One of my favorite gifts I found for my daughters this past Christmas was a sunlight print kit at a wonderful local bookstore, The Toadstool Bookshop. I’ve been hoping to do this project with them for quite awhile now and given their ages, 6 and almost 4, I was sure it would hold their interest. […]
There are many flowering bulbs available in the stores and catalogues now that can brighten up the indoor garden in winter. The easiest are the bulbs that can be grown in water and pebbles, like the hyacinth. Hyacinths are available in the fall for growing indoors. As hyacinths are a late spring bloomer normally, they […]
After the birth of our son my wife and I made a pact to incorporate more rituals into our family life. Travel factored into a lot of it. Day trips and weekends certainly, but also midweek excursions; one or two night trips that would get us out of the house without thrusting us into the […]
I’ve always found the production cycle of a magazine to be fairly odd. My last blog entry on YankeeMagazine.com was to be entitled, “Christmas in July,” but I got sidetracked and failed to complete it among all the other tasks on my trusty to-do list. So I figure I’ll offer a few thoughts about it […]
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, has many different identities. There’s Market Square, of course, and buzz of shops and restaurants that rivals Boston’s Newbury Street, minus the parking nightmares. Its compact size and sheer number locally owned stores, however, gives it a small town feel. It’s a working waterfront city, too, with tugboats and bigger ships on […]
We all want snow right now, even if only for a few days. When snow falls in mid December, the child in us that hides as a grownup most of the time, feels safe to emerge, to want to play outside, and look skyward with our own children searching for the magical sleigh. But nowhere […]
My all-time favorite Christmas cookie is a recipe that my Aunt Madeline called Pecan Puffs and some people know as Pecan Balls or Meltaways. These simple nutty shortbread rounds, rolled in powdered sugar, look like delicate snowballs and taste like heaven. Here is a perfect example of how a few simple ingredients in the right […]
Flowers are the perfect holiday gift for the person who has everything, but nobody wants to give a present that’s going to die after a few days. Follow these tips to make flower arrangements last longer. 1. Purchase the freshest flowers possible. Avoid flowers that are weeping, have discolored petals or are fully open with […]
Save money on Christmas decor by incorporating nature into your decorating scheme. Collect pine cones and acorns when walking in the woods, and then dress them up for the season following these simple steps. 1. Wipe them clean with a paper towel or soft rag and keep them in a dry place. 2. If you […]
I took my three little boys shopping at the Co-op two days before Christmas and got many, many looks of sympathy mixed with envy. We made a mad spectacle that reminded people how much fun holidays can be when children are a part of the celebration. Nobody was whining, no one had a runny nose, […]
With a history as long and colorful as Yankee’s, poking through the archives can easily swallow up an hour of your day, or if you’re not careful, the whole darn thing. During my first month at Yankee, I’ve happily thumbed through the many books that line our corridors, and peered into the contents of well-worn […]
There is no better way to know a famous tourist town than arriving off season, when the tourists have left, and the locals reclaim their streets, their beaches, their way of life that brought them here in the first place, perhaps generations ago. I rarely visit a beautiful place without daydreaming at some point about […]
