Book Review: 2 Christmas Books

Christmas: Making the Perfect Celebration by Carolyn Bell

If you want a complete guide that gives you ideas for food, entertaining, decorations, gift giving and crafts for the holiday season - this is the book for you. The book begins with a countdown to Christmas, with helpful tips on what to buy when, and which preparations should be done first. It includes a week-by-week countdown to help you plan and organize your Christmas shopping and cooking, plus a timetable for preparing food on Christmas Day and suggested holiday menus. I found the recipes and projects to range from simple to complex. There are projects on how to create a festive table setting, how to decorate your home with projects to make wreaths, garland and candles, how to make homemade ornaments to decorate your Christmas tree and how to create your own holiday cards and gift-wrap. It has a whole section of crafts to make with kids too. Their are menus and recipes for holiday dinners, vegetarian meals, party foods and buffet dishes. The recipes include several different stuffing recipes, sauces and preserves, desserts and treats, drinks and cocktails and edible gifts. There were some recipes that sounded delicious to me and others that I didn't sound appetizing to me at all. I really enjoyed the vegetarian meal selections. The book also included techniques on how to test cakes to see if they are done, how to make almond past and royal icing, how to stuff and roast a turkey, how to make a glaze and so on.

As I said it is a complete guide to Christmas...with over 200 recipes, 50 projects and 1400 color photographs.

Although I think the book was very well done and has so much to offer I didn't make notes while I had this checked out and I didn't create any of the crafts. I am not sure if that though was because I checked it out in the summer and wasn't yet really in the holiday planning stage. I do think it would be worth another look. I remember really enjoying the edible gifts recipes and many of the crafts.

Christmas in Minutes: Festive Crafts in Less Than an Hour by Carol Cox

Product description:

Who isn't busy during the holidays? Clear, concise instructions teamed with brilliant yet simple ideas make this new book a must-have for holiday crafters with little free time on their hands. Taking only five to fifty-five minutes to complete, each project can be fitted into a busy schedule. The 30 projects are arranged in sections according to the time required to complete them. For example, gift tags decorated with bay leaves and rosemary sprigs can be made in under 15 minutes. It takes only 30 minutes to make a calla lily centerpiece. Forty-five minutes is plenty of time to make door wreaths, a glimmering silver twig tree, or an elegant eucalyptus garland. Designs use simple and available materials (natural or artificial) such as pinecones, fruits, ribbons, cinnamon sticks and grapevine wreaths to give your home that handcrafted feel without a lot of work.

If you are intimidated by flower arranging or using flowers in your decorating, this book might be a good start. It has some simple projects to do in 15 to 45 minutes that look elegant and just perfect for the holidays. I am not going to say it is great book. It does have some good arrangements but some of them are also a little busy - to me. But for a start - I think it would be a good to even just read to get ideas.

Some of the projects...
Cally Lily Tree (on the cover)
Dried Apple Ring
Berry Heart Chairback
Festive Pinecone
Clove studded and carved limes
Leaf Wrapped Candles

Also how-to instructions on how to make a triple bow, dry fruit, make lime roses, moss rope and so on.

Book Review: The Art of Giving

The Art of Giving: Gift Ideas to Delight the Senses by by Liezel Norval-Kruger


This is from description from publishers:

Gift giving is a universal custom, but in today's harried world many of us have moved away from the more considered and creative aspects of what should be a very personal act. It should be a gesture of love, friendship, celebration, acknowledgment, and thanks. The Art of Giving is filled with inspirational ideas and practical information for the discerning gift giver on how to achieve beautiful, artful, and thoughtful gifts.

Taste, smell, and touch are the pivotal chapters. They draw on our capacity to indulge ourselves and those we love through each particular sense. Each chapter is filled with ideas and tantalizing images, as well as practical information on how to create and present wonderful gifts. Another chapter, on wrapping, will show you how to achieve expert finishing touches and inspired solutions to the most awkward of gift shapes. From handcrafted soaps and homemade potpourri to beautifully wrapped candies and an entire picnic for two, the endless variety of ideas in this book offer something for everyone. Turn to the back of the book for recipes, templates, diagrams, labels, and other do-it-yourself essentials to tell you how to do it all. For anyone who wants to create and give gifts that are more expressive, meaningful, and heartfelt than something grabbed off the shelf or ordered over the phone, The Art of Giving offers a wealth of inspiration and practical advice.

