Strange & Charmed

How to Stand Out at Work: Make your Boss’ Priorities Your Priorities

With half of the work year behind us and mid year performance reviews to look forward to shortly, now is the perfect time to discuss how to stand out at work. Whether you are hoping for a raise or a promotion in the upcoming year, learning to stand out from your coworkers is an important step to bigger and better things in your professional life. How to Stand Out at Work will be a 5 week series where we discuss different ways to improve your image to set yourself up for success.

Make your boss’ priorities your priorities

One very common gripe that workers often have is that they work so hard and yet their boss does not seem to acknowledge everything they are doing. Perhaps you have taken on some extra work or been working overtime on certain projects, but still no acknowledgement from your boss to let you know your extra efforts are appreciated. This issue may be caused from the fact that your extra work isn’t exactly helping your boss and his priorities. It may be helping you, or other team members, or just be work that needed to get done as part of your job, but unless your boss feels like your efforts are helping them specifically, they aren’t likely to bend over backwards to applaud your efforts.

It is a very strange fact, one that took me a long time to realize, but all your work does not necessarily align with your boss and his priorities. We all have a multitude of tasks and projects that we perform each day and taken on at certain times, but that is just part of our jobs. For most of us, our boss is at a higher level, perhaps overseeing dozens of people who each do a multitude of tasks each day, so its hard for them to be impressed with one particular employee and the minutiae of their tasks. But what a boss will be impressed with is an employee whose work is directly impacting the progress of certain larger goals that are the responsibility of their manager.

For example, in sales, it may be your job to sell new products or services to your customer, grow their business, close distribution gaps, etc. That could be your day-to-day function as a sales person. Your boss, however, may be focused against finding new business and clients in order to grow his overall business, especially during times when the economy is stagnant and existing customers aren’t growing at a sufficient rate. So, you could be working very hard doing your job, making small wins at the customer level, but if your coworker with the same job is winning new accounts left and right, expect them to be the one getting attention from your boss.

With everything in business, it’s about what you can do for others. Your boss may not expect you to be executing against his particular set of priorities, but you can bet that they are going to be very appreciative to the employees that end up progressing their plans and goals for the year. So, if you want to stand out to your boss and position yourself as a hard-working member of your team, you need to get with your boss and figure out his priorities. You may already know what he is focused against, but perhaps haven’t paid attention to it because you have your own work to do. Either way, you need to align with your boss on what they are trying to achieve and make it happen for them. Only good things will follow!

Read the rest of this series by clicking a link below!

Developing a Consistently Professional Demeanor

Volunteer for More Work or New Projects

Mentor Others

Give Praise to Others

Career lifestyle

Why I haven’t Changed My Last Name

I know I rarely discuss personal topics here on Strange & Charmed, but I have really been wanting to talk to you, the internet and my readers, about a subject that has given me a little bit of grief over the past year. You probably don’t know many specifics of my life unless you are a friend of mine in real life or follow me on a few different social media feeds, but last November I got married and since then I have yet to change my last name to match my husbands. It wasn’t something I intended not to do, but the whole situation started out of necessity for me and has now turned into something else entirely. Let me tell you the story.

So, after I returned from my honeymoon at the end of November 2012, I was immediately informed that I had been given a promotion to a job I had applied and interviewed for a few months earlier. Initially, I was worried that if I changed my name right when I accepted my new position, that people within my company and clients that I had developed relationships with may not know who I was if they suddenly saw a new name and a different title on my email signature. So, I decided that it was best for my professional life if I kept my last name until everyone I worked with on a day-to-day basis and all my customers knew who I was and all about my new role.

Then of course, once I returned to work for a few weeks, I began to get questions from co workers and of course family members as to what my new last name was. “I don’t have a new last name,” I would respond, but their questions really bothered me. Why did people expect that a woman would just go ahead and change her name just because she got married. This is 2013 for heaven’s sake (or 2012 as the case may be!), a woman can be a single mother, have a professional career, go to space, why does she immediately have to change her name just because she got married. I was even accused by a co-worker of not being committed to my marriage because I wasn’t interested in changing my name. Seriously? I am pretty sure couples with the same last name get divorced all the time! What is with all this unnecessary pressure?

