How to Keep Your House Looking Immaculate

So obviously I am a list person. I have lists of future lists to make. But, one of my favorite lists is my cleaning list. I clean my house everyday because I love to have it looking like we have room service that comes and cleans. I also love for it to smell nice; I used to be a PartyLite consultant so I have a love of fragrances.

When I come home from work I have a list of things I do on a daily basis. I do one load of laundry, wipe down counter tops and do the dishes, pick up the house, take out the trash (if needed), and sweep and vacuum. I have a fur baby so I have to do the floors everyday. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out a way to make her shed less. This takes thirty minutes tops,  but I get to go to bed and wake up with a clean home. I tend to feel really stressed when my house is a mess so this helps a lot.

Every Saturday, I clean a little bit deeper and this is my weekly cleaning. In addition to the daily cleaning tasks, once a week I clean the mirrors, mop the floors, scrub the toilet and shower, change our bedding, dust furniture, and wipe down the appliances. This kind of resets my week for me. I spend about an hour cleaning my home and then I have Sunday to relax with my husband.

My list isn't perfect and I'm constantly adding and taking things away. But taking these steps each day makes it easier on me to keep my house looking great. I don't believe in not cleaning something until it's dirty. We simply pick up after ourselves and spend the time to make sure it looks hotel worthy.

By saying "I" clean I mean we. I am so lucky and so blessed to have a husband that helps around the house. He also has a love for fragrances, so our warmers and candles are always keeping our house smelling wonderful.

When it comes to cleaning, my number one rule is but your feet up and relax when you're done. I always sit down with tea and a good book or catch up on Netflix.

Photo cred: The amazing Kate.

Kisses, Shavon

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Top 5 Tips to Purging Your Closet

So today's post hits close to home. When I got married I went from a large room with a walk-in closet to a one bedroom apartment. I don't in any way regret this move but it was a major adjustment. I never realized how much time it took to downsize everything and my closet was a major one.


My closet as I stated before was a walk-in and was packed from bottom to top with clothes, purses, jewelry and so on. It was so stuffed my shoes were out in the garage because there was no room. Let's just say when I started working at Macy's when I was nineteen I created a major addiction. What's really sad is when I was purging before the wedding I had tons of articles that had been purchased years ago and they still had the tag on them.


So, I know a lot of women are like me and need to purge their closets but don't know where to start. Did I mention I share a closet now? Thank goodness its spacious for an apartment or I would be lost. Here are five tips that will help you to purge your closet. Out with the old, in with the new.


1. Get inspired

Turn on some fun music. Make something nice and cold to drink like a flavored ice tea; or my favorite, a fruit and vegetable smoothie. Even recruit someone to be on your panel to help you decide what to keep.


2. Be realistic

You can't keep everything no matter how much you don't want to let go of your lavishing closet. That is not a bad thing at all, we are making room for the better things in life. The simplest way to do this is to have two bins: trash and donate. As you go through your closet take one thing out at a time. If your keeping it, hang it back up. If not put it on one of the two bins.


3. Ask the tough questions

If you were shopping today, would you buy it? Does it fit? It is damaged/stained? Can it be repaired? If any of your answers are no, it's probably time to part ways. No point in keeping the jeans you wore on your first day of high school. They probably don't fit and aren't in style anymore. The sweatpants that you've had for 10 years are just collecting dust. You have to be brutal right now but it will pay off. You will have a gorgeous closet that is organized and only has the clothing items you love.


4. Organize your newly purged closet.

This part depends on how you function best. You can color-coordinate it or organize it by clothing type. Figure out how your closet will work for you and get to organizing. Find a home for everything in your closet and make it look pretty! This will both make you love your closet AND help you to put everything back in its place when you're done.


5. Buy one, throw one.

This is the best way to make sure your closet stays looking gorgeous. If you buy a new article of clothing you have to throw one you already have; whether that means tossing, donating, or selling it. Not only does this keep your closet from being overloaded again but it ensures that you have nothing but pieces you love in your closet.


