What better way to address that spring fever urge to renew, redo, and renovate than custom furniture! And with spring just around the corner, it’s worth taking time to think how you can spruce up your home.

With handmade, custom furniture, you can have pieces that not only meet your functional needs, but that introduce a higher level of artistry and style to your home.

Handmade jewelry is a surefire gift for your partner, for Valentine’s Day or any other special occasion. But I get the impression from my friends that buying the right bauble is often a nerve-wracking experience. Will she really like it? Has she the right occasion to wear it?

Representing the woman’s point of view here, I offer some suggestions to help you pick out the perfect piece of handmade jewelry. Here are five tips to help you get it right.

Art that invokes the outdoors, or nature art, may seem like an odd topic for the middle of our long New England winter. Snow, ice, frigid temperatures – the outdoors isn’t very alluring right now. But I think paintings that depict nature are exactly the right antidote to being cooped up inside.

A therapeutic dose of sunny skies, shimmering green leaves and bonny spring flowers is just what we need to chase away the winter doldrums.

It’s hard to go anywhere in the Northeast right now without hearing one of those classic winter songs. “Dashing through the snow, I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, or Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!”

OK, we get it. Cold weather is on its way and it’s time to dig out those winter wraps.

During the holiday season, our dining tables take center stage. It’s time for steaming bowls of stuffing, salads overflowing with winter greens, and mouth-watering pies with vanilla ice cream. Part of the fun of hosting (or attending) a festive dinner is deciding how to present all these yummy dishes. What won’t do is that old Melamine salad bowl or Aunt Ida`s chipped vegetable dish.