Wouldn’t it be great if every time you stepped into your bathroom, you had the feeling of being whisked away to a tropical island or perhaps a day spa in Bali or Tahiti? With a little creativity you can give your bathroom an island makeover.

Here are some tips on how to decorate your bathroom like a tropical spa:

1) Think about your overall color scheme. You want your bathroom colors to invoke a feeling of the tropics, like the rich green of tropical forests and the cool blues of the ocean. If you can paint the walls, pick a soothing color (preferably a shade of green or blue that comes to mind when you hear the word “Tahiti” or “Bali”).

2) Focus on the smaller decorating components. Your bath mat, bath and hand towels are a very important part of the color scheme. To create a soothing “spa” feel, look at a color wheel and choose an analogous color combination (colors that are right next to each other; like blue, blue-green and greenish-blue, etc.)

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3) If your walls are painted, or you are planning on using a lot of color, you can get a way with white towels…they create that crisp, clean spa feeling. Also, if you have a window in your bathroom, add framing curtains in a matching color. Another great way to create a tropical look is to put in a bamboo shade (can be used in conjunction with curtains). You can even use the bamboo shade as an interesting wall hanging if you don’t have a window in your bathroom.

4) Add small touches by placing things in your bathroom that remind you of a tropical island. You could fill a wooden bowl with a collection of shells or add some decorative towel hooks in the shape of tropical flowers, leaves or fish. Switch your bathroom magazines to ones that feature travel to tropical getaways or the island lifestyle and put them on display.

5) Add plants! It is very important that you add some greenery in the form of tropical plants like palms or other broad leafed plants, orchids or hibiscus flowers. It doesn’t matter if they are fake or not, but you can’t have a tropical look without invoking the image of lush foliage.

6) Add the sense of smell to complete the tropical spa mood. Definitely put out candles, fragrance sticks and maybe an air freshener that smells like coconut and/or tropical flowers. Use soaps, lotions and shampoos with fragrances like mango, papaya, Plumeria and jasmine. A wooden bowl of pretty, sample-sized exotic soaps is a nice touch.

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For many people, the living room must serve multiple purposes. It may be the main place where the family hangs out, but it also may be a place for entertaining. Some people also must use their living room as a play area for young children or as a home office space. For these reasons, decorating for a living room should marry form with function, as well as expressing some of your individual style.

Here are some tips on how to decorate your living room:

Walls and Floors

In the living room, the overall palette should be warm and inviting. While too many dark or moody colors can be overpowering, an accent wall or carpet in a bolder hue can add visual pop. If you have an open floor plan, use color on walls and floors to create intimate settings within the broader space. Try setting some chairs around a throw rug for a pleasant conversation area, or dress up a corner by adding wall decals, stencils or trim.

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Furniture

Living room furniture must suit your family’s needs. All too often the living room becomes a catch-all room, with baskets of toys, piles of papers, stacks of bills and unfinished projects crowding the room. Invest in furniture that offers storage options, such as hollow ottomans with hidden storage, cabinets with open and covered shelving or modular furniture that can be moved or adjusted. If your budget isn’t big, invest in a focal point that offers maximum payoff, such as a Moroccan coffee table, an ethnic rug or an armchair with an eye-catching color or pattern.

Accessories

The living room is typically the room all visitors see, so make it a showcase for a favorite art piece, family heirloom or a collection. Set aside a niche or shelf and display pieces with shared colors, materials, shapes or themes. Try using a painting or mirror as a backdrop. Other accessories to enhance a living room include pretty table lamps, wall sconces, mirrors and wall art.

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Small bedrooms should be decorated so they appear as roomy as possible. To achieve this you should stay away from putting too many big furniture pieces in the room and avoid clutter. A clean room always look bigger.

Here are some tips on how to decorate a small bedroom:

1) Use a sofa that opens into a bed or futon in a bedroom that isn’t used often.

2) Use furniture sparingly because it can choke a room and its traffic pattern. A bed, bedside table and chest may be all the room can hold.

3) Use a bedside table that offers storage, such as a small chest with four drawers.

4) Minimize pattern, which seems to fill a room. Flowers, stripes, plaids and polka dots will seem to swim toward you from a rug, curtains, wallpaper, or bed cover.

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5) Skip the billowy window and bed treatments such as pouf valances, piles of pillows and fluffy dust ruffles. Tailored looks (blinds plus a simple valance, flat dust skirts) have less volume but still get the job done.

6) Choose a closet with a storage system of drawers, shelves and rods that optimize storage.

7) Stay away from putting pictures on the walls, which can close in the room.

Use a square lampshade so that the lamp can fit as snugly as possible against the wall.

