Our nephew will be 18 soon and we don’t know what to get him. Money is the obvious thing but is it a bit of a cop-out to give money as a present?

• Can’t we be more imaginative.

• Can’t we be bothered.

• Aren’t they worth more than that.

The thing is that money has its uses it can be:

• A resource with which someone can use for what they really want.

• An exchange of energy, you earned it and now you are passing that energy on.

• Empowering, I remember getting money as a child and loving it: feeling the excitement at being able to choose for myself.

• Better than something useless or pointless, bought in haste.

• A surprise, tucked inside something else.

• Honest, “I wasn’t sure what to get you, and I truly want you to have something useful or beautiful you will really love”.

When money looks like the best option as a present it is worth making some other effort too:

• make a beautiful or funny card

• make a cake

• make some other treat

• or make them feel special in some other way

You can also increase the excitement and anticipation by hiding money in something:

• layers and layers of wrapping paper, like pass the parcel.
• in different sized boxes inside each other.
• inside something edible.

So is money a cop-out, what do you think?

 Weaving with birch bark: What a great experience it was to go on a course which took me into a new realm. Trying to remove bark the other day I sliced my thumb so lots to learn but it got my out for a lovely walk.

Made this little felt panel to try different techniques. It was lovely to just play with no end destination in mind.

Collage: Set an intention, such as ”what’s really important to me? Take 30 minutes or so and quickly flick through some old magazines pulling out any pictures or words which appeal to you. Stick them on a sheet of paper and take a look.

Small felt panel/seat cover: I made this after finishing my rug on a course with Liz at Heartfelt. Not only does she run lots of great courses you also get to work outside on a real live working railway platform, crazy!

Drawing and sketching: these are usually quick scribbles to do with something going on for me, a way of expressing how I feel. This one was about My Concerns for the World.

What creative exploits have you been getting up to recently?

by JOSHUA BECKER at Becoming Minimalist.

If that’s the case then I find myself an aspiring minimalist.

Okay, I can hear the guffawing and sniggers from some of you. But that was then and this is now. Then I was suckered in by all the consumer society had to offer, I was feeding low self-esteem with things, trying to be someone, live some way, I thought would make me feel ok; ever in pursuit outside, of what could only be found inside.

The gifts of illness and life on a small boat showed me something different, I am learning to listen within and trust what I hear.

Somehow I knew instinctively what a family of four would need on a small boat for a year. I honed life down to the essentials with a few extras.

I managed to work out which herbs and spices we really used, which kitchen equipment would be essential what would make our boat a home rather than a hardship.  I left all the rest here, at home awaiting our return.

Back surrounded by it I’ve heard this call from within, a yearning to live more simply, to eliminate the things which distract me from me and what I value most.

I’ve stamped my feet like a toddler and screamed out that “I can’t stand living like this”, I understand now,

I really can’t.

I am calling to myself, crying out the very truth of my being; what I had and how I lived was not working for me.

What do you cry out to yourself?

Are you listening?

Here’s another idea:

• Fold a piece or card or fancy stiff paper in half to form the card.

• Choose two pieces of paper from your stash. In this case I had some paper saved from a birthday present and an old chocolate wrapper.

• Choose something to add-on top. I choose some pearl buttons but it could be anything you have to hand, some string or braid, leaves, a pressed flower or simply a shape cut out of another piece of paper.

• Cut out some shapes from the paper and glue them on to your card.

• Add the top decoration and there it is.

For more ideas check out MAKE YOUR OWN CARDS. 

WHAT DID I DO?

• I asked for and was given a piece of A4 printer paper which I then folded in half and then half again, voilà a card!

• I then cut out pictures I thought he’d like from a free magazine I’d picked up in the supermarket.

• I borrowed glue and stuck them on the front.

• I borrowed pens and wrote Happy Birthday and my message inside, and just for added extras I wrote the number 3 all over the front.

Card making can be as simple and easy as this post!

For more ideas check out MAKE YOUR OWN CARDS.

The reasons why this happens are endless but happen it does, here’s what I did about it.

