Creativity

By Katina Anderson

I know what you may be thinking…

1. Creativity has nothing to do with frugality
2. I’m just not one of those “creative people”.

But before you dismiss this article as not for you, let’s think about what creativity is. Here are a few definitions I found:

Creativity – Approaching a need, a task, or an idea from a new perspective.

Creativity – The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.

When I think of creativity, one of the first things to come to mind is my vibrant little niece Gracie!  Little Miss Grace frequently blesses our family with all manner of homemade creations usually consisting of a tremendous amount of scotch tape and various other items she finds around her home like her Daddy’s business cards, pipe cleaners, and lots of papers which have been painstakingly cut into various shapes and objects which I may or may not be able to distinguish. She constantly surprises me with her creativity.

The other week I saw this darling pillow that she had constructed from felt pieces, tissues (for stuffing, of course!), and she held it all together with a generous binding of staples!  Note the smiley face adorning the front of the pillow…didn’t know what that was?  I didn’t either, at first. 🙂

You may not think of yourself as a creative person, but how can you approach what you have with a fresh perspective?  Here are some creative ideas of how you can view what you have with “Grace Eyes”!

Take inventory of your pantry/fridge/freezer and plan some meals based upon what you already have. The internet is a handy tool for finding recipes for items you already have!  Once we were given a tremendous amount of organic carrots from a church member.  The internet became my friend as I found a multitude of recipes including carrots.  We had steamed carrots, carrot sticks, carrot cake, carrot souffle, mashed carrots and potatoes, carrot buns, carrot soup, carrot bread, and so much more all as a result of searching for new recipes. Thankfully, everyone in our family likes carrots.

Worn out clothes could be used for other projects. A quilt out of baby clothes, a cloth gift bag from a shirt that had a hole in the elbow, old jeans to patch another pair of jeans with a hole, cleaning rags, car washing rags, pillows, you could even make fabric garlands out of them.  The ideas are endless! And again, look online for inspiration!

We are so blessed with material goods in this country.  Even those of us who have the least still have so very much! Gratefully as the Lord to help you use what you have in new ways to make the maximum use of what you have.

The key is: Open your mind to new ideas.  It’s not as hard as you think and it’s a lot of fun…and so is that little Gracie Girl!