Wow. Seriously? Why didn’t I think of this idea and try to patent it?? I mean, here’s a simple and sublime way of hulling strawberries without using a knife or other sharp implement to remove the stem. Simply insert a straw through the bottom of the strawberry to force the stem out the top – no muss, no fuss, and best of all, no sharp knives to mess around with. This is a great way to get kids involved and help out when you’re making a strawberry tart or just serving them fresh with a meal. And it’s a perfect way to get more use out of a simple kitchen item. Cool, eh?

Here’s one so simple it makes me giggle! Again, I say “Why didn’t I think of that and patent it?”, because if I had done so, you know I’d be filthy rich! Or maybe just well off. Regardless, it’s pretty ingenious when you think that a simple rubber band is the perfect item to keep a sliced apple together when you pack it away in a lunch box or just getting it prepared to munch on later. With a few simple slices from top to bottom in a grid pattern – isolating the core from the edible slices (and, optionally adding a touch of lemon juice to the cuts), securing it all with a rubber band will save on time and effort, and keep your kid’s lunch snack from turning brown and unattractive. Again, it’s so easy and cool, right? How awesome!

Ok, once I discovered this one I use it all the time if I don’t want to crank up the computer, TV or sound bar in my loft. If I want just a bit of music say, in the kitchen while I’m prepping food or in the bathroom while I prepping myself, this little trick is super, and it works, obviously, applying the laws of sound and physics. Just put your iPod or iPhone in a bowl. LOL! Pretty darn easy! Sound is produced when something vibrates. The vibrating body causes the medium (water, air, etc.) around it to vibrate. Vibrations in air are called traveling longitudinal waves, which we can hear. Sound waves consist of areas of high and low pressure called compressions and rarefactions, respectively. The ‘height’ of the wave is its amplitude. The amplitude determines how loud a sound will be. Greater amplitude means the sound will be louder. Simplified, the bowl amplifies the sound. It also works the same way when put in a sink – just be sure it’s empty and dry! Science is cool!

OMG! Just how sweet is this clever idea? For all you parents out there with wee ones, this idea is truly both aesthetically pleasing and clever for organization. Attach a long strip of the rough side of velcro to the wall and hang your precious bundle’s soft toys on it! You can hang several strips if you have lots of toys or if you anticipate your baby getting more toys down the road. Hang it near the crib or bed for easy access; it looks creative and inventive and all the other new, proud parents will copy this idea as well! You just watch, I bet they do! So have fun and make a great storage system on the wall for all the fuzzy baby toys. Now THAT’S clever!

What do you think of these ideas? Have you tried them yourself, or are you going to give them a try? If you have employed them in your home, or know you’re going to, let me know – I’d love to hear how you utilized these in your life and home environment. And if you have a few more ideas to add to the library of clever ideas, send them in; I hope to continue writing future blogs about EVEN MORE Clever Ideas as sent in by my readers. I’m open to any ideas you have, so send them to me using the Share Your Thoughts window at the bottom of this blog, by sending me an email through the Contact Us link here, or by clicking the email icon to the right. Go put on your thinking caps and let me know about YOUR clever ideas, ok? See you soon!

First and foremost, open all your cabinets, cupboards and drawers take a look around you and see what all you have, all within your gaze. I bet you’re seeing things you’ve rarely used, or used so long ago you forgot you had it. Here’s where you need to be pretty ruthless with yourself and honest about taking stock in your kitchen items.

TAKE STOCK: when you’re looking around at all the stuff you have, start making three piles to categorize what you’ve got – USED OFTEN, USED SELDOM, NEVER USED/USELESS…you know where this is going, don’t you? That’s right! Anything in the NEVER USED/USELESS pile get’s tossed if it’s broken or doesn’t work, or get’s donated if it’s in working order. Why keep things that you don’t use or need? Some things to toss would be lids to storage containers that don’t match any container (and vice versa for containers without lids), and pot and pan lids with no handles or knobs. Other things to toss or donate are warped baking pans and trays, which, when used again, may cause your cookies to cook unevenly (the warping comes from thermal shock which happens when they don’t get the chance to cool off completely before they’re immersed in water in the sink to be cleaned). Also, chuck the scratched or flaking non-stick cookware. The non-stick surface (often Teflon or similar coating) isn’t dangerous but it’s certainly not good to have it show up in your Quiche Lorraine when serving Sunday Brunch to your friends.

BOX & STORE: Now that you have the piles of items down to USED OFTEN and USED SELDOM, go through and determine what’s seasonal or holiday then box them up and put them in storage. Think of things like Halloween or Christmas cookie cutters, corn on the cob skewers, ice cream makers, holiday themed serveware, turkey roasting pans, etc. You get the idea. This is prime real estate space in your kitchen, and if you’re having to look around it, move it, interact with it in any way to get what you need, it should be boxed and stored with like things for those occasions. Why waste all the precious space housing and storing those rarely used, occasional items? And here’s a thought: you could also use this opportunity to reevaluate if anything in THIS pile should actually go into the donate pile if you find you’re not using it or may not want it anymore. Yeah? Good idea!

