Matin Lapin: random act of kindness

Showing posts with label random act of kindness. Show all posts

crafty pay it forward via Small Good Things

Despite being a bit rubbish and not actually doing many bloggy things myself for a few days, that doesn't mean I've not been reading them like a blog-reading floozy. Oh yes.

One of my new favourites is Emi's blog, Small Good Things. It's full of super cute projects and DIYs, pretty nail designs and, of course, lovely photos. It might be easier just to show you some of my favourite projects:

1// plastic animal pincushion
2// stripy nails with bows
3// wire word rings
4// bow earrings
5// cute bow scrunchies (yes, you read that right - s.c.r.u.n.c.h.i.e.s!)
6// Doxie ribbon holders

Last week Emi posted about a Pay It Forward project she had signed up for:

...and I got excited and decided to join in.

Here are the deets:

~rules~

I will send a surprise gift to the first three commenters on this post. The gift will be a handmade surprise by me and I will send it to you sometime in the next 365 days. All you need to do is the following:

Leave me a comment – I will get in touch with you about your mailing address and some other information about yourself.

To complete signing up, you must play along too by blogging a similar post and pledging to make a surprise for the first 3 people who comment on it.
~~~~~~~~~~

Go on, sign up and join in!

Woo, random crafting is exciting!

a little Easter RAoK

I recently read about a project on Giver's Log, where AmberLee has sent all kinds of packages weighing 13 ounces or less, in a project sensibly named, "13 ounces or less"...

So far she has sent flip flops, a shovel and bucket, ribbon sticks, bubblewrap hopscotch and a frisbee, to name but a few (check out all of her fun mailings here). One of my favourites was when she sent out plastic eggs... so much so, in fact, that I've decided to send some eggs of my own as an Easter RAoK. I have 12 in total, and shall be taking them off to the Post Office tomorrow morning to be weighed and stamped. I hope my new postal workers find it amusing and sweet, rather than annoying and awkward. We will see!

RAoK 365: 16 more free RAoKs

>>>yet more free Random Acts of Kindness<<<
#33-48

write a letter to someone who made a difference to your life

give something away on Freecycle

say good morning to everyone you see on your way to work

make a brew for someone who is too busy to do so themselves

return a lost belonging to the owner

write a poem for someone

tidy up after yourself

click for a cause

volunteer at an after school club or a nursing home

use ecofont to help save the environment and reduce your own printing costs

let someone go ahead of you in a queue

take part in Movember

take part in a charity run

de-ice a neighbours car windscreen

give up your seat on the train for someone

>>>see all the previous RAoK posts here<<<

have you done any of these already?

RAoK 365: 16 more cheap random acts of kindness

Wow, if you've done one of each of these RAoKs, you'll have done more than 50 random acts of kindness so far! Imagine that! Your Karma rating must be through the roof!

{16 free random acts of kindness}

{16 more free random acts of kindness}

{16 donating/recycling random acts of kindness}

{16 cheap random acts of kindness}

Just in case you need some more ideas, here are a few more RAoKs you can perform for very little money:

>>>cheap random acts of kindness<<<

17-32

write a letter of thanks or praise to a local business/institution

gift a stranger

buy a bunch of flowers and give them to someone in the street

buy a box of chocolates or candies and offer them around on the train

give change and chocolate coins to a busker

buy some doggy treats and give them to a friend or neighbour with a dog

buy a big box of chocolates and distribute them in the pigeonholes at work

knit or sew a blanket for an ill or abused child

knit a blanket for a homeless animal

knit, crochet or sew tiny clothes or blankets for premature babies

leave a larger than normal tip for someone who has given you excellent service

list a PIF item in your online shop

bake cookies for your work mates

send someone a bunch of flowers by mail

plant a tree

feed the birds

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RAoK 365: 16 cheap random acts of kindness

Free random acts of kindness {1} {2} are all well and good, as are donations - but sometimes you can do some excellent RAoKs for just a very small amount of money.

...here are some cheap but awesome RAoKs:

>>>cheap random acts of kindness<<<

1-16

make soup for someone who is sick

give chocolate coins to bank clerks

put sweeties in all of your parcels/letters - even boring ones like bills

give a homeless person a hat or some socks

buy pencils for children in Africa

buy something from someone's online wedding list

buy something from someone's Amazon wishlist

stick lollipops to all of your neighbours' front doors

bake someone a cake unexpectedly

pay for the cup of coffee for whoever is behind you in the queue

buy the barman a drink

leave a pound in a payphone

join the Toy Society

leave a pound in a vending machine

leave change in a machine at the launderette

slip a lottery ticket under a neighbours door

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see my previous RAoK posts here, here and here

RAoK 365: 16 donating or recycling RAoKs

So, we had free random acts of kindness #1 and free random acts of kindness #2, now for a few more RAoKs - these ones include donating unwanted items to charity, though not all of them are necessarily free...

>>>donating and recycling RAoKs<<<

donate old musical instruments to Youth Music

donate used stamps to the RNIB, Brittle Bone Society or PDSA

donate old coins to Oxfam

donate your old bras to women in Uganda

donate your old training shoes

donate your other old shoes to Soles4Souls

donate unwanted books to your local library

donate magazines to doctors surgeries/clinics

recycle your Christmas tree

donate your old eye glasses to Vision Aid Overseas

donate your wedding dress to Brides Against Breast Cancer

donate your hair (10" or more) to Locks of Love

donate used/new books to Book Aid for Africa

donate your unwanted clothing to TRAID

donate to someone random on justgiving

volunteer or donate at a food bank

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Will you be doing any of these?

RAoK 365: 16 more free random acts of kindness

Continuing from the list I started last week about random acts of kindness, here are some more for you to try:

>>>free random acts of kindness<<<

17-32

give someone the benefit of the doubt

polish someone's shoes

help someone who is lost

help build a house

sing someone a song

help clean up your local area

use Mission Fish to fundraise on ebay

collect shopping trolleys and take them back to the trolley area

shovel snow for some elderly neighbours

be patient with someone you're not usually patient with

do someone's washing up for them

have tea or coffee with an elderly person

give someone a massage

help someone move house

forgive someone

