“Energy-efficient improvements not only make your home more comfortable, they can yield long-term financial rewards. Reduced utility bills more than make up for the higher price of energy-efficient appliances and improvements over their lifetimes. In addition, your home could bring in a higher price when you sell.”

For business owners looking to cut costs (and save even more than a single family), this excellent site not only has tips, but also software to help drastically lower your energy usage.

The Make It Right project here in New Orleans is proving that houses can be built so efficiently that the inhabitants actually make money by putting energy back into the grid.  Now, that’s some serious savings!

Today we’ve added a new section to our website, Nutcrackers.  We sell a great many nutcrackers in our New Orleans Christmas shop, but have never had them on our website before.  All the figures on our site are from Steinbach, beautiful nutcrackers hand made in Germany.

On the subject of handmade Christmas decorations, check out these beautiful hand made ornaments by the Ornament Girl.  She’s got ornaments for every occasion, a couple of which are pictured above.

We’ve just added a new Christmas sale section to our online store with 16 great tree styles.  You’ll find artificial Christmas trees on sale from 3′ to 9′ tall, including table top trees and colored trees.  Check back in the coming week for wreaths, garlands, and Christmas lights!