Keeping Creativity Alive

Today I finished shooting my first season of Never Too Late. We talked about keeping creativity

alive with Western artist Fred Oldfield who, at 92, has painted thousands of pictures of the old

west. He still paints every day, and just today finished four paintings for a big wildlife show.

Fred says the important thing in life is that you must see that you have at least one "I gotta"

in your life every single day - that's the thing you "gotta" do. Not because it's work but because

it keeps you going. For Fred, it's painting, and fishing.

You can see Never Too Late in Western Washington on Comcast on Demand and online at

www.itsnevertoolate.com

Dorothy blogs her tip of the day every day at this time. Join me tomorrow, same time, same station.

Proud To Be An American Chia Pet Set

If anyone needs a lift of spirit, run out right now, and buy the Proud to be an American Set.

It contains Chia George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, and - wait for it - The Statue of Liberty. George Washington has sort of pyramidal hair like the Gilbert Stuart portrait

but the rest of them all have sort of modified Afros. They're a little pricey - $19.95 at Target

or Walgreens. So rejoice, the spirit of entrepreneurs everywhere endures and The Republic is

safe!!

Keeping Family Traditions Alive

At this time of the year, I hear from a lot of folks who are planning family reunions and are looking for good, creative ideas for making it a special time and the good effects long lasting. At the same time, an incident in my own family made me aware of how important it is to keep family traditions alive. The family reunion is a great time to make a start, but it's something we can work on any time. Here are some ideas for keeping family tradition alive.

Eliot Wiggington in the first Foxfire book writes, "Daily our grandparents are moving out of our lives, taking with them, irreparably this kind of

information. Not because they want to, but because they think we don't care." And sometimes we think we don't care.

1. An easy place to start is with a family recipe collection. Nearly every family has a special recipe that absolutely everyone loves. My Mom makes the best Italian rolls in the whole world. Really. I adn't realized we were in danger of losing them until she started insisting that everyone who visits make a batch of rolls before they go home. This applies to me and my 22 year old son equally. She passes judgement on the quality of the dough.

This is something that just one person can get started easily. Look around for that one special recipe and see that everyone learns to make it.

More tomorrow. Dorothy's tip of the day in this spot every day. Tune in, same time, same station

Saving money on those expensive make up tubes

If your spontaneous beauty requires the use of expensive lotions, moisturizers, and makeups,

your probably spending a fortune. I know I am. And I discovered that I was leaving another fortune in the bottoms of tubes that wouldn't squeeze out. There's a way to get the last bit of

makeup off though. Just take your scissors and clip off the tube about an inch from the nozzle.

You'll then be able to reach every last dab of the contents of the tube, and you can just slide the

cut off portion back into the tube end. The tube will be shorter but it works fine.

You can see a demonstration of this tip by going to my website, www.itsnevertoolate.com and clicking on Never Too Late - Living on a Shoestring. Or, go directly to YouTube and search for

NTL002.

Dorothy blogs tip of the day every day, same time same station.