A Joyous Diversion ...

Celebration ... a joyous diversion!

Isn't that a wonderful definition? People, throughout time, have taken brief respites from their lives to celebrate ... to come together and observe something bigger than themselves. We focus on special foods and spending time with friends and family. Often there are traditional ceremonies to observe and sometimes gifts are exchanged. Typically, to further divert our attention to the joyous ... we decorate our homes.

Seasonal decorating is big business. Turn on the television and you're bound to see advertisements for holiday adornments. Walk into any store and you'll be greeted with decorations of all sorts. The trouble is, most of those things aren't very earth friendly. The unfortunate truth is that celebrations, of any kind, typically generate a lot of waste.

So, in preparation for the the upcoming holidays, here are a few ideas for decorating ... in an Eco-friendly way:

• Use cornstalks, pumpkins and bales of hay to create a fall scene.
  
  
• Make a scarecrow (use burlap, straw, old hats and clothes) and let him greet visitors to your home.
  
  
• Collect colorful fall leaves to decorate a table or fill a vase.
  
  
• Display gourds of all sizes, shapes and colors.
  
  
• Use baskets ... fill them or simply display them at odd angles.
  
  
• Make a cornucopia.
  
  
• Use bunches of deep red grapes to decorate a table or place them around bottles of wine on the bar.
  
  
• Pick beautiful apples, arrange them in your nicest bowl and use them as a centerpiece for meals with friends and family.
  
  
• Bring colorful container plants indoors or arrange them around an entry (chrysanthemums, flowering cactus, ornamental kale, flowering cabbage, dusty miller, etc.).
  
  
• Make a wreath from natural products (pine cones, Rosemary, thyme, sage and berries).
  
  
• Decorate a mantle with a natural garland made from evergreens.
  
  
• Don't forget our feathered friends ... fill the nooks and crannies of pine cones with peanut butter, press in bird seed, and hang in a tree. It'll not only make the birds happy, it'll make any tree look festive.
  
  
• Use fresh produce from the farmer's market as decoration. Pomegranates, oranges and walnuts make lovely center pieces.
  
  
• Does Holly grow in your area? Snip a little for mantles or to place around candles.
  
  
• Speaking of candles, opt for soy candles which are much better for the earth.
  
  
• For those who decorate a tree, use strings of popcorn, small pine cones and cranberries for natural beauty.
  
  
• Make a Gingerbread House.
  
  
• Does it snow in your area? Build a snowman.
  
  
• Are holiday lights a must? Use LED lights. And rather than stringing lights, of any kind, on the outside of your house, string them on the inside, around windows. Any heat created by the bulbs won't be lost.
  
  
• Let food be a decoration. Cookies, candies and holiday breads, displayed in festive dishes, add warmth to any celebration.

Being kind to the earth ... now that's truly part of a joyous diversion!

As always ... I would love to hear from you!

Change The World Wednesday

How did you do on last week's challenge to twist off light bulbs? Hopefully we raised our awareness and learned that we don't really need all that light.

Speaking of raising our awareness, this week's challenge is about exactly that. It comes from one of our newest readers, River221, a 13-year old whose Geography teacher asked the class to try this out. Here's how it goes:

This week, collect your garbage rather than toss it out. Continue to compost and recycle, but rather than take your bag of "real" garbage to the dumpster or put it out for collection ... keep it. At the end of the week, take a look at how much you've collected and consider ways to reduce it. This should truly open our eyes to the amount of waste in our lives.

Since this is something which we all can do, there won't be a second half to this challenge. But ... if you write about it, be sure to let me know and I'll Stumble and Tweet it. And by the way, if you'd like to Tweet about this challenge, please use the hashtag #ctww.

Let's take a look at our Honor Society:

Brian, from The New Author, stopped by and shared how he not only twists off bulbs but actually changes fixtures in his house to use less.

EcoGrrl from EcoGrrl Speaks reminded us to use daylight when it's available and to resist the automatic reflex to turn on a light when entering the room. Good tip, EcoGrrl!

Elizabeth Barrette wrote Choosing the Right Light. And from our Zero Food Waste challenge she wrote, Avoid Wasting Food. Both articles are well worth the read.

Kate from The Holdfast Seeker dropped in. She simply doesn't replace burnt out bulbs in her bathroom and has found she can live with only two.

Ange came by and offered us some great ideas (LEDs and candles) and offered to send Elizabeth Barrette (and I suppose anyone) instructions on how to fix a light socket. She also wrote Fill your paper.

Our friend, John, from I have dreams came by. He shared that he has twisted off bulbs and reminded us to simply turn lights off when they aren't needed.

Better Man from Becoming a Better Person stopped in. Thanks, Better Man, for the award!

Mrs. Green wrote about our challenge at Little Green Blog. She also told us that she couldn't participate in this challenge because, in her house, they only use solar powered LEDs. Way to go, Mrs. Green!

Rewinn joined in and said that the "simple act of looking over the fixtures while unscrewing a bulb suggested other ideas" which he wrote about in Dusting Lightbulbs for Fun and Profit.

Eemilla was here and wrote How Many Light Bulbs Do You Need.

River221 joined us for the first time and offered us this week's challenge. Thanks, River221 ... and by the way, if you leave a link to your blog, we'll stop by and give it a read.

From Ann we got this Save The World Wednesday post.

Le-Chat came by and wrote My Seventies Bathroom.

As always ... our Honor Society did a brilliant job.

That's it for this week!

Are you ready? All together now ...

WE'RE CHANGING THE WORLD ... ONE CHALLENGE AT A TIME!