Budget Books

This book gives the reader ideas on how to create an inviting outdoor living space on a budget. I live in the Southwest where outdoor living is a year 'round experience, and bought the book in hopes of developing a nice outdoor entertaining area. Ms. Peterson reminds the reader that painting isn't just for interiors. Paint has as great a bang for the buck outdoors as it does indoors. She gives a wide variety of sample palettes for the "color novice." She also teaches the reader about repurposing indoor decorative items to create an attractive outdoor living space. This is good news for those of us who have limited dollars and/or storage space -- it is much more practical to move indoor lamps, vases, cushions, etc. outside for a party and then take them back indoors to use day to day, than it is to purchase, maintain and also find storage for duplicate items to be used exclusively for outdoor entertaining. I hope other readers will find her ideas helpful, and enjoy the book as much as I have.

If you aren't using your outdoor space much, it may be time for a makeover. This book takes rather blah patios and turns them into inviting outdoor living spaces. The best part is the price, as the author tries to keep each project under $250.
She is helped by the fact that most had decent furniture to start with, so her job was adding some cushions, plants and accessories for a polished look.
Probably the main message of the book is to pull your outdoor living space together with a unifying color scheme. Paint any furniture that doesn't match or is shabby. No need to shop for new items, just bring things from inside the house outside.
She breaks each project down into steps, showing how the changes meet the homeowners needs. I deducted one star since the book doesn't give actual how-to on the projects (sewing, painting).
It is useful to get ideas on grouping your furniture and using color for an attractive outdoor area (pool area, porch, balcony, patio, sunroom, courtyard, etc.)
I liked the idea of painting lines on concrete for a faux tile look. The book shows lots of colorful before and after photos.
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This book is an ideal resource for maximizing your outdoor space on a limited budget! It's full of wonderful and affordable outdoor decorating ideas and filled with incredible before and after photos. The author created eye-catching outdoor transformations using accessories, paint, spare furniture and low-cost ideas to turn rather drab outdoor spaces into beautiful and welcoming outdoor spaces--- all under $250. I found the book to be truly inspiring. Three well known national TV celebrities from HGTV and The Discovery Channel give the author and book many accolades. I rank it 5 stars.

This was likely a very good book when published, but unfortunately, it is a bit out of date. For example, there are 15 reviews in the B's (alphabetically), but 5 of the restaurants have closed. Having said that, the book is well done and still useful when trying to find a good place to eat-just call ahead. There are 2 indices that I found helpful: listing of restaurants by neighborhood and listing by food type. The index lacks page numbers, but the restaurants are organized by name, so just remember your ABC's. My book appears to be the 5th printing of the first edition, purchased mid-late 2004. Portland prides itself on great food and local ingredients. If visiting, don't miss trying one of the local restaurants. A good, free guide is the weekly Willamette Week newspaper.

My husband and I keep this book in our car so that whenever we're in Portland we can grab it quickly. In addition to the alphabetical listing and descriptions of 200 reasonably priced restaurants, the book has an excellent index. You can look up restaurants by section of town or by the type / style of food you want. Cheap Eats has given us the opportunity to sample many different restaurants that we would never have found without it. Instead of picking the same places over and over, you can expand your choices...and eat well inexpensively.

My husband and I like to eat out at least three times a week, so this book has been very helpful in finding places that won't break the bank. We stay primarily in SE, but it includes restaurants all over town. Highly recommended.

I have had this book for a little over a year now, and I have a feeling that I will keep this book for many more to come. When I first opened this book up I was really impressed with the look of the majority of the projects. The directions are very easy to follow. Overall I think this is the best book I have picked up on this subject. As a subscirber to Family Handyman magazine this left me just as impressed as the magazine does.

The Family Handyman Magazine Editors do an excellent job of compiling useful infomartion in an easy to understand format. This book provides great instructions on how-to projects that will benefit the homeowner and that could potentially add value to the home. There are also "idea" sections that are inspiring and creative.

This book is fabulous for those who are into making their own furniture.. it has some quite good tutorials of how to make your own cupboards, closets and shelving systems..

