I’ve tried so hard to come up with a creative post about greening Halloween, but it seems like those are everywhere right now and I’m seeing what I thought were my brilliant ideas in print after they apparently occurred to other brilliant mamas. I don’t want to be repetitive, so I refer you instead to the Green Moms Carnival featuring dozens of posts and to Green Halloween and I’ll get back to the winter holidays.

I was very inspired by the October Tiny Challenge to do small deeds that help others make green choices. I’m going to take it further by doing that for as many holiday gifts as possible. I already had envirosax on my list for my stepmother, and since I came up with this concept, more and more ideas are coming to me.

There is a preponderance of “Green Your Lifestyle” kits out there that run $35-60 each (here’s one example). How about buying the same materials yourself and making several kits for friends and family members? CFC lightbulbs can be bought in big packs at hardware stores. Pick up some of your favorite items or make bulk batches of homemade dishwasher powder to include. I’m guessing with a little ingenuity, you could do this for less than $15 each.

A sweet simple gift for a teacher or a stocking stuffer is a handkerchief holder with a new or vintage handkerchief that might discourage use of paper facial tissues. Likewise, if you have basic sewing skills, you can repurpose t-shirts or other linens into cloth napkins very easily.

So, like the Tiny Challenge, I challenge you to replace one conventional gift with another that will please the recipient but also help them trying something new and green! Let us know what you decide to do or leave a link in the comments to your ideas.

Did you know that Firefox tends to crash when you have more than 30 tabs open? I know this (very well!) because I have so many sage reads items open these days and so little time to write! I am planning some reorganization, like a more tightly edited reads as a once- or twice-a-week feature, and a new design and layout, when I have a little time. Soon!

Last week, I got some inspiration from this bunting picture at The Crafty Crow.

I’ve seen lots of handmade buntings around, and I felt like our older son’s playroom was really needing some decorating attention. This weekend, we sat around with a big pile of magazines and boxes and other papers intended for the recycling bin and picked what we wanted to cut out. Right now, we have a large pile of colorful images ready to hang. I’ll take a picture when we’re all done, the hardest part will be the hanging because the walls have a weird texture to them.

Also Crafty Crow inspired is the very cool Playful Learning’s custom ABC book. Martha’s craft of the day today is the similar and beautiful leaf alphabet.

I would love to have the big brother help me collect some leaves in the coming weeks and then we can create letter cards for him and his brothers. Special gift idea, too, with a cute frame! (Treehugger shares the Martha love today, too.)

Parenthacks suggests ideas for repurposing Melissa & Doug packaging. Now why didn’t I think of that before?

Ike has us all thinking about family preparedness. I know I could do better in this area. I need to look into tornado safety, which is the real threat in this area, and get better prepared for the winter with infants in tow. We might have a frost tonight, so no time like the present!

A request: I’m slowly figuring out that I need to be digital scrapbooking or my little boys will never have baby books of any sort. Can anyone point me towards some good sites???

Love, love, loving the recipes, sewing patterns and more at finnyknits.

A drug that halts preterm labor may be linked to increased suceptbility to environmental toxins? As if moms of multiples didn’t have enough to worry about!

I still digging the Martha Stewart Living craft-of-the-day emails, mostly because they remind me of favorite projects I have seen in the magazine throughout the years. I would prefer to bookmark my favorite projects now (and know I can search all of them at the redesigned site) than to continue to hold onto little magazine scraps indefinitely.

How timely! An Etsy/treehugger colaboration post. I *love* Etsy, but I find myself using what I see more for crafting inspiration than for actual purchases, like that onesie with the vintage washcloth sewn on to it. I could definitely make that. (When I get my new sewing machine, that is…)

Did you know that Martha Stewart sends out all sorts of free daily emails? I get most of them because I’m kind of a Marthawhore. Detractors aside, the woman/empire puts out a lot of excellent ideas, many of which are very much in the sage spirit. For example, yesterday’s organizing project, the Shirt Pocket Quilt. Considering my husband always tears his shirts in the elbows, this is a keeper for us.

Ask Moxie ponders the “no gifts, please” party invite, while the fact that Target is trotting out Christmas already has me thinking… Can I impose an all-Etsy policy for the holidays for my boys (and maybe for Mama, too)? Not too many makers in my family to do a homemade holiday, but if there are homemade goods they could buy and we could support individual artists, WAHMs and the like, maybe they’d go for it.