REORGANIZE/REPURPOSE: Ok, now that the purge is over and the boxing and storing is complete, we can NOW move on to the fun challenge in this project, the one that will make you think outside the box! This is what I love MOST about ReDoing a space – finding ways to tidy and straighten up and ReUse items in other ways. Here’s where you can use your personal experience and a little bit of online research to help you get some ‘out of the box’ ideas that’ll come in handy:

- Cooking Utensils: Get those bad boys OUT of the drawer you store them in and into a counter top container, like a wine chiller or lid-less cookie jar. It looks great, stylish, and give the appearance as if you cook all the time, even if you don’t!
- Pot Lids: How many times have we had to move these guys around to find the right one? Some manufacturers make special pot lid holders, but a small dish rack or even a letter or file organizer would do the trick to keep them upright and stored conveniently.
- Cookie Sheets: OK, this is a great one from Good Housekeeping; I read this and thought “I’ll be damned! How easy is that?”. All you do is get cheap small curtain tension rods and spring them in place vertically in the cabinet to create slots to separate all your various cooking sheets on end! Neat, huh?
- Slide-Out Drawer: For some of the thinner cabinets you might have, try using a copy paper box lid or a boot box as a bin to store your cook ware clutter. It’s an easy solution and will help house and organize those few odds and ends that you can’t find a home for elsewhere in the kitchen.
- Pots/Pans: I remember my mom always using paper towels between her stacked pots and pans to protect them and their non-stick surfaces. A great alternative would be to use paper plates as the perfect liner; they’re thicker and more durable than paper towels and will last longer in the scheme of things.

These are just a few ReUse and ReOrganize ideas for your kitchen; heck, I bet I could’ve used them in my next Clever Ideas blog as well as I think they’re all pretty swell and darn clever! Regardless, you’re on the right track now for a clutter free kitchen, and I hope you get a chance to not only try these ideas but come up with a few new ones to share with the ReDo Readers. Just send them in by email or make a comment directly in this blog – I’ll be sure to get it and add it to the list of great and clever ideas that YOU brought to the masses while decluttering your own kitchens! Good luck, and have fun!

Last week’s blog was Part I on what I feel are Elements of Decor, specifically, a short list of aesthitic concepts I employ when creating a decorative theme for a room using different physical “elemental” properties: wood, metal, fabric, glass/pottery. These four basic elements are important to me, personally, as I find the use of each unique and valuable in the look of a room. Another set of elements I employ when I come up with a decorating scheme are related to, yet different from, the first four elements. These NEW components are tactile, more visceral in how they are used and presented in the overall look of the room. They can also be quite subtle in their approach to the feel of the space you’re decorating. They consist of color, texture, lighting, and arrangement. To reiterate, like the previous set of elements, they are a component or constituent of a whole or one of the parts into which a whole may be resolved by analysis, like saying bricks and mortar are elements of every masonry wall. It’s also a reference to a natural habitat, sphere of activity, environment, etc., such as being in one’s element, like water is the element of fish. That said, let’s break them down and define them for how I use them in my work:

COLOR: Hands down one of the BIGGEST, fastest, most impactful of improvements, color is key when decorating a space. Whether it be paint color, or fabric color, or accessories color, COLOR is your new best friend. I know a lot of people are timid when it comes to using color in their home decor, wanting to keep things simple or pure in a stark aesthetic setting. But color truly is the best way to that POP, that WOW aspect in a room. Color, when used in decorating, can make or break the look and feel of a room, and color can come in many forms – bright, neutral, light, dark – covering the range of visual spectrum, including monochromatic and dichromatic schemes alongside multi colored thematic looks. Picking a color or two and using them, with neutrals as a base, in any space will bring the room to life, and make a warm, entertaining space.

TEXTURE: Subtle or strong, textures are the nuance that adds character and definition to the design elements. Whether it be wood, metal, fabric, carpet or rug, glass/pottery (part of the first set of Elements of Decor), texture gives a tactile look and feel to your design theme. Defined, texture is the visual and especially tactile quality of a surface. When I decorated my loft, I used a modern aesthetic in the open floor plan, but I played off the existing textures of the space: concrete floors, brick walls, tiled bathroom, wood cabinets. I added to this some shaggy, extra long gray pile throw rugs in a couple rooms, a teak wood dining table with aluminum chairs, white long throw pillows with rows of looped cloth, and an occasional chair in a mid-century style with nubby neutral tone fabric. All these are neutral and quiet in color tone but pack a punch with texture! Work with texture to add a extra bit of subtlety to your decor; see how you can do it with the simplest of accessories or pieces of furniture.