~~~~~~~~~~~

have you tried any of these RAoKs yet?

RAoK 365: 16 free random acts of kindness

This time last year I was coming to the end of a year-long project called RAoK 365, in which I performed 365 random acts of kindness over the course of a year. I was joined in this by Claire and Phil, and I have to admit it was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. We tried hard to do each RAoK only once, but some of them were just too good not to do every day!

When I was chatting about RAoK 365 with Laura at Karmageddon 10, and she said that she sometimes found it hard to think of things to do, so I thought I would compile a list of some of my favourite RAoKs. And as the holiday season tends to leave us all a bit poor, the first installment will be random acts of kindness you can do for free! Hooray!

Now, I know that RAoK contains the word 'random', but this can mean different things to different people - some people think RAoKs have to be spur of the moment and un-prepared acts of kindness, which does kinda make sense, and I'm all for people being kind whenever they have the opportunity, but some RAoKs may require more effort and even a bit of planning, and that's cool too. There are also people who think that 'random' means you have to do an act of kindness to a stranger, which I don't think is necessarily accurate - as long as the act of kindness is unexpected that makes it random - you don't have to just target strangers... though sometimes they are the most fun!

>>>free random acts of kindness<<<

1-16

compliment someone, and mean it

smile at everyone you see throughout the day

hold the door open for someone

let others onto a bus or train before you

help an old lady across the road

help someone with their shopping

make someone feel loved

lend someone your jacket in the cold

do an unexpected errand for someone

offer to weed a neighbours garden

babysit for busy parents

write a letter to someone you haven't seen in a while

leave a thank you note for the postman/milkman

inspire someone

hug a stranger

~~~~~~~~~

You'll get some more free RAoK ideas next week, and you can get more ideas from the Join Me forum, or from this book - for which I was a contributor!

Do you perform random acts of kindness?

Share your favourites in the comments!

happy fortune cookie day

Today was Fortune Cookie Day (in the USA at least) so I thought perhaps it was time for another Random Act Of Kindness...

I knew I had seen some pretty printables for fortune cookies on Kind Over Matter, which was where I found these badboys:

{fortune cookie printables from Kind Over Matter}

I made about 30, filled a little Easter basket with them and skipped around my workplace dishing them out to colleagues, watching with childlike glee as they revealed their fortunes. For all the fuss I make about my job, I think I would be pretty sad to leave this place - I have built up quite the reputation as "the quirky one", and I must say I rather enjoy it. This RAOK only helped strengthen that reputation.

When all my cookies were gone, I went in search of some other pretty fortune cookie-related goodies... have a peek at these lovelies: