Strawberry

I sometimes reuse my postpaks and such (not as often as I'd like anymore though :/), so please don't be too alarmed if you get a package that looks like it's seen more of the world then you yourself have. Having said that, I use a lot of tape and pack it sturdily (thank God I don't have to open my own packages! lol), so the contents should be totally fine! ;)

I'm a lovely 27 year old gemini "lady" from Australia, although sometimes nothing more then a big kid. :) Generally upbeat and happy, I tend to get easily excited over many things and love to make people laugh (or even smile). I'm incredibly weird, imaginative, love to talk about almost anything and have great conversations with anyone worth talking to. Besides my very "high maintenance" side however, I find I need a lot of personal time to reflect on my thoughts and things I've learned. I love to write, read, game (I've secretly been a big nerd all my life) and enjoy doing things with my hands.

Most importantly, I believe in 'dancing to the beat of my own drum' (as the saying goes).

I love crafting! Lately I've been branching out into 'previously unexplored waters' in the crafting world, and having a lot of fun with it!

I currently live on a nice big property surrounded by lots of nature. I've had some really memorable experiences getting up close to the wild animals that live around here; many of which have become quite used to me and don't mind me wandering around them. Being a big animal lover, it's a wonderful feeling! On the domestic side, I have a gorgeous red "mini-cross-standard" dachshund named Angelo. He's such a hilarious little guy with plenty of character and a heart to match!

My nickname "Strawberry" is one I've carried since my early high-school days. I can't even remember how it originally came about but somehow it just stuck and I've had it (or variations of it) ever since. I guess you could say it's become part of who I am. :)

Some time ago I went through an incredibly rough patch in my life that left me feeling so emotionally drained and worthless that I didn't know what I could do to just go on, or even if I could. The biggest issue was feeling like I was alone in the world and that I was not someone who I wanted to live with for the rest of my life, anyway. In short, my self-esteem was nil.

So I wanted to share this:

Any women who's reading this now and has less then a positive image of themselves but would love to change that (even if you're not in "the dumps").. check out the following blog post!

100 Ways You Can Start Loving Yourself Right Now

..and while you're there, browse around the site - there are a couple of other really nice articles (and not boring, promise!) like what to do when you're really upset and when you don't know what to do with your life, etc.

It helped me along in some of my worst moments; even if it was just to smile a little again. More importantly, it was the little boost that set me on the path to loving myself again (one tiny step at a time). I hope it helps someone out there too.

Finnish & Scandinavian Metal ~ Sonata Arctica, Stratovarius, Nightwish (Tarja era), Apocalyptica, Finntroll, Sentenced, Poisonblack, Ensiferum, Korpiklaani, Satyricon, Charon, Pain, Within Temptation, etc [many more].

I'm a sucker for melodic/symphonic/power metal.♥

Music that is both extremely catchy AND truly meaningful (the sort where it's apparent that the person writing the music &/or lyrics is incredibly intelligent, feeling, experienced and can commit all of this perfectly to music).

Irish and Celtic folk music (in fact, a lot of different folk music), flamenco guitar, Gregorian chant, ambient and relaxing music and music similar to & including Enigma, Enya, The Cranberries & The Corrs.

Old-school 70's rock. :)

80's music. I grew up listening to 80's around my older siblings. I had great influences like Bon Jovi, Metallica, Dire Straits, Icehouse, ACDC, and of course a bit of Cyndi Lauper and Whitney Houston, amongst others! I still love it too~ :)

Some 90's music. The era where anything went music-wise.. and before all that RnB & such became so mainstream (I'm really not an RnB fan AT.ALL.).

Actually, I have quite a wide taste when it comes to music - I'll try pretty-much anything at least once. :)

So yeah, I love music a whole lot! ♥

Fantasy and historical fantasy and very well-written sci-fi (but DEFINITELY noooo 'Twilight'). I especially love Dungeons & Dragons books and anything by Wilbur Smith, Maggie Furey, R.A. Salvatore, Christian Jacq and Katherine Kerr.

