Zero Dollar Decorating Challenge

I was watching Kelly from House of Aqua on Youtube the other day (if you haven't checked out her channel, you are missing out!), and decided to participate in her fun Zero Dollar Decorating Challenge.  The challenge consisted of decorating a space or room in your house without spending any money.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Well, it was a bit challenging for me because everything we own has its place in our home, but I still managed to pull it off. 

Let's see what I started of with...

As you can see, the layout of the furniture doesn't do this room justice.  The bookcase seems to be the focal point instead of the sofa and chairs, plus it looks a bit cluttered.

Now for the after.  By rearranging the furniture I was able to create a better conversation area, leaving more floor space to play with my son. :)

I moved the bookcase over to this wall and I really like it.  I also added a few more books and decorating items.

 

My desk area stayed the same since its the perfect size for this corner.

Even though the room did not change, by rearranging the furniture and adding a few decorating pieces I already owned, the room feels like a completely different space.  I had so much fun participating in this challenge, plus it didn't cost me any money.  Just like Kelly challenged her viewers, I challenge you to redo a space or room in your house.  You will be amazed at what you can accomplish with some free time and a little imagination.   

Thank you so much for reading!

Karina

Live Simply

Nursery Tour

Hello friends,

I hope everyone had a wonderful and festive 4th of July.  How did you celebrate this holiday?  We spent the day with family and tried our best to stay cool in this heat. We have been experiencing 100+ degree weather and it appears the heat will be sticking around a little while longer.   After all, summer has just begun.

I am just now getting around to posting a tour of the nursery due to the birth of my son.  Speaking of, Micah was born on Mother's Day at 12:34 a.m. and is one healthy and beautiful baby boy.  I am now seven weeks postpartum and the last several weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions as I adjust to this new role as a mom to my precious baby boy.  I hope to share a bit more of my experience thus far, in the meantime, let's jump right into the tour for now.

I can't quite express how much I enjoyed putting together Micah's room.  It was a real joy seeing it come together little by little.  The decor in his room is not based on a specific theme; instead, I focused on pieces that fit the color scheme I had in mind.  I wanted his room to feel decluttered, inviting and relaxing, yet still look like a nursery.  Looking at the end result, I believe I achieved the look I envisioned when I first found out our baby was on the way. :)

We didn't want to over spend on the nursery.  As always, working with a smaller budget proved to be quite the challenge at first, as there were so many beautiful yet expensive pieces out there (hello Pottery Barn Kids!), but we managed to stay within budget.  This just goes to prove that you can still achieve the look you want but for a lot less money. 

 

 

Most of the furniture and decor was purchased from some of my all time favorite stores such as Target, World Market, Home Goods, Buy Buy Baby (a new favorite), and Anthropology.  Like I mentioned before, most of these items were purchased while on sale, others were given to us at our baby shower, and some pieces we already owned.

To give this Target dresser a bit of a special touch, we replaced the original knobs with these cute crystal knobs we found at World Market.  A quick and simple change that only costs us less than $15.  Below is a quick look at the dresser with its original knobs (sorry about the poor photo quality).

Anthropology sells similar knobs but for a lot more money. 

 

 

In my opinion, baskets are a must in every nursery.  They are so versatile and functional, which is why a have a few in his room, this one is from Home Goods and it was under $10.

 

My husband was a huge help with a lot of the DIY projects.  He spray painted a few pieces in Micah's nursery and put together all the furniture (some sure tested his patience, haha).  Overall, I am in love with his room.  One piece missing from his room is a small area rug.  I am thinking a white fluffy rug I spotted at Target a few months back.  Also, I am thinking about making a mobile to hang over his crib but I haven't decided on the style yet.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my son's room.  I will be sure to post an updated tour if I make any major changes.  Please be sure to let me know if you have any questions regarding any specific items or if you know of a place where I can find a cute yet affordable white area rug.  Until next time.

Live Simply,

Karina

ASK&TELL: Organization - Messy V.S. Clean

ASK: How do you organize your makeup?

Let me be honest... I have no specific way!!!

As funny as that sounds, I don't really don't organize and usually, I just put things together if they make sense like a grocery store. Frozen food should go with frozen food and dairy products with other dairy products. If you come to my personal bedroom, it looks trashed and messy but to be honest, that is actually how organized I am. Some people like to be messy intentionally and in my room, my clothes and makeup area are intentionally messy most times because for me, it's how I tend to my things. my undergarments and other stuff are clean and neat but not my clothes and makeup.

My makeup is together 4 different ways:

Pallets, lip wear, eye wear, and face powder/liquids.

I usually put all my pallets together in a box because they are bigger, longer, and easier to distinguish. Even if it's a lip wear pallet, it's in the box because it's a pallet. It just makes it easier to find too for myself. For lip wear, I usually put all my lipsticks, lip gloss, lip concealer, lip balm, and lip tint together. Eye wear consist of eyeliner, mascara, eyelashes, liquid liner, gel liner, single eye shadows, eyelid tape/glue, and eye shadow primer. For the face, all my blush, foundation makeup, and my makeup remover.

The reason I separate like this is because I follow a very easy and basic routine for my makeup which is:

 - Cleanse the face with a makeup remover

 - Foundation: Liquid and matte

 - Eye shadow: Pallets/eye shadow, primer, liner, mascara and lashes

 - Blush and setting spray

 - Lip wear

So everything is easy and always together when needed and easy to put away at one time too. Kind of my way to do it and Everyone has their own way of doing it so no worries in following me, someone else, or anyone. Make it comfortable to yourself because then you'll know where everything is and easy to find.

Everyone is different, OF COURSE, but what is Messy? Clean?

Depending on the person, messy can be clean or neat for someone like me.
I like my clothes messy when in baskets. My bottoms like jeans, shorts, skirts, and leggings because it's easier to pick what specifics I want to wear then mess it up again and organize again. Same with my makeup. Even though they are separated, into boxes, drawers, or bins, they are placed in the box all randomly so I do have to search for them, which is fine. For others, they probably can't stand it being dirty/messy all the time and so the make everything neat in order, organized nicely in lines and so forth, which is perfect okay to. 

There is no actually way to be specific about organizing but don't let it get out of hand where you can't see the floor anymore and there are piles and piles of clothes, makeup, or just stuff all around.

For reading and I will see you next time ^^

♥XOXO♥