Please all the cat ladies and feline fans on your gift list this year with Fred Flare’s Cats Attack! Scratching post . The clever cardboard design mimics an ambiguous Gotham- perfect for your pussycat to work out all those Godzilla fantasies. Throw in a few catnip mice and some Greenies and ready yourself for a purr-filled holiday! –Katie D.

Book page décor is catching on. We shared this book page tree project from White Waxflower and we’re not the only fans. Paula says: “My friends & i just had a wreath making party this week and 2 of us made the book page wreaths!! Now we have to do the trees!!! LOVE IT!!!”

Custom chocolate bars are a sweet personalized treat. Becki S. made some for her hubby and shared the recipe to our delight. Ellie says: “So inspirational, a more modern take on your Great Aunt’s custom chocolate box, raisins optional!”

An orange, a tealight and cloves are all you need to make a festive air freshener. Rebecca F. shared her take on the Kitchn’s simple project, and asked what you do you warm up your home. Rebecca says: “When the weather turns chilly I make spiced cider simmered in a crock pot on low all day. It makes the whole place smell great and tastes amazing.”

Handmade mementos and homemade food are great gifts for in-laws. They’re tough to buy for, but you’ve found relative success with these items. Amber says: “I always go handmade – one year, I did homemade wine glass charms, another year, I brought back handmade Christmas ornaments from a trip to Prague – this year, I made my own ornaments and will also gift them with homemade yummy biscotti and wine. I’m very lucky that I have such amazing, grateful future in-laws who value quality time and good food and drink over anything material.”

Chic holiday table settings are just a grocery store trip away. Becki S. dressed her table with pears, spices and nuts and we love the simplicity of the look. Clair says: “I love your table. I did almost the same thing as you. I put out solid white plates and I placed on each plate d’jour pear with a few strings of raffia tied on the stem.”

Looking for some décor inspired by the great outdoors? Remodelista offers this roundup of holiday looks from Terrain featuring these Glass Hanging Orbs. Adorable!

Don’t underestimate brown paper packages tied up with string. Three cheap and chic gift wrapping ideas at CasaSugar.

Whether shopping for a wine-lover or bringing the perfect bottle to the host, The Kitchn has your number with this wine gift guide.

What’s better than the perfect gift tag? A free, printable gift tag, that’s what. Three design sheets in PDF format at Camilla Engman.

Craft’s melted snowman cookies tell a tragic, but tasty tale.

Spicing up an Old Fashioned with apple brandy? Yes, please. At Serious Eats.

DIY Life saves the holiday with these tips for removing tree sap from a carpet. Close one!

It’s Christmas at the White House! This year’s theme is “Simple Gifts” and Holidash has the slideshow.

Not just for tots: Anthropologie’s animal lamps get a shout at Coos & Ahhs.

There has been much ado about Penguin’s cloth bound, admittedly beautiful classic hardcover tomes in the blogosphere, but I’m much more interested in their re-released paperbacks . The new covers are colorful, bold and capture the loud spirits housed within the black-and-white text of their pages. All are gorgeous and reminiscent of comic books, graphic novels and fantastic pulp magazines (check out the scandalous cover of Ethan Frome). Pick up a stack for your favorite bookworm’s library. –Katie D.

As I’ve said, I’m not crafty. My coworkers, though? They’re so gifted they turn out what you see above in the space of a lunch hour. I was so dazzled by these goings-on that I asked them to share their sources.

Beautiful paper snowflake: This one comes from Cut Out and Keep, where a gallery of reader images proves that this project is not just beautiful, but very do-able. Coworker 1 came over to my desk with a big, beautiful snowflake (in yellow it’s more like a giant star) that she had just made. Her time-saving tip is to use invisible tape instead of glue — you don’t really see it and that’s doubly true if you’ll be hanging these from the ceiling.

