Design Books

When given as a gift, this product was really loved- so much that we bought another one for ourselves.

great information, nicely displayed. i wish i got one for my bar-mitzvah!

This gorgeous coffee-table sized book would alone get my five stars for its detailed but clear maps and its breathtakingly diverse array of figures and illustrations depicting the major events of over 3,000 years of Jewish history. As it is, it provides detailed, well researched and very readable historical synopses of Jewish life throughout the world over this period, with each folio (two facing pages) a separate topic. Each folio includes the historical synopsis, usually a map, a series of other illustrations, including photographs, art, and other figures, and at the bottom of every page appears a time line highlighting important dates relevant to the topic. The topics range from the dawn of Judaism to present-day issues in Judaism, from Chinese Jews to the Jews of King Solomon's era, to Jewish farmers in Eastern Europe. You need to see this book in its entirety to believe it. If you ever wanted to an excellent and fascinating introduction to Jewish history, I don't think you can get better than this rare, colorful, scholarly and very engaging book. I'm so enthusiastic about it, I've bought it as a gift three times over.

Professor Barnavi has done a great service both to Judaism and any students who are inclined to further their understanding of it. As a Christian proponent of this ancient faith upon which our own is based, I have found it an invaluable resource in my ecumenical studies involving history and development of Ancient and Modern Jewry and the vast knowledge accumulated over the thousands of years of its existance. It is a concise coverage of every age of its progression, along with a magnificent garnish of photographs and illustations which bring the entire process to life. I highly reccomend this book.

Few of the world's peoples can boast of a history as long and as varied as that of the Jews, or one encompassing such a range of achievements and tragedy. It spans more than three millennia and has touched most parts of the globe. This text sets forth this history graphically-in nearly a thousand detailed and accurate maps, brilliantly reproduced drawings, photographs, and paintings; plus chronologies and commentaries by dozens of leading experts. The result is a triumph of the bookmaking art-a comprehensive and dependable reference work.
Beyond the strictly historical, the Atlas also deals with many fascinating and important aspects of jewish culture-languages, literature, art, and music.

I got this book well before I thought I was going to and it was in amazing condition :)

If I had to keep but one reference book on my shelf as a Professional Interior Designer, this would be the book. It contains in-depth and well-formatted information on virtually every subject in the field, and the graphics are outstanding. One of the authors, Maryrose McGowan, is a powerhouse and has done a remarkable job with this guide and I hope she comes out with many other useful books to advance the profession. This book has quickly replaced several books I previously owned that attempted to do what this book has done with great simplicity, completeness, and accuracy.

The chapters are well-organized, the graphics are abundant, clear, and easy-to-understand, and they contain information from all ends of the spectrum. The price tag of the book is steep, but well worth the investment. Save your pennies and make a point of buying this book, or look for used versions as they come available on Amazon.com. You will be glad to have this book in your collection!

This book is very helpful for upcoming designers. It gives you standard codes for everything you could imagine. Very helpful when doing my design projects.

If your an Interior Designer or practicing to be one this book should be amongst the many in your personal library. The details are well written and displayed.

I've purchased this book for 2 companies that I've worked for and for myself as well. I am an Interior Designer and find Interior Graphic Standards to be extremly resourceful and helpful when it comes to design & planning. It covers a wide range of topics such as basic electrical, mechanical, accessibility standards, plumbing fixture considerations; material finish's, door frames/types, acoustics, etc. and provides enough information on each subject so that you understand what is required to plan. My only complaint is that in many cases, measurements and dimensions are not shown where you would think they should exist. That being said, I highly recommend the book for people of all levels in this industry.

Target Audience
Java developers who want to learn how to use the Eclipse IDE or how to develop enhancements for the Eclipse framework.

Contents
This book is a comprehensive coverage of the Eclipse framework, both from the perspective of using the tool and writing extensions to Eclipse.

