Happier Holidays

Besieged by the holiday buying madness, when you know the money just isn’t there? Discounts here and coupons there still compete with the messages that we need to buy buy buy, whats hot, whats cool or whats the most fun. But the reality is some creativity and a little time can make you anything but scrooge.

Games
Make a tic tac toe board out of a scrap of wood that has been sanded and stained. Paint or wood burn the lines and then provide the pieces. Game pieces can be anything from flat marbles, painted stones, golf tees with the bottoms cut off. Do a little research to find other games you can recreate.

 Memory is also a fun game to make. Just draw a series of doodles that are about 2 inches in size, you will want about 24 of them. Make sure each one is different. Make a copy of your work. Then cut out the pieces and glue them to pieces of poster board and coat them with a clear finish. Lotto is  version where the second set of doodles get glued onto cards in sets of six. The objective is for players to draw the six pictures that match their card.

Knitting a scarf. Hand knitted scarves are very popular and you can create a very nice one for the cost of the cheapest skein of yarn you can find and a set of knitting needles. This a great beginner project with practical use.

Candle making, there are tons of fun and interesting techniques for making one of a kind candles for the small price of some wax and some crayons for color.

Roll up tool kits and make-up kits are an easy project for beginning sewers as are fleece hats. Monster dolls are popular and take very little sewing skill to make.

Artistic wind chimes can be created from odd bits of hardware and some monofilament.

Beaded jewelry can be simple, elegant, and cheap. Use monofilament and string a random assortment of beads in a strand long enough to go over your head, tie the ends together and tuck them back through a few beads then clip.
You can create beads from paper or wire to uses in your work.

Bird feeders and bird houses are easy projects working with wood. Books and on-line directions are readily available.

Old, torn clothing can be recycled into handbags and grocery bags and even quilts if you want a big project.

Looking for more ideas, check out the items being sold on Etsy or eBay. Some great sources for project directions can be found with a little research on-line or at your nearest library. Most of these projects can be made in less than an hour.

These are all things you can find for sale at craft shows and even on-line stores, but you can make them yourself and no-one need ever know you spent so very little money, because you gave them something from your heart.

creativity vs popularity

When I indulge in my creativity I so often hear a cheer leader in my head encouraging me to make the best... ever. I get these thoughts about making money or winning prizes and I know its very unlikely for several reasons. For one, I find these days I get bored with doing anything over and over again which makes developing a business based on my creativity a challenge. I also have the struggle between making something to satisfy me or something that will be popular and sell well.
Another reason is that the outcome of my efforts never quite matches my vision and as a result I am not entering anything into a contest to win prizes.
These days my creativity has been subverted to making stuff to sell to raise money for our school garden. As a result the popularity of what I am doing figures prominently in my actions.
I have a friend who writes novels. She is struggling with writing for market or writing to tell the stories she wants to tell as she wants to tell them.
Its a struggle common to many of us I guess.

creativity and the tight budget

We are all facing the same issues this season. Less $ in the pocket and more high end toys advertised. (not just kid toys) Nooks, gaming systems, iPads and more. Yet all of them have analog equivalents at a tiny fraction of the price.
virtual soccer standing in your living room or a soccer ball and some friends and actually go run around a play soccer. cost $15 or what a bout a sled in the winter.
Nook, Kindle, iPad: hundreds of dollars, real books: $0-$25 (a Library card is free)
Virtual art pads: Hundreds of dollars vs. real paper and pencils.
Now I realise there is a fair amount of irony in writing this on a laptop, especially as I might be one of the last people to grab a soccer ball and find some friends, but this is about saving money and still providing fun experiences for ourselves and our children.

creativity gone awry

When creativity meets the methodologist something not so good can happen.
Its like an obsessed scientist working to perfect his new discovery. When this happens in the kitchen its the innocent by-standers who must be pittied. They will be forced to consume dish after dish of the same concoctions with barely discernable differences and then they will be asked to render their cullinary opinions yet again.
I wasn’t too worried when we had rice pudding made with barley the first time. The texture was a little different, but I like barley so it was good. Then two days later when we had finally finished the first batch I was surprised to find another batch of barley cooking away in the rice cooker. Smaller batch he tells me.
So the next day here we go again, but smaller batch in same size pan meant too much crunchy grains. Later that week here we go again, but with both cinnamon and vanilla. And then we added apples. Maybe different apples would cook better, maybe covering the pan, maybe adding dried cranberries...
Each permutation is carefully noted on the recipe card.
What isn’t noted is that I am losing my interst in barley. Oops too late, we are now into a 25 lb bag of the stuff.