A book of paper snowflake and star instructions

Recently a review copy of Snowflakes, Sunbursts, and Stars: 75 Exquisite Paper Designs to Fold, Cut, and Curl showed up at my door. I love paper folding and cutting, and any medallion-type design with radiating modules, so this is right up my alley.

Christmas is coming so it's the perfect time to start folding paper decorations. Hang them on your tree, string them as garlands, or decorate packages with pretty paper toppers. Your friends and family will either be incredibly impressed or conclude you have way too much time on your hands.


The paper models are all origami, kirigami, and quilling projects with step-by-step directions and templates. A sampling of what you can make:








I tried out a star. Fun! You can get Snowflakes, Sunbursts, and Stars right here at Amazon.

A DIY upholstery manual from Spruce

This might be the book you've been looking for. Because maybe you're overcome with compassion when strolling through thrift stores. Ugly chairs in antique malls cry out to you, "Help me, help me!" But you avert your eyes and hurry past. Sure, that chair has a gorgeous shape and could be a knockout in the right fabric. But you don't have a clue how to rehabilitate something so complicated. With a longing glance over your shoulder, you shove aside your feelings and move on. Maybe someone else will rescue it.

Or maybe you could do it yourself with the help of Amanda Brown's new book: Spruce: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upholstery and Design. Amanda runs Spruce, an upholstery shop in Austin, Texas, and has written posts for the Upholstery Basics column on Design*Sponge. Her new book is a hefty 392 pages and teaches how to reupholster virtually any piece of furniture.


The book opens with a color-coded guide so you can focus on the area of your furniture you need to work on. Let's say your chair has a channel back. If, like me, you've never heard that term in your life, no sweat. Look for it in the picture and turn to the corresponding page.


There you'll find step-by-step instructions for how to execute it. (Bookmarks are included!)


My favorite spreads show an array of completed projects. They get the gears turning and make me want to reupholster everything in my house.


The manual shows how to replace the guts of furniture, not just how to change the fabric. See how to replace springs, webbing, padding, and all sorts of innards and giblets.


Learn how to sew welt cord and cushions.


Projects teach how start from a bare, stripped-down frame...


and arrive at a completed piece of furniture (extra points for orange).

Watch the book's video trailer to learn more. If it sounds like it's up your alley, you can get a copy of the book here from Spruce or at other retailers.

Spruce Ugliest Chair Contest
Share your ugly chair photo on Facebook right here and win upholstery supplies, design recommendations from Amanda, and a signed copy of the book. Even if you don't have a hideous chair to share, it's fun browsing the contenders.

Blog Tour
Follow the blog tour for more peeks inside this manual and chances to win copies:
Monday, 11/4 -- Bromeliad
Wednesday, 11/6 -- Our Humble Abode
Thursday, 11/7 -- Inside Storey
Friday, 11/8 -- HGTV's Design Happens
Monday, 11/11 -- Seventh House on the Left
Tuesday, 11/12 -- Making It Lovely
Wednesday, 11/13 -- Our Style Stories

Tomorrow I'll share photos of my newly reupholstered Craigslist chairs. I did it, I did it!

Recipe book: Small Gatherings

Another cookbook I'm looking forward to testing is Small Gatherings: Seasonal Menus for Cozy Dinners by Jessica Strand. It offers complete menus divided by season, with suggestions for what to make the day before, hours before guests arrive, and at the last minute. That way you'll have maximum time to spend with your company instead of being tied to the kitchen. I love that the timing is planned out— then I don't have to think so hard. The food is fancier than I normally make, but still pretty easy to prepare. Lots of fresh ingredients are put together into simple, elegant dishes that will trick friends into thinking I'm sophisticated.


There are seasonal drink recipes, like Spicy Ginger Mint Cocktails.


I'm definitely making this Crostini with Goat Cheese, Garlic, and Grapes. I might forget the name of it and accidentally serve it as "Yummy Stuff on Toast," but it will taste great.


The photos are inspiring.


Photo by Sheri Giblin.

