On Wednesday, Martha Stewart will present the winner of the Dreamers Into Doers contest, which was launched by her company in June. Women entrepreneurs from all over the country were asked to enter for a chance to win $10,000 to further develop their companies. Out of thousands of entries, the contest has now been narrowed down to 11 finalists and the winners will be announced on Wednesday's episode of the Martha Stewart Show. The grand prize winner will receive the afforementioned prize money, a lifetime of free vacations from Wyndham Vacation Ownership and a trip to New York to meet Martha and be featured on the show.

I think this contest is a wonderful example of a company giving back by continuing the pioneering legacy of its founder. Martha turned her dreams into a reality and she knows as well as anyone who worked their way to the top that it didn't happen without a lot of help. The fact that MSO is helping these great women further develop their entrepreneurial ventures is inspiring and exciting.

Visitors to marthastewart.com also had their say and could vote on their favourites. I've chosen mine:

*Patricia Fragen of Naperville, IL: Normal Moments Inc.

After watching her 16 year-old daughter fight against and eventually lose her life to cancer, Patricia wanted to help parents going through the same ordeal. Patricia's organization provides supportive services like housecleaning, lawn care and more to parents with critically ill children, giving them the time to spend more 'normal moments' together.

*Tabitha Geary of Richmond, VA: Tabitha Geary LLC

Tabitha was thrilled when her mother took on the overwhelming task of organizing her photographs and momentoes into charming memory books for each of Tabitha's five children. Each one was custom made to suit the child it was given to. Thinking she might not be the only one who needed "memory organization" assistance, Tabitha started her company to help families organize and preserve their most treasured memories in professionally-designed memory books.

*Amy Jaffebarzach of West Hartfort, CT: Boundless Playgrounds

To honor the memory of her son who died of spinal muscular atrophy, Amy started Boundless Playgrounds as the first national nonprofit dedicated to helping communities create playgrounds where children with and without disabilities can play and learn together. There are now more than 130 Boundless Playgrounds in more than 20 states.

Good luck to all 11 finalists. They're all worthy.

UPDATE: CONGRATULATIONS TO AMY JAFFEBARZACH FOR HER BOUNDLESS PLAYGROUNDS PROJECT. AMY WAS NAMED THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER!

In the December issue of Martha Stewart Living there is a whimsical article on making old-fashioned holiday candy (peppermint sticks, candied citrus peels, toffee, chocolate bark, almond nougat and pecan clusters) with the long, complicated recipes printed at the back of the magazine so that they don't interfere with the food-porn photos. To accompany the recipes, the genius designers at the magazine and the masterful webmasters who run marthastewart.com have created the pretty packaging for anyone to download and use to wrap these classic confections. Simply visit http://www.marthastewart.com/december-crafts to download the clip-art wrapping and labels and to read full instructions on how to make the containers or affix the paper labels to store-bought boxes.

Step-by-step instructions can be found at marthastewart.com for the handling and use of the download clip-art and labels. The wrapping patterns for the fudge and chocolate-dipped marshmallow cookies, above, are inspired vintage designs that come in red and green.

Materials lists and printing techniques are also found along with the download links.

The arrival of the December issue of Martha Stewart Living is always an event for me. It represents the culmination of the year for my favourite magazine and I tend to judge this yearly issue the most harshly because of this. It's the peak of Martha Stewart Living's annual offerings and it ought to be the best showcase of the imagination and creativity of the people who make the magazine happen. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't. There have been December issues in the past that have blown me away and there have been issues that have left me feeling more than a little underwhelmed.

I'm happy to report that the 2008 holiday issue is a dream come true!

It is filled (and I mean filled) with new ideas - ideas that feel fresh but that still manage to pay tribute to the classicism and elegance of holiday issues past. Crafters, I think, will be especially pleased with this issue. There is a lot on offer here, including wreath making, soap making and crafts for setting the holiday table and for making decorations and ornaments.

