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Teacher Appreciation Week is coming, and we here at Out of Office are grateful for the teachers we had and those who are inspiring young minds now. To that end, we’ve pulled together some of our favorite projects for teacher appreciation gifts. We hope one of these ideas will be the perfect fit to honor your child’s special teacher for a year of fun and learning. And keep a look out for another great project coming your way next week from guest blogger Patricia! ...read more

There’s nothing worse than losing track of your drink at a party. It happens to me all the time, especially at family gatherings where everyone is milling about and engrossed in conversation. There’s the tried and true permanent marker method, where everyone writes their names or initials on their cup, but let’s be honest – it doesn’t look very polished and sometimes if you don’t have the right kind of marker it rubs right off.

It’s May, which means we’re officially in “National Moving Month” – a nod to the start of the “moving season” in the U.S. when approximately 35 million Americans pack it all up and move cross-town or even cross-country. Bet you didn’t even know there was a National Moving Month!

The last time I moved, we hired movers to help us pack up and get everything to the new house. It was nice, for sure, but every move before that was a total DIY project. The packing process usually began with driving all over town to beg grocery stores for their empty produce boxes. I thought I was getting a great deal, until the already-worn boxes collapsed on me mid-move. Since then, I’ve learned that it’s much better to invest in some quality, sturdy boxes to tote around your valuables. ...read more

My passion for cooking has been passed down for generations. My grandmother would always greet me with a warm baked pie or vegetables picked from her garden. I especially enjoy making recipes from scratch with fresh ingredients, but I often have more leftovers than I can eat in a week. I learned the value of freezing extra food early on and I can’t tell you how great it is to come home after a long work day to a homemade meal.

I recently learned interesting freezing food tips from an article in The New York Times, “Freeze That Thought.” Here are highlights from the article that may you enjoy, too:

When a birthday or holiday comes around, I like to show friends and family how much they mean to me by making gifts based on their personal taste. I make everything from customized jewelry and baked goods to quilts and handmade card sets for birthdays, weddings or holidays. For Christmas this year, I made a photo book for my parents with all the memories we shared in 2010.

Guest Blogger Stephanie Buttrill is a vice president at Ketchum, the public relations agency for FedEx Office. Like many New Yorkers, Stephanie is a long-term apartment dweller. With such limited space – and very few cabinets – organization is a must!

My husband and I bought our first apartment together almost three years ago. We were young(er) and starry eyed about the whole thing – like many young couples are when diving into the real estate market. Looking back on it now, there are so many things we didn’t notice about the home we settled into that make us batty now. Most of these happen to be in the kitchen…

Take, for example, the fact that none of our kitchen cabinet doors match.

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I love getting lost in the fresh, crisp pages of a brand new book. I’ve worked over the last several years to build a nice library of special hardcover books, and wanted them to have special designation showing how I acquired them – whether they came as a gift from a friend or relative, or I found them in a unique bookstore or on a trip somewhere. So, I decided the best way to add that special information was to label the inside cover. I was hesitant to insert my scribbly, scrawling handwriting with a permanent pen and decided instead to make stickers that have my name and left just a simple line where I could write in the date that I either got the book or read it, and a line for another special notation. As a bonus, if I ever loan the books out, the borrower always knows where to return them – perfect for book clubs! ...read more