of Blogger County series. With sites like Pinterest and Facebook in our faces everyday – showing us how wonderful, perfect, and together everyone else seems to be – it can be hard to remind ourselves real life isn’t really like that. What you are seeing on your favorite blogs and Pinterest boards is a tiny snapshot of what real life is for that blogger. I am sure there are some women out there that really do have it all together (and if you are one of those ladies, I would love to hear your secrets!), but I am not one of them.

For example, this week I was making an ornament wreath for Valentine’s Day. You will get to see the finished wreath on my blog next week, but what you probably won’t see are the two failed attempts to get it right. You also won’t see the behind the scenes for my photo session. When you pull away from the close up, you will see I am using some cheap-o foam board and a science project display board to reflect light and act as a plain white background (to obscure the mess of dishes in my kitchen).

The best lighting in the house happens to be this tiny little area in my kitchen where we also eat, do homework and play games.

Even though I am lucky enough to have a crafting space I share with my husband and his hobbies, I can usually be found taking over the kitchen table. Often there will be a child or kitty ‘helping’ me do my projects.

You also won’t see the mounds of folded laundry on my couch waiting to be put away. Seriously, how many people live here? (And this is only my kid’s clothes!)

You won’t see my crappy floors that need to be replaced (unless you follow me on Instagram). My husband and I are saving up the money to hopefully have someone come and re-do these floors for us. We are a DIY kind of couple, but living in disarray for who knows how many weekends while we re-do the floors ourselves, all while trying to entertain our 7 and 4 year old in the process, is not my idea of fun. But who knows? If it is too expensive, you might be seeing some awesome DIY floor tutorials on the blog before the year is up!

When I am planning parties, my counters will look like this up until about an hour or two before the party. Really anytime I am doing a project my counters are a mess.

Of course, as a blogger, I want to put my best foot forward to my readers. And, the best way to do that is with really great pictures and content. But, behind the scenes there is real life happening every day. I am a mom first and foremost. I am also a wife, and a woman that needs to take care of herself. I love to blog and it definitely is my creative outlet. I hope to inspire others to not feel so intimidated about trying something crafty! But we all need to remember we have a lot of different shoes to fill and balancing it all out is incredibly hard! Really, we are not doing it all!