Natural and Sustainable

You can make your drinking water purer with a home filtration system of any kind. Your options vary from brand to brand. The main systems are ones that treat the water as the water enters your home and water filters that treat the water straight out of the tap. Here are some of the common forms of making your water more purer:

• CARBON FILTERS: Removes cholrine, disinfection by products, pesticides, radon. Reduces heavy metals including copper, lead, and mercury. Be certain to check model as all carbon filters do not preform the saem filtration benefits. There are countertop pitchers, faucet filters and under-the-sink models. They are generally low in cost and they retain minerals in the water as well that are very beneficial to your health.

• DISTILLATION: Removes bacteria and heavy metals such as cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and mercury, arsenic, barium, fluoride, selenium and some sodium. There are countertop or whole house point-of-entry units, and some branda can be combined with carbon fiters. Without carbon filter additions, does not remove chlorine, chlorine byproducts or VOCs. The process removed all minerals, leaving behind acidic water.

• REVERSE OSMOSIS: Removes most disease-causeing bacteria, fluoride, nitrates, asbestos, metals including lead. There are under the counter versions that hit the water before it hits the tap. Without carbon filters, Reverse Osmosis filters fo not remove VOCs or chlorine. Removes all minerals resulting in acidic water.

**Want an extraordinary gift to give this year to someone on your Christmas list? Check out Making Swiss Cheese Candles over at Wax and Bubbles. Read how to make them by clicking here.**

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Next time you hear “Paper or plastic?” at the grocery store checkout, surprise them with your answer of neither. A reusable tote or wicker market basket is one step toward reducing plastic in the environment. We use 100 billion plastic bags a year. Breakdown time for thse bags is up to 1,000 years. The manufacture of paper bags produces greehouse gases the trees are not there to absorb, because they have been cut down to make the paper bags. Here are a list of stores that currently offer cloth bags for their customers.
1. Walmart. $1 for 1 bag.
2. Whole Foods. Offers a discount when you bring in your own cloth or canvas bag.
3. Fred Meyer. Offers cloth reuseable bags and offers $.05 off your bill for each bag used.
4. Kroger. Has the same policy as Fred Meyer due to the fact they are owned by the same company.

For a holiday brunch that helps nourish the planet, add these items to your grocery list:

• Wild American Shirmp: About 90% of shrimp sold in the U.S. is imported from countries with lax-or even no-existent-environemntal regulations for wild fisheries and farms. For more sustainable shrimp, choose one of the wild-caught American brands.

• Cage-Free Eggs: Look for local eggs labeled, “cage-free”, which certifies that they are not sourced from hens confined in battery cages-possibly “the most abused animals in all agribusiness”.

• Local Artisanal Cheese: Handcrafted from the purest and finest of ingredients, artisanal cheese let you support small-scale farms in the most indulgent manner. Find local cheesemakers at Local Harvest.

• Fair Trade Cocoa: Buying fair trade cocoa ensures that the farmers receive a fair price for their harvest, a crucial step toward ending poverty in developing mations. For a listing of stores and companies that offer fair trade cocoa visit Trans Fair USA.

• CSA-Sourced Produce: By subscribing to a CSA (which stands for “cummunity Supported Agriculture”), you will receive a weekly or montly basket of fruit and veggies straight from a local farm. Go to Local Harvest or Green People to find a CSA near you.

**Looking for gifts for the electronic-minded individual? Then over at Web Dev Notes, Deceth, has some great ideas for you. One suggestion is the 2MB memory card, by Kingston Technologies. Read more about the gifts by clicking here.**

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Eat only sustainably harvested fish to help protect the health of the oven. Go to Oceans Alive to learn more.

Cut off part of your downspout on your home from the main gutter system. Screw on flexible spouting and direct the rainfall into a 75-gallon or larger or smaller given your space available and set the barrel on top of tw- layers of cinder blocks. These tips will help you get started.

