Halloween Fun within a Budget: Go Green and Save

Here's a great article on how to prepare for Halloween simply and without having to buy, well let's face it, yet more Halloween stuff that you later regret buying. Go green this Halloween with these great tips, and stay within budget while still having celebrating Halloween! See more decorating ideas in this related article, "Frightful Flowers Make Halloween ‘Boo-tiful’."

Any suggestions or additional ideas for going green this Halloween?

Halloween ‘Howl To’s’

(ARA) - As Halloween approaches, the seasonal "to-do" list, typically marked with finding the perfect costume and trick-or-treat route, is a bit more complicated with the growing need to protect the environment and manage household budgets. In preparing for your neighborhood ghosts and goblins, try these easy tips and tricks to "go green," and spend less on your families' spook-tacular celebration.

Howl to be Green
Incorporating small changes into your holiday preparation will go a long way to create an eco-friendly Halloween. Whether you're hosting a party or adding colorful flare to the home or office, take inventory of your decorations and go back to nature by using locally-grown pumpkins, apples or fresh gourds to create tabletop and front porch accents. Organic, pesticide-free produce is widely available at farmers markets, grocery and specialty stores and leaves little waste once the celebration ends.

Also look for ways to "re-use" your Halloween accessories. Cloth or canvas shopping bags and pillowcases are great alternatives to paper, plastic bags and more traditional plastic jack-o-lanterns used by many trick-or-treaters to collect candy. Gather fall-colored scraps of fabric, ribbon, buttons or food coloring and spend the afternoon with the kids decorating a recyclable trick-or-treat bag. Use the custom creation to hand out candy at your door and your house will be the hit of the neighborhood.

Howl to Save
Spend less this Halloween by using old or outgrown clothes, sports equipment or dress-up items to make one-of-a-kind costumes. Unpack your graduation gown and buy a gavel at a thrift or prop store to transform your trick-or-treater into a judge. Dust off a wedding gown or bridesmaid's dress, polish an old pair of pumps and grab a wig from a costume store and you've got a princess. Host a costume trading party and make sure everyone comes with old clothing or accessories to trade. Let the kids use their imaginations and see how many new and different costumes come to life.

You can also save by using recyclable household materials to decorate. Bed sheets hung from the ceiling or tree branches make convincing ghosts, as do balloons covered with a white sheet, tied with a ribbon around the neck and black felt tapped on for eyes. The sheets can be taken down, laundered and returned to the linen closet once Halloween is over.

Howl to Have Fun at Home
Consider baking at home this year to get everyone in the Halloween mood. Find unique recipes for Halloween treats that can be used as decorations or centerpieces before you indulge.

Gather everyone around and make creepy "edible eyeballs" with mini white powdered donuts, Life Savers Gummies, red icing and chocolate chips. Cover the hole in the center of the donut with a thin layer of icing and top with a gummy. Next, dip the bottom of a chocolate chip in icing before layering it on the gummy. Make the eyeball scary by drawing lines from the center of the donut to the outer edge with red icing. Finish the treat by poking each donut with a lollipop stick and arranging them in a bowl of candy corn to make a freaky yet tasty centerpiece.

Howl to Be Safe
Set the seasonal mood by decorating trees and sidewalks with lights and lanterns while making it easier for trick-or-treaters to find their way from door to door. Neat, well-lit landscapes make everyone feel more comfortable and confident.
Another simple way to help ghosts and goblins find their way door to door is to use makeup to finish a costume as an alternative to masks. Face paint makes it much easier for trick-or-treaters to see … especially at night.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

Redecorating and Keeping it Green

(ARA) - The redecorating bug has bitten you hard, and you want to join the “green” society by making your home stylish but healthy and environmentally friendly.

You can start from the floor up, and environmentally-friendly decorative flooring is just what you need. Something that allows you to choose from many colors, have simple installation and follow up with easy maintenance. Materials like sustainably harvested hardwoods and ceramic tile aren’t your only eco-friendly choices. A better option might be Marmoleum Click, an all-natural flooring made from linseed oil, wood flour, rosins and limestone.

With a visit to www.themarmoleumstore.com, you can match colors, look at decorative designs already created or plan out your own. “Previously, linoleum was available only in large sheets and generally required professional installation,” says Scott Day of Forbo Flooring, manufacturers of Marmoleum and Marmoleum Click products. “But Marmoleum Click makes installing a simple linoleum floor -- or even a complex design -- very easy.” The product is available in 12-inch by 36-inch panels or 12-inch by 12-inch squares. The panels click together, much like most other floating floors, to create a durable, attractive surface.

Here are some considerations to keep in mind when creating fashionable designs for the floor in a room:

* Room size and shape.
A dark color or busy pattern may not suit a small or long, narrow room, because it may make the room look smaller. Stripes or diagonal patterns, however, can create optical effects that completely transform a room.

* Function.
A living room or bedroom often lends itself to darker, warmer colors, whereas a clean, crisp environment may be more appropriate for a kitchen.

*Furniture.
The more furniture there is in a room, the smaller the floor area that is visible, so a simpler pattern is often the best choice. Amazing effects can be achieved by a well chosen pattern.

After the floor is finished, you can move onto furniture. Some green ideas are to reuse your current pieces that are solid in construction. A new color of paint, slipcovers, reupholstering or adding decorative furnishings can give the room an entirely new look without thowing anything away. If your furniture can’t be saved, look into garage sales for used pieces that have simple, traditional lines which won’t look dated in a short period of time. Also, look for furniture built from natural products and using stains or paints with limited environmental hazard.

When it’s time to tackle the walls, look for paints that contain little or no volatile organic compounds. Latex- and water-based paints with a flat finish typically fit into this category. These paints provide little to no chemical leakage from the walls to the air as the paint is applied and dries, keeping the air inside your home cleaner.

If you have a redecorating project planned, it’s not hard to keep the project green and environmentally friendly.

Courtesy of ARAcontent