RURAL RANT: Christmas in the Country

 Have you ever looked at Christmas with a cynical eye? The commercialism, the overpackaging, the strident commercials and ads demanding that you can only make people happy by spending ridiculous amounts of money on stuff they don’t even really need? Annette Moeller and granddaughter Julia Dube sell Annette’s crafts at

Handmade Holiday Gifts for Beginners: Part III

 Basic Cross-Stitch: Make a Fridge Magnet First rule of cross-stitch: it looks much more difficult that it is.  Cross-stitch is done on Aida cloth which has a grid (much like graph paper).  Each stitch is made up of two smaller stitches that form an “X”: the first stitch travels diagonally