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Here are the latest month's daily tips from Right at Home Daily.
 May is the perfect time to picnic outdoors on your patio or in your backyard. You can pack up food and dine outdoors, or perhaps grill or smoke your meal outside.
If you have high ceilings, you can make any room seem cozier by adding beams, coffers or planks to the ceilings. Also, add crown moldings and generous trim around doors and windows to give the space an intimate feeling.
Slipcover an old sofa in an animal motif, or add throw pillows in animal print fabrics and a shaggy fake fur rug.
Host a Mother's Day lunch or brunch for your mother, aunts and the other favorite women in your life. Ask each to write something special about their mother or grandmother(s) and bring along photographs. You'll toast one another.
Check your driveway for wear and tear. Snow plows, blowers and the cold are tough on asphalt and may have caused it to crack over the winter. If your driveway looks worn, consider resurfacing it this spring.
Buy a new bicycle or peruse ads in the newspaper for a pre-owned bike. Biking is a great family activity, even if you only ride in the neighborhood. Or, consider a longer trek to a special park or historic site.
Put chairs on casters to prevent scratching the floors. Swivel chairs allow guests to swing around to talk to other guests. Lightweight ottomans also work well.
Replace wood staircase spindles with wrought iron ones to add old world charm.
Buy a new phone with caller ID to be more productive if you work from home, so you don't interrupt your workday with social calls. It also can be a way to avoid telemarketers at dinnertime.
Use a stairway landing as a small, cozy getaway space. Build a window seat or install a love seat and built-in bookshelves.
Keep a stack of crossword puzzles in a quiet corner of your kitchen or house. Crossword puzzles are a great way to increase your vocabulary.
Buy one piece of exercise equipment and create a space where you'll use it regularly. Be sure you have access to a TV or music to keep you motivated.
Scrub and repaint your outdoor furniture and buy new cushions. Check for sales. It will look like a new set for your new abode.
Organize your CDs, videos, cassettes, and DVDs as a part of your early spring-cleaning. To display them, purchase wood or metal stacking shelves and organize them by size, type, or alphabetically.
Don't let anything obstruct your view: Have your windows washed, inside and out. If you can't do it yourself, hire a company.
Have you ever wanted a pet? The best time to train a dog is during the summer. Set aside an area of your house where you can set up a dog crate, water and food bowls, and keep the leash.
Add mulch to your garden. Many communities offer it for free and will even deliver it. Once it's spread, you can consider what flowers and shrubbery you'll want to add to your yard. Make a list and set a budget.
Paint hallways in bold colors to liven up the rest of your house. Stick to one or two colors.
Line window curtains with yellow material to enhance the sunshine effect.
If you have a large bay window or a window with a big ledge, display funky feather and star lamps instead of odd knick-knacks.
Add a few accessories in the trendy colors for spring, orange and periwinkle blue.
To add cache to your window treatments, consider a short valance that hugs the window's frame without hiding it. There are various styles and shapes of valances from pleated ones to tailored or boxy valances or a playful swag trimmed in colorful pompons.
Plan an Oscar party in advance (in April). Create scorecards and give the winner tickets to your local movie theater. Whip up a menu based on the movies' themes.
Think spring by planning your gardening needs. Consider using faux pots that are made from fiberglass or plastic. Not only do they resemble terra cotta, lead, stone and even bronze pots, they also cost and weigh less.
Create an aquarium. You can now purchase a low-maintenance aquarium modeled on a salt-water reef that takes care of its own eco-system.
If you're planning to redo your kitchen consider a pot faucet over your stove, so you don't have to carry heavy pots of water back and forth.
To combine contemporary with traditional design in a room, cover windows on one side of the room with shades for a clean modern feeling and cover windows at the other with heavy pleated curtains in a silk fabric for a more conservative feel.
Repaint your child's bedroom. Allow your children to help select the colors. If they're under age 4, consider painting a chalkboard on the wall with Crayola chalk paint.
Organize a progressive dinner for your new friends who like to cook or your new neighbors who've never seen each other's homes and welcome them with a pretty welcome mat at the front door.
For an inexpensive way to experience luxury, buy some expensive 300 thread count pure cotton or silk sheets for your master bedroom. Give your Valentine cozy pajamas or a sexy nightgown to complement the new bedding.
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