Get Creative Juices Flowing – Unique and Recycled

Trees
Buying trees from a tree farm provides a more sustainable solution.  Plastic trees are petroleum based and land up as landfill where, made up of plastic, they live forever.

Real trees are renewable and recyclable.  They are often planted by hand, therefore, no gasoline engines, and they are usually planted without fertilizers.  They remove carbon dioxide and produce oxygen as they grow, (one acre = daily O2 for 18 people); they stabilize the soil, provide wildlife habitat, and they go back into the earth as mulch or compost.

Buying real trees employs people, and locally grown which saves on transportation costs and pollution associated with that.  Real trees don’t catch on fire easily, and if they do, they won’t emit toxic fumes.

For more eco friendly tips, listen to my interview on BlogTalkRadio with host Debbie Josendale, Publisher of the SF Bay Area Woman’s Journal” and link the SF Bay Area Woman’s Journal to the website address www.bayareawj.com

Decorating Tips
Think about decorating in a fashion that reuses and recycles items.  A new coat of white paint and things come to life.

Often our gifts are wrapped in beautiful paper and ribbons.  Use the ribbon as garlands.  They can be draped vertically from the top of the Christmas tree or wrapped around the tree.  They can be cut into bows at the end of the tree boughs.  Ribbon can be wrapped around lampshades, and they can be reused for gifts you give.

We have all come across some pretty jars and bottles and just know that we’ll come up with a way to reuse them.  The holidays are a perfect time to use them.  Here’s an energy efficiency tip from Michelle Kauffman (green prefab home pioneer):
• fill them with water and putting them on a west facing windowsill
• You can add food coloring if you’d like them to have color.
• During the day, they will absorb heat and during the night, they will release heat.

If your decorating project includes a new area rug, think about using recycled floor carpet tiles.  They come in all kinds of colors, patterns and textures; they can be picked up, washed off and put back down; they can be reused in other rooms in a different configuration and, when you’re all done with them, they can be sent back to the manufacturer for recycling.

If your decorating project is even bigger, don’t throw out the old.  First, see if you can reuse some of it for a different purpose, in a different configuration and with a new coat of paint, voila! It’ll look like new, too.

If you can’t reuse it somewhere in your home, then call salvage places, like the ReUse people.  They may have a home for them.  Don’t make landfill if you can help it.

Centerpieces & wonderful smells
Centerpieces always add a special touch to a table and to a room.  Be creative when thinking of what you can put in a bowl.  We have seen the:
• Christmas lights
• Fruits, veggies
• Pine cones
• Christmas bulbs
Now, just add a few more touches:
• Candles surrounded by berries or thin branches with dried berries
• Spray paint the pine cones and berries all green or all gold or gold and white
• In a bowl with a stand, have same colored ornaments surrounded by small pine cones, evergreen, green waxy leaves
• Or, a bowl of Christmas bulbs with a pillar candle in the middle
• Use ribbons as runners down the middle of a table; you can also add another set of ribbons that cross the table at each table setting
• Wrap a bow around boxes that graduate in size and are similar in color with the larger box on the bottom to small on the top.  Put a pretty bow on top.
• Another way is to wrap 3 boxes that are similar in size with the same color of paper.  Each box sits on top of a tall candle stick.
• Fill a vase with evergreens and glue flowers on the outside of the vase.
• Birds mean good luck, so put bird ornaments on the table as place cards.
• Craft paper as a runner, or as placemats.  You can have the kids draw on them, if you’d like.
• Tie stockings to the back of the chairs

We really enjoyed making this show.  I am sure you will enjoy listening to it and get some eco friendly decorating tips, too.

I welcome you to contact me with any questions you have puzzled over in getting to an eco living lifestyle.