Springtime Clothes Swap

This spring, before you hit the mall or the web for new warm-weather clothes, why not try having a clothes swap party!?

Last year a small group of girls and I got together at my house to unload all our never-worn items and rifle through each others loot. At the end of the day I kept two dresses, five shirts, a long cardigan and a cute sparkly shrug - all of which I have worn several times in the last year. Some of them have even become favorites that I wear weekly (or more than that thank you).

If you're interested in holding a clothes swap of your own, here are some tips I have after learning from last year.

1. Sort sort sort. Before friends arrive, sort your own items into groups. As the others start to file in, they can go through their own bags and add stuff to the designated area. This saves time and allows people enough space to sort through and really look at the clothes without getting overwhelmed by choices. I even set up a rack with some hangers for particularly pretty shirts and dresses almost as a showcase.

2. Let people try things on. I kicked out Collin and Gabe that day and plan on keeping it a girls-only party again this year. With that many ladies wanting to try on clothes, giving everyone private (or at least semi-private) space is very thoughtful. Lines can form if everyone starts using the bathroom as a dressing room so think of other places you can transform. Hang a sheet to divide off your dining room and use the bedroom for changing too. Every space helps; some of you may already be friends who have no problems trying on clothes with each other but others may be less familiar or have other reasons to want privacy.

3. No even-trades required. The whole point of a clothes swap (if you ask me) is to be generous towards your friends with clothes that you already intend to donate. If you're already going to give it away, there's no need to keep track of how much each person brings or with how much they walk away.

4. Provide snacks. Sure, it's not always your favorite thing to try on clothes after you've eaten but having something to nosh on while you're hanging out and swapping keeps up the blood sugar and the morale. A light drink and something simple are all you need. As the host you can elect to do some of this yourself or you can enlist your friends or suggest a potluck style. Maybe a friend who has no clothes to contribute wants to make muffins instead? Perfect!

5. Donate it all at the end like you said. I have my own personal thrift store to which I like to donate and as the host I volunteer to transport all the leftover clothes there myself after the party. If any of my guests have another organization they would prefer to help, they can certainly take home a big bag of clothes to do so. It's a little extra motivation for people to come out if they only have to transport all their crap once.


Have you ever hosted or attended a clothes swap before? What other tips and suggestions do you have for someone looking to do the same this spring?
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Homecoming

Welcome home, Early Girl.



I can't believe you're finally here! To be honest, I didn't ever really see myself as a dog owner. I liked dogs alright, but considered myself a loyal cat person. It wasn't until I lived with Mark and Mud that I ever even thought about having a dog friend of my own. Mud was so sweet and even-tempered. He was playful and an irreplaceable guard dog. I love that boy.
Then Collin came into my life and even though a loyal dog person - he always loved and cared for Lucky. Still, when family or friends with dogs would visit I could see it in his face. I knew he wanted a dog of his own; to raise and love and come home to.
Now, here she is.


Recall this post and it will be clear that we jumped the gun a little on our adoption plans. I was thinking that it wouldn't be until the beginning of 2010 that we would be in a favorable situation to bring home a dog. After Gabe told us of his plans to move in with his girlfriend, we thought we'd get things started. It might have been nice to have a little time with the house to ourselves before adding a pup to the mix, but it wasn't necessary. In fact, because we'll be living with another roommate come November, this was the exact right time to take her in and get settled as a family. She will know us and the house and feel comfortable and safe before we add another person and all the excitement that comes with.

I took Thursday and Friday off work for some "maternity leave" - basically to help Gabe with his moving and keep our house from turning into a tornado field in the wake. Thursday had us working our asses off deep cleaning the kitchen. Moving the fridge and stove to sweep/mop underneath kind of cleaning. It was gross and therefore all the more necessary. We even got around to switching the door handles on the fridge so it doesn't swing open into the counter anymore. Man, that was hard.
That afternoon we drove out to Alachua to pick up our girl. Came home to a quiet house and a lover who almost immediately found her toys. We have given up keeping her off the couches (and resigned to the fact that when we buy new furniture like that we will just have to keep her in mind) but she still isn't allowed in the bed. Being the ultimate good-girl she is, she knows right away when she's doing something wrong and it takes us no time at all to correct her. A snap of my fingers and she'll get down, sit, lay down, come, and so much else.
Early even met Smokey and they have a lot of fun chasing each other around the back yard. Gotta love that crazy-dog-run dirt spray. She met Inca too but they didn't hit it off as well. I even heard Early bark when she was with Inca so I knew that she wasn't happy at all. This was after hearing her bark for the first time when we were walking and a stranger came up behind us. I am so glad to know that she can bark and we'll be working with her to reinforce good barking behaviors (like barking when someone comes on the porch or knocks at the door).