The book is divided into 3 parts:

Part 1 - Running Eclipse - Getting Started; Using Eclipse; Using Java Development Tools; Debugging Java; Teaming Up With Eclipse; Eclipse Configuration Management

Part 2 - Extending Eclipse - Overview Of The Eclipse Architecture; Getting Started: Plug-in Development; Action Contributions: The Integration Fast Track; The Standard Widget Toolkit: A Lean, Mean Widget Machine; Dialogs And Wizards; Views; Editors; Perspectives; Workspace Resource Programming; Managing Resources With Natures And Builders; Resource Tagging Using Markers; Contributions Revisited; Advanced Plug-in Development; Creating New Extension Points: How Others Can Extend Your Plug-ins; Serviceability; Developing Features; Providing Help; OLE and ActiveX Interoperability; Swing Interoperability; Extending The Java Development Tools; Building A Custom Text Editor With JFace Text

Part 3 - Exercises - Using Eclipse; Using The Java Development Tools; Debugging Java; Using CVS With Eclipse; Modifying Your Configuration With Update Manager; Using The Plug-in Development Environment; Feature Development And Deployment

Review
As an IBM software developer using Domino and Notes, I'm hearing more and more about WebSphere Studio Application Developer. That's the IBM WebSphere Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that is built upon the Eclipse framework. But just what is Eclipse, and why is it so important to you as a developer? This book will help you answer those questions.

The book serves two purposes. Part 1 of the book will allow you, as a Java developer, to understand how to use the tool to code and test your programs. They also devote coverage to how CVS, the open source version control tool. Even if you're not interested in extending the Eclipse tool for your own use, this first part of the book would be worth the purchase.

Part 2 gets into how the Eclipse framework can be used to write your own tools to integrate into the environment. Granted, this part of the book won't necessarily appeal to everyone, as some of you will only want to use the core functionality of Eclipse as an IDE. But you can think of this section as a lesson on the internal architecture of Eclipse. The more you understand about the tool, the more effective you can be with it.

And finally, you have the third part of the book that consists of a number of exercises to bridge the gap from theoretical to practical. Taken as a whole, working through this entire book will give you a solid foundation in Eclipse.

And for Notes/Domino professionals... I think a case could be made that you should seriously consider buying this book to prepare for your future. ND8 is projected to be a rich client built on this platform. By reading up on it now, you'll be prepared for what's coming. And if you're a business partner who builds tools for the Notes/Domino client, you'll need this information to start to figure out how you can transition your business in the future. Don't let it sneak up on you.

Conclusion
If you're thinking about diving into the Eclipse world, get this book. And if you're already an Eclipse user but want to make changes to your environment, this book will give you the information you need to start down that path.

Learning Eclipse, the open-source IDE and tool platform, can be a
daunting task. While a plethora of on-line resources exist for
learning.... knowing where to start, and
remembering what you've read, can be challenging. Finally a book
with much of this in one place: The Java Developer's Guide to Eclipse.

As a long-time lover of books, expecially Java books, I find that
learning from online resources on the web can be sufficient, but
often it's hard to know what you've read, where you stopped, where to
find something, etc. Especially when you're learning something very
new, or very complex, having it all in your hands can be comforting.
(And you don't have to close the book during takeoff and landing.)

Written by Eclipse experts with experience using *and teaching* other
developers in its use, the chapters and exercises are well thought
out. The authors are instructors with experience in teaching Eclipse
to software developers, so have a good knowledge of Eclipse and how
to present and explain it.

This book contains three parts: Using Eclipse as an IDE for
Java developement, Extending Eclipse with plug-ins, and exercises
for all of the above. While a few other books are available on using
Eclipse as an IDE, this is by far the most comprehensive
book on extending it by developing plug-ins.

This book is unique in its thorough coverage of plug-ins (extending
Eclipse: want a new popup menu? code reformatter? Write it yourself!)
but don't overlook its good introduction to using the
Eclipse IDE itself for developing Java code, as well as a great
chapter on using CVS and the Eclipse interface to CVS
code respository that is part of the standard download.

The exercises on using Eclipse and building plug-ins are great, and often walking through the exercise
(resources included on the CD with the book) reinforces or sheds
additional light on what is covered in a chapter. At times
I jumped directly to the exercise after only briefly reading
the associated chapter information, and the hands-on learning
accomplished in this manner was great for this impatient Java
developer.

I took the IBM class with the same name as the book, and found
the exercises in the book similar, if less extensive than, those
included with the course. But the basics are there, including
the exercise that introduces action sets etc. that I referred
to several times in my first plug-in development. A lot of my
code started with the exercise code and grew from there. As I worked
through subsequent chapters and exercises, I came to a clearer
understanding of what had been done in the previous code imported
in the exercises, yet I was already up and running in terms of
developing my plug-in.

