DIY 4 LIFE

It's not all fantastic fiction here in blogland, sometimes we like to get a little dirty out in the garden (and listen to an audiobook!), make our own clothes (while listening to an audiobook!), do some repairs around the house (while listening to an...you get the idea), and even make our own darn shoes (audiobooooook!).

BOOOOOOOOOK

Well, have I got some DIY handbooks for YOU! Now, I know what you're thinking, internet friends, "isn't it easier to just YouTube that?" Sure, there's an instructional video online for just about anything--from A-Z (surviving an atomic apocalypse to surving a zombie apocalypse)! It's OK, I feel you. I successfully changed my own headlights last year in the Auto Zone parking lot with just my phone and a YouTube video.

#hero

But there's just something about having a handy how-to guide in your hot little hands to get you motivated to take on a project, or inspire you to create and do cool things with your wits and bare hands.You know what won't happen while you spend hours sitting on the couch, scrolling through smoothie recipes on Pinterest? You won't bump into a neighbor doing the same thing. A neighbor, IRL, you can look at and talk to about your mutual affection for smoothie making! It's a wonderful feeling. So, crawl out of your bunker and browse the many DIY offerings on hand at your neighborly neighborhood library.

/PSA

Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Notebook

I have never gardened before this year, and now I want to plant all of the things. The potential for failure is high!  But this book is giving me life.
The organization of the book is fantastic, and while I don't love spiral bindings on the shelf, it makes it easy to lay the book flat near your pots and dirt for hands-free planning. Frankly, the cover has so much information on it, you hardly even need to open it.

Salad Days: Recipes for delicious organic salads and dressings for every season

Now that I have my garden all planned out, I need to have a plan for all those little leafy greens I'll be harvesting. This book is basically all about tasty dressings because "salad recipe" is usually "take pile of leafy things, add dressing". But where does dressing come from if not a bottle? Fear not, this book solves that age-old mystery. These are some crazy, year-round, all season salads too. I mean, "Sauteed Fiddlehead Fern and mâche salad"? STOP. Eating ferns? I thought ferns were just for looking!

Finally, an end to the tyranny of dressing in bottles!

Custom-Make Your Own Shoes and Handbags

This book is BANANAS, you guys. It shows you how to use an old pair of shoes to create a plaster last (shoemaker term for foot shaped plaster thing), and shows how cast a last from your foot. Those shoes will be custom fitted to your exact foot. Imagine! I almost can't. Then as if that isn't enough information, this book shows you how to make handbags. Of course you could do what the author does and make shoes and a bag to match every dress, or not, because that's a little insane.

MIND-BLOWINGLY BANANAS

Brew better beer : learn (and break) the rules for making IPAs, sours, pilsners, stouts, and more 

If you want to brew your own beer, but you want to break all the rules in doing so, this is your guide. Beer brewing is serious business. When those things explode you'll know what I'm talking about. Your viral GIF recipes aren't going to tell you what to do if your pilsner's popping in the wrong way.

You can't spell PAIN without I.P.A

And finally, Roughing it Easy


With quite possibly the greatest title ever it isn't hard to imagine why this classic remains on the shelf. It's chock-full of the most useful tips (with illustrations!) one could ever need should they find themselves in the unfortunate situation of having to scramble eggs on a rock. You should really, really check this book out.

It's almost Mother's Day! (Did you make a present for your mom yet?)

It's almost Mother's Day!  Mom loves handmade gifts that come from the heart, right?  You could bake her some fantastic cookies, invent some ridiculous new mimosa to serve at your Mother's Day brunch, sew her a darling new apron from a vintage Hawaiian shirt...yeah, I'm on this.  You know where you can find scads of books, resources, and even classes on everything from container gardening to crafting to crochet to cooking?

I think you know where.

Anyway, there are some scrumptious looking new finds for would-be and committed crafters on the shelves this Spring.  Allow me to introduce you to a few.

