Lent gifting day 31

Today I'm donating a book. 

 

A tiny book but a book nonetheless. It took me an hour to read so I recorded it on Litsy. I have a Litsy account which is basically an online booklist crossed with twitter. I wanted to record the books I've read and to create a wish list of books to read in the future. So many books to read. 

I wrote a short review so I'd remember what it was about. So now I can pass the book on. Books are something that give wisdom, transport you to other worlds, open your mind & can bring hope. So giving them to other people is really good.  Or at least it is in my opinion. 

I hope this finds you well & with lots of books to read! 

Much love, 

Daena 

Ps. What is your favourite book of all time? And do you have any to recommend here? X

Lent gifting day 30

10 days to go until this lent gifting game is over. Which also means that there are only 10 days until Easter. What are you doing this Easter? How do you celebrate this season (or this set of holidays) if you don't celebrate Easter? 

I'm still not 100% sure what to do this year for Easter apart from make things or gift experiences. Or I could buy and or make food. My family loves food. Plus they all usually appreciate my cooking. So if I find something they like surely I can make it and give it as a gift to my family and friends and they will appreciate it. Fingers crossed. If you have any ideas... please pass them this way. 

Today's kindness for the lent gifting is actually more than one thing but I'm calling it one because it's part of a set. 

 

DVDs. More specifically Seasons 2-5 of Angel (the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Spinoff). I was kind of obsessed with this show when I was younger. I wrote one of my first fan fictions about characters from the first season of Angel (& I also wrote about the TV show "The Pretender" too) but that was a long long time ago. Needless to say these have been a part of my writing history. I love to write fiction stories, novels (all unpublished), romance novels and occasionally I write fanfics just to help me get over or to explain certain things in shows I love. And also... blog posts, essays & research notes. It's not all good writing. However I keep learning and growing as a writer. 

Hopefully my writing is getting better to you, my faithful reader, too! 

You might wonder why I am getting rid of a show I loved?! I realised that even if I don't have these DVDs I'm not going to forget how my teenage brain was obsessed with its shows characters. Or that I would eagerly wait for it to show on TV every week. Or how bad my writing was when I reread my fan fiction YEARS later, and it was bad. Hehehehe. I'm not afraid to admit it. I've still got so much to learn. But I've definitely improved since then. What I loved about the show was there were so many possibilities that made writing easy. Anything is possible in a world where demons & vampires exist. I have always been interested in ancient mythology so writing about demons and vampires wasn't really much of a step up or down from those ideas. 

Mind you demons are a fair way away from writing about kindness. Yet I am still passionate about writing and kindness. 

I'm most comfortable giving these away in the knowledge that I don't need them to be creative. I don't NEED these DVDs to write fun, scary, romantic stories. In fact by giving them away I'm opening up space in my room to be more creative. To have space to store my art supplies or my story journals (there are lots of these). I'll get around to finishing or rewriting the most interesting stories from the journals at some point. In the meantime I'll just keep writing. I'll write about thing that mean a lot to me like Kindness & being compassionate to one another on this big diverse world of ours. 

 I'm sure I've used this graphic from Pinterest before. I do love it though. I carry it with me always. 

Love Daena xx

Lent gifting day 29

What skills do you have that you could use to help someone else? What talents do you have that you could use as a kind act for another? I am askin because today I realised that I've been doing some kindnesses for a while for my friends or family members. 

I have completed two degrees (undergraduate and postgraduate) and I'm currently working on a new one. In that time I've had to read hundreds of my own assignments, essays, talks, tutorial notes and referenced millions of books. 

This week my nephew, who is in year 8 (his second year of high school) has been writing a report on Tsunamis, particularly the one that hit Japan in 2011 and sent a nuclear power reactor into meltdown. Fascinating stuff! He writes a great report. 

The kindnesses I have done for him (& a lot of others) is proof reading and editing. When I was doing my undergraduate study in the U.K. I often helped my international ESL (English as a Second Language) friends who needed me to just make sure it was properly... English. 

My nephew on the other hand, whose only language is English, has dyslexia. I proof read and highlight what needs to be changed and then talk him through it. This means his assignments are better to read, have less errors (I'm sure I'm not 100% fool proof), and it gives him more confidence knowing that it's readable and makes sense. 

