The Bodacious Book of Succulence: Daring to Live Your Succulent Wild LIife

The Bodacious Book of Succulence: Daring to Live Your Succulent Wild LIife
By Sark

Product Description

I wish for this book to catapult you out of bed and smack into the center of one of your dreams, or lure you back to bed, where you will lie helplessly laughing at all your mistakes and frozen moments.

I wish for this book to free the part of your soul that longs to write epic novels, recite Yeats by heart, play a musical instrument by magic, or perform in a play about your life that you create and design. Most of all, I want this book to give you a boost up over the fence that prevents you from moving forward and inward.

 

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45114 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-08
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

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Editorial Reviews

Review
Marc Allen

author of Visionary Business

SARK is a true creative spirit….She walks her talk, helping everyone she meets to quit taking themselves so seriously and to truly enjoy their magical lives.

Hal Stone, Ph.D., and Sidra Stone, Ph.D.

authors of Embracing Your Inner Critic

SARK doesn’t promise easy answers….But through her inspiring ideas for growing, enjoying, and living fully, she shows us how to bounce back.

Ellen Bass

author of The Courage to Heal

SARK’s enthusiasm for life is contagious, her delight in the small pleasures inspirational. She has a way of being starkly honest and lighthearted at the same time — a real gift.

Maya Angelou

author of The Heart of a Woman

We, in this world, and this weary old world itself, have a great gaping need for SARK. Let’s call for more and more SARK to fill every child’s book bag and each attache case.

 

Review
Maya Angelou author of The Heart of a Woman We, in this world, and this weary old world itself, have a great gaping need for SARK. Let’s call for more and more SARK to fill every child’s book bag and each attache case.

About the Author
Here’s SARK, filled with faults and still succulent!

Customer Reviews

Bodacious Book of Succulence
I love Sark… I have many of her books and couldn’t wait to get this one. It lives up to the rest.

Bodacious, Bold and Brilliant
SARK hit another homer with this one! A follow up to her successful book, Succulent Wild Woman, this book welcomes people from all walks of life to be bodacious and succulent and enjoy life! It’s her own way of saying CARPE DIEM! Thanks Susan!

What a Fun Book
I loved this book. It has a lot of great information in it and it is written in a most enjoyable, colorful way. A refreshing point of view without beating you up. Highly recommended for all.

The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression

The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression
By Eric Maisel

Product Description

 

Creative people will experience depression—that’s a given. It’s a given because they are regularly confronted by doubts about the meaningfulness of their efforts. Theirs is a kind of depression that does not respond to pharmaceutical treatment. What’s required is healing in the realm of meaning.

In this groundbreaking book, Eric Maisel teaches creative people how to handle these recurrent crises of meaning and how to successfully manage the anxieties of the creative process. Using examples both from the lives of famous creators such as van Gogh and from his own creativity coaching practice, Maisel explains that despite their inevitable difficulties, creative people possess the ability to forge relationships, repair themselves, and find meaning in their work and their lives. Maisel presents a step-by-step plan to help creative people handle their special brand of depression and rediscover the reasons they are driven to create in the first place.

 

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61515 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap
“The Van Gogh Blues is a mind-blowingly wonderful book.”
—Midwest Book Review

“Maisel persuasively argues that creative individuals measure their happiness and success by how much meaning they create in their work.”
—Library Journal

From the Back Cover
Finalist, Books for a Better Life Award

“The Van Gogh Blues is a mind-blowingly wonderful book.”
—Midwest Book Review

“Maisel persuasively argues that creative individuals measure their happiness and success by how much meaning they create in their work.”
—Library Journal

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Customer Reviews

New material, fresh approach for the creative person
With so many books being published about creativity, it may be repetitive to read about the same old reflections and the same suggestions to nurture your abilities. Eric Maisel has found a refreshing way to address creative people’s issues. With the Van Gogh Blues, he presents his approach to deal with the anxiety and depression creative persons tend to feel at different points in their lives.

While he doesn’t shun the medical take on depression, he brings an existential understanding of the situation. This view expresses that a creator that repeatedly makes meaning, hold on to that meaning in his life (life’s work meaning and meaningful day-to-day life)will have a better chance of dealing with an inclination to depression.

Eric Maisel covers the field as to how meaning can be created using other’s artists biographies, emails from contemporary creators and his experience as a creativity coach (which might be the coolest job in the world, I think). The book’s question could be: As creatives, how can we create meaning in life? This way, the books appeals to more than only the depressed artists. To top it off, the author writes in a clear but not-dumbed-down way, ideal to the sophisticated, intellectual reader who appreciates good writing.