Its more about 'practicallity' rather than creative ideas..

I just think the title is misleading as I was hoping to find some new ideas for a walk-in closet..

As a project management trainer, I often work with IT folks who are struggling with too many projects and not enough time to complete them. Typically IT people don't take the time to reflect and document management practices that drive them crazy and kill their projects. Instead, they just leave the company! In this rare book, two veteran soft developers irreverently vent their frustrations and provide plenty of insight for anyone wanting to better manage software development teams. While they provide a bunch of items related to technical and programming management issues, the also share some management-related sure-fire ways to kill a software project. Some hightlights from their list of items include: #13 -- Begin design while requirements are fluid. #18 -- Make developers fight for every purchase. #28 -- Concentrate on cosmetics, not functionality at inspections. #33 -- Forgo prototyping. #41 -- Give everyone beepers [... so they can be reached even in the middle of the night about cosmetic problems.] #47 -- Schedule as many meetings as possible. #58 -- Jump on the process improvement bandwagon. #59 -- Create lots of TQM groups. #60 -- Hire a TQM expert from outside the company. #68 -- Require overtime work without compensation. #70 -- Hire temp programmers [and pay them for all hours, even overtime, at a rate higher than staff] #73 -- Give humiliating performance reviews. #74 -- Get rid of developers over 40 [years old]. #75 -- Refer to people as "units."

This book is clean, crisp, and fun to read... and might well generate some valuable discussions in your organization that could improve the effectiveness of your projects!...

The book is quite funny, but displays the author's bias for government work. As a development manager/implementor, I have seen some of these 77 sins, but others are rather esoteric and limited to the author's domain. Purchase it for a laugh, to educate the ignorant, or to know you are not alone.

This cookbook was put out in 1971 by Better Homes and Garden and is just full of wonderful menu ideas and delightful, edible recipes. From budget-trimming main meals to economical side dishes this cookbook helps one to plan a full meal with recipes that are simple to plan and make and ingredients that are healthful and easy to find. You won't find that exotic sun-dried tomatoes and cactus leaf recipe in here but you will find lots of comfort foods like savory chicken pies, tangy potato salad and choco-cherry cake roll. Helpful hints teach one how to save money while shopping and planning the menu.

my wife and i got this book for a wedding gift in 1971. we are still using it and enjoy all the great menu items it has to offer. i am on the amazon website trying to get a copy for a friend and find that it is out of print. there are so many good eating recipies in this book and so easy to fix.

Has some good resources for the budget traveller, at a great price. Not too much info, though, more or less a big brochure.

Just got back from Ireland and Scotland. Used the BTG Europe guide and loved it. Had everything about getting to Europe and lots of info packed in the guide. It was also very easy to carry around, a great companion to my Lonely PLanet guide.

Budget gambling is an excellent book for the beginning gambler looking to increase his stay time at the casino. The book discusses the odds and rules of all the basic casino games, then applies Gollehon's 4 color betting strategy to each. Also included are some tips for gambling at the racetrack. The beauty of the 4 color strategy (which by the way is an excellent betting system for any level gambler) is that it is simple to learn, and can be applied to any table game. The system minimizes losses during a cold streak but lets you press your bets and cash in during hot streaks, which is the basis for all successful gambling systems. Also included are some interesting stories about gambling in general. I personally have used this system and have won a significant amount of money while the cards were going my way. For beginning casino goers I highly recommend this book. For more experienced gamblers, its still fun reading. Check it out!

Being an experienced and well read gambler, I was looking for a new approach to my gaming experiences. I found it in Gollehon's "Budget Gambler". The book gives good methods for increasing winnings without increasing the financial risk I was already comfortable with, and it is entertaining, too. Very common sense approach, and methods are easy to use "live" in casinos. Reading this book felt like having a conversation with a friend who understood me. Very worthwhile gaming book.

This book is a good basic overview for planning and desiging your retail store.

