Wednesday mornings are yoga mornings. A friend of mine comes over and teaches me yoga and I repay her with wildcrafted tea, the occasional baked good, and felting lessons. It's a great trade. The kitchen table gets pushed out of the way and we work through poses and flow and relaxation while the antics of an energetic 3-year old and a curious kitten pepper our practice with distraction.
Today's trade is a felting lesson so the wall is hung with color. The tea is yet to be decided. Dandelion root? Pineapple weed? Raspberry leaf?
This kind of exchange makes me wish I could trade more often. I think it would add a nice dimension to my life.
What do you think? Do you trade in your daily life?
12 comments:
Don't trade much except 'friendship'. Must comment on you fiber organization. Cleaver use of hanging shoe holders.
i traded a pony for a yearling andalusian-norwegian standardbred cross. and i traded a translation for some designer lantern thingies. but i would love to do and promote a whole lot more trading. i think the world today does far too much trading money for stuff.
Trading is undervalued these days. I wonder if my yoga instructor would be so inclined as to trade a practice for cinnamon rolls? I'm starting back this week...I need more shavasana in my life.
I could totally pay the bills with my cinnamon rolls.
I love how you organize your wool.
I've traded a bit at craft shows I've vended in - always with other vendors. I feel like we artisans understand the value of it. I wish it would catch on in the larger society again!
I think it is an awesome idea, and like the ladies wrote before me, I also think it is undervalue, which is a pity, specially in the economical hard time our countries are living.
This world would be a softer & cleaner one if more more people traded instead of buying. Sigh.
xoxo
i trade on a regular basis. anytime i need a favour, i offer baked goods to friends, or coffee/tea dates, and occasionally knitted goods. and when it comes to my knitting, my general go-to is payment for materials and then some sort of trade for labour (aka my time spent keeping fidgety fingers busy). my most recent swap was a cowl in exchange for a bottle of straight-from-the-family-woods maple syrup!
How lovely: the tea, the yoga, the swap and the wall of wool. You always brighten my day. : )
PS I'd love to trade but it never occurred to me. I'd probably trade in cupcakes or cookies (I like the cinnamon buns idea, too) because I seem to have a knack for baking. Hmmm. I'm going to have to give this idea some real thought!
I think School House Rock referred to this kind of trading as "barter." ;)
A friend of mine is a belly dancer and I used to sell Wildtree all natural food products. A few months ago she "bought" some oil from me but never had the money to pay for it. After a while I decided she could "pay" for it by teaching me to belly dance and she was OK with this. Then I got some saris that I was going to rip up and spin some yarn with and she acted offended that I would do such things with such beautiful pieces of silk so I've decided that those are going for payment as well. She has been sick lately so I've only had 1 lesson so far but I'm "paid up" for the next 3, and then who knows what I'll be giving her for her services! I am so excited!
Oh, I also do a lot of online swapping via Craftser.org Does that count? I'm getting a lot of my Christmas presents for the kids from the Pinterest swap! Sweet!
i don't trade that often, but i love the idea of it. i have done a bit of trading with other makers - hey if you ever want to trade something just let me know!
I trade but I'd love to do more...I just find it hard to find people who want to join in...most of the people I know in "real" life actually prefer to spend money, a bit like they will only eat food if it comes from a supermarket!
Trading really works well if you find a like-minded person and you each have something the other wants/needs. For a couple years while my kids were really little I had a perfect trade going on. A friend noticed that I often felt very overwhelmed by housecleaning (I live in a country where a woman is really judged by the cleanliness of her house) so she would come over for a morning once a month and help me really scrub and dust and polish (esp. those corners I would usually ignore:))- then on other days I gave her piano lessons. It was perfect! And once I traded some of the pumpkins growing in our garden for eggs from a woman who used to sell/deliver fresh farm eggs to our house! Trading is pretty awesome and really should happen more often.Your tea and yoga mornings sound lovely!
great idea! i need to incorporate more trade in my life.. would definitely enrich.
that rainbow wall is sooo amazing
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