Even for a person who constantly reads on creativity and life purpose, I found this book brings new ideas and a fresh take on what assails the creative person.

Rainmaker’s Prayers hosts The Van Gogh Blues
Eric visited Rainmaker’s Prayers blog during his virtual tour for his newly released book “The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression.” Shinan asked some difficult questions and Eric gave some brilliant answers that we feel are important enough to share with the world. So I’ve included them in this customer review.

Shinan Barclay : In the face of global warming/global cooling, Eric Maisel’s book: “The Van Gogh Blues ,” inspired me to compile an anthology entitled “Rainmaker’s Prayers,Align with Global Harmony.” How do I encourage clients and contributors to find and create meaning in their life?

Eric Maisel: By helping them make the paradigm shift from finding meaning to making meaning. There is no meaning to find; it is not lost. There is only meaning to make; meaning is a choice. Once people really understand
this distinction, they realize that they know enough already to make these choices and they can begin to stand behind their own meaning
decisions.

Shinan Barclay: With climate change and the extinction of thousands of species, many people feel hopeless and helpless. How do you encourage people to find meaning among the uncertainty and confusion of evironmental upheavals?

Eric Maisel: By reminding them that they have a life to lead and they can lead it authentically or inauthentically. They are not in charge of the
universe–no one is. They are in charge of only and precisely their own
life. They can make their life a thing of moral beauty by their choices or they can watch more television. Until the world actually ends, we have
the obligation to take charge of our life and aim it in the direction
of our choosing; that is what “making ethics” means.

Shinan Barclay: Some data says that major corporations control the media, i.e. television, newspapers and magazine, and that the American population is spoon-fed and numbed by “corporate propaganda.” How can we create meaning in an inauthentic world?

Eric: Only with great difficulty–but life is difficulty. There never was
a guarantee that life would be easy. You think through what would
amount to right action in this kind of environment–where you can make the
most difference or any difference–and then you step in that
direction, recognizing that you can’t alter the world’s configuration, All you can do is make yourself proud by your own efforts. You heroically
try; that’s it, period.

Rainmaker’s Prayers, Align with Global Harmony

The Van Gogh Blues
We all know the story of the brilliant yet tortured Van Gogh. His mind blowing creativity was only matched by bouts of deeply destructive depression. We’ve also become accustomed to hearing gossip about rock stars, artists, actors, and writers whose drug use, alcoholism, or suicide make the evening news. It seems the pairing of creativity and self destruction is a natural one.

The Van Gogh Blues doesn’t seek to break this stereotype. Instead, it looks to examine the reason why creative people tend to have such extreme highs and lows. The answer seems so obvious that most of us probably would never have thought of it.

People who create tend to put all of their effort into their work. I do it myself, I can sit for hours and just type fully immersed in my own words and thoughts. Having such clarity of focus and such a single minded drive is fantastic.

However, once the project is complete, the creating is done. Suddenly, there is no more purpose. The individual is suddenly lost without any sort of direction. I can relate. I always know it’s time to get back to my writing when I start to get depressed. Over time, I’ve learned that I have to a project. I have to create.

Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity

Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity
By Lawrence Lessig

Product Description

Lawrence Lessig, “the most important thinker on intellectual property in the Internet era” (The New Yorker), masterfully argues that never before in human history has the power to control creative progress been so concentrated in the hands of the powerful few, the so-called Big Media. Never before have the cultural powers- that-be been able to exert such control over what we can and can’t do with the culture around us. Our society defends free markets and free speech; why then does it permit such top-down control? To lose our long tradition of free culture, Lawrence Lessig shows us, is to lose our freedom to create, our freedom to build, and, ultimately, our freedom to imagine.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30376 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-22
• Released on: 2005-02-22
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

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Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review
A powerfully argued and important analysis… surprisingly entertaining.

Review
A powerfully argued and important analysis… surprisingly entertaining. (The New York Times Book Review) An entertaining and important look at the past and future of the cold war between the media industry and new technologies. (Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Netscape)

About the Author
Lawrence Lessig is a professor at Stanford Law School and the founder of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. He has clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and for Judge Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. The author of The Future of Ideas and Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace.

