Cookie Swap

One tradition that we have in my family is to always try to get together and make Holiday goodies.  This year my mom has decided she would like to throw a cookie swap party.  A cookie swap is a fun way to help you cut down on the amount of baking that you need to do and socialize at the same time.  Martha Stewart has some great tips you should check out!

The way a cookie swap works is that you coordinate with a group of friends and family and share the cookies that you bake ahead of time. Everyone bakes two or three varieties of their favorite cookie or holiday treat. Then you get together and swap the treats. It's that easy and you end up with a multitude of cookies to bring to your holiday events. To plan a cookie swap, you need to decide whom to invite, when and where to have the cookie swap and how many cookies everyone needs to bring.  The number of people to invite to the cookie swap depends upon how many varieties of cookies you want to end up with when the party is over.  Ask family and friends that you know who like to bake if they want to participate. Once you explain the concept to them and they realize how much baking it will save them, they will probably be eager to participate.  If you are organizing the cookie swap, you will probably plan to be the host. If you and the other cookie swappers decide to make this an annual event, you may want to take turns being the host each year. As the host, you want to make sure that you have a dining room table or a table big enough to hold the plates of cookies that your guests will be bringing. Since it is a party and the guests will be planning on taking the cookies home, you'll want to serve some refreshments. The guests will want to sample the cookies, so you probably shouldn't plan on anything too sweet.  A light meal or some kind of soup would probably be most appropriate.  You can search for recipes at http://allrecipes.com.  You might also want to tell your guests to bring copies of the recipes for the cookies they made. Then, along with the cookies, your guests can swap their recipes. If you are super organized, you can ask the guests to send you a copy of the recipes in advance and you can make them into recipe books for everyone to take home. Another idea for a take home gift for your guests is to give each guest a tin to put their cookies in.  

I hope this helps relieve some of the stress that comes along with the hustle and bustle of the Holiday season!!  Have fun!  Merry Baking!

Joplin Give & Take

Chances are by now, you've at least heard of the new trend on Facebook offering an alternative to garage sales.  It is called Joplin Give & Take.  I found out about it through some friends and found it to be very helpful.  After being on the site for a while I was asked to be an administrator by the creator.  So, first I will explain to you what Joplin Give and Take is in case you haven't heard of it yet.  It is a closed group which requires approval by an administrator to join and participate.  Once you're approved, you can buy, sell and trade items which you would normally put in a garage sale, but only after reading the rules!!  It is similar to Craigslist, but I find it to be more convenient because you can post and follow all of your items in one album and are notified through Facebook when someone comments on one of your pictures, showing interest.  It is better than a garage sale because you can shop from the comfort of your home and meet up for exchange whenever it's convenient for you.   The site is split up into two separate groups.  The adult site is intended for miscellaneous household items, men's and women's clothing, cars, and anything else that isn't for children.  The other site is Joplin Give & Take Children's Edition.  On the children's edition you can post children's clothing, toys, maternity wear, children's furniture, and other child related items.  I have found it to be very helpful in selling my son's clothing that he has outgrown.  It really helps bring in a little extra income every once in a while.  As far as administrative duties, I agreed to do it over the summer because I wasn't working or going to school.  It really was a lot more work than I anticipated and of course it doesn't pay anything.  I was told I could just help by watching the posts and making sure people were following the rules, deleting old photos and photos of items that have already sold.  Well, it turned more into a babysitting gig.  People were always fighting over items, claiming it should go to them, sending private messages asking what they should do because "this person wants it for more than this person", etc.  It got old quick!  Before too long we had to take on 4 more administrators just to keep things under control!  The site has grown to have over 12,000 members just on the adult site.  They were recently featured on the local news.  If you'd like a closer look at things you can check out the story on Four States Homepage!