I found myself, the evening before last posting day, shopping in a well-known supermarket, were I remembered:

NO PRESENT!

Determined not to cave in and head for the toy aisle, I carried on with my shopping holding the intention that there would be something I could get.

BINGO

Firstly I bought a small bag of chocolate eggs, what child doesn’t like a little chocolate on their birthday.

EUREKA

They sell seeds. I bought packets of cress, sunflower and pumpkin.

BULLSEYE

A Beano comic. My children loved them even before they could read.

Back at where I was staying I made a card. I also made PAPER AEROPLANES and hid them in the card. I used leftover Christmas paper for wrapping and decorated the outside of the envelope with lots of Happy Birthdays in coloured pen.

Next morning I posted it off. It arrived safely, the chocolate was guzzled down greedily, the aeroplanes are still being flown around the room and they are fascinated and delighted with the seeds, they’ve never grown cress before AND they ALL love the Beano.

What last-minute ideas have worked for you?

Fear has raised its ugly head.

Could it be that I am in some sort of madness; that I’m  possessed with a crazy notion which I will snap out of only to discover that in my haste I have turned my life upside down and inside out and there’s no going back?

The “what’s if’s” are flooding in.

• What if I’m making a huge mistake.

• What if I regret getting rid of something?

• What if it turns out I did need that thing?

• What if I really need it and have the embarrassment of having to get another one?

• What if it turns out to be irreplaceable, what then?

• What if I get ridiculed in the process?

• What if I wish I still had that reminder of the person, holiday or event and now it’s gone?

Argh!!!!!!!

 AND what if any of that does happen?

I can deal with it, I can ride the emotional wave with mindfulness and presence reminding myself that I cleared this space to let something new in to my life.

All this stuff is the story of where I have been, time now to create a new story, not another episode of the same old STUFF that has always been.

Do your what if’s run the show or are you willing to challenge them?

BIG ENORMOUS SQUIRM

I mean, it’s ridiculous how much I have and even more squirmy all the reasons why.

When you start to shift the physical stuff it loosens all the emotional attachments and allows you to see more clearly what has gone on, and how on earth it all got here in the first place.

From Substance over Stuff

Yesterday’s junk:

• I couldn’t say NO when people offered me things.

• I’ve got lots of gifts I never liked or wanted but felt I couldn’t get rid of.

• Wedding presents, need I say more.

• I was a victim of the consumer society and

• I loved to shop.

• When I saw things I liked I wanted them.

• I thought things could make me happier, perfect my life.

• I inherited stuff and couldn’t let it go even when I didn’t want it.

• I wanted to give my children things I didn’t have.

• I  hated seeing waste, so took it instead.

• I thought it might come in useful at some point.

• I hoped to do/make that thing/project.

After initially beating myself up about all these squirmy reasons I am now grateful.

I see myself.

I know I am not alone and perhaps by sharing this I can show that it is possible to get out from under it all.

Could you start creating space for something new?

I DO NOT NEED ALL MY “STUFF”

Two shelves done one to go

I’m fed up feeling bogged down by it all; cleaning it, tidying it, trying to organise and store it, mending it and getting mad with it.

During 14 months away living on a very small boat I hardly missed any of it.

BUT what did I do?

I came home unpacked and re-attached to most of it.

I’m a little frightened actually it’s not so easy as it sounds. I cleared out masses of stuff before we went off sailing so now we’re talking about the things I thought I wanted.

I reckon it could be a bit of an emotional roller coaster, asking myself a lot of questions and challenging why I want to hold on to it.

BUT my wish for simplicity is greater and I wish to honour that urge in me. I want more space in my life for the people and activities that really matter to me.

I’ve found some great websites to help me on my way:

ZenHabits

Home Life Simplified

Slow Your Home

Substance Over Stuff

What stuff could let go of?

What space could you create?

These started with a simple Victoria Sponge recipe and I added tonnes of chocolate, sweets, buttons, time and love and they will be delighted.

“THAT is very nice Mummy, it’s VERY chocolatey”

” Wow, it looks great Mummy.”

Go on have a go!