I also love a well-written romantica (romantic erotica) novel - I'm particularly interested in those based on time-travel (as in the sexy guy from history somehow finds himself in the 21st century, or, the lovely lady from modern times ends up somewhere back in history). If anyone has a book like this, new or used, I would love it, even if it's just to borrow and then send back.. or if you can recommend any great titles for me to check out, that would be appreciated too.

I've been really enjoying some books about the minor characters from Jane Austen's 'Pride & Prejudice' - specifically Charlotte Collins (whom I liked) - like "An Unlikely Missionary" & "Charlotte Collins: A Continuation of P&P". I'm one of those people who often finds myself wanting to hear more about minor characters and their 'adventures'. :)

Roman Holiday, Love in the Afternoon (yeah, I love Audrey Hepburn - these are my two favorites), many classic black & whites.. and some of classic colors too (I like those goofy 'Carry On' series movies from the 60's & 70's too), period dramas (although most of those are tv mini-series'), Pitch Black, Monty Python, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Back to the Future series, Braveheart, Forrest Gump, Castaway, Memoirs Of A Geisha, LOTR, POTC (well, the first one), Dances With Wolves, Harry Potter (only 1st & 2nd) and Star Wars (70's/80's only). Don't mind a bit of Bollywood occasionally either.

I love pretty much all movies with Audrey Hepburn or Katherine Hepburn. :)

Although i don't watch them much these days.. I have a soft spot for the old Disney movies too - especially Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Jungle Book, Robin Hood and Beauty & the Beast.. oh! and Mary Poppins, of course.

What is the ultimate horror movie? I'm talking one that surpasses all others. I know we all have our own taste in what scares the heck out of us (for me it needs to be strong in realism, so that i actually have to remind myself that it's a movie). My discovery for most realistic-and-believable-and-creepy-as-hell goes to '[Rec]' - a spanish zombie movie with subtitles. The only horror movie EVER that I couldn't watch to the end was 'The Hills Have Eyes 2 - Directors Cut', simply because I found it disgusting.

TV-wise my favorite shows are Terra Nova, Agatha Cristie's 'Poirot', Doctor Who (most recent doctor is my fave incarnation - Matt Smith is just adorable!) & BBC's Merlin. These are the only shows I never miss an episode of - others are a matter of time & mood. :)

I really love tv mini-series' too - mostly period dramas like 'North & South' (and I love love love 'Lost In Austen'! :D) and fiction-based-on-fact ones like 'Into The West'. :)

I make mostly beaded jewelery, handmade cards & paper crafts, felt accessories & embellishments, paper embellishments, bookmarks, random crafty stuff, etc.

I also make address labels & swap cards a lot - love making them for anyone and everyone. :D

I'm hopeless at almost anything involving sewing as the main component. Okay, maybe I just need more practice (and the time), but all I really dare is some occasional stitching with floss.

I DON'T scrapbook at all. However, I love scrapbooking embellishments (besides ones that are too "obviously" themed for scrapbooking) & use them for other things. :)

Things I'm currently looking for, collecting or am obsessed with at the moment. :)

• Romance/erotica novels based on time-travel (as in, the sexy Viking dude somehow finds himself in the 21st century, or the 21st century gal finds herself back in time. Heh :D) - I find them interesting and amusing. New or used is fine! :) I'm particularly looking for (collecting) the Viking ones from Sandra Hill, and the Native American ones from Madeline Baker. Time-travel only though. NOTE:- of Sandra Hill I already own: Viking Heat, Last Viking, Outlaw Viking (my fave so far), Dark Viking, Viking Unchained, A Very Virile Viking [Also: Viking In Love, Viking's Captive & Viking Takes A Knight - though they're not time-travel]. .. and of Madeline Baker I already own: Chase The Lightning.

• Fantasy books! Hit me up with some great fantasy! Nice if it contains romance too - but please no Twilight or similar trashy vampire novels (sorry if you like Twilight, but to me they're.. well.. not good). I'd totally cherish any Forgotten Realms books (or those set in the Forgotten Realms).

