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Spending so many hours on my computer, I’ve come across a lot of inspiring sites that offer many affordable solutions for decorating and furnishing small homes. Can’t wait to start decorating my new place!

If you are moving or looking for a change at home, check out these sites before you do your shopping:

Apartment Therapy

I’m sharing this link first because it’s one of the best sites to look at for inspiration and solutions. It’s like a catch-all. I found other online stores with affordable designs through this site, many photo galleries of how people have remodeled their small spaces, and tips for choosing everything from pillows to paintings to accent your home.

Sub-sites of ApartmentTherapy.com:
Marketplace: lists and profiles of businesses for online shoppers
Small, Cool 2010 Contest: I love this! Apartment Therapy held a contest  to see who has the coolest small home. The best part, besides seeing a photo gallery of the winning home, is that you can also see photo galleries of numerous division winners, divided into groups of their home square footage. It’s a great way to see how others have decorated spaces similar to yours and get ideas. Example: if you have a 600 sq. foot home, you can check out the “Tiny” category for entries of homes of the same size.

Chic Shelf Paper

One thing I am trying to keep in mind is to remember to prep the house to keep it in a good condition. I came across the Chic Shelf Paper site through Apartment Therapy’s Marketplace and am actually excited to line my shelves with design-printed paper.

Design Sponge

Brooklyn-based writer, Grace Bonney, started a daily website dedicated to home and product design. I love even just the appearance of the blog site, designed with different textures like ribbon and crinkled paper and lace to line the left edge of the entire blog.

Grace shares cool finds, DIY projects, and yummy recipes. A pretty nifty DIY project that was posted recently is Bottle Gardens. Check it out! Be sure to also check out Design Sponge’s “Budget” section for more cheap finds.

Green Your Decor

It’s thrilling to come across stuff that is a cheap find, even if it’s used. Another bonus is to find ways to be green in your home. Green Your Decor is another design blog that shares sustainable design ideas and products.

eBay Classifieds

It’s like looking at the Craigslist “For Sale” section but getting to only see a list of photos! As much as I love looking at design and furniture online stores, I love finding used items for cheap or even free, and I can still be as picky as I want.

Melrose Trading Post

Speaking of cheap and used, of course, checking out thrift stores and swap meets is always a good idea. I’m looking forward to hitting the Melrose Trading Post this Sunday again!

This list TBC….

After a deadly attack on their bus, the Togo government wishes for the Togo football team to quit the Cup of Nations in Africa.

The team is devastated, wants to be home with their families (who can blame them?). The team was victimized of a deadly shooting that lasted half an hour. The driver died immediately, so they had no where to go. The goalkeeper was shot in the stomach. Another player was shot in the back. The assistant manager and press manager were also killed.

And the Angolan government and tournament officials still want Togo to continue with their scheduled games! The team was due to play Ghana on Monday for the Africa Cup of Nations.

This makes me sad. Hoping and praying that the team can go home and recover and that the fellow football countries would respect the team and not be putting the sport over the athletes. Read more and see video at BBC’s article page.

Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

One of the things I do miss about going to school in SF is having the SF MoMA just three blocks away from the main school building, and getting in for free. I can’t think of a better place to kill free time in a city than a museum.

Sad that I’m not close enough to check out the Tim Burton exhibit in New York, I decided to see what was coming to the MoMA since I will be back up there end of the month.

And what is at the SF MoMA until end of November?! The Richard Avedon exhibit! Oh, I hope I make it in time to see the last day and see the video screenings! I’ve had mini postcards of his photographs taped on my bedroom wall. What first got my eye was his photo of elephants with a graceful female model with a long satin sash (see the top photo below). Perhaps anything with elephants is an automatic win for me. I am also a huge fan of black-and-white photographers because of their great attention to lighting and detail.

Go see the rest of Richard Avedon’s exhibit at the SF Moma before it ends on the 29th of November 2009.

Mmm, yeah, I think this is the most photos I’ve posted in one post. But I will stop here before it gets out of hand. There are just too many photos I like.