Home Helper

Last February, I ran in the 12th Annual Mardi Gras Run in Dallas, and the first thing I noticed upon arriving at the race was the huge crowd of walkers and runners. I was a little intimidated at first – as it had been quite a few years since my last 5K – but I ended up having a total blast. Some people were dressed in wild costumes and others had their faces painted. Everyone seemed to have smiles on their faces and there was a collective energetic spirit in the air. The best part was the group of event volunteers standing around the finish line with armfuls of Mardi Gras beads. As each race participant crossed the finish line, they were showered with beaded necklaces in bright green, gold, silver, and purple colors.

In the days that followed the race, I found myself looking at my beads in admiration of my accomplishment and also puzzled as to what to do with them. I’m a big fan of recycling and repurposing. So, I put on my thinking cap and came up with a solution… I could use the beads for gift wrapping!

To help you see my vision, I put together a couple of samples. ...read more

It’s time for another “best of the blogosphere” round-up from the Out of Office Team. This time I thought I’d share some of the cool things we’ve seen from other sites on home décor. Hope you find their ideas and projects as inspiring as I did!  

• I love the Better Homes and Gardens online decorating archives – check it out here. They’ve got hundreds of projects big and small, plus photos to get you thinking. Their DIY site is also loaded with easy-to-do projects, templates and instructions.
• A home blog on AZCentral.com has a great tip on turning old family photos into something visually stunning on a big, blank wall.
• Room Envy is a fabulous site with amazing room design photos to fit everyone’s tastes – from sleek modernism to retro 60’s designs. Definitely give it a look if you’re in the market for a change.

Have you ever noticed when you travel that everyone else seems to have a suitcase just like yours? They all look like giant black boxes coming off the conveyor belts. Some of us tie colorful ribbon to the handle or use a bright-colored luggage tag. I have done both, only to find myself trying to remember the color of the ribbon. And then there was this one time when the contact card from my luggage tag went missing altogether! I figured it must have fallen out somewhere in transit. ...read more

Now that the Out of Office team has shared with you some of our resolutions for 2010, I thought it would be cool to share some interesting resolutions we’ve seen in the past week from other bloggers and sites. You can check out some of our favorites below. ...read more

Ah, 2010. You got here faster than I expected. And after ringing in the New Year, there’s always a renewed commitment to fitness or health or dieting or something too hard to stick with. Last year, my resolution was to take more pictures since I gave myself the gift of a new digital camera. I succeeded, mostly.

This year, I ‘m resolving to stay in touch with friends. Since I recently moved away, I’m even more determined to make sure this resolution sticks. And so I had personalized stationery printed to help me keep with it.

I believe letter-writing is a lost art. It doesn’t take that much time to jot down a quick note, and it can be for any occasion – birthdays, celebrations, graduation, sympathy, thank you, or just because you were thinking about someone.

As I started checking into stationery, I learned that there are several types of personal stationery: ...read more

As you may have gathered from my bio, I am the self-proclaimed organization guru of the group. To my credit, I have taken numerous personality tests that reveal I am innately detail-oriented and organized. I have found over the years that one way to keep New Year’s resolutions (and organize my time) is to use a weekly or monthly schedule.

For example, last year I committed to becoming more active and signed up for a series of running classes. With each class, I received a monthly schedule with my running and strength training assignments detailed by day. I put this up on my refrigerator so that it was front and center – serving as a daily reminder of what I needed to do. By the time I finished the 18 weeks of training, I reduced my run time per mile by four minutes and was able to run for longer distances. ...read more

I am in the process of buying a new house, and I have my work cut out for me. Besides the packing, moving and unpacking, I also need to decorate every room. Things to consider…what color should I paint, what kind of accessories would I like for each room, and what should go on those bare walls???

There are tons of creative ideas on the Internet for how to create your own custom wall art if you don’t want to invest in prints or paintings. You can make a collage with old photos from childhood or frame individual photos and then stagger them in an alternating or ascending pattern across the wall. Another option is to turn a treasured family photo into a large canvas print.

And if you’re feeling super creative, check out this neat blog article on how to create works of art from old postage stamps. Let me know what you think and please share your ideas for cool wall art! I could use the ideas for my new digs… ...read more