Refrigerator Wall Inspiration

I always wanted to do something similar for my little home office space but never got around to it.

How to make this bulletin board HERE

From Live Creating Yourself
Same board, evolved over time. Just. Beautiful

Somehow by accident it ended up on my refrigerator door.

I need more pretty magnets

I decided that the upper half will be my space and the lower half the baby's space.  Along with her drawings, I want to get the letters and number magnets such as this:

I thought these were funny:

What's on your refrigerator door?

Small Closet Makeover

Organizing the house is a never ending goal of mine, living in a small space.  I am always donating clothes and other stuff I'm not using that's taking up space.

No matter what the closet just looked junky even when I put stuff in its place.

Straight out ghetto!

But I found a solution.  Wooden coat hangers.  What a nice difference.  You can get 20 of them at Wal-Mart for about $11.

Dave says they take too much space which I guess is a downside but it looks so much nicer now.  Slowly I'll replace all coat hangers with wooden ones.

Apothecary Jars

Apothecary Jars are so much fun!


They come in all shapes and sizes.  I first saw them on a dessert spread by Amy Atlas.  I ADORE her fun ideas.

These jars are perfect for displaying candies and goodies in your wedding colors.  They look so cute on display.


I saw a great idea while browsing on Pinterest and told myself I HAD to do this.


I used to paint my own nails but I'm hooked on Shellac and now pay someone to do my nails.

But I still love my non-Shellac nail polish and wanted to display them.  Especially since some of them are from Brazil and are just fun and sweet colors.  They are special too, since they were given by friends down there.


I kept looking at Home Goods since they sell these jars at a great price.  It took me a couple of weeks and visits to Home Goods until they finally re-stocked on apothecary jars.


This was $10 and stores my nail polish prettily.

Get nothing smaller than a king -size bed

If you are on the market to shop for a bed, get a king size bed if you can fit it in your room


Trust me.  It's the best.  I had been on a twin bed all my life and was set on going big when I got married.

Some reasons to get a king-size bed:

It's comfortable for two

It's comfortable for very pregnant ladies

It's very comfortable for one person.


If you have a smaller bed, chances are you'll opt for a king size later in life.

Unless you're in a studio.
Cuddling is rather pleasant in a twin bed.

Guest room before.  I already miss the pink sheets but hubby said they need to go.

The guest room now.  Still fun but more gender-neutral. 

Nesting Tables

I caught my eye on this on my recent visit to Home Goods here.

These are called "nesting tables"  they are perfect for your small home/room.  You need all the surface space you can get.   And they come in so many styles, sizes, and materials.

I love the antique bronze and beveled mirrors of this nesting table set.  I should have bought it but I didn't because at the time I couldn't think of where to place it.  I hope they still have it on sale.


I could see it in our bathroom.  The bathroom is clean and sparkly but it lacks personality and I think it would be fun focal point instead of our toilet plunger.  I also want to hang a picture frame too.

I think it would be perfect next to our armchair in our bedroom, that's where I've seen most nesting tables placed.



Some inspirational thought to end the post.

Pretty store finds and a SECRET revealed!!

Hi all!


I wish I could blog and decorate full-time.  One day.

I visit a lot of stores.  Sometimes several times during the week or my entire Saturday.  I'll blog about one of my favorite furniture stores that I think it's worth checking out.


DownEast Furniture Outlet
I went and visited two locations, one off of 80th South and 1300 E, and another on 12300 S and 700 E
This is a great place!  Still a bit pricey, BUT competitive.


Love the turquoise cabinet.

They have lots of nice couches/sets.  I didn't take pictures of all of them.  I think my MIL should get something like this if she's in the market for them.

DownEast has some of the nicest headboards around but they don't have any good ones in a king-size!   Anything smaller than a king-size is too small for me!

What is it with people wanting to sleep in a bed smaller than a king? :-)  

This is the going rate for most garden stools in this particular style. but I'm still trying to see which store sells it for less, only because I read a blog where someone got a garden stool for $10.  They come in a variety of colors and perfect for an end table for a living room.

