Today's blog comes from David Ramsay, Central Library staff:

OK, spring is coming, but it's not quite here yet. What better time for crafts? And, if what you make is useful, gives new life to old stuff and keeps it out of the landfill, that’s a bonus.

In Recycled Home, Rebecca Proctor helps us escape our weather whines and make us productive. She demonstrates how to make something useful out of material we probably already have or can pick up for a song.

There are so many things we hold onto, just in case. Do you have any fabric stored away, just waiting for a project, or maybe a seldom used piece of clothing or bedding? Are scraps of wood taking up valuable work space? The author shows a variety of ways to exploit these materials. This is a repurposing/upcycling book that shows how to change one old thing into something new and better without too much trouble or expense.

You can learn how to recover old oven mitts, build a wall cabinet, a bird house or a wheeled crate. There are instructions for sewing Roman blinds, making an egg cosy and adding colour to old china. Your home will start looking country fresh in no time at all.

It helps if you can sew. The wood projects are simpler. All told, there are both outdoor and indoor projects (for every room in the house) geared for every member of the family. The length of time needed to do the projects varies from 15 minutes to a weekend, with many of them clocking in at about 2 hours time.

By the time you’ve finished a few of these, spring will be here.

- Dave

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Jane

Creative Display, by Geraldine James, makes a virtue out of clutter. In this inspiring book, objects are imaginatively displayed on every possible surface and every homemaker is an interior stylist. Layered surfaces include artwork, memorabilia and found objects.

Some displays are carefully organized by colour, theme or size and righteously balanced. Other arrangements appear organic and spontaneous, however carefully assembled.

There are displays that feature clever juxtapositions or “unlikely alliances”. On a long table covered by a paint-spattered drop cloth, a collection of expressionist paintings is paired with a loose arrangement of wild flowers.

Books may be the main event or used as props to stage other items.

If you have ever considered cobbling together a house from reclaimed materials, check out Handmade Houses by Richard Olsen. The book is billed the “first comprehensive consideration of the residential design of the back-to-the-land movement.”

It traces the history and origins of the movement and shows houses built by homeowners without architects and well as those designed by the pros.

Fleamarket Chic is another design book that works with vintage furnishings from humble sources integrated into contemporary interiors.

Unlike Homespun Style, which I reviewed last blog, many of the interiors are put together with subtlety and restraint because crafting is not the point of the exercise. Rather, collecting or rehabbing a worthy item that fits well into the decorating scheme is the name of the game.

- Jane

Today is Earth Day, a time to celebrate all things green. I just wish the lawns in my neighbourhood would get into the spirit of it.

Our homes and way of living are depleting the planet. We all know this and most of us try to do better in little day-to-day ways: adopting reusable shopping bags, recycling, choosing CF light bulbs and low VOC paint.

If you are planning major changes to your home, there are many books in the collection to help you choose eco-friendly materials and building processes. Here’s one that I like.

The Green Home: a Sunset Design Guide talks about ways to improve the home you live in, as well as how to build green. They compare and materials for walls, flooring and counters. They talk about fabrics for bedding and furniture and appliances that save water and energy.

It’s all put together with eye-candy interiors that reflect the latest in design and style. I like that. Shallow creature that I am, if the design is banal and boring, I am less likely to absorb the information.

There is also a section that covers the basics of xeriscaping. Perhaps the lawn that won’t green up shouldn’t be there in the first place.

Have you ever had the problem of too many books? Here are the clues: overflowing shelves, truly dusty tomes and piles that make you trip.

You look over and wonder what else you can do with all these dust collectors. Not every title is worth a second reading. To borrow a phrase from Monty Python, some are not for reading, but for laying down and avoiding.

I believe that much of what we condemn to the landfill has potential (check out my end table); so I was happy to discover a new book that shares this philosophy.

Lisa Occhipinti has come up with a collection of crafty and witty solutions in The Repurposed Library: 33 craft projects that give old books new life.

Need a new (and unusual) lamp? How about a shelf to surprise and delight your friends or maybe a whimsical wall decoration? There are plans for all of these.

Some use only the pages, or covers, and still others the whole book. In any case, you’ll always recognize the original form. A number have clever titles, such as the Book Mobile which is an Alexander-Calder-style creation, rather than a vehicle delivering library service.

With all these interesting ideas for your old books, your overcrowded shelves will soon be looking neater.

useless lamp to useful table

I've always been curious, endowed with an active imagination. I remember, as a kid walking home from school, coming across a section of pipe with a switch on it, perhaps from a vacuum cleaner. It became, in my mind, something more interesting: a SPACE WEAPON.

The bad habit persists. I still sift through flotsam and jetsam relegated to the black bin; but now I call it repurposing.

As well as working for the Library, I belong to the militia, spending time in Mewata Armoury.

I was there one weekday when the old light fixtures were being replaced. Aha, I thought, something useful, in British racing green!

I really wasn't sure of a use, but their shape intrigued me. I asked for one and tucked the new treasure safely in my hatchback (very useful for a scavenger). Soon, the fixture liner became a lampshade, but the outer shell stayed longer in storage. Eventually, something inspired me to cobble together a table from the outer shell.

I cut a circle of mdf for the bottom and added plastic feet. The glass top was connected to the base using 3/4" pipe, chrome tubing, two pipe flanges and a wooden collar. Some of these parts were discards previously scavenged.

If you are like me, you prefer to find new possibilities for cast offs rather than add to your garbage footprint.

At the Library, there are many books to inspire you to unique green endeavours.

Decorating junkmarket style : [repurposed junk to suit any decor], Salvage style for the garden, and Making rustic originals are just three examples in the collection. And, speaking of unique tables, check out 500 tables : inspiring interpretations of function and style.

Dave, Central Library