9) Use high-wattage lightbulbs to give the room a sense of openness. A light-flooded room seems more spacious.

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While bathrooms should be functional, they should also look good. In a small apartment, there are a handful of ways to maximize space without compromising good design. Here are some tips that will take your bathroom from drab to fab courtesy of apartmenttherapy.com:

1) Cleaning: Start by giving this room a good scrubbing. Walls, tiles, bathtub, toilet are all vastly improved by a good wash

2) Paint: Color in your bathroom can make all the difference. Start with the colors in your tiles and work from there.  The best colors are either white or something that complements the tiles. Choose a colour with warmth in it.

3) Change out the light fixtures: Cover a bare bulb with a shade, swap out a ceiling mounted fixture with a chandelier, bring in a table lamp, consider a night light to take evening baths by and don’t forget the candles, a nice touch for night or for parties.

How to control clutter in your bathroom

4) Lighting: If you go for CFL’s in here, remember to choose something in the warm spectrum. You do remember how awful you look in your office bathroom, yes? Try to avoid that ghastly green pallor at home.

5) New knobs: Sometimes all it takes to perk up a bathroom are swapping out old cabinet knobs for something new.

6) Shower curtains: Try a thick white waffle weave, paint a good quality plastic liner, add a ruffle or a fat border to a plain curtain. Small stall? Try a curved tension shower rod, set high, to add a subtle amount of space and roller curtain rings to make getting in and out of the shower more pleasant.

7) Accessories: Good hand and bath towels and a plush bathmat can instantly change up the look of this room. Or give your bathroom a modern Asian twist with a wooden bathmat.

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Spa treatments you can do at home

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If you’re short on cash, but want to spook up your home here’s how you can decorate: your place on a budget:

1) Gather up your supplies. Old pieces of cardboard, colored paper, markers, and glue are some of the things you can use.

2) Take cardboard and cut out bat shapes (use a stencil if you need to). After you cut them out, use markers or paint to add color. Black bats look great hanging with a bit of fishing wire or string.

3) Make fake tombstones out of cardboard. Just cut out the shape, paint it gray, and write RIP or other sayings on them. They can then be placed in a window, or in a place where they won’t get wet.

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4) Use yarn or crepe paper to create giant spider webs for windows.

5) Use colored paper to cut out pumpkins, black cats, or other Halloween pictures. These can be placed in windows, or on walls.

6) Recycle old costumes and clothes. Old masks can be used to make life size monsters with just some old clothes and newspapers.

7) Be creative. Using your imagination, you can turn almost any household product into something scary.

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Check out some of our favorite halloween decorations below:

5 ways to give your bedroom an inexpensive makeover

Take a look at what you can do with these light strips:

How to choose a living room paint color

With winter right around the corner (UGH!!) here are some tips on how to get your bed ready for the cold:

To update your bed for winter, you don’t have to spend a lot. Cleaning your bedding and turning the mattress is one of the most important parts of refreshing your bedroom.

Clean the bed.
• Remove sheets, blankets, and comforter.
• Wash them.
• Flip your mattress.
• Move the bed and clean under it.

5 ways to give your bedroom an inexpensive makeover

Consider adding layers.
• If you need an extra blanket, add one to your shopping list.
• If your bed needs a pick-me-up, consider new sheets or quilt.
• If you’re on a budget, start small with a throw blanket or pillow.

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Are you dating or in a serious relationship? Did you realize that very often we make the same dating mistakes over and over again? To avoid repeating the same mistakes over and over again, first you’ve got to recognize them. Here are some tips from the huffingtonpost.com:

Dating Mistake #1: Approaching Him First. I know this goes against conventional dating advice, which encourages women to flirt and even strike up a conversation. While there are always exceptions, the women I coach who are struggling with boyfriends who won’t commit or husbands who ignore them almost invariably made the first contact. A man may date and even marry a woman who approached him first, but there will likely be consequences later on…when he approaches the girl he really wants. This goes for online dating as well.

Quick Fix: If you talked him first or even asked him out, you can try to restore some of the feminine mystique and you forfeited as the initiator by being a bit more elusive – a little less available, a little more mysterious. If he’s truly smitten by you, he’ll rise to the challenge and cherish you more. If not, then let him float away now, before he wastes more of your time and ends up breaking your heart. In the future, please, trust in the universe! Look approachable and friendly – that’s all the encouragement your future (adoring) husband needs.

Dating Mistake #2: Acting overly chummy. You’ve just met the guy and you’re telling him about the back-stabber in your office, the fight you had with your sister, the details of your recent root canal. Yuck! During the first few dates, the man is still essentially a stranger. Women who share intimate details of their lives and emotions too soon come across as desperate and neurotic.