Upcycling

by Danny Seo

Mom hates waste.  There are starving children somewhere and finishing your peas matters.  Danny Seo also hates wasting things, including things you may still be using for their intended purpose.  He wants you to make pretty, functional wares and decorations out of "stuff you already have".  For some of the projects, "stuff you already have" only applies if you happen to live in an Ace Hardware, but in a craft book of 200 pages with nearly a craft per page, one can forgive a little stretching of the made-up term "upcycle".  I mean, there has to be some filler, like the crafts that are less "trash to treasure" and more "trip to Lowe's to trash".  I personally LOVE the faux bear skin rug made from another, non bear-shaped, rug (is this just "cycling"?) and the *darling* bird cage chandelier made out of fake birds, a cannibalized IKEA paper lantern and chicken wire. Namely, stuff I definitely do not already have (except a bunch of fake birds--of those I have plenty).  The Starry-Sky Artwork project is a really cool way to make your collection of ugly hotel landscape paintings really *pop* (yes, I'm serious). He even has a 10 second project to use that tangled wad of Christmas lights you swore you'd store neatly this time but didn't. Hoarding mason jars and river rocks?  Mom, I'm looking at you.  Danny Seo has a project for that and you only need strong glue.

Upcycling has a bunch of really cool projects, and a few head-scratchers, but everything is well styled and photographed, and there are some cute crafts for kids to do too.  Definitely worth checking out if you love projects and hate throwing things away.

Eat & Make

by Paul Lowe

Sweet Paul is sweet. And I mean sweet. My mom would love him. This book is just charming! Cover, styling, author, and all.  What is it about those Northern Europeans that they have such photogenic homes?  I am admittedly a sucker for vintage clothing, vintage linens, vintage dishes, etc, but for some reason when I put it together it looks more like Wes Anderson got drunk and went blindfolded to a flea market and then got into a fist fight with Rachel Ashwell (of Shabby Chic--the original upcycler) over the perfect ashtray. *Ahem*  Eat & Make is primarily a cookbook but with complimentary crafts, mostly for table settings, thrown in.  The book is divided by time of day with a slant toward brunch-y foods and lighting, the recipes being a sort of "quick Swedish fusion" that goes well with vintage speckled enamel crocks and quirky "upcycled" aprons. I literally can't get enough of the creamy, yummy photography, the clean and bright white interiors, and just the general, Scandinavian-wooden-wheel barrow-natural-farmer's market-ness of it.   And I can't wait to make his Morning Biscuits, Snug Eggs, and Merry Marys.  I don't even care if his idea of "upcycled" candlesticks are just tapers crammed haphazardly (fire hazardly!) into big metal nuts.  They look so off-beat romantic when photographed in extreme close-up on his rough-hewn barn door table!  Check this book out for the menus and the pictures.  Don't make any of his candles unless you want to burn down your kitchen.  Mom would NOT approve.  She will however approve of the gorgeous grapefruit, red cabbage, and goat cheese salad on the cover.  She thinks you should eat more fruits and veggies.

Freakin' Fabulous on a Budget
Clinton Kelly

This book is a kick.  It provides simple instructions about how to quickly and cheaply transform your boring life into an instant cocktail party. Picture this: Anne Hathaway starring in a romantic comedy about a girl who has to pretend to be the sort of ad executive who throws effortlessly fabulous cocktail parties all the time when in fact she is a temp who can barely afford her communal studio apartment, ramen noodle dinners, and 4 cats. "Sally", played by Ms. Hathaway, frantically dashes around her 200 square foot apartment wearing curlers in a montage of dip-dyeing her grubby white bathmat into a designer ombre masterpiece and whipping up some goat cheese and red pepper mousse (on a budget), wrapping her drab, white lampshades with burlap, and altering her ill-fitting thrift store rags into hot off the runway looks tailored to her perfect body. Hilarity and romance ensues. Roll credits. That's the upcoming film adaptation of Clinton Kelly's Freakin' Fabulous on a Budget.  Don't believe me?  Check it out.  You'll see.  And mom loves to be fabulous.  You know what else mom loves?  Thrift.


