Don't Want 'Em...Donate 'Em!

Pop into Chicago’s top boutiques and party spots this week and donate clothes that you no longer need. Flier snagged from the Leaders 1354 blog. Check them out…Buy a shirt. Oh, and while I’m throwing shameless plugs out there…Two friends from college are the “Two Black Dudes” in tonight’s comedy show. I (sadly) have not had a chance to check them out yet, but folks tell me that they are hilarious. If they’ve gotten any funnier since high school  (which they have), then I believe the reports. What up, Will and Clark! #ushouldabeenadolphin

-kb

-kb

Today’s post is pretty simple…I’m just going to tell you all what I would give with various amounts of money. So, here we go!

With $5… I’d “pay it forward” at Starbucks and pay for the person’s order behind me.

With $50…I’d give some grocery money to an out-of-work family.

With $500…I’d give a deserving classroom money for a fun, educational field trip.

With $5000…I’d give five $1000 scholarships to teens affected by multiple sclerosis.

Your turn. Think about what you’d give with these funds and then just start making it happen. Especially with the $5 idea!

'Tis better to give...

-kb

Today while browsing through Twitter, I came across this quote, tweeted by the Angel Rock Project:

Quote of the Day: The charitable give out the door and God puts it back through the window…Traditional Proverb.

I read it and had to stop, think, and say a prayer to God. It went a little something like this…

God, as long as I can, I promise to use the gifts that you gave me to help others, while at the same time helping my spirit and soul. As I send these blessings out the door, I will open my heart and mind to receive any and everything that you see fit to put through my window. Thank you for yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Amen.

Knowing that you reap everything that you sow, what blessings and positivity are you giving out your door? If you’re not already doing so, I encourage you to find a way (any way) to start investing in others and in your community. The reward is there for the taking, and trust me…You will be blessed.

Happy Friday!

-kb

Photo: Gentle Breeze by Lyle Huisken (as featured on Fine Art America)

For some great tips on planning a charitable wedding, check out my guest post over at CocktailsDetails.com! Cocktails and Details is a wedding planning group run by the lovely Terrica. It’s a great resource for anyone looking for creative ideas to incorporate into their nuptials!

Let me know what you think!

-kb

My apartment is in desperate need of a style lift. I’ve lived there for over 4 years, and it still looks like I just moved in. I think the fanciest thing that I’ve done is hang gorgeous purple curtains in the living room and buy some gray/purple/burgundy pillows for my couch. I have always been in a state of transition in that apartment and that has been the sole reason for my lack of decoration. I always feel like I’m about to move or I want to move, so why turn my house into a home?

While I haven’t quite found a place that makes me feel like Tiffany’s*, I think that I’m finally going to try and pull my place together before the spring gets here. That means coming up with a color palette for each room, creating a list of furniture to purchase (a dining room table tops this list), and finally breaking out the paint. When I first moved in, I bought two gallons of paint (deep red and a sienna) to add some warmth to my stark white walls. But, four years later, those gallons are in the closet along with shelves, candles, picture frames, and various other decor pieces that have brought more flair to my closet than my walls.

Well, thanks to the Lavish Giving gift certificate that I won a couple a months ago, I’ve found some vases that I must add to my bedroom. I like the earth tones/turquoise palette for my bedroom, so I am ordering the vases below in turquoise and brown.

Aren’t they great? Aside from being the 2010 color of the year, turquoise is a favorite color of mine because it reminds me of the lake on a sunny day or the ocean. *sigh* I’m looking forward to installing a shelf in the room and adding these guys. I won’t post any before pictures of my apartment but as things start coming together, I will definitely sprinkle some after pics on the site.

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY! *throws confetti*

I am giving away a $50 gift certificate to Lavish Giving! Lavish Giving has a great selection of gifts, stationary, and, of course, home decor. Even better is the fact that a portion of your total is contributed to a charity of your choice. I plan on donating to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (no surprise there)!

To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is respond in the comments to the question below.

“What’s your favorite way to give your home a quick style lift? Adding pillows? Buying candles? Etc?”

I’m looking forward to reading some of your tips because I’m really need to pull this together asaptually!!! I will randomly select the winner tomorrow at 3p, so make sure that your comment is up before then. Oh, and it sounds simple, but don’t forget to include your email and/or Twitter handle. Good luck, guys!

-kb

*In “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” Holly says that when she finds a place that makes her feel like Tiffany’s (calm and secure), then maybe she’d buy some furniture for her apartment. One of my favorite lines in the whole movie because I understand her COMPLETELY!

Levi’s wants you to donate those old jeans to Goodwill instead of throwing them away! Continuing their partnership with the nonprofit organization, Levi’s rolled out the “A Care Tag for Our Planet” initiative this month. Levi’s jeans now feature a care tag that encourages owners to donate to Goodwill when no longer needed, with the hopes of reducing the billions of pounds of clothing that end up in landfills.

Donations of gently used clothing and other items are sold in Goodwill stores, where the revenues help fund job training programs, employment placement services and other community-based programs for people with disabilities, those who lack education or job experience, and those facing other challenges to finding employment. “The simple act of donating your used Levi’s jeans to Goodwill helps to reduce the approximately 23.8 billion pounds of clothing and textiles that go into U.S. landfills each year,” said Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International.

To get you even more excited about this cool initiative, Levi’s will give you a 30% off coupon when you bring a gently used pair of jeans in by January 30th!

All lil’ goodwill for your goodwill. Sounds like a plan to me! I personally have my eye on the pair above. I can make those work in all seasons!

