#12
Unless the person/family looked out the window at a delusional girl wearing a flowered dress, along with a gigantic sunhat and sunglasses, one random person/family received a bouquet of flowers from someone they may or may not ever see in real life. I’d been wanting to cross this item off my “Kind Acts and Volunteering” bucket list for a while now and decided that the other day was the day to do it.
To prepare, I made sure to put on a flowery dress, and, to add to how strange that sounds, I brought a big hat and sunglasses to add to the anonymity of the act. At the supermarket, I found what I think was a colorful bouquet of flowers for only $5. Although the price was cheap, I figured that no matter what the price, people would still enjoy receiving free flowers.
Before I had left for the store I had written a note to leave on the flowers (you can read it in the photos above), to ensure that an angry husband or wife wouldn’t accuse one another of being unfaithful and to make them aware of my summer bucket list project in the hopes that one day they will start their own or pass on a kind act. I made sure to put in the note that if they are not “plant people,” they should please pass the flowers on to a loved one or close friend. Unfortunately, in today’s world, some people may still be suspicious and throw the flowers out, but I hope that in this case, the family, couple, individual, etc, was able to enjoy them.
From the supermarket, I drove farther down the road for about ten minutes and found what I think was the perfect area. The houses were in what I felt was a private enough area/set back enough so that someone driving by wouldn’t steal the flowers (not that I think many people are flower thiefs). I walked to a house where there was a car to ensure people lived there and that was far enough from the main road, just to add to the aspect of mystery again. I grabbed the flowers, put on my hat and sunglasses (I know, I’m a weirdo), quickly walked up to the house, left the flowers, and walked away as quickly as I could.
Although I may never know who received them, it was so much fun doing this bucket list item and it’s also exciting imagining the looks on their/his or her face when they open the door. My one error was that I couldn’t remember whether the price tag was on a sign above the flowers at the store or on the actual flowers; if it was on the actual flowers, it means I left the price tag on, but even if they were cheap, who can turn down free flowers?
So have any of you done a similar act or have something similar on your bucket lists? I’d love to hear from you guys!
I just want to remind everyone that there is an exciting August giveaway going on right now, so please either check out the “August Giveaway” page or the post below this one to learn more about the prizes you can win!
I love this! I might just have to do this. 🙂
Aw thank you 🙂 I’d def recommend it; it was a lot of fun!
What a beautiful idea!!
This kind of thing restores my faith in today’s society. Well done.
Haha aww thank you 🙂
Love it 🙂
Thank you Becca :)!
Great idea! This will really brighten someone’s day!
Thanks so much :)!
What a wonderful idea! It would make anybody’s day! 🙂
Aww thank you :)!
That is a lovely idea. My only similar act is sweeping neighbor’s driveways and giving a dozen or so neighbors a gift bag of cookies at the holidays. I like your idea though!
Aww those are really nice ideas too 🙂 I love them both!
❤ I love this idea.. You have such a wonderful and caring spirit!
Aww thanks so much :)!
Beautiful bucket list idea!
Thanks so much Katy 🙂
Brilliant bucket list theme, however, those guys are going out of their mind right now trying to figure out, who sent them flowers 🙂
Haha, Marina, that is so true 🙂 It’d drive me crazy lol
This was so sweet of you!
Aww thank you :)!
That is an excellent idea! I’d love to try that with one of my friends before the summer is over. 😀
Aww yes, it’s a great idea to do for a friend :)! Let me know if you do!
Awesome idea … and I know how you feel 😉 I borrowed an idea from another blogger that I follow at apartment-wife.com. She made little stickers that said “You are my happy” and randomly placed them around a local butterfly garden. On the back, it asked the finder to present the sticker to someone who made them happy. Paying it forward is so cool 🙂 I took that idea and did the same at a local park that is frequented by many walkers around lunchtime. Although I will never know what happened, I left the park with a smile on my face. I encourage everyone to get out and do something like this. It is as fun for you as it is for the unknowing recipient 😉
Aww that is such a great idea!!! I actually follow her blog too and love it 🙂 I totally know how you feel though that walking away from the park or wherever, you must have felt so happy. It’s a great feeling!
I have done this a couple times with a different twist on it. A couple years back, it felt like everyone was unemployed or getting laid off. I was younger then, so the only money I had was baby sitting money. I always felt bad for parents who had families and were struggling to put food on the table. When my friends mom lost her job, the family was so upset. So I decided to help as much as I could. I had saved up as much as I could for money, and I went to get gift cards. Friendly’s, Wendy’s, Walmart, Target, The 99, Kohl’s, Uno’s, wherever I thought fit. $10-$20 each. One for out-to-eat food, one for groceries, one for clothes.