• Don’t haul water: Put the barrel close to where you nedd the water.

• Place the barrel in a shaded area: If possible. Water evaporates more quickly from a barrel set in full sun than it does from a barrel set in the shade.

• Try to obtain an offset diverter: Which functions as a Y splitter, for your downspout. It allows for two downspouts, on to the rain barrel and the other to the ground. Water flow can be directed from one downspout to the other simply by flippinf a lever.

• Never use a barrel with an open top: If the barrel doesn not have a lid use a screen to keep children and small animals from getting into it. Use BT dunks to prevent mosquitoes from breeding in a barrel with a screened lid.

• Set up an overflow: Even a moderate rainstorm can surpass a barrel’s storage capacity. Direct the overflow away from your home’s foundation and into a well-drained area or a pond.

For more information or to buy a rainwater harvesting kit for your home, check out Rain Barrel Guide.

FACT: 36 states are projecting water shortages in the next 10-12 years.

**Into G.I. Joe? Then read the latest for the plastic 80s hero over at Toy Bender. Paul has the latest on Snake-Eyes staring along side G.I. Joe. Read the rest here.**

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Switch your paper coffee filters to a reuseable one. It will not only cut down on paper-waste it will also cut down on time in the morning for you, just rinse and go.

Grass length is important to your lawn’s ability to ward off weeds, retain moisture, and develope strong roots. Cut grass to 2.5 to 3.5 inches tall and leave clippings to mulch back into the soil which will provide about 2 pounds of nitrogen per 1,000 square feet of lawn per year, and elimnates the waste issue. Grasses will preform better when the entire root zone is saturated and allowed to dry between each watering. On an average, a lawn needs about one inch of water per week which soaks to about 6 inches. 30% of water consumed on the East Coast goes to watering lawns, doubling to 60% on the West Coast. Water is not the only thing consumed in great quantities. There are 10 times as much chemical pesticides per acre of farmland.

Non-toxic and natural corn gluten kills weed seedlings within days of application while adding nitrogen to your soil. You may also need to change you soil pH. Dandelions love a pH of about 7.5 while grass loves a pH of about 6.5. Add limke to lower the pH. So go organic, Conventioanl lawn care is largely responsible for the staggering statistics surrounding the lawn. You already know how to care for plants organically in your garden, so use this same idea when trying to build up a healthier lawn. Start with these techniques listed and you should enjoy a healthy lawn all summer and into the winter months.

For more information on how to achieve a healthy soil, visit Safe Lawns, this is a non-profit group, dedicated to bringing about an industry-wide change to organic lawn care through initiatives such as their organic lawn certification program and efforts to legislate natural lawn care on schools and campuses.

**Looking for a last minute Christmas gift for that someone who has everything already? Does that person have a puppy? Over at Home Zookeeper, Lynn Little offers the idea of giving a dog as a Christmas gift this year. I think it is a mighty fine idea. Read how to get your hands on one of these puppy gifts, by clicking here.**

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Bring your own mug or thermos to your coffee spot. Cutting down on paper waste in this manner is one way to live a more sustainable life style.

Packaging your presents in borwn paper sacks is the most paper-saving alternative to gift wrap. But, there are penty of pettier, eco-options out there this season. Three awesome ideas are:

• Three-Friendly Papers: Try Fish Lips Paper Designs’ recycled-paper gifts wrap and Paporganics’ hemp wrap. Or keep it totally tree-free with Moonrock Paper Company’s uncommonly elegant creations, handmade from cotton scraps discarded by T-shirt and hosiery manufacturers.

• Gift Bags: Endlessly reusable, bags are your best colution for green gifting. Lucky Crow’s super stylish gift bags are machine washable and adorned with sock monkeys and other adorable designs.

• Do-It-Yourself Wrap: Rummage through your closets and cabinets to uncover old paper products such as calendars, newspapers, maps, wallpaper scraps, old magazines and fabirc such as scarves, and bandanas that are destined to be discarded. Tie up your packaging with biodegradeable-cotton ribbon and skip those needlessly wasteful gift tags.