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Customer Reviews

A must read for anyone serious about their freedom
A must read for anyone serious about their freedom. The history of copyright of the world is covered. Larry makes this accessible to anyone and puts copyright and fair use in the context of the original creation of copyrights.
A must-read for anyone interested or concerned about copyrights
This book is not only a history lesson on copyright, but it shows how big corporate enterprises obtain and used material, through the same methods they now want to deny the general public, in order to get to the powerful presence they are today.

Example: Disney using lots of old fairy-tales which were in public domain. And today they fight for everything never to go into public domain in order to keep profit to themselves, while at the same time going after creative use that would expand our culture and art.

Fascinating
This book is worth the price just to hear the constant process of American culture – be a pirate, fend off “the man” to build your industry, become “the man,” then go after the pirates who are presumably cutting into your business. Money makes hypocrites of us all. Please, RIAA, don’t sue me for reading this book (although I’m sure you’ll find a way, if there aren’t any grandmothers or poor college students you can harass).

Celebrate Your Creative Self

Celebrate Your Creative Self
By Mary Todd Beam

Product Description

Artists and creatives of all kinds who are looking for new ways to liberate their artistic imagination will love this book. Readers are invited to playfully explore various aspects of visual art, such as light, color, texture and design through a series of imaginative art projects. Artists will experiment hands-on with dozens of techniques and mediums in new and unconventional ways including: * Capturing whites with crayon and wax resist * Glazing and floating colors * Portraying the patterns of nature with sedimentation and precipitation * Loosening up with gesso painting and printing with plastic * Constructing a new piece of art from old work * Experimenting with three-dimensional assemblage * Creating a street map In addition, artists are prompted to challenge their imaginations by building new painting surfaces, creating their own personal symbols and more. Further inspiration can be found in a gallery of work by more than 30 contributing artists. Celebrate Your Creative Self is a fun, no-fail guide every artist should have.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60473 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 128 pages

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Mary Todd Beam is one of the best-known workshop instructors in the realm of artistic creativity. She has been giving workshops all over the country for a number of years and is an award-winning artist. She divides her time between Cambridge, Ohio and Cosby, Tennessee.

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Customer Reviews

Celebrate your Creative Self: over 25 Dxercises to Unleash the Artist Within
Celebrate Your Creative Self: Over 25 Exercises to Unleash the Artist Within
Have not had time to use a lot of the activities, but there seems to be some really creative acitivies that interest me.

Idea Starter
I really like this book. I own it and have given it as a gift to many of my artist friends and students. It has great idea starters that are open ended enough to allow for creative license. I also really like the spiral binding that allows the book to lay flat while refering to some of the techniques.

great book!
It was a very inspiring book. Lot’s of great photos of artist work. I am an oil painter and still found it helpful and inspiring.

The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression

The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression
By Eric Maisel

Product Description

 

Creative people will experience depression—that’s a given. It’s a given because they are regularly confronted by doubts about the meaningfulness of their efforts. Theirs is a kind of depression that does not respond to pharmaceutical treatment. What’s required is healing in the realm of meaning.

In this groundbreaking book, Eric Maisel teaches creative people how to handle these recurrent crises of meaning and how to successfully manage the anxieties of the creative process. Using examples both from the lives of famous creators such as van Gogh and from his own creativity coaching practice, Maisel explains that despite their inevitable difficulties, creative people possess the ability to forge relationships, repair themselves, and find meaning in their work and their lives. Maisel presents a step-by-step plan to help creative people handle their special brand of depression and rediscover the reasons they are driven to create in the first place.

 

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57723 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap
“The Van Gogh Blues is a mind-blowingly wonderful book.”
—Midwest Book Review

“Maisel persuasively argues that creative individuals measure their happiness and success by how much meaning they create in their work.”
—Library Journal

From the Back Cover
Finalist, Books for a Better Life Award

“The Van Gogh Blues is a mind-blowingly wonderful book.”
—Midwest Book Review

“Maisel persuasively argues that creative individuals measure their happiness and success by how much meaning they create in their work.”
—Library Journal

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Customer Reviews

New material, fresh approach for the creative person
With so many books being published about creativity, it may be repetitive to read about the same old reflections and the same suggestions to nurture your abilities. Eric Maisel has found a refreshing way to address creative people’s issues. With the Van Gogh Blues, he presents his approach to deal with the anxiety and depression creative persons tend to feel at different points in their lives.

While he doesn’t shun the medical take on depression, he brings an existential understanding of the situation. This view expresses that a creator that repeatedly makes meaning, hold on to that meaning in his life (life’s work meaning and meaningful day-to-day life)will have a better chance of dealing with an inclination to depression.

