All the popular and new decorative paint looks made simple. 50 Ways to Paint a Wall is a straightforward guide to creating the stylish paint effects constantly featured on home shows and in shelter magazines. The paint techniques-four dozen plus two-include special applications, geometric designs, faux finishes, and wall embellishments. The techniques and color choices are always on trend, including the contemporary approaches to perennial favorites like sponging and stencils. With fifty choices, which technique is best for the room? Decorator tips will help make the big decision. For each technique, there is a big color swatch of the finished wall, then the best method is explained and photographed step-by-step. With this bargain-priced guide and a can of paint, anyone can transform a room fifty ways.
With this book in one hand and a brush in the other, you can learn how to create different finishes and effects with paint to change everyday rooms and furnishings into something special, all for the price of a pot of paint. The first section of the book tells you everything you need to know before you start - how to prepare surfaces properly, choose the right paint for the right place, use the best tools and select a colour scheme that will work with the room in question. 50 different techniques follow, with step-by-step photos showing you how to achieve the finished look, accompanied by inspirational photos showing the effect used on walls and doors, furniture and floors. Learn how to update old secondhand furniture, or how to give modern pieces a softly-aged appearance, all with the aid of a pot of paint and a brush. Whatever the style of your interiors, Quick and Easy Paint Transformations will show you the best way to makeover your home.By leading the decorative painting revolution over the last 20 years, Annie Sloan has become perhaps the world's most respected expert in decorative paint, colours, and techniques. Alongside her unique and versatile decorative paint, Chalk Paint, Annie has inspired generations with her accessible, lively, and creative approach to getting great results.
This New York Times bestselling book is filled with hundreds of fun, deceptively simple, budget-friendly ideas for sprucing up your home. With two home renovations under their (tool) belts and millions of hits per month on their blog YoungHouseLove.com, Sherry and John Petersik are home-improvement enthusiasts primed to pass on a slew of projects, tricks, and techniques to do-it-yourselfers of all levels. Packed with 243 tips and ideas—both classic and unexpected—and more than 400 photographs and illustrations, this is a book that readers will return to again and again for the creative projects and easy-to-follow instructions in the relatable voice the Petersiks are known for. Learn to trick out a thrift-store mirror, spice up plain old roller shades, "hack" your Ikea table to create three distinct looks, and so much more.
If you’re approaching that huge milepost with less than your usual birthday enthusiasm, open this book to discover all the ways in which turning fifty might just be the best thing yet. The authors share a wide range of ideas for making this major life transition a time of opportunity, growth, and celebration. As Sheila Key writes in the introduction: “What Peg and I hope you’ll hear among these pages is the irrepressible rustling of joy — joy enough to make you bust out laughing, sure, and the kind that comes from improving your mental outlook and physical habits, even just a little. But also the simple joy of having lived this long, of being able to look back over five full decades and forward to who-knows-how-many more; not to mention...the joy of living more mindfully in the ever-present Now.” Bursting with anecdotes, activities, “things to try at least once,” advice from a savvy doctor, and clever ways to remember it all, this little volume sparkles like a treasure chest. It’s as chock-full of useful and entertaining gems as your life is full of memories, regrets, dreams, and possibilities.
The authors who brought you 70 Ways to Beat 70 now offer proven techniques, strategies, and physical and spiritual disciplines to improve overall emotional health.
Touch, taste, smell, hear, and see your way to better self-care and mental well-being. Let's face it: We all feel stress. Deep breathing, meditation, and yoga only go so far, and not being able to sit still and be alone with our thoughts isn't that unusual. The mind is designed to engage with the world around us, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to finding what calms us because we are so unique in our circumstances, our lifestyles, our finances, and our interests. 50 Ways to More Calm, Less Stress explores different ways each of our five senses can help bring more calm and less stress into our lives. Whether through touch, sight, taste, smell, or sound, each activity includes research or science-backed studies that support why it offers health and wellness benefits as well as ways you can incorporate them into your own life. The best part—most of the activities are either low or no cost and can be done inside your own home or right outside your door. Activities include: The magic of gardening Losing yourself while doodling Culinary therapy The nostalgic power of perfume Nature therapy Bathing in sound Capturing a memory Slow reading If your brain constantly feels like an internet browser with thirty-five tabs open, or if you want to quiet the noise in your head long enough to think about what matters most in your life, this book is for you.
For individual or group use “It is my hope that this book will provide at least fifty ways you may take steps in a lifelong walk with God. It is written for you, the seeker and sojourner, as well as you, the church leader, youth minister, retreat facilitator, or worship planner. It is for all of us who thought we only knew one way to pray.” --from the introduction The explosion of interest today in Christian mystics, ancient prayer practices, and guided meditations speaks to a need for more hands-on tools that will help us pray in traditional as well as new and exciting ways. This book is intended to address that need. Each of the exercises includes not only instructions on how to use it as a prayer practice, but also some background, an introduction, a statement of intention, and tips to help you become comfortable with the practice. For those of you wanting to lead these practices in a group, there are special instructions and information in the Leader’s Guide at the end of the book. “Rich with wisdom drawn from the wellsprings of Western spirituality, this remarkable book is a sustained experience of spiritual direction offered by a seasoned spiritual guide.” -John S. Mogabgab, editor of Weavings journal "This book does more than point to ways of prayer; it serves as encouragement, guide, and partner for those who want to connect in prayer in ways that move beyond words." -Doug Pagitt, author of BodyPrayer and pastor of Solomon's Porch “This is a basic, balanced, and accessible guide to the variety, promise, and practice of prayer. Read it to deepen your understanding of prayer; use it to deepen your life in God.” -Frederick W. Schmidt, author of What God Wants for Your LifeClick here to read a sampleTable of ContentsTeresa A. Blythe is a writer, spiritual director, and frequent conference speaker on topics of popular culture and spirituality. She has co-authored Meeting God in Virtual Reality and Watching What We Watch, along with numerous essays and reviews for Beliefnet, Spirituality & Health, and Publishers Weekly. Teresa serves as Program Coordinator for the Hesychia School of Spiritual Direction at the Redemptorist Renewal Center in Tucson, AZ.
In my fourth book, In it for the Long Run, one of the most popular chapters with the readers was You can call me Al. It was all about my good friend Al Barker, the only person Ive ever met who brakes with his left foot. Wanting to capitalize on the popularity of using titles of Paul Simon songs, I reviewed his repertoire for an applicable title for this book. Since the book is about my last year on earth before turning 60 years of age, I initially considered Slip Slidin Away but thought that might project a negative connotation towards getting older. Instead I chose one of Simons more popular songs and gave it my own slant as I wanted to do 50 things Id never done before in the 12 months leading up to becoming a sexagenarian (dont get the wrong idea--it just means a person between 60 and 69 years of age). On my 60th birthday (December 10, 2014) someone asked me how I felt. I said just like I did when I was 59. Heck, it was only yesterday (although my grandson calls it lasterday which if you really think about it makes a lot more sense). As for the 50 things Id never done before. dont expect anything outrageous (jumping out of an airplane), dangerous (wrestling an alligator) or spectacular (making a dinosaur appear--but if I could my grandson would be SO impressed). Just 50 things pretty much anyone could do...as long as they have the right attitude. And by right attitude I mean sometimes you just have to say what the ___. Just because I turned 60 doesnt mean I reached maturity overnight. After all, maturity is for old people.
