PrairieKittin

Hi! I'm Prairie Kittin. (Yes, that is my real name. I was named after my aunt Prairie and my grandmother Katherine "Kitty"). My father named me. My mother called me 'Katey' right up to the day she died.

The Wheel of the Year keeps on turning. It's been a warm and wet Autumn here.

If you want to send me extras this time of year, please keep these in mind:

Traditional Foods: Apples, Pears, Pomegranates, All Grains, Pumpkin-pie, Hazelnuts, Cakes for the dead, Corn, Cranberry muffins and breads, Ale, Cider. Any recipes including these things would be most welcome!

Incense: Mint, Heliotrope, Nutmeg, Sandalwood, Frankincense, Myrrh. Steve is allergic to smoke, but I can burn incense in my art studio, as long as he doesn't come in contact with the smoke.

Stones: Quartz, hematite, onyx, jet, amber.

If you must send extras, I would really appreciate these instead of pieces of colored paper or ephemera. I don't require extras, nor do I give hearts based on extras, so please don't feel you have to include anything in your swap, except the swap itself.

Not my circus. Not my monkeys. ... Oh, wait. The flying ones? Yeah, those are mine.

Did you know that in Finland and Sweden, witches come out on Easter?

If you want to make me happy, send me witches, trolls and creepy stuff. (Old school creepy... I don't do zombies, murderous clowns or chuckie dolls. No excessive blood, either. I like skulls, sexy witches, trolls, skeletons, spiders, tombstones, ravens, foggy graveyard pictures, things like that.) Tim Burton is my idol.

I adore the Steampunk genre. Not so much the dressing-up in "costume" part, although I do have the prerequisite hat and goggles. I enjoy Steamy ATCs, postcards, pictures. Things like that.

I have several grandchildren, most of whom are teenagers, except for 7 year old Zaiyah. She just started Big Kid's School. First grade! 3 of the grandkids are in high school (2 of them graduate this year) and 1 is in college at Western Washington University.

I am a letterboxer. My trail name on Atlasquest.com is "Witch Kittin".

I ride my own motorcycle, but there are times I ride behind my boyfriend on his Harley. There's nothing like wrapping your arms around the man you adore and flying into the wind!

We have 3 rescued cats. Mousy and Prince are both black. Trouble is a tabby Maine Coon. Mousy was "rehomed" to us because her former parents got divorced and her mom moved in with friends who didn't want cats. Prince's owners simply moved away and abandoned him! Trouble actually belongs to the dogs. They adore each other. He was born in the yard of an abandoned house to a feral mother.

We have also adopted 3 dogs. Sadie is a Golden Pei. She's probably 4 or 5 years old, but she acts like a puppy. The other two are pit bulls, Sookie and Alcide. Sookie is about 60 pounds. Alcide has probably about 15 pounds on her, so we're talking 60 and 75 pound lap dogs! (They take up the whole bed, too, leaving me a little 12 inch space on the edge to sleep in!)

I live with 2 ring-necked doves, who laugh and coo. I had to separate them because when they turned a year old, they started to fight and Luna almost killed Belle. They are still in the same cage, but there is a wire partition between them.

So, I have 3 cats, 3 dogs, and 2 birds. And some fish. Lots of fish. I have a large (very large) golden severum in the 50 gallon tank in the living room (she used to have a Jack Dempsey tank-mate, but she decided it was time to start building a nest and laying eggs.. and saw Jack as a threat and tried to kill him!), along with a huge plecostomus. There is an Oscar in the 60 gallon tank who doesn't like tank-mates, either. I had to move the danios to their own tank in the dining room. There's also a 20 gallon that has goldfish and feeds an aquaponics "salad bar".

Oh, and I also live with a large hairy biker dude named Steve. He is my rock.

I do mail art and postcards, mostly. I used to do art journals, but got burned by a swapper who didn't pass my journal on, so I don't do those anymore.

I also used to do ATCs, but not so much anymore. Back in the early days (yes, I am that old!), ATCs were all about the Art. Now, there are ribbons and embellishments and beads and baubles. They look like a miniature mixed media card. I just can't do that. Well, I can, but I just don't enjoy it as much. I have come to the conclusion that, as far as arts and crafts go, I can do Art. Crafts, not so much. I'm okay with that. I'm a fair to good artist, but my attempt at crafts never turn out as pretty as the ones other people make.

I am a member of International Union of Mail Artists in good standing since 2013.

I enjoy doing Zentangle and zentangle inspired artwork.

I've also carved my share of rubber stamps and made a few logbooks to go with them for my letterboxing hobby.

I am a collector. I admit it. Is there a 12-step program for that? I collect:

Witches with human-colored faces (NO green faces! Shudder!);

This is Ruby. She's my favorite witch of all time!

Trolls (the cutesy little dolls with the wild hair, as well as the Scandinavian kind);

Keys (old fashioned skeleton keys. I don't know why, but I am totally fascinated by them);

Rocks, stones, fossils (I was a geology major in college);

Cast iron anything;

Fawns (especially antique ones).

