PAY IT FORWARD

When I take our little one to his pre-school, we pass a farm that rears cows, not just any cows but 'Shetland Cows'. Now we all know about the Shetland ponies, just never knew Shetland cows existed. The ones that we see on the farm are like the cows above, all fuffy and hairy but black and white like the normal cows we see. What a joy to see, especially as I found out on the internet that they are becoming a rare breed. Anyway, glad someone near us is helping towards slowing that process down.

So what's that go to do with PAY IT FORWARD, well nothing really, just that whenever I see these 'Shetland Cows' I smile, so why not put a smile on someone's face by 'Paying it forward'.

Have any of you seen the movie 'PAY IT FORWARD' with Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt. I gathered that this was based on a book. It is a really heartwarming story (if you are like me, lots of paper hankies by your side as you watch said movie...) When I can, I'll get the book!

PAY IT FORWARD, is based on doing one good deed for 3 people and asking them to do one good deed to 3 people themselves...before you know it, loads of people are doing good deeds for loads of other people and it spreads... I got the idea from another blog (she got the idea from someone else, and it goes on from there).

There is a whole website dedicated to PAY IT FORWARD, please do have a look, link enclosed, and here is a little bit from the website:

Reuben St. Clair, the teacher and protagonist in the book “Pay It Forward,” starts a movement with this voluntary, extra-credit assignment: THINK OF AN IDEA FOR WORLD CHANGE, AND PUT IT INTO ACTION. Trevor, the 12-year-old hero of “Pay It Forward,” thinks of quite an idea. He describes it to his mother and teacher this way: "You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven." He turned on the calculator, punched in a few numbers. "Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?"

So what am I doing about it? Well I signed up to PAY IT FORWARD on little Foodies blog and am really excited about getting a little gift from her, and my promise to her was to PAY IT FORWARD to three bloggers that are the first to leave a comment on my blog, wanting to be part of PAY IT FORWARD. What will I be giving out, lots of love and hugs... just joking! I'm not sure, it really depends on who you are, I would love to give something specific to you. It won't be a big gift, just something to put a smile on your face and to show you that there is a lot of love out there in the world amid all the wars and suffering. If you like I can even donate a cake to a good cause (note the word good cause!) Put really, at the end of the day, it's all about getting good deeds done all over the globe, so come on, sign up on my blog and be a part of something 'warm and fuzzy' (some amazing good deeds have been done out there due to PAY IT FORWARD)

Remember, you have to be happy for me to have your address to send the stuff to. This you can do via my Website (The shop I'm proud of - top right hand corner of my blog) but leave a comment first on my blog and we'll take it from there....

Below is the link to Little Foodies blog and the PAY IT FORWARD post!

http://littlefoodie.blogspot.com/2007/11/little-foodies-likes-to-pay-it-forward.html

... and here is the link to the PAY IT FORWARD website itself:

http://www.payitforwardfoundation.org/programs.html

...come on, you know you want to :-)

...I survived the 11 cakes

So what were the 11 cakes, First there was the 4 tier wedding sponge cake that you can see above, the bride also wanted a fruit cake decorated so that she could keep it for her 1st year wedding aniversary, and since it was a big wedding, she requested 4 other large cutting cakes, (the cutting cakes are not elaborately decorated, as they are not on display) So that's 9 cakes in total.

I also made their 'Engagement Party cake' which comprised of a Champagne Bottle coming out of the middle of a cake, with the illusion that it was wrapped in fabric - that makes 10 cakes. (I was also asked to make a large fruit cake for her Mum!) There was a birthday cake which was requested by another lady whose wedding cake I had made earlier in the year... the party had a Black and White theme, hence the colours, that makes 11 cakes. All cakes apart from the fruit cakes were baked and decorated during the week - phew, and what a week that was. The week before all this I made a Thomas the Tank Engine cake for a lady who had come across my website but lives in North London - I sent her photos of cakes I had done but that were not up on my website and she loved them. She was gutted when I told her I had moved to Colchester as she really wanted one of my cakes (I was really touched by that!) luckily for us, her sister attends the University over here, so she picked up the cake for me and took it down to London.

For all of you out there thinking of business ideas but never getting round to implementing them, this is for you...

"while I at length debate and beat the bush, there shall step in other men and catch the bird" JOHN HEYWOOD - Taken from the book 'PASSING TIME IN THE Loo' vol 1

Catch you later....