Happy Hanukkah!

Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Light, celebrated on the 25th day of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar, which can occur anytime between late November and late December. This year, it falls on December 1rst. The festival is celebrated for eight consecutive days and commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd Century BCE. To read more about Hanukkah and the traditions behind other Jewish holidays, click here.

Below, I've selected eight Hanukkah crafts (one for each day of the festival!) that I think are so pretty, useful and festive. I hope you like them too. Happy Hanukkah!

DREIDEL-SHAPED PLACE CARDS: Every Hanukkah guest gets a prize -- chocolate gelt -- when they unfold these dreidel-shaped place cards.

How to Make the Dreidel-Shaped Place Cards

DREIDEL GIFT-CARD HOLDERS: Brighten up a gift card by putting it in this dreidel-shaped holder.

How to Make the Dreidel Gift-Card Holders

GELT WRAPPERS: Give Hanukkah gelt -- the chocolate coins traditionally used by children for mock wagers -- a stylish wrapping treatment. In one, small glass canisters are lined with decorative paper and filled with coins. A name tag on top and a paper sleeve are the finishing touches. Another stack of coins is swathed in crepe paper and tied with ribbon bows.

How to Make the Gelt Wrappers

HANUKKAH GIFT-CARD HOLDER: Give someone the star treatment by presenting a gift card in this easy-to-make paper holder. You can also use the decoration instead of a bow to jazz up a plainly wrapped package.

How to Make the Hanukkah Gift Card Holder

HANUKKAH CLIP-ART FAVOUR BOXES: Silver gelt -- chocolate coins wrapped in foil -- make charming favors when presented in clip-art card-stock boxes tied with ribbon and a Star of David.

How to Make the Hanukkah Clip-Art Favor Boxes

MANZANITA BRANCH MENORAH: Celebrate the Festival of Lights with a modern manzanita-branch menorah, sprayed shimmering silver and trimmed with candles.

How to Make the Manzanita-Branch Menorah

VELVET GELT GIFT BAG: I saw Martha make this craft on her old TV program and was very impressed with the result. It came together easily and beautifully. Fill them with dreidels and chocolate gelt, or coins. The treats are made more festive when packaged inside velvet bags embossed with symbols of Hanukkah, such as a Star of David or a Menorah.

How to Make the Velvet Gelt Bag

MONOGRAMMED HANUKKAH COOKIES: Add a personal touch to your holiday place setting by monogramming cookies with guests' initials.

How to Make the Monogrammed Hanukkah Cookies

Martha's Lifetime Achievement Award

Martha will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award as part of Advertising Age's first annual Media Vanguard Awards, Ad Age announced today. Ad Age had this to say about Martha: "Martha Stewart has embodied precisely the sort of multimedia vision that the MVAs were created to recognize. She was never just a print person or a broadcast person or a digital person. An integrated, multimedia approach has always been in the DNA of her trendsetting company."

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia was born in 1997 after she bought the rights to her company from Time Warner. She then took the company public in 1999. Dozens of books, hundreds of magazines, millions of products and thousands of shows later, she is still going strong. She will accept the award tomorrow afternoon. Congratulations, Martha!

Designer Shane Powers

When Blueprint magazine was still in circulation, I would inevitably be dazzled by the styling, décor and crafts of its lone gentleman editor: Shane Powers. Issue after issue, I would see his name next to a photograph or article that I found especially interesting. In a recent issue of Vogue Living Australia Shane was profiled and a new side of this multi-talented designer was revealed.

The Brooklyn-based art director and stylist is now also contributing a seductive new line of ceramics and self-crafted home accessories for a store in Kathmandu called Pipalbot, a chic design emporium run by a husband-and-wife team of Australian and Nepali descent, respectively.

Shane's collection includes hand-forged brass paperweights, blankets, hand-woven flat weave rugs, flatware and, most notably, ceramic tea sets and mugs, shown above. Shane is still a contributing editor to Martha Stewart Living but it's wonderful to see him blossoming as a sought-after designer. Congratulations, Shane!

Martha at Radio City

Long-time reader Jim Eber sent in these photos of his recent trip to Radio City Music Hall in New York City where Martha and her team of crafters and holiday decorators put their skills to test. The entire Holiday Spectacular Venue was decorated Martha-style, with a "Winter Wonderland" section of white Christmas trees done up in red-and-white themed ornaments from the Martha Stewart Collection holiday line at Macy's. There was also a 20-foot tall Christmas tree completely laden with Martha Stewart ornaments towering above.