So, I started thinking about whether or not I was going to change my last name and when I would do it. I had a few friends who were also married around the same time as me and by the time they returned from their honeymoons they were already using a new surname. Why did these bright professional women want to give up their name so easily? Hadn’t they worked hard to give that name a good reputation? Wasn’t it the name that defined them for two to three decades? Once I started asking myself those questions, I found that I didn’t want to part with my last name, it was mine and I wanted to keep it!

I still get questions all the time as to when I am going to change my name as though I have been lazy and forgotten to do something very important. The truth is, I don’t know when I am going to change my name, and I still don’t know if I am going to change my name. I like my husband’s last name, it’s a nice name and I wouldn’t be opposed to taking it in theory, but I just feel like my name is me and I’m not ready to give it up. Oh, and you may be wondering what my husbands thinks about all this. At first, I think he wanted me to change my name so that we would feel more like a family, but after discussing it with him and being married for the last nine months without a name change, he says my last name doesn’t bother him. He says I can keep it or change it, whatever I want to do is okay with him.

So, what do you think? Should I change my name or should I stick with it for a while? Did you change your name when you got married or did you keep your own? Perhaps you changed your name because of a life event like the birth of a child or the purchase of a home with your spouse? Let me know what you think in the comments!

tech The Pink Mac

Look Before You Tweet & Other Unspoken Rules of Social Media

Everyone knows someone who misuses social media. Maybe you do it without even realizing it, or maybe you get annoyed when your friends use their social media feeds for purposes that clearly go beyond the intended scope of socializing and sharing information. You may think that when it comes to social media, there are no rules, but with everything social, there are of course unspoken rules and mores that dictate proper usage and behavior. Some of it is common sense, and some of it is common courtesy, but either way you need to know the rules to play the game!

Be Polite, Please!

Although our Twitter and Facebook interactions seem very informal, they still deserve a certain level of respect. Whenever you are conversing with others, no matter what the medium, be polite and use appropriate language. Now, I do understand fully and am also completely guilty of using fowl language on social media, but just remember to do it when the moment is right and not just for the heck of it. I say this because communicating with others through the internet is hard (heck, its hard in real life too!) and words are often misconstrued even when you have the best intentions. So, just try to keep it clean and as polite as possible. Remember, everything on the internet is basically public, even if you think your Facebook profile is private, your words can still get out!

Don’t Argue Online

It has taken me a long time to understand that arguing with others is a futile effort, that applies to real life scenarios and virtual interactions as well! No matter how right you think you are, everyone has a valid opinion or at least thinks they have a valid opinion, so calling people out online for their mistakes, judgements, opinions, etc is a bad idea. This even goes as far as negative comments made on websites and YouTube. Let your commentors have their opinion and respect their right to it, don’t try to pick a fight or engage others trying to pick a fight with you, it’s a lose-lose situation!

Stay Positive

One of my biggest social media pet peeves is internet complainers (yep, that is ironic)! When it comes down to it, most people do not care that your foot hurts, or your cat threw up, or you’re having a bad hair day. Its one thing to mention something negative that has happened in your life, but don’t be that person who is always using social media to complain or make negative remarks. Not only does it turn most people off, but it puts others in an uncomfortable situation. Being positive 100% of the time is probably impossible, but remember, positivity does spread and you want people on social media to associate you with positive things so they keep coming back to see what you’re up to!

Keep your Pictures PG

Unless you are running an internet porn business or are a lingerie model, there is no reason why you should be posting pictures of yourself or others that are risqué. First of all, you never know who is going to see those pictures, like employers, future customers, or your grandmother. Second, you should have enough respect for your own image online that you don’t make yourself a target for negativity or sexual provocation.

Stick to the Intended Use

With so many different social media sites popping up everyday, its easy to confuse how you should be using each different one! If you don’t happen to understand the proper use of a social media site, you should probably do a little bit of googling to figure it out. For example, Twitter is used for short, quick to the point messages and sharing information, articles, and photos with a large group of people. Most interactions on Twitter are completely public or can easily be made public, so it’s not the place to post private photos or have a lengthy or private discussion with a friend. Pinterest is a place to share ideas and inspiration in visual form, like a virtual pin board! You want to post and share information like DIY ideas or recipes, not photos of your daughters high school graduation or your family vacation. I think you understand what I am getting at here, use each social media site the way it was intended to be used and if you aren’t sure, google it!

