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Almost Lost Arts

Emily Freidenrich

Description

Almost Lost Arts features the stories of 20 artisans who have devoted their lives to preserving traditional techniques. 

From globemakers and bookmenders to cassette tape manufacturers and neon sign makers, the profiled artisans represent a diverse mix of media, ages, genders, and cultural backgrounds.

Gorgeous photographs reveal these craftspeople's studios from places like Oaxaca, Kyoto, Milan, and Tennessee.

• Each maker is accompanied by an in-depth profile telling their story
• Features two essays that discuss the challenges and rewards of engaging deeply with the past
• An inspiration to makers, collectors, and history lovers

Almost Lost Arts is a celebration of tactile beauty and a tribute to human ingenuity. 

This book takes readers in-depth with each artisan and explores how people around the world are saving traditional arts from obscurity.

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Let's Move the Needle

Shannon Downey

Description

Craftivism, or the space where art and activism meet, is a powerful, ever-evolving social justice movement that continues to grow and diversify as more voices and mediums take part in it. In Let's Move the Needle, Shannon Downey, an outspoken voice in the craftivist movement for over a decade, provides a roadmap and accessible toolkit for burgeoning art activists.

Filled with self-reflective activities, exercises, prompts, and stories, Let's Move the Needle educates and empowers creatives to center their art around collective action in service of political, social or community issues they are most passionate about; affirming that everyone can be a changemaker and that change-making can be generative, enjoyable, and a bit sassy!

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The Ultimate Origami Book

Hinkler

Description

The Ultimate Origami Book - Fold, Create, Explore!

Unfold your creativity with The Ultimate Origami Book! Perfect for both beginners and experienced folders, this comprehensive guide features 39 beautiful traditional and contemporary origami projects. With clear, step-by-step instructions and detailed diagrams, you'll be guided through each fold with ease.

  • 39 Origami Projects - Includes both classic and modern designs
  • Action-Packed Folds - Create a transforming ninja star, moving fireworks, an infinity cube, and a magic ball
  • 115 Colorful Origami Papers - Ready to use, no prep required
  • Clear Instructions & Diagrams - Easy-to-follow for folders of all levels

Whether you're new to paper folding or looking to sharpen your skills, this book offers hours of fun and creative exploration for all ages!

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Statement Macramé

Natalie Ranae

Description

Make Your Large-Scale Macramé Dreams Come True 

If you’ve ever seen a stunning piece of macramé and dreamed of someday being able to make your own . . . now you can! Consider this book your master class on creating large-scale macramé. Natalie Ranae is renowned for her large custom designs. As the follow-up to her bestselling introductory book Macramé at Home, here she takes things up a notch. Combining her years of design expertise and friendly teaching style, Natalie guides you step by step through 12 amazing pieces. From floor-to-ceiling backdrops for your wedding or special event to impressive wall art and multi-plant hangers for your home, these designs are big, bold, beautiful and guaranteed to make an unforgettable statement in any space. Natalie also shares two design tutorials for her most popular macramé pieces: headboards. 

These showstopping pieces are best suited for those with previous experience in macramé. The process is achievable thanks to Natalie’s detailed directions and step-by-step photos. Whether you recreate the designs exactly as shown, make your own modifications or use this as an inspiring look-book, every page will have you swooning over Natalie’s boho-chic style and the intricate details in these stunning macramé pieces.

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The First-Time Gardener: Growing Vegetables

Jessica Sowards

Description

Homesteader Jessica Sowards, the warm and energetic host of YouTube’s Roots and Refuge Farm, is the perfect teacher for new gardeners, offering not just know-how but inspiration and time-management tips for success.

Before you sink your hands into the soil, she’ll answer all those questions rolling around inside your head:
 

  • Where do I put my new garden?
  • How do I prepare the soil?
  • What vegetables should I plant?
  • Is it better to start new plants from seed or should I buy transplants?
  • What about watering, feeding, and taking care of my garden?
  • What do I do if bugs show up?


