A Poll for My Readers: Staging Your Home

My H and I are planning on spending this entire weekend cleaning and staging our home because we have a photographer coming in on Tuesday to take photographs for our listing.

I'm wondering what you ladies think.  If you were buying a home, would you want:

A) The home to be staged and very minimalistic----no personal touches, very minimal decor

B)  The home to have deorative elements that are tasteful and enchance the look of the home, as long as the home is otherwise clean and clutter-free

C)  Leave the home as-is, clutter doesn't matter to me because I imagine my own stuff in it anyway

When I look at a home listing's photos, the first thing I notice is the decor---and if the home is clean, well organized and nicely put together (even if the decor is not necessaily my style) I tend to like that most.  I'm more attracted to a home when it's nicely decorated but I also appreciate an empty home (which is not an option for us).

What do you ladies think?  Let me know in the comments below! and OF COURSE I plan to post pictures of how everything turned out with our staging :)

xoxo,

Veronika.

My GalTime.com Home Decor Blogs!

Some of you ladies might remember that I am a weekly contributor for GalTime.com and I realized I haven't been sharing my articles here so I thought I'd post about them today!

You can check out all of my most recent GalTime articles here.

xoxo,

Veronika.

Cleaning House, OOTD & Wavy Hair Trick!

What a fun and busy day I've had!  This morning I woke up at around 9:30 and quickly drove over to Starbucks to get my H and I some breakfast and coffees (we had a long day head of us so we needed sustenance!) BTW, my Starbucks breakfast pick is a tall Skinny Vanilla Latte and an egg white, spinach and feta wrap. Yum!

After eating our delish breakfasts, we got right to work and we literally cleaned our home from top to bottom. I'm talking moving furniture, cleaning door frames and indoor/outdoor window cleaning type cleaning. It was the deepest clean I can ever remember us doing.  As you know, we've been stalling on listing our home because we just haven't made the little fixes we've wanted to make---so we finally got on it. We still have a few little spots where we'd like to touch up paint and then we'll be good to go.  It feels amazing to have such a clean home.

I knew we were going to go out later on tonight so I totally skipped showering and makeup this morning and I wore the t-shirt I slept in on Friday night to clean. Oh yes. It was epic. And I took photos of it all (yes, without a drop of makeup! baby steps!)

A couple of things to note:

1.  My ridiculous pink hair clip. I always use these when I'm at home (I have one in right now). I just love clipping the front part of my hair back at home to keep it outta my face. It's a pretty funny look though.

2. My ridiculously short Lululemon shorts. I've had these for a long time but don't wear them a ton. They are super comfy but super short. Since we were just home cleanin' for the day, I thought hey, why not?

3.  Okay, so the last two shots are me being proud of how much more toned my legs are now. I worked out 5 days in a row this week and combined with today's cleaning sesh which involved lots of stair climbing, bending,  and arm strength to clean evetrything, I think I'm doing pretty darn good.  Sometimes, it really does take seeing a picture to see the difference.

Top- Victoria's Secret PINK
Shorts- Lululemon
Shoes- Nike

Okay, so now that you are all done laughing at my crazy hair, I'll move on to today's outfit. 

H and I went to see Bridesmaids tonight (which was hilarious and awesome) and I went for the comfy choice of a cotton maxi dress.  My legs hurt so much today, that I just wanted something flowy and relaxing (ie: not pants)

Yes, that is a scar on my elbow from when I fell as a kid...it's kind of gross looking.

Dress- Forever 21
Necklace- Forever 21
Shoes- I wore my SM bow sandals but didn't have them on here

After having cleaned all day, I was gross and sweaty and we went to dinner with H's parents before the movie so I had to shower and make myself look decent.  I discovered something pretty wonderful recently.  On third (and fourth day) hair that's curled, I have a fun trick that makes it look decent with very minimal effort.

Basically, I first apply Suave dry shampoo to my roots and then use my hairdryer on the low setting and flip my head upside down and mess it up a bit.  Then, I brush out my hair with a round brush. You would THINK this would ruin the curls, but it actually makes them into these magnificent, loose waves that don't get straight or fall flat (at least for me).  After I brush it out, I add some baby powder just on the top and sides of my hair (roots) and then I flip it upside down again and rub in the powder. Then I brush it one more time and voila! Pretty waves that look like I made somewhat of an effort, when really I just slept on my hair and had it in a ponytail as I slaved away cleaning my house.

Please note my hair looks blonder in this photos than it looks in real life.

Before I go, I wanted to show you this gorgeous orchid plant that I got as a thank-you for being a judge for this year's Primavera competition (more on that later) at the Houston Galleria mall.  I thought it worked perfectly with my purple color scheme. What do you ladies think?

Did you do anything fun this weekend?  I am still awake past midnight waiting for my sheets to dry so we can put them on our bed!

xoxo,

Veronika.

