Yep...keep tweeting Simon Cowell pls

Hmmm. Still no news about upgrading our next trade - those front-of-house NetMum's X Factor tickets.What a surprise!

Come on Si, we know you've had shed loads of tweets and there will be a meet-and-greet with the performers going on at Wembley Arena anyway, so please include our next swappers.  

This is an important swap upgrade so we don't want to rush it. Please keep tweeting (see previous post for full details) and don't forget all of this is for a fantastic cause - cot death charity FSID.

Meanwhile I'm scribbling away tonight because next week is going to be a big one for One Pink Hairclip. Not only is OPH going to feature as a guest blog for NetMums but it's also going to feature on the award-winning Sainsburys Little Ones site www.sainsburys.co.uk/littleones

In both instances I'll be talking about why I started your humble blog, the story behind its name and also directing you to some vital information about how you can protect your child.

I want to take a moment to thank you for your support this week. Thanks for visiting the site, thanks for offering swaps (there were too many to accept) and also thanks for following One Pink Hairclip on Twitter.

Oh and more overseas offers please! Any in South Africa?

Happy swapping,

Graham

Please tweet Simon Cowell

Okay here's the skinny. We're now trying to swap two great tickets to X Factor Live in March supplied by NetMums.com. They're brilliant tickets but it would be great if the next trader got VIP treatment including a meet and greet. So please help by tweeting the following message to Simon Cowell.

@simoncowell please give @onepinkhairclip swapper Xfctr Show VIP treatment! http://www.onepinkhairclip.blogspot.com/

If this is all news to you, read the last post...but please tweet first :-)

Trade Four: NetMums have the Xfactor!

....pink ballet shoes for knockout X Factor Live tickets

The pace of this swapping is breathtaking, It's wearing me out! Literally minutes after Freed completed their pink shoe swap, NetMums.com firmed up their offer of two front-of-house tickets to the X Factor Live show at Wembley Arena on March 4th.

These seats are in block A, just rows from the front which, in a huge venue like Wembley Arena, is practically in the performers' laps. Any closer and you'd get a crick in your neck!

I think this is a great swap but, you know what, I think the next trader deserves more and so I need your help.

I'd like you to Tweet and email Mr Cowell until our next swapper, whoever they are, gets VIP treatment including a backstage meet-and-greet! Here is my suggested Tweet for you to cut and paste:

@simoncowell please give @onepinkhairclip swapper Xfctr Show VIP treatment! http://www.onepinkhairclip.blogspot.com/

Since losing our daughter last year we've been amazed by people's kindness and generosity. One Pink Hairclip is our attempt to channel that kindness so the cot death charity FSID gets the funding it needs and achieves its goal of halving the number of babies lost every year in the UK.

Thank you NetMums.com and everyone else helping to make this come true.

Thanks for reading,

Graham

PS.....Email me your offer of a trade now to secure these tickets and avoid disappointment ;-)

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Time to Twitter!

It's been a whirlwind week but now I'm on Twitter....please follow me. @onepinkhairclip

Onwards and upwards...

Bronya from Freed of London, dance shoe suppliers to the stars, has been in touch and confirmed the pink handmade ballet shoes are on their way. Now time for some celebrity stalking for the next trade and I'll need your help. Will post tonight with details!

Trade three: The painting versus pumps dilema

Here it is. The 'difficult' third trade. I'm out of my comfort zone and quite frankly nervous with this one...

Literally minutes after posting the One Pink Hairclip t-shirt trade last night, a guy called Alan, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, pinged me an email.


Now, I don't know Alan, but he seems a nice chap and a good laugh. He tells me he upped sticks in the UK and set off for Brazil five years ago but got way-laid en route, wooed an Argentine beauty, sired a handsome son and is now living in the land of the gaucho full time (okay I embellish, but who cares?) As you can tell I'm a sucker for a romantic story and on first inspection Alan's story has it all; wunderlust, romance and the meandering pampas. I like to think that Alan has gone totally native after half a decade steeped in South American culture and may look a little like this...

...but despite his appearance, locals still affectionately call him cockney Alan. Anyway I digress. Alan tells me he's in possession of a piece of fine art by the renowned St Ives artist Roy Ray. It's an object d'art he snapped up 20 years ago for a mere £250 ....and I'm thinking, doesn't this stuff tend to go up in value over time?


Now this is where I get nervous. I like art but whenever I go to a gallery I tend to spend more time reading the little plaque next to the exhibit which explains what it is. On a recent trip to the National Gallery with the nearest and dearest (N&D) we found ourselves discussing the merits of one painting's frame.


Deftly side-stepping another digression, here is Alan's generous, and I mean generous, offer of a trade. A painting entitled Ochre IV:

In the middle of wrestling with this trade-or-no-trade dilema another email appears in the OPH inbox. It's a message from a lady called Bronya who works for a firm called Freed of London. Here it is....

Subject: I'll swap ya...

Not the usual swap for a man, I grant you, but how would you like to swap your t-shirt for a handmade pair of pink ballet shoes?

I am the Marketing Manager for a company who manufactures ballet shoes for all the major ballet companies around the world. We would happily swap a pair for your t-shirt, which we will then display in the window of our London store to try to build extra publicity for you and FSID.

 

This wasn't exactly a scrap metal versus ladybug moment (see first trade), not by a long shot. But Bronya's offer definately had the 'ladybug factor'. Alan's picture may be a handsome work of art and it could be worth more (can anyone clear this up?) and he may be Don Giovanni incarnate but come on....a pair of handmade pink ballet shoes. I know someone who would have liked those!

Alan, thanks for being so generous and such a good sport but Bronya gets my trade this time.

