Random acts of kindness

This morning I got out of my car in the carpark near my work. It was a normal autumn day in Perth. The sun was shining and there was a chilly morning wind and pulled my jacket tighter around myself, thinking maybe it is time to dig out the tights. I walked to the parking meter and as I got closer I saw something taped to the front of it.

The 'something' was this sweet random act of kindness.

The pouch contained $5.00 - enough for a full day's parking in Osborne Park for an office worker like me. I didn't take it, though, I decided to leave it for someone else who maybe needed it more than I did, but I did stop and say outloud to myself 'that's so nice' and it made me smile. It made me smile all morning infact.
 
And so I looked into it.

Happy Fun Joy Treasures has been doing random acts of kindness and placing them all over the city over the last couple of months. Each random act of kindness includes a card. Once you accept an act of kindness, you email Happy Fun Joy Treasures and share your experience including the card number on the back of you card.  And why wouldn't you? You'd be so tickled pink, your day will be completely made and you'll want to tell someone about it.
 
Then your mission if you choose to accept it, is to do a random act of kindness for someone else and give them your card. As the card and the kindness gets passed along, you can track the stories of the lives the card touches through the blog.
 
Isn't that just an unbelievably cheerful idea?!   

There are five types of kindness cards from Happy Fun Joy Treasures - happy cards, fun cards, joy cards and gold cards. All inspired to make someone's day with an act of kindness between strangers. I mean, is there a better kind?  
 
Want to take part?
If you love the idea as much as I do and don't want to sit around waiting for a random act of kindness to jump up infront of you, you can order a random act of kindness to your door by emailing happyfunjoytreasures@hotmail.com and start spreading the joy!
 
As I mentioned, I didn't take this random act of kindness today - its near a school and I figured, I'd already been touched by the concept, someone else - maybe parking to take their kids to school or pick them up can benefit from the $5.00. But I will be contacting Happy Fun Joy Treasures to order a card and think of my own unique way to share a random act of kindness and see how that card can hopefully make it's way into many other people's hands to make their day too, like this one made mine today.
 
Stay tuned!
 
Has your day been brightened by Happy Fun Joy Treasures? I'd love to hear from you. Put a link to your post if it was shared on their website.

Thirty before 30: two down

A couple of months ago I started a Thirty before 30 list - a count down to my 30th birthday by achieving a few fun things I've thought about over the last 10 or so years.

Two months down and I've achieved two things off the list!

29. Learn to reverse park
Last month I took the leap (and my time, might I add) to reverse park a corporate car in the work carpark. I didn't have a choice really, there wasn't another easy way into the car space. With a little gentle encouragement from a colleague - I did it! And then a few days later, I did it again!

It's still not my favourite thing to do, I don't think I'll be making a habit of it :/ But none the less, ticked off the list. I'll turn 30 finally knowing how to reverse park. You know, if I have to.

18. Visit Tasmania
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting Hobart for a work conference. Now to be fair, I was only there two days and mostly saw the inside of an office, but I did get to experience some fine Tasmanian wine, some exquisite Tasmanian food and some fun Tasmanian hospitality and entertainment. Hopefully I'll get to see a bit more of it later in the year.



AMAZING food at Frank Restaurant, Hobart.

So that's two down, 28 to go! It's a bit of a slow start but I'm out of the gates and running! 

You can check out the full Thirty before 30 list here.

Is your 30th birthday fast approaching? Start your own Thirty before 30 list and join in the fun! 

Turning 17

Today, my baby brother turns 17. This is too weird. I'm 12 years older than he is (yes easy math, I know) and while 17 probably should seem like so long ago... it really doesn't. 17 years ago should feel like a long time ago too - but that also doesn't. I remember being there the day he was born. He came out with a squished nose and a blue tinge, but it didn't take long for him to be the cutest little thing ever with two teenage sisters to completely dote on him, which we did. From there, it seems it didn't take long for him to become this amazing young man of 17.

But today it made me think. What was I like at 17? What was happening in my life then. In the world (apart from it all revolving around high school dramas).

When I was 17:
I was in year 12 at Kent Street Senior High School.
I played the lead in my high school musical Little Shop of Horrors (bit sad, haven't performed since) - and I remember my brother, the only 5 years old bursting into tears in the audience when I got eaten by the plant. I had to leave straight after to go and calm him down!
I worked at my local supermarket as a check out chick for $6 something an hour.
I had a boyfriend I'd met working at the local supermarket.
I'd just discovered parties.
I wore halter tops and flared jeans.
I didn't have my licence, that took another year.
I lived in Forrestfield.
It was all about the Year 12 Ball. All we could talk about were our ball dresses,
I had lost my virginity (well it wasn't lost, I knew where it went - scandalous!).
I listened to Eminem - The Eminem Show, Milincolin - Pennybridge Pioneers, Red Hot Chilli Peppers - By the Way on high rotation.
I was watching Australian Idol and Sex in the City.
I weighed in at about 50kg... and did no exercise apart from walking to the bus and to work - wish it was that easy now!
I had a Nokia 3330 that you could only play Snake on, text and call.
I was doing 4 subjects at school Maths, English Literature, Drama and History studying for my TEE.
I dreamed of being a writer/actress.
I had a great bunch of loopy friends, a select few I've managed to retain and they are still my most favourite people and it's a joy to be growing up with them... even if some things were more fun at 17! 

Happy birthday little bro!

One of my fave photos of us - circa 2010.

What were you doing when you were 17?

Ten by six DIY: Mini succulent garden

Succulents are some of my favourite plants. It helps that they're hardy and hard to kill which is certainly helpful at certain times of the year when my garden gets a bit neglected. 

