I had a great time at the annual women’s retreat a couple weekends ago  I led a couple of  paper craft workshops where the women learned how to make a vintage hymnal cross ornament .  It was nice to see their creative juices flowing and […]

I have been working on a smaller version of the vintage hymnal cross I made last week.  I plan to  teach how to make this mini hymnal cross  at a craft workshop during the upcoming Women’s Retreat  so I needed to get it down to […]

We are getting ready for the upcoming Women’s Retreat which is held annually at the end of February at the Tuscarora Conference Center in Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania.  Each year we like to create a new focal point for our booth — something that will inspire […]

I was all set to work on our weekly blog post last week but ended up coming down with Walking Pneumonia.  I’m not sure how I managed to stay healthy all winter but come down with Pneumonia right as the weather gets beautiful but that’s […]

I love to decorate with items that evoke memories and maps are a great way to commemorate a favorite location or special place.  With GPS now built right into our smart phones, paper maps seem to be becoming a thing of the past. Before throwing […]

Instead of carving up pumpkins this year consider making this book page pumpkin out of an old book and bring it back year after year.  I like using vintage Reader’s Digest books because I know that they’re readily available at almost any thrift shop.  I’ve […]

Rather than throwing out all those Christmas cards, here’s an idea for upcycling them into beautiful paper spheres. I paid $3 at a local thrift shop for this collection of Christmas cards. I was so proud of myself for not buying new and recycling these […]

I’m always on the lookout for crafts that my grade-school age children and I can do together.  This is a simple, fun activity to upcycle those inexpensive Christmas balls that you probably already have laying around the house.  If not, local thrift stores should have […]

Here’s another idea for upcycling a few of those plastic Easter eggs: As much as I love the vibrant colors in these eggs, I don’t want to use them in my decorating.  If you’ve been following this blog, you can tell that Debra and I […]

As a 4-year-old, my daughter Greta seems endlessly fascinated with letters. Her greatest accomplishment right now has been learning to write her name.  She also loves filling a page with her favorite letters (right now “h” and  “i”), then asking me what it says.  She […]