The book is an excellent place to start if you are planning on opening a retail store. I think it's important to be aware and familiar with all aspects of retailing. Just as the back cover of the book says, it is "the perfect learning tool for opening a new store or renovating one". This book takes you through such steps such as negotiating a retail lease, working with designers, store layout options, ceilings, lighting, signs, walls, construction and remodeling, etc... The author also gives you estimates of what you might expect to spend, what you can expect from a design firm, and contract samples. There are also different types of floor plans and designs shown in the book.

The book is a good summary of the ins and outs of Ireland with regards to living there as a retiree. Title is misleading since it is purely focused on retirees and not the casual traveler or invester. Information in this book is slightly dated, as is any book by the time it gets published, but does a good job of summarizing what Americans wouldn't think of in making a move to Ireland for retirement. She does a good job of forwarding you to the proper agency or website to find out current situations and requirements for the transition rather than trying to quote out of date material the whole book. All in all a fairly easy read. The back has common phrases that would not generally be recognized in conversation which is quite helpful (though no pronunciation is given which makes it tough to recognize when Irish are using or you're trying to use to fit in).

Thinking of moving to Ireland for a few years, I have found this book helpful organizing the important steps to a successful extended stay there. Especially important to me were topics regarding cost of living, what sort of services I would miss, how I would deal with money issues and where the interesting sights are found. All of this is covered well. The book is made more enjoyable by it's inclusion of historical and cultural information. This book is packed with stuff that I couldn't find in any other books.

This is a particularly good supplementary reference for those who have Sylvia Moss' brilliant textbook, Costumes and Chemistry: A Comprehensive Guide to Materials and Applications, which is invaluable for the safety information and product analyses alone, but also features tons of great information at the end following step-by-step processes for creation of high-end Vegas showgirl costumes, Broadway effects, etc. Moss' projects are generally big-budget ones (quite useful to read about but beyond the range of most regional and university theatres' budgets), whereas Tan Huaixiang's book illustrates ways of creating elaborate effects, but offers creative ways of using cheap, easily obtained materials to achieve complicated "fantastical" costume looks.

For my own use, i'm on the fence about using it as a text for my crafts artisanship classes because it seems to be aimed toward designers who primarily work jobs where there's no crafts artisan and do their own crafts, and our program is fairly specific in its focus--top level Costume Production. There's no design track for graduate students at all, so the designer-centricity of the text isn't relevant. There's also a HUGE middle section on millinery and headdress-making that's not really my speed--i'm satisfied teaching my millinery course from Denise Dreher's From the Neck Up: An Illustrated Guide to Hatmaking and Tim Dial's Basic Millinery for the Stage. I do think it's pretty exciting for its masks and prosthetics section; there's not really a good up-to-date text on mask making specifically for theatre (Thurston James' The Prop Builder's Mask-Making Handbook is from the early 1990s, out of print now, and lacking in the safety precautions area.). I intend to keep it in my shop library--many of the projects are very inspiring--and if you are a designer who typically does a lot of your own craftwork, you probably want to check it out!

This book jumps right in with instructions to make a full head casting with an alginate negative and finishing with your ultracal 30 positive. She uses this positive to make masks and prosthesis, from foam, and latex. She refers to this as 3-D make-up. Her mask section uses the same head casting to start, but explores different materials from flexible foam sheets (varaform) to decopage.
She covers wigs with the same step by step detailed procedures. She uses plenty of photo's, and drawings so her instructions are very clear and easy to follow. A beginner will be able to make a wig, whether full or half bald with no problems.
Her other topic with wonderful detail is millinery. Her hats are beautiful and made from everything! She also covers headresses, with a wonderful section on creating animal heads starting with the wire formature and tieing the foam sheets to achieve different shapes, such as eyelids, ears, mouth parts.

As far as the clothing aspect is concerned, she only touches on it briefly. Her ideas are good but I would recommend other sources.

I believe the title and cover of the book are misleading. I actually bought it for ideas to alter existing costume stock into period pieces. However, I don't think there's another book out there which covers masks, wigs, and headresses with nearly the detail and precision that this one does. This book is a 'stand alone' for costuming from the neck up.