So... a cast iron troll dressed as a witch, carrying a skeleton key in one hand and a trilobite in the other, with a fawn curled up at her feet would be absolutely perfect. ;-)

LIKES:

Outlander! I've read all the books and am hooked on the TV show. You had me at "Sassenach"!!

I don't have a favorite color, but I prefer earth tones and muted colors, although occasionally a deep rose color takes my breath away and stops me in my tracks! I seem to have a lot of purple things, too.

Looking at my colored pencils, there are some colors that are almost worn away to nothing. Dark green, dark purple, aquamarine and dark brown, in particular. So, I guess maybe those might be considered my favorites!

Animals of all kinds. I could no more harm an animal than cut off my own arm.

Tarot-related anything.

Anything nature-oriented, especially rocks.

Old herbals, geology or paleontology texts.

Anything Pagan or witchy.

Rubber stamping stuff.

DISLIKES:

I do NOT support Susan G. Komen. I am a breast cancer survivor, and I support other charities, just not that one.

No Christian stuff. Please do NOT send me anything christian. I have been physically, mentally and emotionally hurt by members of that religion, and I would prefer not to have any reminders.

I would appreciate it if you didn't send anything religious, political or gory. Easter, in particular, is a hard holiday for me. It used to be all about dressing up and going on Easter Egg hunts. You know, Easter bunnies, Cute little fluffy chicks, Easter baskets, Dyeing eggs. Now, when I join a postcard or mail art swap, I end up getting a postcard of crucifixion. Don't ruin my holiday by sending me pictures of a mangled corpse hanging on a stick. I don't care who it is, or what he means to you. Please, just don't do it!

That's about it. I like just about anything else I enjoy all kinds of art, especially mail art. I like to make postcards and decorate envelopes. I like to think my art puts a smile on someone's face in it's journey to your mailbox.

Steve and I are both diabetic and he has congestive heart failure. I'm always looking for good nutritious meals that are 1) Low in sugar; 2)Low in carbs; 3) Low in sodium (salt); 4)Contains no mammal meat (no beef, pork, lamb, etc. Chicken and turkey are okay); 5)Little to no soy, so no tofu. (I'm allergic). We eat fish, seafood and poultry for the protein.

Yeah.... dinner is a real challenge around here! If you have any recipes that maybe we can eat, please include them in any swaps. They will be more than welcome!!

DISLIKES:

I recently was tested and have discovered that I am a supertaster. Not as "super" as it sounds. It has made me a picky eater because I am oversensitive to tastes. One of the things that doesn't taste as good to me as to other people is tea. I don't drink tea. I've tried it, and I just don't like it. I have boxes and boxes of herbal teas that I've drank 1 cup of, and the rest of the box languishes in my pantry. Please don't send me any more tea. I'm swimming in the stuff and I just don't like it! Thanks! I have a K-Cup coffee maker. I love flavored coffees, and I'll gladly try any of those. Just no more tea, Please!

EDIT: Occasionally I'll enter a "Tea and ...... " swap. Usually because I like the "And....." part. If you are my swap partner in one of these, I'll accept the tea and at least give it a try. Will you be the one who finds that one illusive tea that I'll like??

If you have not been rated, PLEASE message me. So far, I've not received at least 8 swaps that were mailed from as far back as October of last year. If you haven't been rated, please message me with the name of the swap, your name and address, and the date you mailed it. I need this information so I can go to the post office and make a complaint. Thank you!

UPDATE: As of April 27, 2018, the post office has declared my mail officially "lost".

I love snail mail. Snail mail delivery, not so much!

Recently, I have received a couple of packages that the post office have messed up. They are always so polite about it... LOL!! ... and put the mail inside a plastic bag with a most sincere apology. Here is an example:

I have no idea what they spilled on it. It smelled like concentrated beef bullion.

I'm not all that happy with the post office lately! If this continues, I may end up switching to UPS or FedEx.

I seem to be having a problem receiving international mail, especially from Germany. I'm not sure what's going on.

I started looking things up, and discovered a lot of upsetting things!
This is the mail lady who just stopped and dumped the mail in the dumpster:
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/video-captures-postal-worker-dumping-mail-in-the-trash-745093187956

Then, there was the Brooklyn mail guy who just didn't deliver all the mail. They found it in his car!
http://www.postal-reporter.com/blog/tag/mail-dumped/

And, the Detroit mail dumped in an alley:
http://www.postal-reporter.com/blog/tag/mail-dumped/

These mailmen dropped the mail in a ditch and a dumpster:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/bad-postman-atlanta-caught-allegedly-dumping-mail-ditch-42953377

At least this one in San Jose had the decency to resign after he was caught!
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Mailman-Who-Dumped-Mail-in-Trash-Resigns-USPSBay-Area-291926441.html

READ THESE!!

And, we wonder why the mail gets lost!

I mark a swap as "sent" when I put it in the outgoing box. If it's later in the day, after the mail has run, it won't be postmarked until the mailman picks it up the next day.
If it's on a weekend day, it may not get postmarked until the following Monday.
Ditto the holidays. If I put it in the outgoing box, and the mailman doesn't come get it until after the holiday, then it won't be postmarked until after the holiday.
Please keep this in mind if you see a postmark that is a day or two after the date I marked it as 'sent'.