TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1) From My Desktop: A New Year, A New Look
2) Creative Workshop: Free Yourself From Stuff: Give Yourself the Gift of Space
3) About “The Home Dec Lady"
45) Legal Stuff


Although it is hard to believe, another year has come and gone. New years bring new beginnings and resolutions.

As many of you faithful visitors may know, last year brought big changes to the look and feel of my home dec site. After months of totally redoing the site, I was really burned out. It's been several months now that I have been really neglectful about adding new pages and other content.

Now after a vacation and some time spent away from this site, I'm ready to get back on track and keep adding more content and value for my faithful readers.

I've also decided to start a blog in order to keep my interest up and give me some variety in my daily work schedule. The topic of this blog is vacationing with the family and the url is Best Family Travel Tips . If you have an interest in this topic, stop by for a visit and leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you.

So there you have it, a new resolution and a new beginning. How about you? What are you doing (besides vowing to lose weight) to change your life for the better or to make life more interesting in the coming year? If you haven't done anything in this area, give it a thought. Even small changes oftentimes can make one's life more interesting. Give yourself the gift of something to look forward to each day.

Your Friendly Neighborhood (even if I am half way around the world!) Home Dec Lady,
Gloria

Creative Workshop:Free Yourself From Stuff:Give Yourself the Gift of Space

Now that a new year has come around, it's time to look at your home with new eyes. I don't know about you, but when I take my Christmas tree down, my living room seems to be totally alien. Things are out of place, there seems to be much more space, and for a short while I am totally disoriented. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes this is just the prod we need to realize things don't always have to be the same.

Often times our homes seem stale and we don't know what the problem is or what to do about it. If we take time to look around and think about it, it could be because of our pack rat nature. We often keep accumulating things around us without realizing that we are crowding ourselves right out of our living space.

Take the example of the Christmas tree. We often need to remove accessories or furniture just to find space to put the tree. When we take it down, we are surprised by the openness of the room.

The new openness gives us room to breathe and also room for energy (chi) to flow. Do you take time to notice and enjoy this openness or do you immediately fill up the space with more stuff?

Think about the freedom you would have with less things in the room: freedom to move about easily, freedom from dusting and cleaning things, freedom from stress and worrying about possessions.

Use the same thinking with end tables. Do you have one at each end of the sofa? Do you use both of them or are you always sitting at the same end of the sofa using only one table. Could you use it with the recliner in another room?

Look around a room you would like to revitalize. Remove one item, even if it only a small accessory. Live without this for a while. Did you miss it? Then remove something else and live without it for a while.

Repeat this exercise until you have some room to move and breathe in. Do you find a peace and serenity you didn't have before this experience? Do you enjoy having more space and freedom?

As an aside--If you are planning on selling your house, you will find this exercise to be invaluable. As any real estate agent will tell you, less is more: more interest from the buyers, more offers and a quicker sale.