Here are the current standings:

And here are our top swappers in the month of March:

We’ve had so much fun partnering with Yoplait this month and spreading #swapportunity to both of our communities. “Like” Yoplait Light on Facebook to get lifestyle swap tips and Do the Swap with tasty snack choices all throughout the year, not just in March.

And, natch, we’re looking forward to swapping with you on the Swap.com Market and in person at our Swap Events 365 days a year!

Swap on, friends.

~Melissa

Photo by AdamTowner.com

We’ve loved partnering with Yoplait Light this month for Swap Madness and sharing daily tips for simple lifestyle swaps that, over time, can make a big difference in our daily lives. This week, we documented our adventures in Doing the Swap ourselves — putting these and more daily swap tips from Yoplait Light into action, and are now sharing our personal photos and real-life results! For this experiment, Amy and I decided to play to our passions: she to fashion & beauty; me to cooking & DIY projects. Read on!

AMY’S ADVENTURES IN SWAPPING

Photo by AdamTowner.com

Many of us fall into a fashion routine or, for lack of inspiration or energy, play it safe when dressing for everyday, like the neutral outfit I pulled together today, feeling a bit run-down after our trip to SXSW. I love taking risks with fashion, however; and Yoplait’s reminder that small changes like adding a bold lip color, a single piece of statement jewelry, or swapping out one item of clothing for one in a bold color or mixing prints are easy tips I dish out to friends all the time.

Photo by AdamTowner.com

Ta-da! Here I am in a completely opposite outfit, by only changing 4 things: I swapped my blush-colored gloss for a bold pink lipstick; I swapped my simple pendant for a statement necklace made of big, white geode stone slices on an oversize gold chain from Anthropologie; I swapped my neutral blue/gray sundress for a vintage bright green fit-and-flare dress and a bold red belt (both from Goodwill). If you really want to swap your everyday look for something stunning, try mixing all four together as I did! Fashion editors say “more is more,” and swapping playing it safe for taking fashion risks is something I always advocate at our clothing swap events.

MELISSA’S ADVENTURES IN SWAPPING

Photo by ShoestringMag.com

One of my absolute favorite ways to spend free time is cooking at home for friends and family — and I usually, subtly, use it as a way to prove by example that meals can be exciting, delicious, easy to make, affordable, and relatively good for you.

One of my secret weapons in the kitchen is the Misto olive oil sprayer, which for around $10 not only stretches your bottle of oil (and therefore budget) but also means you use less oil while cooking for the same results, stretching the calories, too. Score! This recipe for spaghetti pizza, for instance, called for about 4 tablespoons of olive oil, but by misting rather than coating the pan, I swapped the amount of oil used down to about 1 tablespoon and the pie was yummy.

Photo by ShoestringMag.com

Another one of my favorite things to do is use everyday objects in unique and beautiful ways, like swapping regular gift wrap for creative materials like ribbon made from the inside of old VHS tapes and hand-printed wrapping paper made from brown paper grocery bags stenciled with a repeating design or stamp. Show your love for your friend or relative with something made with love, while showing Mama Earth a little love, too — trust me, it feels great all around.

“Like” Yoplait on Facebook for more lifestyle swap tips and recipes like these, and while you’re there, tell us all about which of Yoplait Light’s daily swap tips YOU tried or incorporated into your life! You can also chat with us on Twitter all month long using the hashtag #swapportunity.

Each swapped item was tagged with the bloggers’ name, website URL, Twitter handle, and Swap.com user name (above), and it was so fun to see the post-event connections made through the exchange of clothes and accessories! Here are a just a few of our favorite photos from #SwapLulus shot by Adam Towner — see the rest over on Facebook, or check out all the blogger reactions, Tweets, and Instagram pics on Storify.

One of our new favorite swapper/bloggers, Hilary Inspired, talking swap with our TV camera crew!

Alessandra from Lulus.com with a rapt group of fashion blogger-swappers, learning about Lulu*s new spring line.

Melissa & Amy of Swap.com with Tara from Austin Goodwill (right), who supported us by loaning us clothing racks & hangers for the night’s event and took home the leftover clothing from the swap to raise money for Goodwill’s important job training programs! Check out their 2012 Good Give campaign on Facebook if you live in Central Texas (or just want to show your support). We also did a very special Thank Goodwill It’s Friday session in their North Lamar store — check out the fab pics!

We loved meeting the teams behind all our fabulous co-sponsors! Poshmark, Blowfish Shoes, Lands’ End Canvas, StyleBook, INPINK, independent Austin business association the 2nd Street District, and so many more great companies, like seeing our friends from ModCloth (who do so much to empower female-owned & -run businesses).