But doing the proofreading got me thinking how easy kindness is. I just used a skill I've honed in my academic life to help my nephew who is just really starting his academic journey. He wants to go to uni already. He has plans. 

I realised that this is in fact a kindness. Using my skills and helping someone else. It's what I do because I care for my friends and family. I want to see them succeed. I also know what I did to help many others could do too. Maybe you have skills in finance? or putting in a tax return? or using computer programs? Or hair dressing? Or dress making? Or baking? Each one of us has the most amazing and diverse set of skills that if we use to perform acts of kindness we can really change the world. 

I know we are on day 29 of the 40 days of lent challenge. What I wanted to share is how you can use what you already have to make a difference. Like your stuff. I also think talents and skills are just as important to give freely. Mind you I have a lot of stuff that I will happily pass on to the needy. So here is where I share the next thing I've given away. A bonds sports bra.  

It is usually "in bad taste" to show ones "smells" in public. But this is a fairly new purchase of mine that I'm passing on already. It's only a few months old but it doesn't fit and I feel not like myself wearing it. So it needs to go to a better home. So in the opshop bag it goes. 

Well that's all from me today. I hope you are well. What skills, talents and resources do you use to make a difference? What do you do to act kindly towards others? Yourself? The environment? I'm not just asking because I'm I'm curious... I would love more ideas people!!!! 😁😁😁

Much love to you all, 

❤ Daena 

Lent gifting day 28

Recently I talked about giving clothes to friends in a kind of clothing network. My gifting today is 3 pairs of jeans that I'll pass on to a friend (black, navy and purple). If she doesn't want them then she passes them onto people she knows needs them and so on and so forth. I'm so glad I can pass these on to a friend who will use them (or pass them on). They are good quality. and they will last a long time too. I don't need 4 pairs of jeans. 3 of the jeans of which are too small for me (just) so are never very comfortable to wear. Hence they are today's gifts. 

 

I'm slowly pairing down my wardrobe to be more of a capsule wardrobe. I've been following capsule wardrobes for a while on Pinterest mainly for travel. Or at least how my love of capsule wardrobes started because I only wanted to take a carry on suitcase around the world when I went (if you want to check the carry on travel wardrobes check my Pinterest board here). 

I'm falling in love with the idea of owning less clothes to take the problem of choosing out of my mornings. There is a project called 333. It's 33 clothes pieces for 3 months including shoes and accessories. It's a fantastic challenge. One I might have to give a go in coming months. If you want to see some capsule wardrobes check it my Capsule Wardrobe Pinterest  board. 

I hope this finds you all well. 

Love Daena 

Lent gifting day 27

Wow...27 days in and I almost can't believe how much stuff is going out of our house. There are 3 HUGE garbage bags in the hallway ready to go plus a few smaller bags to go to different friends and family members. We still have 13 days to go until Easter Sunday, which will mark the end of Lent and the end of this gifting kindness project. The hard bit is realising you can barely tell where I've been... mum at least has half a book case empty, which makes her gifting noticeable. I still have so much stuff! Maybe the next 13 days I can give more?! 

Today I went through my gift box and found a bunch of towels. Yes, towels. I thought I would get them embroidered and then gift them for wedding gifts or for housewarming parties but something always came along that fitted the people more. So I decided that the towels would be better used by a homeless shelter. 

 

So that's what I'm going to do. I've got them wrapped in a bag to take to one of the shelters or refuges that we visit in the next few weeks. Whoever wants them can have them. And usually they are in high demand. I may even buy some body wash, shampoo and conditioner and some combs or something to help the staff at some of these places make hygiene packs. CWA makes these up. Only last week I helped mum, as the CWA community coordinator, make up about 100 of these hygiene packs for donations to charity 

The lent gifts today are two black bath sheets, a black hand towel and a flannel, plus a cream coloured towel too. I'm calling this a single donation because it's going to one place (& really I need to give more of my stuff away if I ever plan to move). I bet you wouldn't believe how much space I now have in my Present box now that I've gotten rid of these out of it?! So much space!!! Soon I may even be able to repurpose the box to something more useful. 

