Today the library is having a party at every branch to celebrate our 100^th birthday. At the Central Library, we have painted the windows and created an wall of artworks by talented staff members from the whole system. There will be music, games, dance and face painting. And, of course, there will be cake.

It takes takes enthusiam and a lot of planning to create a great bash. Here are two books from the collection that just might turn you into a party animal.

CelebraTORI: Unleashing Your Inner Party Planner to Entertain Friends and Family comes from super party person, Tori Spelling. Although she grew up in a home that was famous for over-the-top, lavish gatherings, Spelling has learned that creativity, passion and smart planning are the key to entertaining on a budget.

She loves themed parties and offers a list of dos and don’ts to make them successful. One of her party prescriptions is a perfect fit for summertime Calgary.

The Cowboys and Lace party combines the rough and rustic western aesthetic with the softness of lace. She gathers hay bales, daisies and lace curtains together with a campfire, banjo music and games of horseshoes. Food includes summertime favourites like baked beans and barbecued ribs. Everyone in Calgary has the western duds to pull this off.

In Parties that Wow: Setting the Stage for Creative Entertaining, Jonathan Fong outlines a honky-tonking Western party for urban cowboys. His décor includes a saddle on a bar stool and cowboy boots stuffed with bright yellow mums. Coloured bandannas are wrapped around beer bottles to provide guests with drink markers.

Stampede is happenin’ soon and this year it's their 100th birthday party too. It’s Calgary’s time to party.

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

There are people who can use a paint roller and not end up with more paint on them than whatever it is that they are painting. For those of us afflicted with the “covered in paint” handicap, a book on faux finishing could turn a behavioral quirk into something constructive. All it takes is a little creativity and some paint.

Designer Faux Finishing: Ideas and Inspiration for Sophisticated Surfaces by Victor DeMasi lives up to its title. The examples provided may not be for the faint hearted; but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Some of the finished examples remind me of Roman trompe l’oeil. The Met in New York has great examples of this type of wall art.

On a more practical side, It’s Faux Easy by Gary Lord starts out with a number of finishes that catch the light in intriguing ways. He demonstrates techniques starting with the simple layering of colour that is finished using cheesecloth, as well as more complicated techniques such as embossed stenciling. In each case, in this well-laid-out book, the materials list is followed by photos of the colour palettes and then step-by-step instructions. Watch the following video for a quick glimpse of Gary Lord in action.

Decorative Painting Techniques for Walls, Floors, Ceilings and Furniture by Elise C. Kinkead and Gail E. McCauley is another great source. There are loads of examples of what can be done using paints and stains to transform just about anything in the house.

Now, when you are covered ear to ear with multicoloured flecks, you will have something to show for it.

-Candace

Today's blog comes from Janet Millett, Central Library staff:

When we need help with home decorating, a lot of us reach for books with titles like Cheap Chic, Dime Store Decorating or Junk Beautiful. Creating a fabulous space on a shoestring can be creative and fun. There are times, however, when it can also be fun to glimpse the rarified lives of those who decorate with an unlimited budget and an in-demand designer.

Martyn Lawrence Bullard is such a designer and his clients are a variety of well-moneyed celebrities. Bullard discovered at an early age that he had an affinity for design. By the age of 16, he ran a profitable little antiques business with a dedicated following of dealers and collectors.

Despite his talent in this area, he still made his way to Hollywood with aspirations of becoming an actor. However, his passion for decorating and design resurfaced and won over those who visited his space.

Through word of mouth he became a very popular designer. As his celebrity clientele grew, he soon found himself jetting around the world, collecting the perfect textiles and artworks with an unerring sense of style and cultivated eye. And, as life can ironically work out, he now is the host of the television show, Million Dollar Decorators.

Being a confidant and a friend to celebrities such as Elton John, Ellen Pompeo and Cher, Bullard has insight into their characters and lifestyles. This he confides in the introduction of each chapter. You then lose yourself in the sumptuous photos with a greater understanding of how and why they came to be.

He can also be very discreet. In the October 2011 issue of In Style magazine, he was asked about his more eccentric décor requests. He replied, “One of the maddest things I was asked to do was to apply gold leaf to the interior of a garage! I actually declined, thinking it would ruin my reputation.” No name was disclosed.

Love of colour and design is universal. And although these spaces are decorated with budgets most of us can only dream about, you can still see how his inspirations might just work in your own humble abode.

