Weekend Update ::: Rolled out the Blue Carpet

Yay it's finally the weekend again! And it will be a beautiful one, at that!  Can you even believe it is MAY already? I got an email today from my aunt reminding me about our annual family picnic being a month away already.  What happened to this year already....

Must Have ::: Muji Acrylic Cases

All photos by {accordingtoame}

You may have seen me mention Muji in the past, I know I did in the post about the Great Closet Cleanout 2013. But if you're new around here, let it be well known that I am a huge Muji fan, despite not having a store in this city, and bought most of what I own from them via their website. Yay technology!

I LOVE POPPIN!

I REALLY LOVE POPPIN! Everything about their products, their branding, the idea...makes me giddy.

 Photo credit: Poppin's Instagram, @Poptopia--GREAT SLOGAN!!! So fun!

Love is perhaps an understatement.  I am obsessed.  My whole desk and my worktable are decked out in Pool Blue and Lime Green, with a few little splashes of Aqua, White, Navy, and random Orange! And I just. keep. buying. more!  Since they've launched, I have placed several orders, I just cannot seem to control myself. Mousepads. Push pins. Pens. Bits and Bobs trays. Accessory trays. Rulers. Tape Dispensers. Staplers...I have it all! It's becoming an "issue." Quite a good looking issue. They just look so damn NICE with my dark wood antiques and my sleek aluminum Macs!  And their slogan and packaging materials are just divine! 

Purging!

So besides doing a blog cleanup and overhaul, I am doing a house cleanout and overhaul. We've had some water problems in the basement again, and therefore the basement is generally not usable. So anything that is not in a plastic container, or set up off the floor, gone! What we knew needed to be brought upstairs, I packed into new containers and moved up to the living room. Which means we now have our living room, dining room and my office overrun with...stuff.

I'd like to just blame the basement, but it's more than that. I think we're hoarders! We're packrats!  I am bad, I know I am. I stockpile stuff I love. I love Navy Converse slip ons, so when I find the men's no-fray, I buy them in my size en masse.  Plus the two pair of blue dot Marrimekko pairs I got--Hello Spring!. Plus Uggs (*shame*), Frye's I seem to never wear, and some Cole Haan Flats that deserve more wears. And...don't shun me, fashion gurus...CROC FLATS. They're not THAT hideous. Most people--even my most fashion forward friends--have begged to know where they are from! They're great for walking. There I said it.

The process has begun!

Obviously the old is coming off to make way for the new! I have gotten a bit of great feedback, some stung, all was constructive.  I am going to be scaling way back on the reviews, don't worry I won't delete any, but I am just going to (try) to make them shorter, and try to do "less" of them and more just...style/lifestyle overall. Any  reviews Ill try to do as "jump" so you have an overview on to top and then click to see more.

The theme/look is  changing, I took the cheesy stock blogger theme off and just made it plain for now, while I work on the logo and layout. Hopefully within the next month or so that will launch.  I have set up a twitter which I am semi-active on (I fail so hard at twitter!) @accordingtoame, and an instagram that is noticeably barren as of now (I fail equally hard at instagram, Kim Kardashian, I am not!), also @accordingtoame, Pinterest, again @accordingtoame (expect much more failure there, too!) as well as a Facebook page, which isn't entirely active yet so I won't link to that, that should be According to Ame as well.  Setting up all the social media is reminding me that in my literally almost 35 years of life (tomorrow...is the big 35...) I am becoming some kind of fuddy duddy or something!

It's time for a serious purge around here!

I am in the process of a serious house cleaning. I have let things pile up for years, and finally I've had enough. We bought a new sofa last weekend that we deliberately asked to be delivered on August 31st...but that is only because there's NO WAY it would get in our house if we didn't give ourselves a huge window.  Last year we had some plumbing work replaced (just old, needed it and wanted to prevent a future issue!) and I had the plumber go through my office wall, which backs up to the bathroom. Because of that, I had to clean out my entire supply closet (invitation and design supplies) literally with 4 hours to do so. I wasn't smart enough (nor did I give myself the time) to sort it before I moved it out, I just piled it up. And then it sat in my living room, dining room and other side of my office til now.  A little over a year later.  I finally decided to do this now in prep for the couch.

I could not even believe how much  I had. I mean, this is like almost a decade of past work overage, none of which was returnable so instead of recycling it I just held onto it in the event I could use it later. Well...later came and went. And never did I find a job that it could work for.  So now I am finally in the process of sorting it to do something with it.  I spent all day yesterday, after doing all the moving I could into the living room from other rooms to contain it at least to ONE room. I sorted all day into the evening. I finally have it relegated to 10 paper boxes. Ribbon. Envelopes. Cardstock. Cover stock. Pocketfolds. And so on.  I also managed to keep an enormous amount of the printed material for past work, I guess in the event I wanted more for my book? I make 5 extra for myself on every job, 4 for the folder, one for my book. Sometimes Ill put 2 in the book, or give one to the reception hall and wedding planners that refer me sometimes, which each have books of my past work (which reminds me...I need to update those...). But they run me about 10-20% overage just in case there's a screwup cut in the bunch or there's some kind of issue, like I mistake the measuring on mounting and have to pull two apart and ruin both...stuff like that.  So I'd say I tossed at least two full boxes in the recycling container too. I felt like I made a TON of progress. 

Today I spent some time sorting my magazines, yet another alarming collection of mine, though I do keep a good track of editing that, I try to never keep more than a year of any fashion mag, and I keep only the best wedding magazines, mostly Martha Stewart and higher end stuff. But that's still staggering.  Lesson I learned today: lift with your legs. Friendly PSA for the masses...