This photo from the Crafts Dept. shows how spectacular the 20-foot tree looks!

Jim enjoyed the performance by the Rockettes but also loved the glowing white trees in the lounge, which he photographed here. Among the ornaments was an exclusive sleigh decoration (shown above) by Martha Stewart that is only sold at Radio City.

Inside the program for the evening were two exclusive Martha Stewart coupons touting some real savings on Martha's Macy's ornaments and craft items at Michael's.

The Beekman in Country Living

The ever-fabulous Beekman Boys (Dr. Brent Ridge and author Josh Kilmer-Purcell) are not ones to let the holidays slip by without festooning their glorious digs with the most gorgeous of trim. And who better to help them than the editors at Country Living magazine? Thankfully, in the current issue (December/January) we can all experience the exquisite results. The feature article by Joshua Lyon traces the urban couple's history at the Beekman farm/mansion and how they have come to represent a new era of prosperity for the town of Sharon Springs, which only several years ago was a forgotten ghost town with a storied past, complete with boarded up hotels and ramshackle cabins sinking into the underbrush. You can read about my visit to the town last year and my evening with Josh by clicking here.
That's their living room on the cover. On the magazine's splash page, the Beekman is shown at night with its windows all aglow.
Lush photographs by Lucas Allen and holiday styling by Karin Lidbeck-Brent come together to create some magical holiday scenes. I wanted to share some of the magic here, but you can read the full article in the magazine or by clicking here to read the article online. You can, of course, find Brent and Josh on Planet Green on their reality show, The Fabulous Beekman Boys, or see what they're developing for their company Beekman 1802 at their website.

Martha Bakes

On Wednesday, Hallmark announced some of its new Martha Stewart programs, which are set to debut in January. Among the most anticipated is Martha's new show called "Martha Bakes" - a thirteen-episode series with Martha as host designed to turn good bakers into expert bakers. The show, which was filmed largely in Martha's home kitchens last summer, is being described by some as "the definitive television resource for the actual or would-be baking expert." In August, Martha told Slashfood.com that the show was designed for the more advanced baker and is "not really baking 101." She said viewers would learn how to make things like pâte brisée, pâte feuilletée, puff pastry, the perfect cheesecake, as well as traditional sweet and savory favourites like blueberry muffins and the perfect loaf of bread.

It was also announced that the next installment of Martha Stewart Presents (an hour-long interview series with lifestyle profiles of some of Martha's favourite personalities) will focus on comedians. It will be called The Men Who Make Us Laugh. (I'm just guessing here, but I assume Conan O'Brien and Jerry Seinfeld will be among the guests, given their friendships with Martha.) Also beginning in January is a new show called Petkeeping with Marc Morrone. Hallmark has also renewed Mad Hungry with Lucinda Scala-Quinn for an additional 80 new episodes.

Free Holiday Clip-Art

In the December issue of Martha Stewart Living there are a few stories that feature some pretty incredible gift tags, labels and stickers. I've always been a fan of beautifully designed gift wrapping, and an even bigger fan when it's free! Thankfully, the editors and illustrators at Martha Stewart Living understand this, and have designed quite a wide selection of downloadable templates and cutouts for the gift-wrapping season. Click here to see a full list of templates and DIY tags. Click here to see the candy label gallery. Below are my favourites.

Adhere chocolate and hazelnut flavor stamps to a button-closure envelope for a package of chocolate-hazelnut toffee sure to delight its recipient. For other brittles and barks, use these flavor stamps: dried cherries and orange zest; wafer cookies; crisped rice; macadamia nuts and lime zest; pretzels, raisins, and peanuts; peanut butter; peppermint; coconut flakes, pistachios, and dried cranberries; and graham crackers and marshmallows.

This pistachio, dried cranberry, and toasted coconut bark is a riff on the classic holiday fruit-and-nut combo. Use our wooden box template or regular box template and bands to create gourmet-looking treats to give away as gifts.

For a warm gift, fill a mug with cocoa mix, then print a "Warm Wishes for the Season" sticker on adhesive paper.

Personalize gifts with a grand monogram made by printing our 26-letter clip art onto card stock. Print the Monogram Gift Tag Clip Art

Print these cheerful message clip art on adhesive paper or card stock (use a 1/8-inch hole punch to hang a tag), and cut out with a 2-inch round punch.

Get groovy with these red and green "Happy Holidays" clip-art tags. Write to-from details on the back, punch a hole, and hang.

