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"Designer Drawers Every cloud may not have the proverbial silver lining, but any drawer in your digs can be given a luxe liner in minutes. Spread a layer of Hollywood glamour on the bottom of your nightstand drawers with cut-to-fit Filigree Frost Flocked Gift Wrap ($6.99 for a 5&amp;#039; x 30&amp;quot; roll from TheContainerStore.com).  Add waterproof pizzazz to your bathroom or kitchen with any of the fancy, funky, or vintage-looking patterns of $7.50-per-yard oilcloth from Mendels.com. And if you long for a hint of lavender in your lingerie drawer, spritz the reverse side of wallpaper or heavy gift wrap with aromatherapy water ($4.99-$5.29 at HeritageStore.com) or just give the paper a blast of your favorite cologne. Let the liners dry completely, slip them under your unmentionables, and hold in place with bits of double-sided tape.  Stock Options You don&amp;#039;t have to be a culinary genius to know that a good chicken stock contributes formidable flavor to recipes ranging from coq au vin to chestnut stuffing. Not only does this time-honored staple warm you up and assist in the treatment of the common cold, using it in place of butter or oil in mashed potatoes or stir-fries can keep you slim and trim, and your arteries clear. Concocting a batch of this lovely elixir actually takes very little attention and involves minimal effort. This is our favorite chicken stock recipe.  When the final product has been skimmed of fat and cooled, freeze some in an ice cube tray and store the removed cubes in a zip-top bag. Or freeze pints and quarts in plastic containers that can be thawed in the microwave when needed to add that homemade touch to future feasts. If you can&amp;#039;t find the proper pot for your bird, check out the 8-qt. T-Fal stock pot for $39.99 at Boscovs.com. Making Time If you find yourself counting the minutes until you can go outside and play, here&amp;#039;s a way to make the wait easier to bear. For this project, any inexpensive battery-operated clock will do. Visit your local discount, home, or office supply store if you don&amp;#039;t already own an appropriate candidate. Turn the timepiece over and remove the works \u2014 this usually requires a slight downward push on three plastic &amp;quot;L&amp;quot; connectors. Once you&amp;#039;ve extricated the innards, remove the hands from the front by gently pulling them straight up from the shaft. If your clock has a top screw holding the hands in place, remove this first.  Trace the face onto the back of a piece of gift wrap or any decorative paper (visit PaperStudio.com for a host of handsome possibilities), and trim a barely smaller circle from the paper. Find the center of the circle by cutting a same-size round from scrap paper, fold the scrap circle into fours, and open the folded piece. The spot where the folds intersect is the middle of the circle. Place the scrap round on top of the decorative paper, use a pin pushed through both layers to mark the center of the bottom circle, and enlarge the pinhole by slowly pushing a pencil through it from the front of the paper to the back. Trim any ragged edges from the back of the paper, and slip the new clock face over the shaft to make sure that it fits before gluing it on top of the existing face with a glue stick or spray adhesive. Replace the hands, fit the works back inside the clock, hang your new beauty on the wall, and feel free to hum a few self-satisfied bars from &amp;quot;As Time Goes By.&amp;quot; Right on the Button Now that you&amp;#039;re indoors and away from prying eyes, execute a genius little fake-out that tailors have been performing for years. Even the most bargain-basement coat, dress, blouse, or cardigan can go instantly upscale by substituting great-looking new buttons for lackluster ones. To pull off the switcheroo, measure the existing fasteners before looking for updates (don&amp;#039;t forget smaller sleeve or neck buttons on coats and blazers) or take the originals with you if you&amp;#039;re not shopping online. eBay is a fabulous source for vintage possibilities, AsCuteAsAButton.com has hundreds of options, and if you&amp;#039;re lucky enough to be in NYC, visit the Mecca of all Button-dom, Tender Buttons. No matter where you find your updates, be sure to attach them properly.  