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?
Don't trade much except 'friendship'. Must comment on you fiber organization. Cleaver use of hanging shoe holders.
ReplyDeletei 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.
ReplyDeleteTrading 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.
ReplyDeleteI could totally pay the bills with my cinnamon rolls.
I love how you organize your wool.
ReplyDeleteI'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.
ReplyDeleteThis 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!
ReplyDeleteHow lovely: the tea, the yoga, the swap and the wall of wool. You always brighten my day. : )
ReplyDeletePS 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." ;)
ReplyDeleteA 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!
ReplyDeleteI 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!
ReplyDeleteTrading 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!
ReplyDeletegreat idea! i need to incorporate more trade in my life.. would definitely enrich.
ReplyDeletethat rainbow wall is sooo amazing