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the photos and the style of the gifts and ideas. The Art of Giving is filled with lots of DIY gift ideas that are inexpensive, attractive and simple to make. Also this is a great book to find ideas for those on your gift list that are impossible to shop for people. The book I previously reviewed about green giving...was good but this book has better ideas that could be implemented with green options. Such as it has tubes covered with paper, photos or postcards. Or gifts wrapped in news paper and then tied pretty ribbon that don't look cheap but look like it was wrapped professionally because the folds are so crisp. Or wrapped with felt and embroidery thread to do simple stitches to close it. All their examples were lovely and I can't wait to try some of them out this year for holiday giving.

The book includes recipes, craft templates and instructions and label templates in the back of the book also.

Some crafts and recipes I want to try and give....
Milk & Honey Bread
Infused Brandy
Fresh Feet Bath
Shoe Bags
Sewing Kits (that would be good for men or women)
Beaded Coasters
Hot Chocolate Cream

Plus MANY MANY more ideas.

If you can't get to the book before the holidays, here are a few links to help inspire and create.....

Felt Sewing Kit by Martha Stewart

Altoid Tin Sewing Kit - I don't think this one is done as well as it could be but it does provide inspiration

Mending on the Go Kit

Cocktail Times - Pear Infused Vodka - look at the related links too - they have herbal infused vodka, cranberry spiced infused vodka and a couple others.

Married with Dinner - Pear Brandy - I like the tag she did on the bottle too

Amateur's Guide to Drinking - Infuse This - Pear and Vanilla Infused Sake & Strawberry and Cherry Infused Brandy

Betz White Shoe Bag Tutorial

Craft Ideas - Shoe Bag Instructions

Beaded Coasters by Martha Stewart

Book Review: Simply Green

I am going to do these reviews together since they are very similar books by the same author. These are books I wouldn't necessarily buy but check out from the library. Both give some really creative green alternatives.


Simply Green Parties: Simple and resourceful ideas for throwing the perfect celebration, event, or get-together by Danny Seo

I really enjoyed the photos/styling of this book. I enjoyed many of the ideas. Seo brings the concept to reduce, recycle and reuse upfront in party planning. Very nice ideas about reusing household items or getting items at thrift stores to repurpose for party decor. Many of the ideas are very chic and can be adapted to fit your needs.

Okay so the bad things....There were some things I didn't get why he felt they were green. I mean there shouldn't be a lot of trash after a green party. And he suggested using bamboo paper plates. Now that is more eco-friendly then the plastic disposable plates or regular paper plates...but what would be even more eco-friendly is using real everyday plates. Getting a plain white porcelain plate - and you can plan any party around that. Or picking up odd sets at thrift stores and mixing and matching is always to me a better choice then paper. He also did bottled water. Plastic bottles water bottles....I loved what he did with them making flavor waters but why not pitchers of filtered tap water with fruit in them instead of plastic water bottles.


Simply Green Giving: Create Beautiful and Organic Wrappings, Tags, and Gifts from Everyday Materials by Danny Seo

I liked this book better then the party book. Again I really enjoyed the photos/styling of this book. He really hits the concept to reduce, recycle and reuse over and over. Some nice ideas about reusing household items or getting items at thrift stores to repurpose to wrap your gifts, make handmade gifts and gift tags.

I enjoyed seeing him make bows from the scented perfume cards in magazines. He tore them out very carefully. And then opened up the scented edge. He cut 1/2-inch strips across the sheet, starting at the scented edge and stopping an inch from the end. Then you fold it up accordion style - neatly stacking the strips on top of each other. With a pair of sharp scissors take each strip and curl by pulling it over the blade. The quicker you pull it over the blade the curlier it will get. And then attach to gift. The colors and images on the bow turn into a bouquet of colorful ribbon.

He also used the same concept of curling ribbon by pulling VHS tape out of the plastic tape cassette. And he wrapped a wine bottle in newspaper leaving 5 inches extra on top and cut that into strips and curled also.

Some things I didn't feel looked great. He took an old string of christmas lights to tie around a package but I just didn't think it looked good. I believe it probably could have but I just don't feel it was styled right in the book. Something else I wasn't sure about was that he used the inside of silver foil part of potato chip bags to wrap gifts. He washed them of course and then wrapped so the silver was showing out. But I just wonder how someone would feel opening a gift wrapped in a potato chip bag? I guess if they knew you were going green maybe they would accept it but would they think you were weird? Does it matter to save the environment? I don't know. But I thought it was odd. It looked pretty in the book - just wasn't sure how someone would feel opening a gift wrapped in it.

