If you already have natural softwood floorboards, why look further when you want the beauty of a natural wood floor in your home? Unfortunately, the answer often lies in the condition of the floorboards themselves. There may be gaps between the boards which trap dirt and can let in drafts. The boards may be split, warped, or rotten, or have deep nail holes in them. Sometimes the supporting joists may have weakened, or they may be suffering from woodworm or dry rot.

In the case of woodworm and/or dry rot, remedial work including chemical spraying and replacement of damaged wood is essential, whatever type of flooring you are installing. If you want floorboards as your floor covering, all of the existing boards that are rotted or worm-eaten must be replaced. There are ways to cure most other floorboard defects.

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If there’s one food that embodies Christmas to perfection, it’s gingerbread. Bake it, and your entire house smells like a holiday. Nibble it, and you’re transported to Christmas past. But what elevates gingerbread above a mere seasonal treat is its decorative quality. Turn it into ornaments and gifts, and every tree or tabletop it touches seems joyous. Even its monkish hue, which may not look very festive, is a warm and amiable backdrop for whimsical shapes and fanciful icing in any color you like.

The gingerbread cookie was the favorite Christmas treat of early-American children. It became popular because it was inexpensive to make and resilient enough to withstand the vagaries of wood- and coal-fired ovens. Gingerbread enthusiasts, however, like to point out that gingerbread became beloved for its taste—that inimitable combination of molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg—and for the fun it provides.

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What could be more glorious than a holiday table laden with fruit? Fruit is nature’s bounty and an eloquent symbol of its richness. The Dutch and Flemish masters immortalized fruit, as well as flowers, in their prettiest still lifes. But it was the French, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who refined fruit centerpieces into soaring pyramids of glistening cherries and grapes; elaborate epergnes whose branches were filled with strawberries, figs, and miniature apples; or a single golden pineapple served up on a pedestal.

The French built centerpieces in a variety of vessels, mixing real fruit, flowers, and leaves with ceramic fruit. Sometimes the fruit was meant to be eaten, and other times not, since some of the techniques to make a pyramid stable, like drizzling warm caramel over the arrangement or pouring water over it so it would ice, made the display purely decorative. But then a fruit centerpiece was designed less to be tasted than to dazzle and to amuse.

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It never fails, every time you need to wrap a gift you find yourself sprawled out on the kitchen floor with gift wrap, bows, tape, and scissors spread out all over the place. Your legs start to cramp, the tape sticks to the gift wrap, and the scissors keep disappearing under a pile of bows. What to do?! Why not turn that unused guest room into a gift wrapping center that will make wrapping gifts both fun and functional?

Making your own gift wrapping center is easy and doesn’t have to take up a whole lot of space. If you don’t want to dedicate an entire room to your gift wrapping center, try placing some of these organizational elements inside the closet or hide them behind a curtain that you can pull shut when you’re not wrapping gifts.

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If you have pets, you’ve already learned that paws can leave dirty tracks that are more difficult to remove from your carpet and furniture than those made by human feet. For one thing, the number of dogs capable of learning how to wipe their feet before entering the house is far greater than the number of people who know this and are willing to teach their dogs to do it. If you happen to be a household with a few cats, you already know which of the fabrics covering your furniture your kitty finds most suitable for sharpening their destructive little claws.

The point here is that fabrics, carpets included, can be difficult to keep looking good when some of your family members have four legs. If you’re presently living in rooms that show all too ample evidence that your last carpet and fabric choices weren’t the best, don’t despair—more pet-suitable choices are available today than you may suspect. Just keep the following facts in mind when you choose your next pet friendly decor:

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Black and White Family Photography: Creating an Awesome Wall Montage

Displaying your family photos in black and white can be a great way to highlight your special moments. Converting your color photos to black and white is simple and affordable and arranging them into a montage is an effective way to create an attractive visual statement.

Choose photos that will tell a story when grouped together, perhaps of family trips you’ve taken or a collection of special events. Once you’ve decided on the photos, you’ll need to convert them to black and whites. If your pictures are in digital format, you can use a program like Photoshop to instantly convert your color photos to black and white without damaging the original photos. You can convert those old photos from your albums by scanning them and printing them out onto photo paper. You can also edit these photos in Photoshop if you like. If you’re not computer savvy, go to your local photo shop or kiosk and have a professional convert your digital photographs for very little cost.

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