Career

How to Stand Out at Work: Give Praise to Others

With half of the work year behind us and mid year performance reviews to look forward to shortly, now is the perfect time to discuss how to stand out at work. Whether you are hoping for a raise or a promotion in the upcoming year, learning to stand out from your coworkers is an important step to bigger and better things in your professional life. How to Stand Out at Work will be a 5 week series where we discuss different ways to improve your image to set yourself up for success.

Give Praise to Others

If you are trying to get ahead at work, it may seem counterproductive to share praise with others, especially when you are trying to stand out yourself, but it will actually help you to cultivate yourself as a leader. Don’t get me wrong, it is very important that you be seeking out ways to get praise from your superiors in order to show that you are a good worker and worthy of advancement, but being a team player means sharing the spotlight. No one wants to promote someone who is always looking out for themselves and for their own self-interest. Of course, everyone is doing those things as they are expected, but team players and leaders are more likely to advance and be seen in a positive light.

Think about it, although you may be very good at your job and getting work done and projects accomplished, you most likely needed the help and support of others to get you there, and acknowledging that is a very important thing. In the workplace, a staggering number of employees claim that they are under appreciated, you yourself may feel that same way. How would you feel about a coworker who took the time to thank you for doing your job and perhaps even went so far as to acknowledge your help and sing your praises to others? You would most likely feel indebted to that individual and perhaps be motivated to continue assisting them in the future. And that’s the magical connection! When you praise others, others want to help you and support you more!

So, I challenge you to think about the people around you at work who support you in getting your job and your tasks done. Next time you see them, make sure to thank them for what they have done for you and give them positive praise when speaking to others. You may think that if you don’t praise them in their presence they won’t hear about it, but don’t worry they will! One of the great things about praise is that it spreads like wildfire and will certainly get back to the ear of your subject! Of course, public praise is also a great way to acknowledge people, although we don’t often get many opportunities to do this. So, if you do have the opportunity to praise someone in a meeting or in a large gathering of coworkers, by all means go for it! Just don’t let the lack of a public stage for your praise stand in the way of you giving it! Even private conversations with supervisors or coworkers are great times to give praise to others and help you stand out as a leader and a team player!

Career tech The Pink Mac

Must Have Apps for Working Professionals

Now that iPhones have become an acceptable mobile device within a majority of companies, many working professionals are able to use all the benefits that the app store has to offer to help them with their daily productivity goals. From getting hard business deals signed, sealed and delivered, to making new connections and reaching out to new customers or clients, there is an app for just about any business scenario. Here is a list of some of the best apps that all professionals should have on their iPhone!

Documents to Go {$9.99}

It’s true that for most of us our professional lives revolve around the Microsoft Office Suite of Applications. Even if your company is up to speed on integrating iOS into the day-to-day workflow, you still lack the ability to view, create, and edit Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents on your iPhone or iPad. For this, Documents to Go is a must have app. It’s a bit pricey, but then again all of the MS Office integrated apps are and this one is reasonably priced without loosing any key features. Remember, you won’t have the full functionality of your desktop version of MS Office, but this is a pretty good substitute for your on the go needs!

DocScan {Free for basic use and $1.99 for Pro}

Since we still do not live in a completely electronic world, we need to find ways to deal with paper on a day to day basis. Wouldn’t it be great if you had a little, easy to use and reliable scanner you could carry around in your pocket for those times when you need to share printed documents or forms with others? Guess what, you do! Its called your iPhone and with DocScan you can turn it into that portable scanner of your dreams! I cannot tell you how many times this app has saved my butt, it is awesome for quickly snapping a scanner quality (or better) picture of a document and then sending it off via email, text, etc! It even works well with multi-page documents. Give the free version a try, and if you find you get a lot of use out of it, I recommend upgrading to the Pro version, if only to thank the developers for creating an immensely useful application!

Hootsuite {Free}

If you are a professional who needs to keep up with their social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Hootsuite is a great free app that puts all your social networks into one place. If you are constantly connecting to colleagues, potential business partners or other organizations you will certainly find Hootsuite’s scheduling feature for tweets and posts to be a major time saver! You even have access to Facebook Pages so you can manage your online business or identity from the convenience of your iPhone!

