Ayka

I ALWAYS SEND MY SWAPS IN TIME. IF YOU DON'T GET THE PACKAGE, IT'S PROBABLY STUCK SOMEWHERE IN TIME OR PLACE. IN CASE THIS HAPPENS, I'LL GLADLY RE-SEND.

I'm a mother of three (6, 4 and 2) very good sleepers and I like spending my evenings creating. I've been living in California for 8 years now, but am originally from central Europe. I love California, its weather and nature. However, it's too crowded for my taste and earthquakes don't make my sleep deeper. I think I could be called a magazine junkie, adoring Somerset Studio and home improvement magazines. I deeply admire artists whose work shows play and creativity and hope I could achieve the same one happy day. Antique shows, flea markets as well as art and craft stores positively raise my blood pressure and I can easily see myself living in any of them.

I like doing ATCs, postcard size pieces and smaller scale work in general. Altering things is my favorite part of creating. I'm an avid recycler and believe recycling is the future of this planet. Most often I work with paper and paint but I also dipped my hands in polymer clay and beeswax. I don't care about scrapbooking. It seems too artificial to me (please don't send me to hell) but I love all the beautiful papers, pens, stamps, ink pads and all other yummies. I also tried carving my own stamps and am definitely going to keep trying.

the three tenors (Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras), hits from the Beatles and other hits from sixties and eighties (Don McLean, The Monkies, ABBA, Queen etc.), Gypsy Kings, music from musicals (Hair, Phantom of the Opera), basically anything I can sing to

I used to read a lot (a lot!). In the last eight years, though, I only read craft and art books. I read one fiction, during that time, though - The Time Traveler's Wife. I highly recommend it.

Amadeus, Firelight, American Beauty, Little Miss Sunshine, Pride and Prejudice, The Name of the Rose, Marie Antoinette, Hotel Rwanda, Pulp Fiction, Love Actually, Nowhere in Africa, The Piano, Out of Africa, Divided We Fall (2000), Zelary, The Pianist, The Red Violin, Something's Gotta Give and more

I'm more of a throw-your-tv-out person. We mainly keep it for kids' programs and DVD watching since I tend to fall asleep in the movies. The only shows I watched (on DVDs, anyway) was Deadwood, my all time favorite Six Feet Under, and Aristocrats (British series, wonderful for family saga lovers). Oh, and Seinfeld! (I guess, we better not throw that darn thing out.)

office supplies, buttons, postcards, postage stamps, rubber stamps, interesting papers, vintage anything, glitter, ink pads, pens, anything handmade (except for doilies), every single color you can think of, history, Paris, France, Prague, Vienna, old Europe in general, castles, 17th century French fashion, things with visible character like torn books, but also very beautiful new things - e.g. Martha Stewart's absolutely gorgeous line of papers, glitters, punches, ribbons and rub-ons (I'd never buy them out of fear of ruining the beauty someone else created. But I sure love looking at them in crafts stores.), America's ghost towns, summer, ocean, beach, shells, precious stones, heart shape stones, summer rain and storms

candy, gum, nuts, disney and other cheesy stuff, crocheted doilies, not big on religious stuff unless it has something to do with art, hypocrisy, arrogance, your clutter, cold coffee/tea and wet socks