Found Style: Vintage Ideas for Modern Living


David Butler - 2003
    Unique style comes with successfully blending the old and new, the unexpected with the familiar - a white antique stove and modern chrome refrigerator placed side by side, or a 50s kidney-shaped coffee table accented by an Adirondack chair. Enter Found Style, the modern-day guide to the mix-and-match aesthetic. From vintage treasures to contemporary furnishings, family heirlooms to flea market finds, authors David and Amy Butler take a friendly approach to creating spaces that are courageously unique - and undeniably stylish. Illustrated with 200 inspiring color photographs, Found Style offers up a host of innovative ideas, as well as tips for honing one's flea market savvy, and blending old and new with unexpected dash. Found Style is a celebration of creating eclectic personal style and a resource for those who live for the hunt.

House Thinking: A Room-by-Room Look at How We Live


Winifred Gallagher - 2006
    In each room, Gallagher explores many of our deep but often unarticulated intuitions about the power of place. Drawing on the latest research in behavioral science, an overview of cultural history, and interviews with leading architects and designers, she shows us how our homes not only reflect who we are, but also influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions.Using a variety of examples -- from famous historical homes to experimental rustic pods -- Gallagher examines why traditional dining rooms and living rooms have given way to "great rooms," how the oversize suburban garage threatens civility, how kids' rooms can affect their development, and why Americans increasingly think of their homes as "sanctuaries" and "refuges."House Thinking's unique perspective raises provocative questions: How does your entryway prime you for experiencing your home? Do you really need a mega-kitchen, or just a microwave? What makes a bedroom a sensual oasis? How can your bathroom exacerbate your worst fears?It's simply not enough to think of our domestic spaces as design statements or as dumping grounds for our stuff. We need to approach our homes in a new way: as environments that actively affect us and our quality of life. Stressing the home's substance over its style, House Thinking is a surprising look at how we live -- and how we could.

The Bee Cottage Story: How I Made a Muddle of Things and Decorated My Way Back to Happiness


Frances Schultz - 2015
    As she figures out each room over a period of years, Frances finds a new path in life, also a continual process. She comes to learn that, like decorating a home, our lives must adapt to who we are and what we need at different points along the way.The Bee Cottage Story is part memoir, part home decorating guide. Frances discusses the kinds of useful, commonsense design issues professionals take for granted and the rest of us just may not think of, prompting the reader to examine and discover her own “truth” in decorating—and in her life.

Cultivate: A Grace-Filled Guide to Growing an Intentional Life


Lara Casey - 2017
    Instead they feel inadequate, overwhelmed, paralyzed by fear and insecurity, and are exhausted simply trying to figure out where to begin. “The secret to living a flourishing life isn’t in engineering the perfect circumstances or having it all together. The secret is in the small,” says author and speaker Lara Casey. “It’s easier than you think to cultivate what matters. It all starts with a tiny seed.”Welcome to the journey of getting messy in the rich soil of possibility—embracing imperfect, grace-filled progress to grow a life of joy.Written as part encouragement anthem and part practical guide, Cultivate equips women to uncover and take action on goals that simplify life. Lara's signature “goal gardening” steps release them from the pressure to achieve and gives them freedom to move from planning to planting. Readers will walk through each season, finding balance as they interact in fresh ways with their current life scenarios, with God, and in the communities where they are planted. "You don't have to be perfect; you just have to plant! As you open this book, you are making a decision to leave the dry soil behind. You will lean in . . . and unrush your life. And in the process you will unearth your purpose."Special features includeGoal Gardening Stepsan eight-week Fruitful Goal Gardening Guide with questions for small groupsGardening 101 to start your own real-life flower or vegetable gardenFind the joy and the freedom that comes in cultivating. Cultivate your faith. Don’t fertilize the fear. And watch how your life flourishes in the days ahead!

Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes


Maria Konnikova - 2013
    But is his extraordinary intellect merely a gift of fiction, or can we learn to cultivate these abilities ourselves, to improve our lives at work and at home?We can, says psychologist and journalist Maria Konnikova, and in Mastermind she shows us how. Beginning with the "brain attic"--Holmes's metaphor for how we store information and organize knowledge--Konnikova unpacks the mental strategies that lead to clearer thinking and deeper insights. Drawing on twenty-first-century neuroscience and psychology, Mastermind explores Holmes's unique methods of ever-present mindfulness, astute observation, and logical deduction. In doing so, it shows how each of us, with some self-awareness and a little practice, can employ these same methods to sharpen our perceptions, solve difficult problems, and enhance our creative powers. For Holmes aficionados and casual readers alike, Konnikova reveals how the world's most keen-eyed detective can serve as an unparalleled guide to upgrading the mind.