Start with a double-length of thread knotted twice at the end. Use sturdier &amp;quot;coat&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;button&amp;quot; thread for outerwear. Place the new button over the site of the original and, working from the inside of the garment outward, slip the needle up through one of the button&amp;#039;s holes. Before pushing the needle down through the opposite hole, place a matchstick or toothpick between the button and the front of the garment to create a bit of slack in the threads. Push the needle down through the second hole, pull it through the fabric, and make sure that the thread is snug before repeating this process six or seven more times, finally knotting the thread on the inside and removing the toothpick or matchstick. To make certain that coat buttons are firmly attached, remove the toothpick or matchstick, slip the needle through the last hole, but not through the fabric, and wrap the thread 3 or 4 times around the sewn threads beneath the button before pushing the needle through the fabric and knotting it on the inside. Shank buttons don&amp;#039;t require a toothpick buffer, and 4-hole buttons just need a repeat of the process above to complete.  Hair, Hair! I have many treasured recollections of my grandmother Hattie, but the sight of her rinsing her graying but still remarkably shiny, long hair in rainwater on the front porch of her Virginia farmhouse is one that I treasure for its practical lesson as well as its sentiment. Hattie knew what she was doing when she placed basins and pails about the yard to catch rainwater during a storm. That heavenly fallout is naturally soft, which means that it doesn&amp;#039;t contain the minerals in groundwater that tend to dull and flatten hair. So next time you see a line of dark clouds on the horizon, gather up an assortment of pots, pans, or buckets and head out back. Those precious drops constitute one of Nature&amp;#039;s most effective and cost-free beauty treatments. Fashion Plates  Next time cloudy weather has you climbing the walls, step back and take a look at what amounts to an empty canvas. Then think about your mismatched china and unpristine platters that you thought were destined to become yard-sale fodder. Why not grant the misfits a reprieve by dishing them up as a snappy wall-art display? HooksandHangers.com offers hardware that will help you hang all of your castoffs right down to the cups and saucers. And don&amp;#039;t limit yourself to straight-arrow alignments. Think about presenting your plates in an oval, a rectangle, or even a free-form wave. Don&amp;#039;t forget to check the basement, attic, and garage for hangables. And the beauty of these babies is that they can be updated, rearranged, or tossed in a flash, which should leave you plenty of time for the rest of your rainy-day projects. Freshly Framed Are the pictures from last summer&amp;#039;s beach trip still tucked in the envelope they occupied when you picked them up at the drugstore? Even if you&amp;#039;re conscientious about keeping your photo exhibits up to date, a gray day is the perfect time to freshen frames as well as their contents. To give wooden frames contemporary panache, apply metallic spray paint (12 oz. cans of various glossy and dull finishes of Krylon sprays are $3.92 at GlobalIndustrial.com). Scraps of gift wrap or wallpaper are equally suitable frame spiffer-uppers. Not up for a DIY project? The $11.49 Glass Damask Frames at GiveSimple.com are dazzlers. And as long as you&amp;#039;re in a &amp;quot;thanks for the memories&amp;quot; mood, why not grab the camera and snap some truly up-to-the-minute images that will be ready to be framed on the next rainy day? Please Be Seated We all have them. Sorry little seats that have been stashed in the basement because they&amp;#039;ve seen better days. Well, now&amp;#039;s the time to give a chewed-up chair a new lease on life. Flip that puppy over and remove the screws that hold the seat bottom in place. Give the body of the chair a thorough swipe with medium-grit sandpaper, wipe with a damp cloth, and when dry, apply a couple coats of glossy acrylic enamel. While the paint dries, give the seat cushion a fabric update. Hit your own fabric scrap pile for possibilities first, but if nothing there suits your fancy or accommodates size-wise, visit FashionFabricsClub.com for contemporary choices, ReproDepot.com for new versions of old classics, or search for actual vintage yardage on eBay. Cut your