**Over at Wii Rally, Lynn Little reports that Nintendo had record sales during Thanksgiving shopping weekend with more than 653,000 Nintendo DS systems and 350,000 Nintendo Wii consoles were sold in the United States alone. Read the whole story here.**

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Decorate responsibly by purchasing eco-sensitive accessories. Check out Viva Terra for some ideas.

Your kids model their conservation habits after yours, so when you make an effort, the whole family does. Eco-friendliness is about change. Start with these tiny changes that have a huge impact on the earth.

ACTION:

1. Water Savers:

A. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth. Proper brushing requires at least two minutes and that’s eight gallons of water down the drain. Yearly savings of for a family of four is 23,360 gallons and $234.

B. Cut down on your shower time by one minute. Seven gallons of water flow through the average showerhead every minute. Yearly savings for a family of four is 10,080 gallons and $101. Install a low-flow showerhead, and when it comes to the toilet, if it’s yellow let it mellow and if it’s brown………….

2. Energy Savings:

A. Wash half your laundry in cold water. A whopping 90 precent of the total energy used each cycle goes to heat the water. Yearly savings of a family of four is 72 pounds of carbon and $33.

B. Don’t preheat the oven (unless baking bread or pastries). If you turn the oven on when you put the food in, you save half a pound of carbon each times. A yearly savings of a family of four is 78 pounds of carbon and $22. Look for Energy Star labels when purchasing appliances, and unplug them when not in use.

3. Waste Reducers:

A. Dry your hand with dish towels, not paper towels. Even if you buy a roll of recycled paper towels, you still have to toss them in the trash after use. Yearly savings of a family of our is 59 pounds of paper and $44.

B. Use a water filter instead of water bottles. American’s drink 56 billion 16-ounc bottles a year, and ferwer than 15 precent are recycled. A yearly savings of a family of four is 730 plastic gallon jugs, and $620. Buy in bulk to cut fown on packagins, and opt for reusable containers over plastic bags in your child’s lunchbox.

**Need some gift giving ideas for Christmas or whenever really? Check out Summer Minors ides on Creative Mom Cafe. She suggest giving a coupon book and making the coupons for chores or a plate of cookies, etc. Read how here.**

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Don’t use pesticides on your lawn.

When the time comes to pick a rental-car company at the airport with traveling, you may make your choice one whichever company will save you the most moneu, but keep this in mind when making that choice next time you travel: More than 1.6 million rental cars emit carbon on the road each year. With that knowledge alone and gas prices steadily climbing, why not use this guide to make a more eco-friendly, fuel-efficient decision.

1. Enterprise: 3,999 Toyato Priuses and 41,000 vehiucles that run on E85, a fuel makde of 85 precent ethanol and 15 precent gasoline. $60 million pledged to plant 50 million trees over 50 years.

2. Hertz: 3,400 priuses and 35,000 other hybrids. $1 from each of those rentals goes to the National Park Founation to support environmental preservation and education.

3. Avis & Budget: 1,000 Priuses each in California, Portland, OR; Seatle and Washington, D.C.

If you will be taking a trip with children, give Echo Lake Science Center a try. They offer a hands-on learning environment and teach children everything from eco-friendly ways to help keep the earth safe for many more generations to come.

And Always keep in mind when traveling to leave a lighter footprint every time you travel. Check out Eco.Orbitz. This site offers everything from green hotels to a complete low-impact itinerary for a holiday in the jungles of Belize.

**Arkansas beat LSU 50-48 in triple overtime. Over at University of Arkansas blog here at 451 Press there is a link to the RSS feed to read the whole story. Get the whole scoop by clicking here.**

*Natural and Sustianable Living Tip: Find new uses for old things.

