Method to my madness

I love hosting these swaps.

I get wonderful mail almost every day.

I get to see and handle amazing art (without worrying about where I'm going to put it all)

and I get to keep lots and lots of spreadsheets.

I love spreadsheets.

I'm a spreadsheet geek.

but when it comes time to figure out who gets what, I ditch the computer and take over the living room floor.

First I line your cards up on top of your envelopes:

(Jake supervises)

 Then I write everybody's names on post-it notes.  If you mailed five cards, you get five post-it notes.

And here is where the fun begins.  I start putting your post-it note on the card you are going to receive.

There's lots of rearranging at this point as I make sure you get a variety of postcards, and you don't get one of your own in return.  And I even try to go back to my old swap lists and try to send you something from someone you haven't "met" before.

 Jake is especially helpful during this part.

 (He seems partial to Gina's postcards.)

Once all the post cards have been tagged, I rearrange them so that all the cards I am mailing you are in a single pile. 

 Then I dig through your envelopes and pull out the mailing labels and stamps you included, and make sure every postcard is properly addressed and stamped.

I then go back to my spread sheet and record two columns for each swap; "this person got a postcard from this person"

and I check and double check the addresses and postage and glue down anything that may have come loose in transit.

Finally, I'm off to see Hector and Ike at the post office so I can send these cards on their way to you!

I'm loving all the suggestions you've added to the Swap Ideas list (keep them coming!)

I'll be deciding on our next swap in the next few days to make sure I never have an empty mailbox.

In the meantime, check out the "other cool swaps" tab - I just added two new links.

(and send me a message if you know of other great swaps out there)

Thanks to everyone for participating.

this is so much fun!