                                         Are you a prima donna (literally or otherwise)?

Perhaps you know an unshod one?

Have you got the fourth trade?

If you fit the bill email onepinkhairclip@hotmail.co.uk now!

Thanks for reading,

Graham

Here's The King of Swappers!

I bumped into Keith Chegwin (of Multi-Coloured Swapshop fame) during lunch. What a bundle of energy! Maybe more from him later?

Graham

Shuttle diplomacy

I'm in talks with a chap from South America for the next trade. Will keep you posted.

Graham

Our second swap!

Trade Two: 1 flipping ladybug for a 'special' t-shirt

Hot on the heels of my inaugeral swap with Kenley and her kids in Carlsbad, California, another tantalising email materialised in my inbox. This time from Richard a T-shirt maker in our very own Welsh Wales. The email subject line was this:

T-shirt swap?

I don't know about you but I love t-shirts. Every morning I hover momentarily over my t-shirt drawer unsure whether today will be a t-shirt day. Luckily I work for an employer who doesn't bat an eyelid if you pitch up for work wearing a t-shirt. In fact, my boss has been known to arrive on a Friday morning wearing a "I've got such a bad hangover" T-shirt. Respect.

And here's the nub. The best T-shirts tell you loads about the wearer and what's important to them (for instance my boss, and not shouting). They can tell you that the wearer loves a certain band, that they ran the London Marathon, that they 'heart NY' or that they're "with stoopid". Yep t-shirts are, in my humble opinion, one of the defining items of clothing of our age. But Neil in Wales better have a good one to part me from my American "flipping ladybug".

Neil wrote:

I run a t-shirt company, and would be happy to send you a t-shirt in exchange for that ladybug. I think it would look good on my desk next to the knitted monkey and Where's Wally mug.

:-)

Neil

I think I got the measure of the man from this 38-word email. He has a shared love of t-shirts, he displays a crocheted primate at his workstation, he loves kids' puzzle books and is a fan of novelty chinaware. I was now smiling cos this trade definately had the "ladybug" factor.

But what sort of shirt was he offering? He still hadn't said. My new friend Neil sent a follow-up email containing a video (yes a video) he'd taken a few seconds earlier of some of the T-shirts he sells on his website. They looked good but then he delivered the ladybug winner - "You can have any of these t-shirts or I can make you a 'special one'". A few emails later and behold the One Pink Hairclip T-shirt.

You'll notice Neil has even cunningly customised this one-off garment for the next, and third, swapper involved in my quest for a trade-bigger-than-a-house. What a star. I've never met you and may never do so but thanks Neil the T-shirt maker from Wales!

Do you have the third trade?

Could the next swapper be you?

Email me your trade now!

Thanks for your support,

Graham

ps Neil said I didn't have to plug his T-shirt firm but that would be churlish. Go to http://www.dizzyjam.com/

Multi-National Swap Shop

Morning all,

Day five of One Pink Hairclip and we're getting hits from lots of people in lots of countries. Below is a list of the countries. I've also been getting some great offers today but keep them coming and I'll update you later.
Thanks for your support,
Graham

PS would the person in Saudi contact me?

Our first swap!

Trade: 1 flipping ladybug for 1 pink hairclip

I was sitting at work thinking about the kind offer of swapping a 'load of scrap metal' for my One pink hairclip (see previous post). My head was saying, "it's a great swap, the price of copper and scrap is going through the roof", but my heart just wasn't feeling it. My head was saying "grab it with both hands and beware any jagged edges" but my heart was saying "where's the poetry?"

Then an email containng this little fellah popped up in my inbox...

...I opened the attachment and without even realising it I had adopted the same grin as the 'ladybug'. My heart was saying "yes" while my head was still protesting about the market value of non-ferrous metals. Here's the full email from Kenley and her children, in America, in all its business-like glory:

I offer you the following irresistible trade:
 
One wind-up, flipping ladybug for your pink hair clip. 
 

Xoxo,
Kenley

Kenley and kids from Carlsbad, CA, America, you've got yourself a deal! I've asked them to mail the 'flipping' (should this be flapping?) ladybug to me in England first class and they'll get my One Pink Hairclip.

Right....brace yourselves for the second swap towards my trade-bigger-than-a-house. Who wants a flipping ladybug?

Graham

News just in....

Okay just got our first offer of a swap. 'A load of copper and scrap metal in Sussex'. Don't scoff, scrap metal is valuable! I'm going to mull this over and let you know if  I'll accept the swap.

Answering your questions...

I've been sent a load of questions since launching One Pink Hairclip on Friday so rather than answering individually here are the answers to the three most commonly asked ones...

"I don't get it. You want to swap a hairclip for a house?"
Well it goes a little like this....I'm starting with one very pretty pink hairclip but I'll trade it for something 'worth' a little more – say a novelty pen, a toy car, a bell for a bicycle, a snow globe, literally whatever.
 The aim is to continue like this, increasing the value of the swaps, until the target is reached. Bear in mind that I’ll also consider trading for experiences. For instance the chance to meet a person or an opportunity to take part in an activity - all within the bounds of taste and decency of course!

 
"What are you going to get out of it?"
A lot! I’ll see a charity that I’ve adopted benefit and also hopefully raise awareness of what they’re trying to do – cut the number of cot deaths in half. Obviously I won’t keep any of the trades and the final swap will go to FSID.

"How can I help with what you’re doing?"
Tell your friends what I’m doing - Tweet, Facebook or even, dare I say it, use word of mouth. Also offer swaps when you’re able to.


Although I've had lots of feedback so far (all good, honest) I've yet to get a suitable trade so you could still be the first!

Happy swapping,

Graham