Amelia McGee / Art / Home Styling / Parent Coaching

11/19/2020

It's that time of year, the one where whether or not your curtains are open has little bearing on the natural light in your room. The time of year where you're like, "Is it 10am or 7:30pm I CAN'T TELL." I put together a blog post with ideas for how to make your home feel brighter during this dark time. Pun intended.

http://www.ameliamcgee.com/blog/combat-the-big-dark-with-simple-tweaks

Here in the northern hemisphere, we’re plummeting into the time of year that PNWers call “The Big Dark,”* wherein 3:45pm is basically bedtime-level dark outside. It’s a lot. *Another nickname for 2020, perhaps? Luckily, there are things you can do to make your home feel brighter.

11/11/2020

YOU GUYS I just came up with a new catchphrase! ACCUMULATE, THEN CURATE. This joins such chestnuts as: 1) PUT THE THING WHERE YOU USE THE THING; 2) WHAT IS THE LEAST AMOUNT OF WORK I CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR MY FUTURE SELF?; and 3) THERE IS NO SYSTEM SO GOOD THAT IT'LL DO ITSELF.

http://www.ameliamcgee.com/blog/accumulate-then-curate-and-repeat

A friend who loves to take notes and make notes asked me this morning how to manage her beloved scraps of important insights, so that she doesn’t feel like she is living in a well-lined birdcage. Good question—and, with universal implications (i.e., not just papers). I even came up with a new ca...

04/07/2020

What has 2 thumbs and got blurbbed about how to organize your bathroom w/o buying anything new? THIS GAL. If you're looking to zhuzh up your space, COVID-style (read: without going anywhere or getting anything), this article has some great tips!

https://www.redfin.com/blog/how-to-get-your-house-in-order/

Decluttering and organizing your home doesn’t have to be costly. Check out these tips to help get your house in order without purchasing anything new.

06/26/2019

From Apartment Therapy's "Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces." 💯 AGREE.

06/16/2019

Just started working with a new PR firm for my art. They took out this ad in a new local paper.

05/30/2019

The light was finally good the other day AND I had these pretty flowers so I took alllll the staged art pics. Prints of this one, "Scales or Feathers," are available in my web shop, just $30 and free shipping!

05/16/2019

As a parent educator, I used to say this ALL THE TIME:Think of your toddler as a tiny drunk person. And just as you would not argue with your drunk friend, do not argue with your toddler. Either case gets you nowhere.

"You can't nap here. You need to go to your bed."

05/10/2019

"Scatterplot" is now up for sale in my web shop. Makes a nice gift for that self-proclaimed data nerd in your life!

05/09/2019

This happens to me all the time--I see a super cute skirt (or whatever) and I'm all DO WANT but then I talk myself out of it because I don't readily know how I'd *actually* wear it--when, with what, etc. And then acquiring something I initially responded to (my friend calls it "the exclamation point in your heart!") feels like too much work, because I don't have my head wrapped around the context of What Could Be. So with art or any other decorative item that brings you joy--you may think, "DO WANT OH BUT WTF DO I DO WITH IT?" Well, here are some ideas around how to give pretty things a cohesive context and an explanation of why they "go."

04/30/2019

The weather was finally nice enough today that I could set up my outdoor "photo studio" (I use " " lest you think I'm trying to be fancier than I am) to take some shots of my artwork, which has been piling up over the cold/gray/stupidassfrozen winter. Next stop, updated web shop, party of 23 (new pieces).

04/25/2019

Have you watched 's special yet? Her work always takes my breath away, it's so good. She talks about how either we do vulnerability or it does us--like our pain is coming out one way or another and you can either be upfront and honest about it, or you will by default take people out working out your s**t. And then she was all yeah don't do that (hence the caption on the screen). The how of don't-do-that is, in a nutshell, talk about your feelings, ask for what you need (ie ).

04/24/2019

Heyoo I'm on a roll! A BLOG ROLL* that is! (*Not really. Are blog rolls even A Thing anymore? Anyway, point is, I wrote something again today that you can read here:)

“THINK ABOUT THE PERSON WHO COMES AFTER YOU” was a constant refrain in my house when I was growing up. (In fact, the [self-proclaimed] “Nag Hag” would leave us notes to this end!) So, natch, that old chestnut can be heard coming out of my face from time to time as I try to Impart Life Lesson...

04/22/2019

Oftentimes I say this list in my head, like a prayer: "Wash on Monday, iron on Tuesday, mend on Wednesday, churn on Thursday, clean on Friday, bake on Saturday, rest on Sunday." (My child is obsessed with audiobooks and there was a time when Little House in the Big Woods was in heavy rotation. Enough so that I wrote this list out from memory.) My list is less intense than LIW's: Grocery shop on Friday, clean on Saturday, grumble about the mental load the rest of the week.

04/17/2019

Using Gretchin Rubin's suggestions from her new book "Outer Order, Inner Calm," I tell you how to tackle (and tackle my own!) visual noise at home.

Having discovered the work of Gretchen Rubin —thinker on habits, human nature, and happiness—AKA my jam —I have been eagerly consuming her books and considering how to apply and/or share some of her strategies

04/16/2019

1) Yes to all these suggested habits, but 2) CAN WE PLEASE HAVE SOME GENDER DIVERSITY IN THESE TYPES OF MEMES TO HELP REINFORCE THE SHARING OF THE MENTAL LOAD YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU?

04/11/2019

Parents! Please! It is NOT worth your time to sort your children's toys but once or twice a year! (Ok 4x but that's the absolute MAX. And those times are when you make with the purging.) Because you will sort it and then literally the next day it will all be back to toy soup. Don't get me wrong--the toys need *putting away* on the regular! but on the granular (ie meticulously sorted), I say you have better things to do.

04/04/2019

Joy, shmoy. THIS set of questions from habits expert is a more practical way to help you identify what possessions to keep. There are plenty of things in my home that are joy-neutral but I certainly use them. As for the question of "where it belongs," I think it's ok to not always know right off the bat--in fact, it can be a lot of pressure to put on what is essentially an emergent process. The more you sort-->the more you know what you have overall-->the easier it is to see the pattern of categories-->the easier it is to understand where items might naturally go based on 1) how much space the sum total requires and 2) how they relate to the way you use them. (But, like, put them away when you do know, okthxbai.)

04/01/2019

I'm procrastinating something by reading this article on procrastination. HOW META IS THAT?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR09oXhIwOfMteFvt7YZYI8qlBWYSCl17dE0W73Qw9bEjJ6SwcQ3-Np4Nno

If procrastination isn’t about laziness, then what is it about?