There are no stupid questions here. Everyone has to start somewhere, after all. Not only will you learn how to prepare, plant, and tend your first vegetable garden, you’ll also learn:
 

  • How to design an eco-friendly layout
  • How to grow with the seasons
  • How to maximize your harvest, even if you only grow in a small space


Jessica wants your first food-growing experience to be a positive one, and she’s prepared to go the distance to make sure tending the earth becomes your new favorite hobby.

A single growing season is all it takes to fall in love with growing your own healthy, organic, nutrient-dense food. With Jessica as your guide, you’ll soon discover all the satisfactions, challenges, and great joys of growing your own food garden.

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1000 Japanese Knitting & Crochet Stitches

Nihon Vogue

Description

1000 Japanese Knitting & Crochet Stitches is a treasure trove of needlecraft patterns and motifs for experienced knitters and crocheters seeking to create and better understand the infinite variety of their craft. This Japanese reference work is beloved by knitters the world over, and the English version will allow even more crafters to enjoy these techniques.

This dictionary includes 700 original knitting stitch patterns and 300 original crochet patterns that have inspired many modern Japanese knitwear designs. You'll find classic lacy, cable, Aran, Fair Isle, Nordic, and ethnic patterns; geometric, botanical, and animal motifs; and so much more. This one-stop reference has detailed stitch diagrams showing how to execute over 60 different knitting stitches and over 40 different crochet stitches. Each pattern is charted with a delineation of the pattern repeat.

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Happier Hour

Cassie Holmes

Description

Our most precious resource isn’t money. It’s time. We are allotted just twenty-four hours a day, and we live in a culture that keeps us feeling “time poor.” Since we can’t add more hours to the day, how can we experience our lives as richer?

Based on her wildly popular MBA class at UCLA, Professor Cassie Holmes demonstrates how to immediately improve our lives by changing how we perceive and invest our time. Happier Hour provides empirically based insights and easy-to-implement tools that will allow you to:

-Optimally spend your hours and feel confident in those choices
-Sidestep distractions
-Create and savor moments of joy
-Design your schedule with purpose
-Look back on your years without regrets

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Homemade

Carol Endler Sterbenz

Description

Offering an abundance of information and inspiration, Homemade is a revelatory addition to the craft world—the ultimate reference book on crafting and also a warm, engagingly written book that combines history and personal narrative with the science that makes a craft possible and the passion that inspires it. 

Carol Endler Sterbenz is a crafter, a teacher, a homemaker, a wife, and a mother. Raised by immigrant parents who taught her the enduring value of resourcefulness and creativity, she makes her lifetime of experience and infinite enthusiasm the foundation for Homemade. Sterbenz provides readers with not only practical information and direction but also a philosophy and methodology of crafting that build confidence and ability, making it easy to achieve truly professional results. 

Teeming with clear, reliable, and thorough information on everything from tools and materials to techniques, Homemade is an essential guide to seven of the most beloved crafts: beading, the flower arts, paper crafting, hand printing, decoupage, decorative embellishing, and children’s arts and crafts. 

Crafters—beginners and veterans alike—can turn to Homemade to learn which glues and finishes to use, how to form a perfect beaded loop, assemble a miniature robot, hollow out an egg, emboss paper, make a hand-tied bouquet, or transform a chandelier. Overflowing with hundreds of techniques; easy-to-follow step-by-step directions supported by more than eight hundred beautiful and precise hand-drawn illustrations, diagrams, and patterns; and countless insider secrets and troubleshooting tips, Homemade is an indispensable go-to reference no crafter should be without.