Anyone can start living a more Eco-Friendly lifestyle. All it takes is one step in the right direction to get started. Here’s how:

1. Safer Paint: Many companies now offer no-or-low-VOC paints, like Benjamin Moore’s EcoSpec, Yolo, and Anna Sova in a huge array of colors.

2. Stain Trick: Pour boiling water on a stain spot as soon as possible and it will come out like magic. You don’t need to use soap or chemicals.

3. Greener Cleaners: Organic skin care is an easy way to decrease toxic exposure to the elements. Try any of the organic varities that are at your local health food store. There are so many to choose from and most of great for you and your baby as well.

4. Resources On Eco-Living Information: Check The Green Guide or the NRDC. For instance if your dentist is wanting to put sealants on yoru child’s teeth, you can email to ask about the safety of the sealant.

5. Fresh Air: Keep air purifiers in the bedrooms of your home. Models with medical-grade HEPA filters, to reduce allergens, and carbon filters help to reduce fumes and off-gassing.

6. Less Plastic In The Home: Switch to glass bottles for your child. Drinking out of glass is better for you and even better for your baby. Plastic contains so many harmful chemical additives and when heated they release those chemicals.

7. Food Smarts: The Environmental Working Group’s list of produce likely to contain pesticides is a helpful in figuring out what’s particualrly important to buying organic.

**Brad Pitt and Angelina took their kids and headed to Brad’s parent’s house in Missouri for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Over at Brad Pitt Watch, Randi has the whole story, read it here.**

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Plant a garden. If you don’t have the time for a fun garden, plant a herb garden and keep it in your kitchen window. Use the herbs that grow in your herb garden in your cooking. It is a great way to add fresh herbs to any meal and also is a great stress releiver when you get to enjoy what you have grown.

• Use a dime-sized portion of shampoo and conditioner when washing your hair. Then when you get halfway through the bottle, add a little water to make it last even longer.

• Love cut flowers? Weel, most are treated with pesticides and flown thousands of miles, and usually die in about three days. Instead opt for indoor plants such as hydrangeas, which come potted.

• Try to buy local over organic when in the supermarket. Of course organic is important to your health as well as your families, but buying local you support local growers. It not only forces you to eat seasonlly, when produce is freshest, it also eliminates the energy coasts of shipping food from around the world. Also, small farmers are more apt to care about their environmental impact than industrial agriculture, since they live on the land they work.

• Bring a tote to the supermarket when you do your shopping, and try to remember plastic produce bags as well, so you are not collecting more and mroe each time.

• Test your own drinkinbg water yourself with a water purifying kit from a local hardware store. Or get an easy-to-install water filter. So instead of buying plastic bottles, use a carafe of water in the fridge.

• When you order take-out ask for the condiments of only what you plan to use. Who really needs 12 packets of soy sauce, eight packages of ketchup or four pairs of plastic knives? It’s sad to see them all end up in the trash eventually.

• Opt to pay a few cents extra to support wind-powered electricity, which comes from a renewable energy source. Your power company won’t hook you apt. or your house up to a different generator, but it does make sure that a comparable amount of wind energy is used in another place and it will overall make a tiny difference for a better world.

**Looking for tips on what stocks are up and what stocks are down? Check out Rick’s suggestion over at My Stock Winners. He states that The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payors Index (HMO – 1,798.6) is facing long-term resistance at the 1,800 level. Read more here.**

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Swap, don’t buy (Try eBay, Craigslist, and Freecycle.)

1. Reflect on what’s important: Have a family discussion about what everyone is thankful for this year.

2. Experience Diversity: Incorporate other cultural and religious customs into your holiday celebrations.

3. Valunteer Where Ever You Can: Assist at a soup kitchen, children’s hospital or animal shelter.

4. Pick A Family Cause: Collect loose change and allowance money and donate it together.

5. Give Gifts That Count For Something: Instead of material items, give charitable donations in the names of friends, family, teachers and coaches.

