These were scanned in from the April issue of Lee magazine. This month’s cover wasn’t really up my alley. Thankfully it didn’t reflect the contents at all.

I scanned in about 20 pages. There was an entire “Costco” section (ha!) It had some good ideas and I ended up trying grape seed oil for the first time because of it. There was also a nice section on fragrance in the home, mason jar trends, small gardens for cooking, and decorating an entryway.

Mederu’s Tumblr blog

Mederu’s Instagram

I was subscribed to Mer for a few years and unsubscribed last summer. It was originally called “Vintage Mix Girls” [Furugi Mix Girls] until they made the change in February ‘13 to Mer.

I thought I’d post some of the pages from Mer+ that were put out as teasers. I’ll also post a few from the regular issues of Mer. Like Baila, Mer has a lot of “baby bangs” hair styles but the clothing is much more casual with emphasis on “adult cute” and girly clothing.

I’m tired of posting snow so I didn’t, ha! Actually it was nice to see the snow return since I knew it wouldn’t stay warm long. I think it was 9°F this morning

Last weekend it got up into the 60°’s so like any other sane person I ran out immediately and ate ice cream then complained about being cold for an hour afterwards.

I also took the Valentine’s roses and soaked some of the petals in essential rose oil for a bit then added them into the tub for a bath. Will be doing this a lot more often.

Last night I stopped by Madewell to check out a few of their new spring releases. I tried on this skirt and dress but they didn’t fit like I had hoped so I’ll wait for more of their releases to show up in store.

Often there’s no real need for the change. Nothing is broken or outgrown. So I try to redecorate or find solutions using items from other areas of the house rather than rushing out to buy something new. Today was one of those days. I recycled things, moved books & magazines, and reorganized. Swapping out decor between the bedroom and home office. These refreshes are good enough to satisfy my craving for a change.

I can get really sidetracked in the middle of the whole process. Demotivated. And I just end up going through old photos or magazines for a while. One of the shelves I worked on today contained some old CUTiE issues and others.

Wow this one is so old the Nintendo GameCube was still relevant!

For the first time today I recycled some of my Japanese magazines. Mostly JJ and Non-no from years back. I have honestly kept every single one I ever bought going back all the way to 2003. It was my thing. But in recent years I’ve gone through a “material things are just things” evolution and I’m OK with saying good-bye to them. As needed. As in, next time I move they won’t be coming with me. For now though, I still have most of them on my bookcase which is all right with me.

That fine line between sentiment and value can get blurred easily. My mother is a pac rat. My father, a minimalist. I am both. I’ll hold on to things for sentimental reasons at first but then I get into purge moods and I let it all go and it feels wonderful! I don’t let myself regret purges. They’re too freeing to regret :)

Starting next month the magazine name will be changed to “Mer” [メル] to better reflect the contents. It’s apparently Ainu for “sparkling.” The magazine has changed over the years from just featuring second-hand stores to instead being an all around lifestyle magazine for a few different casual styles. The April issue is supposed to be a special “renewal” edition.