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Learn To Code Html And Css

Shay Howe

Description

HTML and CSS can be a little daunting at first but fear not. This book, based on Shay Howe's popular workshop covers the basics and breaks down the barrier to entry, showing readers how they can start using HTML and CSS through practical techniques today. They'll find accompanying code examples online, while they explore topics such as the different structures of HTML and CSS, and common terms. After establishing a basic understanding of HTML and CSS a deeper dive is taken into the box model and how to work with floats. The book includes an exercise focused on cleaning up a web page by improving the user interface and design, solely using HTML and CSS. With a few quick changes the web page changes shape and comes to life. Interactive, technically up-to-the-minute and easy-to-understand, this book will advance a student's skills to a professional level.

 

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Cricut: 14 Books in 1 - The Most Complete Guide to Master Your Cricut Machine with 200+ Projects Ideas - Top Secret Tips and Tricks to Effortlessly Become Your Friends’ & Family’s Favorite Crafter!

Olita Design

Description

Have you just bought your brand-new Cricut dream machine and have no idea where to start?

Are you struggling with it and are looking for the easiest way to learn to use it with confidence?

If yes, you are in the right place…

Cricut crafts are amazing to look at, and the Cricut machine and Cricut Design Space software give you the option to make just about anything.

The problem is that in order to accomplish all this cool stuff, the level of complexity is far from trivial, so we risk leaving our Cricut machine in the closet gathering dust.

But no need to worry! This all-inclusive 14-in-1 bundle has been crafted exactly for you!

Here is a tiny fraction of what you will find inside:

  • How to set up your machine quickly and easily, so you don't have to go crazy before you get started
  • All the details, technicalities, and differences you need to know about Cricut Joy, Maker, Maker 3, Explore Air 2 and Explore 3
  • A list of the most common mistakes and issues with the Cricut machine and how to avoid/solve them
  • A simple guide to Cricut software thanks to which you can use it smoothly and know right away what all the optimal settings are for your specific project
  • The best materials and tools to use with each specific Cricut machine, so you know right away what to buy
  • 21 must have accessories to make each of your projects a stunning decoration for your home, a fantastic gift, or why not, a desirable sale item on Etsy
  • Hundreds of project ideas for all levels, from beginner to advanced, so you can be sure that you always have great options, especially given that you can make most of them once and be able to wing them or freestyle to your own liking the next time
  • Simple and fun Cricut projects for kids to help them develop their creativity and fantasy from an early age
  • How to start your DIY Cricut business and monetize your art through specific tips on how to find gaps in the market and what platforms to use
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Artisan Air-Dry Clay

Radka Hostasova

Description

No Kiln? No Problem! 

Learn to make beautifully textured home décor accents with inexpensive air-dry clay! The process is easy, and the results are surprisingly stylish when you follow the tips, advice, and instruction from author and clay artist-designer Radka Hostasova. 

Aimed at absolute beginners—this book starts with an overview of the tools and materials needed to produce the best results. A comprehensive "Getting Started" chapter teaches essential home pottery techniques such as rolling slab, coiling, sculpting, and pinching. Also included are creative ideas for adding color with acrylic paint, watercolor, and metallics. At the book's heart are a range of beautiful projects, including trinket bowls, napkin rings, wall hangings, coasters, and others. Each lesson comes with a detailed reference photograph and easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions. 
 

  • Roll, coil, sculpt and carve air-dry clay to create beautiful projects
  • Make modern and stylish projects such as coasters, trinket dishes, home décor accents, kid's projects, and more
  • Use easy home pottery as a mode of relaxation and stress relief
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Beginner's Guide to Self Sufficiency Projects for the Home

Editors of Cool Springs Press

Description

Build a self-sufficient life with these 40+ photo-illustrated projects for growing and preserving your own food, keeping animals, harnessing alternative energy, and more.

Learning to do more things yourself is healthy, rewarding, and fulfilling, and benefits the environment. Whether you live in the suburbs or have 80 acres in the mountains, this new and affordable edition adapted from the best-selling Step-by-Step Projects for Self-Sufficiency guides your way with clear plan drawingsprecise instructions, and detailed photos.