Unstuffed: Decluttering Your Home, Mind & Soul


Ruth Soukup - 2016
    It's everywhere. Lurking in corners and closets, spilling onto counters and coffee tables, creating havoc everywhere we look. And it's not just the physical clutter that weighs us down. Oh no, it is the stress of overbooked schedules, and the weight of life that sometimes feels oppressive and totally out of whack.New York Times bestselling author Ruth Soukup feels your pain--she has been there too. Through personal stories, Biblical truth, and practical action plans, she will inspire and empower each of us to finally declutter not just our home, but our mind and soul as well. Unstuffed is real, honest, and gets right down to the question we are all facing--how can we take back our lives from the stuff that is weighing us down?In this book, together we will:•             Create a comprehensive vision for our homes, and make instant changes to improve its overall function.•             Discover that more closet space is not the solution, and instead learn how to set strict limits for the stuff we bring in•             Overcome the frustration of dealing with our kids' influx of stuff and implement practical solutions for keeping the chaos at bay.•             Recognize the pitfalls of an overstuffed schedule BEFORE it gets out of hand, and instead learn to combat the culture of busy that keeps us running from one thing to the next.•             Finally conquer that mountain of paperwork that threatens to tumble down around us at any moment.•             Let go of the guilt that gets attached to gifts and instead learn to separate our loved ones from their stuff.•             Begin to cultivate our real friendships while eliminating the toxic relationships that weigh us down.

The Year of Cozy: 125 Recipes, Crafts, and Other Homemade Adventures


Adrianna Adarme - 2015
    You’ll love Adrianna Adarme’s easy-to-follow instructions and will enjoy getting lost in her warm and comforting photographs. Organized by the months of the year and by categories as “Live,” “Do,” and “Make, ” this book offers ideas for activities, recipes, and DIY projects that make the little moments in life just as exciting as the big. Adarme gives us special (but totally doable) things we can do for others and ourselves. From quick recipes to easy crafts, she focuses on simple, inexpensive undertakings that have a big reward: happiness. The Year of Cozy will surely inspire you to march into your kitchen and craft closet to make something you can truly be proud of.

Living in a Nutshell: Posh and Portable Decorating Ideas for Small Spaces


Janet Lee - 2012
    The design maven behind livinginanutshell.com and Oprah Winfrey’s interior style producer for a decade, Lee has personally handpicked a battery of clever projects for enhancing every area of a tiny living space—all are simple to do, require no craft skills, are emphatically affordable, readily portable, and big on style, so you can make these design dreams become your reality.

Decorate: 1,000 Design Ideas for Every Room in Your Home


Holly Becker - 2011
    Written and compiled by Holly Becker, founder of the hugely popular design blog Decor8, and Joanna Copestick, acclaimed lifestyle writer, this intensive home dcor program combines beautiful inspiration with nuts-and-bolts how-to for stunning results. More than 500 gorgeous color photographs provide motivation while line illustrations, checklists, shortcuts, and floor plans make it easy to get started. For those looking to make the most of their home and create stylish interiors, Decorate is the start-to-finish resource to keep on the bookshelf for years to come.

For the Love of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library


Thatcher Wine - 2019
    For the Love of Books shares the vision of Juniper Books, a business that embraces the roles that books fulfill in our lives and their staying power. It recounts the history of books and private libraries, and champions the resilience of books in the digital era. Dive into the nuances that define books for reading, books for decoration, and books for inspiration. Instructive chapters provide useful details for creating and curating one's own home library, whether it be a single shelf or multiple rooms each with their own collection. You will never look at your bookshelves the same way again.For the Love of Books is about storytelling beyond the pages of our favorite books. Our books--the ones we choose to keep--tell the story of who we are. They remind us who we once were and who we aspire to be.Thatcher Wine founded Juniper Books in 2001. The company creates custom libraries and has perfected the art of turning books inside out to allow for books to tell stories not just to us, but about us. Working with booklovers, homeowners, and designers, Juniper Books has provided the world with a fresh new approach to the printed book. Thatcher grew up in New York City where his parents owned and operated The Quilted Giraffe, one of the most innovative restaurants in America. Thatcher graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in history and art history and lives in Boulder, Colorado.Elizabeth Lane is the founder of Quarterlane, a quarterly subscription book service which merged with Juniper Books in 2018. She is also the book buyer for her local independent bookstore, Partners Village Store and Kitchen in Westport, Massachusetts. Prior to working in books, Elizabeth worked in contemporary visual art--in galleries, nonprofit initiatives and museums in New York, Austin, and Chicago. Elizabeth graduated from Davidson College with a degree in art history and received her masters degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Don't Overthink It: Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy to Your Life


