Bartering!

 I have been interesting in trying out bartering for quite some time. I have done it a little in the past- I have had two different music teachers who were willing to teach me for some things that I could barter to them but I thought it would be fun to try it more. I had tried to figure out an easy way that it could be organized online but hadn't really figured anything out so I had not done anything about it.

 Then at our weekly baseball game towards the end of August or early September, one of the other ladies was telling us about this facebook bartering site that was for our area. I went home and checked it out and was quite excited about the possibilities!

I quickly joined the group which them allowed me to be able to post pictures (of things I might have available for bartering) and make comments so that I could barter with the others on the site. It has been quite fun but also rather addicting so it could be an incredible time waster. I am trying to be careful to not waste time on there but it isn't always easy.

  It can be easy to loose track of what deals you are working on so I decided to keep a notebook where I write down everything that I list for barter on the site and then when a barter is agreed on then I write down what I am getting, who I am trading with, when and where we are meeting and then often what they will be driving or how I will identify them. After the barter is complete I then check it off.

  Just for interests' sake I thought I would share with you the barters that I have done in this first month of using the site:

~My very first barter that was accomplished is also one of my favorite ones so far. I was looking for apples and I had extra cucumbers and zucchini. On the site I found somebody that was just the opposite. We have really enjoyed these yummy apples.

~I bartered Ladies Ice skates (one too small for Mara that we had 2 set in that size) for shoes (her next size up- for later) for Megan and some peanut butter.

 ~I bartered 3 crossword/ word search puzzle books (which we had been given but don't use) for cross stitch kits which will be a present for Mara (and maybe Jonathan as he has been wanting to try cross stitch too).

~I bartered 2 games for little kids for some more cross stitch bookmarks kits. Mara has been having fun making them and then using the finished product as a gift.

 ~I bartered the UN-Game for this crock pot.

~I bartered some homemade cookies for this MN Twins shirt which Jonathan is quite happy with.

 ~I bartered some kids puzzles for 3 cans of corn.

 ~I bartered one can of corn, a couple cans of spaghetti sauce and a few cans of green beans for 5 pairs of pants for Jonathan.

 ~I bartered some vintage sewing patterns for some homemade Blackberry Jelly (this was with someone I knew but still we figured it our via the bartering site).

~ I also gave some patterns to a couple of others and in return I am supposed to be getting some farm fresh eggs tomorrow and then sometime a crocheted doily.

~I bartered the clothes below and got some jars of peanut butter.

 ~I bartered the brown suit (in the picture below) and the the books, puzzle books and another book for black dress boots for Mara.

I bartered the extra shirts in this photo for a jar of peanut butter.

 ~I bartered this play dough set for 2 boxes of Kleenex. This was timely as we all had colds, were almost out of Kleenex and nearly all our hankies were in the laundry.

~I bartered a bicycle tire inner tube (which had been given to us and didn't fit any of our bikes) for 10 8x10 picture frames with glass.

~I bartered a fall wreath that I had made a couple of years ago (and so I am ready to make something different for myself) and a pair of knitting needles that I had extra for the blue sweater above. I was rather happy with that deal (and the other person seemed to be too) as I was looking for more sweaters.

 ~I bartered the Preschool songs CD for the frame below.

~I bartered some jars of homemade salsa and a jar of honey for a gift certificate for our local downhill skiing place. I will use that as a gift for Ken at Christmas as he really enjoys going skiing.

All in all I am enjoying this new hobby. I find it more fun and less work than holding a garage sale and it still helps me to get unused stuff our of my house. I am trying to be careful that I don't just bring a bunch more junk in but so far I have for the most part gotten either consumable goods or clothes that we will use or things we can use as gifts.

 Meeting to do the exchange does take some time but two times I have been involved in large group barter meets and so I get 4 or 5 exchanges done at the same time and place and it doesn't take long at all. And always when I do a barter I combine that trip to town with other errands anyway. I have also had someone come to my house which was very nice.

  Since I love figuring out ways to use less money (and be able to save it for things I find more important) this has been an enjoyable way to do that.

 Have any of you been involved with a bartering group before? What were your experiences? Do you have any great tips?

I am linking this up for frugal Friday over at Life as MOM.

Seeking to have the fruits of the Spirit in my life

  "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22 & 23

Those that are Christians are incredibly blessed to have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of them. The Spirit helps in more ways than we can imagine and when we allow the Spirit to work in our lives then there will be fruit. The verse above speaks of the fruit of the Spirit. This week I plan on participating in the "Making your Home a Haven" series which is hosted by The Homespun Heart, one of my goals for this week is to really focus on these fruits and seek to have them grow in my life.

 To make your home a haven you need a lot more than a clean and well decorated house. What is really important is the way those that live in the house work together and react with one another. My goal is that my actions would always reflect that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in me. I hope you are seeking for that as well and that you will join me and Monica at The Homespun Heart in striving to Make Your Home a Haven both by the house itself and also by the actions of those that live there.

Rosh Hashanah and Mara's Birthday

There was a beautiful double rainbow to celebrate Mara's 12th birthday.
The second one didnt' show up in the picture.