 I took this picture a while back. This says SOLD but I went to this same location on Saturday and it's still there.  This is a wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am statement coffee table.  It's supposed to come with a glass top.

Modern looking armchair.

And now for a revealed secret at DownEast!


If you look at the price tag and the barcode says "800...." it's from them.  DownEast has its own list of vendors that they can order an item for you.

DownEast also gets furniture from other big name stores but they are not allowed to say from whom.  Those items have their barcode list at "100...."

Does this look familiar to anyone??

I do!

This is from 

WEST ELM.  

Parsons tower white lacquer

Check out West Elm HERE for proof! 

At WestElm it's $550

But at DownEast, it's $330!!

Here's another item from West Elm at DownEast at a discount

This can be yours for $180 instead of $300 HERE

Imagine that!  Anyhow, I think a lot of people don't know because West Elm recently opened a few months ago in Salt Lake.  The furniture is basically in near perfect condition.

For the price of ONE new West Elm bookcase...

you can easily buy a WestElm bookcase AND a coffee table at DownEast.

You'll have to go to both DownEast locations.  They aren't together at the same store. 

Somebody please buy them!  

Champagne decor on a beer budget

My husband Dave told me a story about a discussion he and my brother-in-law had at lunch earlier this week.  My Dave and BIL are seriously like twins, having done everything together since they were little and still have a great relationship.  Can we say "bro-mance" ? :-D

My rad BIL is smart and successful in his job and going to grad school.  He is also going to be a homeowner of a brand new townhouse in Daybreak.  Construction is almost done.

So Dave mentions to BIL: "You should have Alina come help you decorate your place"

BIL: "I don't know man, her taste is too high"

Dave: "What do you mean?"

BIL: "Those chairs, they cost like $300 bucks each??"

Dave: "No.  We got them at Ikea for $70 bucks each

Before the dining table and chairs

Sorry for the bad lighting but here they are

This is with a tablecloth we got on clearance at Williams-Sonoma for $20 instead of $90.  The picture frame we got for free from one of Dave's friends.  The flower vase was from Burlington Coat Factory for $5.  The tray was from Tuesday Morning for I think $15. 

The chair without the slip cover is $50 but the white slipcover is the least expensive of this chair line at Ikea (and not everything there is a bang for your buck at Ikea in my opinion) and was $10.  We didn't want to budget $250 for 2 chairs that "matched" the dining table from Kohl's so we kept looking around until we saw something we liked at a price we were comfortable at.  

You can refer to the price of the Ikea chairs HERE

Back to the story, my BIL then said: "Oh yeah?? But what about that mirror??"

He was referring to this rectangular mirror :

Dave replied: "Oh that?  That is...

From WAL-MART."  

This was $40 bucks!!  

(look HERE, this is in-stores only but it has excellent reviews)

I love this mirror because (1) it makes our living space look bigger and more "balanced"  (2) it is light, it isn't heavy to hang like other mirrors and (3) it was the best price for a mirror that size.  

I think it looks great!  Looking at our little space makes me happy.  

Some tips for making your space look smashing good

1. Have a budget.  You need to be comfortable with paying the price you want. Plus if you don't set a limit, you'll be looking forever at the wrong stores and wasting time.  

2. Shop around and compare.  Sometimes you may not know what the average cost is for an item until you do this.  I had no idea what a mirror like that should cost so I looked around.  With the mirrors, some were $250, others (like Ikea) were around $99, and the price was right with Wal-Mart for the rectangular mirror.

3. Be inspired with what you see on blogs, Pinterest, TV shows, and home decor magazines on decorating on a budget.  There is always a look-alike somewhere if you just. keep. looking.  You get lots of ideas from this. 

4. Ask me for help :)  Let's see what I can do to help you find something lovely at a price you're comfortable with.  

Pillow Talk

What's up!!

I'm sure you heard this before from other interior decorators.....

The best way to spruce up your space for $20-$50 bucks is


PILLOWS.  Throw pillows, specifically.

