she inspires a love of sewing itself. A contemporary classic, Power Sewing is clearly written with detailed photos; it guides the reader through every facet of garment construction with ease.

    Following an overview of painting fundamentals, illustrated step-by-step instructions accompanied by lessons on specific techniques lead your way. This unique book is a complete course in acrylic painting, built up from key techniques. As you progress through the sections of the book, the author demonstrates each technique with the creation of a mini painting, measuring 5-inches squared. So by the time you have worked right through to the end, you will have an amazing collection of 50 mini paintings—on board, paper, or canvas—that will be a testament to your skill and creativity. The subject matter for these squares varies from abstracts and simple color-mixing exercises, through to figurative subjects: a flower, a sunset, a busy street scene—and many more. These can be mounted, exhibited, or simply collected in a portfolio, or given away as gifts for friends to cherish. If you are coming to acrylics for the first time, or keen to improve your skills and sometimes daunted by the thought of filling a large empty canvas or blank piece of board, this is your ideal guide. Instead, it will free you from creative hang-ups and replace them with an addictive desire to create that next 5-inch square!

    This hardcover book with internal spiral binding is 6.5” × 8”, the perfect size for carpenters and woodworkers to keep near their workbench or toolbox for quick access. The design of this book allows it to lay open flat for easy and frequent reference. The interior photographs, illustrations, and diagrams make the learning process simple and fun for beginners, while advanced readers will gain insight from the book’s useful tips. Within, you’ll find:Step-by-step illustrated instructions for making all the basic joints in every joint family—mortise and tenon, dovetails, miters, and more—and their variations.Both hand tool methods and power tool techniques, plus a variety of easy-to-build jigs.How the nature of wood and its properties affect joinery, glue, and furniture design.The Joint Book is the ultimate workshop reference, providing woodworkers with the knowledge to choose the right joint for the job.

    But do we really have more to do than the women who came before us? Maybe not.In Taming the To-Do List, Glynnis Whitwer exposes a seismic shift in society: from one in which most of us were proactive to one in which we carry the burden of having to respond—to every email, text, tweet, and message we receive. This creates a cycle where everyone else sets the priorities for our days rather than us directing our own lives. The result? We procrastinate, putting off the important stuff for later while we tend to the “urgent” stuff right now.It’s time to take back your schedule! Ready to tame that to-do list? This book shows you how.

    Soldering Made Simple takes all the mystery and fear out of soldering so that amateur jewelry makers — even those who have never held a torch — feel empowered and confident. Friendly and thorough instructional text and step-by-step photos help readers build skills gradually, which they can then employ with the included projects. Joe Silvera presents soldering techniques that use a simple setup, a handheld butane torch that is safe and easy to operate, and a few other supplies.

    * Easy to follow How To Crochet illustrations * Fun and simple projects to make * Learn a variety of crochet stitches and skills * Perfect for absolute beginners * Projects include hats, scarves, mittens, baby blankets, scented hearts, granny squares and more! This is the ONLY beginner's book you'll need to start to crochet today!!

    No soil? No sunlight? No problem. A hydroponic growing system gives you the power to grow plants anywhere. Even if you live in an area where water is scarce, a hydroponic system is the answer you’ve been looking for. Hydroponic systems are sealed and do not allow evaporation, making water loss virtually nonexistent. Simply suspend your essential nutrients in a water-based solution and circulate them to the plant roots in a contained network of vessels and tubes. This accessible guide provides the solid information you need for hydroponic gardening success. Farmer Tyler shows you, with detailed step-by-step photos, precisely how to create these systems, and how to plant and maintain them. All the information you need to get started with your home hydroponic system is included:Recipes for nutrient solutionsLight and ventilation sourcesComprehensive equipment guideGrowing and maintenance instructions12+ hydroponic system buildsComplete crop selection chartsDIY Hydroponic Gardens is the best resource available for getting started in hydroponics.

    The authors are designers and owners of two popular pattern companies for kid’s clothes—Farbenmix and Studio Tantrum, known in the sewing community for their creativity, versatility, and fit. This collection of exclusive patterns, included with the book, offers step-by-step instruction for making boys’ and girls’ clothing with a variety of fabric styles and decorative embellishment—including embroidery, patchwork, and trims. The patterns for pants, tops, skirts, and dresses include variations for long and short hemlines and sleeves, various necklines, and adjustable lengths. The patterns are sized from 18 months to kid’s size 12.

    Frey distills the vital lessons gardening into 100 simple rules that, if followed, will yield a gorgeous, healthy, and thriving home garden. New home gardeners will discover tips on garden design, care and maintenance, healthy soil, and the best ways to water. They’ll learn how to create a garden that encourages birds and butterflies, how to how to choose healthy plants at the garden center, how and when to re-pot a container, and much more. With bite-size chunks of expert information and nearly 100 inspiring photographs, Ground Rules packs a lot of value into its playful package and will be a go-to resource for gardeners everywhere.

    Type on Screen is the definitive guide to using classic typographic concepts of form and structure to make dynamic compositions for screen-based applications. Covering a broad range of technologies—from electronic publications and websites to videos and mobile devices—this hands-on primer presents the latest information available to help designers make critical creative decisions, including how to choose typefaces for the screen, how to style beautiful, functional text and navigation, how to apply principles of animation to text, and how to generate new forms and experiences with code-based operations. Type on Screen is an essential design tool for anyone seeking clear and focused guidance about typography for the digital age.

