Hello from the Great Lakes region of the USA!

I bring the mail in and sit at the computer desk to open it. I rate immediately as I receive things.

I will not sign up for a swap unless I am certain that I can fulfill requirements and send on time.
I don't understand people who sign up when they know they'll be going on vacation, or moving, or having surgery, etc. ... seems simple to me: if you've got something coming up, don't join swaps.

I'm an avid book reader. I guess you could say I'm a word-nerd. I like a well turned phrase, the way words work together, vocabulary, quotes, dictionaries, word puzzles, etc.

I like to sew but have very little time for it right now. I do manage to get in the occassional quick project though.

I collect bookmarks, postcards, quotes, business cards, and various other little things. I am addicted to zentangles and mailart. I'd like to be very crafty and try many of the things I see others swap. Right now I'm limited by very little space and time. Maybe after I retire I can branch out! ?

I like handmade / homemade items. I like collage work, repurposed items, sketched, rubber stamped, painted, doodled, stitched, glued, etc.

I'm not much into the cutsie stuff (kawaii for example). No glittery stuff. Nor am I the girlie sort. I don't wear make-up or jewelry and my hair is short and spikey so no hair ornaments either.

Qualities I look for in a friend: Authenticity, Humor, Kindness, Open-mindedness

No More, Thanks! ....

(trying to destash my over-abundance):

fibers / yarn
ribbons
stickers
scrapbook paper

• Bookmarks
• Humor
• Sarcasm
• Selvages cut from your fabrics
• Coffee, strong dark roasts
• Tea
• All Colors
• Gilmore Girls
• Handmade Envelopes
• Acerbic Wit
• Fat Quarters
• Strips of homemade Washi tape / Tissue tape
• Art
• Flea Markets / Thrift Shops
• Shakespeare
• Mailart / Postal Art
• Embroidery
• Bookmarks
• Abstracts
• Sewing Notions
• Licorice, black
• Popcorn
• STOMP
• Business Cards
• Used Book Stores
• Autumn
• Crossword Puzzles
• Vintage / Retro Themes
• Ephemera
• Bookmarks
• Pens / Fountain Pen Ink
• Bicycles
• Notecards
• Trivia
• Reading
• PowWows
• Quotes
• Zentangles
• Fabric
• Stamped Images
• Did I mention Bookmarks?

• Cigarette Smells
• Pet Hair / Pet Smells
• Dog Lick
• Glitter
• Skulls, Horror, Blood and Guts
• Housework
• Traffic
• Check-out Lines
• The Dark
• Flying Things in My house!
• Poor Service
• 8 hrs in the factory
• Swap Nazis
• Flakers
• Non-raters
• Drama

I like NON-touristy; i.e...
* fountain pens
* artwork
* black and white
* quilts
* books / book shops / libraries
* coffee / tea related
* ad cards
* vintage / antique images of things
* bicycles
* cows
* zentangles
* hand drawn / painted
* doors / windows
* mailboxes
* INGE LOOK
* things in rows, stacks, or groups
* Nouvelles Images
* hands / feet
* Native American
* cafes / bistros / pubs
* barns
* children's book illustrations
* street vendors / markets
* benches
* quotes
* amish

• The only person you need to try to be better than, is the person you are right now.
  ~~ Colonel Potter to Hawkeye Pierce

• No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.
  ~~ C S Lewis

• Coffee is real good when you drink it it gives you time to think. It's a lot more than just a drink; it's something happening. Not as in hip, but like an event, a place to be, but not like a location, but like somewhere within yourself. It gives you time, but not actual hours or minutes, but a chance to be, like be yourself, and have a second cup.
  ~~ Gertrude Stein

• Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
  ~~ Scout, in "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

• How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.
  ~~ Oscar Wilde

• Every morning when we wake up we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift!
  ~~ Thich Nhat Hanh

• Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
  ~~Harvey Fierstein

• The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings - words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out.
  ~~ Stephen King

• I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.
  ~~Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird”
  by Harper Lee

• I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.
  ~~ Thoreau

• Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
  ~~ Unknown source