How people really live: any super market checkout line has

[hedgehog]

dozens of magazines featuring photo after photo of beautifully decorated homes. My favorites are the kitchens featuring a large bouquet of flowers with nary a loaf of bread in sight. I look at those photos and shrug a little in the knowledge that my home will never look like that. Sometimes I visit other houses and am startled that there are houses that look like the photos. Then I look at the backgrounds in so many of the candid shots here, and I see many people live in surroundings like mine: some used furniture, maybe a couple new pieces, stacks of a sewing project and/or books and/or evidence of another hobby or work papers, etc. It's clean and comfortable, but messy and interesting.