Anne Bogel - 2020
    Nobody wants to live a life of constant overthinking, but it doesn't feel like something we can choose to stop doing. It feels like something we're wired to do, something we just can't escape. But is it?Anne Bogel's answer is no. Not only can you overcome negative thought patterns that are repetitive, unhealthy, and unhelpful, you can replace them with positive thought patterns that will bring more peace, joy, and love into your life. In Don't Overthink It, you'll find actionable strategies that can make an immediate and lasting difference in how you deal with questions both small--Should I buy these flowers?--and large--What am I doing with my life? More than a book about making good decisions, Don't Overthink It offers you a framework for making choices you'll be comfortable with, using an appropriate amount of energy, freeing you to focus on all the other stuff that matters in life.

Found, Free, and Flea: Creating Collections from Vintage Treasures


Tereasa Surratt - 2011
    While renovating the decrepit cabins at Camp Wandawega, they kept stumbling upon curious objects, some dating back ninety years or more: a Boy Scout patch, an old sled, a pristine set of Fiesta Ware, dozens of midcentury aprons, an untouched box of board games in their original packaging. Tereasa knew the power that one mundane object has when grouped with its siblings. So rather than discard everything, she set out on a five-year expedition to turn the more than 150 found items into full-fledged collections. Relying on her own thriftiness, she only acquired pieces for free or at a bargain price: items that she found, negotiated for free, or unearthed at a flea market. Found, Free & Flea explores Tereasa’s passion for collecting while encouraging you to tap into your own with ideas on where to look to see collectibles. Throughout the book, she shares her secrets and historical tidbits behind these prized antiques, now used to create innovative displays and for entertaining guests at her renovated lakeside retreat. From vintage wine taster cups turned into a wind chime to cheese boxes reinvented as drawer organizers, to a chicken feeder that houses old tea cups for impromptu coffee bar setups, everything at Camp Wandawega earns its keep. Learn how to navigate flea markets and how to best negotiate, why “localvore” collecting should matter to the thrifty shopper (and what finds to expect on your travels), which vintage collections are easiest to start and the quickest to fill out, and what tips you should employ for turning even the most simple items into stunning displays. The beautiful photography and Tereasa’s clever DIY projects and sharp eye for design will inspire anyone to add charm and personality to interiors with a few well-worn objects. A celebration of Americana and ingenuity, Found, Free & Flea is a must-have for knowing how to spot treasures, complete collections, and display them artfully.

If You Feel Too Much: Thoughts on Things Found and Lost and Hoped For


Jamie Tworkowski - 2015
    The piece was so hauntingly beautiful that it quickly went viral, giving birth to a non-profit organization of the same name. Now, To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) is an internationally recognized leader in suicide prevention and a source of hope, encouragement, and support for people worldwide.If You Feel Too Much is a celebration of hope, wonder, and what it means to be human. From personal stories of struggling on days most people celebrate to words of strength and encouragement in moments of loss, the essays in this book invite readers to believe that it’s okay to admit to pain and okay to ask for help. If You Feel Too Much is an important book from one of this generation’s most important voices.

The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain


Annie Murphy Paul - 2021
    That’s what we tell ourselves when facing a tricky problem or a difficult project. But a growing body of research indicates that we’ve got it exactly backwards. What we need to do, says acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul, is think outside the brain. A host of “extra-neural” resources—the feelings and movements of our bodies, the physical spaces in which we learn and work, and the minds of those around us— can help us focus more intently, comprehend more deeply, and create more imaginatively. The Extended Mind outlines the research behind this exciting new vision of human ability, exploring the findings of neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, psychologists, and examining the practices of educators, managers, and leaders who are already reaping the benefits of thinking outside the brain. She excavates the untold history of how artists, scientists, and authors—from Jackson Pollock to Jonas Salk to Robert Caro—have used mental extensions to solve problems, make discoveries, and create new works. In the tradition of Howard Gardner’s Frames of Mind or Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, The Extended Mind offers a dramatic new view of how our minds work, full of practical advice on how we can all think better.

I Brake for Yard Sales: High Style - Low Budget


Lara Spencer - 2012
    In I Brake for Yard Sales, Lara shares her secrets for bargain hunting and tells you where to shop, what to look for, how to pay for it, how to restore it, and finally, where to put it in your house. Looking for the newest arrivals at your local thrift shops? After busy Saturdays and no-pick-up Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are generally the best days to shop for fresh items. Peppered with wisdom from world-renowned appraisers whom Lara knows from her previous work on Antiques Roadshow as well as contributions from well-known designers, this book also features the house of comedienne and good friend Kathy Griffin, which Spencer herself refurbished and decorated.