How to.... I have no idea.

I was thinking about whether I have any great decorating genius that I could share with you. A well decorated home is important to me because it is my family's haven. By making it beautiful, I am showing love to my family. In many ways, I feel like I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to decorating; I learn as I go, I rearrange to the insanity of my husband, I steal real decorator's ideas, and hope to get it right once in awhile.

In the last 7 years, my tastes in decorating have changed so much. I made so many mistakes, thankfully none very expensive, but all time consuming and a bit troubling. My system for home decor goes something like this:

• I take my time. If I try to do it all at once, I always end up regretting something -- like my blue dining room and pink-ish living room, and brown bedroom, and plaid wall in the guest room... the list goes on. My master bedroom is just now looking good and it has been 7 years. This is not encouraging. You should not take any advice from me.

• I shop in my own house, borrowing things here and there until I get it right. I try to get as much as possible for free or really, really cheap, collecting what I love. I've done this with picture collages, hanging thing on the wall in the general size I want and then making a list of what I need to buy eventually. The "ideal" item goes on my mental list (more on that later). The shelf above took me about 2 weeks of rearranging before I really liked what was there.

• I steal real decorator's ideas and do them for as cheap as possible. I frequent blogs and magazine websites and absorb good ideas that I can use throughout the house. Perhaps I've never actually had an original idea in my whole life. Shhh, don't tell.

• I decorate my house in the same general color palette. Not sure if this helps or is boring, but I've heard that it makes a home flow better. "Taupe" is my friend and I intersperse earthy colors. Did you fall asleep? I also throw in some dark reds, blues, and greens too.
  

• I keep a mental list of what I am looking for. For instance, on my list currently are pillow shams for the master bedroom, a medium sized try for the top of my dresser, a tallish house plant, a rug for the baby's room, a large poster sized frame. Having this list keeps me from buying frivolous things that end up as clutter. And I can wait for a good deal. I rarely ever buy anything not on my mental list, which still can be confusing to my husband who wasn't aware I had been looking for "just the perfect house plant" for the last 6 months. 

• My favorite deal spots for decor items: garage sales, second hand stores, Wal-mart, Target's end clearance isles, Ross and TJ Max, Cost Plus World Market, Amazon.com, and Overstock.com.

The shelf in the dining room came together with a wicker place-mat from Wal-mart ($2.99, I was too cheap to buy enough for the whole table), serving plate from our wedding, blue bottle from who-knows-where, a daffodil that I dried and I think is charming, a couple of coasters, and a sugar bowl that my mom gave me because she got new dishes.

What is your best decorating advice?