CAUTION: this is a super long post and I am pouring out my heart, so you might wanna skip it or get a cup of hot chocolate before you get started 
Lately I find that the scrapbooking scene is shifting, getting a new direction. When I read Elizabeth Kartchners Blog I always think, her life’s gotta be so perfect! With a fun husband that makes sweet jokes all the time, three adorable girls, the best career a girl could ever get…. Yes, her life’s gotta be perfect! Why I’m even thinking about that stuff? Well, a couple days ago I was listening to Noell Hymans Roundtable Show and they were talking about bloggers/scrappers that never show mistakes, all their pages are perfect and so is their house, life and family. Then a couple girls were saying that they show people how they themselves make mistakes with their art journals. They show every single page, if they like the result or not.
Somehow I got a little upset when they talked about the girls that seem to be oh so perfect. Were they jealous? I don’t know. But I know that my blog usually never shows any mistake on my layouts. I usually never talk about the hard times Adrian and I are going through from time to time and I usually never show pictures of our sometimes pretty messy home. Are people thinking my life’s 100% perfect too? A young girl (just about to turn 21 in a couple weeks), married to a wonderful man, immigrated to the USA, having traveled quiet a bit, having worked in a few DT’s, designed her own stamps and now the new venture ScrapbookMentor! Are you thinking I’m perfect? Maybe, I don’t know and I’d rather not be perfect in your eyes, because I’m not! I do make mistakes on my pages (but I know how to cover them up 99 times out of 100), Adrian and I do have fights about those stupid little small things, I do get moody, my mouth does stink in the morning and sometimes work (even tough I love scrapbooking) does suck! I can get frustrated and I do have to clean our home 2 times a week. Our bunny does poop and our kitchen can get super messy and stinky and just sit there for a couple days until I clean up! That’s just life and everybody – how perfect their blog seems – is going through those days.
I’m a little afraid and concerned that the scrapbooking scene is shifting into that ‘oh I’m such a normal girl with lots of mistakes’ kinda thing. Who the heck wants to read a blog where the main theme is: let’s complain and show the world how real I am – with all my many mistakes and errors. Aaaaahm, no thanks for me! I’d rather read a blog that is happy and positive, that gets my creative juices flowing! Sure, sometimes it’s really great to talk about the deeper things in our lives. And I even find it can help the writer as much as the reader – in fact – I got inspired for this blog post over at Decor8 with this post!
I don’t even know why I wrote this all, but somehow it seemed very important, to pour out my heart, to tell you that I’m not so perfect and neither is my life. I think the main reason why my posts usually are so happy and filled with smilies is, because I prefer to write when I feel good. I tend not to complain as much as when I feel horrible. Does that make sense to you? Also I really am not proud of our home when it’s all messy, so why even bother to snap a picture and share it here? Sure, a creative mess can be fun, but a clean desk is so so much more inspiring – at least for me
Don’t get me wrong now, I adore Noell Hyman and I love to listen to her and the girls on the show 
And I guess it wouldn’t hurt too much to share a layout that got a few little beauty marks – if you now what I mean.. But on the other hand I think that we just have to start living with that – so what if a page didn’t come out perfectly! Doesn’t mean I have to complain about it and show the whole wide world how much I messed it up just to make them feel a specific way about myself. I think a blog should be personal, it should represent me myself and I – so my posts will continue to be happy, I will add lots of smilies and I won’t necessarily show you those messy spaces in our 700 sq ft home
And here’s already the first exception for what I just said A pretty messy desk with my brand new awesome computer 
(sitting right next to it, the 4 year old laptop….)
See, I can be messy too And the good part about that is: I’m so not ashamed of it (at least not in this pic… heeeeehee )
Happy Scrappin’
I don’t see u as a person who have a perfect life, because you have small comments about that ur life isn’t perfect. For example i think u once said that after the road trip that you forgot all the small fights and the cold nights in the tent, and u often say that your mojo is gone. I think ur blogging is very good, ur positiv, but not “perfect”. But i would love to see u sometimes take photos of the layouts that you don’t like and how you fixed it, because i think i could learn a lot from it.
Rahel, nobody is perfekt and that’s the only truth.
