Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts - Book Review

Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts

Potter Crafts 2011

ISBN: 978-0-307-58690-2

My Review:

From the Publisher:

Join Martha Stewart for a celebration of handcrafted holidays all year-round!

New Year’s – Valentine’s Day – Easter – Mother’s Day – Father’s Day – Fourth of July – Halloween – Thanksgiving – Hanukkah – Christmas

Let Martha inspire your creativity with the most beautiful crafts. The 225 handmade projects include cards and greetings, decorations, gifts and gift wrapping, tabletop accents, party favors, and kids’ crafts, as well as more holiday-specific activities, such as egg-dyeing, pumpkin carving, and tree trimming. Each idea is sure to make the holidays more festive—and memorable.




AMAZON

~XOXO~

Wine Bites by Barbara Scott-Goodman

Wine Bites

by Barbara Scott-Goodman

Chronicle Books

ISBN: 9780811876308

My Review:

From the Publisher:

Wine Bites is an inspiring cookbook for those who entertain casually and frequently. More than 60 recipes for simple, tasty snacks include suggestions for an accessible wine to pair with each, while vivid color photographs demonstrate how easy these delectable dishes are to prepare. Step-by-step instructions for putting together a first-class cheese plate, creating a generous antipasti platter, or transforming pantry staples into hors d'oeuvres make this an indispensable resource for great party-givings.
Barbara Scott-Goodman is the author of The Ski Country Cookbook among others. She lives in New York City.

Kate Mathis is a commercial photographer based in New York.

French Classics Made Easy by Richard Grausman

French Classics Made Easy
by Richard Grausman
Workman Publishing
ISBN: 9780761158547

My Review:

From the Publisher:
Classic French food is hotter than ever. But one thing hasn’t changed—few of us have the time, the patience, the technique, or the cream and butter allowance to tackle the classics as presented by Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The good news is—we don’t need to. For the past 40 years Richard Grausman, America’s premier culinary teacher, has been training American chefs in a simpler, better way of French cooking, and in French Classics Made Easy—a refreshed and updated edition of his original collection, At Home with the French Classics—he shares all of his extraordinary innovations and techniques. Golden soufflés in ten minutes. A light and luscious chocolate mousse that can be made as a cake, a chocolate roll, soufflé, or pudding. Plus Cassoulet, Boeuf Bourguignon, Coq au Vin, Bouillabaisse, Poached Salmon with Beurre Blanc—in all, 250 impeccably clear, step-by-step recipes in range of anyone who knows how to boil water or dice an onion.

When a step isn’t critical, Grausman eliminates it. If something can be done in advance, he does it. Plus he’s cut the amount of butter, cream, egg yolks, salt, and sugar; the result is health-conscious recipes that don’t compromise the essential nature of the dish. Techniques are illustrated throughout in line drawings. It’s the grandness of French cuisine, made accessible for both entertaining and everyday meals.

Toad Cottages & Shooting Stars by Sharon Lovejoy

Toad Cottages & Shooting Stars
by Sharon Lovejoy
Workman Publishing
ISBN: 9780761150435

My Review:

From the Publisher:
Make leaf rubbings, learn the neighborhood bird songs together, turn an aquarium into a worm hotel, create a firefly lantern. There are garden projects, both for the outdoors—grow a container snacking garden, a pumpkin patch in a pot—and the indoors, i.e., how to use something called "indoor garbage gardens" to grow pineapple tops, sweet potato vines, peanuts, and more. Cooking projects, both in the sunshine—baking in a solar oven—and in the kitchen—what child will ever forget the time the two of you made Potato Volcanoes with Lava? And lots of rainy-day activities for times when nature's in a cranky mood.

Created by Sharon Lovejoy—a grandmother of four and the author of two classic books of garden activities for grown-ups and kids, Sunflower Houses and Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots—Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars is an ecologically inspired guide that combines more than 130 green activities with timeless grandparenting advice. Illustrated with Lovejoy's distinctive, delicate watercolors, it's an inventive resource for grandmother and grandchild to connect with each other through nature. It is the book to make sure an afternoon, a day, or a weekend turns into a memory that lasts forever.

Unfurling

Unfurling: a mixed media workshop

by Misty Mawn

Quarry Publishing

ISBN: 9781592536887

My Review:

From the Publisher:

Unfurling is a workshop in book form, offering a unique mix of inspiration and technique exercises to get your creative juices flowing. This book is for any creative person who wishes to open up more to the process of making art.

The book begins with art exercises in drawing and painting that include portraiture, contour drawing, backgrounds, layering, and working with a still life, followed by collage and image transfer techniques.

The second section offers exercises and projects in stamp carving, paper pottery, sculpture, origami, paper doll making, and surface design. These tactile explorations offer an enjoyment of the process as well as wonderful handmade projects.

The last section shares a variety of approaches to visual journaling. There are instructions for binding your own journal, prompts and ideas for working on your pages, and a variety of exercises using photography and poetry as ways to inspire and inform your journal keeping.

Also included are a set of gift book plates and a beautiful paper doll designed by the author and printed on perforated cardstock in the back of the book.

Adventures in BookBinding

Adventures in BookBinding
by Jeannine Stein
Quarry Publishing
ISBN: 9781592536870

My Review:

From the Publisher:

Each project in this book combines bookbinding with a specific craft such as quilting, jewelry making, or polymer clay, and offer levels of expertise: basic, novice, and expert. Illustrated step-by-step instructions and photographs demonstrate how to construct the cover pages, and a unique binding technique, easy enough for a beginner to master.

Each project also features two other versions with the same binding geared to those with more or less experience. The novice version is for those who have no knowledge of the craft and want shortcuts, but love the look. For the quilter's book, for example, vintage quilt pieces become the covers so all that's needing in the binding. Or if you're interested in wool felting use an old sweater. This offers great opportunities for upcycling.

The expert version is for those who have a great deal of knowledge and proficiency of a certain craft - the master art quilter, for example. For this version, an expert guest artist has created the cover and the author has created the binding. This offers yet another creative opportunity - the collaborative project. Since crafters often get involved with round-robins and other shared endeavors, this will show them yet another way to combine their skills.

No other craft book offers the possibilities and challenges that Adventures in Bookbinding does. Readers will return to it again and again to find inspiration and ideas.

The Poetry of Fashion Design by Paz Diman

The Poetry of Fashion Design 

by Paz Diman

Rockport Publishers

ISBN-13: 978-1592537150

My Review:

From the Publisher:
There are 108 sonnets in “Astrofel and Stella” by Sir Philip Sydney. One hundred and eight pieces that together make up total perfection and closure that would not possible if some of them did not exist. Analogically, fashion is like a poem. It is made up of different elements that tell a story with the rhythm and tension that achieves harmony. The only difference is that this is a poem that changes and evolves. The pages of this book present the 108 "sonnets" that make up and define the world of fashion today and provide a unique and inspired design source for both professional designers and fashion design enthusiasts.