Forgive the C-word, but Christmas is almost upon us. For workers in retail, the season arrived many weeks ago. However, no need to panic; it’s still not too late to work up a few gifts from the heart and give retail Christmas a rest.

Geek Chic Crochet shows you how to create 35 retro-inspired projects. You could whip up a bright red crocheted tie for the cool man in your life and cute colourful hair bows for your best girlfriends. The book tackles peter pan collars and neckerchiefs. And you could also channel Madonna with vintage lace gloves. (Is Madonna vintage yet?)

Warm Little Knits is another new title that provides patterns for classic Norwegian knitwear. Cozy socks and mittens feature a lively combo of stylized birds, flowers and geometric patterns. I'm thinking that it might be easier to embrace outdoor winter life with the stylish accessories of hardy Nordic people.

I browsed through the collection of crochet books and found a couple of older titles filled with many projects that appeal to me.

Super Cute: 25 Amigurumi Animals shows you how to make delightful stuffed toys. The designs are influenced by traditional Japanese doll culture crossed with the Japanese “kawaii” culture that produced Hello Kitty and manga. There are bears and bunnies, puppies with berets and fish with googly eyes.

Cool Crocheted Hats offers instructions to make a retro Rasta hat for both men and women. You could choose the Festival Olé pillbox hat with a zigzag brim and a variegated crown or an exotic Kufi-styled crown cap reminiscent of 1920s Morocco. All very Boho chic.

- Jane

The photo of delectable Greek food in a traditional blue-and-white setting in my last blog made me think about this wonderful colour scheme and all the delicious ways it is applied. If you search our catalogue with the phrase “blue in interior decoration”, the results reveal its ongoing popularity. Here are a few of my favourite titles.

Decorating with Blue and White shows the colour scheme applied to every style of décor, including Mediterranean. In a country kitchen, soft blue and white appears in checks on comfy armchairs with large striped ottomans. It is echoed in kitchen accessories like polka-dot mugs and enameled cookware.

Bathroom blues are expressed in glass tiles and pretty towels. Outdoor blues include the deep cobalt painted on a Moroccan door and traditional tiles around a pool.

350 Inspiring Ways to Decorate with Blue is a 2011 title from House Beautiful in a convenient paper-back size which makes it easy to browse on the C-train. Designers share their favourite paint colours and sources and talk about why the colour resonates with them.

You see blues from the sea and sky, as well as dusky navy and indigo. Sometimes blue dominates the room; in other spaces, it is used as an accent. As you would expect from House Beautiful, most of the décor is traditional or contemporary classic.

Although Blue & White Living by Stephanie Hoppen was published in 1998, many of the classic blue-and-white combinations remain fresh today. A large living room by John Stefanidis features furniture slip covered in blue-and-white ticking. Blue ikat cushions line a long bench in this light-filled room.

These books are bound to leave you singing the blues.

-Jane

Zesty eggplant stew, a dish of olives and fresh lemons against a backdrop of cobalt blue. That’s the delectable cover of The Country Cooking of Greece by Diane Kochilas. She is a chef and owner of a cooking school in Ikaria who also writes a weekly food column for Greece’s largest newspaper.

Kochilas provides more than just recipes; she takes you for a tour of the culture and people. You meet the mussel man who owns a popular taverna and cultivates mussels in “the rich, sweet-salty waters of the Thermaikos Gulf”. You learn about Greek oregano, the kalamata olive harvest and Santorini tomatoes that flourish unexpectedly in the chalky, volcanic soil of the island.

She writes an ode to the classic Greek salad which melds the amazing flavours of simple fresh ingredients. I can’t wait to try the Cretan beet salad with yogurt and walnuts. Pistachio-crusted feta and ouzo-glazed duck breast are calling my name.

I like that the recipes are as much about method as ingredients and that many of the recipes have an uncomplicated list of ingredients consistent with country home cooking.

The cover lured me in with a visual feast and the book lived up to its cover.

- Jane

Next blog:This beautiful blue-and-white tablescape reminds me of all the lovely decorating books that embrace the blues.