Quick Fix: Recognize that the more you talk about yourself, the less you’ll be listening and observing whether he is right for you. Identify why you feel the need to yammer on — nervousness, low tolerance for awkward silences, desire to impress with witty banter and accomplishments – and remember that you are not there to audition, but to relax and have a good time.

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Dating Mistake #3: Accepting last minute dates. You need to show (not tell) men that you’re a busy woman, with lots of friends, deadlines, projects and prospects (including romantic ones). When you accept so-called “spontaneous” invitations for the next day or even same evening, you send the message you’ve got nothing going on in your life – or nothing that important, since you’re willing to drop everything to accommodate him. Let a man treat you like a fast food drive-thru (put his order in at the window then pull up to get his grub) and that’s how he’ll view you. Fancy restaurants – and fancy girls – require reservations made well in advance. What you reward you encourage.

Quick Fix: To make sure you’re his “Plan A” girl (not the “Plan B” girl he calls after his first choice turns him down), I recommend setting a firm cut-off limit after which you’re “busy” – period. Having trained with The Rules authors, Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider, I recommend their “three days in advance” rule – e.g. he calls by Wednesday night to ask you for Saturday.

Dating Mistake #4: Jumping into a “whirlwind romance.” If your love life looks a bit like Jennifer Anniston’s, your 0-to-60 relationships might benefit from a judicious application of the break pedal. Yes, speed bumps can be annoying, but without them you’d end up driving too fast, without adequate time to observe, maneuver and react. Again, The Rules remind us: “Men fall in love quickly – but they also fall out of love quickly.” Sure, it can be flattering, even exhilharating, when a man you’ve just met wants to see you several times a week and talk to you for hours on the phone. But unfortunately the result is a white-hot romance that burns brightly and then fizzles out.

Quick Fix: You need to start pacing the relationship. Don’t see him more than once or twice a week, don’t talk more than ten minutes on the phone, don’t open up too fast, or introduce him to your friends before he introduces you to his. If he absolutely must see you every day, 24-hours-a-day, there’s this arrangement called marriage…..let him figure it out! A wise woman once observed: “It’s the spaces in between seeing you when a man falls in love and discovers the true depth of his longing.”

Dating Mistake #5: Wasting Time. We’ve all been guilty of this one, at some point in our lives or another. Wasting time – either in a relationship that’s going nowhere or getting over a heartbreak – is one of the biggest and most common mistakes women make. As Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo exhort the lovelorn in He’s Just Not that Into You: “Don’t waste the pretty!”

Quick Fix: Know what you want – and believe you deserve it. If you want to get married but the guy you’ve been dating for over a year still isn’t sure, set a time limit of how long you’re willing to wait then stick to it. Once D-Day (decision day) arrives, and he’s still waffling, then move on and do not look back (if he’s ever going to know and man up to a proposal, this will be your best – and his last – chance). If you’re still wallowing in despair over a break up, then put your profile on-line, start going to singles events, and let friends know you’re available for set-ups. There is no better “healing” than the attention several new suitors.

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With common household ingredients you can pamper yourself spa-style. Invite your girls around, chill some bubbly, serve some strawberries and get ready to de-stress:
Face fantastic
Your first step will be to cleanse your face – after the cocktails and late nights your skin will love you for it.

Start by first removing all your makeup, and depending on how sorry your skin is looking you can opt for a mask or a steam followed by an exfoliating cleanse.

If your skin is looking dull or dry a mask made of fresh fruit may help, fruit contains alpha-hydroxy acids which work to remove the surface layer of dead skin revealing fresher skin beneath.

A good one to try is the peach mask. Cook a peach till it’s soft, mash it up with a fork add a tablespoon of honey and oatmeal until it is thick. Apply to clean skin and let sit for ten minutes before rinsing off with warm water.

Green beauty products

Smooth skin
Smooth skin is easy to achieve, use an exfoliant such as a body brush or loofah sponge. Work from the feet upwards in circular motions to improve your circulation whilst revealing supple skin.

Alternatively you can use a sugar scrub which is easily made at home. Combine brown sugar, aloe vera and jojoba oil (if available) in a bowl. Mix until you form a smooth paste, rub this into the skin in circular motion. The sugar crystals will scrub away dead skin cells and the jojoba oil and aloe will moisturise your skin. Rinse clean

Honey Hair Shine

Revive tired tresses and give them a shine boost with this easy-to-make, leave-in honey hair treatment.

Here’s what you need:

* 1 teaspoon honey
* 4 cups warm water

Stir honey into warm water. After shampooing pour mixture through hair. Do not rinse out. Dry as normal.

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