Have you ever had a trading party?

My friends and I have done this tradition for years. I think the very first one I ever went to was at Michelle's house.

Basically, what we do, is we all clean out our houses of stuff that we might get rid of in a yard sale or donate to Hannah Homes thrift stores.

I usually go through my clothes, shoes, jewelry, lotions, home decor, scrap stuff, kitchen, and my "random closet o' stuff," and bring anything that I don't LOVE or USE.

We bring it all to the hostess' house, who has already made an appointment for Hannah Homes to come pick up the leftovers the next day. We organize it all into sections- home decor, clothing, etc., and then draw a number. We go through in numerical order- the first person picks out one thing that they want, and then the second person goes, etc. After we've gone around the circle a couple of times, then we usually pick out several things on our turn.

Our rules:

1) You don't have to take anything if you don't want to; likewise, you can quit whenever you want.
2) You can't say what you want before your turn, because then someone else might feel bad if they picked that, etc.
3) You can't say, "EWWWWWWWWW Gross! Who brought THAT?" ;) Hehe

We recently had a trading party at Michelle's house, and I got rid of a bunch of stuff (which is always a lovely feeling). I also found some treasures to bring home.

Pretty new tableclothes.

(I noticed this when I was taking that picture. Someone decided to alter my arrangement on the table. Too funny!)

New china. Gosh, I love that rose pattern and the silver edges.
I think it looks pretty with my Southern Living at Home plates on top of it.
A primitive star candle holder that I'm using as a spoon rest on my stovetop.
I'd been looking for something pretty but durable & kid friendly to put on top of my vintage suitcases. Perfect.
A nice big stack of bedtime reading material.
A Lambie for Em's room. (How perfect is that?!)


A new saucepan for the Hubs.
A little cheese plate with glass dome. I have great plans for little displays inside of it!
Itty bitty sewing machine.
As Abbey put it, one of the fun things about this is that everyone thinks they are getting the best stuff... one man's junk is another man's treasure, as they say.

I think my favorite thing is that I get a little piece of my friends in my home. (Well, not an actual piece of my friends- that would be gross.)

Thanks for "trading" with me, friends!

I highly recommend doing one of these parties with your group of friends! They are great fun and a good way to mix up your home decor (and declutter, while you're at it!).