The book is written to Eclipse 2.0, with a few comments regarding
changes for version 2.1. While it would be nice to have the minor
2.1 changes reflected in the book, I know the authors had to stop
somewhere to get published. This was the first Eclipse book
published, I understand.

Excellent, and highly recommended for all Java developers wanting
to use Eclipse, and especially for those wanting to develop
plug-ins for extending Eclipse to their own applications.

This helpful and extremely well-written book is really many books in one. The Java Developer's Guide to Eclipse provides a coherent, organized, and well-written reference for using the Eclipse platform and developing plugins. In addition to the basics, the book covers such advanced topics as Eclipse Configuration Management and Providing Help. One section of the book provides a comprehensive set of exercises that enable you to get hands-on experience working with Eclipse.

The book is organized into three sections, each geared towards a different level of experience with Eclipse. While you may make use of all three sections, the organization of the book helps you to quickly find and focus on the material that you need.

The information provided with Eclipse and the Web sites that support it is considerable. The great aspect of this book is that it offers so much usable content in one convenient source, while providing additional information to supplement the online help already provided with Eclipse.

I was initially disappointed that this book did not cover JUnit and that it was based on Eclipse 2.0; however those issues aside this book is a great resource on Eclipse written by folks on the development team. I am using Eclipse 2.1.1 and there are some differences for some things, but most are minor. The book is divided into three parts with Part Two having two sections. Part One focuses on the Eclipse development environment. In this section, there some very good tips about using Eclipse. I particularly liked the chapter on using CVS with Eclipse. There was some practical advice given about how to deal with issues one would encounter in projects while using Eclipse and CVS.

In chapter one, the authors challenge Eclipse veterans to read it with "bet you didn't know how to ...". There are some great keyboard shortcuts and other features of Eclipse that surprised me. There is a blind programmer on our staff that will get great mileage out the keyboard shortcuts.

Part Two is about creating plug-ins for Eclipse. At first, I was moderately interested in some plug-ins, but after digging into this section, I already have a couple of plug-in ideas that I want to pursue. The authors make it seems like a very natural thing to do. Part Three is composed of exercises on using Eclipse for Java development, with CVS, for debugging, for updating your Eclipse, for Plug-in Development Environment (PDE), and for feature development. The exercises are step-by-step instructions relating to certain chapters in the previous parts. Read the chapters first, but do these exercises!

If you are using Eclipse for development, this book has a wealth of information from those in the know. After all, WSAD is basically a bunch of Eclipse plug-ins.

Back in 80's when unix network programming was a black art, Stevens book on Unix Network Programming showed the way to common programmers about how to write something magical in unix/c/sockets. I can only compare this book with the same spirit.

By reading the book and practicing the exercises in the accompanying CD, it is almost guaranteed someone will not only become a good java programmer but it will also help to extend and share the knowledge of creating tools. Writing good code in java is not simple. This book clearly explains what is really needed from a user perspective to become a good programmer and team-oriented productive resource using eclipse.

The first part explains what a freely available Eclipse can do for you. This is the most comprehensive introduction I have seen so far. It will teach you the smartest way to deal with java projects from a life cycle perspective - create, test, debug and maintain. Each chapter is clear and concise. Tips and tricks are every where.

The second part explain that extending and customizing eclipse is no rocket science. It is hard in a way but definitely manageable even for a starter. Referencing eclipse api is a must while reading this part. I wish some concise reference (like O'Reilly's "...nutshell" book style) would have helped the programmer a lot.

The third part is a gem. Added to the explanation of materials of each chapter, it went far beyond. Just by practicing the examples will take the user to a commanding position. This part also makes the book a handy desk reference on using eclipse tools. I'd also recommend the reader to take a look at the eclipse.org site to check the plug-ins. A lot of them are very useful and free too.

Overall, this book is excellent. In my opinion, this book is one of the major contributors to the community in the increasing the popularity of using eclispe tools, customizing and enhancing it.

I love her book. She gives you so many ideas to try and to start your own challenges. She encourages you to to it the way you want to. Great book!!!

I love Ali Edwards ideas and she inspires me in so many ways. This book is no exception!

Just finished reading the book a few hours ago, and it's awesome!!!

Ali's made me think in a different way about how I should be living and experiencing my creative side.

