The cutting edge of paper crafting tools
Like many other Etsy sellers who sell handmade paper goods, my paper crafting studio is filled with designer papers, adhesives, embellishments, and tools of all types and sizes. There are so many tools, in fact, that they spill into other rooms in the house, wherever they will fit. But among my favorites are those from Fiskars, the business that many of us think of as the “scissors company.” Over time, my personal collection of Fiskars cutting implements has grown to include pinking shears, rotary cutters, scoring blades, a button hank remover, embroidery scissors, paper cutters, paper punches, garden shears, and more. My first Fiskars product, howe

Engineer by day, artist after hours
Color, texture and playfulness are the earmarks of Melissa of Made by Melissa on Etsy. Melissa, who is an engineer by day, but an artist after hours, is October's Featured EtsyBlogger. She is a multi-talented needleworker who can't resist playing with her crochet hook to create such creatures as Gary the Green Garden Snake, Penny the Pink Elephant, and Larry the Monster Chasing Ladybug.

Breakfast on Saturday night
This past Saturday, as my husband and I prepared our evening meal, a “breakfast-like supper” consisting of fried eggs, bacon and toast, I began thinking about how common it is for our friends and family members to eat a morning meal at the end of the day. When I was growing up, my father peeled potatoes for crisp potato pancakes on Saturday nights, or he mixed a batch of batter and ladled it into our waffle iron. My husband reports that in his family, it was not unusual to have similar meals on weekend nights. In many family-style restaurants, in fact, breakfast or brunch (a combination of breakfast and lunch items served a la carte) is available all day, particularly on weekends. Is t

Box it up for me, please
Okay. Confession time. I love boxes. Whether they're made of wood, metal, corrugated cardboard, paper, fabric, clay, glass, or pretty much anything else, I want to look at them. Touch them. Walk around them. Walk inside them. Climb on top of them. Put things inside them. Modify them. And I want to make them, too.While many people salivate over the idea of a Caribbean cruise, I'd rather muck about in museums, looking at box collections. Since I'm not likely to convince my husband this is how we should spend our next vacation, I will have to be satisfied with viewing online box tutorials, admiring boxes created by Etsy sellers, and visiting virtual galleries such as Tony Hyman's

Accessorizing your blog with 15 easy options
Many of us like to blog, and most of us enjoy accessorizing our blogs in much the same way we do our homes. Just as we do with our wall decor or furnishings, we modify blog elements, add new ones or subtract old ones. "Elements," in blog-speak, refers to buttons, blinkies, grab boxes, link lists, slide shows, repeating images (such as dividers for posts or side bars), and many other changes to the blog template. If you have no coding background (as I do not), you may be a little fearful of making HTML (hyper text mark-up language) changes to your blog. Fortunately, not having such a background is not an issue if you have basic Web navigation skills, and you can copy and paste.W