Pay it Forward

Whilst trawling my various internet forums over the weekend (yes, I'm addicted and it's not healthy, but I have fun!) I stumbled across a forum on Ravelry called "Pay it Forward". I was intrigued so entered and have found a lovely forum based on a sort of variation of a chain letter. The premise is that you sign up to receive a handmade gift from someone through their blog and in turn you offer to send a gift to the first three people to respond to your invitation on your own blog. So unlike a chain letter, you're not expecting to receive half a million pounds, or be in the Guinness Book of Records - just joining in with a really thoughtful community. So I've signed up and will be making a gift for the first three people to sign up here! The "blurb" on the forum is below:

Let me tell you about it, these are the instructions: "It’s the Pay It Forward Exchange. It’s based of the concept of the movie “Pay it Forward” where acts or deeds of kindness are done without expecting something in return, just passing it on, with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness are passed on. So here’s how it works. I will make and send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I do not know what that gift will be yet, and it won’t be sent this month, probably not next month, but it will be sent (within 6 months) and that’s a promise! What YOU have to do in return, then, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
I will now Pay It Forward to you THREE, I wonder who you will be?! Please, be a PIF! You will enjoy it just as much as we do!"
And, remember...you have 6 months to get your gifts done! Come on, you know you would love to be one of my angels. Then, one day, but you don't know when....you will get a gift that I have made especially for YOU!
Please remember, you don't have to knit or crochet to participate, anyone who can make a nice handmade gift is welcome to join :)

Apart from offering to make gifts for other people, it's been a day of giving for me. This morning a friend from another online forum, Damsels, drove over to see me. She has just found out she is expecting twins and I offered her my (virtually unused) double buggy. I had been given the buggy to product test two years ago and had only used it once (James has always been very happy to walk everywhere so I had no need for a double, plus I tended to wear Bea in a sling from an early age so hardly used a buggy at all) so I hope she gets lots of use out of it. Bea enjoyed playing with her 2 year old daughter - it's so nice to see Bea making efforts to interact with other children, as she gets no interaction from her brother.

The air is far from clear between me and my husband - I'm going to turn the computer off now and see if we can talk properly.