Loving: Love Is All Around & a NOVICA Giveaway!

Happy Valentine’s Day! Regardless of whether or not you celebrate this historic day, it is a wonderful excuse to remember everyone you love in the world and remember that, even in chaos and sadness, there is always love.

I was first awake in my house this morning, after a restless night of romantic dreams (lucky me!), and found myself face painting my youngest child in response to her pleas to turn her into a butterfly. She fluttered around the room, finding the roses my parents gave me (lucky to have them still with us from the UK) saying, ‘I’ve found some nectar!’.

The man of the house treated me with a few sweet surprises and a beautifully scented candle (I’d completely forgotten that I’d organised a gorgeous gift a few weeks earlier from NOVICA – in association with National Geographic) until he’d left for work… I shall be presenting him the gift this evening, along with smiles, kisses, the scent of a romantic candle drifting through the house and a few other surprises I have in mind. However, I did make him smile, soon after he’d left, with a quick text and a photograph of a painting his youngest daughter had just done….

The painted pebble heart, in the photograph at the start of the post, was a sweet find on my morning walk with my natural learners. We’d rushed into town, after receiving a text that my eldest had left her laptop at home (she’s only nine and has to take a laptop to school every day!) and made the most of the impromptu trip to stop by Civic Square in Wellington and the Central Library. As the girls ran under the silver fern ball, hanging over the centre of Civic Square, they stopped suddenly to notice the painted pebble beneath. We left it there, to bring a little love to other passer-bys, and later found another one in the Trade Aid shop (there’s a lot of love going around in Wellington this Valentine’s Day!).

GIVEAWAY!

To share the love a little further the wonderful folk at NOVICA (www.novica.com) have given me a $37.50 Gift Certificate, for purchase on NOVICA, and I’d love to give it to one of my readers! NOVICA is one of the leading fair trade artisan websites. They work with National Geographic to give talented artisans around the world a place to express their artistic talents and provide access to the world market.

I am absolutely delighted to support this wonderful organisation and encourage you to visit their website, especially if you’re looking for a gift that spreads the love a little further.

Gifts for Him
Jewelry Gifts
Gifts by Personality
Handbags Gifts
Spiritual Gifts
Romantic Anniversary Gifts

You may also be interested in the NOVICA Curation effort – a feature that lets everyone create their own curated collections of products, with the option to add mood shots from our ever growing image library – its like Pinterest… only more responsive, and all for a great cause! Check out this new feature here:  http://www.novica.com/curation/

So, just leave a comment to be in to win a $37.50 Gift Certificate to spend at NOVICA (please include a contact e-mail address) – and if you share this post (on Twitter/Google+/Facebook etc.) please let me know in your comment – and I’ll give you another entry to the draw (I’ll draw in two weeks from the date of this post!).

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Linking up with wonderful Meghan of ‘Exploring beauty with MNMs’) …

I wholeheartedly believe that no matter what is happening in your life,
there is always something you can be thankful for…
no matter how simple it is.