Beginner’s Guide to Self-Sufficiency Projects for the Home is organized into the categories Chickens & Other Creatures, Nourishing Your Garden, Garden Projects, Food Preparation & Preservation, Homestead Amenities, and Outbuildings & Fences, with projects that include:

  • A portable chicken ark
  • Two types of beehives
  • Solar cookers
  • Firewood storage
  • A potato-growing box
  • Hoophouses and greenhouses
  • Raised planting beds
  • Rain barrels
  • A cider press
  • Compost bins
  • Drying racks
  • And more


With these easy-to-follow projects, make progress, step by step, toward your goal of more independent living.

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Write a Must-Read

AJ Harper

Description

A book is not about something. A book is for someone.

You want to write a nonfiction book that matters. A book readers love and rave about. A book they underline, dog-ear, and highlight. A must-read.

How do you do that, when you’ve never written a book like that before? When you aren’t sure what content to include in a nonfiction book, or how to organize it? And when you’re not sure if your idea is worth pursuing in the first place?

At the heart of the answers to all these questions is a craft created by AJ Harper, ghostwriter and editor for some of the foremost thought leaders of our time. The foundation of that craft is a simple, yet powerful philosophy: Reader First. When you learn how to put your reader first at every stage of book development, writing, and editing, you can create the connection and trust required to transform their lives.

In these pages, Harper reveals the proven methods and frameworks she has used for nearly two decades to write and edit perennial bestsellers. It’s not the easy way, or the fast way; it’s the effective way. The payoff for doing this important work: a must-read book, and a massive readership who serve as ambassadors for your message and your brand.

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True Brews

Emma Christensen

Description

You can make naturally fermented sodas, tend batches of kombucha, and brew your own beer in the smallest apartment kitchen with little more equipment than a soup pot, a plastic bucket, and a long-handled spoon. All you need is the know-how.  
             
That’s where Emma Christensen comes in, distilling a wide variety of projects—from mead to kefir to sake—to their simplest forms, making the process fun and accessible for homebrewers. All fifty-plus recipes in True Brews stem from the same basic techniques and core equipment, so it’s easy for you to experiment with your favorite flavors and add-ins once you grasp the fundamentals.  
             
Covering a tantalizing range of recipes, including Coconut Water Kefir, Root Beer, Honey–Green Tea Kombucha, Pear Cider, Gluten-Free Pale Ale, Chai-Spiced Mead, Cloudy Cherry Sake, and Plum Wine, these fresh beverages make impressive homemade offerings for hostess gifts, happy hours, and thirsty friends alike.

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Bookcraft

Heather Weston

Description

From heirloom memories to unique journals, albums, and altered books—or simple tag books for your kids—Bookcraft contains all the skills you will ever need.

Books are a central part of life, and have been with us for around 2,000 years. Although most books we use are produced commercially, many of us are drawn to the book form in its various guises, and are interested in exploring how to make books of our own, whether as a vehicle for telling stories, as scrapbooks, or as notebooks and journals.

This guide provides the essential ingredients for designing and making your own books, from simple binding and finishing techniques to complex complete products. Projects are designed to suit a variety of skill levels from beginner to advanced, and use a step-by-step approach to learning the necessary skills.

Each project begins with basic techniques and progresses through to thought-provoking applications of those techniques. Each technique includes an example of a finished book that fully and beautifully utilizes the methods described by the techniques.

This book explores more experimental binding and page treatment techniques, and has a comprehensive gallery of ideas outlining the skills and materials needed to apply techniques often reserved for professionals.

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DIY Thrift Flip

April Yang

Description

Flip it, Make it, Love it!

In DIY Thrift Flip: Sewing Techniques for Transforming Old Clothes into Fun, Wearable Fashions, expert thrift flipper April Yang, aka Coolirpa, gives you the ultimate guide to turning secondhand finds into trendy, one-of-a-kind fashions. 