Eric Maisel covers the field as to how meaning can be created using other’s artists biographies, emails from contemporary creators and his experience as a creativity coach (which might be the coolest job in the world, I think). The book’s question could be: As creatives, how can we create meaning in life? This way, the books appeals to more than only the depressed artists. To top it off, the author writes in a clear but not-dumbed-down way, ideal to the sophisticated, intellectual reader who appreciates good writing.

Even for a person who constantly reads on creativity and life purpose, I found this book brings new ideas and a fresh take on what assails the creative person.

Rainmaker’s Prayers hosts The Van Gogh Blues
Eric visited Rainmaker’s Prayers blog during his virtual tour for his newly released book “The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression.” Shinan asked some difficult questions and Eric gave some brilliant answers that we feel are important enough to share with the world. So I’ve included them in this customer review.

Shinan Barclay : In the face of global warming/global cooling, Eric Maisel’s book: “The Van Gogh Blues ,” inspired me to compile an anthology entitled “Rainmaker’s Prayers,Align with Global Harmony.” How do I encourage clients and contributors to find and create meaning in their life?

Eric Maisel: By helping them make the paradigm shift from finding meaning to making meaning. There is no meaning to find; it is not lost. There is only meaning to make; meaning is a choice. Once people really understand
this distinction, they realize that they know enough already to make these choices and they can begin to stand behind their own meaning
decisions.

Shinan Barclay: With climate change and the extinction of thousands of species, many people feel hopeless and helpless. How do you encourage people to find meaning among the uncertainty and confusion of evironmental upheavals?

Eric Maisel: By reminding them that they have a life to lead and they can lead it authentically or inauthentically. They are not in charge of the
universe–no one is. They are in charge of only and precisely their own
life. They can make their life a thing of moral beauty by their choices or they can watch more television. Until the world actually ends, we have
the obligation to take charge of our life and aim it in the direction
of our choosing; that is what “making ethics” means.

Shinan Barclay: Some data says that major corporations control the media, i.e. television, newspapers and magazine, and that the American population is spoon-fed and numbed by “corporate propaganda.” How can we create meaning in an inauthentic world?

Eric: Only with great difficulty–but life is difficulty. There never was
a guarantee that life would be easy. You think through what would
amount to right action in this kind of environment–where you can make the
most difference or any difference–and then you step in that
direction, recognizing that you can’t alter the world’s configuration, All you can do is make yourself proud by your own efforts. You heroically
try; that’s it, period.

Rainmaker’s Prayers, Align with Global Harmony

The Van Gogh Blues
We all know the story of the brilliant yet tortured Van Gogh. His mind blowing creativity was only matched by bouts of deeply destructive depression. We’ve also become accustomed to hearing gossip about rock stars, artists, actors, and writers whose drug use, alcoholism, or suicide make the evening news. It seems the pairing of creativity and self destruction is a natural one.

The Van Gogh Blues doesn’t seek to break this stereotype. Instead, it looks to examine the reason why creative people tend to have such extreme highs and lows. The answer seems so obvious that most of us probably would never have thought of it.

People who create tend to put all of their effort into their work. I do it myself, I can sit for hours and just type fully immersed in my own words and thoughts. Having such clarity of focus and such a single minded drive is fantastic.

However, once the project is complete, the creating is done. Suddenly, there is no more purpose. The individual is suddenly lost without any sort of direction. I can relate. I always know it’s time to get back to my writing when I start to get depressed. Over time, I’ve learned that I have to a project. I have to create.  

Creative Whack Pack

Creative Whack Pack By Roger Von Oech

Product Description

Roger von Oech’s illustrated deck of 64 creative thinking strategies has been a bestseller for more than a decade. Learn how to apply his innovative solutions and classic wisdom to the challenges of modern life. Complete with detailed instructions.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16112 in Books
• Published on: 1989-11
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .45 pounds
• Binding: Cards
• 64 pages

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Customer Reviews

Not Business / Innovation Focused
I ordered this hoping it would be good for idea generation. I’m an experienced entrepreneur and hoped it would prompt some helpful exercises. I found it to be 2nd rate in terms of quality of ideas and applicability to business and product innovation. I did find the perfect pack, namely the IDEO Method Cards which give fantastic ideas for product design and customer role playing.

I could be helpful for someone trying to rethink their careers and life, but not a rich source of ideas or well presented.