As she writes, Just be YOU, that's the point. We are the best to tell our stories, to enjoy our creativity no matter what others think about it. I should be getting my inspiration back shortly, so I'll try to be ready and go through the book a few more times.

Thanks Ali!!

This book is a great break from step-by-step guides. Ali lights a spark within us, shows us how she creates, and gives us permission to do it our way. I love the freedom coming to the scrapbooking community and the amazing layouts created with an open mind.

I love this book. It's one I look at often seeing new things each time. It inspires me. I highly reccommend it!

Para una autodidacta como yo, ha sido fantástico poder contar con este libro, en el cual la autora entrega todos sus conocimientos, tanto de historia, materiales y técnicas. Es un libro completo y didáctico.

Great book with wonderful pictures. While techniques and methods are shown, the projects are a bit advanced, so I wouldn't recommend it for complete beginners. Other than that, a very good book.

This is a very complete book about mosaics. Contains historic and up to date information about the world of mosaics. Contains advices, projects and recommendations. If you are interested in this art you shouldn't missed it.

I'm a big Sonia King's fan. You have to have in your library. Its an amazing book with a lot of techniques, full of ilustrations, pictures, colors, a very nice book. I can't hardly wait for her next book !!!

This book covers mosaic art quite well - with sections on the history, design, techniques, tools, projects to get one started, and lots of eye candy from many artists, including the author. I became fascinated with mosaics during a trip to Italy in August of this year. Upon return to the States, my goal was to obtain a better level of knowledge so that I might eventually be able to experiment a bit. King's text does an excellent job of explaining the process, from design through to placing the tesserae and grouting the finished work. My confidence has gone up quite a bit by reading and giving some thought to the recommendations provided.

I also agree with earlier reviews stating that this book and Emma Biggs' "Encyclopedia of Mosaic Techniques" make a nice combination. Between these two, I'm ready to tackle a project. Some smalti, weldbond, nippers, cutters, and wedi board is already on the way!

THIS IS THE BEST BOOK. MR. MOONEY WAS A TEACHER OF MINE LIKE 10 YEARS AGO. BEST TEACHER EVER! AND HE READ THIS BOOK TO THE CLASS AND I WAS HOOKED. AMAZING! GOOD JOB!

This is an excellent book for anyone in high school and above-its a classical novel that has depth and meaning unlike lots of books today....It's similar to the Notebook in a way; the book deals with a love that lasts through the ages rather than a fling. It's an emotional book that does moves slow; however, everyone in my high school loved it.

This is an excellence book to read. I found it was a great story on how different generations can work together. It touched my heart all thru the book. A must read for everyone!

While in The States last summer, I visited a bookstore and came across the 'Pearls of the Stone Man'. I read the first page and couldn't put it down. Edward Mooney's moving novel reveals the power of love in family life.
Joseph and Anne, in their seventies, don't have the passion of young lovers but share the deeper love and intimacy that comes from sharing their lives for half a century. 'The Pearls of the Stone Man' is a heavenly guide to understanding the basics for a better, richer life.
Family bonds are as strong and meaningful as love is. Stones will turn into pearls if one can find the truth of life. I look forward to a translation of 'The Pearls of the Stone Man' for the German market. I'm sure it will be a big hit here.
Mooney is a masterful storyteller, and I eagerly await his next book 'The Journey of the Stone Man'.

In the prologue to "The Pearls of the Stone Man" a young couple, Shannon and Tim, are driving up to Pine Mountain on a Saturday in spring with their two kids in a mini-van. Once again, Shannon wants to stop and see the old house, still trying to solve the mystery of an old man's final words: "Remember the stone." The old man they called grandpa was not related to either of them by blood, but that is the point of this novel by Edward Mooney, Jr.

At the heart of this delicate little novel is the marriage of Joseph and Anne Marino. After 53 years of marriage these two still love each other and live in a small house at the base of Pine Mountain. But even before they find out that there are only months left to their love affair instead of years, Joseph has been aware that they are running out of time and has become preoccupied with thoughts of things undone. For thirty years he has been talking about climbing the mountain that he talks to every day, but that is just one of a long list of things he has not done. In fact, there is a list on his closet door that he made of things that he wanted to do. But Anne challenges him to name two projects that he has actually finished and Joseph is consumed with the idea he has so many unfinished pieces of business and all the regrets that he is carrying.