Oh, and there are templates and downloads galore!

Visit http://www.marthastewart.com/december-crafts to download all kinds of beautiful gift tag designs and packaging for homemade gifts. Cooks will be pleased with more cookie recipes (although I'm personally over the whole cookie phenomenon) and delicious old-fashioned candies. The cooking segments in this issue, though, are not as plentiful as past issues have been, with more of a focus on crafting and decorating, which I love. Cooks have the special Holiday issue (Seasons Eatings) to turn to for their favourite recipes, not to mention a new cookbook to explore.

The new issue looks so happy on my nightstand. It will remain there for weeks, I'm sure, as I pore over it, absorbing all the details.

A lovely article on using vintage green ceramic ware for festive decor.

Learn how to make old-fashioned holiday candies and visit marthastewart.com to download the pretty vintage packaging and labels you see in the photos.

A story on growing and displaying the beautiful amaryllis flower. This harkens back to the old holiday issues of Martha Stewart Living I cherish.

Come on over to Martha's Bedford estate for a Christmas carol party in the new music room at her newly restored Summer House. (You will also be able to download Martha's personalized songbook shown above on the right page at marthastewart.com.)

Using doilies in all kinds of festive ways! Who doesn't love a good doily?

I love this article on using cameo crafts in holiday decor: classic and clean!

In recent years, Martha Stewart Living subscription services have been offering calendars as free gifts to those who renew their subscriptions or give gift subscriptions. I received my 2009 calendar yesterday for giving a gift subscription to a friend. I have three years worth of the calendars and I believe I sold the 2006, 2005 and 2004 calendars on eBay. These are not available anywhere else, so their rarity level is quite high. Other free gifts from Martha Stewart subscription services have included small "Good Things" booklets and, of course, the ubiquitous canvas tote bag emblazoned with the Martha Stewart Living masthead. Recently, they were offering a digital copy of the first issue of Martha Stewart Living.

The calendars are beautifully designed and printed on high quality glossy paper with photographs from the magazine. The days of the week have helpful seasonal hints, similar to those found in Martha's Calendar column, as well as "Do You Know?" facts and figures for each month. At the front of the calendars are letters of thanks from the editor-in-chief. At the back is a helpful template with spaces to put the phone numbers of close friends and relatives, emergency numbers and a section of measuring equivalents.

The covers almost always have a photo of a floral arrangement from the magazine.

The 2009 calendar opens like a book. It was advertised as a desk calendar, but I think I prefer the vertical, hanging version.

This week, Martha spoke with Barnes & Noble's Tagged! host Molly Pesce about her new cookbook, Martha Stewart's Cooking School and shared the harrowing tale of her first (and worst) Thanksgiving dinner, which she hosted at their cottage in Gilford, Connecticut. Let's just say it involved a turkey that was burned black. Not a good thing.

The kind people at Barnes & Noble sent me the clip for everyone to enjoy:


Martha discusses some of her many books:

November is one of my least favourite months. In Canada, there is nothing special about the eleventh month on the calendar, whose birth stone is Topaz and whose signature flower is the chrysanthemum. There is no Thanksgiving for us this month. (We celebrate that holiday in October.) The only real special day in November for Canadians is Remembrance Day on November 11th, which is to honour Canada's war dead.

It's cold. It's damp. The coloured leaves have fallen and now slowly turn to mucky brown piles around town, like a dirty carpet waiting for the clean snow. We all shuffle around in mourning under gray skies and drizzle remembering men and women who have died in war. Sigh. It's not exactly a month filled with cheer.

As a kid, I always hated November. I wanted to "fast-forward" it to the spot on the calendar I enjoyed most: December! December means Christmas (and all the fun leading up to it), my birthday two days after Christmas and New Year's Eve, two days after my birthday! It's all so blissful. There is just the sad matter of November to get through...