Updating Your Bedroom For Spring: Our New Brocade Home Duvet

We got our gorgeous Butternut Moroccan duvet cover and pillows from Brocade Home

recently and I'm, just now getting a change to show them to you ladies!

They are so pretty and I wanted to bring a touch of spring into our home and I think the butternut color of the pattern on these sheets against the bright white background does the trick.  I also added new euro size pillows from West Elm.  The shams I got are these ones.

Welcome to our bedroom:

Bed Frame and Headboard- West Elm
Dresser- IKEA

What do you think of our new sheets?

xoxo,

Veronika.

Tucker for Target & Other Weekend Shopping (Pottery Barn, Lulu Lemon, Z Gallerie)

Before I begin this post, I want to say a sincere thank you, from the bottom of my heart to everyone who sent their condolences in my last post. I really appreciate it.  I just know that when people pass, you always have to remember they are going to a better place. So thank you everyone who took the time to leave a kind comment, it really means a lot to me.

Yesterday I started my Pilates classes again. I am very sore today, but I must admit it felt great to start working out again.  After class, I met up with Candice and we did our Saturday tradition of going to Starbucks and doing a little shopping.  We headed to Highland Village first because we both had home decor on the mind.

I ended up finally using a gift card we got for our wedding from Pottery Barn. I got this beautiful blanket for our sofa.  Kevin says our dog needs his "own blankie" so I got the new one for myself. I really love the texture of it and it's also very soft! It retails for $79.50. Oh and by the way, our dog is sleeping on the NEW blankie as I type this post. Hmmphhh!

I also picked up this new table runner from Z Gallerie ($34.50).  We had the same one for several years and I just felt it was time for a change. I wanted to go with the purple theme we've got in the house right now. I just love the damask print.

Because I've started my fitness routine back up again, I wanted to pick up some leggings from Lulu Lemon.  I got the Special Edition Wunder Under Pintuck leggings.  I was previously wearing cheap leggings from A'Gaci but they are sort of see-through if you bend over so uh...not great for working out. PS- Size up in these ones.

So that was yesterday's shopping.  It was nice to get a few things for the house. I always love to add an item or two to keep things fresh.

Today (Sunday) Kevin and I went to Target so I could check out the Tucker collection. It was already picked over for some of the items, but they had a lot in stock of most of the things available for purchase.  For reference to my fellow Houstonians, I went to the Target off of Sawyer.

First, I'll show you the items I DID purchase:

I got this green and pink dress. They didn't have a size medium, so I just got the large because I would belt it anyway. The length is perfect for a work dress...and, it's NOT BLACK! Let's celebrate!!!!!!!

Next up is this pretty top with sleeves that my husband described as "pirate sleeves" ARRRRR!  All I need is an eye patch and I'm good to go!

I really love that blouse. It adds a nice pop of color to my fall wardrobe.  The skirt I tried on with it is by Merona, and it was a size 6 and too big on me (I wish they had a 4 or 2 because it is such a great skirt! It has a houndstooth print on it, really cute!)  BTW the Tucker blouse is an XS. I didn't want it to be too billowy so I sized down and love the fit of it.

I also got this pretty tank on sale for $16.99 and a white ruffle Henley for $14.99:

Some of the items I passed on today were:

This Tucker dress, same print as the blouse. I actually loved this dress but it was a bit short so I thought I'd just get the blouse because I love the print. I suppose I could wear it with tights, but it's still SO hot here.

I think this dress was Merona- it had a lace top. It was so short.  Also, the zipper got stuck when I tried it on so I had to have the fitting room attendant mess with the zipper until I could get it off of me. If you're tiny and short, this dress could be fantastic!

This cream colored blouse is the same as the one I got, shape wise, but I just didn't love the color and print on me.  It just kind of bored me.

I didn't mention this in my fashion-show post, but I picked up Stila's new Custom Color Blush and I absolutely love it. It's one of those blushes marketed as adjusting its tone based on your skin's PH levels.  It's a pretty hot pink but it's sheer so it doesn't give you clown cheeks. It's supposed to work on any skin tone.

Finally, while grocery shopping today I saw that L'Oreal's lash serum was on sale (at Kroger) so I finally got some. I don't think it grows lashes but it keeps them soft and moisturized.  I also got a REVLON navy blue eyeliner. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I felt compelled to have navy liner. I know Rachel Bilson loves to wear navy liner so we'll see how it works for me:

I also picked up the new issue of Women's Health which I plan to start subscribing to.  I LOVE Carrie Underwood. Her body looks amazing in these pics!

OK, LOOK at those LEGS!!!

Did you do any shopping this weekend? Have you checked out the Tucker collection at Target?  What's on your wish list? Let me know in the comments below!

xoxo,

Veronika.