6. Give meaningful gifts: Buy fair trade and ethically-sourced products from retailers such as World of Good Trade as One and Ten Thousand Villages.

7. Share In The Name Of The Holidays: Contribute new or gently used clothes and tous to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, toy drives or families in need.

8. Spread The Joy: Ask you child’s teacher to have students create handmade greeting cards. Then deliver them to a local senior citizen’s home.

9. Spread The Love: Compose a poem, song or testimonial telling someone that they are special. Create an eco keepsake: Write it on recycled paper and put it in a reclaimed wood frame.

10. Spend Time With Family: Cook together, talk with the TV off or just get on the floor and play games.

11. Care For The Earth: Conserve wrapping paper, reuse ribbons and bows, send greetings on recycled paper, or send e-cards online.

12. Celebrate Your Family: Appreciate the gifts that they are just for being themselves.

**Do you have bad habits? Over at Write Anyway, JM jokes about her bad habits, and how bad habits aren’t all that BAD. Read the whole story here.**

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Compact your nonrecyclable trash and use fewer bags when throwing things away.

These following companies consider the environmental as well as social causes when producing their clothing line.

• American Apparel: Makes its clothes in the U.S. and offers organic items.

• Droopy Knickers: Makes sustainable clothing with organic cotton, water-based inks and discharge printings.

• Fable: Supports fair trade, promotes sustainabale employment in developing countries and works in children’s charities to boost literacy.

• Fig: Clothes are made from certified organic cotton in factories that treat employees well.

• Happy Green Bee: Makes its comfortable, colorful clothing from from organic cotton.

• H&M: Has recently added an extensive line of organic clothing for the entire family to their collection.

• Indigenous Designs: Is a pioneer in the organic and fair trade apparel market. Its children’s offerings now include sweaters and cotton wovens.

• Kate Quinn Organics: Is committed to fair trade and the earth. They use only certified-organic cotton.

• Levi’s: Ten-piece organic eco line includes a variety of bottoms, the classic denium jacket and T-shirts. The zippers are formed from recycled metal and the jeans are colored with natural dyes.

• Morfs: Uses recycled goods and vintage fabrics to create fashionable new clohtes for kids.

• Nina and Tom: Donates both clothing and a percentage of profits to charities. Garments are made with organic cotton and silk-screened with water-based inks.

• Patagonia: Makes apparel with low impact dyes, organic cotton and recycled fibers. Additionally, its buildings are made from recycled materials and powered by the wind and sun.

• Planet Earth: Edgy Green label line uses natural and organic fibers to create apparel that’s a cross between urban cool and California lifestyle.

• Pura Vida NYC: Ises organic cotton for its clothing. The line’s designs make references to the environment, art and politics from around the globe.

• Quiksilver: Now offers organic items, with a portion of sales going twards conservation and activism efforts. Through the Quiksilver Foundation, the company raises money for the environmental causes currently plaguing our Earth. Such as cleaner beaches and helps creat events for a greener planet.

• Sternlein: Uses organically grown textiles in its wide variety of tights and socks.

• The Shoe Garden: The store donates mopney to local eco-initiatives and buys its power from an environment-friendly utility.

• Under the Canopy: Cutting-edge styles are made from organic cotton, soy, bamboo, linen, wool and silk.

• Uniqlo: New to the U.S. from Japan, conducts a successful “Thank You Recycling” program. Gently used clothing items that are brought back to the stores are sent as a relief clothing to developing countries or recycled into either fiber for new matierals or fuel.

• Zutano: Is a community initiative include enrichment programs for kids, clothing drives and services for working mothers.

**Need to learn more about carburetors and how they work? Over at Motor Musing, Dorrington Williams does just that. Check out everything you ever needed to know about carburetors by clicking here.**

*Natural and Sustianable Living Tip: Give your car a tune-up so it drives more efficiently. With gas prices the way they are currently and the cost to get that gas to us to put in our cars, everything little bit will help out.

