Give 10% of your earnings to charity

This is indeed a regular saying, but it's true. Be nice and give 10% of your earnings to charity, whichever you think is best. I'd suggest WWF, Friends of the Earth or Greenpeace - make a difference to the world you live in and depend on. But there are lots of other options too, for example Oxfam - saving people in the world and looking after it too.

I know it's hard, I really do - currently I think the most I manage is about 3%? Hopefully though, once we're done clearing our own debts, then we can rack it up to 10% and life will be sweet :-) And it will definitely make the world a better place when we do. So if you can afford it, do it! Please :-)

Declutter and share

I genuinely believe that an emptier space is a happier space, that the energy flows more freely around a decluttered room and that it becomes infinitely easier to relax both mentally and physically in such a place.

I also suspect that many people have a lot of things they don't necessarily want, or need - things that have been acquired and then kept through habit. The chances are probably also good that the things you never look at, use or admire are things that someone else would give their left arm to own, that they could never dream of affording or just don't know how to get any more.

So follow this 2-part plan to achieve an inner glow that will last you for weeks.

1 - Declutter. Go through your things, one by one (this is very important, look at each item individually) and think 'do I really need this? Do I? Really? Why?'. This way of looking at things has helped me get rid of stuff that I thought was a life fixture. Turns out I didn't need it or especially want it at all. I was just used to it.

2 - Give your ex-clutter to someone else who really wants it. Advertise it on your local freecycle group. Take it all to a charity shop. Give it to your friend who has always really wanted it.

Declutter and share - you get happy, and you will make someone else just Glow with happiness as their dreams unexpectedly come true. And it's green too, reuse and recycle!

Here is a great link suggesting places you can share your old things out to (other than the nice easy option of the local charity shop you support):
http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/save-money/declutter-donate-stuff-460210
I can't promise how many places have an equivalent in the UK but I suspect they are definitely out there, all it takes is a quick google search.

Here's a good example of this idea in practice:
http://www.dosomethinggoodday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=23

Good Luck :-)

(and here's something funny,  just for smiles) :-)

Spring Flowers

This is the time of year where supermarkets sell all sorts of spring flowers in pots - hyacinths and daffodils being two of the main ones. Also lots of cut daffodils.

If you look though, these all have sell by dates on, and just before the sell by date they're generally reduced to ridiculously cheap prices - last week I bought a hyacinth in a beautiful pot for 49p!

If you see a reduced spring flower in a pot or even really reduced daffodil stems, think about buying some for a friend, or buying £5 worth and taking them to the local old peoples home to brighten up their day. Last year I think £5 would have bought me half of the local supermarket's stock, and it was only being unemployed that stopped me :-) This year I'm going to be watching them like hawks - and hopefully soon our local old peoples home will have daffodils coming out of their ears ;-)

Give an old or lonely person a present

Merry Christmas in advance to everyone who reads this blog :-)

My suggestion for niceness this Christmas is this: almost all of us know of an old person or housebound person in the street, who will be lonely this Christmas. Go out and buy them a present and drop it off, nicely wrapped up :-) Or even just give them a Christmas card. I am absolutely certain it will brighten their day huge amounts.

Of course the next stage up for that is if you want to, invite them over for Christmas! They might say no, but they might be thrilled and come and have a lovely time. Obviously only invite people who aren't axe-murderers :-)

Or if you don't know anyone local, go and buy a nice shareable present and give it to the local care home/nursing home to be shared amongst the residents. I'm sure there will be lonely people in those places too and that a present would just make their day.

And again - Merry Christmas everyone!

Help people in the snow

So, it's snowing in quite a few places at the moment. And it's gorgeous and amazing!

But take a moment to remember all the people who actually find it really hard to deal with - and help them out!

If you see an old person tottering along on the icy pavements with a stick, try asking them politely if they want a hand. I did that today and not only had a lovely chat with the lady and got wished a Merry Christmas, but she also had a huge smile on her face and really seemed like I had made a good difference to her day. So ask nicely - my lady said she was ok but when I asked if she'd like a hand, she said yes.

And if you don't see any old people needing a hand out in the street, maybe ask someone old or housebound if you can pick them up any shopping whilst you're out. I generally ask my neighbours this but whilst they've not said yes yet, I think they appreciate the offer :-)

So that's my nice suggestion for the day! I hope you're all enjoying the snow :-)

Beautiful Lights

Between 12-15 November, there's a series of installations based on light taking place in Durham.
http://www.lumieredurham.co.uk/guide/

It sounds absolutely Beautiful. My especial favourite has to be: 
'Power Plant will be taking over the Durham University Botanic Garden: it's a beautiful series of installations that use light and sound to create an ethereal, eerie world where plants whisper and old gramophones crackle'

Last night we went to see the local fireworks. A lot of people had paid to get in, but a lot of people were standing on the other side of the river, lining the town, watching the beautiful lights flickering in the sky.

So I suppose the suggestion I have for today, for being nice, is finding something beautiful and either showing it to someone or giving it to them as a gift. Buy an old lady a bunch of flowers. Draw a card for your partner to tell them you love them - anyone can draw a romantic heart :-) Buy yourself a suncatcher and hang it in the window so that beautiful lights can twinkle through your room every day, even in winter. Go and pick up some rubbish in your local park so it looks even more beautiful for everyone who walks through it that day. Sit and look up at the stars with someone this evening.

