MOTIVATION! The Key to Success! and Easter and lent Update!

WOW! Easter Sunday already! Time really does fly by nowadays! I hope you all have a good day and are able to treat yourself to all those things that you gave up during lent! Below are some things I got up to this easter weekend! :D

Easter tree!

Shredded wheat and chocolate nest cakes!

I decided to give up biscuits and I am very proud to say that I stuck to it completely! This is the first year which I have actually gone all 47 days (yes I know lent is 40 days but if you count it on a calendar it actually is 47! How cheeky that it doesn't count Sundays!!) haha! I found the first week really hard and I was craving buscuits sooo much! Even though I can easily go days without them and not think about it once you are not allowed it, it becomes all you want! 

As mentioned a million times I am heading off on my trip today with the charity HCPT and so I have got a couple of packets of oreos and some finger biscuits to enjoy and share while I am there. These are my 2 favourite biscuits and although tbh I probably wouldn't have had these during the 47 days as they are more 'luxury' biscuits I am very excited to taste buscuits once again!

Has anyone else stuck to their lent challenge? If so well done to you and I hope this proves that you can do anything you set your mind to! I know I've learnt this, even just setting small, achievable goals you can really boost your confidence and self belief!

This same idea can be applied to your fitness, business or even social goals, anything in fact! The key to success is self belief! 

Tarah! Cheerio! LOVE LIBS! See you in a week! 

xxx

£400 from second hand clothes!

So as I have mentioned before, I am going with the charity HCPT (handicapped children's pilgrimage trust) to Lourdes, France, next week and as I mentioned in my Just an UPDATE post we have only just reached our target amount of £9500 between the group of us (19 people)! Anyways I managed to raise my share of the money, by doing events like holding coffee mornings, babysitting and house sitting etc and also by running a clothes sale!

We managed to persuade most of the people in my year to donate clothes and items like scarves and jewellery pieces and then organised the event at school to be held over a week at lunch time breaks. It took lots of organising and preparation but we managed to raise around £400 !! And we actually have a lot of stock left over and much of this we will be taking to India to give to the children at our sister school so even more people can benefit from the donations! The event was much like a charity shop at school. A little like the photo below but a little neater and in a smaller classroom! But you get the idea!

If anyone is looking for fund raising ideas this is defiantly a good idea and with the right pricing can raise a lot of money! My tips would be to keep pestering people until the stock is brought in, I managed t annoy many friends by my constant texts and emails reminding people to look through their wardrobes and bring in items to sell but I'm sure they will tell you it was worth it in the end as it got the job done! Also ensure everything is in good condition and try and get some higher end brands like Hollister, Jack wills and Topshop because these are the items that will attract the students and the names are great to put on the posters! Another tip is be prepared to lower your prices! I would defiantly recommend starting at a low to reasonable price to draw in the crowd and you don't want stock left over if you don't have anywhere to keep it!

Anyone else fund raising for anything? Let me know! And remember what is one persons junk is an others treasure! LOVE LIBBY X 

Not my images - credit to google images to represent my similar event!

£200 for a mornings work!?

I have mentioned this before but for anyone who is not aware, I am currently doing heavy fundraising for a charity called HCPT - or the handicapped children pilgrimage trust (click to website link). I have already raised a lot of money for this charity and I will hopefully be accompanying the charity and many children during my Easter holidays to Lourdes for a week to spend time caring and enriching the lives of the people there. Please have a look on the website if you are in the UK and would be interesting in joining the organisation next year on the annual pilgrimage! You can join whether you are religious or not even though it is catholic charity! I did!

Anyway.... I managed to organise and hold a coffee morning and invited my mums local friends over for hot drinks and cake. It was even more of a success than I had hoped and I raised £200 by donations!! with some people who could not make it offering to donate next time I see them anyway! And the cost for the coffee morning was only just over £10 which my mum kindly paid for as her contribution.

My fundraising profits!!! :D

I chatted to each of my mums friends and ensured they knew what they were giving their money to and told them about the charity. If you are thinking of doing a coffee morning or event similar which will rely on donations this is a must, as the people do not want to feel you mum or someone else is doing all the work and talking for you! Emphasise the effort you put in for the preparation and baking etc involved and show you know what the charity is about and the good it does! SELL THE CHARITY!

 I was frantically baking all Monday for it. I made a batch of white chocolate chip brownies, which all went so sorry I forgot to photograph them! A Victoria sponge cake, which so many people said it was one of the best cakes they had ever tasted! And finally I made a batch of flapjacks!

This is the only food that was left plus a handful of biscuits! SUCCESS!

As pictured below, I had this money box on the table with a post-it saying 'any donations are greatly appritiated'. This is a good technique to use as it reminds them to donate and also 100000x better than not having one and people awkwardly handing you the money or leaving it on the side! Also this money box ensured that people didn't have to worry about others seeing what they put in and feeling bad for only donating a small amount, I would rather people felt happy about the morning and be looking forward to another!

My collection pot!

 If anyone has any other fundraising ideas defiantly let me know! And if you have ever done any fundraising events comment too! Please feel free to ask any questions on my fundraising in general or the coffee morning if you were thinking of holding a similar event yourself! I hope this post has inspired some of you to do a mornings work and help a good cause!

XO Love Libs! XO

Paris conference! Where I have been...

For the last few days I have been away in Paris, France, with my School and class mates!

So much happened on this trip and we were so busy! we only got 5-6 hours sleep a night and left the hotel at 7:30 every morning! although I am exhausted I would not have changed a thing! We did the usual sights, like the Eiffel tour but were not able to go to the top as it was too cold! sorry I have forgotten to mention how cold the trip was! with lows of -12 degrees centigrade! and we saw Van Gogh, Monet, Di Vince art wort too. But the reason for the trip and the best part was going to a conference on the Saturday where we had talks from Evan Davis, Jo  Fairley (co-founder of the chocolate Green and Blacks!) and a few MPs, a news reader and a few talks about the opportunities for EU members! I will be posting in detail about the content of the talks in the next week! I do not want to overwhelm everyone by stuffing in all in this one! There is a lot of economics, politics and business related information to explain, all very interesting.. at least it was to me!

I only have a few photos because my camera ran out of battery!  but I will copy some from friends and update this post soon with more of myself on the trip! I just didn't want anyone to think I have abandoned my blog!

My friends outside in the cold by the Eiffel Tour

 View from top of the Eiffel Tour

The Mona Lisa!!


Anyone been to Paris? what did you think of the beautiful city?
Thanks for reading! comment and follow! LIBBY LOVES YOU! X