Frugal Luxuries by the Seasons

Book excerpt: All year-round, create lush beauty and quiet graces for home and family (without breaking your budget) Tracey McBride's first book, Frugal Luxuries, elevated frugal but elegant living to an art form. Now in this companion volume she shares all new ways to embellish cherished holidays and the timeless rhythms of the seasons. Here she shows how to use joined efforts, loving hands, and exciting ideas to create gracious touches and sumptuous celebrations, delicious meals and wonderful seasonal treats. Learn how you can enrich your home with timeless pleasures and lighten the spirits of those you hold most dear--without exhausting your bank account. Enjoy: Emblems of spring: aromatic Irish linen sachets, warm scones drenched in jam and butter...and mysterious bunny tracks you can make to delight your children Enchanted summers: floral wreaths as party favors, an Italian feast with homemade pasta...and bountiful gifts from the garden Autumnal offerings: scented cinnamon pinecones as fire starters, fresh challah for Rosh Hashana...and a house warmed with fall bouquets and cozy paisley throws Winter wonders: mood-enhancing music, illuminating with lights, inside and out...and a Christmas gift pantry--begun in January--to create stress-free giving Plus an abundance of seasonal blessings, imaginative uses for yard-sale treasures, an appreciation of things old and marvelous...and creation of a life of beauty and simplicity.