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Home Decorating: 5 Green Ideas on a Budget

ecorating your home to be environmentally friendly shouldn’t be expensive. And it shouldn’t just be for the environmental activists either; we all have a responsibility to our communities, and to our families. There are many ways you can decorate “green” for a lot less “green”! Here are The Budget Decorator’s top 5 ways to green up your home, on a budget!

Diary of a New Homemaker
for Friday, October 16, 2009

The Year of Breaking Things

It's only October and I'm already waiting happily for 2010, not because this year's been so horrible, but because it's been so up-in-the-air. I've decided 2009 is the Year of Breaking Things.

My brain broke in February (well, it'd been broken for years, we just figured it out then). It's repairing itself fairly well. I still have ups and downs but they're not nearly as ^UP and _DOWN as they used to be.

My uterus broke in April, and I discover I didn't write about it here! I've been so distracted. I nearly bled to death in April, from a regular old period. I ended up in the hospital for two days for a near-emergency ablation and two units of blood. Who knew you could bleed to death THAT way!

Our kitchen ceiling broke in August. The upstairs toilet plugged and ran at the same time, and there was nowhere for the water to go but out. The upstairs bath flooded for about 30-45 minutes. We discovered it when water came pouring out of the walls in the pantry hallway and basement staircase--it had come through the bathroom's pocket door into, rather than down, the walls. And we saw a little bit of water coming out of a light fixture. Long story short, the next morning we woke to a crash and discovered the kitchen ceiling on the kitchen floor.

A Seasonal Taste:

From House to Home 10/10/07

• Have a dinner party, invite friends who don't know one another and serve wine in new attractive stemware and buy some new colorful dessert dishes that don't match your regular china, but complement it.
• If you never use a dining room, turn your new one into a quasi-library by placing a smaller table that can expand at one end, adding bookshelves, comfortable seating, stereo equipment, a soft patterned rug underfoot and good lighting.
• Put in an underground sprinkler system that will water your grass and flowers better, save you time and labor and ease your back strain.

Click through for more ideas

A Taste of the Home Cooking Section:

Monster in a Jar

ast, fun and frightful describe this Halloween treat, guaranteed to bring smiles to ghosts and goblins of all ages. The whole family can help make this monstrous delight, just for the fun of it or to serve to friends at a Halloween get-together. "When I told Jack (4) we were making monsters in jars, he let out a happy whoop. Little boys and monsters are a classic combination!" said Mom ( Lynda) Hannan.