This Stop Willoughby

This is a fun, simple project you can create using supplies you likely already have (and if you don't have them, you can get everything you need inexpensively). The advent period begins on December first, so I'm a little late posting this since we're already several days into December. But unless you're an absolute purist, you can skip ahead to whatever day you get your calendar created. We'll be creating our "calendar" by making 25 tiny gift bags and labeling them with numbers, counting down from 25 to 1. You can make them with any paper you like. Christmas wrapping paper is perfect (save your scraps if you've already started wrapping gifts because you'll be using small pieces), but you can also do this with plain printer paper if it's what you have on hand. I've also used brown paper bags cut into pieces. You'll also need tape or glue and scissors. Anything else you need to complete the bags is going to be based on how you want to clo...

This spring we made a commitment to work with supplies we had before buying anything new for our house and yard.  I also wanted to keep the budget for plants and flowers in check (I tend to get carried away at the local nursery), which meant I was going to have to get pretty creative. I still went to the nursery and got a few flats of annuals, but I found some great free and inexpensive ways to fill in the empty spaces in the yard.  In no particular order, here are some of my favorites. 1. Transplant wild plants/flowers (with permission, of course).  This was easy for me because my mom's house is on a wooded lot and she told me to take anything I wanted. I had no idea wild snapdragons existed until my sister in law and I found huge clumps of them growing in a flower bed in my mom's front yard.  I dug up a half dozen plants and they transplanted beautifully. Years ago I had tried to transplant wild black raspberries without success, but t...