-Jan Millett

For many years I used a trunk painted Chinese red as my coffee table. When I moved to my condo, it no longer seemed to work. If it sat too close to the sofa, you couldn’t stretch out your legs. When it was pushed more to the centre of the room, it blocked the path to the balcony.

I experimented with several smaller tables which made the room feel more spacious. However, with more than three people visiting, serving drinks and snacks was fussy and annoying.

After much agonizing, I chose a lovely 19^th Century Chinese bench and it feels perfect for the room. I wish I had seen this new book in our collection. It would have made the decision easier.

Good Bones, great pieces: the seven essential pieces that will carry you through a lifetime is the new title by designers and bloggers Suzanne and Lauren McGrath. They identify seven essential pieces of furniture that can be used in many different ways and move successfully from house to house along with the owner.

Those seven pieces are loveseat, bench, side table, slipper chair, occasional chair, dresser and demilune. For each piece, they demonstrate multiple uses. They also provide a glossary that shows nine versions in different styles, such as traditional, modern or country.

They show a bench in an entrance, on a porch, in the living room, dining room and at the foot of a bed.

The demilune table snugs up against the wall in a tiny kitchen to provide a charming breakfast spot. It tucks into a hallway or onto the landing of a staircase. A pair of them flanks a fireplace in a living room and another works as a lovely little desk for laptop use.

This is a great source to help you plan major furniture purchases or rethink the use of a favourite piece that you already own.

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

There are many reasons to love UPPERCASE, one of our newest magazine additions. Let’s name two for starters. The magazine is Calgary based with its head office two blocks away from the Central Library in Arts Central. It’s great to support local initiative while celebrating creativity on a global level which for me is reason number two. Contributors to UPPERCASE come from all parts of the globe.

Its mission statement calls it “a magazine for the creative and curious”. What a mission! They have produced 13 editions and to judge from the issue that I have in hand, it is mission accomplished.

I am reading issue 12 where the theme is the love of paper. The articles tend to be quick reads with web links so that you can further explore anything that catches your fancy. You may find, like me, that a great deal of the content does.

The layout is very catchy, with loads of pictures interspersed with text set with various types, from standard computer font to old fashioned typewriter font. Much of the content pays homage to the fast-vanishing world of print.

While it may surprise some people, I find that paper appears to be going nowhere fast. A world of paper worshippers exists. Institutions discard their print and artists make igloos, home decorations and sculpture out of it. Take a look at this link for a smattering of possibilities.

Pages 54 – 56 have a great little article by an urban-sketcher, Sigrid Albert, who lives in Vancouver. Interested? See my last blog on the Art of Urban Sketching for a great new book and website.

An ever-so-short article on the NYC Library is full of images and an impressionist snippet that ends, “Although we didn’t leave with any borrowed books, we left with an excess of inspiration.” I always feel this way about libraries. They have been a source of inspiration since I was a kid and that was a while ago.

This is not a magazine that circulates (yet), so have a look, make notes or get your own subscription. I probably will. While you decide, grab a chair and immerse yourself in a world of ideas.

-Candace

Jane's Two Cents: Don't you just love that fabulous pigeon on the cover? The UPPERCASE website makes a visit to the studio of the artist, Anne Smith, who drew the illustration.

This week I have been watching the trees nearby my apartment fill in with fresh green leaves and flower buds. In contrast, everything on my balcony is coated with a heavy layer of winter dust. Magpies have been tossing around the wood chips from the surface of the planters.

So far, my only nod to spring has been filling large plant saucers with water for the birds. Robins, sparrows, and messy magpies are regular visitors. Flickers, house finches and waxwings drop by when they’re in the neighbourhood.

Now that it’s time to clean up my little Eden, it’s also time to have a peak at new books on small-space gardening.

Small Space Gardening for Canada by Laura Peters comes from Lone Pine Publishing in Edmonton. Peters explores the many gardening possibilities open to city dwellers, including common property for the building, roof gardens, walkways and community gardens.

She offers instructions for making your own self-watering container and a generous section on edible plants (my favourite).

If you are looking for container planting with pizzazz, check out Pot it Up: 150 Fresh Ideas for Beautiful, Easy-to-grow Containers by Frankie Flowers, the oh-so appropriate moniker for gardening expert, Frank Ferragine. He has a flair for artistic combinations of plant materials and the results are stunning.

He organizes the planters by season and groups the plants into three categories: thrillers, fillers and spillers. For each planter, there is information about watering and light requirements. His creations are composed with a painterly approach to colour.

