Sometimes the sale racks at Target just won't do when you have someone on your list who would appreciate heart and soul in your gift selection. If you want to give something truly personal this Christmas, consider Etsy where handmade so often means exquisite detail and the finest quality. With priority shipping, it's still not too late to send the best of the best. Here are four ways you can't go wrong--whether you are the crafty buyer or whether you have someone who loves to create on your list. Buy Original Prints

Art takes new forms in winter months where cold weather sends reflective souls inside to create and make things new. New York writer Jen Lee talked to me about her latest project, Solstice: Stories of Light in the Dark, an audio collection of stories written with the lonely days of winter in mind.

"How's business?" I ask an artist friend who practically wrote the book on making a boutique business thrive and prosper with the help of the web. "You can hear crickets chirping," she tells me. "No one's buying a thing."

Fall can be an incredibly inspired time for artists as the season changes, giving way to shorter days, more reflection and if you're lucky, more time to create. Here's a nice sampling of offerings for fall from artists who are focused on the transformations of nature as well as the heart.

Women have been struggling to balance family and career as long as women have been in the workplace. And over the last decade, we've seen progress. Partners expect to have to share household responsibilities to a certain extent; modern couples understand the need to take turns so each person gets a shot at making particular goals a reality.