There's beauty everywhere, if you look and if you make it happen.

(and sorry for the lack of posts lately, I've had a cold and felt grumpier than a grumpy thing :-) In those circumstances, the nice choices are duvets, cold remedies and hugs)

Being Nice and Kind - blog/website stickers!

I've made some stickers for you to use if you want to. These will let you show the world what a Nice blog or website you have!

Here is the code:
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.niceandkind.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHmO3lWw7T7GYlvGFvUOoClMyxMHYzxIBLvt-tacSPSOGvg6emJjY1Y1iXOyT0KgcaMCHEJY6YH0aWUZKWA6WSVH1CWcCZ8Yb0_gTb3t2xkfRTxDPfBUPMvuKjga9tBSTADIrmXllycRs/s1600-h/sticker1.jpg"/></a></div>

or you can use this one:

Here is the code:
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.niceandkind.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" width="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh6hidHms4dVsYp9aPJteA3NJa-UjtDxzFuvvezykyfoXS3Y8vhoFjSazEyHWDRbYYnldfr0NHSTRzgUvm_uZSq4e7GCIhnQJ_4xCi66ZVO9WT7lPIpBUdzWpy8rj4hg924WPNbQPXl3s/s1600-h/sticker2.jpg"></a></div>

Get a cheerful bumper sticker!

Entirely inadvertantly I made someone smile today

She'd just read my bumper sticker from Glastonbury that reads 'Warning: Invisible Dragon in back seat'

:-)

Save the Frogs!

If you go to this link, you can upload a photo of yourself cuddling an animated frog! As a benefit, you're also supporting saving the frogs!
How lovely is that!
http://www.frogme.org/

Don't worry, be happy

As I rather inadvertantly discovered today, even just making yourself smile can spread the happiness.

I was driving out of the supermarket carpark, boogying away to "Happy Days" which happened to be playing on the radio, when I realised a 60 year old guy was watching me rather curiously, with a broad smile on his face. I like to think that smile translated into a kind action of his own later on.


Later on today, we're going to have a bonfire to deal with all our garden waste and also put some nutrients back into the soil. But we're only going to build it a little beforehand because remember! Burning hedgehogs is NOT a happy thing at all! :-\

http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/index.php?section=events:autumn:bonfirenight

This is our bonfire :-)

Nice whilst ill

Well, the last two days have been tricky ones for squeezing in some being nice, as I've had an attack of the raging hormones and my boyfriend has been struck down with a migraine. But there's always room for niceness in the world, even if it does end up being accompanying by some background grumpiness.

So I smiled at all the shop assistants whilst I was buying in our comfort food, said thankyou as they served me, and then I went home and fed my boyfriend humungous amounts of food to try and help him feel better. He's currently considering the benefits of two different flavours of Ben & Jerry's icecream :-)

Sainsbury's currently have Buy 1 Get One 1 free on all big Ben & Jerry's icecream tubs!
So if you want to be nice - go and buy a tub for you, and give the spare one to your partner or your friend that really needs an attack of yummy, eco-friendly comfort food! All their European icecream is climate neutral - and with anything involving cows, that's pretty good. So getting down to Sainsburys and buying lots of ice cream is not only nice for you, and nice for your lucky friend or partner, it's also nice to the world (in preference to buying another icecream anyway!). And no, I don't work for them - I just like icecream ;-)
http://www.benjerry.co.uk/ourvalues/

I also like small things that make me smile

So I may also write about small things that make me smile. Being bounced on by a 7 week old puppy yesterday for example (sorry, no photo, I will work on that!). Getting a free hifi from our local freecycle network (amazing not only for the free, but also the fact that I can now play lots of records from charity shops!)

Hopefully all these small happy things will also make you, my lovely reader smile - and so perhaps in that sense I will not be straying from the purpose of this blog after all.

But for a nice start, here's a photo I took in February this year - tiny snowman with Innocent smoothie hats on :-) It made me smile a lot :-)

Being Nice

Since going through a really hard and painful time in life, I've started to again be able to tell how good it feels to give to other people. Be in through a smile to the checkout girl, letting someone into the traffic lane, bringing someone a cake - it's all amazing!

And the absolute best thing is that it can take so little effort. And once you're nice to someone, the chances are that they'll be nice to someone else - or at least not mean (I suppose it depends how bad a mood they had been in). Niceness breeds niceness.

This could be such a big thing. Once you're nice to someone, you feel great. And they feel great. That's two people who are now probably going to go and be nice to other people. Who will then be nice to other people...you see where I'm heading. And the things you're nice with, don't just have to be smiling at the checkout girl. It could be spending an hour a month volunteering to visit an old person to chat. Or giving something away rather than taking it to the tip. Donating to charity. Clearing up your environment. Or planting daffodils.

I want that kind of feeling good in my life - I love seeing people smile and things become better because of me. I can't imagine anything more satisfying. I'm going to use this blog to write about nice things I've tried - how I did it, what it felt like. You can try them too! Let me know how they go! Together we could make this something really good :-)