We just can’t help ourselves: getting silly in the photobooth is a must at every event! Here we are hamming it up with Texas Style Council founder Indiana Adams (far left) and Jesse Coulter (far right)

With our favorite Lulu*s girls! From left to right, Amy from Swap.com, Stephanie from Lulus.com, Alessandra from Lulus.com, and Melissa from Swap.com

We (sniffle) didn’t get a photo together, but our hearts doubled in size meeting old skool Swap.com members who either live in Austin or were in town for SXSW Interactive and stopped by to meet us in person, like LibrarianKate!

If you didn’t make it to our SwapLulus event but are now jonesing for new clothes, hurry! There are still a few hours left to enter our first-ever “Show Us What You Want” contest with Lulu*s on Swap.com. 5 lucky swappers will each win a $50 gift card to get anything they want from Lulus.com. Get all the contest details and enter to win here.

As everyone’s grandparents seemingly told them at some point in their lives: know-how will only get you so far in life, then sometimes you need the right tools for the job.

We’re thrilled to have such amazing know-how featured on Swap.com this month, with new daily lifestyle swapping tips from our friends at Yoplait Light featured each day of Swap Madness in March, and now it’s time to put that expertise into action. Using what else? Swapped items!

Here are a few of our favorite, perfect #swapportunity matches:

Yoplait Light Daily Swap Tip #5:
Swap potato chips for popcorn to get more whole grains in your diet.

• Stovetop popcorn maker
• Popcorn cookbook
• Movie theatre style popcorn bowl (portion control!)
• Mini air popcorn maker

Yoplait Light Daily Swap Tip #15:
Swap out ordinary jewelry for statement pieces.

• Angelique de Paris Statement Ring
• Etched Antique Replica Earrings
• Brown Faux Bakelite Bangle
• Vintage 1970s Enamel Cuff Bracelet
• Leopard Cuff Bracelet
• Handmade Beaded Cuff Bracelet
• Gold & Black Layered Beaded Necklace

Yoplait Light Daily Swap Tip #10:
Swap impulse buys for organized grocery shopping.

• Coupon Binder & Grocery List Planner
• iPhone 3GS (just add grocery apps!)
• “Cheapskate Monthly Makeover” Guide by Mary Hunt
• Shopping cart coupon organizer

Yoplait Light Swap Tip #20:
Swap sitting at your desk all day for some face time (and exercise!) with co-workers

• Nerf Mini Basketball
• Tabletop Ping Pong Set

Yoplait Light is challenging Swap.com members to Do the Swap! and see how small changes can add up to a big result over time, so give it a try! “Like” Yoplait on Facebook for more swap tips and recipes, and while you’re there, tell us all about your favorite swaps – you can also chat with us on Twitter all month long using the hashtag #swapportunity.

Stay tuned: Next week, Amy and I will recap our adventures in Doing the Swap ourselves – putting these and more daily swap tips from Yoplait Light into action, with personal photos and real-life stories of our results!

~ Melissa

Photo: Ping pong image Shutterstock.com; product images courtesy of Swap.com members

Drumroll, please: March is Swap Madness at Swap.com! For the entire month, we’ve teamed up with Yoplait Light to celebrate swapping as a lifestyle and to have a friendly competition determining which region of the country earns bragging rights as the top swappers in the U.S. — aka Swap Madness. Fun, right? We thought so.

Here’s how to take full advantage of this swapportunity:

Yoplait Light is making swapping even easier (especially when it comes to our snack choices) by providing daily lifestyle & recipe swap tips at Swap.com. We’ve also teamed up on a killer interactive map at Market.Swap.com/Yoplait showing the number of swaps happening in each region of the US — East, West, Midwest, and South — and the top five swappers in our community. Will you make the list?

Even if you don’t make the leaderboards, you can still show the community what an amazing swapper you are by earning your “Swapportunist” badge from Yoplait Light — just complete three successful swaps on Swap.com during the month of March!

Last but certainly not least, Yoplait Light is challenging Swap.com members to Do the Swap and see how small changes can add up to a big result over time, so give it a try! “Like” Yoplait on Facebook for more swap tips and recipes. While you’re there, tell us all about your favorite swaps, and chat with us on Twitter all month long using the hashtag #swapportunity.

Stay tuned: next week, Amy and I will share a roundup of our favorite items available on the Swap Market that can help you successfully put Yoplait’s daily swap tips into action!

~ Melissa

We had so much fun sponsoring the Texas Style Council conference in Austin last year, we decided to do it all again! This time, we’re bringing along our friends from Lulus.com to swap clothes with 250 of our favorite fashion bloggers. Now THAT’S how to do SXSW.

I know what you’re thinking: Wait, why do we care? What about us? We can’t make it to Texas this week! Well, because we love our our swappers so much, we’re kicking off our first-ever “Show Us What You Want” contest on Swap.com — just for you.

5 lucky Swap.com members will each win a $50 gift card to get anything they want from Lulu*s!