Perfect for anyone with big fashion dreams and a small budget, whether you’re looking to slay your style game or create an Insta-worthy wardrobe makeover, this book has everything you need to go from “meh” to “OMG!” 

  • Getting Started. Essential materials and tools, setting up a workspace, organizing supplies, sewing machine basics, and choosing fabric.
  • How to Shop for Alterable Clothes. Where to shop, what types of clothes to look for, what can and can’t be fixed, and how to gauge size when you can’t try something on.
  • Altering Basics. How to use patterns to alter clothes or parts of garments, techniques for altering without using patterns, the basics of garment altering, adding sleeves, hems, and pockets, and how to custom-tailor an altered piece for a great fit.
  • Projects. A variety of beginner- to intermediate-level projects inspire and guide you along your own thrift flips.
  • QR codes give you access to techniques, tutorials, and project details.


If you’re all about saving cash, helping the planet with sustainable style, and showing off your personal flair, DIY Thrift Flip is your new BFF. It’s time to create, elevate, and SLAY!

Ready to make your thrifting dreams a reality? Start flipping today!

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Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide (Core Rulebook, D&D Roleplaying Game)

Dungeons & Dragons

Description

Weave legendary stories in the world’s greatest roleplaying game. 
 
All you need to run a Dungeons & Dragons game is your imagination, some dice, and this book. The Dungeon Master’s Guide teaches you how to how to run D&D adventures for your players— how to invent monsters for them to fight, mysteries for them to solve, and fantasy worlds for them to explore. 

• The Dungeon Master’s Guide is one of the three main Dungeons & Dragons books, along with the Player’s Handbook and Monster Manual. It’s a reference used by the Dungeon Master (the game’s narrator) to create adventures—to run Dungeons & Dragons games and fill them with characters and stories. 
 
• The Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG) is full of tools to help you immerse players in the game. What’s the demon lord’s secret weakness? Are the orcish invaders a criminal enterprise, or traitorous allies? Dozens of tables throughout the book help inspire your decisions and keep the game flowing smoothly. 
 
• In the Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG), even the tables tell tales. A legendary sword takes five decades to craft. Who created it, and why? A tavern-crawling gnome has an eye twitch. How did she get it, and when? In every detail is an architecture for narrative—and the Dungeon Master’s Guide has all the tools you need to flesh it out with ease. 
 
• In Dungeons & Dragons, you and your friends coauthor your own legend. Guided by a Dungeon Master, you create characters and play their roles in a story, rolling dice and navigating maps as you unfold a tale as limitless as your imagination. 
 
• Dungeons & Dragons is the world’s greatest roleplaying game. Created in 1974, D&D transformed gaming culture by blending traditional fantasy with miniatures and wargaming.

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The Mindful Art of Space Making

April Scott Tandy

Description

Are you dreaming of a serene, clutter-free home but feeling overwhelmed by the chaos around you? The Mindful Art of Space Making is your ultimate guide to transforming your living space--and your life--through mindful decluttering. Join April Scott Tandy, a seasoned expert in home transformation, as she introduces her proven Space Maker Method. Her innovative approach to decluttering goes beyond merely getting rid of things; it's about curating your home with intention and purpose. Inside, you'll learn how to: go at your own pace, making decisions you won't regret; use quick wins to build your confidence; handle emotional and sentimental items with care; build unstoppable momentum through focused effort. This book isn't just a collection of tips and tricks; it's a transformative journey that empowers you to take control of your home and your life. Imagine a home where you have space for a cozy reading nook, an inspiring arts and crafts area, or simply room to breathe. This is the essence of Space Making - to make space for what you love!

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Knit Yourself Calm

Lynne Rowe

Description

Knitting is a relaxing and therapeutic pastime, and this winning combination focuses on mindfulness and the perfect stress-busting knitting projects. Whether you choose a portable project to knit on the go, a group project to do with friends, or one that introduces new skills to stimulate a creative mind, this book is the perfect path to keeping calm. 