Mostly, she likes to sleep. On the couch, on the wood floors, on the rug, on her bed. She snores and farts and is adorable. She even seems to always have a pillow under her head. Her favorite toys are the skinny fox, the rope ring and the baby bone (a plush bone-shape toy with a squeaker she never squeeks). I would still say that her very favorite is the toy we gave her when we came to visit the second time. Just a little rope knot, but I think somehow she knows that this is hers and it came from us with love. Read more...

Seeds of Love

This is a photo from last summer before we installed the pool. The yard had already been cleared most of the way by Collin's dad one afternoon when he was visiting and bored (thanks, Craig). Still, weeds weeds weeds everywhere.

This is a photo from a couple weekends ago after we took down the pool and started working on digging up the last of the weeds and roots. Potato vines are the worst; the thorns somehow get sharper and more numerous the deeper you go. Some of those ended up about 5 feet long but we dug out some other nuisance roots that were over 7 feet long! I've also been treating the yard for fire ants periodically over the past year and consistently for the past month or so. There are still ant hills that crop up here and there. Oh, and there was a nice surprise of swarming carpenter ants on the garage wall near the hose. I have no mercy for poisonous insects - they were promptly and thoroughly poisoned. We also have a hefty bucket full of rocks ranging in size from <1" to >15 lbs. Other inorganic items we found buried in the yard: a full size fast-food tray about half a foot deep, and old-school home made label from 1983, a t-shirt, several pieces of broken glass and bottles, a razor head, and lots of random plastic film.

This past Saturday, to celebrate 6-months-married (already?!), we finished the job. Our landlord is awesome and gave us a generous budget with which to purchase supplies for landscaping the yard. We still have plenty of money left to add more to the back and even re-do the front yard too. The front will have to wait a couple weeks but I'm excited for things to look good. Working on a project like this is so much better when we can do it together, we're a good team. And planting a garden together is, for me at least, pretty darn sweet.

I researched good plants for our area and walked around the Lowe's garden center taking notes on my favorite flowers and vines. I saw a lot of plants from my yard growing up and, naturally, quite a few wound up on our cart. I know these plants grow well in our hot, humid summers and the drought conditions that somehow combine with hurricane season. Things like angel trumpet flowers, jasmine, and liriope.

Here's collin raking in the good stuff before we plant the border. There are some really huge wild hibiscus plants along the back fence that we opted to keep. Mostly because it was going to be impossible to dig them out without some kind of power tool. They also are pretty. In the late summer they like to bloom bright red drop flowers. We cut them back so much a few weeks ago when we started working on things. They've already grown so much - I think we'll have a lot more trimming to do throughout the season.

This is the back fence line, where we planted flowers and shrubs exclusively. It was so bright when I took some of these, I doubt you can really make out the individual plants too well. On the left though, you can see the jessamine vine that will hopefully crawl all over the fence. That along with the passion flower vine and two kinds of jasmine! I was able to save the longest roots and tie them together to make natural arching trellis for all the vines.

The finished product, including fire pit. We reserved the left side of the fence for a few flowers and all the vegetables. The whole yard is bright, but I wanted to make sure that the little guys don't get burned this summer so the shadow created by the fence line should do the trick. In the ground are tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, yellow crooked-neck squash, zucchini, watermelons, basil, mint, and onions! We saved the jasmine for this side of the fence. I know it will get big eventually and once the veggies are done, or after we move on and they are neglected, the jasmine will keep that side beautiful. We also spread out grass seed on the lawn. I can't wait to see it start sprouting - really I can't wait to break out the lawn chair and get some sun with a bbq going and a cold drink in my hand.

So, who wants to come to the eventual garden party? This yard is going to be perfect for enjoying friends, cooking outside, and eventually playing with our new pup. The pup who was, in part, our motivation for landscaping the yard. We wanted to make sure the lawn and garden were well-established before letting a dog back there. Plus, we wanted a nice place for us to play together; one that wasn't full of thorny vines and fire ants and broken glass.
As sore as I still am, it was a wonderful day.

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