Random Acts of Kindness

Ok Psychgrad... Step away from MLS (the main real estate site in Canada). My agent's husband calls it "porn for women". Luckily, Giz is a former real estate agent, so she willingly (or with very little complaint) humours my addiction.

Suffice to say, we haven't found a home. There isn't much on the market that looks interesting. It's really tough to find the right balance of new home, with a decent size yard (i.e., larger that the little square you get in most townhomes), that is in move-in condition and relatively central. Added to that, we'd like a place that is energy efficient and in walking distance to nearby stores.

Enough about the crappy market (for buyers).

Let me tell you about something more positive.

RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS!
Many of you likely know Julia from Grow. Cook. Eat.. She is a blogger from Cambridge, MA who is a professionally trained chef, leads interactive cooking parties, is a consultant, an entrepreneur and an all-around nice person.

A while back, Julia and I co-posted about our cinnamon bun recipes. You can view mine here and Julia's are here. We got to talking about vanilla beans and next thing I know, she sent me my very own Tahitian vanilla beans.

Just when I thought I had exhausted my random acts of kindness allotment from one person, I found out that I was going to receive another random act of kindness after commenting on one of her posts.

About a week later, I received something in the mail....


Julia had recalled me mentioning wanting to steal this book from Giz (a book I had sent her for Mother's Day...yes, I'm a terrible daughter for wanting to steal my mom's Mother's Day present) and she sent it to me! A big thank you to Julia!

The idea of these random acts is to pass on the kindness. So here's how it works:

1. Leave a comment on this post no later than 8 pm EST Monday, August 17th. I’ll pick 3 comments randomly, on whose authors I’ll bestow an act of kindness. I’ll announce the winners shortly after.

2. My kindness can be anything of my choosing. It might be handmade and it might be purchased, but it will be selected just for you. I make no guarantees that you’ll love it (or not find it odd or quirky), but I guarantee that it will be heartfelt on my part.

3. Having some experience with shipping blogging prizes overseas, I'm going to have to limit my kindness to bloggers from North America.

All you have to do, dear readers, is have a blog and be willing to pass on the kindness by creating a similar post. If you don’t blog, play the game the old-fashioned way: find a neighbour, stranger or friend in need and fill it.