Then, everything changes because time is running out and the most important thing in Joseph's world becomes trying to reconcile with his estranged son and finishing the stone wall that Anne asked for years ago. Seeing Joseph pulling his wagon full of stones for Anne's wall earns him the nickname of the "Stone Man." The pearls in the title belong to Anne, although obviously there is a metaphorical meaning to world as well, as a much younger Shannon and Tim learn.

That is because while the love between Joey and Annie has not changed over a half-century lots of other things have, such as the way children are raised. Shannon and Tim are but two of the troubled teenagers living on Pine Mountain, where the sight of an old man pulling a wagon full of stones is something that inspires words of ridicule and acts of cruelty. But whereas Joseph responds to these insults and injuries with anger over the impotence of an old man, it is Annie who suggests a better way of dealing with the escalating problem.

"The Pearls of the Stone Man" is about a love that transcends death and that is there today and always. It is also a tale about responsibility that makes the case for how in a relationship each person has 100% responsibility for that relationship, in contrast to the erroneous assumption you only have 50% of the responsibility (it is 100% responsibility because it is a total responsibility for the relationship). Mooney creates a beautiful portrait of such a relationship and when we finally learn the meaning of the old man's words it is a simple and profound message. You should have come to all of these conclusions through reading the novel, but just in case anyone misses the point Mooney provides an eloquent benediction.

It turns out that "The Pearls of the Stone Man" is the first of a trilogy, the second volume of which, "The Journey of the Stone Man," will be published next month (September 2004). This will be an interesting trilogy in that the story will be apparently working its way backwards through time. The second book takes place a quarter-century earlier as Joseph and his teenage son, Paul, take a cross-country trip in a "Woody" station wagon. Given what we know about the troubled relationship between father and son from this first novel, it will be interesting to see what Mooney weaves with his next narrative.

This is a must-have item. It is an incredible beautiful book. If you are a pethead, you must have it. But, if you will buy this item, you must have in mind that is a catalogue of items, pictures and comments, the name is literal, not a book as "PSB vs America" or "Literally".

With 14 reviews already written, I doubt I can say anything that hasn't already been said. But I will give a short review of my impression of Catalogue.

This book is more like Pet Shop Boys history in pictures. While it's true this is a catalogue of all the album and CD covers. It is also the history of Pet Shop Boys in a brief chronology near the back of the book. It gives a time line of what they were doing on particular dates.

There's also an interview from April 2006 with Neil and Chris by Chris Heath. It also includes a complete in depth discography of all their singles and albums they released.

The silver cover of the book makes a great coffee table attraction. It's a must for any Pethead's collection. It's also a great reference book for new fans of the boys. For those who never subscribed to the fan club will enjoy looking at the various Christmas Cards and cover art of the fan club magazine Literally.

I purchased multiple copies so I could have one on display and to thumb through and one is kept sealed. At this great price, who could resist?

Pet Shop Boys Catalogue

El libro es excelente [casi una obra de arte] en el cual se repasa la historia gráfica del dúo a través de sus primeros 20 años de carrera. Un verdadero must para cualquier fan de los PSB.

You can easily forget that Chris and Neil, Pet Shop Boys have been making fantastic music together for close to 30 years now. This large volume is an authoritative visual representation of what the PSB have done throughout their career. If there is one problem (not really) it would be that since they Boys are still active, the book will be outdated nearly immediately following its publication.

Its fun to see all the international releases, versions, one-off items that have come from their musical output, from singles to albums to videos to other books. Catalogue is comprehensive to say the least. And the photos are many, and all relatively great quality.

This is a true gift to the real PSB fans. It is sort of like your own personal scrapbook if you've been following the Boys through the years or a wonderful collection to introduce newer fans to the career that Neil and Chris have enjoyed. Price seems more than reasonable for the quality of the book. The cover is stunning and makes a great conversation piece for your coffee table. It just sort of begs to be opened with its silvery cover image.

Pet Shop Boys fans should be thrilled that such a volume exists and that the artists have seen fit to offer something of this scale. So many bands, defunct or ongoing seem to spurn their fans requests for such items. In this case, no matter what the intent of the artist--whether purely self indulgence or wanting to give back, the fans who purchase this book are the winners.

Love this book. Love the Boys. And most importantly, Love the music they continue to release. Left to your own devices, you probably will buy this book.

This book is beautifully packed and chronicles the product of the pet shop boys for the first 20 years. It includes album/single covers, tours, costumes, videos, etc. It is worth every penny and a true companion for any psb fan!

