MommyKnows

Hello from the Great Lakes region of the USA!

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 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, sketches, rubber stamped, painted, doodles, stitched, glued, etc.

I'm not much into the cutsie stuff (kawaii for example) 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.

That being said; if you send me something I'm not too keen on, I'll just re-swap it . No worries. I swap enough with folks who do like those things that I should be able to use them. I'm not about being a "SWAP NAZI" so, if you meet swap requirements you'll get a good rating from me. I don't rate down because of taste or ability. Sheesh!

On another note... when swaps call for sending one flat light-weight thing (like one bookmark) I usually include something else. NOT because I'm fishing for a heart but, because I'm a cheap skate and hate to think that I'm not getting my money's worth out of that stamp! I pay for one ounce! I'll try to send what I pay for! Heeehehehee... no wonder they say I'm OCD! I'll check profiles and won't send what I consider to be junk. But, I'll try to find something else you'll like to fill in with. I mean... why not? I'm paying for it.

If you are my SEWING swap partner and want some ideas of things to make for me, I'd enjoy a needlebook, tea wallet, zippered pouch, dotee doll, patchworked or quilted items, book cover, pin cushion, tote bag, coffee cup cozy, chatelaine, repurposed items (clean and odor free), buntings, oven mit, doll quilt / blanket, small stuffies, something for my grandbaby (she's a 3T). Just about anything you can come up with, actually. Any and all color schemes welcomed.

• Bookmarks
• Sarcasm
• Selvages cut from your fabrics
• Coffee, strong dark roasts
• Tea - almost ANY: black, ceylon, oolong, chai, blueberry, strawberry, herbal,
• All Colors
• Gilmore Girls
• Handmade Envelopes
• Acerbic Wit
• Fat Quarters
• Art
• Flea Markets / Thrift Shops
• Shakespeare
• Mailart / Postal Art
• 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
• Rubber Stamped Images
• Did I mention Bookmarks?

• Cigarette Smells
• Pet Hair / Pet Smells
• Dog Lick
• 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, "To Kill a Mockingbird," Chapter 2.

• 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 “To Kill a Mockingbird”

• 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