Happy Hanukkah! Tonight marks the start of Hanukkah – or Channukah – or your choice of the 16 different ways this lesser of the Jewish holidays is spelled. When I married into a Jewish family, this shiksa (gentile female) was determined to holiday the craft out of those eight days. …
I learned to really love crafting years ago when a family vacation at the lake came with terrible weather. First was the rain and lightning, then the tornado warnings that kept us inside for most of the week. Distractions weren’t as plentiful as they are today – no internet, cable or videogames – but …
My name is Cathi, and I’m a non-recovering Christmas tree-aholic. This time of year I spend most of my days placing Christmas trees of all sizes around the house, each of them decorated according to a well-chosen theme. The tree above is my actual family tree, created from the boxes …
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens … Oh, mittens. Knitting mittens for a holiday gift is one of those ideas that sounds fantastic in July but ends up being a last-minute, curse-filled sprint in December. Trust me, as a seasons-long veteran of Christmas …
Sister Catherine, a distant relative by marriage, spent her golden years retired from the nunnery but still in its service. For most of the year she worked tirelessly on whimsical felt ornaments, embellished with embroidery, beads and sequins. As the holidays approached, she would sell her crafts, often at parties …
You may remember our friend Trudy from Monday’s story about Bim Willow’s tree-making workshop. Trudy was our neighbor and sister in arms that morning; we shared laughs and suggestions while struggling to coerce our willow branches into anything resembling a tree. (Reminder: It takes a village to make a holiday …
Bim Willow sounds like the name of a charming character in a delightful children’s fairy tale. Instead, he’s a taskmaster of tree-limbed furniture whose not-so-whimsical workshop we attended one early Saturday morning in November. The Chicago Botanic Garden, which hosted the session, offers classes in everything from drawing to yoga to nature-walking. …