Painting Hint Planning to paint several rooms? Be sure to cover doorknobs or other metal hardware with a thick coating of petroleum jelly or plastic wrap and tape before you begin. If there are any drips, just wipe away!

Marshmallows Gotten Hard? To prevent this, store marshmallows in a resealable plastic bag or jar and make sure that you close it tightly, so no air can get in, after every time you open it.

Family Photo Arrangement

Here's an idea to add a little charm to a wall of family photos. If you have small children, save their first drawings of your family, have them framed, and add them to the family photo wall. You can even add their self-portraits, which are fairly common art projects at most pre-schools. For a fun arrangement, place these self-portraits along side a photograph of your child at the same age.

- Peggy Clements

Moving To A New Home? To stay in touch with friends and relatives, take a picture of your new house, paste it on a sheet of paper, type or write the new address and phone number at the bottom, and make photocopies to send to everyone. They will have the opportunity to actually see your new digs. Of course, you can also e-mail the picture and info too.

Need To Borrow A Cup Of Sugar?

If you have good neighbors, you probably swap ingredients from time to time. However, if your neighbors don't come through, here are a few web pages that can save you a trip to the grocery. Better Homes and Gardens site has a page for baking ingredient substitutes, and spice and herb substitutes. For instance, in place of that cup of granulated sugar, you can usually substitute a cup of packed brown sugar and get acceptable results. This list of substitutions might be worth printing and posting inside the door of your spice cabinet.

Click here for the article 'Emergency Ingredient Substitutes.' www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jht...&catref=S3

- Peggy Clements

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2002