More or Less: Taking a shine to the polished bar cart K5
Check It Off: Cures for the post-holiday decor blahs K4
Home&Garden San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com | Sunday, December 26, 2010 | Section K
GARDENING
Taming the rose A pro’s guide to pruning for radiant rosebushes By Rayford Reddell SPECIAL TO THE CHRO NICLE
Nothing frightened me more when I started growing roses than pruning. I read up on the subject, went to demonstrations, and still, when the time came, I stood with my shears and trembled in front of bushes that begged to be pruned. Cutting canes seemed so final, so uncorrectable. Now, on the other side, feeling comfortable, knowing exactly what I’m doing, I want to make it easy for you.
Gene Sasse
1 Step-by-step guide to pruning with confidence K2
BOOKS
Amy Sedaris crafts a kooky DIY guide By Chantal Lamers SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICL E
HD Buttercup
Shopping Report L.A.’s quirky decor mecca HD Buttercup opens an outpost in San Francisco. Get the details in our new feature on K4.
If your lack of do-it-yourself sensibility has you feeling way uncool, well, Amy Sedaris has your back. This time around the author of “I Like You: Hosting Under the Influence” shares her curious-meets-cheerleaderish take on the virtues of white glue and Popsicle sticks in “Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People.” This timely tongue-in-cheek guide is written for an audience of hopeful crafters with teeny (or no) budgets at the height of the crafting craze-slash-economic meltdown. Being craft-coordinated
or, to a certain extent, even possessing the urge to fasten googly eyes to pinecones, aren’t prerequisites to enjoying this handy manual. “Today, there is a much more leisurely attitude toward crafting, and virtually anyone without a job and access to pipe cleaners can join the elite society of crafters,” writes Sedaris. Despite its inspirational, whimsically illustrated theme pages and partiality for kitschy costumes, the hard-core (humorless) crafter might not take this quirky collection of foil space helmets, penny-’n’packing tape bookmarks and decorative fly-catching strips seriously.
Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People by Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello (Grand Central Publishing; $27.99)
If her list of common crafting accidents is any indication (No. 1 Sawdust
Fires, No. 2 pinecone lodged in throat, No. 4 dried flower fungal infection), the comical book is chock with all sorts of peculiar possibilities. Unless of course you deem “Unreturnable Gift Giving” as such, there are no conventional chapters on subjects like holiday crafts. Nor are the projects limited to what we traditionally know as crafts (the section “Making Love” includes how-tos for whipping up batches of smelly oil, or making corkscrew candles and tickling sticks). Happily, Sedaris’ instructions don’t necessitate trips to the hobby shop for unheard-of crafting gadgets. Sedaris continues on K5
San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate.com | Sunday, December 26, 2010 |
K5
HOME MORE OR LESS
Sedaris crafts a kooky guide to DIY projects
By Chantal Lamers
Belly up to the bar cart Good host etiquette calls for a few essentials. Send invitations a minimum of two weeks in advance and then, at said fete, captivate guests with tasty bites to nosh on and always, always maintain a well-stocked bar. And as we approach the last of the gatherings of the holiday season, a classic, catchall bar cart can assist with one of those good-host gestures. Not only do bar carts evoke a sweet dose of throwback glamour, they are uniformly practical for organizing and displaying everything from bottles to barware, lemon wedges, jars of plump olives and cocktail napkins. Carts also provide guests a destination for easy self-service (read: bottomless glass). Wow your guests with the
$1,450
$825
Cosmopolitan Bar Cart from Williams-Sonoma Home (www.wshome.com)
Raymond Bar Cart, Plantation Design (store.plantation design.com)
buffed and stately Cosmopolitan Bar Cart from WilliamsSonoma Home. The shiny nickel-plated piece has classic lines that make it a seamless fit for a number of decor styles. The cart has tempered mirrored-glass shelves, aluminum and steel legs and rubber casters. It measures 33 inches long, 17 inches wide and 32 inches high for $1,450. Or be a gracious host with the Raymond Bar Cart from
Plantation Design. Its wide nickel and mirror shelves gleam from the bottom casters to the top shelf. It’s 28 inches high, 37 inches wide and 22 inches deep. Nickel or gold leaf is priced at $825. More or less, either of these sophisticated carts will elevate cocktail service at your next soiree.
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E-mail comments to home@sfchronicle.com.
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Sedaris from page K1
Thumbtack Funtack
Rather, she suggests scrounging around the house for prospective treasures such as in these loosely written directions for the Rusty Nail Wind Chime: Gather all the rusty nails from your backyard. String them up using strong, colorful string. In “Crafting for Nature” you’ll find cutesy wreaths made from acorns and cardboard, doughnut squirrel feeders, paint-by-numberish-looking seed portraits and a buzzinducing recipe for mint juleps. Check out a shoe scrapper constructed from bottle caps and a cheery looking duster made from scraps of fabric in the “Joy of Poverty.” Even atheists might be stirred to craft projects from a segment on religious goods that includes stained-glass-effect candleholders, Bible bookends from bricks and, naturally, angel food cake.
From “Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People,” by Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello: Instructions: Using a pencil, write a word on a piece of hardwood and then follow the lines using thumbtacks. You will need a thimble and a lady hammer because without them, over time this repetitive pressing will destroy your thumbs.
“Handicrafts keep us in touch with our roots,” writes Sedaris. “It reminds us that we were born of the natural world and that is where we shall return.” So no matter where you fall on the craft spectrum, “Simple Times” is a good reminder of the genesis of crafts: utilize what you have and what you can find (ideally, for free). E-mail comments to home@sfchronicle.com.
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