• Medieval-style rubber/acrylic stamps. By that I mean like the images from the Medieval or Renaissance period books (that sort of wood-block style - like the artist Dürer did so well - Google him to see what I mean). For images they used tone lines rather then the tiny tone dots that they do now. I love that effect! I'm happy with anything religious-based in relation to that too (as it was a big aspect of that time) like nuns or saints or whatever, as long as it's in that style. New/used/mounted/unmounted are all fine! :)

• Badly need colored stamp pads - any size & color would be great but the little color-box cat's eye's ones are super perfect. Color-wise I most need blues, oranges & yellows at the moment. Also.. I would probably die and go to heaven if I got any Memento stamp pads (including black - always useful). xD Oh! Please don't send me any neon/fluro colored ones though!

• Books, landscape photos, postcards or anything on Finland (especially Kemi). I really do mean ANYTHING. :)

• Anything with images of REAL wolves. No cartoons.

• Blank paper tags (especially scalloped ones) - plain or patterned.

• Earrings in silver or antique-style metals (don't really like gold though - unless it's antique gold - as it can very easily look cheap and garish from my experience). dangling sort are preferred! Nothing cheap-looking or overly girly/cutesy. Any that are pretty, unique, interesting, punk/retro/glamour/boho, nature-theme or nicely handmade will be greatly loved!

• Anything off my Etsy favorites list: click here :)

• Ultra Fine Point Sharpies in any color or black. I can't get them where I live.

• Point-back rhinestones - any size is fine but I tend to use 2mm-5mm the most.

• Fabric of any size (another thing I'd really love!) - from scraps upward (I find uses for even the smallest bits)! I love vibrant materials with lots of patterned detailing (however subtle) and also natural looking/colored designs or material. I don't really like ones that are too plain though; since I mainly use bits of fabric for small backgrounds/imagery and those spaced-out, simple or large patterns aren't really very good for that kind of thing.

• I would LOVE recycled or plain white cardboard that is THICKER then cardstock - think slightly thicker then cereal box cardboard. NO recycled ones that are that ugly grey color though - just browns, beige & off-whites. Nothing smaller then about ATC size though, please.

• Gunmetal, Antique Copper (or rose copper), Antique Gold and Raw Brass jewellery findings. Earwires, eyepins, headpins, bead caps, spacers, chain, wire, crimp beads and small round ball spacers are perfect.

• Beading/Beaded Jewelery magazines or books! Can always use more of these and I love them so much! I especially adore back-issues of Creative Beading & Australian Beader magazine.

• One-on-one swaps! lol.. thought I'd slip that in there. Seriously, I love private swaps - PM me! Happy to do profile-based, themed or handmade swaps. :)

• 4mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm etc beads in any cut and any material other than acrylic or plastic. I especially love glass, crystal & gemstones (natural & dyed). Would adore more frosted/matte glass beads as they're not so easy to come by and I really enjoy working with them!

• Jewelery wire and chain - any gauge. Any color is cool too, but I'm most after antique colors. Please no Tigertail or similar as I have heaps of it.

• Bead mixes - mixed sizes and styles (but no seed beads please). I get so excited when I get a bead mix, whether store-bought or mixed yourself, it's ridiculous. Got leftovers that you can't use? It's likely I can so you know what to do! :D

• Folk music! Send me some folk music from your country or some that you just like. I especially love instrumental, traditional and ones with non-english lyrics.

• Posters and prints for my wall. Nature-inspired can't go wrong! :)

• Images/prints of male elves [NOT the cartoon/Christmas sort]! They're just gorgeous! Female ones I don't really like that much though.. also male Native American Indians & Vikings. ;D

• Really nice poems and quotes that makes you smile and/or think.

• DIY blank card & envie packs in small sizes (like, smaller then the average card size - think closer to notecard size)

• Flower or Border paper punches. Any size or design is good really, but if the design isn't the average I'd be thrilled! Also would love one of those single-hole hole punches (ones that have some reach so you can position the hole better)

• Flower embellishments. Any and all - whatever material or size - including paper flowers and such.

• ORANGE Hi-Chew!! Don't like the other flavors much, but the orange one rocks. :)

• Nature! leaves and flowers and trees and wild animals ~ weather and times of day and smells.. all that good stuff!

• Anythings useful for my craft that doesn't look cheap.