Kusudama: Coworker 2 found her inspiration at Folding Trees, where a two-part tutorial on Kusudama shares an easy way to make paper flowers that you then glue together into ball-shaped ornaments. She was putting these together at her desk, and I have to say that the flowers look amazing on their own as well, particularly in white. This would be a really cute spin on wedding flowers too, I think.

Readers, if you have more impressive paper crafts, please share in comments! — Mary T.

As a group, in-laws are famously difficult to shop for. It seems all I read in these days of holiday gift guides are anecdotes highlighting their fussiness as a demographic and uncanny ability to dislike items purchased for them. Without in-laws of my own, I can’t speak from personal experience, but I have enjoyed offering my services as a consult to friends and those who may or may not be dating my twin sister, and choosing the perfect thing can be a high-stakes maneuver. Glamour offers this list of 10 gifts for in-laws that highlights items that each ring in at less than $100 (and prominently features socks, scarves, slippers and a little Jonathan Adler) but I want to hear from you. What do you bring your in-laws? What has worked, and (eek!) hasn’t? –Sarah C.

You can literally throw this vegetarian meal together in minutes and while like most soups, the flavor is better the next day, a hot dinner in minutes more than makes up for it. First add the evoo and 1 cup of pico to a large sauce pot on medium high heat. While the pico is sauteeing, open the beans. Stir pico and add the dry spices, then four of the six cans of beans. (Don’t worry if the pico is not cooked down — the next step will take care of that.) Using an immersion blender, blend contents of pot until smooth. Add remaining two cans of beans and cook until bubbly — about five minutes.) Garnish with a sprinkle of cheese and pico. No pico in the house? Sub 1/2 cup of your favorite salsa, omitting the evoo and the first step. — Sarah L.

1/2 tsp. evoo
1 cup pico de gallo, plus more for garnish
6 cans black beans
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
hot sauce to taste
sour cream and/or cheese of choice as garnish

This year newsprint accents seem to be taking the design world by storm. We see it in David Stark’s collaboration with West Elm, in which flowers, birds, topiaries and ornaments feature repurposed text, and it’s also alive and well in this Christmas tree comprised almost completely of book pages by Mary Grace over at White Waxflower. Wire hangers, a cheap book, brown paper, wire pipe cleaners, tape, staples and a glue gun are the main ingredients in this adorable holiday project, which the author explains in a very festive short video on the site. More of a wreath type? Look no further than Living With Lindsay for instructions for a book pages wreath! –Sarah C.

Ever since I married my darling husband, I’ve entered a whole new world of holiday madness: Chrismukkah. Yes, we celebrate both. That means coming up with gifts to put under the tree, gifts to put in a stocking, plus a gift for each of the eight nights of Hanukkah. Needless to say, my gift budget has gotten a little out of control in recent years. But I spotted some custom-made candy bars out there in the world recently, and decided to try my very own DIY version. Turns out, it’s easy, thrifty (especially if you don’t buy $20 chocolate as I did), and a huge hit at my house.  –Becki S. Click for custom chocolate bars! (more…)

I had an unfortunate accident happen a few weeks ago. The hanging wire on my beloved dining room mirror gave out, and the mirror slid down the wall and crashed onto the floor. Luckily the frame took the brunt of the impact and the mirror only cracked – not shattered – into 2 pieces.

The price for getting a new mirror cut to fit the frame was exorbitant, so instead I brainstormed some ways to salvage the cracked pieces. Since the wall behind the mirror is covered with maps, I decided to let the crack help me integrate both the mirror and the wall coverings into a single piece of artwork. I used blue painters tape (perfect color!) and created a sort of abstract river covering the crack and extending onto the walls. I intend to have it branch above the frame as soon as I can locate a ladder to reach that high! What do you think? I’m pretty sure this technique would also work with vinyl wall decals as well. And the crack could easily become a climbing vine, garland, tree branch, or lightning bolt, depending on your taste and wall color.

Other options I came up with were to cover the crack with cut-out sections of maps or photos of places I had visited or use a mirror patina to age the mirror and make the crack less noticeable. What would you do? –Rebecca F.