-kb

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I thought I’d share one of my favorite quotes of his, particularly related to service.

“Everybody can be great.  Because anybody can serve.  You don’t have to have a college degree to serve.  You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve…. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.  You only need a heart full of grace.  A soul generated by love.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

So, on this day…What steps and plans will you make to be great?

Whether it’s through this blog, on Twitter, or in real life, I like to talk about and promote various ways to give back. And, while I’m sharing ways with you all, I’m also challenging myself to volunteer and look for personal opportunities for myself. Lately though, I’ve been feeling guilty. Guilty that I can’t give as much as I used to. And, I’m not really talking about money but more about my time. During my corporate sabbatical, I would volunteer as often as I could or spend days researching charitable events and initiatives to share.

But now, my time isn’t what it used to be and I have been feeling pretty rotten about it! I know that giving is from the heart and I shouldn’t feel that way, but I do! Can I just tell you how I almost felt like a failure when I lost track of my 29-Day Giving Challenge? Literally. But, I restarted the challenge today and hope that I will complete it on track and guilt-free! Or so I hope.

So, how did I deal with the guilt of not giving?

1. I acknowledged that there are only so many hours (and dollars) in a day.

This is a huge one that I had to learn. While I would love to be able to function on limited sleep (and often do), I’m not superwoman. Although I think I’d look amazing in the cape and tights.

2. I do what I can do when I can do it.

Nowadays, you can find many businesses and nonprofits that offer products or services that also give back to a designated charity. Check in with your favorite charity to see if they have teamed up with any companies lately that will allow you to combine something that you need with your favorite cause. Have a business dinner? Try having it at a restaurant that’s donating a percentage to a local group. You get the point. Or simply give a dollar here or there. It doesn’t have to be much!

3. I remembered that if I felt pressure to give, then I probably wasn’t doing it for the right reasons.

Giving is a selfless act and while many people can gain something from it, that shouldn’t  be (and is not) the point. Remember the true nature of the act and that should help you get rid of the negative feelings.Wishing that you could do more is one thing. Completely bullying yourself or letting others bully you is another.

-kb

A couple of weeks ago, I was surfing MSNBC.com and came across a clip of Cami Walker on The Today Show. Cami was on the show to talk about how the recommendation of an African healer led her to give 29 gifts in 29 days as a way to cope with her recent diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. Let me get this straight. A young woman living with multiple sclerosis was going to talk about the power of giving? I had to watch…and in the process, I had to pray that I wouldn’t burst into tears particularly because I work in a room with four other people.

Listening to Cami, I heard her tell a story that I’m all to familiar with…Young women just beginning their path into adulthood, marriage, or parenthood suddenly find themselves trying to understand and live with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. It was my mother’s story. Cami was diagnosed one month after her wedding day at the age of 33. As she navigated the difficult physical and emotional changes, she received some advice from a friend of hers who was an African healing woman. Her friend told her to give 29 gifts in 29 days. The reason why? “By giving, you are focusing on what you have to offer others, inviting more abundance into your life.” *church hand*

As Cami gave, she noticed that the positivity and selflessness that she gave to the world was reciprocated in ways that she couldn’t have imagined. At the end of her interview, I was intrigued, motivated, and a little teary-eyed. A colleague of mine recently asked me why I was such a good person. I told her that my giving spirit is motivated by my mother. In the midst of her health battles, she always found room to give to others, to care, and to share. For that, I believe that God kept a special eye on her and her family. And, that is the kind of grace that I want to have over my life.

Cami’s story hit home for me in the realest way, so I decided that I needed to read her book 29 Gifts: How A Month of Giving Can Change Your Life AND take on my own 29-day giving challenge! So, for the next 29 days, I will be blogging each day (gift to you) and giving gifts to the world. In addition to the energy that I’m putting out into the universe, I also plan to host some giveaways on the blog!

If you want to follow along with me, be sure to check out my page on the 29-Day Giving Challenge Ning site, as well as Twitter and here. I will tag any tweet related to my challenge with the hashtag #29days. I hope that you’ll stick with me as I take this on head first and walk into the new year with a new mindset.

Please check out 29Gifts.org to learn more and you can watch Cami’s Today show appearance below.

-kb

There are few things that excite people like free items. Especially when you get them for just being awesome, blogging, or attending an event. While I’m not a complete swag bag junkie, my eyes do grow bigger when someone says “Don’t forget to grab a bag on your way out!” Wow, me? Sure! While some bags are total homeruns, others are filled with items that I will probably never use. I’m childless so a can of baby formula or a Bratz doll don’t do me any good. Or how many free shampoos do I need? I’m particular with my hair and related products, so none actually. For the products that I don’t use, they will eventually go in a Rubbermaid bin until I figure out what to do with them. Throwing them away never really crosses my mind because the company wants someone to have that item and they just missed the mark with me.

I thought about this topic earlier this summer when Kim Moldofsky organized SOS:Save Our Soaps during BlogHer 2009, and collected the extra soaps and shampoos from conference attendees. It was a great idea! Then, the idea crossed my mine again when I saw collection bins around the office for shampoos and body care products to donate to a local women’s shelter. A month passes and I come across the Bloggers Give website. These days more and more PR companies reach out to bloggers and ask them to sample or test products. Bloggers Give encourages bloggers to ask companies for an additional product to donate to charity. Such a great idea!

You know what you plan on using and you know what’s going in a corner somewhere. Donating your freebies is such a great way to pay it forward and it’s free just like that foundation that was three shades too light!

-kb