my friends love me: birthday giveaways

I feel so blessed to have wonderful friends. Being a citizen of the world I have friends living around the world. "Good friends are hard to find" so when you find them, keep them for life. My friends love me and I love them right back. I'm a giver and I'm blessed to have wonderful friends I can give to. On my travels I keep telling myself that I'm so lucky to be able to look for just the right gifts for each of my friends. It makes the trip more enjoyable searching for special gifts.

Around my birthday which is now, I do blog-giveaways to thank the universe for another wonderful year. Another way of giving is with KIVA microfinance. I started with KIVA in September 2010 when I wanted to reduce my daily intake of coffee. My aim was to give the coffee money to something worthwhile. I discovered KIVA and it was a perfect place for me to lend my money to. I started  with 2 loans and I now have 13 loans. The repayment from the 13 accounts has enabled me to make new loans to other borrowers. If some of you don't know what to do with your spare change, try KIVA...

When I was in Japan recently. I brought back a cute little tot-bag from Arimatsu Shibori Festival to share with you. It's a very cute bag with shibori patches and sashiko stitching on one side and two outside pockets for your phone and keys, or train tickets. I gave a few away as gifts when I first came back, but I kept one for this giveaway. 

I bought the New Kimono book after my return from Japan. I recommended this book for the library collection. When it arrived, I had a good look and thought it would be perfect for a giveaways. My friend, the Japanese librarian told me that there are a lot of books on kimonos in Japan, but there aren't many in English. I'm very pleased that I can share it with you. To enter this giveaways, you just need to leave me a comment with a valid email address so I can get in touch with you in case you are the winner. I will post internationally so please enter. 

This pile of birthday presents arrived a few weeks before my birthday. I like keeping all my presents to open on my birthday. I get excited as the pile gets bigger. My presents comes from far and wide. It's only a few more sleeps then I can open them. Christmas comes early for me!

Thanks dear friends, you know who you are. I do appreciate everyone remembering my birthday. You are the best!

Thanks also to all my blog readers. I know not all of you leave comments, but I do appreciate you dropping by. I will be away to visit my gorgeous GC next weekend, and when I get back I will do the draw. Monday 5 September is the drawing date.

Good luck and thank you for taking part.

Enjoy

Nat