100 Ideas that Changed Architecture is a handy new title that offers insight into the evolution and history of the built world around us. The ideas are arranged roughly in chronological order in the form of concise illustrated essays which can be read happily from beginning to end or randomly sampled.

The author begins with the simplest elements of construction, like fireplace, floor, door and window. Then there are ideas about spatial types, from the Roman basilica which became the pattern for most Christian churches to the introduction of the corridor, a relatively recent innovation.

He explores the impact of design and drawing techniques, like computer-aided design, and also social ideas and innovations, such as universal design which provides for those with disabilities.

The book also covers philosophies that have made a big impact, for example, humanism and phenomenology. The essays are written in layman’s prose with a glossary at the back of more obscure terms.

It’s a nifty little book that will help you pepper your conversation with words like 'zeitgeist' and 'postmodernism'. How cool is that?

-Jane

High-profile designer, Nate Berkus, gets up close and personal with his latest design book, The Things that Matter. He reveals intimate details of his life and upbringing and talks about the people who have influenced him and his sense of style.

Yes, he takes you home with him and into the homes of 12 other stylish people as well. As you would expect, all of the places are beautiful and executed with an exceptional eye for detail. But, this is a text-heavy book where he shares stories about the people who live in the handsome places and what is meaningful to them.

The homes all have eye-catching collections of interesting and unique objects and each tells a tale. A brass gazelle named Fiona sits regally atop a smoked glass table in the heart of a chic black-and-white living room. Fiona is a treasured object from a humble source: EBay. Other treasures in other homes speak of esoteric interests and exotic places.

The homes are not all palatial. Fiona lives in a cookie-cutter contemporary apartment of modest proportions. He visits the tiny apartment (450 sf) in Greenwich Village of his hair dresser whose charming home is skillfully edited.

Some places are sleek and glamorous; others are cozy and filled with vintage furnishings. You see the home of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, sex therapist and media personality. You also see the swanky digs of Chris Gardner whose rags to riches career – and year of homelessness – was chronicled in the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness.

Along with the many talents that have made him a successful designer, Berkus is a good story teller.

- Jane

If you get a weekly fix of inspiration from TV makeover shows, you will enjoy a new addition to the collection.

Home By Novogratz showcases the work of husband-and-wife design team, Robert and Cortney Novogratz who have their own show on HGTV. Not surprisingly, the makeover formula is applied to the book. You see before-and-after shots, a list of steps, expert tips and a budget summary for each of the profiled spaces.

Their signature style is vintage modern. The rooms are colourful, family friendly and unpretentious. Of course, a lot of their clients have big bucks to drop on the process, like $35,000 for a tree house. No matter, there is much to be gleaned for the avid DIYer and a lot of fun in the decorating.

A long narrow attic storage space is transformed for two young girls. Beds are hung from sloped ceilings with heavy chains to maintain an airy feel. Floors are covered with bright, striped rugs. A long desk, shelving, and storage cubbies painted purple maximize the use of space. Pretty fabrics add a soft girlie touch.

Paint and stencils create a bold graphic for a living room wall in a “hipster haven”. For a singer-songwriter friend, they created a reader’s refuge, reorganizing hundreds of books into existing shelving and building a custom L-shaped sofa with additional library space in the base.

In a suburban basement, play space is created for both children and adults. Bold checkered carpet tiles brighten the area. Wallpaper is a collage of enlarged family photos.

It’s the kind of book where many high-cost (let’s-pay-a-contractor-to-do-it) ideas can be adapted for low-budget living.

- Jane

In the next month, I’ll be retiring from my regular hours at the Library (although I will continue to work as a substitute from time to time). I’m looking forward to additional free time which I plan to spend with a paint brush in hand.

I am learning how to paint with acrylics. A few years ago, I took a class at ACAD to get started; however, I didn’t practice enough to retain the lessons taught.

About six months ago, I began again, this time using a book from our collection: Painting for the Absolute and Utter Beginner. I worked through every exercise in the book. That was a very rewarding experience because they improved my work almost immediately.

Two new books on acrylic painting are coming home with me now to spend some quality time. I like that they bring completely different approaches to the topic.