It Sucks
I got this as a gift at a Christmas party. It is the worst thing in the world. Maybe it is meant for people who can’t think for themselves, I don’t know. If you actually have a brain and can use it, then you don’t need the whack pack.

Creativity Realized
I have two sets of the Creative Whack Pack. It is a very useful tool in helping to get unstuck when brainstorming for ideas. I used it in a “Creative Decision-Making” class in my MBA studies and it was useful in helping a group of mixed thinkers (creative and very linear thinkers) become unstuck. Our team actually came up with several creative solutions to a couple of problems.

It is also a valuable tool to use on one’s own – sometimes it is fun just to pick a card and then use that as a basis for one’s thinking for the day. This can be used in conjunction with the Innovators Whack Pack.

 

Fearless Creating: A Step-by-Step Guide To Starting and Completing Your Work of Art

Fearless Creating: A Step-by-Step Guide To Starting and Completing Your Work of Art
By Eric Maisel

 

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11947 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10-17
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Besides being a writer himself, Eric Maisel is a therapist with a practice centered around artists, writers and performers and has seen many of the demons that haunt the creative life firsthand. In this inventive workbook, he comes up with many exercises designed to help you blast through your own inertia and fear, to get you back to the typewriter, the easel, or on the stage where you belong.

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Customer Reviews

taking action
Buying this book is simply the first step on a journey toward meaning. Taking action begins there, and will continue as you give yourself permission to create.

Failing and Then Succeeding in Creative Efforts
The author encourages us to recognize that making mistakes is part of creating. Experimenting, finding what works and what doesn’t work, and going on is the process of creativity.
This book is useful for the beginning and the experienced artist.

As a professor of creativity this has been 1 of 2 texts I have used for over 10 years.
I teach Creativity at a University so I am constantly on the lookout for new and improved texts to use in my courses. For over ten years I have used this same book because I have not found a better one.

I give the students a choice between this and Julia Cameron The Artist’s Way. The latter is more “spiritual” in tone (“inner” this and “within” that, and let your “higher self” speak, etc.) and Fearless Craeting is more “secular” ( the occasional PG swear word, painting naked, etc.) so they appeal to different types of students. They are still the 2 best books I know to actually enhance your creativity. (Nor have the authors in my opinions, surpassed them in their subsequent books.)

The only drawback is that the student only have to pay $15.00 for this text. They are used to paying $95.00 so this can be upsetting to them.

If…, Volume 3: (Questions for the Game of Love)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17294 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10-28
• Released on: 1997-10-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages    

Customer Review

 Don’t Start A Relationship Without It!

The third in the “If” series of question books, this little ditty is all about love and relationship ethics. Would you? Could you? Will you? A perfect gift for anyone just starting out in one of those questionable relationships! Imagine the insight into a persons values in a few innocent yet thought provoking questions. Another benefit to this book is that it is a perfect way to break the ice about all those pet-peeves you might have in the bedroom, just answer the question and hope someone is listening! Hours of fun that might save you years of heartache

 

 If 3 : Questions for the Game of Love, July 11, 2000 My best friend and I bought this book while on vacation and had a wonderful time asking questions of each other, and others! Really. Others joined in after hearing our hoots of laughter, and openly participated. Enjoy the book with a drink and an open mind. Better for friends than lovers.

 

Same format as the others. This one is about love., March 14, 1998

By A Customer

Pretty good. If you enjoyed the other books in this series, then this one will expand your abilites to pry into your friend’s thoughts. The books are great to take camping, on long trips, and for the coffee table to entertain guests.

 

Fantastic!, June 19, 2002

By A Customer

If you’re going to take a road trip with a mate, or even some close friends, this is a great book to bring along!

 

Great for parties, April 15, 2008

I got this book to bring to an all girls party and man did it get conversations going. Every group of gals need one to get a laugh and an insight into your friends’ lives.

 

great conversation starter!, October 5, 2000

By A Customer

Everyone that comes across this book at my place can’t get enough of it. They even took it from me once. It is a great way just to start some interesting conversations and get to know people. Fun at small gatherings or just with another person.  

 

If…, Volume 3: (Questions for the Game of Love)

If…, Volume 3: (Questions for the Game of Love)
By Evelyn McFarlane, James Saywell

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48947 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10-28
• Released on: 1997-10-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

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Customer Reviews

Great for parties
I got this book to bring to an all girls party and man did it get conversations going. Every group of gals need one to get a laugh and an insight into your friends’ lives.

This book should be titled “Questions For the Game of Sex”
I was shocked by most of the questions.