Ready to spread the spirit? Buy your favorite wine by the case, print these custom wine labels, and bestow friends with some liquid cheer. Just pick your label below, print on adhesive-backed paper, cut, and stick them to the bottles (they peel off easily).
Print the Making Spirits Bright Wine Labels
Print the Drink and Be Merry! Wine Labels
Print the Cheers to the New Year! Wine Labels

The All-Over Paper Punch

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Martha's craft line. The craft punches are among the top sellers for the company, proving to be increasingly popular with scrapbookers and paper crafters alike. What makes the tools and materials so alluring is their durability, their imaginative designs and their unique purposes, including punches that can not only create a design along the edge of a piece of paper, but around its edges as well. Now crafters can punch interesting cut-out designs anywhere on the paper they choose (top left, bottom right, or dead center) without being limited by the tools' reach.

A new punch, called the "Punch All-Over-The-Page" punch, uses magnets to secure the top and bottom pieces together, sandwiching the paper between them. Simply press down on the top piece to punch out the design anywhere on the page. The new punch is available at Michael's and various craft retailers. For a demonstration on how it works, click here. To see all of the punch patterns available, click here.

Love These Glasses!

In the December issue of Martha Stewart Living there are two removable pamphlets - advertisements for some of Martha's Christmas wares at Michael's and Macy's. (For archivists of all-things Martha, little clip-out brochures and catalogues like these are treasures.) Among my favourites is this set of glasses from the Martha Stewart Collection at Macy's. The four-piece recipe glass set (Bloody Mary, Mojito, Tom Collins and Pink Gin Fizz) retails for $16.99. An accompanying serving tray for hors d'oeuvres goes for $24.00. I love the colours, narrow shapes and vintage designs.

Living for i-Pad is Launched!

Today marks a very historic day for Martha Stewart Living magazine: the launch of their first digital issue! It is now available for download (i-Pad only) and contains exclusive content not found anywhere else. The magazine features astonishing animation (peonies blossoming before your eyes, bubbles floating by) beautiful photography, more than 23 new recipes for delicious dinners and desserts, 20 slide shows with step-by-step instructions, five exclusive behind-the-scenes videos and four panoramas, including one of Martha's farm in Bedford.

The digital issue also contains:

- A slide show of Martha's early years: her modeling portfolio and her first home, cooking, and gardening projects. Plus, listen to an interview with a fellow creative guru.

- Take a panoramic 180-degree tour of Martha's peony garden and watch a video of how she makes her spectacular arrangements.

- Experience the untouched Alaskan landscape with its glaciers, mountains, and rugged shoreline; ride along with a salmon fisherman on the pristine Copper River; and learn new recipes to make wild Pacific salmon at home.

- Go glam: Get a holiday makeover with our festive product picks. Toggle between before and after shots to see the stunning transformations.

- Be jeweled! Learn how to make fantastic plastic jewelry using not much more than polymer clay, your oven, and a few basic molds.

Click here to learn more about the digital magazine as well as watch a behind-the-scenes video about how the issue was put together. Click here to download the magazine to your i-Pad for just $3.99!

Get inspired for your next celebration—with bubbles! Fizzy drinks and floating decorations plus sweet and savory treats add up to an effervescent atmosphere.

After touring Martha's peony garden, view an incredible glossary of these lush flowers and learn about how to grow each variety.

Find out what happens when two decorating editors go head-to-head, then vote for your favorite room and get live voting results.

December Issue Has Arrived!

The wait is over! My copy of the December issue of Martha Stewart Living arrived in my mailbox today and, oh, it is a beauty. The magazine is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2011 and the December issue kicks off the festivities by harkening the holiday season in style. The issue has three covers and is packed with ideas for holiday entertaining, decorating (indoors and out), baking and cooking (of course) and offers plenty of crafts, plus tips for a homemade Hanukkah. I urge you to pick up a copy when you see it on the stands! Have a look at the three different covers, below.

Martha in Canada to Visit Polar Bears

Martha was in Churchill, Manitoba, over the weekend to film a segment for her television show about polar bears. Manitoba, one of Canada's prairie provinces, is home to a large percentage of Canada's polar bear population, a species that is facing increasing endangerment due to climate change.

Churchill is located on the shores of Hudson Bay, approximately 1000 kilometers north of Winnipeg, and Martha took the "Tundra Buggy" to cross the desolate, frozen landscape in search of these elusive and beautiful bears. While in Churchill Martha visited Gypsy's Restaurant and Bakery and sampled some of the desserts there, including the homemade apple pie, éclairs and fritters. She also took a helicopter tour of the town and witnessed a polar bear rescue, which her crew filmed for the show. Watch for the episode featuring these polar bears soon!

