Browsing Tag

christmas decorations

  • make your own: salt dough ornaments.

    If you’re hoping to find an easy and extremely affordable way to decorate a Christmas tree, or top a present, or generally make merry, baking a tray or two of salt dough ornaments is…

    December 16, 2019 29 Comments
  • giving: a corded rope.

    Just about one year ago, Rose Pearlman and I began collaborating on simple, useful craft projects that could be easily made from inexpensive hardware store materials and that can serve a practical purpose in…

    December 2, 2019 9 Comments
  • clutter-free holiday decorations.

    We needed to take things up a notch with our holiday decorations this year. I knew we’d put up the usual lights and candles and tree, but I had a hankering for something extra sparkly,…

    December 6, 2016 36 Comments
  • a peace and justice advent calendar.

    The season of advent begins on Sunday and this week, when I pulled the pieces of the advent calendar that I made last year out of the cardboard box where we stash our holiday decorations,…

    November 23, 2016 32 Comments
  • cedar wreath

    solstice poem.

    iA tree hulks in the living-room, prickly monster, our hostagefrom the wilderness, preludeto light in this dark space of the yearwhich turns again toward the suntoday, or at least we hope so.Outside, a dead…

    December 22, 2015 1 Comments
  • a clutter-free advent calendar.

    Growing up, my mom introduced an idea to our family that she called Advent Angels. The idea was a riff on Secret Santa, but it was more about actions than things. We’d draw names…

    November 25, 2015 40 Comments
  • berry branches in a tiny apartment | reading my tea leaves

    life in a tiny apartment.

    Tip #135: Berries make the room.That’s how the expression goes, doesn’t it?The snowflake lights are strung up and turned on over Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Too early for Christmas some people might say, but I…

    November 18, 2015 17 Comments
  • boxwood and cedar.

    trips to my parents’ house almost always mean foraging. i take walks to the beach to collect sea shells, tuck a pair of scissors into my pocket to gather cedar clippings, and yank down…

    November 28, 2011 18 Comments
  • wintertime additions.

    just a few wintertime additions i’ve added around the house in the past week or so. i’m looking forward to celebrating the end of another semester with a mug of hot wine and some…

    December 8, 2010 10 Comments