• After a long makeup break, I’ve been experimenting with my collection again. Mysterious to me at the time, my face also broke out. (More on this later…)
• We dog-sat a friend’s pups. Once you find someone else with the dog-depedency-syndrome, you’re quick to start trading favors!
• Unfortunately, that same day I arrived back home with a fever after not feeling well. My fiancé Josh banished me to the bedroom. (Oh, how I hate being stuck in bed all day on a weekend…)
• Fortunately, the rest was worth it, as I woke up Sunday feeling brand new. (Josh wasn’t so lucky. Oops!)
• We’ve been in a financial slump as of late, so it’s rare that I find myself out “window shopping” these days.
• However, I found myself at Target, armed with beauty product coupons and ready to use them. I couldn’t help but look around.
• …Which lead to my Monsieur Cock discovery. Is this not the cutest thing? (It’s a bit of an inside joke.)
• I also arranged what I hope to one day be my coffee tray. Yes, I take products and arrange them in the store… A girl on a tight budget has to fulfill the need to decorate and organize somehow. I took a picture in hopes of coming back sometime soon to purchase. I wanted to make sure my coffee grounds fit on the right, and I needed time to let the cost of the silver tray set in. ($20 for such a tiny tray, what the heck Target?)
• I got home with my newly purchased beauty products and then began what I call the biyearly purge — I had to go through all my beauty supplies and toss out anything older than 2 years. (Have you done this recently? Do it! Save your skin!)
• I also had to toss things that didn’t suit my skin tone anymore, or that I knew were breaking me out. (Cue the revelation for why I suddenly had acne issues after using my makeup again.) I figured better safe than sorry.
• This lead to a cleaning frenzy in which I organized my entire bathroom cabinets, washed my makeup brushes to death, and wiped everything down.
• Look out for a makeup collection this week, in which you can take a look at my tiny collection!

When it comes time to decorate, I often have a hard time imagining what would go well in a room. I have to see it with my own eyes!

I’ve started making mood boards, inspired by professionals I’ve seen work on some of my favorite TV shows and online blogs. These have helped me figure out what I want. (And just as importantly, what I don’t want!)

Here’s a recent mood board I made for our bedroom. It’s one I’ve just started, with the goal of finding colorful accents. I put in items I already have, and then slowly add in items I need to buy.

As you can see, I still need to add in my colorful accents. Right now, this is my base.

Here is how to start creating your own mood board:

1. Choose a medium: Decide which medium — digital or paper?
2. Digital tools: If you decided digital, you can use an image editor like Photoshop or a free tool like Picasa. (Here’s a Picasa tutorial for mood boards.)
3. Paper tools: If you decided paper, get a blank scrapbook and use it to collect all of your mood boards in one place.
4. Decide on a canvas: You can use a white background color, or you can do what I did and put in the color of your floor and walls. It’s up to you! I find putting these in help me with the overall color scheme.
5. Use what you have: Begin with what you already own and add it in, but remember you may sometimes not have anything to start with.
6. Adding pictures: To add pictures digitally, find them online and use your image editor to remove the background.  Then paste them onto the mood board and resize to fit. For adding pictures on paper, simply cut them out of magazines or print photos from your computer.
7. Add new items: Now the fun begins… Using the same process, experiment with adding new items into the board. Remember nothing is permanent, you can always change it.
8. Annotate carefully: If you get a final vision you can go out and purchase the items that look similar. However, if you want to purchase the exact items you used on your mood board, remember to add the proper annotations so that you can remember where to buy them. Even better, write down the price. Then you’ll know how much you need to invest to create your dream room!

This process helps plan a design, and is incredibly helpful for seeing an overall picture of what something will look like when completed.

I especially have been loving my mood boards, because they keep me from being indecisive and I know exactly what I need to grab the next time I’m shopping for interior decorating supplies.

Don’t like interior design? That’s fine! You can also use mood boards for outfit planning, wardrobe overhauls, and makeup looks.

Have you ever made a mood board? Would you find it useful?

If you’re a frequent reader of the blog, you may remember my quest for a bathroom overhaul. While I will soon update with progress on the bathroom, I’ve been so happy with the changes that I decided to go ahead and begin with the kitchen.

Before

After

My goal with the kitchen is to make things easier for me while I’m in there. I moved my spices out of the cabinets and installed a picture rack from IKEA near the oven. Using my spices has never been easier! I frequently forgot I had spices, so having them visible is a huge plus and has allowed me to experiment. Not to mention, more free counter space is always wanted… So having them off of the counter makes it easier to clean.

I was able to purchase a white ceramic utensil holder from Bed Bath & Beyond, since the utensils I had didn’t all fit into the old bamboo holder I was using. I was then inspired to move the knives off of the counter to have even more space.

The bar area received the biggest change. I thought about what to do with that space for the longest time… It was the number one space for Josh and I to throw our knick knacks onto. I had to figure out how to give the space a purpose to prevent us from doing that. I ended up buying two placemats at IKEA, which instantly took up the necessary space and gave the sitting area purpose. I grabbed a decorative (but also usable) ceramic pitcher, white ceramic pot, and an artificial plant.

I tried my best to do real plants in my apartment, but they die within three days because we rarely get natural light through our window… Which makes me sad. However, even the illusion of plants makes me happy and can make a room look so much better!

So I’m much happier with the kitchen, especially considering it wasn’t that expensive to overhaul the space. Now that I look at the before and after, I realize the little things make a huge difference!

Back when I lived with my parents, organizing my shoes was not much of an issue. We had a huge shoe rack in the garage we would all place out shoes on while going in and out of the house.

When I moved out, I had a few options to think about. In the end I went with this small shoe rack from Target. It limits me, which is a good thing, but still fits perfectly in the space I have available. In this case, the best space I had to put the shoe rack is on top of our built-in drawer system.

I generally organize them by type of shoe, so you’ll notice they’re grouped in categories. I find that I’m looking for category when I’m reaching for a shoe. For example, if I’m wearing my longer pants I’ll reach for a heel. If I’m going to hang out with friends, I’ll reach for a sandal. These are all the shoes I own, which total to 16 pairs. Did you know the average woman owns 17 pairs of shoes? I was shocked and figured I didn’t have nearly that many. Turns out… I’m pretty darn close! I plan on weeding through these by replacing old pairs and seeing which I rarely wear. As always, I find less is more.

How do you organize your shoes? How many pairs do you own?