Get Crafty: Hip Home EC

Thirty-three-year-old Railla has learned to balance her ""life-long passion for feminism"" with domesticity, and wholeheartedly embraces her ""inner craftiness."" This manifesto of what she calls the New Domesticity-""a movement committed to recognizing, exalting, and most of all enjoying the culture that women have built for millennia""-offers loads of projects for people who have crafty urges, but who aren't excited by cross-stitched bunnies and crocheted toilet paper cozies. Making something from nothing can be fun, relaxing and teach you a lot about yourself, says Railla, and she offers loads of relatively simple crafts for all levels. For knitters and sewers, there's an a-line skirt and a knit bikini. For home design hounds, there are tips for buying secondhand furniture and painting walls. Fashion buffs will find advice on shopping for vintage clothing, selling items at consignment shops and even picking through the trash. Railla also covers cooking and gives suggestions for throwing parties. Best used as a jumping-off point or a guide for those who want to do something themselves, but aren't sure what, this handbook is perfect for today's new wave of crafters.