Domestic - Laundry In Louboutins

Domestic

Valentine’s Day Decor

February 12, 2014

I realized I haven’t done a decor post in awhile and wanted to share some pictures of my February themed home!

I have been depriving myself of flowers over the winter months, and had to check out Trader Joe’s selection during my last shopping trip… it was a success as you can see! I used various old candle holders and Target low ball glasses to create a fun centerpiece for my dining room table.

I also updated my frames above my couch. This year I used pink glitter wrapping paper, some fun pink/love themed greeting cards, a gorgeous rose covered Dior ad, and some fun gold prints.

I updated my bar cart with rose colored liquors and a fun polaroid from my wedding.

I added little red and pink accents throughout my home – with candy, throws, flowers and books.

Follow me on Pinterest for more love inspired images!

Domestic

Office Makeover

February 6, 2014

With the whole “new year, new beginning” mindset, I decided that I want to really focus on the blog this year, and make it it’s best year yet!

That being said, I feel like I needed a real home base (that wasn’t whichever part of the couch was available). So, I deep cleaned our garage, built a table that was given to us (thanks Penny!), and set up a little space that I could call my own.

Zebra Dish/Peony Print/Journals/Monkey USB/Diffuser/Coffee Table Books/Tray/Table/Fur Throw

I still have a lot to do… but feel off to a good start! What do you think?

Domestic

Secret Board

January 16, 2014

So I recently did a little office makeover, and by makeover, I mean, I created one. I cleaned out my garage and set up a little station for my blog “stuff” (pictures to come!). When it came time to decorate, I wanted to have a little inspiration board front and center. I have one in my current office at my “real job,” and while it isn’t a creative occupation, I find it nice to be surrounded by images that make me feel good!

The image board started in high school for me. The Secret had come out (if you aren’t familiar with it is basically a “law of attraction”/positive thinking movement), and one of their ideas was to create a vision board with things you wanted. Not necessarily material, items but images and/or quotes that inspired you and represented things you wanted in your life.

My last updated “Secret Board” was my senior year of college. I have had others since, but one with the actual intent of how I wanted my future to unveil itself was done 5 years ago. Since then, it has been in a storage unit until a couple years ago, where I have placed it underneath my bed (where I sleep actually… which I feel is kind of fitting).

So now to the point of this whole backstory… Since I wanted to create an inspiration board for my office, I figured I would just use the board from my old Secret Board and replace the images, but when I started to remove the images I was blown away (and had to share with you all!)…

5 years later and here some board/reality connections (mind you my husband had never seen this board):

Kapalua Resort ad – the ad is actually for a hotel that no longer exists, but my husband proposed to me at a restaurant that is now located where the hotel once was

Lauren Santo Domingos wedding photo – Lauren is my current fashion icon (I wrote this in my phone like 5 months ago – and no offense to my 20 year old self, but that was definitly not the direction of my fashion sense). I also have gotten married (which was what this photo represented, when I included it on the board).
Hawaii Images – tropical images are all over this board (I guess my college self was ready to leave the books behind and get my booty to a beach), but it is pretty funny that J and I LOVE Hawaii, and make an effort to go a few times a year…

Louis Vuitton Speedy Bag – I love handbags and I feel like Louis Vuitton represents a lot about the designer handbag world. I posted it on my board hoping maybe, just maybe I would get to carry one, one day – guess what?

SLO Poke Wrapper – some of these are a stretch… I went to school in SLO and liked that the candy name is spelled the same way as my college town, but what are the odds that I will be going back next week (for the first time in two years!)

John Varvatos ribbon – I must have gotten this off of perfume or something and liked the pink color, but I find it VERY interesting that the man I married is obsessed with Varvatos (a brand I knew nothing about 5 years ago).

Leopard Artwork – this one cracked me up, because literally 2 hours prior, I had put this print in my shopping cart on One Kings Lane (which is a sample sale site, so that item wouldn’t normally be available is only up for a limited amount of time). I knew I liked it, but didn’t know why… am I the ONLY PERSON WHO FINDS THIS ALL WEIRD!?!

Anyway, I could break down basically every quote, image, knick knack on that board, and relate it to my current life, but some things could definitely be a stretch, and this whole topic may be totally boring to anyone other than myself…

Regardless, I feel like there may be a little something to these vision boards, and if it all is a hoax, there isn’t anything bad about surrounding yourself with nice, inspirational images! So go grab a corkboard/bulliten board and get to posting! Tweet me your boards at @LaundryinLoubs

Domestic

Happy Birthday Kendall!

January 15, 2014

Happy Birthday to the most gorgeous 21 year old ever (both inside and out)… can’t wait to celebrate!

Today is my youngest sister’s 21st birthday!!! AHhhh!!!

Domestic

Unplugged

January 9, 2014

In a world of instantaneous status updates, Instagram photos and news headlines, it is easy to get wrapped up in looking at your phone every two seconds. I was reading an article the other day about a surveyor tracking a busy intersection and how throughout the day only 5 people just sat at the stop light – the rest were checking their phones. We’ve lost the ability to just be with our thoughts and in silence, and often choose to avoid awkward silence or quiet moments, by picking up our phones.

In 2014 I want to embrace those quiet moments, and be more present in real life, rather than cyber life. Between computer screens, iPads, iPhones, Kindles and TVs, I’m a little over megapixels – is anyone with me on this?!

Anyway, off my soap box… so as part of my attempt to lessen my technology usage in 2014, I’m working on finding ways to work smarter. Enter email.

My husband gets a thousand emails a day. I get a fraction of that (and let’s be honest, most are from my shopping websites), but it still helps to have some helpful organization tips to help sort your way through the chaos that is the world of email. Here are my steps:

1. Unsubscribe from as many “spam” emails as possible. I try to do this at the beginning of the year (after all of my online holiday shopping, I was up to 100 emails every day). Even websites that I still am a member of – ie Groupon, LivingSocial, etc. I tend to only go on when I am looking for something, so I didn’t need a daily reminder of their deals. Many sites also allow for once a week, month or occasional emails to be sent.

2. Create folders. I find it super helpful to have folders. It makes searching for things a lot easier, and doesn’t make your inbox seem so daunting. I prefer to manually move everything over (as to not miss any emails), but you can easily set up rules that move everything into their respective folders (ie sample sale website notifications into a “shopping folder”) to easily be deleted or read.

3. Keep your inbox messages to a minimum. I have read 20 is the number, but my anxiety issues have resulted in me having 0 in my inbox. Now, this is somewhat a cheat number, because I actually have created a To Do folder, with a subcategory of Long Term Projects for items that are not time sensitive, but I’d like to accomplish. Each day I work on getting that number to 0, but although that isn’t always feasible, I make sure it is never over 20.

4. Organize, then read. I like to sort my emails first. Get rid of what you won’t read, and then prioritize by emails that just need to be read, then emails that need to be answered. It helps to see there are usually only a handful of emails that need responses, when at first glance that little inbox number can be a lot to handle… especially first thing in the morning!

5. Just do it. Just respond. I usually am not the best at this (but working on it), but if you can answer in under 5 minutes, just do it. If something requires a little more effort either flag it or move to your “To Do” folder.

What tips do you have to better tackle the world of email!?

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