This book has wonderful projects and very detailed and easy to understand instructions. I enjoy making items for my garden and this book has helped me create beautiful glass items to display and enjoy. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys working with stained glass and gardening.

This is one of my favorite stained glass books! It has great projects for beginners and more experienced stained glass crafters. The instructions are detailed and the photos are very helpful, also.

I bought this item for my mother, who is a stained glass enthusiast that put aside her craft when my brother and I were children (children and shards of glass don't mix very well, apparently). Recently, I've encouraged my mother to resume her interest. Since she is also interested in gardening, "The Stained Glass Garden: Projects & Patterns" was a perfect fit. Among the projects detailed in this book are lanterns, a bird feeder, and a sprinkler. The instructions are clear, and the projects are interesting. I would recommend this item for other stained glass enthusiasts!

The patterns are artistic, the instructions clear, and the results truly do look great in the garden.

This book has all kinds of information, from basic tools, materials and procedures used, to instructions for making your own light table to work on. Includes patterns from simpler plant stakes and candle holders, to really extravagant lawn sprinklers. Awesome book, good for beginners and the more experienced. Don't know why they chose that cover photo, it is nowhere near the best or prettiest project in the book.

I have enjoyed thinking about doing some of this. The book gives fine guidance

I came across this book in my local library and loved it so much I bought a copy for myself. Ms. Buckingham manages to create beautiful trompe l'oeil work with simple techniques that are easy for even the absolute beginner. An added bonus is that her stencils are available online...

I purchased this book 2 years ago. At the time I did not know they sold stencils until I purchased a few stencils on their website along with their video. The book is easy to follow and they give you many ways to incooporate simple stencils. This book encouraged me to create a mural from a small picture and brought out a talent that I never knew existed. Well done. Fantastic pictures with great color which I feel either makes or breaks a simple stencil or a 5 layered stencil. I would highly recommend their book, stencils and their video. If I can learn, anyone can!!!! A+++++

Grab this book without hesitation!

I saw the author on the show, "Home Matters" and was instantly motivated to buy this book. When I saw that it was available in both hard- and soft- cover verrsions, my decision was difficult. Usually saving a few bucks on the paperback version of any book means sacrificing quality; thin paper, fewer illustrations, shortened versions. etc.

When I opted to buy this in the paperback form, I was expecting the usual compromises. I was, joyfully, wrong! This book not only boasts the easy instructions and wonderful pictorials of the hardcover version, it also has wonderful, high quality paper stock rarely found even in hardcover these days. The quality of this book will stand up to years of planning and crafting!

The projects in this book were well-detailed and gave some good information on composition and layering of stencils. I checked this book out of the library and don't intend on buying it BUT I do recommend it if you like the more folkart type decor. I was looking for something more realistic in floral decor. The trellice project was very cute and would look great with a cottage country look.

One of the best beading books I have seen to date. Wonderful beaded beads featured which I have already made. Well presented with lots of detailed descriptions to follow. Extremely happy with purchase.

This book is absolutely inspiring! It is wonderful what sophisticated designs can be created with these techniques and simple beads. The author is a woman after my own heart (she asks, "Can any one person own too many beads?"), and her knowledge and passion show in her writing. I think this book may overwhelm someone who is an absolute beginner, someone who has never done any beadwork before. To get the most from this book, I think you need a little experience. But her illustrations are the best I have ever seen, and her instructions are very clear. This book is worth the price just for the gorgeous color photos of projects. Another thing I like about the book is the fact that she gives many pointers for variations in the techniques, and encourages you to take off on your own. If you like seed beads and want to get beyond stringing, this book is essential.

There is only 1 other book at this level and that is the author's Creative Bead Weaving. Buy either one or even better both. Not only are the instructions excellent but the pictures and the projects are creative and inspiring. Please - when is your next book coming out.

Great book for instructions for all types of bead weaving. The beads are numbered so you have exact directions on where to go next. A "must have" book for any beader.

I found this book at the library and I was enchanted. I ordered my book from Amazon and thankfully received it before I had to return my copy to the library. I made many beautiful Christmas gifts from the ideas I got from this wonderful book. This book has challenged me and showed me the way with clear directions and diagrams. I am inspired to build on the techniques I have developed with the guidance of this excellent book.