• Glimmer Mist (or equivalent)! I own two colors - Raven and Dragonfly (thanks to the very lovely @cnslrandmore , plus a little spritz bottle of Tattered Angel's 'Persimmon' (from the gorgeous @Craftaholic .

• Make me a little kit of your craft with materials and instructions? I've never gotten something like this and it would be so much fun to try a little art project that someone else has put together for me!

• I love shrink plastic! ♥

I'm happy to get most anything off this list! ;)

I'll be altering/adding/subtracting from this as time passes.

• Alphabet stickers/beads/chipboard.
• Animals (realistic or kawaii, not semi-cartoonish unless it looks good)
• Antique colors.

• Beads & Bead mixes & Beading Magazines/books (nothing cheap-looking)
• Beading Wire & Chain. (any gauge)
• Beige & Brown (natural, nice browns - not like.. poo brown! XD)

• Cardstock (preferably not the totally smooth, plain stuff unless it's in some unusual or lovely color)
• Color-themed swaps (so much fun!)
• Cola flavor.

• Dachshunds.
• Dictionaries of either Finnish-to-English or/& Swedish-to-English (DO WANT!!!)
• Distant lands and destinations.

• Earrings (nothing cheap or childish or overly girly. Preferably silver or antique-style metals and the dangling ear-wire sorts!)
• Egypt [ancient].
• Embroidery floss ( any/all but I especially love the metallic, metallic pearl or linen DMC ones!)
• Embellishments (any type, they're so useful!)
• Ephemera (all sorts ~ like pages from old books in another language and such)

• Fantasy books (with romance if possible, but please no Twilight)
• Fantasy posters (no cartoonish stuff though, and I prefer art of males)
• Felt (soft, not stiff; and none of that really thin and cheap stuff please)
• Fabric (I can really use a lot of this in different patterns!)
• Folk music.
• Finland (anything on this gorgeous country!)
• Fimo.
• Flowers (any type of flower things for craft projects, etc! :)

• Grab Bags (themed ones are fun & kits too, but I love all of them :)
• Glimmer Mist.
• Gel Pens (or any funky pens)
• Gemini (I'm one ;)
• Green (any natural greens)
• Gold or silver accented stuff (used sparingly on stickers, paper, lace, etc)

• Handmade things (all kinds!)
• Hair accessories.
• History.

• Inca/Aztec-themed stuff.
• Inspirational things.

• Jewelery (nothing too chunky, but I love complex pieces - suits my personality!)
• Jewelery findings, etc.

• Kawaii stuff (my favorites are Eve Angel, Tare Panda, CongCong, Sodami, anything with strawberries on it and anything from the Korean brand 'Mr. K'. I especially like Korean brands, lesser known characters and ones with no characters on them at all ~ like scenery, flowers, little doodles, weird or funny images.)
• Kits on how to make something (materials and instructions you put together would be amazingly awesome!)

• Landscapes (any gorgeous scenic nature or sunset views on cards - not postcards - painted or photographed!)
• Letter sets (I'd love ones with painted cottage-style images on them.. not sure if I can explain - but ones with birds and flowers and such are nice, or kawaii or whatever looks pretty)
• Lace (especially in black, beige, off-white or any lovely single colors!)
• Leather (scraps of it in any color)

• Male elves/vikings/American Indians.
• Marzipan (pure, not covered in chocolate if possible)
• Mandarin (flavor)
• Medieval-style images/etc.
• Metal music (non-American)
• Monty Python & related humor.
• Mix CD's of NON-mainstream music (something different but very cool that you like? I love hearing new stuff!)

• Nature (in all its forms)
• Nougat (pure, not covered in chocolate)
• Nailpolish (interesting colors or mixtures)
• Nostalgia.

• Odds & ends.
• Old movies (roughly 40's-60's time period)
• Orange (especially the type you see in sunsets or red-oranges)

• Poems and poetry books.
• Patterned paper and cardstock.
• Pomegranates (what they look like especially, but also their smell)
• Pineapple (flavor)
• Pens with a super-fine point (like size 0.2 or 0.1. Black is cool, but other colors would be great!)

• Quotes and quote books.

