Challenge yourself to learn dozens of embroidery stitches and use them to create 30 simple projects that are ready to display. If you’ve always wanted to learn embroidery but haven’t known where to start, The 30-Day Embroidery Challenge is the perfect way to jump-start your creativity and get stitching. Even if you’ve never picked up a needle, you will quickly learn everything you need to know to master embroidery. After an overview of embroidery basics, author Jessica Anderson shows you how to create—each day for 30 days—one new stitch and one embroidery design that features that stitch. The easy-to-follow projects include a variety of popular modern motifs such as flowers, birds, houseplants, rainbows, and more, and only take an hour or two, or less, to complete. As the book progresses, you will strengthen your skills with designs that combine multiple stitches. You can do one project per day in order or follow your own schedule and pick and choose. By the time you’ve stitched your way through the book, you will have an amazing collection of embroidery designs to hang up and display your skill and creativity. This complete course in embroidery includes:   Everything you need to know to gather supplies, set up your hoops, and prep your threads and needles 30 essential and more-unusual embroidery stitches clearly shown in step-by-step illustrations 30 simple modern embroidery designs you can complete in an hour or two Easy-to-transfer templates of all the designs are printed in the book and downloadable Tips for finishing and showing off your hoops Ideas for embellishing tote bags, jewelry, and more with the embroidery designs Two bonus challenge projects to stretch your newfound skills Embroidery is one of the most popular and versatile crafts and is ideal for beginners. It’s affordable, can be done almost anywhere, and doesn’t require years of practice to achieve great results. If you’re new to embroidery or want to learn new stitches and expand your repertoire, The 30-Day Embroidery Challenge will give you the inspiration and know-how you need to take joy in this lifelong skill and creative endeavor.

Every knitter loves to make baby items-for their own family and to give as gifts-and the cuter the better! This book offers patterns for 26 of the most adorable baby rompers you will ever see, in characters and animals including a giraffe, elephant, pumpkin, and ballerina, as well as everyday colorful and striped designs. These designs are also comfortable and practical (easy to take on and off) for the busy parent. Presented in an easy-to-follow format to build your knitting skills, you can start with a basic romper and then learn to add stripes, bum pockets, and hoods. Take it to the next level and add ears, tails, and other embellishments for a variety of animal designs. All instructions are clear and concise, so even a novice knitter can complete these rompers with ease. The only question is, which one will you knit first?

One of Australia's most celebrated novels: one woman's journey from Australia to London
Nora Porteous, a witty, ambitious woman from Brisbane, returns to her childhood home at age seventy. Her life has taken her from a failed marriage in Sydney to freedom in London; she forged a modest career as a seamstress and lived with two dear friends through the happiest years of her adult life.
At home, the neighborhood children she remembers have grown into compassionate adults. They help to nurse her back from pneumonia, and slowly let her in on the dark secrets of the neighborhood in the years that have lapsed.
With grace and humor, Nora recounts her desire to escape, the way her marriage went wrong, the vanity that drove her to get a facelift, and one romantic sea voyage that has kept her afloat during her dark years. Her memory is imperfect, but the strength and resilience she shows over the years is nothing short of extraordinary. A book about the sweetness of escape, and the mix of pain and acceptance that comes with returning home.

Every year, at the Wa Huang Gong temple in Hebei Province, China, people gather to worship the great mother, Nuwa, the oldest deity in Chinese myth, praising her for bringing them a happy life. It is a vivid demonstration of both the ancient reach and the continuing relevance of mythology in the lives of the Chinese people.
Compiled from ancient and scattered texts and based on groundbreaking new research, Handbook of Chinese Mythology is the most comprehensive English-language work on the subject ever written from an exclusively Chinese perspective. This work focuses on the Han Chinese people but ranges across the full spectrum of ancient and modern China, showing how key myths endured and evolved over time. A quick reference section covers all major deities, spirits, and demigods, as well as important places (Kunlun Mountain), mythical animals and plants (the crow with three feet; Fusang tree), and related items (Xirang-a kind of mythical soil; Bu Si Yao-mythical medicine for long life). No other work captures so well what Chinese mythology means to the people who lived and continue to live their lives by it.
With more than 40 illustrations and photographs, fresh translations of primary sources, and insight based on the authors' own field research, Handbook of Chinese Mythology offers an illuminating account of a fascinating corner of the world of myth.

The Impersonators portrays the breakdown of family relationships and the endurance of love in a materialistic age sensitively, perceptively and humorously. When Sylvia Foley returns to Australia after twenty years, she finds her father, Jack Cornock, ill. This and his obstinate silence provoke speculation about his will among the families of his two marriages. Sylvia becomes enmeshed in the webs of their alliances and disaffections. The Impersonators received the Miles Franklin Award in 1980, and the NSW Premier's Literary Award for Fiction in 1981.

An informative work of historical and contemporary Chinese myths, including a useful collection of historical documents, detailing myths as they live and change in China today. Compiled from ancient and scattered texts and based on revelatory new research, Handbook of Chinese Mythology is the most comprehensive English-language work on the subject ever written from an exclusively Chinese perspective. This work focuses on the Han Chinese people but ranges across the full ethnic spectrum of ancient and modern China, showing how key myths endured and evolved over time. A quick reference section covers all major deities, spirits, and demigods, as well as important places (Kunlun Mountain), mythical animals and plants (the crow with three feet; Fusang tree), and appurtenances (Xirang—a kind of mythical soil; Bu Si Yao—mythical medicine for long life). No other work captures so well what Chinese mythology means to the people who lived and continue to live their lives by it.