Putting plants to work for environmental sustainability and economic development within The Oregon Garden falls under the name of SPROut: (SUSTAINABLE PLANT RESEARCH AND OUTREACH).

SPROut’s Misson is to develop and promote the use of plants and plant material to solve environmental challenges. They build project partnerships and provides outreach and education to integrate research efforts with public and industry development.

What does SPROut offer:

• Outreach:
1. Website and publications
2. Educational literature for Oregon Graden visitors
3. Professional develpment courses
4. Curriculum for Chemeketa Community College’s 2-year Horticulture degree
5. Workshops/Conferences/ Research summits

• Research Support:
1. Research suppoert for Oregon State University’s Horticulture students and faculty
2. Start-up grants to launch research and implementation projects
3. Collaborative grant proposal develpment
4. Background researchg and literature reviews
5. Project management
6. Use of The Oregon Garden site for field-based research

• Research Priorities:
1. Wetlands/Wastewater Remnediation
2. Phytoremediation
3. Urban Water Management and Ecoscaping
4. Native Plant Restoration and Invasive Species Control
5. And Riparian Area Restoration

Current SPROut Research Projects:

• Landowner Tools for Quanitfying Multiple Environmental Services of Riparian Vegetation Buffers for Use in Water Quality Credit Trading in Oregon Watersheds.

• Sustainable Parking Lot

• Botanical Burrito & Floating Nursery Production for Water Treament

• The use of high rate irrigation of Poplar Trees as a nutrient reduction system

• New uses for the World’s Oldest Crop; using Barley straw to control algae in Aquatic Environments.

• Developing Green Roof Plants for Oregon’s Nursery Industry.

For more information contact: Renee Stoops, SPROut Coordinator at rstoops@chemeketa.edu or 503-584-7252 or by visiting The Oregon Garden or SPROut

(SPROut is currently funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the USDA)

**Catch the weekend events over at Albuquerque, New Mexico blog written by Mary McIntyre. If you will be taveling soon, check out the rest of her blog to see if a stop off in Albuquerque will fit in your travel plans by clicking here.**

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Use rechargeable batteries whenever possible. There is many uses in one rechargeable battery then a single use battery. It helps control battery waste in the landfill as well as the carbon impact on the Earth.

Ever wonder how your life changes can make a difference? Here’s some tips to give you the push in the right “earth-saving” state of mind:

• Once released into the environment, the spread of pesticides cannot be controlled. Radioactivity traced pesticides sprayed over the United Kingdom were detected five to seven days later in the southern part of the United States. So always use earth-friendly pesticides on your lawn and garden plants. And if at all possible, don’t use any at all.

• Wrap a package of energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs in recycled paper. Each new fluorescent light bulb reduces greenhouse gas emissions by about 1,300 pounds over its lifetime.

• The government won’t solve our problems of global warming it is up to us as individuals. If you feel guilt about driving so much in your gas-powered car, then everytime you fill up, put 20 cents into a box and at the end of the year donate that “cents” fund, which will be dollars by the end of the year if you start come January 2008, to a local charity.

• When you travel to a beach or resort located on the many hundereds of coast lines make sure that resort or lodge developed the coast in a sustainable way. If they don’t then stay elsewhere. Every person who takes a trip to the coast lines ends up putting great pressure on that coastal area.

• Calculate your carbon footprint. Reduce the footprint. Offset that footprint. And produce your one power whenever and however you can.

• If 100,000 households each installed an eight-foot diameter wind turbine, the cumlative annual CO2 reduction would be 900,00 tons.

• When you make a purchase, remove the package waste there at the counter after checking out. It may seem silly, but if enough people did this, then the stores would have to tell the manufacturers to cut back on package waste.

• When your fishing buddy calls, and you repond, don’t use mailorder wigglers. Anglers as well as home composters are responsible for for proliferation of nonnative species in just wigglers alone. If you travel to a national park or another country, be sure not to bring back anything with you as well. It is not only illegal, it is also harming the environment more than you think. (There is 60 billion metric tons of CO2 released annually by the world’s soil.)