What we take away from most craft books now is "NEVER. THROW. ANYTHING. AWAY." What they don't tell you is what to do with the stuff you mustn't ever throw away until you have enough (fill in the blanks) to fashion into a new thing.  To answer this question I propose a pre-craft interior decorating book.  I'll call it "decor-cycle" and it will be nothing but well-styled, super close-up photographs of vintage-modern interiors decorated *tastefully* with old tires painted white and filled with wine corks--wine corks just hanging out *tastefully* until I have enough for a bulletin board, trivet, dog bed, bathmat, and miniature refrigerator magnet succulent gardens.  And if I never happen to get around to the bulletin board, trivet, dog bed, bathmat, and miniature refrigerator magnet succulent gardens, I still have a *totally chic and tasteful* arrangement of wine corks in my living room.  I am *not*, however, sitting on my charming vintage sofa (old futon) sipping wine and chucking the corks into an old tire. I will *not* end up on Hoarders. To all the moms out there, including my own mom who taught me to love making stuff out of other stuff and took me to the library every week to check out craft books, Happy Mother's Day!

How do you DIY?

Teen Tech Week is all about DIY @ YOUR Library this year!  RPL has LOTS of great books to get you on your way to finally make some of those crafts you've been pinning on Pinterest but never quite seem to get around to (you know who you are)!

Sew subversive : 

down & dirty DIY for the fabulous fashionista

Nails, nails, nails! : 25 creative DIY nail art projects

DIY Projects for the self-sufficient homeowner : 
25 ways to build a self-reliant lifestyle

DIY solar projects : 

how to put the sun to work in your home

Planet Yumthing do-it-yourself : 
create, design, reinvent, and make it yours!

Improv sewing : 101 fast, fun, and fearless projects

This week @ YOUR library:

Get SEW fabulous at Ginter Park's fab-lab this week!  Sew tired threads into fresh looks and stop by on Thursday for a special DIY bow tie lab.  Everyday this week, March 10-14th @ 4 pm.

North Avenue is celebrating Teen Tech Week with DIY-YA labs @ 3pm this week, the 10th-13th.

Upcycle those old floppy disks and CDs @ the Main Library on Wed @ 4pm!

And MORE!

Make your own website for free (or really cheap)!

"But how?  I didn't go to one of your fancy internet schools!  I don't know my elbow from my html!"  
Fear not, blog reader--that is why there's WordPress.com! (And other similar dotcoms but for the sake of space I'll just talk about WordPress.)

Read about it here or come to my class!

DIY Websites with WordPress at the Ginter Park Branch Library

Wednesday, December 18th @ 5:30

Can't make it today but wish you could?

Give us a call and I'll try to schedule another class in the future: 646-1236.

Creating your own website to promote a small brick-and-mortar business or a web store in an online marketplace, or to share your art, music, or words with the world is well within your reach.  You don't need to know any code or shell out a ton of money to have a professional, attractive, functional website that can grow with your needs, skill level, and your business.  WordPress, simply put, is a blog (sort of like the one you are reading now).  Blogs are basically just websites designed to display the most recent content first in the form of "posts". Static "pages" can be added and set as the homepage, moving the blog off the the side.  Pages can even be nested creating sub-menus if your template allows it. Go to any website you can think of and navigate the menus.  You can do that on your own site.  Here is an  example of a well done WordPress.com website for a small business:

The Pink Rose Bakery

These blogazines (I may have just made that word up) definitely weren't free but are worth showing here as an example of what is possible:

The Holborn

Flavorwire

So, how to get started?  Go to Wordpress.com.  Click "get started".  Do this:

Create your account log-in, and don't worry about the blog address because you can change it later. You're almost there! Once you're in you can pick out a theme.  There are 120 free themes to choose from. The theme is the pretty part; it determines the look and feel of your site. Consider your audience and your content.  If you feature a lot of photos and very little text, look for a theme that emphasizes photos like this one.

If you are promoting an auto repair shop you will probably want a static homepage that prominently displays your phone number, a list of services, and a map of your location. Think about what information your customer is looking for and make it easy to find. The above theme might confuse someone in search of a reliable mechanic.

