PrairieKittin

Last year I said: As of June 15, when Louis DeJoy takes over as head of the Post Office, I will no longer be using the US postal system.

I love swapping and mail art. I'm sure as soon as we get another Postmaster General, I'll be back. (If he hasn't destroyed the post office by November!)

EDIT: Well, it's December now. DeJoy has removed sorting machines, changed the policies on policing, and generally managed to royally screw the mail.

I'm kinda sorta back, dipping my toe into the shallow end of the mail pool. I'm going to take it slow until we get a new Postmaster General who can hopefully fix this mess.

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

Nemophilist is an obscure word that hasn't really been used for over 100 years – but it is a word that surely deserves a comeback! It means someone with a love or fondness for forests, woods, or woodland scenery, or someone who often visits them – a 'haunter' of woods. Yep, that's me!

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 a Steampunk Tarot deck kept in a gear-encrusted box. I love it! I'm creating a steampunk aquarium. My bathroom is done in Cthulu and Octopi.

I have several grandchildren, most of whom are grown up now. Kai-Ave is 22; Deja and Desi are 20; Cody is 19; Kyle and Taelor are 16; Zaiyah is 9. Most of them are atheist or pagan.

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

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 some sort of scent hound, but she looks like a pit bull. She's probably 8 or 9 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 8 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.

So, I have 3 cats, 3 dogs, and 2 birds. And some fish. Lots of fish. I have a 60 gallon tank in the dining room where my Oscar lives temporarily. I'm working on the 125 gallon tank in the living room. It sprang a leak, so I'm re-sealing it and I plan on changing it up to be a paludarium. There's also a 20 gallon that is a community tank with some danios, and assorted other smaller fish in the living room.

Did I mention I created a 300 gallon koi pond in my backyard. Had a friend help me dig the hole, but I did the rest myself. Planted around it, created a waterfall and put in 14 koi and goldfish. The koi that out grow the 120 in the living room graduate to this.

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

I do mail art and Zentangle, 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!)

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

Beer coasters from McMeniman's

Fawns (especially antique ones)

Fish (live ones! LOL)

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, standing on a beer coaster in a betta tank would be absolutely perfect. ;-)

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

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. Don't ruin my day by sending me pictures of a mangled corpse hanging on a stick. I don't care who he is, or what he means to you. Please, just don't do it!

I would appreciate it if you didn't send anything religious, political or gory.

That's about it. I like just about anything else I enjoy all kinds of art, especially mail art. I like to make Zentangle cards 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. I don't do anything spicy (one grain of black pepper feels like it's boring a hole through my tongue!). I like veggies, except kale and eggplant.

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'.

I don't "collect" postcards. BUT, I do enjoy receiving them. I particularly like handmade, especially hand drawn or hand painted cards. I like postcards to be sent naked and written on. That's part of the charm of postcards. I enjoy 'strange' or 'unusual' postcards more than the "touristy" type. If you want to include a postcard as a "goodie" or "extra" in a swap, expect me to use it to write a note for the next swap I'm in. (Unless it's so bizarre or unusual that I absolutely have to keep it and add it to my collection of bizarre and unusual things!)

I celebrate these holidays, so if you feel like sending something special or a "just because" RAK, these would be the days to do it:

February 2nd (beginning of Spring)
March 20th (Midspring)
May 1st (Beginning of Summer)
June 21st (Midsummer)
August 2nd (Beginning of Fall)
Sept 20th (Mid-autumn)
October 31st (Beginning of Winter)
December 21st (Midwinter)

(Yes, I know these dates do not correspond to the Western calendar's version of the Seasons, but these are the dates we celebrate)

We also celebrate some of the Western holidays:
New Year's Eve
Valentine's Day
Mother's Day
Father's Day
Thanksgiving

I am pagan. My path is eclectic, which means I don't 'fit' into any particular category. If you want some ideas for pagan gifts, I like:

rocks, crystals, fossils

tools of the trade: wands, chalices, athames, etc

pentagrams

anything from Mother Nature: pinecones, acorns, twigs you felt compelled to pick up, sea shells, pretty rocks, tree bark, etc. Lots of etc.

pictures or depictions of God/dess

Tarot decks

I collect witches with human faces

dragons, elves, fairies, mermaids

I'm not so much into chakras, Reiki, aura cleansing, or things like that.

My favorite incense is Nag Champa. I can't burn it when Steve is home because he has an allergy to smoke. But, I still love the smell. I leave a box open on my altar or desk so I get the scent without the smoke.

I don't burn scented candles for the same reason. I love them, so I keep them next to me, but I can't burn them.

Essential oils are okay because they don't put smoke in the air. I especially love frankincense and myrrh. Patchouli smells like mold to me, so I would prefer not receiving that.