Before you visit garage sales, thrift stores, flea markets, antique malls, estate sales and auctions for pieces to transform, clear out your own spaces to see what you can discover.

The key to creating treasure from trash is to look at things in a different light and be open to possibilities.

Remember, most wobbly furniture can be strengthened with glue, dings can be covered up and stains can be cut out.

You don't need a huge budget for a creative dramatic change. Your furniture may not be glamorous, but it's functional -- you may not need to buy a new table or desk.

De-cluttering your home isn't really as hard as you might think. Before you take the plunge to get started, you first need to create an action plan. Take the time to get a realistic view of your clutter. Try to create a written plan and zoom in on the most cluttered space and start there.

• Did you know that hard-plastic bottles of water actually leach toxins and require 1.5 million barrels of oil to make each year. Instead try buying larger jugs of water and fill a thermos made of lined aluminum, stainless steel or glass.

• If every American recycled one-tenth of their newspapers, we'd save 25,000.000 trees a year.

• A single quart of motor oil disposed of improperly, can contaminate up to 2,000.000 gallons of fresh water.

• For every $10 spent buying things, 10% goes to packaging that gets thrown away.

• Plant a tree. http://www.arborday.org/

Creative inspiration is an interesting thing. Sometimes it happens right away, sometimes it doesn't. If there was a magic lamp that granted you creative ideas, I'd be the first in line to use it.

Understanding the creative process, at the onset, will give you a chance to try new things & will always bring you one step closer to creative success. It's so important to allow yourself to relax and let creativity happen in its own time. You can't force it.

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. ~Native American Proverb

Protect Future Generations
Children receive four times the exposure than an adult to at least eight widely used cancer-causing pesticides in food. The food choice you make now will impact your child's health in the future.

Support a True Economy

Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it's addressed to someone else. ~ Ivern Ball

Every year, we make a vow to re-invent ourselves through silent resolutions. It's a noble gesture and some of us work very hard to turn those promises into a habit.

It's been said that you only have to do something for 21 days to make it stick.