• If one million U.S. airline passengers skipped one coast-to-coast flight, it could eliminate the emisson of one million tons of COs.

• Next time you stay at a hotel or resort, look around, if you can’t tell what country you are in or what continenet you are on, then you are at a place where there is zero unsustainable tourism. Talk to the hotel clerk and managers and let them know how you feel about sustainable traveling. If you are one in a thousand that does this, then the hotel must meet demand.

• If every U.S. home received and paid their bills online, annual greehouse gas emissions would drop by 2.1 million tons.

**Jennifer Hoffman over at the Milwaukee, WI blog has posted some great shots of the Veteran’s Day Parade that was held there in her city. To view these photos and to read more about what Jennifer writes about for Veteran’s Day, click here.**

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: Go toxin-free in your own home. Start with the cleaners you use on your shower and toilet. What are they? If they hurt your nose when using them, then why flush those down the drain and toilet and then eventually into our waterways?

Nothings more sustainable than using what the earth already provides. Leaves and foliage make a great Thanksgiving center piece as well as wall art. Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Enhance an ordinary wooden tray with a scattering of fallen leaves. Cut a piece of colored art paper to fit the inside of a tray. Using pressed, preserved leaves, plan your design, dot each leaf with craft glue and press onto the paper. Place the paper on the bottom of the tray. To protect the design and the leaves from getting broken, place a piece of glass over the top. You can get a piece of glass cut to fit the tray size at any frame shop.

• Graphic leaf patters put a modern spin on the age-old art of framing pressed botanicals. Select frames of your choice. Take the glass out of the frame and trace outline on a piece of card stock. Arrange leaves as you like on the paper, dot each leaf with craft glue and press gently onto the paper. When throughly dry, put the frame back together and replace the glass. For a wreath pattern, draw and cut a circle from a piece of 1/8-inch thick cardboard, using a large bowl or other round shape as a tehmplate. Set a smaller bowl inside the circle and trace. Cut the inside shape out to a make a ring. Brush a thin layer of craft glue on the leaves and overlap them onto each other. Experiment with background papers in nature’s rich palette of earth tones.

• Give packages a woodsy flair by tying them up with twine or raffia topped with leaves. Try a mix of papers in seasonal hues. For gift boxes, wrap each box with paper and tie with twine, leaving enough for a bow. Make a fan of a few pressed, preserved leaves, and punch a hole where the stem meets the leaf. Thread the twine though, knot and trim the ends. For paper bags, punch holes at the bases of a few leaves, thread the twine through and tie. For bottles, cut a length of parchment paper slightly longer than the circumference of the bottle and as wide as the label you’ll be covering. Wrap the apper around the biottle, tie with twine and tuck the leaves underneath.

• Make pillar candles embellished with leaves the highlight of your tabel. Or arrange them on the mantel. Plan the leaf pattern on a flat surface. Brush a thin layer of craft glue onto each leaf and press onto pillar candles of various heights. Arrange the candles on a tray and surround with loose leaves.

• Nothing could be easier, or prettier, than setting a table dressed up for the season. Place leaves in a pattern for each plate, arrange a ring of leaves around the rim or dot the leaves across the plate as desired. Carfully place a glass plate of the same size as the bottom plate on top snadwishing the leaves between the two plates. Try colored glass plates, instead of clear, for an entirely different look.

•Instead of decorating with traditional greens, drape a favorite mirror, mantel or banister with a garland of leaves. Cut a piece of brown twine to desired length (6 feet gives you a good length to work with) and lay straight on a flat surface. Working form one end and using a hot-glue gun, sandwich the twine in between two leaves and secure with a dot of glue. Continue adding “leaf sandwiches” on the twine until the entire length of twine is covered. Vary color and variety of leaves. Secure the garland to a mirror or banister with glue dots. Glue dots are best so they won’t leave a mark when the garland of leaves are removed.

