Home&Real Estate Home Front DESIGN FOR BEGINNERS ... Interior designer (and Palo Alto Weekly columnist) Kit Davey will teach a class on “Interior Design for Beginners” on Saturday, Oct. 29, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at De Anza College, Room S-15, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino. The class will cover defining one’s personal style, creating a furniture plan, selecting color scheme, area rugs, artwork and accessories, and lighting basics. Cost is $65 plus $7 materials fee and $2 cash for parking. Information: 408-8648817 or www.CommunityEducation.fhda.edu FOR A PERFECT THANKSGIVING ... Cindy Roberts will teach how to cook “The Ultimate Thanksgiving” on Thursday, Nov. 3, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Palo Alto High School, Room 103, 50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto. Traditional and contemporary recipes will be incorporated in this demonstration, participating and sampling class. Menu includes roast turkey with herb rub, shiitake mushroom gravy, cranberry orange chutney, no-fail stuffing, sweet potatoes with mapled cranberries and green beans tossed with almonds. Cost is $50. Information: 650-329-3752 or www.paadultschool.org WREATH MAKING ... Anne Martin, a wreath maker since 1984 with a passion for working with plants, will teach a class on “Harvest and Holiday Wreath Making” on Saturday, Nov. 5, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Common Ground Education Center, 559 College Ave., Palo Alto. Wreaths will be made with all organic plant materials. Cost is $30 plus a $20 materials fee. Information: 650-493-6072 or www.commongroundinpaloalto.org PLANNING A WINTER GARDEN ... Mimi Clarke will talk about “The Winter Garden” on Wednesday, Nov. 9, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Filoli, 86 Cañada Road, Woodside. Her outdoor class will deal with winter pruning, protection of frost-sensitive plants, pests and diseases, bare-root planting and cleanup. Cost is $45 for nonmembers, $35 for members, and includes a repotting kit. Information: 650-364-8300 or www.filoli.org N Send notices of news and events related to real estate, interior design, home improvement and gardening to Home Front, Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302, or email cblitzer@paweekly.com. Deadline is Thursday at 5 p.m.
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Creating holiday gifts FROM THE heart CLASS OFFERS TIPS ON MAKING ECO-FRIENDLY CANDLES Story and photos by Yichuan Cao
L
ooking for a nice gift that could impress family or friends in this holiday season? A colorful, eco-
friendly candle made at home could fit the bill. Lori Stoia, who has been teaching classes on candle-making as well as making soap and lotion since 2004, will show students how to make a container candle, a rolled beeswax candle and votive candles on Oct. 29 at Palo Alto Adult School. She will walk students through the basics and once they
Above: Lori Stoia demonstrates how to roll a beeswax candle. Below: Eco-friendly beeswax and votive candles will be part of Stoia’s class.
complete the three-hour session, they will be ready to hit the ground running, she said. “In this economy, if it’s a gift that you made by yourself, it will be much appreciated. It’s from your heart,” Stoia said. She welcomes interested students to take her classes and put thoughts and time into this year’s gifts. “I mean, if they could come to take my candle class, soap class and lotion class — in the end, they will be able to put together a nice gift basket all by themselves,” she said. (continued on page 47)
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