The publisher has provided a sample spring menu for us to try. Download and print out these recipes:
Spring Pea Soup with Mint and Toasted Pistachios
Fingerling Potatoes With Herbed Whole Yogurt
Salmon en Papillote With Dill
Perfectly Rosie Peaches with Crème Fraîche

Small Gatherings is available here at Amazon. Enjoy!

Double-Chocolate Raspberry Muffin recipe

I'm pretending I'm a food blogger this week. I got some fun review copies of cookbooks in the mail, so Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday heading into the holiday weekend I'll post some recipes to try out.

Baked carbs are my favorite food group and comprise the bottom tier of my personal food pyramid. (What, the Food Pyramid is now obsolete and the USDA recommends something called a Food Plate? Okay, then please load up my plate with muffins and bread.) I can't wait to test recipes from Good Morning Baking!, a new cookbook by Mani Niall. Here's a sample recipe for Double-Chocolate Raspberry Muffins from the book. They happen to be vegan, too, if you use non-dairy chocolate chips!

Download the printable recipe here.

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Double-Chocolate Raspberry Muffins
From Good Morning Baking by Mani Niall. Photo by Erin Kunkel. Provided by Egg and Dart Press.

"These are so cute that my guests called them cupcakes! I adapted an old World War II recipe that called for neither eggs nor butter, because both were in short supply at that time. My vegan friends were thrilled and no one else suspected that this rich, delectable combination of chocolate and tart raspberries contained no dairy or eggs. Feel free to use frozen raspberries if fresh are unavailable, adding them to the batter frozen.
Makes 12 muffins

2 1/3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1½ cups sugar
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup canola or other neutral flavored vegetable oil
½ teaspoon distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ cup semisweet or milk chocolate chips
1½ cups fresh or frozen raspberries

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350˚F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. If the mixture is at all lumpy, pass it through a sieve or sifter. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, vanilla, and 1¼ cups water. Make a well in the flour mixture and gradually pour in the oil mixture, whisking as you go. The mixture will become quite thick and pasty, but you need to whisk firmly so that the dry ingredients absorb all the wet ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips and about two-thirds of the raspberries. Divide 90 percent of the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups (see note). Garnish with the remaining raspberries.

3. Bake until the muffins spring back when pressed lightly in the center with a fingertip, 20 to 22 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for a few minutes, then turn the muffins out onto the rack and serve warm. These muffins are best when eaten the day they are baked.

Note: Sorry, but this recipe makes just a little too much batter for a standard muffin tin! I bake the extra batter in an ovenproof ramekin and enjoy it as a special treat for the baker."

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The book is full of delicious-looking breakfast items— some traditional, and some gluten free and vegan. Chocolate Blackberry Scones, Mexican Capirotada (bread pudding), or Apricot Cherry Buckle, anyone?

Get Good Morning Baking right here at Amazon.

A plant I can't kill

Check out my new house plant. It's healthy and thriving because I'm giving it the perfect amount of water and sunlight.


I made it from the cardboard kit, Port-a-Plant, sent over from Chronicle Books. It contains punch-out parts for three different paper succulents. The leaves can be a bit challenging to slip into their slots, so I think a child might have trouble with this. But a grown-up will conquer the cacti. Fun, right?

Below is the photo from the cover of the kit, which is available here.

A cookbook I plan to enjoy

The other nifty thing that arrived on my fun mail day was a review copy of this cookbook from Chronicle Books, The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo. The timing was perfect. That very day Alex asked me how I would like to celebrate when I turn 40. It's years away, but I already know. I would like to go to Paris. And then this cookbook arrived in the mail and solidified my plan.

I'm not a big cook, especially in the last year or so since I've sort of lost interest. And this isn't a food blog, but for some reason I'm captivated by this cookbook so I have to show you.

The dishes include my very favorite foods: Bread. Cream. Butter. Eggs. The recipes look pretty simple, with often relatively few ingredients. I had no idea you could slice potatoes, put small cubes of pear on top, crumble on some blue cheese, bake it in the oven, and it's suddenly "Galette aux pommes de terre et poires avec Roquefort." I can't possibly pronounce it, but I want to eat it for lunch. Some other yummy-looking things...

