Ure, Susan

PERSONAL: Born in WA. Education: Trained as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation counselor.

ADDRESSES: Home—Salt Lake City, UT. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Sterling Publishing Co., 387 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10016.

CAREER: Floribunda (gift shop), Salt Lake City, UT, owner, 1990s–2002; freelance decorator, 2002–.

WRITINGS:

Ten-Minute Decorating: 176 Fabulous Shortcuts with Style, Sterling Publishing (New York, NY), 2001.

The Portable Crafter: Beading, Sterling Publishing (New York, NY), 2004.

Scrapbooking Your Vacations: 200 Page Designs, Sterling Publishing (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Susan Ure showed a talent for decorating from an early age, often rearranging the household furniture while her family was at work. In the 1990s, she followed up on that talent by leaving her job as a rehabilitation counselor and opening Floribunda, a Salt Lake City gift shop she owned until 2002, when she became a freelance decorator. Many of her decorating tips are included in her first book, Ten-Minute Decorating: 176 Fabulous Shortcuts with Style. The volume is divided into sections that cover containers, textiles, windows, walls, minor details, and lighting. Some of the projects, like curtain-making, actually take longer than ten minutes, but Ure includes innovative suggestions for such projects as using jewelry to tie back curtains, and creating an indoor hammock. Library Journal critic Gayle A. Williamson noted that most of the projects can be completed with ease and added that there is a wide variety that "can be used in any decorating style."

In The Portable Crafter: Beading Ure offers projects that can be accomplished by the crafter on the go. Scrapbooking Your Vacations: 200 Page Designs includes complete page plans that use materials from around the world, providing scrapbookers with new ideas for using unusual finds, as well as a variety of papers, backings, trims, and mounting materials. Booklist critic Stephanie Zvirin, who noted that the textures used in these pages are enhanced by the color photos, said that "scrapbookers won't let this stay on the shelf long."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2001, Barbara Jacobs, review of Ten-Minute Decorating: 176 Fabulous Shortcuts with Style, p. 41; May 15, 2004, Stephanie Zvirin, review of Scrapbooking Your Vacations: 200 Page Designs, p. 1590.

Library Journal, September 15, 2001, Gayle A. Williamson, review of Ten-Minute Decorating, p. 78; June 15, 2004, Connie Ashmore Fairchild, review of Scrapbooking Your Vacations, p. 69.