Everyone...I hope they're still there but when I stopped by TJ Maxx a few days ago they had a HUGE HUGE over-shipment of throw pillows in all the colors you can imagine.


I took pictures as proof.

This sales associate at TJ Maxx was the bomb.  Look at how she coordinated all the pillows by color!!  The boxes at the end were still full of turquoise and blue pillows. Gorgeous!!

So run to "the Maxx" now!


I ended buying a pillow at Home Goods (which by the way is a subsidiary of TJ Maxx and Marshalls) because it was chevron and chartreuse green. This was $20 bucks but I was happy.

(I really need to figure out how to make the walls not appear like wasted space)

I've seen other blogs where they make pillows exactly like this but boy, I was sure glad to buy it and spare myself the trouble of making my own. :-D

As I said before, the guest room is still a work in progress.  Dave said we can't have the pink bed sheets from my single life anymore because it's "too girly".  He's right.  The guest room cannot be sexist.

So I'm thinking I have to keep the green pillow.  I am not sure about the ruffle pillow.  I love it but it has a huge pilling problem :(

I'm thinking that green can work with grey...I'm thinking of green like the green color on bamboo and the grey river rocks.

We did browse at Ikea and I SAW THIS:

ALINA  :-D

I've never seen my name on anything.  Not even on a souvenir key chain.  

The plan is to buy it this weekend.  Because it has my name!  

And on a final note, I want to leave you with this

"Life takes you to unexpected places; love always brings you home"

Very true!

Fabulous shopping spree and food poisoning

Yesterday was fabulous...until dinner

We've been married 6 months as of yesterday! No pulling a Kim Kardashian on this one, hah.

We decided to celebrate by going out for lunch and dinner, and shop for clothes and other goodies the entire day.  We went to Melty Way, a grilled cheese sandwich shop for lunch and it was good. Dave stopped at Dick's sporting goods to buy a gift for one of his brothers.

I stopped at Bed, Bath, and Beyond to browse but didn't buy anything since I didn't bring my 20% off coupons. There was an engaged couple there with their scanning gun and list...I pity the fools. Read my registry post HERE

I stopped at the Dollar Store for Xmas decorations but didn't see anything I liked.

At Target, I picked out a sweet gift for my sister-in-law. Target had women clothing for 30-70% off clearance too.   

We stopped at World Market for some wrapping paper and funny ornaments.

Then we headed off to the mall! I stopped at Nordstroms and Sephora and ended up with funky colors of nail polish from Sephora for one of my sisters since she loves nail art. Dave went to J Crew to buy an outfit for Christmas with my family. At J Crew, they have these suede flats in pretty colors. I saw a pair of bright blue flats my size that were marked down to...$49.99!!! Retail is around the $130 range. Even better, J Crew had a sale yesterday of 30% off your entire purchase. So these Italian leather flats ended up costing me $35. That was way cheaper than what I've seen at the J Crew outlet in Park City.

You can find the shoes HERE  The color I have is "AZURE" blue.  I hope to get other pairs in black and "jazzy purple"

One of my favorite uncles once told me that because of my age, I needed to budget more for better grown up clothing and decent haircuts and color. 

That, and other factors were what pushed me to shop at stores like LOFT and more recently, Ann Taylor. I like these stores because most of the clothing fits my frame and work well in and out of work. I'm slowly weaning into pants that aren't the color of denim so I bought grey pants along with a pretty and delicate ivory knit sweater. HERE and HERE

We stopped at Crate and Barrel and purchase another ornament.

After shopping we went to Olive Garden. Our waitress was a sweet gal but she had a bad day since she didn't come to check on us often and she forgot my soup. We could tell she was crying. Dave ordered a chicken alfredo pizza which we ended up sharing since my soup never showed up.

I fail at reminding myself that when I get sick at restaurants it is usually from:
1) cheese on pizza or 
2) grilled chicken not cooked all the way. 

Within minutes, my stomach was acting up and off to the restroom I went. It got worse and my meal ended up on the bathroom floor.

