In Creating a Beautiful Home, Alexandra Stoddard generously shares her professional secrets as an interior designer as well as her personal experiences in renovating and decorating her own 1775 home in Connecticut. Once again, her original and imaginative ideas for every room in the house will inform and inspire you on your own exciting journey of discovery as you transform your living space into a warm and welcoming oasis of harmony, beauty, and joy.

    Changing the function of a word, or a room, can produce surprise and meaning. In How to Architect, Patt--an architect and the creator of a series of wildly popular online videos about architecture--presents the basics of architecture in A-Z form, starting with A is for Asymmetry (as seen in Chartres Cathedral and Frank Gehry), detouring through N is for Narrative, and ending with Z is for Zeal (a quality that successful architects tend to have, even in fiction--see The Fountainhead's architect-hero Howard Roark.)How to Architect is a book to guide you on the road to architecture. If you are just starting on that journey or thinking about becoming an architect, it is a place to begin. If you are already an architect and want to remind yourself of what drew you to the profession, it is a book of affirmation. And if you are just curious about what goes into the design and construction of buildings, this book tells you how architects think. Patt introduces each entry with a hand-drawn letter, and accompanies the text with illustrations that illuminate the concept discussed: a fallen Humpty Dumpty illustrates the perils of fragile egos; photographs of an X-Acto knife and other hand tools remind us of architecture's nondigital origins.How to Architect offers encouragement to aspiring architects but also mounts a defense of architecture as a profession--by calling out a defiant verb: architect!

    It is the follow-up book to Police, Crime & 999, a book which still remains hugely popular today, with over 250 5-star Amazon reviews, and which garnered positive feedback from a number of national publications:‘Everything is included in this warts-and-all account. Very funny’ The Sun‘A treasure trove of a book – a wonderfully informative and addictive read, full of belly laughs’ The Non-Fiction Book ClubWARNING: Contains Humour & Traces of Nuts

    Now he’s back with his proven Seven Layers of Design system to bring readers a lively blend of design theory and hands-on advice for fearless, fabulous decorating. Christopher Lowell’s Seven Layers of Design solves decorating dilemmas by encouraging readers to look at a room piece by piece, layer by layer, from the floor up. With his humor, wit, and charm, Lowell breaks down the Seven Layers of Design to lay the groundwork for simple, yet stunning, home design.Each chapter of Christopher Lowell’s Seven Layers of Design walks you through room makeovers with easy step-by-step projects; dramatic before, during, and after photographs; and useful sidebars that make decorating simple, fun, and rewarding.•Learn why you should never paint a ceiling white.•Create fabulous fakes using paint and plywood.•Increase the value of your home with architectural detail.

    Bartley Gorman was a legend in the brutal world of illegal prize-fighting, and this long-awaited auto-biography, with many unique photographs, lifts the lid on a secret sub-culture.

    It's where visitors go to cajole, connive, and most of all, complain. Guests cry. They lie. Some even collapse to the floor. For these unhappy campers, Annie Salisbury was the power behind the pixie dust. Her tell-all will shock and amaze.From her unhappy start as a DisneyQuest cast member, Annie worked her way through the theme parks to Guest Relations, and then Magic Kingdom tour guide. Along the way she made friends, she made enemies; she delighted some guests, disappointed others; she discovered the vast gulf behind the public face of Disney and the backstage cauldron of politics, jealousy, and betrayal.Annie's witty, incisive memoir is a fascinating tale of day-to-day interaction with the people behind the pixie dust, and the pushy public who want some of it, no matter what: Share the pain of Annie's disastrous stints at DisneyQuest and the Great Movie Ride Learn the ins and outs of Walt Disney World Guest Relations Stand behind the counter at City Hall in Magic Kingdom and meet some of the craziest guests ever to set foot in the park Tag along with one of Annie's Magic Kingdom tour groups Meet a rogue's gallery of cast members who come to work each day to create magic ... for themselves WALT DISNEY WORLD GUEST RELATIONS: WHERE PIXIE DUST TURNS TO ACID RAIN

    Both are pretty easy to put off as they're very expensive and tend to wreck your house.' Stand-up comedian Sam Avery (aka the Learner Parent) started his award-winning blog when his twin boys were born. A million nappies, Peppa Pig episodes and a lot less sleep later, he shares all the lows, highs and hilarious in-betweens of his experiences of first-time parenthood in this, his highly anticipated first book. Sam's honest, messy and laugh-out-loud account of trying for a baby (which transpired to be babIES) and figuring out what to do with them once they arrived - right up to the toddler years of talking, walking and tantrum-ing - will have you crying with laughter between your own nappy changes and nursery runs.

