In this book, Mari Grinde Arntzen asks how and why this is—how can fashion simultaneously attract us to its glamour and repel us with its superficiality and how being called “fashionable” can be at once a compliment and an insult. Arntzen guides us through the major figures and brands of today’s fashion industry, showing how they shape us and in turn why we love to be shaped by them. She examines both everyday, affordable “fast fashion” brands, as well as the luxury market, to show how fashion commands a powerful influence on every socioeconomic level of our society. Stepping into our closets with us, she thinks about what happens when we get dressed: why fashion can make us feel powerful, beautiful, and original at the same time that it forces us into conformity. Stripping off the layers of the world’s fifth largest industry, garment by garment, she holds fashion up as a phenomenon, business, and art, exploring the questions it forces us to ask about the body, image, celebrity, and self-obsession. Ultimately, Arntzen asks the most direct question: what is fashion? How has it taken such a powerful hold on the world, forever propelling us toward its concepts of beauty?

    This inspirational yet thoroughly practical guide shows even the most inexperienced weekend carpenter how to design and build a lifetime of memories for the entire family. With more than 200,000 copies of their popular Weekend Project Books sold, David and Jeanie Stiles have become America's First Couple of do-it-yourself woodworking. In Tree Houses You Can Actually Build, they explain basic building procedures through clear, simple instructions and non-technical line drawings that illustrate every step of the project, from the earliest sketches to the final cedar shingle. The authors outline five basic designs that can be adapted to virtually any set of conditions, and throughout the book, they emphasize safety for both adults and children. In addition to line drawings, the book contains a section of full-color photographs highlighting a variety of tree house projects, plus helpful building tips based on interviews with their owners.

    The devastating impact on the planet is well documented, from polluting oceans to harming wildlife. Yet we are so dependent on a vast variety of plastic products in our daily lives that going without is a real challenge. Filled with simple and practical ways to reduce the amount of plastic you use—such as buying loose fruit and vegetables and ditching the bottled water—this little book will help you find safe, reusable, and affordable alternatives in all areas of your life. Not only will you discover the health, cost, and waste benefits, but you’ll also find tips on how to handle the plastic you already have at home.

    The projects produce high-impact quilts made with simple cutting and construction, therefore no fussy cutting or Y-seams are required.

    Following the popularity of Cozy White Cottage, Cozy White Cottage Seasons is a beautiful, full-color photography holiday lifestyle book with easy-to-do, practical tips to make your home a welcome haven—from New Year’s Day to spring, summer, fall, and all the way through Christmas.Cozy White Cottage Seasons equips you to:Create cozy celebrations, traditions, and memories indoors and outRepurpose furniture and decor for every seasonCultivate your flair for vintage, modern, farmhouse, or a unique style all your ownDesign a hot cocoa bar—and make other seasonally cozy recipesStore and manage holiday clutterAnd so much more!In addition, you’ll find fun ideas to celebrate and decorate for: Christmas Thanksgiving Halloween Fourth of July Father’s Day and Mother’s Day Easter Valentine’s Day And any special gatheringsCozy White Cottage Seasons is a great gift for Christmas, birthdays, and Mother’s Day or as a beautiful yet practical housewarming gift.A cozy enthusiast living in an 1800s farmhouse, Liz’s design tips and wisdom have been featured on the TODAY show, Better Homes and Gardens, and Country Living. With decorating tips, fun family traditions, and doable ways to make your home inviting in every season, Liz helps you create a beautiful living space and a grateful heart all year long.Look for Liz's other cozy home décor book full of DIY inspiration, Cozy White Cottage.

    While you’re waiting for your favorite knitting event to appear on the horizon of your calendar, you can content yourself with knitting up some of the best patterns from the fashion show. Every knitter is sure to fall in love with the patterns in this free eBook. A variety of patterns will keep you knitting all year long; these classy patterns will be a welcome addition to any wardrobe, and you’ll have a great time knitting them up and remembering all the fun you had at the last STITCHES show.

    The decorating magazines and TV shows never seem to talk to you. So what? With some attitude, know-how, and a lot of your own style, your place can be transformed into a fabulous Shangri-La, a swanky venue fit for living and entertaining well. Pad: The Guide to Ultra-Living is filled to bursting with hip, affordable projects for every room in the house and shows how to use basics like lighting, plants, mirrors, and paint to enhance even problem areas. Numerous testimonials from real people with real living spaces demonstrate how a little spaces demonstrate how a little spunk and individuality can overcome the limitations of the average urban dwelling. Offering a complete lifestyle package, Pad has instructions for building your own home bar, ideas for party themes and recipes--and even collateral hangover cures! This total living guide will have your place all spruced up--and the envy of guests--in no time.