Feedly {Free}

If the death of Google Reader turned your world upside down, may I suggest another rss reader for you called Feedly. It has a nice simple interface and works the way you’d expect. Since Google Reader was shut down, Feedly has been the most popular free option to replace the service. It looks like in the last few weeks with the migration of users from Google Reader to Feedly, things have started to go a little wonky with their servers, but I expect that this will all be rectified soon. It works on iOS and also has a web app that is very handy so that you have access to your feeds on the go or in the office!

HelloFax {Free or Tiered Subscription Plan}

Okay, so this may not be an iOS app per se, but HelloFax is an online service that you can subscribe to that essentially turns your iPhone into a fax machine. Depending on your needs you can subscribe to a free or paid membership plan that gives you access to your own unique “fax number”for your phone and then you simply create emails with PDF attachments and email them to the recipient fax number with the addition of @hellofax.com in the send to field. That’s it! Your email becomes a fax machine and likewise, receives faxes as well. Its a major game changer for working professionals who hate having to track down a fax machine or pay per page to send a fax at an office supply store!

Everest {Free}

Lets say you are the type of person who sets goals for themselves but has a hard time achieving them. That sounds like most of us doesn’t it? Well, Everest is an app that addresses that issue within each of us to help us work towards achieving established goals. Whether you are trying to achieve personal or professional goals (or both!) this app can be a working gals BFF. If you have lots of priorities to juggle but find that you have a hard time seeing things through to the end, give this app a try!

Evernote {Free or Unlimited Paid Subscription}

Keeping track of notes and ideas is a major part of professional life. No matter what your career path, company or cause you are bombarded by information all day long, but you may or may not have a current method of capturing all that information so that you don’t misplace it. Evernote is one of the most popular all in one note taking apps that gives you multiple means of capture. Make lists, take a photo or snap a webpage to import information into Evernote. Once its been input, you can add tags that will help you find your information in the future and even arrange information in notebooks within the app. Pretty nifty!

Career

How to Stand Out at Work: Mentor Others

With half of the work year behind us and mid year performance reviews to look forward to shortly, now is the perfect time to discuss how to stand out at work. Whether you are hoping for a raise or a promotion in the upcoming year, learning to stand out from your coworkers is an important step to bigger and better things in your professional life. How to Stand Out at Work will be a 5 week series where we discuss different ways to improve your image to set yourself up for success.

Mentor Others

Once you’ve gotten your feet wet within your organization, a great way to stand out to both your supervisors and to your peers is through mentoring. You may think that mentoring is something for upper level management or those who have been with your organization for a long time, however, it really is never too soon to start mentoring others and there are two ways you can do this.

First would be through informal mentoring where you find a colleague at work and “take them under your wing” so to speak. You can give them information and guidance; be that single point of contact that they know they can reach out to for help; or simply be their for them by lending them your ear every now and again. Informal mentorships are like a professional friendship that stays within work and are about developing trust between colleagues. Rank within the organization doesn’t matter soo much in this relationship because its informal so you can act as a mentor to older or more seasoned colleagues as long as you have something (knowledge, ability, time) that they need from you to make the relationship work.

The second type of mentorship would be a more formal relationship in which your supervisor and perhaps even HR know that you are actively mentoring an individual. In these scenario’s it is normal for the mentor to be someone of higher rank or experience in order to make the formal relationship a beneficial one to all parties involved. Some organizations encourage experienced employees to take on mentorships as a way to help develop their own career and assist in the development of others. Generally, as long as you are not the lowest member in your organization, you can actively mentor others.

Mentoring is one of those activities that shows your supervisors and upper level management that you are willing to share your time with others and pass on your knowledge and/or skills. Both formal and informal mentorships are a great way to stand out at work because they establish you as a peer resource. Your team and your boss will know that you are someone that others can go to for help and that makes you more valuable as an employee. Once your peers see that you have demonstrated the ability to assist others with problems or issues and give sound advice, more of them will begin to approach you with questions of their own. Be prepared for this as it is not feasible for you to act as a mentor to everyone who comes to you for help, but you also want to be sure you do not turn people away looking for help. This is one of those faucets thats hard to shut off, so try to be reasonable with expectations for yourself and others. If you don’t think you can help everyone, let them know kindly and as quickly as possible. The more your boss sees others coming to you for direction and assistance, the more you will be worth to your organization when it comes time for raises and promotions!

lifestyle Solutions

5 Ways to Style a Settee

On a recent trip to T.J. Maxx I picked up this beautiful high backed winged settee in a gorgeous heather grey fabric. Although I didn’t have a space for the settee in mind when I bought it (it was one of those, I have to own this no matter what moments) by the time I had gotten it home I had thought of a handful of different uses for it. In case you are not familiar with the term settee, it is an upholstered chair with a back and arms that seats more than one. A traditional settee is something of a love seat sofa, but not as deep as a traditional sofa, they are more of a double wide arm chair! Now, because a settee is relatively small there is really no room in a house that couldn’t fit one! I, however, have boiled it down to five simple and elegant ways to style a settee with a few images courtesy of Pinterest to help me make my point!

