Home & Garden Highlights: 10.18.06

The craft renaissance has been going strong for quite some time, and yesterday's Chron got in on the action with a triplet of articles on its Bay Area bloom.

We're a little suprised they didn't touch on the vast network of craft-bloggers, but we'll save that rant for another day.

• Drop everything and paint a chair or bead a necklace: Bay Area craft devotees have gone entrepreneurial and created some innovative environments where you can make stuff without having to mess up your own apartment.

• Bay Area craft resources: A more thorough list we've yet to see, from Anh-Minh Le and Jerome Gagnon.

• DIY Or just watch it on TV: A not altogether skeptical look at the increasingly girly DIY TV network, from Margo Freistadt.

• HOT STUFF: This week Laura Thomas picks colorful, sophisticated Indian textiles from Berkeley's Zeba Home and Sunnyvale's Dreams on Looms.

• Study space situation before going shopping: Beryn Hammil cautions an over-eager Ikea shopper to, essentially, measure twice and cut once.

• PICK OF THE WEEK / Japanese anemones: From Shanghai to Europe to America. A primer on a variety of anemones that will add color to your garden through autumn.