Now, I'm not going to lie and say this was easy because it definitely was not. It took me a lot of time and I had to part with a lot of clothes. But it was so worth it! It even makes getting ready faster because I have less to choose from and I love everything I own. Now the only hard part is getting my husband to purge ;)


I want to see the amazing work you accomplish! Tag me in your before and after pictures; tag your friends too! Get them to do this with you.


Kisses, Shavon.


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How to take care of your skin

                                       

Taking care of our skin is so important! We are given one body and it is our job to take care of that body. Proper skincare can be a little high maintenance but it is important to take the time in making sure it is properly cared for. Healthy skins looks radiant and young. And I think its very important as women to be proud of our natural beauty. When we treat ourselves and love our skin it makes that easier.

Since, I am such an advocate for proper skincare I am breaking this up into two posts. So today I will talk about taking care of our faces. I wanted to talk about this first because the skin on our faces is a lot more delicate and requires extra care. 

I have one major rule that I try to never break and that is NEVER EVER sleep in your makeup. Now I'm not perfect but I have had a few nights that I got home to late and was too tired to wash my face, but it is so bad for your skin! Sleeping in your makeup breaks down collagen and produces more wrinkles. Foundation stretches your pores and sleeping in eye makeup can cause styes. Then, there's the obvious acne from bacteria.

Washing your face in the morning may seem daunting but it is extremely important. Unless you change your pillow cases every night you still collect bacteria and toxin on your face. With that being said, my morning routine is a little bit different than my evening routine. 

Morning Routine

First thing in the morning I cleanse my face with a gentle cleanser.This is a Neutrogena cream cleanser. 

Twice a week I exfoliate to scrub away the dead skin cells. I am loving this apricot scrub but I'm on the hunt for an all natural product that I really like. 

I take a toner and clean away the dirt that was left behind from cleansing and I finish up with a light-weight day moisturizer. This is Neutrogena toner and I have literally used it off and on since I was in middle school.

 The moisturizer is target brand. I like how light-weight it is.

Evening Routine

At night I use these Mary Kay makeup remover cloths before I begin to wash my face. I'm not sure if they're still available but I bought them in bulk a long time ago. 

I've noticed taking this step gets a lot more makeup off than when I skip it. Right now I am using the same cleanser day and night. Sometimes when I am trying out other products I will use a stronger one during the night. Again I follow up with the toner to remove access dirt. Even if I skip this step in the morning I make sure to use toner at the night because I want no trace of makeup on my face. 

Then, I use a thicker moisturizer to be sure my skin is hydrated and stays young looking. I started using the Burts Bee's night cream and I LOVE it! Its natural and very moisturizing, 

I finish off with a retinol gel from Ulta  around my eyes to reverse the process of wrinkles. Now, I know I am only in my twenties but I think it is never too early to start fighting against wrinkles. 

When I really want to spoil myself I use my eye mask from Ulta. It has gel beads on the front so I put it in the refrigerator an hour before bed, The cooling feeling feels amazing on my eyes and is so relaxing.

So, to wrap this up my two BIGGEST points are never sleep in makeup and moisturize, Moisturize, MOISTURIZE.

The cleansers, toner, and moisturizers I use can be found at your local drug store.

Get the retinol gel here.

Get the eye mask here.

Check out my other blogs about skincare and makeup!

Kisses, Shavon.

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Planner Obsession

Hi guys!!

The list of my obsessions could literally go on and on so today I thought we would talk about another one. Office supplies and more specifically PLANNERS! I love planners and have for as long as I can remember. I loved being in school and they would give us the planners to write our assignments and events in. I was probably one of the only kids who color coordinated it and took it everywhere with me lol.

So forwarding a couple of years later and I love them even more, but I have moved on to bigger and better things. So here is my baby. I am using the Lily Pulitzer medium size and can I say it's amazing! I love this agenda for many reasons. Her agendas come in a few different sizes and designs. I believe this design is discontinued but is similar to pink lemonade. Another great thing about her agendas is they are not your typical 12 month agenda. It goes from August of 2014 to December 2015, which was perfect because I wanted to use it as soon as it came in the mail.

In the front of the agenda is a double sided pocket. On the front I keep extra paper clips and post its. I also keep important things that I use frequently, my insurance card, and anything I may need to take with me for the day.