New at The Beekman

Our friends at Beekman farm (Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell) are forever developing new offerings, usually incorporating local Sharon Springs crafters and artisans into their fun and innovative ideas for home and beauty products. Among the new items on offer this holiday season is a line of scented candles, a new line of seasonal soaps and bath milk and new goats-milk soaps. One of the things I find most enticing about their brand is the way they celebrate the scents and essences of the four seasons at the Beekman through the use of delicate fragrances. The emphasis on natural ingredients, usually sourced locally, is another reason to fall in love. Lastly, the clever packaging and label design, something Brent clearly learned from his work at Martha Stewart Living, presents the experience together beautifully.


The Beekman Milk Shake Goat Milk Bath Soak is a combination of seasonal essential oils and dehydrated goat milk from the goats at the farm. The Shake comes in four scents inspired by the four seasons at the Beekman and is designed to help create a luxurious bath experience, leaving skin soft and gently fragranced.


The back porch at the Beekman is a sprawling space to reflect and take in all the beauty of the seasons as they slowly roll by. Brent and Josh created four scents for their "Back Porch Collection" of soaps (one for each season) and packaged them in a sturdy cedar box with a lid. The soaps are also sold separately. Since the bars are quite large, it is recommended that you slice them into threes for longer-lasting use. (The Autumn and Winter soaps are also currently available at Anthropologie stores.)

My favourite new Beekman product this year is the scented bud-vase candle. Made of pure beeswax, the four candles are lightly scented to reflect the four seasons. Each one comes in a lidded cedar box and glass container for the wax. Once the wax is gone, the container can be used as a bud vase: reuse, recycle, reimagine!

Scrapbooking: The Basic Tools

I just counted, and I have four scrapbooks, one of which has been an ongoing project since my last year of high-school nearly 15 years ago. This book is the largest of the four and has 'my interests and inspirations' as its theme. It has 100 enormous pages and I take my time composing the layout and content of each page, making sure it is exactly how I want it to look before I set glue to paper.

A portion of my large scrapbook, above, from the "Egos and Icons" section I designed in the book.

The most important (and time-consuming) aspect of scrapbooking is locating, altering and finally attaching the imagery to the pages of the book. This process can be quickly and easily sped along with the right tools on hand, always within arms' reach, always kept organized.

I loved the gallery of basic scrapbooking tools on MarthaStewart.com and thought I'd share them, since they are exactly the sorts of materials I have on hand to create my scrapbooks. Oddly missing, however, is mention of a few good pairs of scissors and a set of X-acto knives for cutting, something I find essential for paper crafts.

Keep a pencil on hand to make marks, a white (or other light-colored) gel pen to label dark pages, a bone folder to neatly score and fold pages or inserts, and a ruler to take measurements and neatly position scraps.
Transform these stationery-store tags into tiny frames for photographs (color-photocopy the pictures, cut to size, and glue to surface). You can also use the tags as write-on labels. Fasten to pages with brads or grommets.

Use a utility knife to cut out the centers of labels while keeping the decorative borders intact; you can use them as frames for small photos. Airmail envelopes can be used to create evocative mini albums for travel scrapbooks.

Press rubber stamps into colorful or metallic inks and use them to add words, numerals, or artistic details to album pages.

Rub-on letters and numbers (shown in back) come in a range of fonts and sizes. Easy to apply (rub them with the accompanying stick, and the characters will transfer to the paper underneath), the letters and numbers can be used to print names, dates, and more onto pages. Store-bought scraps come in all forms. Maps and printed papers can be used as backgrounds or to create pockets. Old-looking scraps (the seed label shown here) are available from scrapbook stores. Flea markets can yield old postcards if your own keepsake box doesn't. Available at scrapbook stores, vintage papers can be used as backgrounds for smaller scraps and to make pockets. (One of my favourite things is this packet of vintage stamps from Anthropologie.)

I do not have the sorts of scrapbooks that require these materials, but grommets can be used to secure tags, pockets, and other sturdy scraps to pages permanently. Brads come in traditional brass, in bright colors, and even in whimsical shapes. They can be used the same way as grommets but are removable. Jump rings are little metal loops that can be used to suspend items from brads.

Acid-free double-sided photo tape is safe to use on photos. Photo corners provide another way to mount pictures without damaging them, and they give a scrapbook a vintage feel.