    Author Kim Leggett is the creator of City Farmhouse, an interior design business, pop-up antiquing fairs, and vintage store. She is also a legendary “picker” and favorite designer to celebrity clients (and country-style mavens) including Meg Ryan, Ralph Lauren, Sheryl Crow, and Phillip Sweet and Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town. In City Farmhouse Style, Leggett offers great style advice, breaking down the design vocabulary that makes for fresh country style (no matter the setting).   The popularity of farmhouse style has designers, home­owners, and fans in search of inspiration to create this look in all its rural glory. City Farmhouse Style is the first design book of its kind to focus entirely on transforming urban interiors with unfussy, welcoming, country-style decor.

    Each palette--which includes anywhere from 6 to 16 color swatches--forms a blueprint for a unique decorative scheme. A palette based on old Chinese silk, for example, is seen reinterpreted in a contemporary New York apartment. Plus, each palette features gorgeous photographs that bring the color scheme to life, along with invaluable advice and tips for using the colors to transform a room. Readers will also find manufacturers' paint references and numbers, lists of suppliers, and much more. The ultimate color sourcebook!

    This title shows a wide variety of interior details and describes how to add or restore elements that suggest a historic flair while keeping the home comfortable and functional.

    As a result, one of the most effective ways to transform any room is by changing its color. Which colors to use is the challenge.The Color Scheme Bible is a practical, yet inspiring reference for those who want to take advantage of different colors without clashing. It contains 150 color scheme ideas for home decorators and interior designers.The book explains how to choose colors that will complement each other for a subdued effect, and which colors and combinations will energize the room.Topics covered include:How color creates ambiance and atmosphere Using color to give a small room the illusion of space and depth How to create the feeling of warmth and light with color Distinctive color schemes inspired by nature, art, travel and even a favorite possession. The book also includes a variety of color combination palettes that can be used with different materials for refreshingly original color schemes.The Color Scheme Bible is an essential handbook for home decorators and interior designers.

    K. Rowling wrote her first story at age six. From then on, writing was her passion. In 1990, an idea popped into her head that changed her life. She envisioned an orphaned Harry Potter, who learns he is a wizard. Rowling began to write amazing tales and became one of the world's most famous authors.

    Chris Spealler is 5’5" and 140 pounds. Such daunting facts would make most declare defeat before trying. Chris didn’t buy the odds, though. Instead, he forged his own modern-day David-and-Goliath story. Speal is Chris’s account of struggle and perseverance, despite being "too small." What others did with ease, he seemed to do with sheer grit and will. And his actions put him among CrossFit’s elite. His is not a story of a gifted athlete whose natural talent granted him acclaim, but rather of one man who refused to back down and inspired an entire community in the process.

    In entirely new photographs taken especially for this book by two leading architectural photographers under the direction of co-editor David Larkin, such internationally famous buildings as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Fallingwater and Wright's homes Taliesin, Taliesin West, and the Oak Park Home and Studio are seen afresh, benefiting from the photographers' special access. Several lesser-known residences, such as Auldbrass Plantation in South Carolina, an array of wooden buildings that is Wright's American alternative to antebellum architecture, the William H. Winslow house in River Forest, Illinois, one of the architect's earliest and most surprisingly decorative houses, and the Kenneth Laurent house in Rockford, Illinois, a masterful curvilinear design, are seen in full color and demonstrate dimensions of Wright's work less often seen before. Public buildings, such as the dramatic concrete, glass, and steel Marin County Civic Center and Beth Sholom Synagogue show Wright as engineering virtuoso as well as creative architect. In addition to these existing masterworks, only the most famous of which are open to the public, the book covers buildings that have been demolished, notably the Larkin Company Administration Building, Midway Gardens, and the Imperial Hotel, which are represented here by drawings and rich archival photographs. Each of the buildings is presented from conceptual sketch, plan, or drawing to finished masterwork, andeach is accompanied by an in-depth essay detailing the development of the work. Extensive quotes from Wright's writings, unpublished talks, and private letters to the clients give valuable insight into the architect's own thinking about each commission. Never before has Wright's architecture been presented so elaborately in one volume.

    Japan Style introduces 20 special residences. With more than 200 color photographs, this book showcases the stunning beauty of old homes, and reveals how they are cared for by their owners.Traditional Japanese homes, with superbly crafted fine wood, great workmanship and seasonal interior arrangements, have an aesthetic of infinite simplicity. Unlike Japanese inns and historical buildings, the houses featured in this book are private property and are not open to public viewing. Japan Style offers a rare glimpse into the intimate world of the everyday Japanese and fascinating insight into the traditional architecture of Japan.