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.

I am proud of this creation

The original plain black bag

After modification, the plain bag was added with a fresh look

My creativity juice just oozed out all of a sudden in an afternoon. For the past day or two, I was thinking about how to recycle a black mundane bag (those normally given complimentary in conferences or seminars) and use it as my office bag. Paper shopping bags (which I normally use), though are attractive don't last since I may be carrying 'tons' of documents.

So, there goes my mind on how to beautify the boring black bag with logo on one side of the bag. I could hide the logo on one side when I'm carrying it, so this is not a problem for the time being. Oh yes! I do have a few unused scarves, you know those which are 'out-of-fashion'. The texture of the scarves are difficult to match with any office clothes. I've been keeping them for so many years and in fact they are taking up the already limited space.

I almost scream as though I struck a lottery when I visualise image of the completed modified bag. I can use the unwanted scarf to 'dress' my bag. In about one hour, I've completed my creation.

I am so proud of myself as I've never known that I can 'recreate' this boring black bag (which I intend to give it away) and make it into such a hip one. It's unique and one look it's like one of those hand-made stuff. I received compliments from a few persons (family and colleagues) about the uniqueness of the bag.

And, it's functional too. I can practically load it with lots of documents and my endless nitty gritty stuff.