LIGHTING: I could’ve sworn I had previously blogged about lighting and the differences between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. But for the life of me, I cannot find this blog! So, I’ll write a brief one here and revisit it later. Lighting is hugely important; like texture, it adds the nuance to the room, but enhances it further with mood. The three types of lighting I generally find in homes and offices are primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary lighting comes in 5 types: recessed, wall-mounted, pendant, ceiling-mounted, and track. I try to avoid ceiling mounted at all costs as it’s the most garish in mood and appeal. Secondary lighting comes from sources such as floor lamps and table lamps. Tertiary lighting comes from things like candles, hidden pot or can lamps, etc. I use primary lighting initially, as most every room is equipped with such, but work in enough secondary lighting around it to soften and warm the tone and feel of the primary light origin. Any room can be enhanced and warmed with the right light – think mood lighting!

ARRANGEMENT: One last element is how your rooms are arranged, how the pieces all come together for the user to live in or work among. It makes no sense to have a great decorating scheme to your home if it’s poorly laid out. WHERE and HOW you place your pieces in the room is just as important as the pieces themselves. Do you want them to stand out, each and every one, or do you want the key pieces to step forward and be noticed as the accent pieces fall behind in a complimentary support role? It’s a funny thing, a room arrangement, because we have to think about how the room was made, and therefore, how we’re going to fit our things into that preexisting space. Nearly every room in a home or office is square – or nearly square – or rectangular, and most pieces of furniture are equally or nearly square or rectangular. Sure, you get a round dining or end table here and there, or an oval settee, but they are the rare exception. So, knowing that most of what you have to work with is a square peg in a square hole, your job is to make the arrangement fit the best it can, based on your patterns, routine and lifestyle. Take a moment to look in your rooms and consider how you might rearrange the space for a better look and feel, or to accommodate traffic or function.

So there you have it, the second part of ReDo’s Elements of Decor. If you have any ideas or suggestions for elements YOU use in your home or office decor, send me an email or speak your mind and post a comment directly to the blog. I look forward to hearing what great ideas YOU have regarding your own Elements of Decor! See you soon!

So, with that introduction, let’s jump right in, shall we? Let’s chat about an short list of aesthitic concepts I employ when decorating or creating a decorative theme for a room using different physical “elemental” properties: wood, metal, fabric, glass/pottery. These four elements, not unlike earth, air, fire and water, are important in their interaction to one another when putting a design theme into play in a home or office space. These four basic elements are important to me, personally, as I find the use of each unique and valuable in the look of a room. Elements are a component or constituent of a whole or one of the parts into which a whole may be resolved by analysis, like saying bricks and mortar are elements of every masonry wall. It’s also a reference to a natural habitat, sphere of activity, environment, etc., such as being in one’s element, like water is the element of fish. Here are mine, defined:

WOOD: I love wood, period. Hands down it’s one of the easiest, single-most elements capable of adding warmth and cohesiveness to any setting. Wood is used in so many ways in furniture and accessories – why, even in my loft I use dark woods specifically in certain rooms, and light woods in others. For my living room space, I use an espresso brown wood in the TV stand, book shelf, and coffee table. This dark, rich wood has a super dense feel and luxurious quality, with bits of red tones seeping out from the surface when light strikes it. I carry this java brown tone into my bedroom with my bed frame, dressers and mirrors frames made of the same darker hue. Because of this I can easily accessorize the space in monochromatic color schemes that don’t take away from the intenseness of the wood tint, yet still adding a vibrant aesthetic appeal.

METAL: Ah, remember the 70′s and 80′s, when brass was the metal color tone of choice? I sure do, and, being truthful, never liked the golden tint it gave next to the wood or lacquered furniture. Combinations like brass and glass, or brass and black lacquered wood, or brass and just about anything. ICK! Sorry I offend anyone out there that likes brass as a color tone. I say leave it to professional horn instruments. My metal passions are more toward the silvery tones: polished or brushed stainless steel, nickel, etc. These tones, though cooler in color than brass, offer a lot of variety in elemental blending. I think with the silver metals they tend to fade more to the background and require less visual attention than the yellow of brass. They’re also more soothing and easier to work with in unification of design aesthetics.

FABRIC: This is the real textual part, the POP of enhancement in the design scheme of the space, the “WOW” factor you can often achieve from just the slightest hint of tone. Textile color is important and integral to the look and feel of the space, especially when one incorporates already existing pieces of personal belongings into the decor. Most decorative inspirations for a client’s space come from an item or two in their home or office, similar in color, hue or tone that pulls together the look and provides the real creative color expression for the overall space. Think along the lines of pillows, drapery, wall hangings, etc. The color found in a client’s existing items is valuable and necessary to the outcome of what they desire. Often it’s this one simple facet that starts the process of how the room or space will be decorated and the inclusion of various other “elements” that are necessary to the look. It’s also the easiest to work with on seasonal changes, or subtle adaptation to more up-to-date style features and trends.

