I don’t know about you but I love it when I am able to barter for something. It truly is becoming a lost art. People now days just go buy or hire someone when they need something. I feel it stems from our lack of community. People don’t know their neighbors. They come home, park in the garage and never step into their yard except to perhaps finely manicure the grass. We are lucky here as we DO know our neighbors and have a good sense of community at least on our block.

So with that in mind, a friend is finishing off their basement and is starting to buy accessories to match the rustic style of the decor they’ve chosen. She’d been telling me about wanting feed sack pillows for the couch but was overwhelmed by the price on Etsy. She purchased feed sacks at an antique store but then was stuck. She was afraid to cut them plus she didn’t have a sewing machine. I told her to bring them on over and we’d get it figured out.

Marvin decided he really needed to “help”.

After getting him interested in some toys we were able to cut them down and stuff the  pillow forms inside. I left the hand stitching to my friend to do at home.

Look how awesome they look!!

So what does this have to do with bartering…well they had leftover stone veneer from their fireplace. I got to take it home.

I’m hoping that I’ll have enough to build a fire pit. The rain is supposed to clear out tomorrow so then I can lay things out to make sure before buying the materials to complete my project.