For the Birds is a planter filled with marigolds, lamium, coleus, petunia and nicotiana. Here, he has selected varieties that offer a palette of cream and spring green. The arrangement is topped with a rustic birdhouse to add height to the composition.

I think my birds might like that.

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

I have just been reminded that the pencil is a wonderful travel companion. Gabriel Campanario takes it on tour in The Art of Urban Sketching: drawing on location around the world. Funny how with so many apps and tablets with instant web links, artists still want to record their impressions on paper, using techniques that have been around for centuries.

Campanario is the founder of Urban Sketchers website which connects an international following of artists who record their travels and communities. Their motto is “see the world one drawing at a time.”

While most of the book consists of sketches of unique locales, there is also a section called Drawing Inspiration. It deals with typical urban features that offer inspiration to the artist, from skylines, streetscapes, and panoramas to monuments, cars and furniture.

The sketchbooks themselves are interesting. One urban sketcher repurposed old accounting ledgers for his drawings.

I had a lot of fun looking through this book and it reminded me of an older book from the collection, one of our gems. Holy China by Feliks Topolski was published in 1968. With loose and expressive pencil sketches, Topolski recorded the changing landscape of people and places in China in the early days of the Cultural Revolution.

- Candace

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

We just received a new copy of an old favourite, The Artist’s Way: a spiritual path to higher creativity, by Julia Cameron. There are so many ways in which this book works for anyone seeking to explore their creativity. It has remained a perennial favourite with CPL cardholders since it was first published in 1992.

When I first found this book and started out with the exercises, there wasn’t a web presence or iPhone/iPad apps. Today, Cameron has a website and an international community of artists who look to her for guidance.

Starting things is a habit with me, finishing is quite another story; so the second coming of the book is a chance to revisit what could turn out to be a very good habit. It came as a surprise to find that the book is part of a trilogy with the other two titles being Walking in this World: the practical art of creativity and Finding Water: the art of perseverance.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I browsed Finding Water. I discovered that it builds upon the first book’s exercises and clarifies the process. I was surprised to find this helpful and worthwhile and not simply a rehash of the first book.

Let me share a quotation from “Finding Water” that struck a responsive chord. It is by novelist William Styron: “I’ve always had a very comfortable relationship with No. 2 pencils.” Now, there is one of the great truths; he has identified my favourite tool for expressing whatever is on my mind.

Keep your pencil handy. It goes travelling in my next blog.

- Candace

If you are seeking a generous dose of relaxation and serenity, have a look at Coastal Modern by Tim Clarke. Clarke is a celebrity decorator with clientele lucky enough to own beautiful seaside properties and rich enough to get Tim to do them up.

“The beach house is more than just a place to live – it is a symbol of a life well lived,” says Clarke. It’s hard to argue with the philosophy.

Happily, you don’t need an ocean outside your sliding-glass doors to have a beach-inspired house.

He organizes the interiors in his book into five styles of design and the book flows according to the changing light of a day, from morning to evening. His different styles are associated with different qualities of light.

All of the styles share the same foundations: a balance between man-made and natural, old and new. Colour schemes are taken from coastal elements: sand, sky, water and soil. It’s a very summery look.

He favours simple, pared-down interiors with furniture and objects from local sources. Opulent vistas and houses are juxtaposed with some intimate interiors that could be achieved with a modest budget.

Can you judge a book by its cover? Not this one. The best decor is found between the covers, not on it.

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

My friend Bob, who is a wonderful musician, hangs some of his instruments on the living room wall – and very nice they look there. I think that personal collections have tremendous decorative power because they reveal the passion and interests of the homeowner. Recently, he added a ukulele to his collection of guitars, banjo and violin.

The ukulele is an instrument that I have not always respected. I suppose watching Tiny Tim on television as a younger person prejudiced me somewhat. When Bob plays the ukulele for his mother-in-law in the nursing home, he finds an appreciative audience.

This week we got a brand new book, Make your Own Ukulele by Bill Plant, and it made me think about Bob and the happy music he makes for himself and others.

The Ukulele gallery beginning on page 12 shows shapes of a very cheerful persuasion – hearts and cupcakes – as well as other quirky and unusual models. Who knew that there were four different types of the instrument? Also, who knew that they could be made from recycled materials?

Instructions begin with the basic “boxer” instrument. The last section shows how to construct a professional-grade ukulele. One way or the other, there is the promise of great fun in this little book.

- Candace