I even show thing on my blog that are not perfekt, but I don’t share my whole life – that’s my private thing and nothing more. No one needs to know if I’m in trouble with my husband or friends, no one needs to see me in a bad mood.
But if I want to post a bad mood blogpost I do it. I think you have to choose for yourself how much you want to show of your private life and your not so perfect sides. For me there’s only one truth: NOBODY IS PERFEKT (and even if he/she shows that supposed perfectnes… there’s a black point everywhere, remember yin and yang…
No one is perfect…neither me nor you or anyone else. We all learn from our mistakes. It’s your blog and you can decide on your very own what kinda stuff u want to post. I think some things should be kept private. U never know who is checking out your blog, actually many foreign people do.
I’m always happy to read your blogs…not coz of your great great layouts only but also coz of the happy energy you share with us readers. But it should be pretty obvious for all of us, that there r, also in your life, these ups and downs.
I guess all of us r pretty happy with what u give us here…so dont worry in our eyes its “perfect” what u do…. and i hope u get me
Hei,
klar ist: unser Leben ist nicht perfekt, von keinem auf dieser Welt und im Universum. Aber das muss man ja auf seinen Blog nicht zeigen oder schreiben, oder? Ich will die pure Illusion, ich will nicht lesen, dass die Kids nervig sind, der Ehemann rumstänkert, weil das Essen nicht gemacht, die Klamotten nicht gewaschen sind etc. Das erlebe ich zu Hause schon. Ich will mich ablenken, schöne Dinge sehen, lesen. Die verschiedenen Näh-, Scrap- und DIY-Blogs dienen doch als Inspiration und zum reinen Vergnügen. Und die fehlerhaften LOs zeige ich auch nicht, die landen in der Schublade und gut ist.
LG aus Norwegen, Maja
P.S. Was ist eigentlich aus dem Nähen und der Hochzeitsfotografie geworden?
Hi Rahel
Ich finde, du und dein Mann solltet eure Privatspäre haben. Du bist Geschäftsfrau und das ist kein Hobby-Blog. Da geht es mich nichts an, ob die Socken gewaschen sind und die Küche krümelfrei ;o) Und ob es dein Mann toll findet wenn er von aussenstehenden Menschen auf eure persönlichen Probs angesprochen wird? Meiner würde die Krise kriegen. Und ich besuche lieber Blogs, die positive Energie ausstrahlen, als negativer Alltagsmüll. Daher: lass dein Blog so wie er ist, so finde ich ihn spitze!
Vielleicht könntest du ein Video oder Vorher-Nachherfotos eines misslungenen Projekts zeigen, das du gerettet hast. So um dein Gewissen zu beruhigen
Viele Grüsse
M.
Well, I think, your room is pretty neat cleaned up. No mess at all! You know my office… uuuhh, but it’s getting better all the time with my new folder techniques. Hey and I think, when you write about scrapbooking you are true. All themes that are not really abstract (like writing computer programs or playing computer games) are embeded in our real lives. So there is room for happiness and sadness, cleaned up rooms and messy rooms, encouragements and disappointments. But just to focus on the bad side of our lives would be too pessimistic, even a little sick.
Your doing allright, go ahead!!!
Love, Dad
I am so with you on this one. To me most of the fun is reading and getting inspired from other blogs (like your – that I love the way it is!). We all know that no one is perfect … lets be realistic. But you so not have to complain and whine about everything … to honest I wouldn’t be interested. As for mistakes on layouts … if you never told me I would probably never be able to tell! It’s a creative process and who knows if you put some there on purpose or if you wanted that picture to be not straight. I honestly think the whole idea of being “real” is silly. We are all real! We do blogs to express ourselves, not to highlight our flaws
Pay no attention to it and keep going the way you have been … I’ve been enjoying it!
Hi Rahel,
thanks a lot for your post. For me it is much more inspiring to see and read happy, positive blogs other than people mourning about their lifes. I love your posts your happy layouts, your positive attitude. So hold on to the way your write your blog! I know that no one is perfect, so am I (not so perfect)… But as you said: who wants to see messy kitchen (if it is not within a post about cooking or baking), who wants to see the laundry, who wants to see sad people, because they had a controversary? Me not. So please: stay the way you are…
Yours,
Katrin xoxo