• Rubber & acrylic stamps (no clip-art ones)
• Romance. :D
• Rice paper & exotic papers from Japan and such.

• Sandalwood scent.
• Staz-On stamp pads.
• Shrink plastic.
• Space (like nebula & galaxies & such)
• Seasons.
• Snoopy/Peanuts (in particular anything LUCY! :)
• Strawberries (Not things with strawberry favor, but things with the shape/look of the fruit :)
• Stickers (nothing garish/cheap looking/educational/christmas-etc themed).

• Time-travel romance/erotica (romantica) novels.
• Thoughts.
• Tea Towels (for my mum - she loves ones with cottage-style illustrations of flowers or fruit in vibrant - but not garish - colors)

• Unusual & strange [in a good way] things (I like discovering these kinds of things! :)

• Velvet (scraps of it in any color!)
• Vintage stuff.

• White musk/musk scents (not overpowering though)

• X-acto knives (haha - I had nothing else for X. Don't send me any X-acto knives though, please! XD)

• Yellow (sunshiney or lemon or creamy :)
• Yummy candies in strange or unusual [but nice] flavors!

• Zip-lock bags (larger, clear ones with no writing on them - about A4 or A5 size - great for putting stuff in for swaps ~ I love these! :)

Favorite..

Scents: white musk, sandalwood & honeysuckle. Any scents that smell exotic without being overly sweet. :)

Colors: Creamy white/off-white, orange-red & yellow-green. I love pretty much all colors though.. I can't think of any I don't. There's truly a color for every occasion. OH! Actually, I don't like neon/fluro/eye-hurty colors. :P

Color Combination's: red & white (preferably a vibrant red or orange-red with a creamy white); red & black; red & black & gold/copper; olive/lime/emerald green & black.. erm.. I'll add more when I think of them!

• Any seeds/plant material/loose tea from outside Australia (postal quarantine laws).

• Coffee/alcohol/licorice/anise flavors.

• ATC's or Inchies. It's not that I dislike them, I just don't make/collect them so they're better sent to someone who does. :)

• Tiny or very short lengths of ribbon - that's anything shorter then 40-50cm - unless it's something incredibly special. When I use ribbon I tend to use quite a bit of it, so little scraps aren't particularly useful to me.

• Socks.

• Incense; I like the stuff but I have way too much of it at the moment!

• Things for the bath - stuff for the shower is fine though!).

• Like most people here - anything that smells of cigarette smoke, is dirty, dusty, covered in pet hair, etc.

• Anything neon/fluro/eye-hurty colored.

• Things themed from a certain event in the year like Christmas or Halloween or something, unless it's versatile enough to be used throughout the year. I don't really do much (or anything) with those sort of event themes, so it would be wasted.

• Pandora beads/Silver-core beads (please don't get confused with silver lined - lined is fine)/large hole beads - basically any of the sorts of beads made to slip onto those European-style bracelets since I don't wear/make/like them.

• Educational or garish, cheap-looking stickers. Cheap stickers themselves are okay as long as they don't LOOK cheap. I also don't like stickers that have a huge white area around the picture or those ones with a gold embossed border.

• Anything to do with MODERN pop/RnB/rap/hip-hop music (I'm talking from the 00's onward). I especially dislike singers like Justin Beiber and such * shudder *. Most other music is fine!

If anyone feels like angeling any of these, that would be lovely. :)

• @lilpinktyger - Grab Bag Tag (AFOMFT forum) - a grab baggie - Flaked on 28/Oct/2010

• @frankkenteen - Pick 5 Profile Swap 7# May - Flaked on 7/June/2011 (her account was deleted because she was underage.. sigh)

• @mejulia - Theme In A Ziplock forum - Mystery Sandwich Baggie tag - mystery baggie - Flaked on 4/Sept/2011 (despite a claimed 'resend' and no response to contact I made thereafter)

none at the moment.

• Rainbows & Rainclouds forum - Mystery Pouch Tag - @ninjapanda - Mystery Pouch - Tagged 11/Jan/2012.

• One Tiny Thing forum - OTT tag - @flofirenzie - Matchbox - Tagged 11/Jan/2012