GLASS/POTTERY: Every home has glass, from windows to mirrors to vases – glass is a fundamental part of decor, and a great way to express ideas, wit, and emotion in any decor. I like to use clear glass vases filled with faux organic items, like moss balls or driftwood, to house candles and memorabilia. I love to use pottery in a way that compliments the color tones, adding to the wood, metal or fabric “elements” already active and engaged in the room. From decanters to vases, statuary to bowls and planters, pottery and glass add a degree of earthy warmth and charm while enhancing and appreciating the look of the design aesthetic – a complimentary addition. Along with fabrics/textiles, glass and pottery are the easiest things to swap out for a periodic look or feel, reforming the look of your room as the weather or seasonal changes.

So what do you think of these design and decor “elements”? Next week we’ll chat about using different aesthetic “elemental” concepts in the decor of a space: color, texture, lighting, and arrangement and how the first four elements along with these other four elements, in concert, make the setting the very best it can be in both look and feel. Do you have any “elements” of decor that you find are necessary when you decorate? Let me know and we’ll share them here in the blog! Until next time!

Color Coordination: nothing bugs me more than a hodge podge bedding ensemble. A linen scheme ill-conceived is discordant and feels poorly executed and looks unattractive. You don’t have to spend wads of money to get a great look; it’s in getting the right look for the price you’re willing to pay. I have some great sets of bed linens that are made of different brands from different retailers – sheets, duvets/comforters, pillows and throw pillows, wraps and throws – all different brands, but I pull the look together using a simple and sophisticated color scheme that runs through each of the pieces, keeping the tones simples and easy. Too much color can be ‘noisy’, so having something that is limited in color tone makes for a more soothing look.

A Welcoming Invitation: When I make my bed, I do one of two things in the last stage – I pull the top sheet, blanket and comforter or duvet down a couple feet, as a little tease, as though I could easily slip into bed at a moment’s notice. It’s an invitation to a freshly made, well put together bed that says “Hop in and relax!”. Sometimes, I’ll even pull one side of the bed linens down at a 45 degree angle from the middle, just to have a single size welcoming invitation. It exposes more of the color of the sheets and is another form of welcoming you to climb in and chill out.

Tight and Taut: I LOVE LOVE LOVE hospital corners on a bed! They’re so practical and look sharp and neat. I discovered them years ago – well, when I was a kid and my mom would help me make my bed – and I’ve always used this technique to properly make a bed, and I think it’s a great, clean look for any bedroom set up. Over at WikiHow, there’s a great step-by-step instructional guide on how to get the military look when making your own bed. Trust me: once you start doing this there’s no turning back! You will be hooked – and you will love the look!

The Best Place EVER: I’ve always felt that the best place to be in my home is bed. Why? It’s because it’s the most comfortable spot in the world! I can watch a movie in bed, or get over a illness; have a cheese and wine picnic or read a good book. I can have a great conversation or just listen to music. ALL of this – AND MORE – from the comfort of my bed. It’s because I put a lot of care and thought into my bed setting and arrangement, so when I come home at the end of a busy or hectic day, my bed is my sanctuary, and it needs to reflect the spa-like or hotel feel I crave.

Messy Bed, Messy Head: I wrote about this in a blog last year, as inspired by a client and friend. Every day I get up and start my morning by making my bed and cleaning up my space for when I come home in the evening. I spritz my sheets with Febreeze before stepping into the shower, and listen to the radio as I get ready for work. I then make the bed, grab my things I need to bring with me for my daily activities and walk out of my loft in a calm, steady, prepared state of mind. So far, it’s worked wonders for my day. Give it a try and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.

These are a few of the things that are important to me to dressing and making a proper bed and giving it the importance it deserves in my life. When you think about it, we spend so much of our time in bed – about a a third to half, according to various websites and surveys – all dependent on our work schedules and rhythm of life. So what’s important to you for having a bed that feels like the place place on earth, that’s warm and inviting year ’round, that starts your day off on the right foot and ends it on a soothing, chill note? I know it differs from person to person, so let me know what your secrets are for what YOUR bed needs most, OK? G’nite!

