However, I recently saw something at their website that sort of irks me. This isn’t the first time either. They do this quite a lot on their TV shows. I suppose tonight was the last straw.

I was at their Green Home blog, and I was reading this post, Green Decorating and Storage, and here’s what they say, “10 Beautiful Rooms (You Won’t Believe They’re Green!)”

Let’s take a look at that statement: The rooms are beautiful; so beautiful in fact, that I simply won’t believe they’re green! Well, thank goodness, because I was really worried that my beauty statements might be affected by the darn tree huggers. I’m ok now though.

Seriously HGTV – what’s up with that? I watch all the HGTV green shows, when I manage to catch them, because green home shows are lacking on television, and I enjoy this kind of stuff. But really, I’m so sick to death of being told that in spite of the green, just look at this house! Look how we made green pretty. Look at how green is not so green; as if green is a bad thing to begin with.

Is HGTV the only media outlet to do this – focus on the how green doesn’t have to be green aspect? NO. Plenty of the media outlets I frequent do this. Am I saying to ban your HGTV habit? Um, no. I’m only picking on them because I happened to see this tonight, but they’re oh so not alone.

What I am saying is it sets a precedence; green is normally icky, but you can make it better. You can make it beautiful if you try. I actually like green already; I see reclaimed homes, recycled materials used to build furniture, with no cosmetic additions, and I like it, adore it even. I don’t need green to look just like what I’m used to seeing in home magazines. It doesn’t always have to be something it’s not. It sometimes is what it is, and that’s perfectly fine.

I think, that when green newbies see such excitement over how beautiful green can be it makes it hard to imagine that green is beautiful enough, good enough, when left alone. Maybe I’m just being picky – but words are powerful. Words can make or break a situation. If we’re going to attach words to green items, or green issues, let’s not attach words that make green seem so outside the norm. That’s a problem.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in June 2008

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

As promised, Peggy and I have an Earth Day event running all month. We were trying to come up with what to do here for Earth Day, and that’s a tough one for us. We could blog green – but frankly we always blog green. How we could blog greener seemed to be pushing it.

That said, we put a call out to our b5media friends and asked them to write about green topics, from the perspective of their blog for a day. This is cool on many levels. You’re going to get to know some of our pals blogs, and we all get to learn about some new earth-friendly topics from another blog’s point of view.

Starting today we’ll be counting down to Earth Day by featuring different b5 bloggers and their green posts each day. We’ve got all kinds of cool blogs playing along; blogs about, cooking, sports, parenting, business, gardening, music, health, and more. It’ll be great to see what these blogs offer up all month. Each of our Earth Day posts will have the earth photo at the top, so they’ll be easy to spot.

We’re kicking off this event with a blogger you already know – me

You may know (or not) that I also blog at Offbeat Homes, a blog covering unusual structures. I also tend to cover many a green structure though (it is me) so since no one seemed to want to volunteer for the 1st, I did. Here are a few of my favorite green posts from Offbeat Homes.

If you’re looking for super tiny homes then you have to check out the earth friendly Tumbleweed Homes. There’s also a Tumbleweed follow up.

Possibly my most favorite reclaimed home on the planet. Or maybe it’s this green home that’s my fave.

Last up: Four Great Examples of Eco-Architecture

Tomorrow we’ve got a great health blogger you won’t want to miss, so stay tuned.

[photo via stock.exchange]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family