Short On Ideas?

Investing time to find interesting ideas is an important way to help achieve a hospitable lifestyle.  We find the public library an invaluable source of inspiration to get the ideas flowing in the areas of cooking, home making, home organization, decorating, menus, party themes, recipes, and at this time of year – Christmas planning!!  It’s also a great way to preview a book or magazine that you may decide to purchase after reading it through.  Building a “hospitality library” is a wonderful way to arm oneself for when the need arises to be a blessing to someone else in this area.  One doesn’t have to buy expensive cookbooks or spend a lot of money to get some great books.  Used book sales are a wonderful place to find these little “jewels” with a very inexpensive price tag.  The books featured in the photos below were either checked out of the library (obviously for free) or bought at a used book sale for one or two dollars each. 

Nice way to relax - read some cookbooks and sip some tea!

Magazines are also a fun way to get ideas for decoration, party planning, table decor, etc.  They can also be checked out of the library or bought pretty inexpensively at your local grocery store.  Christmas limited edition magazines are great to keep from year to year.  Flagging the pages or recipes that spark your interest is a good way to remember dishes or baking that one may want to repeat or make a yearly tradition. These are just a few ways we’ve found to help us in our effort to make being hospitable more simple and inexpensive and we hope they help you too!