Em-

So funny, I was just thinking that it would be about time to think about 13 Nights for this year, given the need for extra lead time for both online shopping and shipping out to our ghoulish.

I'd rather not host this year, but am definitely on deck to support! 

Editing to note that I still want to start a jewelry round robin, too, if folks are still interested and if a couple of folks can help me seed it, since I have a lot, but probably not enough to be interesting for the first folks.

Hey everyone! 

Are you looking for something to keep you busy during shelter in place? Something to distract you from your stress as an essential worker? Just want another way to connect with fellow BPAL and book lovers?

Then come join us for the 17th iteration of the BPAL Book Club, theme - MYSTERIOUS!

We are currently accepting nominations for the theme "Mysterious". Come make your best suggestions for books to read through April 28, then we will vote and read together in May. 

This is the most low key book club you've ever joined, I promise. 

Just a heads up that I am still interested in putting together the jewelry swap AND in doing a traditional mystery match spring cleaning swap, but I'm feeling totally overwhelmed right now. 

On 2/14/2020 at 8:54 AM, Emma2403 said:

I have plenty (and I mean plenty) of jewellery I don't wear, but if it's a round robin style swap, I won't be allowed to join. 

We could try to work something out. ?

I can't do that one since incense is likely to be included,  sadly.  

If folks want to send me jewelry to build up the stash, I can administer a jewelry specific box in a month or so. 

I definitely don't have enough to provide good seed fodder for a jewelry round robin, so feel free to run with this if you're up to it! 

Not sure I'm up to personally putting one together just at the moment,  but let me see what I can unearth this weekend and maybe between us we can get this jewelry one running!

Dang, y'all were busy in the past couple of days!

First things first, last call for the Leap Year swap! Sign-ups close at 5pm and I'm matching tonight!

I love that there are new round robins starting - that is a great way to more gently rehome things than the bluntness of the traditional Spring Cleaning Swap (although I think there's room for both for those of us who like the more traditional mystery swap - more on that in a minute). Personally, I would be VERY into the idea of a jewelry round robin if that were to get off the ground (I have stuff to contribute, but probably not enough to start even a small flat rate box worth. 

In terms of starting up new round robins, my suggestion as both an occasional organizer and participant is to make it VERY clear what the expectations are - both in terms of what should be contributed and not, as well as how strong a curatorial hand you want to take as an organizer. Also know that the size is only going to grow. I started up a bath and beauty box with 10 items and a box of Imps/decants in a medium flat rate box and by the time I handed the project over to Kakiphony, there were two stuffed to the gills large boxes. She took a much stronger curatorial stance which got rid of a lot of the Bath and Body Works sprays and drug store brand samples, but if those are things you want that's totally cool too. 

Someone also asked for more info on the traditional Spring Cleaning mystery match swap - there's a few of us who have run it over the years, but the basic idea is that you curate a box of at least 10 different types of items for your swap partner that you already have in your house. You can craft or bake with existing supplies, but you don't shop solely for the swap. We usually say different types of items so that no one ends up with, say, 5 imps of random BPAL and 5 books and that's it. Personally, I've always had a blast with this swap and and have received some amazing things from people over the years, but you definitely have to be prepared for a certain amount of randomness since no one is going out and shopping off your wishlist. It is one of my favorite swaps, so I hope someone runs it this year so I don't have to.   

Also, if folks have things they truly just want to give away and not receive anything back in return, we have the PIF sub-forum just for that purpose! 

Ages and ages ago we did a Valentine's swap where we made card boxes and filled them with goodies that was really fun. 

On 10/2/2019 at 12:24 AM, Greenwoodtree said:

DiZZysTARdust, You can find in the posts at the top of the Circular Swap page a lot of specifics  -

here and here: 

 

Thanks for linking these Greenwoodtree! 

DiZZysTARdust and anyone else interested in starting a new swap, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read the pinned threads and message me with any additional questions before trying to start your first hosted swap. ❤️

1 hour ago, Alexis Trout said:

Do we still do Switch Witch here?  Years ago I played along with a few and it was so much fun.

There are a dedicated group of organizers who will run a large scale Switch Witch a few times a year. There are also lots of smaller themed mystery match swaps that folks will run as the inspiration strikes. 

I would definitely be up for another round of Indie Potluck! They were always super fun. 

yayayay!

Given that I haven't even found the bandwidth to committing to organizing the Spring Cleaning Swap yet, I probably shouldn't do anything that requires crafting, much as I love craft swaps. 

I note this in part because if someone else wants to run with Spring Cleaning, please be my guest! 

Lemmie see what I can get to this weekend.

17 hours ago, Emma2403 said:

Is anyone planning to run a Spring Cleaning swap? I have stuff to rehome and it's so warm here (70F today) that I'm totally in a Spring mood. 

I will if no one else does because I definitely have a ton of stuff that is damn nice, but needs to leave my house. I pulled an entire packing box full of stuff off some shelves in my bedroom a couple of weeks ago and that's just the beginning! 

I love the idea of a traveling white elephant swap!

Tacky Ornaments is up!

10 hours ago, grnwoodtree said:

 

Amazingly enough, I dont know how it happened, but when I was able to login  tonight, and went to submit my swap for approval, the entire text of it was sitting there waiting for me! Im flummoxed and feel a bit bad for being irritated.

 

Anyway, the Old Fashioned Yule Elf swap is awaiting approval!

Yay! I'm glad it saved it. We promise, the new forum software will give even as it takes away.  I totally don't blame you for being irritated in the meantime. 

10 minutes ago, Emma2403 said:

 

I really hope so too because I also happen to have a tacky ornament to send to a victim, lol.

 

Does anyone remember who usually runs it? I don't want to step on anyone's toes but I could totally do it myself if no-one else is ready to. 

I think maybe Dark Alice?

14 hours ago, grnwoodtree said:

Let me tell y'all, I just spent an hour typing out and submitting a Yule Elf swap and it was deleted by the new improved forum because it says "You are not authorized to do that." I have some choice and nasty words for the amount of trouble Ive had just getting on this site since it was improved. And yes Ive left several posts in the appropriate thread.

Suffice to say, I have a swap ready to go and the forces are against me.

That really sucks. I'm sorry.

We think that the posting access issue in this subforum is fixed - unfortunately, many of the modifications that we were used to before the upgrade are things that the Admin team has to work through on a case by case basis so it's not until someone experiences the issue that we know it's there. 

Since the holidays are such an active time for circular swaps, I strongly suggest that organizers draft their text off-forum in a savable format (a word document, even a draft email) so that if we run into issues, all of your work isn't lost just in case. 

So, instead of a Krampus/St Nick swap, with Emma's blessing, I'm going to run a 12 Days of Christmas swap where we begin opening on Christmas Day. I'm not going to have a chance to focus on it until tomorrow evening, but watch this space, because deadlines are going to be tight. 

I am thinking about getting a Krampusnacht/Saint Nicolas swap up in the next few days, just noodling though the details.  

This is as good a time as any to note that I will be pretty much entirely AFK (as in, I will not even have wi-fi and questionable reception for a stretch) the tail end of July through the second week of August. So if anyone does have any end of summer/wishing for autumn swaps that they want to get started, you basically have a week, otherwise they will possibly not be approved for a very long stretch.

The farmer's market swap sounds awesome!