What I find both sweet and lovely about the various settings here – homes, restaurants, shops – is that there’s a minimal aesthetic to the look, a scheme to the decor that’s done up to the max yet simplified in a manner that one would not expect for such a tropical setting. Sure, there’s the occasional ceiling fan set-up that looks plantation-like, or the theme of a very ‘leafy’ and ‘woody’ setting with brown teak and yellow bamboo, but in most places, it’s done tastefully. It’s not so ‘Disney-fied’ in a way one would think. And thank God for that! I love a good thematic setting for a dining experience, or a hotel lobby setting, but on an island like Kauai – where a tropical setting is just the way of life – such restrictions need not apply. It’s “au natural” – effortless, easy, and cool in tones and style, warm in texture and color. And nature is numero uno in a place such as “The Garden Island”.

Here’s a ‘ferinstance’ for you: I had the most wonderful dining experience just the other night at a restaurant at the Ko’a Kea Resort. The setting was called Red Salt, and the food – exquisite and superb – was matched in elegance and taste to the decor. Unique combinations of savory and fresh offerings from local farms and the nearby ocean, tastes of the land and sea. But the combinations didn’t just end at the menu – the decor of the restaurant was equally savory – warm earth tones tempered with cool colors from the briny deep. This wonderful setting – replete with soothing lighting and balmy draft stirred from the leaf shaped fans in the ceiling, oscillating from left to right, in a slow unison dance, a light, simple gesture. Like a true diva – a jazz artist that knows how to reach the high notes while plunging for the low ones – all effortless and beautiful, this place won me over from the moment I walked in. In the phrase that expresses affection, popularized by the movie Jerry Maguire, “You had me at ‘Hello’.”

If you’ve been following my design and decor projects, you know that I love the monochromatic look – colors in shades of limited colors or hues, using only shades in which the light of the color is of a narrow frequency. In some cases, this is also called ‘duotone’ – and I like using this technique as it simplifies what all the eye has to see, or is forced to see. When a space – regardless of size – is full of too many colors and textures and lighting schemes it can ofttimes become a visually overwhelming experience. Because of this I tend to keep it simple, using only two, maybe three, color tones or hues. And usually, one of the tones I use is a neutral – think, brown, white, gray, khaki, moss/army green and so on. When working in such simplified color structures, I find that my main color is a neutral and my secondary color is just a pop of whatever I’m using in the color scheme. In my loft it was gray as the neutral and yellow as the pop of color. In the Chicago condo project it was a mossy gray green as the main neutral tone and turquoise vivid color pop. You get this picture. This is exactly why Red Salt appealed so greatly to me.

Upon entering the restaurant – from any direction, be it the main Ko’a Kea Resort entrance or the beach front, as I did – you’re bathed in a soothingly lit ambiance of warm white and cream tones extending from the walls and ceilings right through to the rich dark wood textures from the furniture and accessories. The white fabric couches and lounges are masculinely outlined in dark wood, such as Kao which is native to Hawaii and Kauai. The earthy duotones of the lobby, adjacent to the Red Salt hostess stand, was equally cool in style and warm in color. The pops of color were brilliant and sparse – nothing over the top or excessive – gem tones of red and orange, cool bold hues of blue, sparkles of yellow dotted here and there, in accessories and art. Upon cursory glance, the room was cordial and pleasurable, a lovely and serene first impression – which, as we know, you get only one chance to make. Red Salt and Ko’a Kea certainly did that, on many aesthetic levels.

I could happily spend an inordinate amount of time describing the exquisite, flavorful menu, destowing upon the reader the extremely delicious meal I had, or the pride expressed by the staff given the fare procured from local farms (like Kailani Farms in Kilauea – best lettuce in Kauai!), or the touches of spice and garnish that was only enhanced by the aesthetic decor of the restaurant and lobby. I’m sure my friend Amy (@DeliciousSTL) wouldn’t mind at all were I to go into such lengthy detail. But this blog is about the design and decor, the atmosphere and ambiance elegantly provided by the keen eye and good taste of the designer responsible for such a setting. In their own words from their website, “The design of Koa Kea’s new restaurant, Red Salt, continues the relaxed sophistication of the lobby while incorporating earthy hues of coral and brown. Rich woods continue throughout the space while travertine floors accented with hand-selected beach pebbles add unique touches of local inspiration. Angled mirrors adorn the walls of the bar further accentuating the open and airy ambiance of the space.” Indeed! Kudos to you, whomever was the brains behind the beauty. Thank you, Ko’a Kea and Red Salt, for an amazing meal, incredible experience, and a blog posting I can share with my ReDo Readers. Mahalo!

