Christine Chitnis

Here’s another great entry-level holiday craft. If you can wrap ribbon around a frame, you can make velvet-ribbon ornaments.

Looking for a fun Easter craft? Ditch the kit and make your own homemade egg dyes using common kitchen ingredients.

If you can thread a needle, you can make button garland. The hardest part is amassing enough buttons to create a long string of this easy holiday craft.

Craft stores (whether you visit in person or online) such as Jo-Ann, A. C. Moore, and Michaels are great sources for many of the items featured here, including thread, buttons, colorful paper, ribbons, felt, yarn, wool, wreath forms, synthetic berries and leaves, and Styrofoam cones. However, part of the fun of making many of these […]

We love the way this monochromatic holiday felt & yarn wreath gets so much of its visual interest from the different shapes and textures at play.

If you want to use these adorable paper topiaries as a centerpiece, plan to make at least three.

Snowy days call for ice skating, hot-chocolate picnics, and sledding parties. But even the hardiest New Englander needs a bit of shelter from the cold. Sling this repurposed flannel quilt over your shoulder, and when the winter chill seeps in, unfurl its warmth and snuggle up! Try using soft old shirts and blankets for the […]

Add a special touch to your holiday gifts by decorating them yourself using these felt ornament patterns and instructions. Materials for Felt Mitten Ornaments: wool felt assorted ribbon, trim, and yarn glue and hot-glue gun needle and embroidery thread two yarn pom-poms Instructions for Felt Mitten Ornaments Print the accompanying ornament pattern. Pin or trace […]

Stencils, mainly in the form of adhesive wall stencils (really more like stickers), have become all the rage in the past few years. I think we are nearing the end of this trend, but I would love to see a return to real stenciling—the definition being “a thin sheet of material, such as paper, plastic, […]

When we moved into our charming, century-old, Providence home, there were several changes that I wanted to make. I made my list in order of urgency, and right after “change the awful paint colors,” came “get rid of the scary brown stair protectors.” When I pulled up the stair protectors, I found, to my horror, […]

Christine Chitnis traveled to more than 50 venues while writing Markets of New England (The Little Bookroom, 2011), and she knows a good one when she sees it. Chitnis writes for local and national publications, often on farming and sustainability, and blogs at christinechitnis.com. See her five “honorable mentions.” MAINE Portland Farmers’ Market Portland’s first […]

Christine Chitnis is a Providence-based writer, photographer and environmental educator with a talent for bringing her images to life by focusing on color and texture. Her writing has appeared in Country Living, Time Out New York, Edible Rhody and The Washington Post, among many other local and national publications. Christine first picked up a camera […]