Happy New Year from all of us at Design Public! Please have fun, be safe, and cheers to a happy and healthy 2011 to all of you!

Are you hostessing tonight and need a little help with your mixology? Check out The Cocktail Guru for some great martini recipes.

image by flickr member Atypical Type A

So, what are you New Year’s Resolutions around the house this year? I’m sure I’ll start off all motivated and purge a bunch of stuff, make a few Salvation Army runs, clean some baseboards, get started on organizing my tax info, then run out of steam and put it off until next year. Is that how it usually goes for you? If not, how do you stay motivated? Do you have a reward system? Is your newly feng shui’ed space and extra room in the closet reward enough? Do you have bigger goals around the house?

Here are some ideas I have for staying motivated when I run out of inspiration:

1) Take another class online with Abby Garvey.

2) Re-read Unclutter Your Life in One Week by Erin Dolan (it JUST came out in Paperback this week!) For more info, click here. Oh, and you may want to give yourself a month. Erin’s a bit of a Superwoman. If you do it all in a week, go to a spa on Day 8!

3) Read blogs by big D.I.Y. peeps and get inspired by them. Flip back through Anna’s accomplishments over at Door Sixteen, or check in over at The Brick House – start way back at the beginning and take a leisurely browse. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by all of the design blog choice out there that I don’t read any of them. It’s a real treat to sit down and really catch up on one or two for an hour.

4) Find some favorite flickr groups to flip through. Some of our favorites are our own (Fresh New Spaces), sfgirlbybay, Interior Styling, and Pretty Organized. One way to find great groups on Flickr is to find a member whose work you admire, go to his or her profile page, and see what groups they belong to. This picture from Lillian Day is motivating me to change my guest room from ballerina pink to medium gray!

5) Finally, always remember not to be too hard on yourself. Just trying to get things together is a good start, and is probably better than you were doing yesterday. Give yourself some inspirational time rewards, like a hot bath, time to flip through a book, look at blogs, write your own blog.

PLEASE add your own advice in the comments section and let us know what you’re up to around the house!

iVillage put together a neat little gift guide featuring resident Hatch blogger extraordinaire, Becky! Check it out here.

Depicted:

• Harry Allen Pig Bank ($190 at Design Public)
• Normann Copenhagen Salt and Pepper Set ($44 at Design Public)
• Vitra Cork Stool ($405 at Design Public)
• City Stamp Set ($24 at Design Public)

Read More http://www.ivillage.com/cool-holiday-gifts/7-b-300634#ixzz19X7IMcNL

This is a quickie today guys, as you can tell from “Inspiration Monday” and “Organization Wednesday” faltering as of late, I’m a disorganized mess! More on how to fix that on Wednesday, hopefully! I spied this backsplash on Jetsetter.com (I love to peruse the gorgeous hotels they have on there and dream about trips that will never happen). This one’s from an apartment that was for rent in Paris:

The backsplash is made of vintage postcards. I think because everything is so slick and shiny and the cards are lined up perfectly it doesn’t look kitschy or cluttered. Love It!

Whoops, it’s Thursday. Not sure what happened there because this holiday has me VERY disorganized! However, my pal Lucas posted this on Facebook the other day and it is very tried-and-true simple advice that really works. Now I have Marilu Henner in the back of my head whenever I head from room to room. Lucas said

It’s an open secret that I have a love for Marilu Henner. Do you Marilu? I do! I do! People always ask my how my house is so tidy. It’s thanks to one of my favorite of Marilu’s tips and I have been doing this for more than 12 years now!

Lucas’s favorite Marilu tip is here. I’m of to go explore her site a little more. Who knows, there could be some real gems!

Photograph from marilu.com