No bags please

I am seeing myself being more and more conscious when it comes to rejecting the multi-purpose yet hazardous bags. I would be happy to be saving the earth by two plastic bags on the day I go wet-market shopping.

Yet, I get remarks such as 'No need to skim for them'. But, hey! I am not doing a favour to the giant supermarkets but I am doing a favour to my future generations. What kind of earth will they live in?

Sometimes, thoughts like can 2 plastic bags make a difference? Each day, there are numerous opportunities to get plastic bags. Considering myself an infrequent wet market shopper, I still have plenty of chances to collect the wonder bags. The soya bean seller, pancake seller, vegetable seller, butcher will even give you two, the fruits seller and what about the noodle seller when I pack food home for lunch?

Creative or innovative

The dictionary says creative means:

1. Having the ability or power to create: Eg. Human beings are creative animals.
2. Productive; creating.
3. Characterized by originality and expressiveness; imaginative: Eg. creative writing.

Innovative is using or showing new methods, ideas, etc.

For me, at times being innovative surpasses creative because of the certain things I do using different ideas/methods. Most of them are used in my business and some in the household. Wherever it is, it is such a satisfying feeling looking at the result.

Papers put to good use

Recently, I having been using promotional brochures as papers used in the kitchen. They can come in really handy when you need an extra layer of disused paper for use in the kitchen, to wrap food waste, etc etc.

I even use magazines/newsletters (only those reasonable thick and big ones) to protect my newly washed car mats after a car wash. Well, they will not need a wash so soon when they are protected from mud and the stuff, by another layer of paper.

And, for those statements (bank, credit card etc) and whatever that come through the mail, they would not end up in the trash bin if there are unprinted portions. They would be used as scrap papers for my endless scribblings.

Putting disused plastic bags to good use

Call me thrifty, call me kiamsiap..I don't care. This is my little contribution to save the earth. I reuse plastic wrappers (you know those that wrap your newsletter) that arrive through the postal service. Being members of a professional body, my husband and I regularly receive newsletters and brochures wrapped nicely in plastics. Mind you, I will only use durable and uncreased wrappers. They land up to protect my many books that I have invested for my business. And, recently I have used it for my son's books. Save money, save the earth. What a noble cause!

Birthday card for my colleague

Awakening the creative mind

I've finished reading this book called 'On Creativity, Awakening the creative mind' by Leo Ann Mean. Even the name of the author is unique, right?

What I like about this book and why I recommend it:

• it's written in a language that's easily comprehensible
• it talks about how creativity can be used in many ways, a lot of them happen in our daily lives that we don't appreciate

Creativity in languages intriques me such as use of words in onomatopoeia (formation of a word by imitating the natural sound associated with the object or action involved, paradox (opposites put together to give powerful), mnemonics (abbreviation to remember things) and puns (words of the same sound but with different meaning).

Jackets with a different look

Wanting to look unique and to spice up the monotonous-looking office jackets, I came up with an original idea.  And I did that to almost most of the jackets that I own ever since the inception of this idea.

I replaced the buttons with unique ones that I bought from haberdashery.  Each set of buttons were painstakingly chosen to match the colour and texture of each jacket.  I also made sure that the same type of buttons were not repeated as I'd like to have variety.  However, budget was also taken into account.  I avoid those which were too pricey. And I tried not to pair costly buttons with value jackets.  A silver pipe won't look nice if used by a beggar, anyway.