Ideal vs. Real - Jileen from The Overhaul

To finish off The Ideal vs. The Real series I thought it would be really fun to have some other bloggers guest post their own "Real" post.


I'm so excited about this as I've never had guest posters before, and I'm going to have four in a row now!


First up is Jileen from The Overhaul.

She makes super cute accessories for her little boy's room.

And turned her son's old bedroom from this:

(Still gorgeous!)

Into this:

Guest bedroom, in one day!

This girl has some serious skill! Here she is to show us her "Real".

Hi everyone! I am Jileen from the Overhaul.  I would like to extend a big thank you to Rhiannon for having me as a guest blogger (this is the first time for me... you were warned lol).  I first came across Rhiannon's blog at one of those fantastic link parties. I noticed she was a British blogger and amigos I was on it like white on rice. Although I am not British, I am an American living the U.K. and British bloggers are hard to come by ;)


When Rhiannon invited me to guest blog for her Real vs Ideal Series, I was excited. When I received the email, I whipped out the ole' camera got to shooting.  Doing the "Real" section of the series, was easy. Maybe a bit too easy, some may say shamefully easy. This household contains a man who works full time,  a five year old boy whose sole mission is to make a mess and  a "preoccupied" women.  I mean who has time to tidy up? Seriously guys, tidying up was sooooo pre 2006 for us.


Taking these photos was very therapeutic. For the bloggers out there I am sure you know what I mean.  There is always a bit of pressure to have it "together"by having our home spotless and immaculate. In Casa Harkins that is not always the case. I am convinced we are outstanding at making a mess. In fact, I am going to go out and say we are unbelievable fantastic. I am sure if there was an event at London's 2012 olympics for fastest mess makers, the gold medal would go to Family Harkins. Who needs humility? We are awesome.


Real


Let's start with the bad. Here is our real:

This is Aedan's idea of a few toys to play with before school. I count 15 toys, how about you? A few things to notice:

• Fantastic display of safe child proofing - extension with my computer plugged in lying in the middle of the room. Nice Jileen, nice. 
• Our curtain pole is about to fall down. Who needs a middle bracket? Not us, we are rebels. 
• The Christmas Printable, hanging out on the shelf, evidently I missed the whole "christmas is not celebrated in February" memo.

Moving on to the Dining area,

Hmm let's see what we have going on here:

• Tupper ware
• Nail clippers? Great. If my memory serves me correctly I was taking off of Aedan, I can assure we don't clip our nails at the table. Promise
• Diet Pepsi - a fun reminder of last night's dinner.
• Cough medicine- Aedan was not 100%
• Gift Bag- present for a Friend. 
• Dinnerware - for selling on Ebay. 
• Windex- a reminder for me to do the windows. (I still have not done them)

Directly behind the dining table is my craft area. My super duper organized craft area. 

Yeah, at this moment you can guess that last comment was dripping in saracasm.


On to the kitchen, which we install in December :

Shall we take inventory?

• Yellow Cup on the floor- courtesy of the little guy
• Basketful of laundry - it has been there a day already
• Our failed shelf above the window- you can get the skinny here
• Opened Cabinet Doors - Stephen complains I always leave the kitchen cabinet doors open. I always disagreed until that one faithful day when I walked into the kitchen and the fridge, pantry and sink doors were opened. He maybe right.. I have a problem. 

What is a "real" kitchen shot without the sink shot? 

Ideal:


Here is our Ideal living room.. well sorta.  We are awaiting new sofas and cabinets for our media built in, but thankfully all toys have been put back into Aedan's room.

On to our dining room:

Since the last photos, we have sanded and painted/varnised the table. We purchased a radiator cover and  started on painting the chairs and said cover.  This room is still in it's infancy but we are hoping to have it done for the beginning of March


On to the Kitchen

Cabinet doors have been shut, dishes washed, laundry ironed, and floors cleared.  We still have much to do in this room, (i.e. fix the shelving), but we will get there. 

These three rooms are on our DIY radar and hopefully you guys can join us as we "Git r Done" 

Thanks again Rhiannon for having me!! :)

Thanks so much Jileen! What an amazing first guest post! I LOVE that she has really showed us how it is, I for one am massively relieved that my sink is not he only one with dishes in and bottles! And what a great after shot.So pretty.


Come back tomorrow for some more fantastic guest posters!