Once I got them, I put them inside my favorite little notecards. They were blank, but the front said “A smile is a curve that sets everything straight”, I put a little note in it that talked about how I knew it was hard for them, but they are a wonderful family & they will get through it. I waited around till it was near when the mail man would show up, I would stick the envelope in the mailbox with the rest of the mail, smack in the middle.
The next day, my friend told me about how they went to Uno’s last night for dinner, and it was the first time they went out to eat in months. She talked about how much fun it was, and how her parents weren’t stressed, even if it was only for an hour.
I started asking family members if they knew of people I could do this for. And it just grew. It is just a little relief at a time like that to know there is faith in humanity. It’s so much fun to pay it forward when I consider myself so blessed 🙂
Omg, I love this story so much Shannon! What a super nice idea 🙂 And I’m sure the family and other families were so grateful. I will definitely have to try this sometime – good for you!
This is amazing and inspiring! My heart was touched!
Aww thanks so much :)!
Amazing work ! 🙂
Thanks so much 🙂
This is such a cool and thoughtful thing to do! I hope you don’t mind, but I may even add that to my own bucket list. So awesome!
Thank you 🙂 And of course I don’t mind!!
Love this – I’m definitely taking some inspiration and am going to make my own list for sure 🙂 thank you for putting a smile on someone’s face – not least my own! If everyone in the world was more like it what a world we would live in!
Emilymeetsworld.com
Aww thanks so much Emily for the nice compliment 🙂 Hope you have a great day!
I love this!
Thanks so much :)!
Reblogged this on Emily Meets World and commented:
This made my day – I’m definitely making my own ‘pay it forward’ bucket list. If everyone was a little more concerned with kindness or world would be an even more beautiful place to live in 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this :)!
I loved this – have reblogged! Don’t suppose you know why it has changed all the photos to random ones of me though? Haha!
Aww thanks so much! And hahaha, it did? I’m not sure why that happened; that’s very odd! Usually I get a notification or trackback when it’s reblogged, but this time it didn’t come up, so maybe that’s why? Lol 🙂
No idea! It won’t let me remove them ha! I look like a right idiot now and here was me thinking I was improving my karma 😛
Haha that’s so odd, as it put your comments in my spam folder at first, lol. But anyways, thank you for reblogging it 🙂 I really appreciate it!
Ah I feel bad now I had to remove it as it just looked so weird with the random photos of me sunbathing in oz Haha! That said you partly inspired me to write a post today which I really enjoyed and I have linked you up in it. Its not going to be published for a few days yet but keep an eye out 🙂
This is such a beautiful idea, I hope they appreciated it! I thought it was really awesome that you wore a flower dress for the occasion too!
I’ve never left flowers on someone’s doorstep anonymously before, but I have left flowers for people that know me. A week before my high school prom, I had flowers delivered to my work, which was where my date happened to work too — and it actually turned out to be a really cool moment because the flowers matched the color of her outfit that day, so it was great luck on my part! I think it’s a great act because one, who doesn’t love flowers?! They’re beautiful and a great way to show someone you care, whether, as in this case, they’re a stranger or in my case, a date before prom lol.
Keep up the great work; your blog is amazing, such wonderful stories and acts!
Aww thanks Brett 🙂 I’m so lame, haha. And aww that’s so nice about the flowers delivered to work – how cute and that’s perfect they matched her outfit, even if it was coincidentally! But I love your blog too and same to you!!
That is just the best idea ever!!! Well done!
Aww thank you 🙂
Thanks so much :)!
What a lovely idea. I’m sure you have really cheered someone’s day up. Great idea 🙂
Aww thank you :)!
This is such a sweet idea! 🙂 I’ve gotten into the habit of carrying around a pack of sticky notes and a pen to leave cheerful notes about town in the hopes that someone in need of a pick-me-up will find one.