So, what's next? Get to know your dashboard. That's the control room for your whole website. There you'll be able to create pages, add content, change your theme, write and edit blog posts (basically just do all of the things) there. I set up a "sandbox" to demo changes for the purposes of the class so it will look different all the time: http://nataliedlibrarian.wordpress.com/

The theme I have chosen is pretty well suited to my content, what little of it there is, but I'm not wild about the background color so I think I'll change it.  It's nice to know that the theme can be changed easily at any time without sacrificing my content.

When creating a page or a post you may notice a tab labeled "visual" and next to it a tab labeled "text".
The text tab is where you can edit (some of) the HTML--that's the language that tells a browser how to display content.  The great thing about WordPress?  You don't have to know it at all. You can learn just a little and make some changes in there if you like or you can leave it alone and trust WP's code.

WordPress can be ALL free, "pretty cheap", or "reasonably priced" depending on how much space you need and how much control you want. You can purchase upgrades à la carte or as part of a plan. 60$/year gets you video—the free version does not support video. 99$/year gets you a custom domain, more space for photos and video (about 13 GB), and more control over site appearance. Even more money will get you even more, if you can imagine that.  Want a custom theme?  It'll cost you but it's an option.

Want even more control? Teach yourself a new language! The folks at codeacademy.com and W3Schools.com have just about all you need to learn code like CSS or HTML in your spare time. It might even be fun.

Final advice: Put a cat on it. (People love cats.) (The internet has lots of funny cats.)

Readings for the end of the world

Do you DIY? Are you frugal? Maybe even thrifty? Are you prepared for anything? Even zombies? I know what you’re probably wondering. “But Natalie, why am I doing all of this canning when I could be on the beach? I mean, the world is probably going to end soon in some calamitous meteor strike or zombie plague and I can’t take it with me. Right?”

You couldn’t be more wrong.

What if you’re the only one left? Do you have enough canned goods? Can you sew a gown out of a tarp? Brew your own beer or gasoline?

These are the kinds of things I ponder while shelving, especially when I come across books like Be Thrifty, a compact yet surprisingly heavy handbook with a place for a (now pilfered) penny on the cover. The front of Be Thrifty: How to live better with less warns readers against being “cheap”, but I wonder where that line is? Could it be cheap (and a little paranoid) to consider this book an excellent bargain because 1) It totally doubles as a post-apocalyptic preparedness manual and 2) I checked it out at the library FOR FREE?

NO.

The book covers a lot more than just the DIY aspects of budget-wariness, such as picking good cheap wines, but since currency will be squirrel pelts and juice boxes when the world ends we’ll focus on DIY and leave the coupons for another day. So I got to searching the shelves for other handy references for the end of the world (or weekend projects) and it turns out that there is a do-it-yourself guide for literally (yes, literally) everything so I picked a few to share and tossed in some of my favorite “end of the world as you know it (and I feel fine)” reads for good measure. What a bargain!

Surely this isn’t cheap! This is just plain industrious. And fabulous! (Full disclosure: I have been making my own clothes for years.)

How to design your own clothes and make your own patterns (1975)

This?  Not a chance.  Makeup, lotions, cleansers and such are pricey while many of these recipes have about 4 little ingredients.  They even have a recipe for henna hair dye.

A guide to natural cosmetics (1973)

Home butchering?  Julie Powell got her hands...meaty?  yeah, meaty, for you. Remember folks, it’s just going to be you and the squirrels...  

Cleaving : a story of marriage, meat, and obsession (2009) Powell, Julie.

Can it, freeze it, pickle it, you get the idea:

Putting food by

Greene, Janet C.

Maybe it’s not too late to save the planet?  

Do-it-yourself home energy audits : 140 simple solutions to lower energy costs, increase your home's efficiency, and save the environment

DIY Doctor? The doctor is in...YOU? Last man on earth, heal thyself? I hope you have plenty of sterile gauze!

Doctor yourself : natural healing that works

Also, don't forget that Monday is Earth Day. There are so many ways we can reduce our impact on the environment and try to get a few more spins on this lovely planet of ours.

Or else...