There are two sets of month views. The first is in the front of the agenda and it is only month views. Lately, I have been trying to better myself and be a little bit healthier so I use a different coding system to keep track of my progress. Blue is for 8 glasses of water, green is for exercise, and red is for my daily devos. I simply draw a line through the day in that color if I finished my task for the day. I use the first set of month on two pages for this.

The second is with the weekly views and separates them by month. Here is a dummy mock-up of what my week and month would look like. Once I have completed a task I simply cross and out and I'm done.

As you can see I color-code my agenda I do this because it helps me to organize and I can tell what I have going on with just a quick glance. Plus adding a little bit of color makes it pretty and makes me actually want to use the agenda. Here is a breakdown of how I use the different colors:

Purple - Social
Green - Wedding
Dark Blue - Matt
Orange - Work
Red - Personal/To-Do

Each Sunday I decorate the upcoming week and fill in my schedule. Doing this every week probably excites me a little more than it should. Poor Matt has come home to my planner supplies all over the living room in pure confusion haha. I have a box that I keep all my supplies in so when I decorate I just bring it into the living room and decorate away. I use washi tape, sticker, post its and page flags. There is also a sheet of stickers that comes with all Lily agendas. I have taken mine out because I put it with the rest of my stickers because I have quite a few.

So there it is! I should probably start looking into planner anonymous meetings, but in talking with many of you I know that I am not alone. Do you use planners? What are your tips and tricks? Comment below and let me know.


You can find Lilly planners here. And for more on organization check out my post on purse organization here.

Kisses, Shavon

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Independence Day Weekend

Happy Tuesday lovies!!

If you're reading this it means you made it through the weekend without blowing yourself up so I think that means congratulations are in order. 

No, but on a serious note this weekend was a blast. It was our first holiday as a family so we decided to go to the ocean with our fur baby.

Matt and I love road trips so we of course had a blast! Music playing and nothing but the road :) My puppy hasn't had a lot of experience but she surprisingly did a really good job. (And no he can't take a serious picture).

Once we got the ocean we ate our lunch that wa packed and then fell asleep on the beach, go figure lol. But the fireworks were beautiful! And the Olson's have officially celebrated a holiday together.

What did you guys do for the holiday? Any Fourth of July traditions? I'd love to hear them!



Kisses, Shavon

OMG I get married in three days!!

I cant believe this day is almost here! I have dreamed of this day for as long as I can remember and in three days I will become an Olson. Now, I am very laid back and never went into "Bride-zilla" mode but to say I am nervous is an understatement. Anyways, I decided today so share a little bit about my soon-to-be Hubby and I and talk about love in general.






It sounds really silly and cheesy but we clicked instantly. We got along really well from the beginning and it felt so normal, like we'd known each other for years. Now both of us can be pretty shy so we both flirted and played those silly crush games for a couple of months. It is so funny when we talk about those days and what we were really feeling but on the outside we were too shy to let it be known.

I remember he was getting surgery on his knee because he had torn his ACL and two other ligaments, and he texted me and said "I want you to be there when I wake up." It was like an angel chorus broke out. But even still I was too shy to admit where my heart was. I'd had my heart broken a couple of times and was too scared to put myself out there. But when he asked me out on our first date after our youth group I was all in.





People laugh and say it doesn't exist but I am convinced I've found my soulmate. Nobody makes me laugh the way he does and lifts up my spirits when I'm crying my eyes out in bed. One of the first times I remember knowing we were going to spend our lives together is when we went on vacation last summer. We were in one of the little boutiques looking at all of the souvenirs and we found these Nemo hats. Instantly, we threw them on and made our friend take pictures of us. Looking back on these picture this is the first time in a long time I had a genuine smile on my face.

So for those saying love doesn't exist and that there's no hope, I hope our story can be of encouragement. Good things happen often when we least expect it, when we aren't looking for it, and when we're busy chasing our dreams. I know this is not usually what I write about but I was in the loving mood. I wonder why?






Anyone up for sharing their love stories??

Kisses, Shavon