Eye candy
For over a year, I had a subscription to Country Style Magazine. Each month, a magazine would arrive in my letterbox, and provide tinder for an ongoing fantasy I have of living in a renovated federation style home, wisteria hanging over the verandah, a second-hand chair placed casually in the corner strewn with an array of cushions…a golden retriever sitting on the stairs. My children would be called Molly and Oliver and I would undoubtedly have a ‘home-made’ business run from a shed out the back.
My husband would be a property developer so we could afford this quaint lifestyle.
After months of pouring through Country Style, lusting after beautiful home-wares and envying beautiful lives, I ended my subscription.
Country Style was my eye candy. But it made me feel empty. As I reached the end of each edition, I would close it, lusting for a life that was not mine. Feeling vaguely dissatisfied.
This is not my life
Back to my built-in-the-80s home, with bronze aluminium framed windows and mottled beige carpet.
But I have a new Country Style. It’s called Bleubird Vintage, and it is my iCandy.
I lust after her images. Her clothes. Her wedding. Her life. And I don’t think I am the only one. She has 80,000+ followers on Instagram, 21,000+ followers on Twitter and 21,000+ followers on Pinterest. I am guessing over 100,000 people want to be a little bit Miss James.
Have you heard this cliché? In our fast-paced world, we satisfy our desire for instant gratification with the Internet – in particular, social media like Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter. We can scroll through, consuming beautiful image, interesting sentiment after beautiful image. It’s like flicking through Country Style, but we have pop-up tones, and can switch from one magazine app to the other. We pull our device from our handbag and consume on the train. As we wait for the train. As we eat dinner with our families. Karen at Rhythm & Method wrote about house porn. This is iPorn. Bleubird is my iCandy. My iPorn.
“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.”
~ Steve Furtick
Spending hours wishing I had white wood window frames shadowed by wisteria is futile. My windows are what they are. My life is what it is. This is my behind-the-scenes.
This is my life and these are my windows
And I am not displeased with it. In fact, it’s perfect, in all its imperfections. A work in progress. I have reached a period of contentment, surrounded by love and sunshine. We have our difficulties, but they pass, and we make it through. Even with daggy windows.
Presumably Bleubird is Miss James’ highlight reel. Beautiful highlights, but highlights nevertheless. I needn’t worry. She may not have daggy windows or mottled beige carpet, but I am sure somewhere behind those scenes lie imperfections and difficulties. Like the rest of us, she is human and may even be lusting after some other life on Instagram.
Whose windows do you pine for?
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{Linking with the lovely Grace at With Some Grace for FYBF}
(this is not a sponsored post, obviously)
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