But the thing I love about succulents is how floral and colourful they can be. How you can just cut a piece off, plant it and grow another. For some time I've been growing succulents in small pots and old jars which is a look I love. But I've been meaning to do a mini succulent garden with a mixture of those from my garden for quite some time and a couple of weeks ago, I finally did!

It's now sitting pride of place by my front door, brightening my day every time I leave and welcoming me home as I return.

What you'll need for a mini succulent garden:
Making your own mini succulent garden is super easy!

• Variety of succulent cuttings from your garden
• A pot 
• Potting mix
• Gardening gloves

Simply arrange to your liking, make sure everything is securely planted and give it a little water once a week. It's the perfect, low maintenance, all-year-round floral arrangement!

 

 

What do you think?

Long weekend love - this weekend's pearls

I love long weekends! And the four day Easter weekend is the ultimate long weekend on the calendar. It might be a week ago now, but I'm still buzzing from my long weekend and what may have been the last few days of sunshine, it this week's weather is anything to go by.

I decided to abstain from the Easter themed baking pressure this year and instead focussed on a few things that truely made my weekend.

Loading all of my CDs onto my computer (because iTunes deleted everything when I got my new phone dammit!). It was so fun to go through all of my music, I've got a pretty random mix from 90s, through the norties up to last year really. Great reminiscing material that's for sure and can't wait to make up a few new play lists and revisit old favourites.

Baking banana bread. I love banana bread and MR loves it too so it's a cute thing I like to do... baking it for him. (Ofcourse getting to eat it is a welcome outcome.) Add loads of walnuts and blueberries - yummy weekend treat!

Family and friendly gatherings. Oh so many! That's the thing about long weekends, everyone wants to see everyone (and drink loads - eekk!) Lots of fun and laughter certainly had. 

15 minutes of us. Ok so it was more like an hour over breakfast, but in a weekend full of gatherings it was nice to take a short moment to have a wee breakfast out, on a windy day by the beach.

Harvesting and planting. Ok so I didn't do anything too strenuous but I loved getting this tiny chilli haul from our plants in the courtyard and planting a few other things around to bring our garden to life more this Autum.  
 

What did you get up to on your long weekend?

Visitors at the Ten by six

I love having visitors!

Over the last couple of months we've been lucky enough to have to bouts of visitors at the Ten by six.

Ofcourse, one great thing about visitors is that it's really good motivation to get your house looking absolutely spick and span. For instance, while preparing for our most recent lot of visitors, I discovered the grout in our bathroom tiles, is actually in fact white, not brown! See, I might never have know that!

But all jokes aside, the best thing about having visitors from out of town is the opportunity it presents to get out and do things! See your city, experience it as a tourist and show your visitors what's so great about your pretty piece of the world.

Having visitors is a really good reminder for me, exactly why it is that I live in Perth - because it really is beautiful and I love it! Even though my immediates all live in different states and at times I wish we all lived closer, I love Perth, and right now, this is exactly where I want to be. But too often I get caught up in all the day to day stuff - working, housework, writing and when I come up for fresh air I often bury myself in a good book instead. It's easy to forget about all the great places to go and things to do in Perth.

Enter my most recent visitors. My Dad and Step Mum recently spent a few days visiting at the Ten by six before we went to Bali with my sister and her family to celebrate a big birthday for my Dad. It just so happened the weekend they were here was the Araluen's Fremantle Chilli Festival. I always intend to go to all the festivals and then when it comes to it, never end up getting to them. what a treat! We spent a beautiful day in Fremantle and the surrounds, took a drive up the coast road around Cottesloe, drove up and down many beautiful streets in the area 'house watching' as we like to call it.

The other great thing about having family visitors at your house is that they inevitably fix things around the house for you while you're off at work, just to be helpful. Running toilet - fixed! Sticky front door - smooth again. Weeds - gone. Dog bed - assembled.

There is much to be said for having visitors, even if they do have to squish in a Ten by six!

 

What's your favourite place in your city to show off when you have visitors?

One year: A Ten by Six anniversry

One year ago this weekend, MR and I moved into the Ten by Six.

It feels like yesterday and years ago all at the same time. So much happens in a year! So much changes.

We had 3 friends to help us move and Operation One Truck was pretty much a success, with everything packed up by midday. Ofcourse the unpacking took us about 5 months and adjusting and culling to condense our 'stuff' into the Ten by Six, well, that's still an ongoing process.

We've adjusted fairly well to the 'home owner' situation with bills seemingly being paid on time and only recently did we finally decide to do a proper, 'grown up' budget.

So what have we learnt this last year?

How to use a drill - very handy for putting up shelves and pictures and things.

There's nowhere to go when you have a fight - so best just kiss and make up ;) Now that's a good one, in a space this small, you really do need to just air the fight and then let it go. Tension is just too much for the Ten by Six.

How to unblock a toilet - an experience I'd rather not go into, but let's just say it was shitty!

How to change a shower head - oh the sense of accomplishment I felt when I figured this one out... and then realised the shower head we'd bought still didn't fix our pressure problem and we still had to get the plumber in.

Two heads are not always better than one - in a teeny tiny space, sometimes, it's better if one person does this and the other does that. Two people on one job is often just too squishy, let alone stressful.

No matter how much you cull, you still have too much stuff for a Ten by Six - I think I would need to literally throw out everything I own in order for this place to have that chic, minimalistic charm I so wish it would.

Not forwarding your mail correctly results in hefty fines - enough said, I'm still paying them off! I think this counteracts the 'grown up-ness' of the budget by the way.

You can't do it all at once - no matter how many great ideas you have, you can't do all of the amazing things, all at once, there isn't the money and there certainly isn't the time. Some things have to wait... until next year.  

All in all, the important thing is that we have a little piece of the world to call our own. A little piece of security in our busy lives, and a little investment in our futures. And at the end of the day - we love it!