Just the other day, while attending the most wonderful birthday party for a very bright, incredibly smart 3-year old, I met a woman from Uruguay who took the time to read my 2012 prediction as written by a well-known Argentinian spiritualist (yes, it does seem like a strange confluence forming at a most usual time, but hey, I’m going with the flow…). In the prediction – as translated from Argentinian Spanish into English – it was foretold that the coming year would be full of change – all good, despite how one views it – and that success is at my fingertips, assuming I know how to apply myself and take advantage of such favorable circumstances when they are in front of me. Hearing this got me thinking, wondering at the nature of such declarations – do these sort of convergences of people, ideas, desires, needs, wants, alignments happen for a reason beyond our immediate understanding or do they simply occur as part of the normal circle of life, like death and taxes? I consciously chose to believe that it all occurs not by happenstance, but that I came to Kauai for a reason, not just some R & R, but for something beyond my present comprehension. Something as yet to reveal its true nature or intent…

I guess at this point I need to tie this MWMB into my subject matter, figure out what Balancing Change and MY Inner Zen are to me at this juncture in my life. I think I have an idea (though just a mere inkling), and I think that the impending transition will be good. The challenge will come from how to maintain the foundation of what I’ve spent time and effort building and nurturing, and how I can take all that I’ve built – and the extent of what I’ve learned – into the next chapter of my life. NOW we’re getting into the cerebral and existential aspects of profound thoughts and higher consciousness! But I don’t really want to go there…I want to merely express that we can all accept change – regardless or positive or negative connotation – and in some capacity embrace the zen, the peace, the calm excitement and expectation that comes from the hope of what’s to come from the change. I also want to touch briefly upon how we ALL can accept and embrace change – all forms of metamorphosis, whether viewed as good or bad (and trust me, last year showed me the very bad, but afforded me the good that came from it) and how a shift of perspective – that slide into a personal state of zen can help you through the teansformative phase that accompanies the change itself. Sometimes, it can be a bumpy road to walk; other times, it can be smooth sailing all the way through. Regardless of the terrain, it’s YOUR path to take to find that inner zen and discover what it is that provides you comfort and peace in the face of transition, instability, and a future that cannot be determined or written in stone. Or predicted by Argentinian spiritualists.

I’m at a point today – in this very moment as I write this MWMB – that I need to seek some additional inner zen, where I contemplate further changes – or the changes I’m already aware of – and set forth plans to walk my path toward the life and existence I desire. I need to sit in the sun on Anini Beach, soak up the gorgeous rays of vitamin D while the ocean breeze gently tickles my skin, cooling me off, reminding me that such experiences are true moments of zen. I think there’s a bloody Mary or a glass of wine in that picture somewhere – I’m certain of it. Perhaps that’s the true zen of the day. Perfect, picturesque, and an enlightened state of being in so many delicious, exceptional ways. Aloha!

Speaking of ReDo, and seeing how I’m on vacation, I thought I’d write an easy blog this week, highlighting some of the past postings from 2011 that got a lot of reader comments and feedback – assuming that because of such, people found these blogs engaging enough to write in and share a thought, idea, or feedback about the subject matter. I make it a point to answer each and every query that comes my way, so I always welcome reader’s comments, feedback, suggestions and ideas – and yes, critiques as well. Without areas of opportunity, I can’t improve my writing style or skill, or create subject matters important and pertinent to ReDo and you, the reader. So bring your ideas – good or bad – to the table and I’ll do my best to work with what you have. The end result will be something truly unique, fun, and creative. But above all, it’ll be something collaborative, and working together is the best kind of participation.

My first selection, in no particular order, comes from last January, a blog entitled I’m Plum Crazy! And You Will Be Too! This was all about the color plum and it’s various shades, being used in clothing, design, decor and other areas of fashion and interior design. I love a good color story – whether it’s telling a cohesive tale in a home or room through color tones and decor, or a tall tale about finding the right color for your home or office space. Color is the best, fastest way to change the feel of a room, and bold accents, like plum, make a powerful, punchy statement.

Another readers choice for comments came from my Mid-Week Mini-Blog MWMB: Sale-ing Away! Hop On Board!, where I talked about finding some of the amazing sales online and in stores around Memorial Day. As I said at the time, Memorial Day weekend is the kick off to Summer, and it’s a perfect opportunity to start sprucing up your back yard, patio, or other outdoor space by hitting those lucrative Memorial Day Weekend sales. It’s usually a good time of year for mid-year bargains – not quite half a year past the holidays, but just long enough to get some great deals on all kinds of household items, from indoor and outdoor furniture and a tax free incentive if you’re in Chicago. You gotta admit, we all love a great sale, and this is one of the best times for amazing bargains.

2011 was a challenging year for me on many levels, both professionally and personally. Having gone through a tough break up, I wound up taking nearly 3 months off from writing my blog, and in effect, abandoning my readership as I tried to deal with my personal issues and make sense of all the difficulties I was going through. I wound up reintroducing my blog to my readers with ReDo ReDux: ReClaiming Your Muse, an apology for having not following my own advice and pushing through the hard times, maintaining focus on the task at hand and keeping my eye on the brass ring. Being human, I was caught up in my own strife and in the end, I lost track of what I was doing. But I was able to find my path again, regaining my sense of direction and my muse. This blog was one of my hardest, and favorite, and had a lot of comments and support from many readers.