final cloth selection six inches wider than the seat on all sides and, with a staple gun, attach the fabric in the middle of one side of the seat back. Pull the fabric tight across the cushion and staple in place on the opposite side of the seat back. Continue in this fashion, working at 2-inch intervals on alternating sides until you&amp;#039;ve attached the fabric evenly and snugly all round, making sure that the corners are neatly folded. Trim excess cloth from the seat bottom, reposition the cushion on the dry chair, replace the original screws, and sit on it! Tea Time If anyone should know how to take the chill off a damp day, it&amp;#039;s an Englishman. The Brits have been brewing cozy cuppas for centuries, so it&amp;#039;s not surprising that experts at the Royal Society of Chemistry came up with a formula for the perfect brew. Here&amp;#039;s how the big boys break it down. Begin with cold, and preferably filtered, water. Use a clean ceramic teapot and cup (check out the &amp;quot;Tea for Ones&amp;quot; cup and pot sets at ShopStashTea.com) and fill the pot with hot tap water to warm it. U.K. connoisseurs insist that an electric kettle is the way to bring your water to a boil, but a pan or kettle on the stove is fine as long as the water is brought to a full boil \u2014 the oxygen in the bubbles is supposedly a key to positive results. Just before the water reaches a boil, pour out the hot tap water from the teapot, add 1 teaspoon of loose tea per cup being prepared (Assam was the chemists&amp;#039; favorite variety), add an extra teaspoon &amp;quot;for the pot&amp;quot; if desired, and just as it begins to boil, carefully pour the water over the leaves. Allow the tea to stand for 3-5 minutes, give it a single stir, and pour through a fine-mesh strainer into your cup. If you&amp;#039;re a milk fan, it should go into your cup before the tea, and sugar can be added thereafter. If you go for more delicate green or white teas, remove the water from the heat just before it boils and let the tea steep for 1-2 minutes. If you simply can&amp;#039;t forgo using a teabag, choose an English brand \u2014 they hold more than our U.S. dippers and allow for better water circulation. And never squeeze a teabag into your cup to remove its last few drops \u2014 all you&amp;#039;re doing is adding bitter tannins to your otherwise blissful brew. Tea-picking is easy at EnglishTeaStore.com, where you&amp;#039;ll also find scone mixes and clotted cream. Pip-pip, cheerio, and pass the marmalade. Wait a Minute, Mr. Postman If the last time you sent a greeting via the U.S. Postal Service was when you mailed last year&amp;#039;s tax return, you might consider giving snail mail another chance. Yes, the convenience and immediacy of e-mail are among the most wonderful assets of our techno-age, but what if John and Abigail Adams had zapped each other IMs instead of using quill pen and ink to write years of eloquent epistles? Admit it, there&amp;#039;s something sparky about seeing a handwritten return address amid the jumble of bills and junk mail. And which of us hasn&amp;#039;t held onto an old love letter or two? So grab a pen or pencil and let someone you care about know what&amp;#039;s up on your end, ask for reciprocal news, or just scribble &amp;quot;thinking of you&amp;quot; on a postcard. You don&amp;#039;t have to worry about having a suitable stationery stash. Create custom writing material by printing a scaled-down snapshot at the top of a sheet of inkjet paper, glue a pair of lips that you&amp;#039;ve trimmed from a magazine to the upper corner of a blank card, or just march a line of the kids&amp;#039; stickers across a page. Anything goes. If you find yourself short on raw material, Target&amp;#039;s multicolored blank note cards with envelopes are only $9.99 for 50 (Target.com), and QPFans.com offers the most extraordinary panoply of retro, tasteful, and downright wacky postcards for 85 cents each, as well as note card versions of the same for about $2 each. Visit USPS.com, where you can decide between Marvel Comic Super Hero, Beautiful Bloom, American Scientist, or an Art of Disney Magic stamp to get your missive to its destination. You never know, you may just get a lovely letter in return \u2014 one that you can tuck away and reread years from now. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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