Oh, my.

I have to admit; I am kind of glad to be limited by the widget colors, as I am honestly find myself overwhelmed by visual choices.

Liese, I absolutely agree with you in that I need a visual image that's going to link the tag. I had one, but I took it down last night to focus on the other graphic aspects, because of the aforementioned overwhelming-ness.

I am absolutely going to change the background color to something more neutral, and I will have J play with the colors in the header image. I DO like the berry color and combination with purple, but I think I will see about a deeper palette.

I honestly DO want to target a good section of clientele, but I do think the balance of the editing job might be leaning more towards markets, like romance, paranormal, urban fantasy, so I think having a slightly feminine feel is going to be acceptable.

As long as I keep it slight.

My attention is a little divided, so this is slightly incoherent, but I am looking at the feedback and I really appreciate it.

Hrm. Off to play some more. Excellent points to tweak!

And I may have spoken too soon about not changing the widget header colors; played with all the theme colors, and the purple is STILL a little to bright. But the rest of the colors are as well.

Oh, my god -- this is why I failed art.

Erin, this may be too primitive to help you, but this site allows you to play with various background and text colors.

[link]

See, what I want is a book on household/clutter organization (or instructive human) that will simply TELL ME WHERE TO PUT THINGS. Not a single one I've ever seen has done that. They'll tell me how to plan a party or how to let go of clutter or how to understand where my need to collect/keep things comes from, but they don't tell me what to DO with the stuff I am not getting rid of. I'm serious. Thz srs prblm.

Testify, Zen! I have probably too much stuff, but I like my stuff. And while I don't find the time to do everything with it I'd like, I wouldn't mind if it was in a PLACE where I could be ready to use it. I'm not quite at hoarder levels, but I do save things (rather a lot actually) I want to go through before I toss them (and I've gotten much better about the tossing, but I can't find the time to go through them AND appreciate the stuff I want to keep in an appropriate fashion), so the STUFF has piled up. And I have more room now, so it means I've acquired more stuff (or more to the point, places to put stuff).

Hence, the too many choices I seem to have in my life on things I'd like to peruse or otherwise enjoy that I feel paralyzed to decide between.

This whole discussion has been very helpful in clarifying some of my problems, but I don't know a good (not easy - I don't expect an easy one) solution. Frell.

I don't put things on a calendar , but when I make a list it is a week or so long.And as long as I get 90% done I am happy. Right now, I have too much stuff to do , really. So I/m just doing what makes sense. I do not have a clutter free house, however I do spend 15 minutes when I get home from work doing omething to improve the house. it puts work out of mind and reconnects me with home

I can't blame just Hubby for the clutter. I've got lots of extraneous stuff too and boxes I haven't opened in decades.

A mildly distressing thing about Hubby's stuff is that some of it actually is the key to his memory. He has had minor strokes, and the drugs he's been on have played with this brain. I'll find something and ask if we can get rid of it, he'll look at it and remember something that happened 40 years ago that had slipped away till then.

We have some stored stuff in the garage, like boxes of notes on plays from when the DH worked at the Public Theater. I keep every program from every play I've ever seen. But we made sure when we moved here that we made a real choice to know what was in every single box.

Living in a studio apartment for so long in NYC made me feel that space was often more valuable than things, so I don't tend to keep things around unless I use them or I love them. "Going to maybe use them sometime if I think of how" doesn't count as a reason to keep things. I do believe in keeping things attached to memories, but each memory has only one thing. I don't have every coaster from every restaurant I went to in France when I was 13. I picked one I like and kept that one. I remember the whole trip when I look at that one, and I got rid of a box of useless paper I looked at maybe once a decade.

I remember the whole trip when I look at that one.

This has been key for me.

I have a card someone gave me at a housewarming that has the William Morris quote: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

I have kept it because I consider to be both useful and beautiful. And, occasionally, a damn good reminder to cull. But also to keep things that I love or use.

I've always loved that sentiment, too, Cass.