Another great blog that garnered a lot of comments was All The Trimmings – and Trappings – of Holiday Decor, a posting about NOT getting caught up in all the holiday hubbub that comes with the season. In a nut shell, it was about how anyone can get the best look out of their existing decor without adding too much more to it. It was also about how to avoid making it overdone, overly busy and stuffy, or an overly committed look that poses more of a challenge when its time to take down all the various trappings and store them away for another year. Christmas decor has a fine line between grand and gaudy – a juggling act to get the look and feel you want without grossly overdoing it. It’s also about going through your decorations and weeding out the ones you no longer want. Many of you chimed in with your color schemes, ideas and last minute tips and this truly was an engaging entry for 2011.

This is but a small sampling of some of the more interactive ReDo blogs of last year. If you have one in particular that you enjoyed, let me know what it is and I’ll be sure to include it in a future Reader’s Picks ReCap for the year. Who knows, maybe your favortie will inspire me to come up with a great subject matter and write a cool blog about what you loved most from past postings. So stick around, and let me know what you think – there’s nothing better than collaborating on great ideas! Mahalo!

As with any organization project, be sure you have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish. Here, it’s packing efficiently for your trip, limiting the amount of wants versus needs, and not going over the weight limit and accruing any additional fees or charges from the airlines. What I’m doing to ensure a successful bag packed with ll I need and those few extra wants is simple and streamlined: I start by taking all the clothes and accessories I want to wear and lay them on the dining room table or bed. Once I have everything in front of me, organized by type (shorts, shirts – t-shirts, long sleeve and short sleeve, polo and button up – jeans and slacks/pants, shoes, belts, etc.), I narrow the items down to what main accessory color I want to use, i.e., brown or black for shoes and belts. By selecting just one I limit the choice of outfits and looks and force myself to work with fewer items but still achieve the look and style I want. Then, I compare my tops to my bottoms, seeing if I can get different looks out of one top and several bottoms, or the reverse and, if so, limit the garment choices even further. This will reduce the amount of unnecessary pieces I pack and help keep the weight restrictions in check. Finally, I limit the accessories to just those in the same color family as the shoes and belts, so black watches, black leather and cloth belts, and that is about it. When all the outfits are decide upon, I take a picture of each one so I know hat it was I had in mind when I was going through the pairing process and can easily choose the outfit once I’m at my destination without any thought or wonder as to what I’m going to wear that day. Once that’s done it’s just a matter of packing underwear, socks and toiletries, which are simple enough as they’re items I use every day.

The final thing I do is use one of my folding boards to fold everything the same size and shape so I can fit them in the luggage more easily – it’s like playing tetras and it’s amazing how much I can get in a suitcase when nearly every item is approximately the same size and/or shape. I’m nearly complete with my packing for my trip – I leave in a day and I have just one more purge of the extra and unnecessary items. Once that’s done I’ll be all set, and under that 50 pound weight limit. Luckily, because I’m going someplace warm and tropical, I have a little extra leeway with my clothes as I can pack more summer items since they weigh less per garment. No boots or heavy coats, winter jeans or sweaters – shorts, flip flops, t-shirts and a few extra goodies for a night on the town, a dinner with friends and family, or a special luau on a windy beach at sunset. Regardless of your trip, be smart and remember your needs versus your wants, limit your accessories to a single color item (brown vs black) and pair up items that can be worn multiple times. You’ll find that packing for any trip will be easy and quick, and best of all, organized. Happy travels, and I’ll see you next from Hawaii!

First on my list – and believe me, my list is extensive – is a project I started and never finished…well, I didn’t complete it to my satisfaction. And it annoys me every time I look at it… it’s my bathroom wall that I painted and blogged about last October. If you follow the link you’ll see the project wall in mid-completion. The problem I’m facing is that the stripe lines aren’t exactly straight enough for my discerning eye – and to add personal insult to injury, there’s just a tad bit of paint bleeding: the brown on the white and the yellow on the brown. This little annoyance came from an idea I had, thinking I was being oh-so-very-clever; I was seeing if I could use my frog tape more than once when striping out the lines for this and several other painting projects in my loft. Well, now I know that you really CAN’T reuse painters tape after one use…it loses some of it’s adherence and allows more opportunity for the nasty paint bleed. Ugh. But, as I said above, I had nothing to lose by trying and everything to gain by the experience. I now know, DEFINITIVELY, that I cannot reuse painters tape and it’s best to use fresh tape with each painting project. Sure, it’s going to cost me some elbow grease and sweat equity, but I have increased my knowledge base on this and am a subject matter expert when it comes to frog tape! LOL!