All you have to do to enter is:

• Follow the Lulu*s girls on Swap.com
• Add your favorite Lulu*s items to your Wants from their Haves
• Extra points for Tweeting photos of you with Lulu*s items you already own to @Swap and @Lulusdotcom with the hashtag #SwapLulus

But hurry! This contest expires as soon as our plane lands back in Boston at midnight on March 15th…

If you want to follow along with all the swapping, fashion, and Austin-style fun going on this week, follow us at @Swap and @TheSwapaholics on Twitter, and look for the hash tags #TXSC and #SwapLulus!

But, let’s be honest, we also really love shopping their stores, going “Goodwill hunting” for great new scores, and sharing those finds with friends, family, and the interwebs. Which is why Amy and I started a fun little project called “Thank Goodwill It’s Friday,” where we share our favorite recent swapped and thrifted items on Facebook and on Twitter with the hashtag #ThankGoodwillItsFriday each week and ask our friends, fellow swappers, and blog readers to do the same.

Here are some swapped and thrifted scores sent in to us last Friday:

Left to right: Riding boots scored by ThriftD in Colorado; $5 blazer scored by Bullmeister in Milwaukee, WI; BCBG dress and vintage heels, $17 total, scored by TrueBelly in Boston, MA.

As “TGIF” has gotten more and more popular, we’ve stepped up our game and now spend each Friday visiting a different Goodwill, meeting with their teams to “talk swap” and going head-to-head in a styling “challenge”! Last week, I had the pleasure of heading North to Portland, Maine to hang with Michelle Smith at Goodwill of Northern New England — find out all about our visit, what we scored, and how we styled those pieces over on the Goodwill of NNE blog this week — and be sure to share your favorite swapped & thrifted scores/hauls with us on Facebook and Twitter today!

Swappers, by nature, are a bunch of trendsetters (hello, swapping/sharing is the lifestyle trend right now!) and every trendsetter we know is on Pinterest — so now we are, too!

We unofficially started using Pinterest about six months ago, with boards for the “Swapperazzi” — where Swap.com staffers share the best swapped fashion and swap event photos from around the world — and for cookie recipes and inspiration when we hosted our Cookie Swap for a Cause over the holidays, to name a few. Now, we’ve decided to create a dedicated Swap.com Pinterest account showcasing the “best of the best” in swapping: delicious recipe swaps; tips, tricks and how-to’s for making the most of your swaps; swap event photos, swap themes, and DIY decor projects; amazing outfit photos featuring swapped fashion items; inspiring news and ideas from the world of collaborative consumption…yup, we pretty much have all things swap covered.

And yesterday, in our latest new feature release, we added awesome new sharing tools so you can save your favorite swap items or broadcast the stuff you’re swapping using the “Pin It” button from any item listing page on the Swap.com Market (as well as more easily sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+). To get started, go see what we’re pinning now or start pinning your own items to get more exposure for your swaps!

1972 MGB Roadster with Hard Top

Morgan says: “You can’t go on a road trip without a car, preferably a convertible! This MG is a classic
for enjoying the sunny days and getting the wind in your hair on the open road.”

Round Black Faux Wayfarer Sunglasses by KISS

Morgan says: “With the top down on the car, you can’t forget your sunglasses!
Love how these look vintage, and play off the classic rounded headlights of the MG.”

Black iPod Nano

Morgan says: “You can’t have a road trip without a playlist complete without music to help pass the time while driving. Download a bunch of songs that you and your friends will have a blast singing to, and crank the volume!”

$50 Gulf Gift Card

Morgan says: “Nobody likes spending their money on gas. Swap for a gas station gift card to fill ‘er up
and use your cash for something else, like awesome highway eats & adventures along the road.”

Large Black Purse

Morgan says: “When you’re on a road trip with friends, there’s only so much room in the car so that means packing light. Try fitting everything you need into a cute bag like this one. Only the essentials!”

What are YOUR top picks for a spring break getaway, whether it’s somewhere remote and tropical or a staycation adventure closer to home? If you’re swapping something others should see, feel free to link to & call out your listing in the comments below!

Image: Courtesy of Shag The Movie/MGM Pictures

Colorful Monkini, Size Small

Laura says: “This swimsuit is colorful and playful just like a vacation
should be.  A sexy swimsuit is a staple for a beach bound vacation.”

Hollister Jean Shorts

Laura says: “I love jean shorts because they are so versatile: perfect for putting
over a bathing suit or just taking a walk on the beach.”

Forever 21 Cobalt & Black Printed Dress

Laura says: “This dress is perfect for going out clubbing or wherever the night might take you.
I’m trying to swap for this dress because it is perfect and cute for those hot days and nights.

Luxury Resort Stay from RCI.com

Laura says: “I would kill to have my choice of one of the 1,400 resorts worldwide available
through this vacation voucher! There are so many places I want to go, how would I choose?

Faux Ray-Ban Sunglasses

Laura says: “These sunnies are perfect because they go with anything and are very stylish!”

What do you think of Laura’s beach getaway picks? Stay tuned tomorrow for Morgan’s road trip must-haves!