Celebrate Green-A Green Halloween and More

With Halloween on the way, it is time to think about celebrating our holidays in a greener fashion this year. This can be overwhelming with all the choices available, and changing some of your family traditions to new ones. One the best guides to celebrating green holidays just came out last year, and is very thorough. This guide is called Celebrate Green. Celebrate Green is packed full of green holiday ideas that you can implement at your own rate as you move towards more green holiday traditions.


Celebrate Green

"Celebrate Green! is a wake up call and it's a fun, engaging read, jam-packed with hints, how-to's and humor. Whether you' re an old hand at thinking green or a total neophyte, Lynn and Corey will help you understand why your choices are so important and energize you, too. You'll discover simple steps to align your life with a healthy Earth, while deepening the meaning and the joy of your celebrations. -- Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet for a Small Planet."

Appropriate for readers in the UK: Celebrate Green! (Click here if you are in the UK)

"If this book hadn't already been written,it would have to be commissioned! Why did no one think of writing this before? What a brilliant idea and what an attractive and useful book! When do we all consume the most, throw away the most packaging and eat the most sugar? At celebrations! Well, it doesn't have to be that way, according to the mother and daughter authors. (What an interesting combination!)

When I first noticed the book was American, I was afraid it wouldn't have much of relevance for British readers but it does -heaps. I was especially interested in the sections on weddings, Mother's Day (it doesn't have to be all about bought cards and flowers that have been flown half way round the world),Christmas and that American import Halloween. ( I always worry about dishing out stacks of sweets at the door. Well, there are alternatives.)

This book is going to sit on my kitchen shelf -ready to hand. It is completely unpreachy and fun to read with useful ideas and easy tips on living-green and some great recipes but also deeply serious. The authors have done their research and provided facts and statistics to back up their argument for a radical overhaul of how we celebrate special occasions. Acccording to Lynn Colwell, it is "more about people and less about things". I think preparations for Christmas are going to be a lot more satisfying this year!"

Eco-Chic Green Gifts for Under $25: How to Recycle Project Books

Finding new and fun ways to recycle old things is a hobby of mine, and I have just discovered some great new books that would make terrific gifts for any creative recycler on your Christmas list. Or don't wait, buy them for yourself.

This book is so much fun, even the cover is interesting:


Eco Books: Inventive Projects from the Recycling Bin

Here are 40 innovative book-making ideas using recycled and green materials! More than just earth-friendly, they’re also beautiful, clever, and witty, stitched with traditional binding techniques. Egg cartons, wood, beer cans, and cassette tapes morph into covers, while brown bags, coffee filters, and discarded newspapers are transformed into pages. Create a boxed set of cereal box books, an exposed stitch sketchbook out of cardboard and remnants, and even a faux leather journal made from teabags.

In addition to how-to drawings, close-up detail photographs, and simple stitch diagrams, a gallery of eco-books from an international roster of artists provides inspiration.

Re-Bound: Creating Handmade Books from Recycled and Repurposed Materials
Re-Bound is a beautiful book on bookbinding with a fun green twist-all the projects use recycled and upcycled materials. This book shows you how to take everyday materials from around the house, flea markets, thrift stores, and hardware stores and turn them into clever and eye-catching hand-made books.

Rejuvenated Jewels: New Designs from Vintage Treasures
In this book, readers learn where to find fabulous vintage jewelry, beads, and artifacts, and how to create stunning one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces using these amazing finds. Rhinestone beads and clasps, mercury glass beads, oxidized metal chains, rosary beads, tiny book charms and more are retooled into fabulous statement pieces that can be worn every day.

Semiprecious Salvage: Creating Found Art Jewelry
Semiprecious Salvage shows readers how to think beyond the techniques taught in traditional beading and jewelry books in order to create found art jewelry. Mixed-media applications like sewing, plasterwork and altering found objects tie together to create jewelry pieces such as brooches, pendants, necklaces, earrings, bracelets and belts. In addition to thought-provoking stories on the origination of some of the found items, Stephanie provides the reader with practical jewelry-making techniques that they can incorporate into their own inspired pieces. A simple, organic approach gives the reader limitless ideas for crafting their own jewelry as well as ideas for locating found items whether it be on a nature walk, one's travels or in the comforts of home.

Each one of these books would be a terrific gift for someone creative on your list.  And there are more similar books.  If you click through the links for each book you will find more books listed underneath each main title on Amazon.

Eco-Chic Green and Beautiful Wolf T-Shirts from The Mountain

I just bought this gorgeous wolf t-shirt for my daughter, and it is even more beautiful in person than it is in the picture above. The Mountain prints each of these t-shirts to order on a 100% cotton, hand dyed shirt which are screenprinted using environmentally safe, water based inks so they are entirely eco-chic.

Their wolf t-shirts are beautiful, but they make many other t-shirts, most are nature related, but they also have a line of fantasy images which are also just gorgeous. If you like animals or fantasy t-shirts or just love beautiful artwork, take a look by following this link.