On Being Stopped In The Street…

Ahh, the price of fame! We went to the grocery shopping yesterday and I got stopped by a Japanese lady who wanted to tell me she had seen me in the Ikea magazine, it's not actually as an impressive tale as that, she is the mom of one of Ebi-kun's classmates. It was still quite funny though and although it is nearly the end of the school year, she has never spoken to me before.

Talking of Ikea…We went on Saturday, there were a few bits and bobs that I needed (yes, I include cider in that list!) so when we got there we asked for a copy of the magazine. from what I gather it is sent out to people who are members of their "family" club but when I explained that we were actually in the magazine, the member of staff went and got me one.

Of course, that meant we had to get the cheesy photo…

The Ultimate Kitchen Bootcamp started today so I have been super busy making sure everything is set up and ready to go, there are 265 fabulous ladies raring to go, the fun has already started in the Facebook group, it's not too late so if you want in, hop over here to sign up. I had better get back to it but I just wanted to leave you with this quote from one of my Clear The Clutter Rock Stars, it totally sums it up for me!

Do you ever look around and think, I could be living in a magazine?

It has been killing me sitting on this! Months ago, Ikea Family Live Magazine got in touch and asked if I would like to featured in their magazine!

Scrape me off the floor - of course I said yes!

I am glad they do these features, showing real homes with real people. Our home looks lived in, it's not perfectly tidy, it is organized but not to the point where it loses that homely feel. I use the same system that I teach in Clear The Clutter to keep everything under control, I have to because I am not a natural neat freak, so if I don't keep on top of it, chaos reigns.

I think it also helps with that new phenomenon where people beat themselves up because their home doesn't look like the beautiful pictures they see on Pinterest! I would put money on the fact that if you walked into one of those 'perfect' homes unannounced, it wouldn't look so darn perfect.

When I agreed to do this for Ikea, I wanted to stay true to myself, yes, I could have squirrelled away all the books off the bookshelf, leaving just a desirable one or two and moved things out of shot so it looks 'prettier' but at the end of the day, I wanted it to really reflect our home as it stands, a real home with real people living in it. Click HERE to see the whole article, it is in the paper edition too but it is also all Japanese! I will post the translation below. 

Before we get to the translation, I want to remind you that Clear The Clutter will be opening it's doors again soon and I will be running the totally fabulous and FREE Kitchen Bootcamp again, pop your name in the box to join in the fun! 

And the English mock up they sent me, the numbers for the images don't make much sense in the English version because they changed the image layout! But you get the general idea…