Overall the book did give me ideas for wrapping and decorating gifts more eco-friendly. I think often people forget repurposing is a green option. I will be posting a few things I did last year to wrap gifts by repurposing containers - nut containers, frosting and even a grated Parmesan cheese container.

Meanwhile check out these links for gift wrapping and especially green gift wrapping...

Gaiam Life - 10 Green Gift Wrapping Ideas

Passionate Homemaking - Frugal and Green Gift Wrapping

Green Package Wrap Ideas

Earth Easy - Gift Wrapping Alternatives

Also I posted these links before but are good ones at the holidays...
Paper bow making - Recycling magazines, old books and scrapbooking paper

There is also a great article on gift wrapping in Simply Service Holiday 2008 issue by marg_it.

Book Review: Lotta Prints

Lotta Prints: How to Print with Anything, from Potatoes to Linoleum by Lotta Jansdotter

I keep going back and forth on if I would give this book 3 or 4 stars. The style of the prints, the photos, the set up of the book - inspiring. Just lovely. The actual instructions to techniques used - lacking. Most of it is basic printing information that is found online or in other books - with better instructions. So it didn't give me any new ideas as far as techniques but as far as inspiration - yes it did! Really easy designs that would leave anything you print on looking so pretty. One such inspiration I can't wait to try is the wall hangings. They were ceiling to floor simple cloth wall hangings with a simple print on them. Very pretty - giving a room a splash of color with a minimalistic approach. Another plus to this book - many of the print designs could go for either male or female. They are very unisex friendly. Often prints books I have seen are very hearts, flowers and sunshine type designs but this book often has geometric designs put together in a very pleasing way that would work for any gender. I don't know if it is a book I need to own but I do think it would provide me inspiration on print design if I had it on my shelf but wouldn't teach me anything new about print techniques.

HANDMADE GIFT IDEA: Take plain tea towels, ties or totes and do potato printing on them. Here are a few links with how to's and also inspiration: Craftzine Tater Stamping, Creative Kismet Potato Printing and Creative Kismet Lotta Inspiration

Book Review: Last Minute Christmas Gifts

Last-Minute Christmas Gifts: Crafting Quick & Classy Presents for Everyone on Your List

Last-Minute Gifts to me in implies that it would be gifts I could make with things I have on hand at home. At least that is what means to me to me. So I was expecting quick easy gifts made from what I have at home without having to go out and buy a lot of items to make it. And it had a few projects like that but the majority are things I don't normally have at home. So it wasn't a book that helped me.

The instructions and photographs were good though. Many of the ideas were quick and easy if I would have had the supplies. And many of the projects didn't require a lot of supplies so that was nice too.

I think if I want to make a gift though and can't think of anything or needed something quick and easy, I would go to Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts

Book Review: Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts

Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts: An A-to-Z Guide with Detailed Instructions and Endless Inspiration by Martha Stewart

If you have read Martha Stewart's magazine, then a lot of these projects will look familiar. I don't get the magazine very regularly but always enjoy her crafts. So having many of those crafts from the magazines in one place is extremely convenient.

This book is a comprehensive book on crafting with a wide range of difficulty levels so even someone new to crafting would be able to find plenty of projects. I really enjoyed the appendix of tools for crafting. It has full color photos and then descriptions of every crafting tool you could need for the projects in the book. It is very helpful, especially if you've never used something before. Looking there will let you know what to look for. The book also includes a resource list, buyers guide and many useful templates.

A few of the types of crafts that are included:
Albums, Scrapbooks, and Memory Boxes
Beading
Block Printing
Botanical Pressing
Calligraphy
Candlemaking
Decoupage
Etching Glass
Fabric Flowers
Glittering
Jewelry Making
Marbleizing
Mosaics
Nature Crafts
Origami and Paper Folding
Painting China and Glass
Paper Flowers and Birds
Photo Crafts
Quilling
Rubber Stamping
Silkscreening
Soap Making
Tin Punching
Wreaths

and MANY MANY MORE projects.

There are a lot of crafts to make as gifts or make with kids. I think having it on my shelf just for needing to make a gift - would be worth having it.

Although the photographs are great, my only complaint is that some of the directions aren't detailed enough for me. But over all it is a great comprehensive craft book.