The Hip Girl's Guide To Homemaking

With The Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking, it's possible and even convenient to create an inviting space for living and entertaining on a budget. From unique decor ideas to growing strawberries on your fire escape, Kate Payne shares fun, low-cost (and often free!) creative solutions that will make anyone feel more accomplished in minutes.

Inside this savvy motivational guide filled to the brim with small-scale creative home projects, Kate's tongue-in-cheek tone will keep you tuned in to her much-needed advice. In three easy sections, you'll learn how to create a comfortable space while being time- and budget-conscious. Section One, Home-ify Your Pad, features quick, convenient ways to make your place cozier with low-cost, special touches to help you tap into and show off your inner artist. Section Two, Impressive Acts of Domesticity, teaches how to impress others (and yourself) with the gratifying pleasures of self-sufficiency—a first-time guide to cleaning, sewing, repairing, and other previously out-of-the-question tasks. Section Three, Life After Restaurants, frees you to release the take-out menu, avoid pricey bar tabs, and entertain others in the space you've so thoughtfully and gorgeously created.

User-friendly "how-to" sidebars, illustrations, and tips and tricks throughout the book offer easy-to-follow recipes and do-it-yourself craft suggestions for making your home hip, comfortable, and inviting. Keep in mind that this is not your grandmother's handbook and it's not the kind of wisdom your mom knows how to impart. Modern women need a modern approach to domestic pleasures—a guide to doing household things on our own terms, because most of this stuff isn't as hard as we've been led to believe. Don't worry, she's not asking you to host Tupperware parties or iron your underwear. But as all beginning home keepers know, a sure fire way to feel bad about ourselves is to consult Martha Stewart. So ditch that 2-inch thick handbook, dust off your pots and pans, and join Kate on this journey to incorporating creativity and self-sufficiency on the home front.

Editorial Reviews

Making a space your own can be almost uniquely satisfying; doing it on a tight budget can be even more rewarding. With its hard-won savvy, Kate Payne's The Hip Girl's Guide To Homemaking takes you thru the basics of "home-ifying" your apartment with low cost special touches that express your personality. With its lively tone, quirky illustrations and clever sidebars, this book has an inviting real-world feel and Payne's imaginative suggestions about achieving practical domesticity while releasing yourself from restaurant dependence will strike chords of recognition in readers. A fun read; a real money-saver; and thus a superb gift edition.

About The Author:

About The Author:

Kate Payne is a grant writer, creative writing instructor, part-time nanny; after-hours poet; occasional painter, big-time procrastinator, tea, toast, and jam obsessed Austinite; and former Brooklynite. The creator of the Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking website, she is an expert on thrift stores, flea markets, and Craigslist, and a frequent consultant for design, decorating, cooking, and crafting sites.