SWAP 'TIL YOU DROP PARTY

Let me see, how do I explain a "Swap 'til you Drop Party"?  It goes like this:  Each lady brings a few items from home that they no longer want.  These would be things they would sell at a yardsale or perhaps give to a mission.  I suggest you limit the numbers of items each lady brings (you can set the number), say 5-10 items or just 2-3 items.  Your choice.  You can also specify to only bring one type of item, i.e., clothing or books, etc., for a clothing swap or a book swap only type thing.  For fun, ask each lady to tag, label and package her items as if they were for sale in a chic boutique.  Decorate the hall in a "shopping" type theme.  Hang shopping bags from the ceiling or on the walls.  For clothing items, use a clothing rack or coat rack to hang them on.  Set up display tables like a boutique. 

Ask each lady to bring a snack or drink.

For invitations, I used small brown gift bags (4" x 5" size) stuffed with tissue paper.  I pasted a "Swap 'til you Drop" party label on the front of the bag and placed a paper invitation with the rules inside the bag.

The object of this get together is to swap your items with the items that the other ladies have brought.  This is like a shopping spree only there is no real money involved.  It is a "swapping spree".  Provide tags for each lady to put their initials on (colored yard sale labels work great).  Each lady receives the same amount of tags as items she brought to swap.  If she brought 5 items she only gets five tags.

Each lady "goes shopping" and tags the items she wants.  To make the night more interesting allow more than one lady to place her tag on the "most wanted" items, leaving some items with several tags on it.  In that case the items with more than one tag must be "auctioned" off, so to speak.  You can play different games to see who "gets" the most coveted items.  Play a round of bible trivia.  Ask the questions and whoever gets the correct answer wins a designated amount of  "play" money for the question category.  Say, bible history category is worth $5 and knowledge from the gospels is worth $10 and so on.  Once the trivia is finished, the ladies can bid "at auction" the coveted items.

Play games like musical chairs, or pin the button on the blouse (like pin the tail on the donkey), to see which lady wins a particular item.  Have fun and introduce some different games to spice things up. 

A pinata would also be a fun addition at this meeting...Turn a shopping bag into a pinata and fill it with all things girly...

Suggestions:  Provide each lady with a large shopping bag to take her swapped stuff home in. Also, if there are items that were not chosen and the ladies don't want to take them back home, box them up and donate them to your local charity.