    Now this self-described “mitten and glove aficionado” shares her enthusiasm for these ordinary items by presenting 28 extraordinary ways to make them for year-round style.Featuring gloves, mittens, arm warmers, mitts, and fingerless gloves, this is the second book in a new SCT Craft series that introduces innovative approaches to creating popular knitted items. Knitting New Mittens and Gloves combines traditional and untraditional techniques—as well as influences as far-flung as Gothic architecture, Estonian lace, and Wagnerian opera—in a winning collection of patterns for adults and children. From wool mittens filled with unspun fleece and arm warmers with leather laces, to cotton-mesh fingerless gloves and silk-beaded mitts to be worn as adornments, each design has an unexpected twist.Because they are small, quick to make, and don’t require a lot of yarn, mittens and gloves are perfect projects for knitting throughout the year, and they also offer an ideal opportunity for beginning and more seasoned knitters to experiment with new techniques, yarns, and styles. With its fresh, original sensibility, Knitting New Mittens and Gloves will captivate knitters of every level.

    I'll show you where to find the best materials from the best suppliers to fuel your Etsy selling success.After getting more than 1 million views on YouTube with over 100,000 follow up questions answered for handmade businesses since 2012, Renae Christine has learned that 90% of handmade businesses fail within the first 5 years due to lack of proper suppliers or the know-how to find those suppliers of the best materials.Read this resource guide to learn:Why every Etsy seller and handmade business owner needs a supplier.Why you should avoid your local craft store's clearance section like the plague.Common mistakes that you could be making.How much money you need to place an initial order, which might surprise you.Where to find tens of thousands of proper material suppliers.The questions to ask before taking on a supplier and placing an order so you don't waste your money.15 of Renae Christine's favorite suppliers from a convention she scoured just for handmade businesses.Additional bonus suppliers listed from different handmade industries.Is this resource guide for you?You need this guide if you:You're in the 'Etsy business for beginners' phase of businessYou feel like your business or Etsy shop just can't get off the ground and you don't know whyYou want to learn how to sell on Etsy through proper strategies and avoid making mistakesRenae Christine has been featured in Yahoo Finance, ABC, CBS, Reuters, Bloomberg Business Week and in thousands of other publications worldwide. She is the worldwide known business coach for everything handmade. Renae is even more rare because she built a six-figure stationery business herself.

     Do you want to learn to turn food scraps into valuable compost? Do you believe in taking responsibility for the food waste we create? Worm Composting is the Solution! People all over the world are using worm farming to turn their food scraps into nutrient-rich vermicompost by starting their own worm compost bin. Check out a few of the reviews for “How to Start a Worm Bin” to see what readers say about the book. ”How to Start a Worm Bin” will teach you how to: Start a Worm Compost Bin Care for Composting Worms Harvest the Worm Compost (vermicompost) Use Worm Compost in your garden soils Scroll back up and click ‘Buy Now’ to Start your Worm Bin today! “How to Start a Worm Bin” also includes: A FREE gift from the author: “Inside my Worm Composting Toolbox” Vermicomposting FAQ Worm Compost Bin Troubleshooting

    Several projects are easy enough for children to make for their own toybox, but you'll want a bunch of these irresistible cuties for yourself, too! Socks Appeal is a finalist in the 2010 Foreword Book of the Year Awards.

    Full of nitty gritty how-to's for getting nearly free publicity, Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares her professional experience as well as practical tips gleaned from the successes of her own book campaigns. Carolyn Howard-Johnson is award-winning author of both fiction and nonfiction and former publicist for a New York PR firm and a marketing instructor for UCLA's Writers' Program. THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER tells authors how to do what their publishers can't or won't and why authors can do their own promotion better than a PR professional.

    A Zen Buddhist monk explains the value of haiku, a three-line, seventeen-syllable poem, as a writing meditation and spiritual guide and provides exercises to help readers compose their own haiku.

    Learn to sew traditional and silk ribbon embroidery, make raised stitches, and embellish with beads, charms, buttons, and mirrors. Step-by-step photo instructions show exactly how to sew 85 different stitches. Learn how to combine and place stitches to enhance a finished piece and how to work with embroidery threads, ribbons, fabrics, laces, beads, buttons, and other embellishments.Includes 8 complete embroidery projects to stitch and embellish. An essential embroidery reference for everyone from beginners to experts.

    Presenting a diverse collection of projects—many inspired by the Japanese zakka aesthetic—such as a travel sewing kit, sewing machine cover, table runner, apron, eco bag, towels, calendar, lap quilt, tote bag, pillowcase, and shoulder bag, all designs are fun, functional, and easy to master. Combining sewing, appliqué, quilting, and patchwork techniques with thoughtful advice on how to select, work with, and care for linen, this colorful handbook is brimming with sophisticated and innovative projects to challenge and inspire both beginning and intermediate sewers and quilters.