So, in order to make myself less jaded about this month, I decided to force myself to enjoy at least one day. I was determined to find beauty. A day at the cottage was just the thing. So, come and take a walk with me through some of my usual hiking trails up at Sunday Lake and let me know if these November snapshots make the month any more alluring. I hope so! They do for me.

This little vignette of twisted drift wood and rock by the water was full of texture and vitality.

The leaves on the trees have now left a carpet on the ground, but there is something majestic and elegant about the bare, outstretched branches of the trees.

The signs of decay are bittersweet also. This old, decaying birch tree has obviously been home to all kinds of little forest creatures. Everything has a cycle.

On my walk I came upon a beautiful marsh. When the wind blew there was only the sound of the hissing marsh grasses and the subtle clatter of the bare branches above my head.

This tree had a section of its trunk that reminded me of a face. Notice the eye, the eyebrow arch and the side of the nose.

Because it is hunting season here, I bedecked Molly with all kinds of little fluorescent ribbons, just in case a wayward hunter mistook her for a small bear. And believe me, given her size, that would not be an outrageous assumption. I think she looks quite festive!

I spotted this beautiful butterfly sunning itself on a tree trunk. The temperatures today were in the high 60's and there were all kinds of little insects around.

A beautiful, majestic pine tree reaching to the blue sky. It must have been at least 100 feet tall.
The moss on the damp forest floor is still luminescently green and soft. There are still little ferns clinging to life and add a lush counterpoint to all the brown, gray and yellow around.

A milkweed looks completely painterly, with one little seed pod desperately waiting for a gust of wind to carry it away.

A fallen hemlock had turned a reddish-brown, which looked like an amber/caramel in the sunlight.
And speaking of sunlight, it gave us a glorious sky as it left us for the day, at around 4:45 pm.

PS: A big congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama! The world has sighed a giant sigh of relief today. Like 70% of all Canadians, and 3/4 of all nations around the world that were surveyed, I am thrilled with the results this morning.

New this year from Martha Stewart and 1-800-Flowers.com is a series of gift baskets, cookies and food trays for the Martha fan on your list. Three gift basket combinations, two snack platters and a tin of bakery-fresh cookies make up the new Martha Stewart line. The tin of twenty cookies comes with recipe cards for each of the varieties and the Martha Stewart's Cookies book. The cookies come in a blue tin emblazoned with the Martha Stewart logo. Prices for the new food gift line range between $50 and $109.

Ever want to escape to Skylands, Martha's house in Maine, and have a leisurely breakfast overlooking Seal Harbor? Of course we have. This may be the next best thing. The Martha Stewart Breakfast in Maine Gift Basket contains buttermilk pancake mix, maple syrup, scone mix, cinamon bun mix and wild blueberry Maine jam in a woven Nantucket hamper. All of the food was made by Stonewall Kitchen, Maine's leading producer of specialty and gourmet foods.

Another gift basket celebrates the afternoon tea ritual with all the trimmings. The Martha Stewart Afternoon Tea Gift Basket also comes in the Nantucket hamper but contains earl gray shortbread biscotti, a tin of assorted pastillines, a jar of white clover honey, plum butter, Eastate Tea (Golden Assam and Lovers Leap), rock candy stir sticks, traditional scone mix and almond French twists. This artisanal all-American cheese sampler arrives in a Nantucket woven basket tray with an assortment of American snacking cheeses, handmade crackers, and a lush fig preserve. The tray includes blue cheese, old cheddar, Gran Queso, Beecher's handmade crackers and Dalmatia fig spread. A deluxe edition also includes dry Jack cheese, goat cheese, and an assortment of nuts.

The Martha Stewart Sweet and Savory Snack Tray also comes in the woven Nantucket tray and a nice mix of treats. It includes trail mix, candy-sweet berries, cheese crisps, dark chocolate almonds, mixed dried fruits and pistachios. A deluxe edition includes cashews, espresso medley, gummy bears, hot and spicy nut mix and jumbo dried pears. Visit 1800flowers.com/marthastewart for more information.