Cheese, ham and egg on toast in a muffin pan (croque madame muffins).

Spicy meatballs.

And don't get me started on this picture of a chocolate thing.

The book is peppered with romantic, atmospheric photos like this that make me want to hop on a plane immediately. Instead, I will try to cook some of these things. Wish me luck.

Stitch Savvy, a really pretty sewing book

I just got my hands on a copy of Stitch Savvy by Deborah Moebes. First, the part where I get excited because some of my Outside Oslo fabric makes an appearance, including that beautiful shot on the cover.

Some Tulip.

Some Picket.

Second, the part where I admire all the lovely projects and pick out some of my favorites:

A fun footstool slipcover.

A really cute purse. You can also sew the shirt. If you wear them together, you will laugh happily.

There are even instructions for a jacket. If I managed to sew an entire jacket, I wouldn't be able to stop beaming, either.

I haven't studied the book enough to evaluate the instructions, but I love the visual style of it. All the fabrics Deborah uses are terrific, and the photos look clear and helpful. You can peek inside and get a copy at Amazon.

Young House Love: a bushel of DIY ideas

A review copy of Young House Love just arrived. It's John and Sherry Petersik's labor of love, stuffed with 243 marvelously doable project ideas for the home. You might be a reader of their blog by the same name. Those two are funny, warm, and completely endearing. So is the book.

Each project gives you a heads-up on the cost, time involved, and how much sweat you'll work up while attempting it.

I loved this idea: take apart a couple of inexpensive Lack tables from IKEA and assemble them into a shiny headboard.

Turn plain canisters into periodic table glassware with a fun etching project.

Get ideas for things you can use to make an interesting backsplash in your kitchen (removable for renters, if needed). I should do this. Our wee kitchen has only painted walls where stuff gets splashed Jackson Pollock-style.

Some projects from guest contributors are sprinkled throughout the book, too. Hey, there's our door.

You can buy the book here at Amazon. And to see what happens to your house when you make a book, check out Sherry and John's awesome behind-the-scenes post!

Books for people who like to make stuff

Chronicle Books keeps churning out fun titles, including a couple more DIY volumes they sent over. Stencil Style 101 is stencil master Ed Roth's latest book full of ideas for customizing clothes and accessories.

The first half of the book is comprised of project tutorials with very detailed instructions, and the second half contains 25 pre-cut, reusable plastic stencils. Detach the pages along the perforation, use them, easily wipe off any paint residue, and tuck them back inside the handy pocket.

Designs include patterns like houndstooth, animal prints, checkerboard, and argyle, plus lots of objects: feathers, a rotary phone, birds, ropes, chains, a bowtie, pocket protector(!) and more.

Along with classic stenciling projects using paint, see how to use the stencils for embroidery, knitting, and appliques.

Check out that amazing quilted jacket!

I wonder what's the most interesting substrate Ed has ever used a stencil on. A police car? A hamster? I'm going to ask him.

[Okay, I'm back. Ed reports that it's a banana. I was close.]

You can get Stencil Style 101 right here at Amazon.

People who have always dreamed of making party decorations like you see on Pinterest might like Pretty Paper Parties by Vana Chupp. You know what I'm talking about. Those photos of lovely buffet tables pushed against a wall, draped with bunting, and stacked with glass jars of perfectly coordinating candies and flawless cupcakes sporting paper flags. The ones that make you wonder A) Who does that? and B) What does the rest of the room look like, because you suspect that was just for a photo shoot and the rest of the house looks like a hurricane hit it?

This book can't help you with the housekeeping and doesn't come with glass apothecary jars, but it will make it easier to pull off the garlands and cupcake toppers.

It includes templates for tracing and cutting out simple shapes (think hearts, stars, scalloped chain links, and photobooth props to glue on sticks: glasses, bowties, and the ubiquitous mustache). The real value is in the 40 sheets of coordinating patterned paper, though. Each sheet is printed on both sides with contrasting designs. If you used it all, you'd have a super festive event.

Find Pretty Paper Parties right here at Amazon.