Valentine's Day - Have a heart to save the earth

Valentine's day is so commercialised that yearly we are hoodwinked into frenzied consumption of goods in the name of love. Sometimes we pay an unnecessary premium for ordinary goods because they come in fancy packaging. Actually, it is possible to save that amount of money and donate it to the needy if we do the packaging ourselves with just a little imagination.

Here's how I did it - I came back from a holiday in India with a shawl that I had wanted to give to my colleague. It was beautifully woven and much cheaper when it was bought in India than in some big departmental store here. I used an empty chocolate box from my last trip to Thailand that I had been saving for an occasion like this and lined it with a cut-out piece of a Takashimaya carrier bag (recognise the flowers?) Then I carefully laid the shawl into this home-made packaging, covered it and stuck a pretty ribbon on in and gave my friend a pleasant surprise. Yes, this is another way to recycle stuff - not things that you would otherwise have thrown away like plastic bottles, aluminium cans - but stuff that are really too beautiful to throw away and that you could definitely reuse in other ways. If you need some relaxation and work on developing your creativity, indulge in a creative act - create some parts of a gift instead of buying everything that money can buy.

Some of the boxes that are too good to throw away. You can also hide the origins of the boxes by pasting wrapping paper on them to make them look attractive.