Eco Home Theater Designing & Building

In the modern era of convenience and saving the environment, one of the best places to start turning yourself into an earth friendly resident of this planet is by building an eco-friendly home theater. Now, the theater does not have to seat fifty people and be located in a subterranean vault of a billion dollar mansion. Those with larger homes can create an earth friendly environment perfect for watching the classics or new releases with family and friends. For those who can afford to “go big” with a home theater with the massive screen, superior audio, and plush home theater seats even then it is not necessary to break the bank in order to be as environmentally friendly as possible with the design and construction.

Designing the Theater

You will be wanting to decide the main focus for the room, of course to watch the screen but is this sports den, games room or a classic movie theater a lot of people who are designing the theater for themselves use Google Sketch its free and great layout tool. There are also many helpful design blogs such as Design Milk that will fill you with inspiration with some wonderful set ups.

Materials for the Entire Room

An eco-friendly home theater is all about what materials are used to set the room. From the projector, or flat screen television, to the flooring and seats, any of the materials for a home theater can be earth friendly. When it comes to projectors or huge flat screen televisions for your viewing enjoyment, LED is the most earth friendly way to go. LEDs, or light emitting diodes, have been on the market in small scale for many years. Today’s technology is allowing LEDs to be included into large movie projectors and flat screen televisions, using up to 40% less electricity than the LCD screens and projectors in use now. There is also the option of an eco-standby mode on most LED projectors that will reduce the energy consumption rate by up to 80% when the device is on, but not actively projecting images.

Flooring and seats are other eco-friendly options that many homeowners may not be aware of. Bamboo is an infinitely renewable wood choice for flooring, along with cork and laminate flooring. There is also low pile eco-friendly carpet available on the market for a softer step and a smaller carbon footprint. Stage presence is important when creating a home theater environment and that presence can often be felt in the seating. If the planned home theater is going to seat more than 5-15 people, you may want to hunt down authentic antique theater seats. If the thought of sitting where thousands have sat before doesn’t appeal to you, you can also find seating which is constructed from earth friendly and non-toxic materials.

Why Go Green?

Reducing the carbon footprint of everyone on the planet is one of the ways to help heal the environment. Even though a home theater is often thought of as a luxury most cannot afford, spending a little extra time, rather than money, to find eco-friendly materials and devices for your home theater can reduce your carbon footprint. Even those homeowners who are not building a large dedicated room for their home theater can re-engineer a smaller room in their home and remodel it as a movie viewing room for the family. The use of eco-friendly materials in one room in the house can lead the way to creating a total environmentally friendly home. 

This guest post ‘written by’ ..James Helliwell.

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More homemade gift ideas

When having young children or teens, it can be hard to come up with homemade gift ideas that are not..well. Blah. Better to use your time and money on something that will not end up in the closet unused or the goodwill bin. Do not give something just for the sake of giving. Put feeling behind it and be sure to cater each gift to the individual. THAT is how you make it special.

Encourage the lesson of what the Holidays SHOULD be all about. It can be hard with the push of media to buy. buy. buy. It seems so many children (and adults) are in a mind frame of materialistic give me's. By instituting the love of giving in a child as young as possible. Showing them the worth of personalizing gifts instead of the mainstream expected to give or receive outlook. It's not about the latest and greatest. It's not all about it's monetary worth. It's about loving your friends and family. Appreciation and togetherness.
How about making a few bookmarks or bracelets with beads, fabric and/or leather to go with a book gift or book store gift card. Add something more personalized to a gift that would other wise seem as though you have just placed money in a card with very little thought.
Make a few the velvet flowers. Then hand sew beads in groups of 3 to 4 beads a strip around the center where I put a folded over ribbon (long enough for an average book size marker to hang out) on one end. The beads are a clear shiny color which made perfect for dew drops. The Bee is actually a button I found in of course, the Button section of my local sewing store. A pack of 3 for $1.99 and that was during their buy one get one sale so it was more like $1 for that card. Use imagination. Browse the net for more ideas to spark your flower creations.


I found a fantastic tutorial for the flowers and decided " Why redo what is already perfect?".:http://ribbonflowers.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-make-5-petal-ribbon-flower.html
She gives a very nice illustrated and explicit tutorial on making the 5 point ribbon flowers. BUT I will add that you can make them with fabric like I have. I could not find velvet ribbon in a color I wanted so I used the velvet fabric instead, cut to the dimensions she shares.You will find she lists 2 ways to do them. Go past her first bit to midway down for the sewing how to.

Now for the leather bracelet my Lil Man made for Panda. I cut a suede leather strip long enough to fit around his wrist plus added 4to 5 inches to the length for tying. Be sure to use a wrist of comparable size to your recipient when measuring out your strip. The width will be up to you. Make a "cuff" style with 3 inches wide or make a bracelet style with 1 inch or smaller for the width, being sure it is sized right for any charm you add.

