Hippiechick1955

WHAT I PLEDGED

I pledge to other swap-bot members to:

1. Rate for every swap I take part in.

2. Rate as soon as I am able to get on line after swap is received.

3. Rate Fairly, I will only give a 1 rating if a swap hasn't been received and that no contact has been made from the sender. I promise to pm member first to give them the chance to resolve the situation first.

4. I will only give a 3 if I feel that the swap didn't meet the requirements and that the partner choose's not to correct the swap.

5. I will try and leave a message on all ratings to state what I received and what i was happy with, even if its just a thankyou.

6. I will not use slander or badmouth anyone when given a rating, facts is all that is needed when rating a 1.

My name is Maryanne and I live in Phoenix, Arizona with my husband and our 6 dogs. We have 2 Great Danes (Morticia and Gomez) and 4 pugs (Spanky, Choncho, Faith and Bobby). We also have an orange tabby cat named JJ (short for Jittery Joe) and a pond full of KOI. I have 3 children all grown up now 27, 26 and 21. I am a Residential Real Estate Appraiser (yes it's an ugly job right now) and have been for about 12 years. Before that I was a Municipal Credit Analyst at a major bank where I worked for 20 years. (I guess once I get started, I tend to do things for a very long time)

I have lived in Arizona since 1969. I was born in Ohio and my Father was career Air Force so I lived in a lot of places before he retired in Arizona. We lived in Europe twice, once in England and once in Germany. I still love to travel. One of my favorite places in the USA to visit is New Orleans.

I learned about Swap-Bot from a friend on another site and so far I am really enjoying it. I love putting packages together for my partners and I look forward to each new swap!!!

I do listen to a wide range of music. I enjoy certain aspects of all venues. The only thing I really can't stand is Rap. I feel like my parents when I tell my son to "turn that crap down" Guess everything actually DOES come full circle in life!!!

Top Chef is my favorite right now!!! I also like Dexter, Burn Notice, liked Six Feet Under & Dead Like Me when they were on and love love love HGTV!!!I

First and formost I love mysteriesl!!! Julie Smith, David Fullmer and Lee Childs are some of my more recent favorites. I also enjoy books based on Asian cultures. Some writers that I have enjoyed are Amy Tan, Lisa See and Gail Tsukiyama. I find that for some odd reason I am intrigued by the whole Chinese Footbinding rituals and have read a ton of books about foot binding and that have the footbinding ritual as a major part of the story line.

Another site which I belong to is Bookmooch. It is a site to give away books you are finished with and get books that you want to read. If you really like to read you might check it out sometime.

WWW.BOOKMOOCH.COM

I have gotten some really good books from bookmooch!!!

My husband and I have a pretty extensive DVD collection (well over 1,500) We watch everything we can, usually more than once. I personally enjoy comedies and a good suspense thriller most of all. (o.k. I am also a sucker for a good chick flick. Fortunately my husband is not opposed to watching them with me)

I like almost all colors really, maybe not orange and brown so much . . . but pretty much all the rest.

I really prefer the deep jewel tones of red, green, blue and purple (love purple) over pastels.

I like experimenting with color in my house. Right now I have all our walls painted black. The ceilings are white and all the trim and doors are while and we have a grey/white tile throughout. It is actually a pretty dramatic look. I love to paint the house. You can always repaint if you don't like your latest experiment. Never be afraid to paint!!!

I really enjoy cooking, hosting both large and small dinner parties, gardening, reading, watching movies, vintage items and antiques, travel, attending theater, swiming with the dogs (they all like the water except for 1) and my motorcycle (my husband taught me to ride when I was 49!)

I love rocks, sea shells and sea glass and incorporate them into my garden wherever I can and I enjoy repurposing things . . . giving a new function to old things.

I LOVE to learn new things. Right now I am working on mastering the art of pasta making. I am working to perfect "the perfect pasta recipe" to to be able to crank out perfect homemade pasta in my sleep!!!

I have dabbled in a lot of different areas in my life. I learned to knit when I was 7 years old from a German woman who spoke no English and I spoke no German. She just taught me and I just learned. She also taught me to embroider. So I know how to knit & embroider pretty well. Some other things I have tried my hand at are Appliqué - Counted Cross Stitch - Decoupage - Fabric Painting - Flower Arrangements – Latch Hook - Macramé - Mosiacs- Needlepoint - Plastic Canvas - Pottery - Origami – Quilting - Rock Painting - Tole Painting - Sewing - Tie Dye - Weaving and probably have done a bunch of other things that I have forgotten about now, but will add to the list as they come to me.

I have never been able to crochet. I just don't get it!!! (and yet I used to macrame like a fiend)

I am getting ready to do some new mosaic projects for my patio and yard in the very near future. I am just working on collecting a few more materials.

I would love to learn stained glass some day.

Some other things I really enjoy are:

♥ Bulbs, Plant Cuttings, Seeds & Tubers, (I am in zone 9) ♥ Coffee (strong) ♥ Tea (hot and cold), ♥ Wine (not necessarily "fine" wine . . . just "tasty" wine) ♥ Food Items from other cultures (Spices, Herbs, Oils, recipes etc) ♥ Recipes & Cookbooks ♥ Spicy Food (Love Thai with a passion), ♥ Vanilla first . . . chocolate second, ♥ Crystals ♥ Rocks (especially quartz and geodes), ♥ Dogs (I especially ♥ Pugs) ♥ Seashells, ♥ Sun Flowers ♥ Watermelons