Next on my list – oh, you’ll roll your eyes at this one – is to finally, assuredly, convincingly, decisively, inescapably, irrevocably, lastly, once and for all, and beyond any doubt FINISH MY CLOSET!!! Yes, yes, yes… I’m shaking my head in frustration as well. And shame. I’m sure you’re shaking your head, too. But come on, it’s an important room in the house – one of the most crucial spaces in a home. Think about it for just a moment: this is the room that houses all your clothes, what you wear every day – and for some of us, at least twice a day. This is the repository of outfits, gear and accoutrement we access regularly, putting together that certain look, that feeling of self assurance and affirmation. This is one of the key elements in a home organization structure. And after all the bloody blogs I’ve written about it (here…and here), it still isn’t up to snuff for me and my needs. Now some of this might be from the fact I have too many clothes and accessories, or it could be that I’m simply not using the space to it’s best configuration. But the point is simply this: it’s not working as well as it should be and I need to fix the problem so it does work for me. Here again, learning from my mistakes I’m gaining valuable experience in spacial relations, room and area footprints, organizational challenges, and, well, more blogging opportunities (with the sincerest hope that you learn from my mistakes). So yes, back in the closet I go in 2012… no pun intended.

Up next on my endless list of TO-DO’s for the new year is to work on my bathroom, specifically, adding a decorative mosaic tile to the wall between the tub and shower stall. Again, when I blogged about ReDoing this space, I was looking for easy, quick home projects to do that would stamp my make on the new loft space, making it feel more mine and more of my style. The chocolate brown paint I applied and the shelf I installed were just that: a quick fix for a great look, but a temporary solution until the real answer was made clear. I’d always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to do this, to put up a beautiful glass tile mosaic in that space, but the only things holding me back were time and effort. And, as you know, time is a luxury I simply don’t have. So, as the saying goes, “it takes time to make time”, and I intend to make the time for this great DIY tile project this year, and sooner rather than later. All it takes is the drive and motivation (CHECK!), the time (I am committed to making the time, so CHECK!),the help of good friends (you know who you are! CHECK!), and the supplies (well, not CHECK as I need to sort out what aesthetic look I want for the space). Once all these elements come into play, I shall create the most fantastic, fabulous and gorgeous mosaic bathroom wall the know universe will ever see! Or a close facsimile and approximation of…

On that note, the next project on my list – and yes, it, too, involves a time commitment (see above for my dedication of this concept… foreign and strange as it seems right now in this maelstrom of NO TIME available for anything…) – is to apply a tiled backsplash in the kitchen. Again, in the theme of the bathroom wall, I want to make the entire loft space have a cohesive feeling, so coming up with a look in both spaces that will be identical, similar, and complimentary, requires some time and research, along with the consideration of making two separate rooms feel like part of the same look in a large loft area. This means that when I start the bathroom tiling project that I must consider the kitchen project as well, being sure that what I choose to do in one room can and will carry over into the other. The last thing I want is to create two spaces that feel discordant or disconnected to the whole aesthetic of my modern loft feel. I simply can’t slap up some tile in the bathroom and call it a day, only to find that the look doesn’t work so well in the kitchen – then I’m in a bit of a conundrum as to how to resolve the matter after the fact. Careful planning for both spaces will save me time and hassle for potentially having to correct a design flaw or style mistake. “Measure twice, cut once!” I’ve always said!

To round off this DIY posting, one more project I want to tackle in the new year is lighting in the kitchen, specifically, puck lights and a work light over the sink. I have adequate lighting throughout the loft, but the kitchen can always do with some more spots and bling to add to the existing lighting structure. Work lights and under counter pucks not only provide better work surface exposure but add a degree of mood lighting and ambiance to the open space. It’s really cozy to sit in my living room – part of an open floor plan that incorporates the kitchen and dining spaces – and have a soft glow of warmth enveloping me from behind, sort of like a blanket of effusive atmosphere surrounding all the open rooms. I really think lighting is key to a space, and secondary lighting such as under-mounted cabinet pucks and over-the-sink work lights create the exact mood and feel for your home. Though primary lighting – like direct overhead lights – serve a wonderful purpose, they also can be very harsh and ‘omnipresent’ in a room, open plan or not. Secondary lighting, including table and floor lamps, tone down the mood and provide a soothing, calm, moody approach to the aesthetic of your decor.

So there you have it. As 2012 ramps up so will I with my DIY projects – adding value and appreciation to my loft living space. What are some of your projects for the new year? How will they improve your current space and add substance to your decor? Feel free to share them with me and the ReDo Readers here; let’s all take hold of the new year with projects that will valuate our homes and enhance our lives. So go on, get out there and do it! Or rather, Do It Yourself!