This lady in the bathroom heard what happened, offered to help and she went to go get Dave ("He's Asian. And he's wearing all black").  I took a hot bath when we got home and Dave went to the grocery store. 

Along with what we planned to get grocery wise, he got Pepto, Popsicles (for hydrating with the sensation of eating) and a mini Xmas tree!  That made me feel better.

My stomach felt iffy throughout the night so I didn't make it to church today. 

Interestingly enough, I had food poisoning the day after our wedding. Inconvenient coincidence.  I think it was from traveling between airports (germ-ville) and because I was sweating soo much underneath my dress and got extremely dehydrated.  So, DRINK MORE WATER THAN USUAL ON YOUR WEDDING DAY.

At Olive Garden, I did barf on my black flats but they were old, inexpensive pairs from Payless. 

My new pair of flats will make for that pair which Dave threw away, along with the leftover pizza.

Rain Cloud Baby Shower

Saturday was my SIL's baby shower.  She is expecting a boy for her Christmas present!  (he's due the 22nd of December so that pretty much counts...)

My other SIL asked me to do the decorating.  I had never decorated for a party so that was exciting.  I wanted to make the baby shower as lovely as our wedding; my in-laws went out of their way to make our reception special so I wanted to do something super nice in return.

I began looking at pictures for inspiration.  Especially these two:

(I swear I've seen this picture before in a magazine, I don't think it's Martha Stewart but it's BHG...I've seen tons of bloggers claiming it's theirs but until I find the right source to credit...this belongs to no one!)

This is from Jengerbread Creations.  Her ideas in her blog melted my anti-DIY heart.  

Her blog and picture can be found  HERE

I also went to YouTube for a quick tutorial to see how paper rain clouds are done.  It's really good to watch. 

So I decided to give it a try....

I concluded that THREE RAINCLOUDS ARE PLENTY. According to me, the person who avoids DIY.  They're a lot of work :-P

I'm so happy I married Dave. He helps me with anything!

I don't own a sewing machine so I didn't sew the raindrops like they did in the video.  Dave helped me by poking two holes; one at the top and one at the bottom of each rain drop with a needle and threaded the rain drops in. That turned out to be a good thing because the rain drops ended up being a bit long once hung and touched the table.  We just cut the string at the end and adjusted the length of the drops.  

All you need to make these rainclouds is:

• A pack of white tissue paper from da dollah store.  One pack of 20x20 is enough for three rain clouds.
• Bendy wire
• Fishing line
• Cardstock with color of your choosing.  I picked blue.  

I bought diapers as a gift but when I went to Home Goods here and there, I saw some boy nursery items that were so irresistible and figured if I couldn't have it (I don't have children yet), someone else should and that person should be my SIL.  My SIL and her husband are doing a sports themed nursery.  All the things that you see on the food table that isn't food...I got it at Home Goods!  They were perfect to display on the food table. 

How can you not resist the basketball onesie???

I married into a family of foodies.  I didn't cook anything, but I arranged all the plates and whatnot to my liking.  More and more food plates came in before the shower so we expanded the table and rearranged a few items. 

We had brunch.  We had Costco quiche, cinnamon rolls, baked bacon, pineapple, chocolate covered strawberries, and a variety of scones.  Also baby shower mints.  

 From Home Goods: Bookends, frame, basketball onesie, and a soccer piggy bank

I wish I could rewind back to last weekend.  The food at the shower was soooo good!!!

I'm food hungry as well as baby hungry.  :-D

Thanks to Dave, I think we'll have cute babies :)

UPDATE 7/1/2013: We are having a cute baby!!  Read post HERE

Our living room wall progress

Last post I mentioned about the four Ikea frames we bought for $20.

When I came home from work today, I caught Dave hanging up the frames in their desired spot in the living room.

I love him so much!  He nails everything on our walls so PER FEC TLY.  

 The wall before...

And after!  Now the wall doesn't feel too empty.

(no pictures on the frames yet, haha)

What do y'all think?