Aww I do the same thing now and it’s been a blast! It’s awesome to hear someone else doing that too 🙂
Thanks for the flowers, my wife really enjoyed them. Only kidding – that was awesome, might just do it sometime. But I think it is easier if you a girl was caught doing it instead of a guy, like me, doing it. So I would just have to make sure I didn’t get caught.
http://www.ourpersonaljourney.wordpress.com
Haha John, that’s too funny. But I guess that is a good point about a girl being caught doing it being easier to get away with lol 🙂
What an incredible and inspirational idea! Just reading about it brought sunshine to my day, so I’m sure the lucky flower receivers were over the moon! It reminds me of the episode of friends where Joey and Pheobe debate whether there is such a thing as a selfless good deed, and they conclude good deeds can’t be 100% selfless as they make you feel good about yourself. But I think your anonymous deeds, with you receiving no personal recognition from the receivers, definitely tip towards the selfless end of the good-deed scale! Which is such a lovely and more difficult thing! Keep up the awesome work!
Aww thanks so much 🙂 And haha, I will definitely have to watch that Friends episode now, though that is too true about them not being entirely selfless. Thanks for the awesome comment!
That is so awesome! I’m inspired to do that too!
Thanks :)! And yes I’d definitely recommend it; it was so much fun!
Awesome idea! I really feel like doing something nice like that… keep up the good work!
Thank you so much :)! It was fun doing it!
You ROK (random act of kindness).
I love to do stuff like that if i can…. pay for the next persons coffee, pay the toll for the next car, things that we have no idea who the recipient is… but will put a smile on someones face.y
In Australia, we have a saying… Good Onya…(good on you). It is often just Onya…for short. When I hear of someone doing good, ot acheiving whst they previously haven’t been able to; I give them the Onya award. You have just received my onya award for this week.
Haha I love the ROK pun, but aww thank you so much 🙂 I love that saying! I really appreciate it and you’ve made my day!
Great idea and excellent forethought on the potential of a jealous spouse.
Haha, yeah I was worried about that, but thank you :)!
This is so sweet:)
Thanks so much :)!
one of the sweetest things I’ve read in a while. You’re really inspiring 😀
Aww thanks so much :)!
I love this!! I’m definitely trying it 🙂 what a great way to make someone’s day!
Yay, I’m so glad to hear that :)!
This is a seriously awesome idea! I’m so inspired! Thank you for sharing!
Aww thank you :)!
such a good idea!!!
Thanks so much :)!
I leave notes for the waitresses on tables when I leave. 🙂
Aww that’s a great idea :)!
I really wanna do this now!
http://teenbabble.wordpress.com/
It was a lot of fun :)!
I love this! You are very generous 🙂 I separate the bouquet and set a single flower on windshields at the mall. I also like to stick $1 or if I am flush, $5 bills under windshield wipers once in a while. I am sure you brightened this family’s day!
Omg, that is such an amazing idea! I love it 🙂 I will definitely have to try that sometime! Thanks for a great suggestion and that’s so sweet of you!
Anonymous is the only way to go! 😉
Haha, agreed 🙂
What a wonderful thing to do!! Hope the people who received your flowers were suitably impressed 🙂 maybe they will ‘pass it forward’ who knows?
Aww I hope so too Barbara :)!
What an adorable idea! I can’t wait to read about your other bucket list adventures!
Aww thank you Krissy :)!
Another wonderful idea!
Thanks so much Sean :)!
This is great!!!
Thank you :)!
What a fantastic, random thing to do! Love this blog, thanks for following mine!
Thanks so much and you’re very welcome :)!
Awesome idea carried out to the max! Who can’t use a beautiful bouquet of flowers to brighten their day.
Aw thank you Donna 🙂
Pretty sure you made that person’s day just a little bit brighter. Now if only you lived in the same city so one day you’ll leave flowers outside my house – or vice versa. 🙂
Haha aww, I agree 🙂 And thanks so much!
that’s really sweet idea (o⌒.⌒o) it make people happy
thanx alot for sharing and for following my blog
(‘▽^人)
Thanks so much and you’re welcome :)!
Glad to here you had the courage to go through with the plan! I’ve got my own challenge going on where I’m doing a “Good Deed” everyday for a year. It started when I read Judith O’Reilly’s book “A Year of Doing Good” On the day I began the book back in April, I started the challenge and it’s still going, I post weekly updates on my blog, and I have encouraged others to start a similar challenge.
Keep up the good work, when I post on Sunday 11thAugust, this blog will get a mention.
I’m not doing it if I have to wear a flowery dress!
Haha Danny, that’s hilarious! Lol
What a great idea! And so thoughtful. I guess, this might be something I could do as well. 🙂
Projectlighttolife, I’d like to thank you for stopping by and following my blog! I love your premise of fulfilling a bucket of wishes! Good luck!
You’re welcome! And thank you so much 🙂