Tis the Season - Giving Creativity

This time of year, could be quite dull if it were not for the onset of Christmas. I almost have a practical interest in the holiday seeing that, with gardening going into hibernation for the winter season, I simply need something to do with my hands.    

Many of my more industrious habits are rooted in my childhood. Being on a limited budget and as a sanity saver, my mom (I am one of 6 children) spent the fall and winter making practical items (mitt, toques, sweaters, quilts) for the lot of us. The Christmas season saw the creation of decorations, gifts and anything Christmas-related from almost nothing. Good Housekeeping magazines were the motivators for many ideas. Funny enough, this practice is now called recycling or up-cycling.

When I started out on my own and after getting married, limited finances also fueled my creativity.  Once my children entered the picture, ornaments, canning, baked goods and whatever my hands could create for gifts was the agenda for Christmas giving. 

September became the planning month. October, November and December  the months for preparation with the critical delivery before December 25th.  Some years the list was long so  working late into the night was essential for production and quality control. 

Have I mentioned that I am a nurturer by nature?  I love to give and I most love to give at Christmas.  

Lately, I have noticed that my creativity is evolving and going places that I have never been. My most recent projects include using vintage materials like old fur coats, fabrics, clothing, old buttons, laces, jewelry, and, the one thing I enjoy the most, old wedding dresses.  

To support my creativity habit I visit garage sales during the summer months and seek out the most cherished items I have just listed to develop my stash for the winter projects. As the projects are completed, and I show them off, I find I receive gifts of stashes of long forgotten goodies from others who also believe that formerly cherished items deserve a new lease on life.

My most favourite projects of the moment are creating Christmas stockings from my ferreted out collections of garage sale/thrift store finds. I am thrilled to be able to give these as gifts and watch the surprise from the receivers as I explain the source of my materials. I have created the term “sentimentos” (sentimental mementos) for items that are created from sentimental pieces, (e.g. my mother’s graduation dress, a friend’s fur coat, a wedding dress, a nana’s lace collection).

A couple of years ago, I hit the jackpot. It was at a garage sale on a late Saturday afternoon. Everyone was tired and ready to close, but “what to my wondering eyes do appear” but two beautiful mink coats.   I made the bold move of asking the sellers if they would trade their fur coats for me making them a Father Christmas.  

“You are a crafter?” they asked and my response was yes.

By the time I left there 30 minutes later, I had a 60 year old wedding dress, two Eaton’s wool blankets, fur coats, a grocery bag of jewelry and ornaments, and a promise that I would convert the items into sentimentos for the family.   Their dad had passed away and mom was no longer able to live on her own.  The family was at a loss of what to do with these precious items and I provided a solution to their dilemma.  

In the end, I did return to this family a box of transformed items a week before Christmas – a Christmas stocking from the wedding dress and fur coat, two stockings from each wool blanket, a Father Christmas from the fur coat, jewelry and ornaments.  I have to admit that I was all over the map when I delivered the items. Would they like them? Did I do a good job?  Was I possibly a little insane for doing this? 

The answers came in a phone call on Christmas Eve while preparing for my own family events.  The conversation started slow as the caller sounded confused. Five minutes into the call I was able to determine that the caller was the owner of the wedding dress.  Obviously overwhelmed, she thanked me for her old man (Father Christmas), and the stockings, and wondered out loud why I would do such a thing as to remake and return the items without charge.  It was her question, and obvious sense of gratitude, that made me truly understand what the gift of giving meant. The memories still bring me to tears.    

Finding these items does many things - it  keeps me busy year round, supports the garage sale economy, recycles items that people would not normally recycle, and enhances my creative right  brain. I have a strong belief that when you are blessed with gifts it is important to share those gifts. So beyond giving my creations to friends and family, I donate items to organizations and charities for their silent auctions to raise funds.  

Ultimately, this is what I know: creativity is passion, using resources that seem to have no value can be merged and re-purposed, using things from the past can benefit and transform the present and future, simple trust and lessons come when you least expect them, be thankful for unexpected gifts, and be comfortable with who you are.  Never pass up an opportunity to play and explore possibilities as some of the greatest lessons may come from them.  You can go into a community and find small treasures in the most unlikely places, use ingenuity and creativity, invest some sweat equity, play a whole lot and what comes out the other side of transformation can become truly incredible.   

You too have the ability find your creative comfort and make changes where you live and play.