A simple Star charm found in the jewelry making section for the middle. Silver beads sewn on with thread as close in color to the suede as possible was used. These may appear simple or easy for some but for a 7 year old boy just learning to sew, this was a big deal.

The pride they receive from making such trendy and skilled gifts will make it all worth any frustrating "hovering" you may need to do. Like re threading a needle for the above bracelet 4 times. Push said needle back through the hole in the suede 7 times because thread is wrapped around the side and control all feelings of taking over and just do it yourself every minute of the half hour it took for him to make his idea a fruitful reality.

~Sweet dreams,

Tammie

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Tips to Have a Debt Free Holiday

Ah, the holidays. Good food, good friends, good times and ... good night! Is that what I really spent during the past month? No way!

If this was your reaction last year, you're not alone. The American Research Group indicates that American shoppers are planning to spend less this year than during the previous two holiday seasons. Here's how you can join the trend and keep your holiday spending under control.

1. Keep your eating habits under control. Holiday food can be a real budget killer, as much of it tends to be very expensive. Focus on eating cheap meals between parties and family dinners. Skip a meal once in a while if possible. Both your wallet and your waistline will thank you. And check online for coupons and other promotionals for restaurant meals.

2. Make it a practice to keep purchase receipts year-round, rather than just at the holidays. If you use your debit or credit card for your purchases, make sure that your account provider sends you a year-end statement categorizing your purchases. This will give you a much clearer idea of what you're spending your money on both during the holidays and throughout the year.

3. If you're sick of trolling malls and department stores and of perusing coupon booklets, lock yourself away for a few days and get away from it all to recharge. Go over all of your receipts and purchases, and see what shape your budget is in. If you're overbudget, then consider cutting out a dinner or perhaps a present or two.

4. Limit the gift purchase secrets to the holidays. Of course, you don't want your spouse to know what you spent on him, but maintaining this habit the rest of the year can be a surefire recipe for trouble. Talk about your expenditures with your spouse to make sure that you're both on the same page about your budget.

5. Post your credit card debt somewhere where you will have to see it every day. Don't let this balance get out of hand, no matter what your needs are over the holidays. Pay off this balance in full at the end of the month if at all possible. Use any points that you have accumulated on your card to make further holiday purchases if you can.

6. Don't disrupt your savings habits to get through the holidays. Maintain your retirement savings plan as usual, and always pay yourself before you spend anything. Dipping into your emergency savings may be better than racking up further credit card debt.

7. Sit down before the holidays arrive to create a spending plan or even a special budget for the holidays. Make a pre-New Year's resolution to always compare prices on major purchases, as well as to search for coupons online and in the papers. Consider whether any purchase (especially a large one) is really the best use for your money right now. Buying a new flat-screen TV is always fun, but it may not be wise to do so if your credit cards aren't paid off.

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Snow Day #6

See the full gallery on posterous

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Symmetry LH-1 Laptop Holder w/ USB Ports

The Symmetry LH-1 Laptop Holder is an extremely useful computer accessory for laptop users. Personally, I use mine on the road quite frequently in hotels. I find that this ergonomic product provides a variety of benefits to improve my day to day productivity.


LH-1 Laptop Holder Features:

5 Adjustable Angles for a Variety of Ergonomic Viewing Angles
Adjustment Arm Allows for Unrestricted Air Flow
Four Port USB Hub Capability Powered by Laptop, No External Power Required
Fully Compliant w/ Universal Serial Bus Specification
LED Indicates HUB ready mode, Over Current Portection for Downstream port, Plug & Play Hot Swap Function Supported
Compatible w/ Windows 7 and 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, MAC OS 8x, 9x, and 10 Operating Systems

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Weapon Art Cool Furniture

Weapon Art Cool Furniture such a most amazing decorative furniture, the concept of this stylish decorative furniture is to decorate the environment. History of this creative furniture is that, this project started after the civil war, which ending in 1998, in Cambodia. Cambodia government destroyed at least 125,000 weapons around the country after civil war. At this time European Union, and British designer Sasha Constable, decided to design The Peace Art Project Cambodia (PAPC) in November 2003. They design a decorative furniture which made of Guns, Scrap Weapon. This creative weapon furniture is a sculpture piece.

More Related Decorative Furniture :

Human Sculpture Furniture
Decorative Erotic Furniture

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Mayline Brighton Series Executive Workstation BT24

The Brighton Series is Mayline's most affordable, complete line of REAL Office casegoods. With all laminate construction, it provide the durability and affordability you would expect, but with an added sense of style. Brighton is available in attractive Mocha and Cherry finishes.

The Brighton BT24 Workstation Includes:

(2) BTPT7236 Peninsula Tables 72"W x 36"D
(2) BTB4824 Curved Bridge 48"W x 24"D
(2) BTCD7224 Credenza Shells 72"W x 24"D
(2) BTBF20 Suspended Pedestals
(2) BTHW72 Hutch w/ Wood Doors 72"

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