The book is aimed at beginners as well as more advanced knitters, but does not include anything more complex than basic knit and purl stitches, increasing, decreasing and some simple colourwork. 

Lynne Rowe covers the essential techniques at the start of the book, followed by projects that have been specifically designed for mindfulness. The projects themselves are split into five sections: Quick and Easy, Portable, Group, Big, and New Skills. Within these sections, you can choose to make things such as a wash cloth, a hat, a blanket, a shawl and an evening bag, amongst others. 

Every single one has been designed to promote calm and mindfulness and all the projects are beautifully photographed with clear and simple knitting patterns. 

The Introduction is written by Betsan Corkhill, an experienced healthcare professional who founded the community interest company stitchlinks.com in 2005. It has grown into a global online community for those who enjoy the therapeutic benefits of craft, and in particular, knitting. Betsan has also advised on the projects included in the book and repetitive techniques to promote a calm state. 

The five sections have different ways of promoting calm and the feelgood factor: 

Quick and Easy: the projects in this section are designed for when you when you feel like a quick fix to raise your mood. Use your favourite colours and textures to enhance the benefits of the rhythmic movements and the feelgood effects. The feeling of success you experience will motivate and inspire you. 

Portable: These smaller projects are even more portable, so keep one in your bag at all times. Use it to manage stress on the go, on your commute to work, in your lunch break, when travelling or at any other time when life is getting a bit much and you need to feel calm. 

Group: Getting together with friends to knit, chat and laugh over a cuppa is one of lifes joys. Supportive friends help us to live longer, healthier, happier lives so why not combine the calming nature of knitting with the support of being with friends? Its a powerful way to switch off your stress fight-or-flight response and switch on a bit of fun, play and laughter. 

Big: Its a lovely cosy feeling to sit quietly at home with your Big project on your lap, keeping you warm as you knit. Let it be your constant friend, the one you turn to to find calm and consistency when the world around you feels a bit frantic. As you get into the flow of the pattern, its familiarity will enable you to settle into a soothing rhythm whenever you need to knit yourself calm. 

New Skills: Learning new skills on a regular basis is essential for nurturing a healthy brain, opening new neural pathways and even encouraging the growth of new brain cells right into old age. This section focuses on a range of new skills to encourage you to experiment with different stitch patterns and combinations of colour and textures. They are designed specifically to stimulate your creative mind. 

Whatever your skill level, there are plenty of projects in this book to help you achieve calm, bust those stress levels and enjoy a pastime which is creative, fun and produces beautiful projects to wear, or for the home.

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Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff

Matt Paxton

Description

Your boxes of photos, family’s china, and even the kids' height charts aren’t just stuff; they’re attached to a lifetime of memories--and letting them go can be scary. With empathy, expertise, and humor, Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff, written in collaboration with AARP, helps you sift through years of clutter, let go of what no longer serves you, and identify the items worth keeping so that you can focus on living in the present.

For over 20 years, Matt Paxton has helped people from all walks of life who want to live more simply declutter and downsize. As a featured cleaner on Hoarders and host of the Emmy-nominated Legacy List with Matt Paxton on PBS, he has identified the psychological roadblocks that most organizational experts routinely miss but that prevent so many of us from lightening our material load. Using poignant stories from the thousands of individuals and families he has worked with, Paxton brings his signature insight to a necessary task. 

Whether you’re tired of living with clutter, making space for a loved one, or moving to a smaller home or retirement community, this book is for you. Paxton’s unique, step-by-step process gives you the tools you need to get the job done.

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It's about Time

Valorie Burton

Description



 

Discover the eternal value of your finite time--and intentionally choose the meaningful over the urgent every single day.

