HotCakes

I've been off and on Swap-Bot for several years and love the inspiration it can provide for a project. I am a mom of a 1 year old girl who is so much fun and a lot of work. As I am figuring out the balance between new baby and life as it was I am starting to get time to create again! I love to make collages, zines and take pictures and anything design oriented. I really love to go thrift store and antique shopping, depending on the mood I'm in I can spend hours in a good thrift store hunting for vintage goodness.

A.C. Newman, Aesop Rock, Air, Arcade Fire, Antony and the Johnsons, Beastie Boys, Beck, Belle & Sebastian, Beta Band, Beulah, Black Mountain, Black Angels, Blackalicious, Blur, Books, Broken Social Scene, Built to Spill, Calexico, Camera Obscura, Caribou/Manitoba, Cars, Chin Up Chin Up, Clap Your Hands..., Cure, Cypress Hill, Bowie, Dead Meadow, Death in Vegas, Decemberists, Dizee Rascal, Erlend Oye, Flaming Lips, Frank Black, GBV, Hole, Iggy and the Stooges, Interpol, Iron and Wine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Joanna Newsom, Jurassic 5, Lambchop, Loretta Lynn, Lou Reed, MIA, M83, Madvillain, Modern Lovers, Modest Mouse, Mogwai, My Bloody Valentine, My Morning Jacket, New Pornographers, NY Dolls, Nirvana, Outkast, Pavement, Pixies, Prefuse 73, Primal Scream, Radiohead, Rapture, Replacements, Rogue Wave, Rolling Stones, Shins, Sigur Ros, Songs Ohia, Sonic Youth, Spoon, Strees, Sublim, Sufjan Stevens, T. Rex, Talking Heads, TV on the Radio, Unicorns, Vanilla Ice, Weezer, White Stripes, Wilco, Wolf Parade, Wrens, Wilderness, Yo La Tengo, Tapes N Tapes, Jay Z, Stephen Malkmus, Beirut, Annie, Clientele, Elliot Smith, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Scout Niblett, all oldies

Idiocracy, The Good Girl, Office Space, Big Lebowski, Superbad, Stranger than Ficton, Life Aquatic, Darjeeling Limited, Bottle Rocket, Lost In Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Commitments, Shop Girl, Baseketball, Wilco Show, Brick, any good band's DVD

• This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
  • Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
  • Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway
  • A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
  • Franny & Zooey by J.D. Salinger
  • Elizabeth Costello by J.M. Coetzee
  • Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides
  • Hummingbird's Daughter by Alberto Urrea
  • Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
  • A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (re-visited for the 2nd time)

Simpsons, Six Feet Under, Sopranos, Arrested Development, Mr. Show, Strangers with Candy, Big Love, Weeds, The Office (BBC & American)

Crafts I'm into are jewelry making, collage, bookmarks, ATCs, Zines, postcards, felting wool, graphic design, decorating various boxes, & photography.

I love to use vintage magazines and ephemera for collage images. I also like to cut-up books, mostly older illustrated reference type books like an illustrated medical book or one with drawings of mammals etc. I use a lot of advertisements and pictures of ladies from older magazines. Some of the best magazines to cut up are Holiday from the fifties on, McCalls or any womens magazine from the same era, & Playboys from the fifties to the seventies.

I love handmade papers, especially if they are unique colors. I typically use a lot of pastel handmade papers that are similar in color to those found in magazines of the fifties and sixties. Any good quality paper especially those with unique designs or patterns.

I love to use Rub-ons especially ones that are just ornamental or decorative or have letters, I don't like the ones with pictures that so many of them for scrap-booking consist of.

I love hunting for vintage wares in thrift and antique stores, among the things I look for are home decor (especially if it is just a little cheesy like paint-by-number pictures, woodland figurines, etc), kitchen items, boxes, older fabrics with bold designs and colors, vintage t-shirts or hoodies (Size L) especially ones that advertise a state or tourist attraction, older books that have a lot of illustrations or good pictures for collaging. Old lamps and trays especially from the fifties and later. Old postcards, photographs, negatives, slides, and ephemera in general.

I also really like good quality stationary and envelopes as well as handmade envelopes. Good quality pens that don't smudge when erased.

I am not really fond of Kawaii type stuff. I really dislike receiving papers that are used for everyday type scrapbooking, I feel that the patterns and designs on those usually aren't very unique and the colors lack depth. I don't really like to receive buttons or beads unless they are something special, I already have a million seed beads and glass beads so I wouldn't necessarily be able to use any more. Though I do like nature-themed stuff quite a bit I don't really like woodland fairies, whimsical mythical objects/images. I don't like to get "ephemera" that has been scanned in and printed out especially if it is on copy paper and is a poor print job with lines etc. I am not religious and would not like to receive religious affiliated things. Though I am into politics personally I would prefer to steer clear of that here.

I really try to send things out that are unique and are of good quality and I would love it if I got the same. I believe that kind of effort helps make swap-bot a great community.

For more ideas about who I am or what I like visit my blog at www.amdesigncollection.blogspot.com

Thanks!

A good portion of the things I like to find from Thrift Stores are listed above in the Likes & Dislikes section. Here are some things that I am looking for specifically now though. -Anything vintage and kitschy -Vintage kitchen wares -Old Magazines with lots of pictures -Vintage fabrics -Tea towels with cool design/print or nice blank ones to screen print on. -Any glasses or glassware (teacups, glasses, decanturs, etc) with gold.

I hope this and my profile give an idea of my tastes and I would love any surprises that mesh with them.