Wordles

I came across the website Wordle today.  It is a site that generates "word clouds" from the text that you provide.  The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.  You can tweek the clouds with different fonts, layouts, and colour schemes.  The images that you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like.  I spent a good half an hour procrastinating from planning during my impromptu snow day today on Wordle and experimented by posting the URL of blogs with an Atom or RSS feed as the source text! 

All of a sudden I feel very self conscious at an apparent overuse of the word, "bath."

Nobody told Nick at Mid-Century Midwest to never say never... 

 Need a personalised gift?  Create a Wordle and get it printed and framed or put to canvas.

Everybody loves a little typography...

Vintage Scarf Bundles.

I love it when gift ideas pop into your head!  The inspiration for these little bundles came from countless trips to the cosmetic shop, "Lush".  The products are almost delectable but the prices are not quite as appetising.  

£7.95 will buy you a tiny soap and single bath bomb.  

A single bath bomb can cost up to £7.  Most average £3/£4 a piece.  Surely you cant just buy someone one enjoyable bath as a gift! You would want to buy two or three pieces to fill out your wrapping.

Lush also sells a a selection of synthetic vintage knot wraps for £3.95.  The marketing gimmick behind these is that they are the ultimate in reusable wrapping.  You get to choose the up-cycled scarf you wish to wrap your gift in.  Once it has been given to the lucky recipient they can wear it or use again as wrapping.  I appreciate the idea each and every time I visit a store but have never yet committed to a purchase.

I figured out that a nice gift from Lush would set me back approximately £15 for two small bath bombs, a soap and a vintage knot wrap.   The penny dropped when I realised I could make up my own bundles, with soaps of my choice and real vintage scarves to suit the individuals I am making them for.  

Ebay came up trumps...

+ 25 essential oil bath bomb hearts:

1. 5 x Blueberry and lavender - chamomile, sandalwood, blueberry decorated with lavender heads.
2. 5 x Violet and vanilla - violet and vanilla essential oils decorated with blue mallow.
3. 5 x Rose and ylang - rose and ylang ylang essential oils, decorated with rose petals. 
4. 5 x Passion - rose, patchouli, pine and ginger essential oils decorated with rose petals.
5. 5 x Tangerine - tangerine, pine, ginger, black pepper and orange essential oils, decorated with marigold petals. 

I regularly read Miss Thrifty's blog.  Last week she posted about The Body Shop and a deal of £10 off any £20 spend.  I purchased a selection of large heart soaps in vanilla and cranberry for £2 a piece. After visiting the Body Shop website through Quidco I managed to receive 18% cashback for the purchase which covered the shipping cost.

My finished wrapped bundles contain a soap and a selection of 5 bath bombs and cost:

• £1.80 (on average for each scarf)
• £1.76 (5 essential oil bath bombs)
• £2 (1 large vanilla or cranberry Body Shop soap)

Total: £5.56

... Just call me Miss Thrifty II.