1. Style a settee as luxe piece of office furniture.

2. Style a settee as an entranceway statement piece.

3. Style a settee as a dining room table bench or booth seat.

4. Style a settee as an elegant addition to the foot of a bed.

5. Style a settee as an upscale powder room seat.

So, you may be wondering, how then did I end up styling my settee? Well, after careful consideration I decided to do this!

Yep! My beautiful settee is now a bench seat for my dining table! I cannot be more thrilled about it! I have always been a fan of upholstered booth seating in the dining area and this was such a perfect fit for my apartment. I really like the way that the high back of the settee breaks up my great room into a clear living room and dining room area. Of course, the settee is all mine at the dining table and I have taken to bringing out my laptop and sitting at the dining table to write and surf the internet because I enjoy the piece so much!

I hope you enjoyed this post! As I said before the images I found came from Pinterest and you can find the exact links I used by heading over to my Pinterest page and taking a peak at my board called “Spaces.” There are even a few more examples that I pinned but did not use for this post in case you need some more ideas for how to style your settee!

tech The Pink Mac

Apps to Help You Fall Asleep

iPhone-Apps-for-sleeping — Sky Guide in action as I lay in bed.

I often find myself wide awake at 3 o’clock in the morning wondering what in the world is so important inside my own brain that I cannot enjoy the benefits of sleep! Although I try desperately to try to calm myself down, going through the motions of my night time rituals hoping to get my brain on the same page with my body, the affect is often lost and I find myself more awake then I was before. So, what do I turn to? Well, my iPhone! Although professionals say that it is best to avoid gadgets within an hour of bedtime, I find that when I cannot fall asleep no matter how hard I try, the quickest way to get myself asleep is by playing on my iPhone! Now, when it comes to trying to get myself to sleep, I won’t start doing anything major with my phone, but I have found that there are a few apps and games that actually help put me to sleep on those nights when I can’t stop tossing and turning.

Sky Guide: Sky Guide is a wonderful app with an intensely peaceful atmosphere! It uses your phone’s GPS to create a map of the night’s sky above you, whether you are indoors or outdoors. With a delicate soundtrack that sounds like a gentle lullaby, the app allows you to explore the sky around you, selecting stars, constellations and galaxies and providing you with histories and explanations for each and every celestial body. It’s almost like counting sheep, but your interacting with objects light years away.

Splodes: One of my favorite and most relaxing games is Splodes. Again, there is something about its gentle soundtrack that puts you into a state of easiness and comfort. The game itself is very slow paced, and all you need to do is “pop” a few splodes causing a chain reaction that may or may not release you into the next level. The game isn’t so much about winning as it is developing a simple strategy and I think one of the reasons it helps to put me to sleep is because it focuses my brain on the gameplay so that I am not lost in thought in my own mind. Definitely a game you will want to try if you have not already!

Osmos: Another super slow paced but very popular game that I suggest for late night decompression is Osmos. This game launched to much acclaim as one of the earliest iPad arcade style games, but it translates nicely to the small screen of the iPhone. Again, a new-agey but very calming soundtrack paired with simple gameplay mechanics soothes you to a zen like state that is very conducive for falling asleep!

Zen Brainwave Meditation: Speaking of Zen, one of my favorite on the go relaxation apps is Zen Brainwave Meditation, an app that is a portable sound machine for your iPhone. Simply choose your favorite ambient noise like the sound of rain or thunder and then select the evening brainwave program and the duration of your session and you are lulled to sleep by the science of brainwave stimulation. Its really something out of Star Trek but it helps to put me to sleep so I can’t complain! Also great for morning and afternoon meditations as well!

iBooks: When all else fails to put you to sleep there is nothing like spending some quiet time reading. Now, one of the benefits to night time reading on the iPhone is that the brightness of the screen as you read creates a heaviness on your eyes that almost immediately forces you to sleep. So, have a few good books downloaded on your iPhone just in case you have trouble falling asleep. And make sure the books are easy bed time reads and nothing to heavy and complicated for a midnight reading session. The goal is for you to fall asleep, not stay awake anxiously reading a best-seller!