Our culture makes it so that even the most organized and efficient among us feels the pressure of the ticking clock and the possibility and regret of missing out. Modern life has evolved in a way that sets us up for stress, pressure, and overload. New norms and attitudes tap into deeply-wired psychological impulses that make it harder than ever to take control of your time. Many of us also have innate personality traits that make the struggle even worse.

No wonder time can become a tyrant that leaves us chronically stressed and discontented. Unlock an approach to life that bestselling author Valorie Burton calls "living timelessly." You will come to understand

1) the gradual changes that have led us to a place where having too much to do and too little time to do it is the norm,

2) the vision for what it could look like if you were free from the stress of time and how to blast through the obstacles to those possibilities, and

3) the practical steps to choosing the meaningful over the urgent so that your life is unhurried yet purposeful and reflects the values and impact that are unique to you.

It's About Time helps you reimagine a life that is meaningful, at a pace that is natural, with a load that is doable and equips you with the tools to make it happen.

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The Joy of Well-Being

Colleen Wachob

Description

In this empowering and accessible collection of health and wellness advice, the co-founders of mindbodygreen challenge our definition of wellness, health, and self-improvement by revealing what a healthy lifestyle looks like at the fundamental level-and it's not what we think. What does a healthy lifestyle actually look like on the most fundamental level? Across the board, there's so much pressure to pick a health identity to define us. But that's not the reality of how health works. There is no "one size fits all" solution to being healthy, and there are countless studies that support this point of view when it comes to what you eat, your mental health, and how you choose to live. The only universal principle is that you have got to be happy: happy with the choices you are making, happy with the life you are living, and those choices need to work with your body to promote your somatic needs for happiness. Happiness and Healthiness go hand in hand, and who couldn't use a little more of both these days? In The Joy of Well-Being, co-founders of mindbodygreen, one of the largest wellness lifestyle websites, Colleen and Jason Wachob help us tap into the health we already have and guide us through making intentional choices about the life we live today. We're encouraged to make health choices that are right for us as we learn to embrace intentionalism--a way of seeing our health that informs what wellbeing means to us in what we eat, how we sleep, how we breathe, how we take care of our mental health, and every other dimension of our lives.

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Inner Workout

Taylor Elyse Morrison

Description

Caring for yourself is essential. But we need both direction and intention if we want to find out what we truly need in the moment. This is where Inner Workout comes in: First by redefining what self-care truly is and then by diving deep into areas where you might need some help. Addressing issues like body positivity, burnout, brain fog, self-confidence, and more, this guide offers a variety of practices, prompts, and actionable advice to strengthen your connection to each aspect of yourself.

Think of this as a choose your own self-care adventure: Take the Take Care Assessment and find out which practices you deeply need right now. Flip to a section that resonates with you. Or read through each chapter to discover what each dimension of care can offer you. The guidance within these pages isn't meant to change who you are, but to strengthen the wisdom you already have within. Whether new to self-care or wanting to deepen the connection you've cultivated with yourself, this book is here for you at every step in your wellness journey.

ACTIONABLE SELF-CARE FOR EVERYONE: Self-care, in all its forms, remains a powerful and popular topic. It seems only natural to refer to our mental health care as a workout: Something we practice every day in little and big ways to address our whole selves. Inner Workout offers lots of prompts, inspiration, and ideas to keep your self-care practice fresh and applicable at every stage of life. 

THE ANSWER TO BURNOUT, BRAIN FOG, AND MORE: Each section of Inner Workout tackles a key area of self-care and helps to alleviate common wellness concerns:

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Slow Productivity

Cal Newport

Description

Our current definition of “productivity” is broken. It pushes us to treat busyness as a proxy for useful effort, leading to impossibly lengthy task lists and ceaseless meetings. We’re overwhelmed by all we have to do and on the edge of burnout, left to decide between giving into soul-sapping hustle culture or rejecting ambition altogether. But are these really our only choices?

