Close to home: It's the season to plan

Seasonal containers Now that your summer plants are dead and gone, it's a good time to spruce up your containers. At a seminar, Bachman's designer Kristen Peterson will demonstrate how to design and plant a spruce-top container that can transition from Thanksgiving to the holidays.

You'll learn overall design best practices and tips for creating a neutral container that can be enhanced with various holiday themes.

The seminar will be held 2-4 p.m. Saturday at Bachman's on Lyndale, 6010 Lyndale Av. S., Mpls. The cost is $40, which includes all planter materials. Register at www.bachmans.com.

Appliance sale If you're in the market for an appliance, today, Oct. 28, is last call for Warners' Stellian's two-day Extreme Warehouse Sale. The sale features reduced prices on all categories of appliances, from traditional to luxury brands, including ranges, ovens and refrigerators, plus specialty items such as vacuum cleaners, grills and wine fridges.

Appliances will include closeout models, floor models, scratch-and-dent, discontinued and new in-box specials. Sale hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at Warners' Stellian's warehouse, 550 Atwater Circle, St. Paul.

Home improvement Planning to welcome guests this holiday season? You'll get tips to help you and your home make a good impression at "Live Life Well," a free event hosted by Ispiri Design-Build and Kohler.

The event will feature the latest trends in design, kitchen and bathroom makeovers and food and wine pairings, including samples. Homeowners are invited to bring home plans for review by Ispiri's design team.

Party planning If you aspire to host an impressive soiree but "lack the Martha Stewart gene," Mpls.St.Paul Magazine is coming to your rescue with "Perfect Parties."

The event will showcase tips and tricks for hosting flawless fests, from no-fail food and wine pairings to seasonal decorating to music selections. There will be seminars, food and beverage sampling, and shopping options from Galleria retailers.

"Perfect Parties" will be held 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at the Woman's Club of Minneapolis, 410 Oak Grove St. Tickets are $20. For more information, visit www.mspmag.com/perfectparties.

Updated traditional Architect Gil Schafer III has built a reputation for creating classic homes -- both new homes with the warmth and appearance of old houses, and older structures renovated for today's way of living. He shares his secrets and takes readers inside some of his projects in "The Great American House: Tradition for the Way We Live Now."

In the book, Schafer explains what he calls the elements of a great house -- architecture, decoration and landscape, which he considers parts of a gracious, livable whole. He also delves more deeply into the process behind the creation of four homes, two of them new construction and the other two renovations of existing homes.

"The Great American House" is published by Rizzoli and sells for $55 in hardcover.