Check out the top crafty DIYs for all four seasons. Winter, spring, summer, fall, check out all the fabulous easy ideas, crafts and DIYs to make your home more beautiful! My husband just came in the living room, where I am writing by the fire, and asked me what I wanted to do today. I was perplexed. It's mid afternoon and he works until well after five. He then reminded me that today was a half day since New Year's Day is Monday. What??

Looking for the perfect gift for the writer or blogger in your life...or for yourself? Check out these awesome ideas, from lap desks to planners and a few surprises in between! Not too long ago, I shared a little story about how every time my kids ask me what I want for Christmas ...or any occasion, really, I say nothing . They hate that. They want to get me something  they know I will like and when I say that I don't want or need anything, that's not very helpful. Well, this year, my nothing, translated into a whole lot of very good something, especially for the writer in me. Apparently, my family really paid attention to me all year long, because I received some of the best and most thoughtful gifts that this writer could've asked for.  Fabulous. 

I agonize over my wrapping paper choices every year at Christmas time. Sadly, my family and I don't have the same wrapping ideas. I don't think I'm alone. Every year when I shop for wrapping paper, I do it very carefully. I sit and think, mulling over the choices in Marshalls, HomeGoods and Hobby Lobby. I plan the color scheme. Ok, I plan the reds.

You can grab some great Christmas decor items at the thrift store, just keep your eyes and your mind open...even in July! Hello friends! I hope you are enjoying the season. We have been getting a lot of snow around here lately, which is contributing to that holly, jolly spirit. Since I did less decorating this year, I have had more time to really enjoy what I did put out, taking it all in while I sit by the fire...keeping warm. The one thing I realized, while I was staring at my treasures, was that many, if not most of them are either sentimental heirlooms, family pieces or thrifted items. They seem to be what holds my heart at this time of the year.

Christmas home. They don't take up a lot of space, they come in all shapes and sizes and lend a cozy air. This weekend, the first snow of the season fell. As a dedicated summer girl I am not usually thrilled at the sight of those flakes, winter is long around here. However, Santa was right, Christmas snow is magical and somehow it managed to lull even me into a state of holiday bliss.

When I was a little girl, my mom used to say that she didn't want anything for Christmas. How boring and depressing. However, now that I have a family of my own, I find myself answering that same question, the same way. And I totally get it. My mom was almost forty when I was born. I was not the baby of our large family, but close. My older siblings actually graduated from high school while I was in preschool, so by the time I was a teenager, they were long married with children of their own. They lived nearby so when the holidays rolled around they were always present.

Learn how to make your very own old fashioned macaroni angel ornaments for your vintage Christmas tree. Classic, super easy and so charming. Long before I started blogging, before the days of kids and even marriage, I taught kindergarten and first grade . During my first year, at my first school, I attended a PTA craft fair and fell head over heels in love with a darling little macaroni angel ornament. I didn't yet have a tree of my own, but I needed to bring her home.