500 Acrylic Mixes: Paint Color Recipes for the Artist applies a very systematic method to learning how to mix colours and create charts for future reference. Nevertheless, examples of work in the book are loose and expressive.

Brave Intuitive Painting emphasizes the forgiving nature of acrylics to encourage a more experimental approach to painting and developing a method that suits the individual artist. When you don’t get the colour right, just glaze over it.

Happiness is a hobby that is so engrossing that you lose yourself and many hours to the process. I have found mine.

- Jane

Flea Market Finds with Matthew Mead is a new title that revels in the glories of a day spent sifting through vintage cast-offs. It proves once again that trash becomes treasure in the hands of those with fertile imagination, a sack full of DIY tricks and a gift for arrangement.

Mead is a style guru who applies his talents to rehabbing a multitude of unlikely finds into attractive home furnishings. For example, a coil of baling wire found at a farm sale is snipped and twisted into whimsical picture frames.

Unbreakable vintage melamine, enamelware dishes and a daisy-covered teapot create a play set for little girls. The lively colours make a pretty mix with the sugar cookies and candy of the tea party.

Inspired by an art book of black-and-white doodles, he applies marker pen to a spool of craft paper hung high on the wall and unrolled to the floor. This quick-change art installation is surprisingly chic and who woulda thunk it? Well, apparently, Matthew Mead.

He does some clever things with mid-century modern finds to create a stylish room setting.

In a section titled, Frond Moments, he makes a case for the friendly fern found on collectibles or plucked from the garden to decorate walls and table settings. With a stencil he applies a fern design to an old chest of drawers with a drop-down desk.

The book is a fun browse just for the level of ingenuity invested into reclaiming these old objects of his affection.

- Jane

During October, fiber artist, Susan Kristoferson, has an exhibition of collages of floral bouquets on the main floor of the Central library. They are composed of the beautiful papers that she makes in her home studio. Her collages reminded me of the wonderful biography of Mary Delany whose work is now housed in the British Museum.

Susan specializes in itajime paper made by a fold-and-dye technique traditional to Japan and painted paste papers. These are contemporary versions of papers used by 17^th Century European bookbinders. Last month, she led the altered book workshop at Central. If you missed it here, you still have time to catch it at the branches.

Our collection contains a wide selection of books on paper making and paper crafts and I am blown away by the many lovely and inventive things that can be created with paper.

I first met Susan several years ago when she was a featured artist on the Triangle Gallery’s (now MOCA) House + Studio Tour and bought a pair of her earrings.

If you want to try your hand at creating paper jewelry, here are two books to inspire you.

Handmade Paper Jewelry includes a locket covered in fancy gift-wrap paper which encloses tiny photos. Glass beads and a decorative toggle closure enhance the necklace (p. 38).

Creative Paper Jewelry demonstrates the creation of pulp paper beads that are combined with cords, chains and ribbons to make charming and fanciful pieces.

- Jane

If you are clever with needles and yarn (or want to be), here is a new book to help you cozy up your home for autumn. The Knitted Home: hand-knitted projects room by room presents charming knits for nine different rooms and the garden.

For the kitchen, a tea cozy topped with a sweet posy of roses will keep the brew warm while adding a pretty touch to the tea tray. You can see it pictured on the cover of the book.

A knitted cover for a hot-water bottle sports a textured pattern. Although it’s featured with accessories for a bedroom, I think this would make a nifty gift for someone who likes to go camping.

Butterflies and flowers are attached to long cords to decorate a window. A butterfly is the large central motif on a cushion cover bordered with three-dimensional flowers.

The seaweed door curtain makes imaginative use of crochet which twists and twirls in long strands made from varying hues of mercerized cotton.

For the nursery, the characters from traditional rhymes and tales inspire playful accessories. Humpty Dumpty sits on the knitted wall of a storage bag for small toys. He can also be detached for play. Three little polka-dot pigs hang on a mobile that includes a knitted hut where they all tuck in for bedtime.

Each project includes clear instructions. At the back of the book, basic techniques for knitting and crochet outline the skills needed to get things started. Special methods, such as felting, embroidery and intarsia are illustrated there as well.

-Jane