For example:
If you had to watch your lover or spouse have sex with someone else, but could determine who it would be, who would you choose?

If you could have sex with one pagan god, which would it be?

I don’t consider myself a prude by any means but I feel this book is immoral and dangerous to anyone in a monogamous relationship.

I returned it!

Don’t Start A Relationship Without It!
The third in the “If” series of question books, this little ditty is all about love and relationship ethics. Would you? Could you? Will you? A perfect gift for anyone just starting out in one of those questionable relationships! Imagine the insight into a persons values in a few innocent yet thought provoking questions. Another benefit to this book is that it is a perfect way to break the ice about all those pet-peeves you might have in the bedroom, just answer the question and hope someone is listening! Hours of fun that might save you years of heartache.

A Life That Says Welcome: Simple Ways to Open Your Heart & Home to Others

A Life That Says Welcome: Simple Ways to Open Your Heart & Home to Others
By Karen Ehman

Product Description

The thought of hosting a dinner party or even having a friend over for coffee is enough to give some women flashbacks of lopsided cakes or doomed casseroles from home economics class. But opening up your home to others doesn’t have to be fancy or frightening or cost a fortune, says Karen Ehman. In A Life That Says Welcome, she offers a practical, painless (no crafting or cooking aptitude required) course on hospitality. It helps busy women open up their hearts in order to open up their homes. Full of tips, ideas, recipes, to-dos, and how-tos, A Life That Says Welcome shows readers that opening up their homes is less scary and less work than they might think.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58366 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-01
• Released on: 2006-10-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover
Great hospitality isn’t about gourmet food or gorgeous décor (what a relief!) When it comes to hospitality it doesn’t matter what size your house is, how it’s decorated, whether or not it’s spotless, or what you cook or don’t cook. The secret to making guests feel comfortable is more about the condition of your heart than the condition of your home. A Life That Says Welcome helps you make others feel refreshed, rather than impressed, in your presence. It’s packed with inspiring tips on how to decorate well on a budget make the most of your space (no matter how small) be prepared for unexpected company create delicious, simple dishes your guests will enjoy You’ll be encouraged to not only open your home but to open your life as an avenue for God’s love everywhere you go. “Karen’s book offers a good background in hospitality and today’s form of entertaining as well as excellent ideas on how to put theory into practice.”-Emilie Barnes, author, speaker, founder of More Hours in My Day “Karen’s practical strategies will help you open your heart and your home to whoever God sends your way!”-Jill Savage, executive director of Hearts at Home “If you’ve ever longed for someone to demonstrate what it means to truly make your house a home, then your prayers have been answered.”-Lisa Whelchel, bestselling author of Creative Correction, The Facts of Life and Other Lessons My Father Taught Me, and Taking Care of the “Me” in Mommy Karen Ehman is a speaker for Hearts at Home and the coauthor of the popular Homespun Gifts from the Heart and Homespun Memories for the Heart.

About the Author
Karen Ehman is a speaker for Hearts at Home and the coauthor of the popular Homespun Gifts from the Heart and Homespun Memories for the Heart. She lives in Saint Johns, Michigan.

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Customer Reviews

So many ideas!
I liked the title of this book when I saw it highlighted through the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) website. Karen Ehman has written a book that is true to life and offers many great ideas. She covers a gamut of topics, but doesn’t rush through anything. It is entertaining and heartfelt. I am very glad I chose this book.

Laughs and encouragement
I love this book. I have 3 small children, a husband, and a hyper dog. We want to entertain more and hope that people feel welcome in our home. I found encouragement on every page of this book, and many chuckles through-out. The humor hidden within the pages always left me coming back for more.

An excellent selection of tips, tricks, and techniques for receiving guests with warmth and spreading joy.
Written by Hearts at Home speaker Karen Ehman, A Life That Says Welcome: Simple Ways to Open Your Heart & Home to Others is a practical introduction to the art of hospitality. Ad Ehrman explains, the secret of hospitality isn’t primarily about how one’s home is decorated or maintained, or what dishes are cooked; it’s making one’s guests feel welcome, and comes straight from the heart. Material matters are of course discussed as well, including the basics of battling clutter, dustballs and dirt; decorating on a shoestring budget; tips for hospitality on the road; and much more. As a devoted Christian, Ehman also shows how to open not only one’s home to guests but also how to open one’s life and soul as an avenue for God’s love. An excellent selection of tips, tricks, and techniques for receiving guests with warmth and spreading joy.