Need some last minute inspiration to throw together your own Halloween costume? Here are few ideas from Etsy:

Peasant Shirt…a quick trip to a thrift shop will provide the perfect starting point for a poet, peasant, farmer, or pirate costume.

Inspiration from BardsBoutique

Apron…pair it with a conservative skirt and stockings to get your 1950s housewife on.

Inspiration by ShesInStitches

Gone apple picking lately? Need some quick hostess gifts this fall? We love giving out jars of jam or chutney and will definitely be adding this to our stash! Melissa over at The Inspired Room posted this great idea recently. Enjoy…

APPLE PIE IN A JAR!

YUM!!!

The crisp autumn air this weekend provided the perfect motivation for cooking some fall faves. Even amidst a busy schedule, don’t forget to slow down and warm up with good, homemade and local food…and then share it with family and friends.

Gingery Butternut Squash Soup from my fave cookbook, Simply in Season. It’s great fresh, and also to freeze for use later this week on a busy night.

Plus, fall would not be complete without Apple Pie from a recent apple picking trip! This recipe I just made up, and I think it turned out pretty well and will be perfect to share at small group this week.

Ingredients:

• Pillsbury pie crusts (2)
• Apples, a variety from the orchard, peeled and sliced
• Honey (about 1 - 2 Tbsp)
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar
• 2 tsp butter

In a pot, combine apples with all other ingredients (except the crust, obviously). Simmer on low until apples are softened (but not mushy). Unroll pie crust bottom and fill with apples. Cover with second crust and cut several slits to let out steam.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes.

My No Impact Week experiment from last week has come to an end, and I needed to use up a few of my locally purchased goods. The local bread was delicious, but the shelf life short. After some weekend French Toast, I chopped up the rest for some homemade croutons.

This is a great trick for ANY bread that is about to be past it’s prime - sandwich bread, french bread, hamburger and hot dog buns. Just toss cubes with olive oil, salt & pepper, and whatever herbs are on hand for salad croutons that far surpass anything store-bought.

I like to decorate for holidays in a subtle way. Halloween is easy with all the colorful goods in nature. From pumpkins large and small, to gourds and colorful mums, and fire-hued leaves and found pine cones. The great thing is that those pumpkins and gourds and pine cones will last me until it’s time for Christmas decorating!

To finish off my Halloween decor, I couldn’t resist a few cobwebs and also some bat silhouettes, inspired by Young House Love.

Friday was the last major challenge this week - assessing water usage throughout the day. Hubby and I have taken steps to lessen our usage (partially because of a water bill hike in our town), and while there is always room for improvement, we’ve enjoyed installing a water barrel to water our outdoor plants and vegetable garden (a huge improvement over last summer’s daily sprinkling of the garden). A gravel filled bottle is in our toilet’s tank to reduce water usage, and we’ve always shut off the water while brushing our teeth.

Our general usage: taking showers, washing hands, brushing teeth, flushing, washing dishes (by hand or in the dishwasher) and laundry. We strive to have full loads (of dishes and laundry)

One area that could use improvement: washing dishes. While we always load the dishwasher full, we still hand-wash pots and pans, sharp knives, crystal, and hand-painted serving pieces. Sometimes we fill the sink, and sometimes we run the water. Sometimes we over-stuff our cheap-o inherited dishwasher and have to re-wash glasses that come out dirty. One suggestion that has been made that we fill a plastic tub in the sink with water to wash, and then pour the dish water out in our flower beds (we use 7th Generation dish soap, so this wouldn’t be toxic for the plants). So, perhaps that will be my next step.

Another area of improvement: Replacing our gross plastic showerhead with a low-flow option. With 7-10 gallons of water per minute used while taking a shower, it only makes sense to choose a water savings option!

Well, if an energy inventory doesn’t put a few things in perspective, I don’t know what will. It’s amazing how we have convinced ourselves that we NEED so much of the stuff we have. Now, granted, it would be difficult to live without lights in this day and age, but most of this we could do without…at least for a few days.

• 2 Bedrooms: 4 lamps*; 2 alarm clocks*; phone*; TV/VCR; iron; 2 window ACs (in summer); 2 fans
• Office: 2 laptops**; 2 lamps; 3 cell phones**; 1 iPod; sewing machine
• Bathroom: electric toothbrushes**; light*
• Living/Dining Rooms: TV/DVD/Cable Box/Xbox; phone; recessed lights*; heat; 1 lamp
• Kitchen: microwave; stove*; coffeemaker*; mixer; blender; toaster oven; refrigerator*
• Porch: 1 lamp; recessed lighting; baseboard heater; 1 fan
• Other: vacuum cleaner; dirt devil; heat*

The first step in today’s FOOD challenge was calculating my carbon footprint.  The food system is said to be responsible for 1/3 of global greenhouse emissions*. Using this online calculator, I have a sense of how many points I used up in greenhouse gas emissions (more details about how that breaks down here). Even without trying to go local, I did manage to acquire less points than the 4500 points considered to be “high carbon”. But, I found today while trying a little to eat more locally, that it takes some serious planning (which I didn’t manage to do quite well enough amidst a very busy week). Also, in New England, there is less grown locally by this time of year, so there are fewer choices.

I bought light at the farmer’s market last weekend because I wasn’t going to have dinner at home much this week, but wish I’d stocked up on more local fruit for snacking. We did go apple picking and had some leftover pears from last week’s farmer market, and I didn’t buy oranges or bananas this week and do miss those.

I did manage to eat local meat, eggs, veggies and bread, but paired these things with non-local goods too including cereal, milk, ice cream, string cheese, and lunch in the Dining Hall at school.

One thing I like about eating locally is that I am less inclined to waste food. It’s not cheap, but we’re supporting local farmers and see them weekly at the farmer’s market, like the owner of Chestnut Farms where we have our meat share, plus we plan our meals out more. And if we’re starting to run out of time to eat these local goods, we’ll chop them up to freeze for soups, quiche or stir fry.

Today’s challenge:

Step 1: Go room by room and assess current energy usage (electricity, oil, gas, batteries)

Step 2: Determine what I can eliminate usage of over the rest of the week, then UNPLUG

Since I’m pregnant, I’m hungry all the time, so I’m glad today is all about food.

The challenge:

Step 1: Calculate my foodprint based on what I ate yesterday

Step 2: Define limits for the food I will eat (i.e. food grown within 100 miles or only in the U.S.)

Step 3: Keep track of food choices today