THE FRUGAL ART OF GIVING

With the economy in a tailspin, financial worries all around us and the holidays approaching, how can we continue to give in the same way as we have in the past? With creative approaches, gift giving can still feel wonderful and generous. There are many ways to give joy and kindness to others without feeling impoverished. Remember that it is your thoughtfulness that is an integral part of gift giving and never hesitate to use plenty of colorful tissues and ribbons to make your gift look ultra fabulous!

o CRAFTY WAYS: There are boundless opportunities to craft your gifts; some more expensive and time consuming than others. For frugal approaches, try the following:

• Create a stack of greeting cards with your favorite rubber stamps and/or embellishments and tie the package with a festive ribbon. No stamps? Cut a potato in half lengthwise, carve it and dip it in paint and you have a stamp!

• Sentiments are always strong so making a scrapbook page with personal items, quotes, poetry and photos, will be a sure hit!

• Buy an inexpensive picture frame for your special photo (maybe it’s you, or the recipient or a pet); with extra time you can decorate the frame by gluing on some extra buttons you have stashed with your other sewing notions.

o RETHINK & REUSE:
Take another look at disposables that would otherwise be in your trash; it is likely that you can reuse them to make wonderful gifts. With scraps of printed cotton fabric and Modge Podge glue, I used a decoupage technique to cover empty toilet paper rolls. The result? Elegant napkin ring holders, decorated with fun trimming on one end, are always an attraction at my dinner table with guests!
Found objects can have multiple lives. I rescued a crushed car hubcap from the road to make a fabulous picture frame. The embedded dirt actually gave it a special and wonderful shadow effect.

o SATISFYING A SWEET TOOTH
Everyone loves homemade goodies. If you don’t enjoy baking cakes or cookies from scratch, try using a mix; there are many wonderful brands that will produce excellent results even for the gluten free diet.
Another approach is to buy bags of colorful loose candy and layer them in an inexpensive glass container with a lid. Tie a pretty bow on the neck of the jar and it looks great!

o SURPRISE BASKETS: Gather beautiful fruits and make your own gift basket. To make it extra attractive, place a paper doily in between the fruits or a large one under each one. Another basket may be a collection of travel size toiletries which you may have from hotel visits or cosmetic bonus packs. Add a special touch in the basket with a washcloth rolled up and tied with a ribbon and even a little miniature toy for fun! There are plenty of ideas that can fill your basket so just think of a theme and fill it up!

o GREEN THUMB: Buying a plant is usually affordable but you can also share a plant that you have in your home. Fill a new pot with soil and carefully separate part of your plant and repot it as a gift and don't forget that nice touch of ribbon. Want to get fancy? Take some acrylic paint and paint a pattern on the pot!

o RECYCLED GIFTS: We all have received gifts that we did not want, tried to look the other way but graciously accepted with a smile and a thank you. These gifts need to be recycled and given to those people who will enjoy and appreciate them! Now is the perfect time to look in your closets, on your shelves and through those storage bins to find gifts to recycle. If you are scratching your head and not coming up with possible gift recipients, donate it!

When the material world of gift giving still leaves you in a quandary, consider ways to give of yourself.

YOUR-OWN-CERTIFICATE: This is a fabulous way to give a gift of yourself! Print out certificates for house cleaning, dog walking, car washing, babysitting or any other service that you can provide that is valued by the recipient.

VOLUNTEER: Volunteers are an important part of our society. When you volunteer and donate your time to an organization, you are giving to people in need. This is truly a way to honor the spirit of the holidays by supporting the organization or charity that helps others. If you do not know who to contact or where to go, try http://www.volunteermatch.org for local opportunities.

We are living in extraordinary times and we are challenged to maintain our positive sense of self. By giving to others and being remarkable in our kindness to others, we can flourish and build a better society.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the poet, said “The greatest gift is a portion of thyself”

CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

Being creative is not about being young or old; it is age resistant.

I am 60 years old and some months ago started a new business that provides craft kits and supplies to adults with fine motor skill problems and/or attention difficulties. I was not inventing the wheel but inventing a different approach to the wheel. For example, adult necklace kits often involve tiny pieces, a small tool and precision. But beautiful necklaces can also be made by focusing on the solution and then the design. This was my approach because initially I had to consider the closure of the necklace, then the components and the third step was the design. This is the reverse of the way most designers approach their projects yet it successfully produced a variety of unique necklaces for a specific market.

My friend, Joan Lobenberg, is in her 70s and designed a solution for making clay beads for Caring Craft kits. Traditionally, you create a clay bead by rolling a small piece of clay between the palms of your hands to make a small ball and then puncture it with a sharp tool to make a hole for threading. But Joan thought that the clay bead would be too heavy when strung as a necklace with other beads and wanted to develop a solution to create a clay bead that would be light. Lots of thought produced terrific results. Joan rolls air-dry clay on a flat surface, wraps it to cover a small Styrofoam ball and then makes a hole using a knitting needle. A simple and elegant solution to a problem that renders a necklace light and easier to wear.

Dr. Gene Cohen, founding director of the Center on Aging, Health & Humanities at George Washington University. has been studying aging for over 30 years and shares this wonderful personal story:

My in-laws, Howard and Gisele Miller, both in their 70s,were stuck. They had just emerged from the Washington,DC, subway system into a driving snowstorm. They were coming to our house for dinner and needed a cab since it was too far to walk. But it was rush hour, and no cabs stopped. Howard tried calling us, but both my wife, Wendy, and I were tied up in traffic and weren’t home yet—this was the pre-cell phone era. As his fingers began to turn numb, Howard noticed a pizza shop across the street. He and Gisele walked through the slush to it and
ordered a large pizza for home delivery. When the cashier asked where to deliver it, Howard gave him our address, and added, “Oh, there’s one more thing.”
“What’s that?” the cashier asked.
“We want you to deliver us with it,” Howard said.
And that’s how they arrived, pizza in hand, for dinner that night.
This favorite family story perfectly illustrates the sort of agile creativity that can accompany the aging mind. Would a younger person have thought of this solution? Possibly. But in my experience, this kind of out-of-the-box thinking is a learned trait that improves with age. Age allows our brains to accumulate a repertoire of strategies developed from a lifetime of experience, part of what other researchers have termed crystallized intelligence. Obviously, Howard hadn’t used that pizza routine before, but the accumulated experience of other successful strategies helped
stimulate the thinking that produced his creative resolution. This was one of his new senior moments, occurring, again, not as a failing of aging, but a benefit of it.

Solutions. They challenge us every day. And when we realize that there is a better way and creatively and patiently think it through, our solution empowers us. We are less fearful of challenges because we are mobilized to respond.