Today also marks 3 years since my mum had both of her breasts removed because of cancer (it's called a double mastectomy). She is not over the long term affects and problems of having the surgery (& never will be over some things). But it's been 3 years since she got the cancer removed from her body. 3 years without cancer is a win! I am so proud of her. We are all celebrating life today! She has done so much & achieved so much in those 3 years since she had her surgery. None of us will be the same again. I like to think it's just made each one of us stronger. And I'm so grateful I still have my mum around to hug, talk to and just be around. She's awesome. I know... I am biased! 😁

Alright that's enough for me. What kindnesses have you been doing? What's the greatest kindness someone has done for you? 

Love Daena x

Lent gifting day 26

 Sometimes the hardest things to let go of are the free things. Saying no to free things when you don't want them or need them can seem hard particularly when you think you "might" use them in the future. 

My family and some awesome friends have a system of distribution for getting rid of clothes. People pass things on to me to check out if I want it, then I pass those things on to other people. Sometimes they end up at the op-shop but more often than not they end up with friends of mine who are financially struggling which makes a difference to us all. 

Today's kindness is a dress that came through this system of passing along clothes. Something that I essentially got for free. 

 

I saw this dress and when I put it on I thought it was pretty good so kept it. It's been sitting in my cupboard for 2 months and I haven't even looked at it. I had face the fact that it was a great dress in theory but in practice I have other clothes I prefer. So I'm passing this one along to my little network of people who need clothes. So although this one is part of this lent "gifting" it won't be going to a charity but to a friend. 

On a different note, there is something wonderful about knowing that your family do kindnesses in their own ways. My nephew makes cups of tea for my mum (it's a real winner). My Brother-in-law volunteers time with scouts and donates blood (here in Australia it's a charitable donation you can't earn money from blood donations). My niece helps her friends in class by getting their chairs out for them. My sister volunteers her time as a Joey Scout leader even though she no longer has a joey scout in the house. My mum donates her time and effort to working as the CWA community coordinator. And well... then there is me. 

I often help mum in her role take deliveries of hand made & new purchased items to hospitals, nursing homes, homeless shelters, refuges, charities and to school chaplains. I am always amazed at the generosity of my fellow CWA ladies. It is always a profound privilege giving these things over to those need them. I get to play Kindness fairy and represent the women who did all the hard work at the same time. It's a lot of fun too!!! 

I'm so proud of my family who do their own acts of kindness. They give their time, money and energy to help other people. 

Have you noticed anyone in YOUR family, or close friends group, who is doing kindnesses? What are you most proud of them for? 

Much love to you all, 

Daena xxx

Lent gifting day 25

Tonight was Earth Hour. One hour without electricity to show your solidarity with the earth. I've done it most years. 

 It's always fun playing cards in the dark with my family. Kindness for the environment tonight. Another kindness to tick off the list! 

Today's donation to charity is this waistcoat that I bought in England for a pirate party all those years ago (almost 10). I've used it for all kinds of things over the years. Usually to dress up as a pirate repeatedly after all It's an easy fall back costume. I do dress up a lot because I enjoy dressing up. 

 

It might also work for a hobbit costume too but sadly it's not what I want to keep anymore. It's never fit me properly. I bought it second hand (for about £2) and cut holes in the opposite side of the button holes, thread ribbon through it for a Halloween costume 10 years ago when I was living in Hull, Yorkshire, England, UK. As an international student studying at the university I had lots of fun adventures. Halloween was one of them. But shopping cheap was a necessity. At that time the British Pound was about 3-1. $3AUD for £1 British Pound. So it was quite painfully expensive to live there at the time. I did have a wonderful time though. 

The waistcoat has great memories but I don't want to keep it just because it has memories. I have lots of photos and other bits and pieces that I love much more than this one item of clothing. So I'm pleased to pass it on to someone else who can enjoy it as much as I did. Maybe they will be a pirate or a hobbit. Or maybe they will be a milkmaid or a streampunker. Anyway it is used it will be worth it. It has lots of life left in it. 

Hope you are well. 

Love Daena