    Since then, their profile has gotten even bigger, with continued praise from Oprah and Martha Stewart; product availability in every Whole Foods across the U.S.; and a new bakery in Charleston, South Carolina, with even more traffic than their original Brooklyn location.   Now, in Baked Explorations, the authors give their signature “Baked” twists to famous desserts from across the country. Here is their take on our most treasured desserts: Banana Cream Pie, Black & White Cookies, Mississippi Mud Pie, and more—from the overworked to the underappreciated. Readers will love this collection of 75 recipes from breakfast treats to late-night confections and everything in between.  Praise for Baked Explorations:"They might look like another pair of fresh-faced Brooklynites (retro tie and mustache? check), but Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, the owners of the Baked sweet shops in Brooklyn and Charleston, are media-savvy butter fiends . . . Those whoopie pies? Four sticks of buttery fun. Oh to be young, decadent and baked in Brooklyn." -The New York Times  "Lewis and Poliafito take on more underappreciated desserts, giving beloved treats like black-and-white cookies and whoopie pies a modern makeover." -New York Daily News

    There are about one million vegans in the U.S. and about 50,000 new ones every year. A growing number of physicians advocate a completely plant-based diet for many of their patients who suffer from diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. In The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Plant-Based Nutrition, readers will find:? Where to get nutrients that others get from meat and dairy.? How to avoid the vegan pitfall of overfed but undernourished.? How to spot hidden animal ingredients in packaged foods.? Tips for eating at restaurants.? Special considerations for children and seniors.

    Aaron Spitz has that answer--and many more. Let Dr. Spitz--clinical professor at UC Irvine's Department of Urology and a regularly featured guest on The Doctors--become your best friend as he fearlessly guides you through the hairiest and the scariest questions in The Penis Book. An unflinching, comprehensive guide to everything from sexually transmitted infections to the science of blood flow, The Penis Book prominently features an easy-to-follow holistic five-step plan for optimum penis health, including plant-based eating recommendations, information on some penis-healthy foods, and suggested exercises for penis wellbeing. Useful to men and women alike, The Penis Book is a one-stop-shop for the care and maintenance of the penis in your life.

    In recent decades, hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza have been thought to define the nation’s palate. Not so, says food historian Paul Freedman, who demonstrates that there is an exuberant and diverse, if not always coherent, American cuisine that reflects the history of the nation itself.Combining historical rigor and culinary passion, Freedman underscores three recurrent themes—regionality, standardization, and variety—that shape a completely novel history of the United States.From the colonial period until after the Civil War, there was a patchwork of regional cooking styles that produced local standouts, such as gumbo from southern Louisiana, or clam chowder from New England. Later, this kind of regional identity was manipulated for historical effect, as in Southern cookbooks that mythologized gracious “plantation hospitality,” rendering invisible the African Americans who originated much of the region’s food.As the industrial revolution produced rapid changes in every sphere of life, the American palate dramatically shifted from local to processed. A new urban class clamored for convenient, modern meals and the freshness of regional cuisine disappeared, replaced by packaged and standardized products—such as canned peas, baloney, sliced white bread, and jarred baby food.By the early twentieth century, the era of homogenized American food was in full swing. Bolstered by nutrition “experts,” marketing consultants, and advertising executives, food companies convinced consumers that industrial food tasted fine and, more importantly, was convenient and nutritious. No group was more susceptible to the blandishments of advertisers than women, who were made feel that their husbands might stray if not satisfied with the meals provided at home. On the other hand, men wanted women to be svelte, sporty companions, not kitchen drudges. The solution companies offered was time-saving recipes using modern processed helpers. Men supposedly liked hearty food, while women were portrayed as fond of fussy, “dainty,” colorful, but tasteless dishes—tuna salad sandwiches, multicolored Jell-O, or artificial crab toppings.The 1970s saw the zenith of processed-food hegemony, but also the beginning of a food revolution in California. What became known as New American cuisine rejected the blandness of standardized food in favor of the actual taste and pleasure that seasonal, locally grown products provided. The result was a farm-to-table trend that continues to dominate.“A book to be savored” (Stephen Aron), American Cuisine is also a repository of anecdotes that will delight food lovers: how dry cereal was created by William Kellogg for people with digestive and low-energy problems; that chicken Parmesan, the beloved Italian favorite, is actually an American invention; and that Florida Key lime pie goes back only to the 1940s and was based on a recipe developed by Borden’s condensed milk. More emphatically, Freedman shows that American cuisine would be nowhere without the constant influx of immigrants, who have popularized everything from tacos to sushi rolls.“Impeccably researched, intellectually satisfying, and hugely readable” (Simon Majumdar), American Cuisine is a landmark work that sheds astonishing light on a history most of us thought we never had.

    Leading figures of the industry, from designers to yarn company executives, share their methods for integrating green principles into their work and lives--selecting organic products, facilitating an alternative to chemical detergent, recycling old projects, reducing disposable plastic bags, and creating pieces that provide warmth and save on energy. Inventive and timely, this practical guidebook explains answers to important questions such as What makes a yarn organic? and Are natural dyes safer than chemical dyes? Providing 20 clever designs for earth-friendly garments, accessories, gifts, and home furnishings, craft enthusiasts of all skill levels will enjoy projects that balance the altruism of saving the planet with the joyful benefits of their favorite hobby.