if a situation is no bed of roses, it is difficult or unpleasant.

It's no bed of roses, raising two kids on one salary, that's for sure.

Life isn't a bed of roses, you know.

• be close to home
• be close to the bone
• be close to the mark
• be coining it
• be cold comfort
• be cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
• be coming apart at the seams
• be comme il faut
• be compos mentis
• be conspicuous by absence
• be conspicuous by your absence
• be cooked to a turn
• be cooking on gas
• be cup of tea
• be cut from the same cloth
• be cut to the bone
• be damned
• be damned if do and damned if don't
• be damned if do and damned if you don't
• be damned if you do and damned if don't
• be damned if you do and damned if you don't
• be dead and buried
• be dead from the neck up
• be dead from the waist down
• be dead in the water