I am not able to be on here much lately due to illness.

I am 53 years old and have one son age 26. We live in the Pacific Northwest in a little old house built in the 40's. I have lived in this area my entire life. Our fall/winter are not too great. It is pretty much dark and rainy. The spring and summer can be better. Because of all the rain we have green, green, green everywhere. I do like that. I live in between two Mountain Ranges, The Cascades (Mt Rainier), and the Oympics. I live a couple of hours drive from the ocean beach and very close to a large salt water sound Puget Sound. I am a one hour ferry ride away from Seattle. I enjoy going over every once in a while and walking around. If you are an outdoorsy type of person this place is great. You just need to buy a good set of Rain Gear. One thing I have learned is that you can always dry out.

As far as swaps go, I am pretty easy going and generally happy with whatever I receive. I tend to sign up for handmade swaps and put lots of time and effort into them. Please let me know if you are going to be late with a swap. I will not get mad at you, so don't hesitate to send me a PM. I understand that life happens despite our best intentions we cannot always meet deadlines.

I am a smoker. I do my best to deoderize my swaps. It is my only vice and I am completely addicted.

I am a Christian. I respect other people rights to their beliefs, but do not share them.

My Avatar is me at Christmas 1958. Loved my feet and my slippers too.

After over 30 years of Federal Civil Service I am on a disability retirement. The chronic pain can slow me down sometimes.

I believe Recycling is a good thing. Good for you, good for me and good for the enviroment which means it is good for everyone. Even if my part is very tiny in the big scheme of things, lots and lots of tiny's add up after a while.

I am not afraid of Clowns, if you don't like em you can send them to me. Not too large though. Pictures, postcards, small figures. If they are spooky or vintage thats even better.

I love fabric and paper. Not really into postcards.

The love of paper started when I was in grade school and my friends father worked somewhere that he would bring us stacks and stacks of paper. We would play with it and organize it. Then the people at work somehow found out and did not like it, so we were cut off. Those party poopers.

My love of fabric is because I love to sew. I really like the vintage novelty fabrics. I've got a plan for some of it and I like to look at the rest of it. I am always on the lookout for designs I do not have. Love kitchen ones, fruits, people, transportation.

I cannot do knitting or crochet anymore. I just do a little embroidery to accent projects. it is not the focus of a project.

I love sewing, quilting, paper and mixed media. Glue books are great I usually have at least one going at a time. Check out my FLICKR for some things I have had fun making.

I am crazy about dolls. I have made a few and have collected a few.

I like the whimsey jars and captured fairy jars and vintage altered bottle.

I have been collecting vintage linens, laces, sheets, pillowcases and handerchiefs for a while now. Love the old embroidery or a beautiful piece of linen. I am trying to break the paper napkin habit, I have a lot of cloth napkins now. Some habits are hard to break. But I am working on it. In my house vintage linens and fabrics have several levels of usefulness. Level one is to use it for it intended use. Level two is to remake it into something else. Level three is to add it to my dogs bed, which is basically old blakets and larger linen pieces that I wrap in a sheet. Level four is rag pile for dusting, and painting.

I am a big fan of Re-gifting. I think it is good for the environment and I like the idea that eventually things will find a home that they are loved in.

Paper napkins or tissue paper with designs on them for decoupage or other decoupage papers.

Craft or sewing supplies. Used is OK.

Fibers or lace, sewing thread any color.

Grossgrain ribbon or any type of ribbon any length. I use the little bits 2" in my art journal.

Fabric in either bold or pastel colors. Not into Fall colors. Any type of fabric cotton, velvet, satin, linen etc..... Vintage or contemporary

Fabric fat quarters in White, Black, Red, Torquise, Yellow, pink

Stickers partial sheets OK

Something you purchased, now do not need and can't return for a refund.

Buttons, zippers

Stationary

Japanese fabric,

Small to medium bits of metallic items that I can use in an assemblage piece. Small figures, old keys, old clock parts.

Vintage jewelry broken is fine.

Vintage sheets, pillowcases, fabric other vintage linens and handkerchiefs.

Random paper, book pages, ticket stubs, specialty paper, foreign text, pictures from books or magazines, punched shapes. For my glue book collages.

Ciitrus and berry teas (orange, lemon, blackberry, raspberry)

Hot chocolate (just chocolate)

Orange/chocolate and raspberry/chocolate combo flavors, yum the tartness of the fruit and the smooth sweetness of the chocolate just go together.

Jelly fruit slices

Mints

I have to avoid hard stuff and hard chewy stuff.

I am a coffee drinker, so little coffe samples are great.

No food allergies and I like to try new things

Not too fond of watermelon or cinnamon flavor. sugar-free causes tummy aches.

I'm not allergic. These are just things I am not into and probably would not even re-swap. I do not hate things. Just not my style, I am really not picky and do not want this list to cramp anyones creative style.

Country style items (You know cows, chickens, roosters) I would much rather go to a farm, love them.

Cinnamon the scent is not bad I just can't eat anything cinnamon it burns my tongue. Maybe that is an allergy?

Itching powder

Mixed CD's

Your boyfriends dirty socks

Gross, gory, bloody, nasty items or pictures. I like scary stuff, but not the gorey stuff.

Pagan Items

Makeup

Seed beads, plastic pony beads

Fiction, mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, thrillers, the occasional romance and vintage teen books. Favorite authors. JRR Tolkein, Stuart Woods, Anne McCaffrey, James Patterson, JA Jance, Terry Goodkind the list goes on and on.

Non-Fiction Books and Magazines, Home organizing, sewing patterns, arts and crafts, quilting, dolls. I am a big fan of the Somerset Studio Magazines and Cloth, Paper, Scissors.

I have found this helpful when working on other peoples swaps. This is by no means the only themes I like. These are the ones that usually will always "get me".

Vintage

Sweets

Retro

Laundry - NO I don't want laundry soap. I just love images of laundry floating in the breeze.

Citrus

flowers

Rich vibrant colorful, cartoony

Soft pastel

Pink - ballerinas and poodles

Shabby Chic

Steampunk is pretty cool too.

My son is going to College. He brought with him his 2 year old dog, Big Baby. Big Baby is part pit bull, but his name should be Sweet Baby because he is a sweet heart. Nick has done a really good job of training him. He is short haired. Since my eyesight is not the best I have not noticed a bunch of dog hair around, but Nick says he is shedding. So far Baby has not been interested in helping me craft, but that could change. I guess I will need to start using the magnifier for dog hair inspection before I send packages. I am liking having a dog around again. When I had to put down Murphy, I was not sure I would ever get another dog. Now I am the Grandma. I am surprised at how fast I have taken to Baby. I would have never thought I would have any part of a pit bull in my house. I am thinking he is one in a million.