Career

How to Stand Out at Work: Volunteer for More Work or New Projects

With half of the work year behind us and mid year performance reviews to look forward to shortly, now is the perfect time to discuss how to stand out at work. Whether you are hoping for a raise or a promotion in the upcoming year, learning to stand out from your coworkers is an important step to bigger and better things in your professional life. How to Stand Out at Work will be a 5 week series where we discuss different ways to improve your image to set yourself up for success.

Volunteer for more work or new projects

If you are interested in getting ahead at work and standing out as a shining star on your team or within your organization, one of the most important things you will have to do consistently is do good work and always be on the lookout for more projects and more responsibilities. With our economy still on the mend after the recession, employers are often slow to bring on more help or create additional positions until they see their business beginning to return steadily. For many companies, business is not back to where it once was, so upping their headcount is out of the question. So, who is going to take on that additional work that needs to be done with fewer heads available to do that work? The answer needs to consistently be you!

Now, I am not saying that you need to take on each and every new project and bulk on extra work all the time, but if you are seen as the team member that is able to get their own work done while also offering to take on new tasks and new responsibilities, when it comes time for a discussion about a raise or a promotion, you are going to be golden in the mind of your manager. Before you begin asking for more work, make sure you are completing your current work to the satisfaction of your managers or supervisors. Although you may be able to get your work done quickly, it doesn’t always mean you are up to par on the level of work you are producing. Speak to your boss and ask about your performance and how they view the quality of your work. You do not need to wait for a performance review to have that discussion with your manager, it should be an ongoing discussion that you return to whenever you take on new tasks, or complete new projects.

Once you are certain that your manager is pleased with the level of your work, you can then approach them about taking on new responsibilities. I would always suggest that when you go to your supervisor you have examples of the types of projects or responsibilities you are looking to take on. Perhaps you know that there is a new client project coming up and it requires a great deal of writing. If you believe yourself to be a strong writer, you will want to bring that to the attention of your manager when asking for that responsibility. Explain the skills you believe you are confident in and ask for the opportunity to take on that new challenge. Your boss will be impressed with your initiative and after a while, once you have a handle on your new task, you can ask for more work again if you are able to fit it into your day. Be careful not to take on too much new work, however, because if you take on a new task and it becomes too much for you, that is not going to help your cause. Always try to be deliberate with the new roles and responsibilities you are willing to take on so that they are serving your goals in the end.

Just be prepared to get an answer that you are not thrilled with. If your boss does not think you are prepared for the task you suggest, they may offer another less desirable responsibility. If this happens, don’t panic. Continue the conversation with your manager and try to understand why they think this different role or responsibility would be helpful for you to take on. Remember, you will want to make it clear to your boss that you are not simply looking for more work, but rather you are looking for new challenges and opportunities to help you grow and learn in order to prepare yourself for future roles. If they think a different task will help you along in your career more, take their advice and take on the new task. Even if it’s not what you originally intended to do, your boss will see that you have taken the initiative and when it comes time for conversations about raises or promotions, you will have a good leg to stand on!

Quirky Uses

5 Quirky Uses for Empty Wine Bottles

5 Quirky Uses is a new periodic feature for Strange & Charmed. For each post, I will select an everyday item and suggest five alternate uses or ways to upcycle the item in a fun or unusual way. Keep up with these posts with the Quirky Uses category!

For my second installment of 5 Quirky Uses I decided to focus on an object that fills many a recycling can, wine bottles! There are many arts and crafts projects that involve empty wine bottles that are easily accessible through Pinterest, but to stray away from those more complicated upcycling projects, I decided to focus on uses for the bottle whole! So, without further ado, here are 5 ways to use an empty wine bottle(s).

Stuff them into tall boots to help them keep their shape.
Fill them with a string of lights for an interesting lighting option.
Fill them with water and use them as a vase for long flowers.
Stick a taper candle into the neck and use them as a candle stick.
Fill them with sand, cork them and use them as book ends.