 This year we had thought it would be fun to learn more about Jewish holidays. We have a friend and neighbor with a Jewish heritage so she has shared some books and information with us. We have also been reading through the old testament so are learning about the holidays that God set apart for the Israelites. It has been fun and interesting.

 This year the Jewish new year (Rosh Hashanah) happened to fall on Mara's birthday. We decided to celebrate them together. In looking online I discovered that this day is also called Yom Teruah or Feast of Trumpets.

   Here are some of the things that we did to celebrate the Holiday:

• We read about it (and a story that went with the day) in "The Family Treasury of Jewish Holidays"
• Mara made Hallah Bread for our supper
• I made Tsimmes (Sweet carrot stew) for supper. Our friend said that was a normal holiday meal out their house. We had fun trying it though it didn't end up being a favorite of ours.
• We had Apple and Honey cake with whipped cream for Mara's birthday cake. Honey cake is a traditional dessert.

• Mara and Heidi (our neighbor) made place cards which had Hebrew new years greetings in them.  They said "Shanah Tovah" which means: "May your year be good and sweet".
• Dad brought over his Shofar and the kids practiced playing it and Dad played a long blast on it before our meal. To see a Shofar you can watch this interesting video that I found. The shofar in the video is quite a bit bigger and fancier than the ones my Dad has made. No one in my family has managed to learn to play the shofar so well yet either.

Some of the things that are focused on at this holiday are:

• Looking back on the old year with self examination.
• Looking ahead to how you want to live the coming year.
• Facing up to your mistakes and asking forgiveness.
• Sweet things (no bitter foods!) so that you will have sweetness all year. Honey is traditional so that was perfect for us with our large honey harvest.

It was interesting for us to learn more about this holiday and it was fun getting to celebrate it along with Mara's birthday.

A skirt from a shirt

 I finally got to do a little sewing this week though I had to get up at 6 am in order to fit it in. (I prefer usually to sleep a bit later than that!) The sewing I did was for Mara for her 12th birthday which was yesterday. I made a skirt, a doll dress and I also made a little barrette for her hair.

Sometime or another the shirt below had been given to us. I believe it was with some other fabric and when I saw it I knew that it wouldn't work for us as it was but that I would like to use the fabric in it. So I finally got around to doing that.

 If you look closely at the picture above you can see that I took the picture after I had already cut it. I decided to use the bodice part of the shirt as a skirt. The fabric however was quite thin and also it wasn't long enough so I lined it with another fabric and had a ruffle stick out from the bottom.

I was trying to decided what to do with the sleeves as they were quite pretty too. I decided to make a simple doll dress for Mara's 18" doll with them. I made it like a sundress and then I did make a simple raglan sleeve dress out of the ruffle fabric that I had used on the skirt to go under the sun dress.

Please pretend you didn't notice that I should have ironed too!

After I finished those two projects I still had a couple of tiny scraps of the blue scalloped edges. I glued one into a circle onto a barrette and then glued a light blue button on the middle. It was an easy and fun way to make a coordinating barrette.

Mara was pleased with them and I had fun and it didn't cost me anything. That makes a fun project for me!

I am linking this up with:

and Frugal Friday at Life as Mom.

A Handmade Christmas! {Come join me for the carnival starting next week}

 Have you been thinking about Christmas lately?

No?

Me either, at least not very much. But at our house we like to make handmade gifts for the most part so we do want to start thinking and preparing some soon. It makes it easier to make things gradually overtime rather than try to do everything at the last minute (ask me how I know!).

That is why I am going to again host "A Handmade Christmas" every week for the next couple of months here on this blog. For this series I try to post something that I have made every week, often with instructions for how you could do it too if you want, and then I have you link up projects where you tell about what you are doing too. This blog carnival is geared toward giving all of us more ideas for ways we can make handmade gifts, decorations and yummy homemade food for the holidays and it also helps to keep us all motivated on working on these projects. I hope you will come and join me!

Christmas is a holiday that my family enjoys quite a bit but it isn't because we spend a lot of money and buy big gifts (in fact the opposite is true- in our little family we have made a rule that all gifts must fit in their Christmas stocking and we don't spend very much) but rather we enjoy Christmas because of the time we get to spend together, the fun times we have creating special little gifts for one another (it is often more fun to give than receive!) , the fun decorations, the music and the yummy homemade meal that we share with extended family and friends.  Thinking about it almost makes me feel ready for winter, but I think I will go ahead and enjoy Fall right now. During the Fall however I will have fun preparing for Christmas. I hope you will too.

So....
Please come join me next week, and the next week and then the week after that and so on until the week before Christmas. I hope we can have fun together trying out new projects, encouraging and learning from one another and making things for our family and friends!

If you would be willing to spread the word about this carnival on your blog- I would really appreciate it! Feel free to grab the graphic at the top of this post if you like. I also am going to try (I am not good with techy stuff though) to make a button that I can make it easy for you to grab. One way or another I would love it if you spread the word! The more that participate the merrier!

updated: The Handmade Christmas Carnival is now going!

Please check out these posts:
Week One
Week Two
Week Three

If My people will pray...

" If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. " 2 Chronicles 7:14

This verse was used in the sermon this morning and I saw it displayed at the dinner I went to last night. It is an important verse and one we should think about and act on!