DreamHope

I'm living in an old house in a rainy city with three cats: my partner, Russ - a Leo; his trickster, Puck; and my perpetual kitten, Zoey.

I spend a lot of time on LiveJournal, and almost as much in my craft room. In between, I work for an organic food company.

I don't have a driver's license, so I walk and bus a lot.

I'm an office manager, a landlord, a secret shopper, a writer, a crafter, and a Topless Wish Fairy. I am a bad drummer who tries really hard, and I love to dance around a camp fire. I have a degree in Political Science, with a minor in Women's Studies, that I only use to win debates at parties.

I seem to accidentally cause grammar discussions to erupt wherever I am. Does anyone else have passionate discussions about the Oxford comma while drunk?

I'm vegetarian, but not vegan. I love chocolate, especially dark chocolate and chocolate with nuts or soft centers. I love coffee and tea. And I love marzipan.

I am fascinated by spirituality and religion, and loving learning about what other people believe. I'm sort of an agnostic Pagan myself, and I am most interested in "pan-spiritual" practices, like prayer beads, shrines and altars, and labyrinth walking.

I like to shop at locally owned and independent stores and farmers' markets. I also like to shop at garage sales and thrift stores, especially to find things I can re-use and re-purpose. I will gladly accept second hand and used items in swaps.

Please let me know when something I sent to you arrives - I worry! I always rate, email, or message when I receive things, so if you haven't heard from me, it hasn't arrived yet.

I believe in fair play and waiting my turn. I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt. I believe in magic and wonder and awe. I believe in literacy and good grammar and the power of the written word. I believe that a community is built by working together and eating together. I believe in making lists. I believe in relentless compassion.

I am almost always cheerful and optimistic. People know I'm coming because they hear me giggling before they see me. I also giggle when I'm angry; it's known as the "giggle of death" and smart people shut up and back off when they hear it. But I'm usually pretty happy and easy going.

I love earth tones, especially greens, coppers, and golds (but there aren't any colours that I hate). I have a fascination with dragonflies and bees. I love spiral patterns and paisley. I collect postcards that have a lot of red on them, mini gargoyle statues, and decorative metal hooks (the kind you put on your wall to hang coats on).

I love words, grammar, punctuation, and dictionaries. English is my first language, but after eleven years of French immersion education, I can still read it, and I can write and speak it poorly, but probably passably.

I really love Keith Haring's art, and deeply regret that I didn't get myself a t-shirt when I visited New York's Pop Shop, especially now that I've learned that the Pop Shop no longer exists. I did get my partner a shirt when I was there, so I just admire his.

Things that I love to receive: Pens, blank books, mixed CDs, dish cloths, candy, bits of cool papers, stickers, crafting supplies of almost any kind, unmounted stamps, things that can be altered, head scarves, bookmarks, cool clothes pins (I don't own a clothing dryer), children's books, used books, beads and charms, medium-sized t-shirts with fun things on them (second hand is absolutely wonderful; faded and worn is fine, as long as it doesn't have any stains), small bundles of fibers and ribbons, fun bandannas, Autumn-themed items, mysterious things that could be made into something else, eyelets and brads, handmade books of any kind, things that inspire, things featuring images of hands, tiny and miniature books, prayer cards or spiritual information from any religion, shrines or materials for them, fairy costume items, ATCs, 4x4s, and anything that features words or letters.

I prefer not to receive too many things that are just decorative (except gargoyles and spiritually-themed items): I'm running out of display space!

Also, I don't wear perfume, makeup, or hair things, and I don't have much use for lotions and potions. I don't wear a lot of jewelery either. I'm a pretty low maintenance girl.

I hate banana-flavoured things. Comes from having too many rounds of banana-flavoured antibiotics as a child, I think.

Feel free to PM if you are interested in doing a one-on-one swap. I love getting surprises in the mail. Some things I can offer:

I have a coil binder, so I can send out handmade journals or notebooks, or I can do some custom binding for you (for example, send me a file via email and I can bind it and mail it back to you).

I also have access to some inexpensive bento boxes and accessories from a Daiso-type store. I love shopping for bento stuff.

I love to read urban fantasy, especially Charles de Lint. He is my absolute favourite author of all time. I also enjoy Francesca Lia Block and Holly Black, magical realism (e.g., Lee Maracle), funny fantasy and science fiction (e.g., Terry Pratchett, Spider Robinson, and Tanya Huff), and some darker fantasy/science fiction (especially Simon Green). My new favourite author is Ivan E Coyote, and I intend to read everything she's written as soon as possible.

My all-time favourite books are probably "Memory and Dream" (by Charles de Lint), "Water Babies" (the children's classic by Charles Kingsley), and "Ana Historic" (by Daphne Marlatt).

I love "Eats Shoots and Leaves" (very funny book about punctuation). I subscribe to "Utne" and "The Walrus" magazines.

Live drumming circles are the most wonderful thing to experience. Commercial music I love: Kim Barlow, Joni Mitchell, The Tea Party, Meatloaf, Bif Naked, The Beatles, Britt Black, Great Big Sea, traditional and new folk, musical soundtracks (Rent, Chicago, etc.).

Shrek, Pixar movies, A Series of Unfortunate Events, What Dreams May Come, Chicago. I have a weakness for chick flicks and silly teen movies (like the "Bring It On" series). I don't enjoy gross-out humour and I cannot watch violent films. If Quentin Tarantino was involved, I can't watch it at all.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars, Heroes, Gilmore Girls, Project Runway, Ugly Betty, Scrubs. And my new love: Pushing Daisies.

Altering books (especially children's board books), making books, knitting, writing, doing laundry. I'm starting to learn to crochet; I've got single crochet and double down, but all I can make so far are dishcloths (slowly). My latest love is weaving, and I'm trying to learn to spin.

I love to write, though I am still unpublished. I've done NaNoWriMo and the 3-Day Novel Writing Contest. I wrote three novels in 2006 and one in 2007, so I will get around to editing at least one of them, one of these days.

I've just started making ATCs, which are so much fun. I've also started carving my own stamps, which has gotten me into stamping, which I never really bothered with before. I have lots of stamp pads now, and I just got a heat gun to do some embossing. And I have everything I need to deal with unmounted stamps too.

I love playing with wire, charms, beads, paints, and different papers when I make book covers.