Long before the arrival of pinging inboxes and clogged schedules, history’s most creative and impactful philosophers, scientists, artists, and writers mastered the art of producing valuable work with staying power. In this timely and provocative book, Cal Newport harnesses the wisdom of these traditional knowledge workers to radically transform our modern jobs. Drawing from deep research on the habits and mindsets of a varied cast of storied thinkers – from Galileo and Isaac Newton, to Jane Austen and Georgia O’Keefe – Newport lays out the key principles of “slow productivity,” a more sustainable alternative to the aimless overwhelm that defines our current moment. Combining cultural criticism with systematic pragmatism, Newport deconstructs the absurdities inherent in standard notions of productivity, and then provides step-by-step advice for cultivating a slower, more humane alternative.

From the aggressive rethinking of workload management, to introducing seasonal variation, to shifting your performance toward long-term quality, Slow Productivity provides a roadmap for escaping overload and arriving instead at a more timeless approach to pursuing meaningful accomplishment. The world of work is due for a new revolution. Slow productivity is exactly what we need.

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Keep Sharp

Sanjay Gupta

Description

Throughout our life, we look for ways to keep our minds sharp and effortlessly productive. Now, globetrotting neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta offers “the book all of us need, young and old” (Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Code Breaker) with insights from top scientists all over the world, whose cutting-edge research can help you heighten and protect brain function and maintain cognitive health at any age.

Keep Sharp debunks common myths about aging and mental decline, explores whether there’s a “best” diet or exercise regimen for the brain, and explains whether it’s healthier to play video games that test memory and processing speed, or to engage in more social interaction. Discover what we can learn from “super-brained” people who are in their eighties and nineties with no signs of slowing down—and whether there are truly any benefits to drugs, supplements, and vitamins. Dr. Gupta also addresses brain disease, particularly Alzheimer’s, answers all your questions about the signs and symptoms, and shows how to ward against it and stay healthy while caring for a partner in cognitive decline. He likewise provides you with a personalized twelve-week program featuring practical strategies to strengthen your brain every day.

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Don't Overthink It

Anne Bogel

Description

You are not doomed to a life of overthinking. 

We've all been there: stuck in a cycle of what-ifs, plagued by indecision, paralyzed by the fear of getting it wrong. Nobody wants to live a life of constant overthinking, but it feels like something we just can't escape. But is it?

Anne Bogel's answer is no. Not only can you overcome negative thought patterns that are repetitive, unhealthy, and unhelpful, you can replace them with positive thought patterns that will bring more peace, joy, and love into your life. 

In Don't Overthink It, she teaches you how to 

● adopt a framework for making choices that uses an appropriate amount of energy
● build a solid foundation to set yourself up for success and avoid overwhelm
● understand the destructive effects of overthinking
● apply strategies for dealing with questions both small and large
● implement practices to stop unhealthy thought patterns

With this book, you can be free to focus on what really matters and stop overthinking.

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Get a Hobby!

Tina Barseghian

Description

Is your daily grind taking the joy out of life? Don't get glum—get a hobby!

In this entertaining, information-packed guide, journalist and ReadyMade contributing editor Tina Barseghian invites you to explore 101 thoroughly absorbing diversions, from conventional to downright wacky, that'll satisfy every taste, talent, and timetable. The bonus: Practicing a hobby boosts your all-around mental and physical health, as longtime family practitioner Dr. Miguel Figueroa reveals in the Foreword.

Are you an independent, nature-loving, outdoorsy type? Consider beachcombing, caving, or mushroom hunting. Crafty, meticulous, and patient? You might enjoy needlework, knotting, or growing bonsai. Just take the personality quiz to identify those hobbies that best match your aptitude, interests, and even your mood, then it's on to the hobbies. Each hobby entry provides a playful mix of information: overviews, histories, and sample projects to help you get your hobby on, plus profiles of dedicated hobbyists and resources that'll help take you to the next level. Get a Hobby! might just be the inspiration you've been looking for.

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