• Festive Smells: When I think of the holidays, I can remember the scent of fresh-baked goods filling the house. Since most people can’t spend all day baking, you need to think of other ways to bring a fresh, holiday scent into the room. Scented candles, available in all different sizes, shapes and colors are a very festive addition to the home. Pick up a couple of inexpensive scented votive candles or tea lights and let the scent fill the air. For a longer-lasting scent, consider purchasing a jar or pillar candle. While these do cost more, they last a lot longer. You can find some nice scented candles at your local dollar store or drug store. Popular holiday scents include apples & cinnamon, pine, vanilla, gingerbread, peppermint and clove. You can also make your own homemade potpourri! A great trick is to take some dried flowers, a half stick of cinnamon and wrap it all up in some mesh cloth. Tie it with a festive ribbon and there you go! You can make a couple of sachets and use them as tree ornaments or elsewhere in your home. Another great idea if you have a Christmas tree is to spray the tree with men’s cologne. Pine cones basted with pine oil is also a great seasonal scent to consider. A bowl full of lightly-scented pine cones also makes a very elegant centerpiece.

• Festive Sounds: While Christmas music is perfectly acceptable, if you are having a non-denominational holiday celebration, consider playing some soft classical music or jazz. Good music, no matter what kind, will get people into the celebratory spirit, no matter what religion they are. By choosing classical music or jazz, you add an air of sophistication and style to your home. It’s also a good idea to keep the volume low so you don’t have to shout. Don’t think that you need to have guests in order to play holiday music! You’ll find yourself in a generally better mood and be more inspired to clean and decorate your home for the holidays if you have some upbeat, cheerful music playing in the background.

• Festive Tastes: Delicious baked goods have the tendency to lift anyone’s spirit. If you have guests coming over, it’s a good idea to have some Christmas cookies and other holiday treats to satisfy their taste buds. You don’t have to go overboard but there are plenty of easy to make cookie recipes out there for you to try. Making a homemade gingerbread house is something fun that the whole family can participate in. Not only does it make a great table centerpiece but decorating the gingerbread house is a great family activity! You can also make a pretty classy gingerbread house for very little money! Just use graham crackers, frosting, cookies and candies and you have a gingerbread house on a budget! In general baking and other kitchen-centered projects are a great way to get the kids in a holiday mood.

• Festive Sights: Making Christmas decorations is probably one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. Not only to you get to exercise the creative part of your brain, but it really helps you get into the holiday spirit! There are plenty of ways that you can create an elegant holiday decor for your home without spending tons of money. You can make your own garlands out of felt scraps, for instance. Cut out holiday shapes out of felt and string them together with wire, or even floss. String these up and down banisters and across your mantel. Make some stylish ornaments for your tree by tying a lovely ribbon around a pine cone. You can dip half of the cone in some white craft paint to make it look snow-covered. Dip it in gold paint for a more elegant look. Once you are done with your holiday baking, you can hang your holiday cookie cutters with some red ribbon. By using a hole punch on some of your left over wrapping paper scraps, you can create some festive holiday confetti. Sprinkle it on tables, countertops, and mantle or even at the base of your tree. Make a candle holder out of a cleaned out mayonnaise jar by tying a ribbon around the neck of the jar. Now drop a tea light in the jar, nestling it in peppermints or nuts and you have a beautiful holiday luminary!

You clearly don’t have to spend a lot in order to set a holiday mood with your decor. Just by using what you have around the house, you can create an elegant and stylish holiday setting. Get the whole family involved in the decorating process for even more fun and inspiring results.

Photo by Marmot/stock exchange

We saw a really neat Halloween craft idea in one of the holiday magazines. They used Sizzix dies to make a haunted tree decoration that looked like it was cut from a single sheet of paper. Then, they framed it to hang on the wall. We loved it, but I wasn’t about to spend $100 on die cuts for one project and they used the whole new Halloween Sizzix line on the craft.

So, I cut a tree from black cardstock and bought the kids a pack of Halloween stickers for $1. It isn’t quite as cool looking, but they are quite happy with it and I certainly don’t think the other one looked $99 better!

If you can find black stickers without orange borders, I think it will look closer to the original.

Wow, I really have been neglecting you holiday lovers. I’ve been insanely busy, but that is no excuse. So, here is a summer craft project for kids – a photo holder for summer camp made with an ordinary mint tin.

* Lightly sand a tin and spray paint it.
* Punch holes in the fatter side of the tin opposite the hinges for a handle (Adult supervision or assistance required for this step unless you have one of those awesome screw down hole punches that jewelry makers use.)
* Thread beads on a piece of wire and push the two loose ends into the holes you punched. Secure the handle inside the tin by twisting the two ends together.
* Decorate the outside of the tin.
* Cut color copies of photos to put inside.
* Take a look inside your travel photo holder whenever you feel a bit homesick at summer camp.

Another Amazon deal is the vote. Remember that from last year? You vote for which item you want to get really cheap and the winning item is offered at that price to a group of lucky voters. I got my votes in.

I’m helping my niece and nephew make personalized picture frames for their mom.

My brother is blacksmithing and knitting up a storm. I don’t know everything he’s making, but I did coax him into giving me one thing early – an over the door wreath hook for my house. So gorgeous.

I heard my mom on the sewing machine when I called her yesterday, so it is safe to assume some of us are getting some of her gorgeous handsewn creations.