**Need tips on how to entertain a crowd of people? Over at Household Tips, Stephanie gives tips on how to achieve the perfect setting this holiday without going insane. Read her tips here.**

*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: If your shelves are overstuffed with books you have already read, check out Book Mooch, it’s a free service that helps you trade books with othes around the globe. You rack up points for each book you give away. Make a wish list and redeem your points when a book you want becomes available. And here’s the cool thing; Book Mooch has a list of charities it works with, so you can donate your points and share the literay wealth with someone in need.

Get your crafty on with the natural Christmas gifts. They are quick and painless to make and they are a lot better to give than gifts that are mass-producted.

• Festive Fire: Show your appreciation for the little deeds neighbors and others have done with a bundle of kindling. For a pretty presentation wrap a ribbon and greenery or a fragrant sprig of willow-leaf peppermint. Slide ribbon through a matchbox wrapped in festive paper for an all-in-one gift.

• Picture-Perfect Mailer: Treat relatives to an easy-to-mail album that recaps the year in photos. Layer and staple small sheets of paper along one edge of card stock. Fold over stapled edge twice; flip paper to inside, creating aflap. Crease card stock; insert opposite edge under flap. Use photo corners to attach photos to paper.

•Sparkling Towels: Embellished tea towels are a gem of a stocking stuffer. Just bejewel and be done. Iron a rhinstone transfer for decorating jens onto a smooth-texture towel. Following manufacturer’s instructions, such as a twig design resembleing a Christmas tree, but the towel is still versatile enough to use year-round.

• Snowy Village Ornaments: Replicate a friend’s house or build an entire village with paper abodes. Use patterns you hae made out of cardboard and transfer onto card stock. Create a wintry scene by sprinkling glitter on crafts glue spread on the roof and base of the houses. Or attach icicles formed from hardened hot glue. Decorate with a miniature tree and a wreath made from chenille stem (pip-cleaner). Hot-glue a clothespin or candle clip to the base to attach the ornament to a tree. Pick up patterns here.

• Snow Globe Centerpieces: Snow globes are a Christmas classic. With an oversize spheres put on an impressive display. You can use 7-8 inch flower aquariums with magnifying qualities that give the contents added pop. Look for the aquariums, which include a globe, rubber base, and plastic stand, at floral shops or online. Use epoxy to attach ceramic or plastic ornaments and figurines to the rubber base, which also serve as the lid. Fill the globe with distilled water to just below the opening; add about 1 tbs. of liquid glycerin (found in the soap-making sections of hobby stores) to thicken the water. Sprinkle with glitter. Working over a sink, slowly invert the decorated portion of the rubber base into the water. Stretch the seal of the rubber base over the lid of the globe. Attach the plastic stand, turn the globe upright, and watch the snow fall. FOr extra sparkle, stand the snow globe in a silver wine bottle coaster.

•Merry Paperweights: Glass paperweights decked out for the holidays make a practical and gender-neutral gift. Idal for co-workers and teachers to organize paper. The super-simple project starts with a glass paperweight kit, availiable at crafts and hobby stores or online. Decorate the paperweight with scrapbooking paper gift wrap, or an old Christmas card. Thin foam letters glued on one paper sends glad tidings.

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*Natural and Sustainable Living Tip: This winter if you plan on using a wood-burning fireplace, consider an eco-friendly one or eco-friendly buring options. Ones that are earth-friendly options include fireplaces that use clean-burning ethanol; no chimney required, such as the ones from EcoGreen Fire and crackling logs that burn for three hours; made from coffee waste and vegetable oil, and packaged in recycled materials from Java-Log Fireplace Logs. You can also opt for ones like Duraflame that use petroleum-free logs that burn for three hours and use 80% fewer resources than regular firewood.. Either one you choose is great for the earth-conscious consumer that wants toasty hands and feet this season.