vintervila

UPDATE Feb. 2: A major snowstorm is hitting hard here, there's 60 cm of snow already! Mail will be delayed and POs might be closed. Bear with me if your swap is sent little late or will be recieved later than normal!!

May the 8th 2011: GOT MARRIED!

Thanks to all of you who sent me wishes, left comments here, wrote PMs: you rock!

Hi! My name is Sara and I am an italian girl who lived in France for 5 years. Now it's time to go back to Italy.

Here in Bologna I live with 2 little cats, Clio and Ernie, and my husband Sergio.

I'm catholic but I am pretty critical about the Catholic Church. I'm much more open minded than what it would force me to be...

I have a Master degree in History - which is of course one of my biggest interests within literature (I love reading).

When I was younger I always enjoyed writing and recieving colourful letters and I have been lately introduced to the great world of swapping...which has pushed me to improve my crafty skills. I mostly work with paper.

About common swapping stuff, I like swapping stickers, hot drinks/tea (I drink hot stuff even in august ;), candies and chocolate, stationary, letter pad kits or sheets and everyting related to Sweden, Christmas and snow/wintry time. I recently discovered to enjoy decorating matchboxes and I am not that bad I have to say!

I love swapping and I always give my best to put nice packages together, which means that of course I ALWAYS send. If I am a couple of days late in sending, I always PM my partner. PLEASE contact me if you don't recieve a package from me, I am always ready to prepare a new one and re-send it.

KAWAII stuff (my favorite carachters are Cinnamoroll, Mamegoma and My Melody). Where I live it's extremely hard to find kawaii stuff else than Hello Kitty. I don't like goth-dark kawaii stuff though, such as skulls or so.

CUTE STICKERS and DECOTAPES. I make a large use of stickers to decorate everything and for my paper creations (bookmarks, cards, letters, etc.). No stickers with animals if possible (I am not hard to please but I wouldn't use them that often).

BAKING GOODIES of any kind. I enjoy so much baking cookies, muffins, cakes, cupcakes and stuff but here in Italy we don't have as much baking nice goodies as you can find for instance inthe US. So if you send me anything to bake you'll make my day!

BOOKMARKS, both handmade and storebought. I sort of collect them, which means, I like to have a certain bookmark stock from which to choose the perfect one for the book I'm reading!

RIBBONS and FABRIC cut-offs. It means that I don't often buy them but I do use them for some creations. I could swap ribbons but not fabric. So, if you have some little pieces of ribbons and fabric you don't use, I'd be happy to use it!

CHRISTMAS RELATED ITEMS, like decorations, giftpaper, ribbons, boxes, stickers, recipes, anything you can think of that is related to Christmas!

HOT DRINKS like tea, hot chocolate, cider...Here in Italy we only have hot chocolate that has to be prepared with milk but I love the one that can be drunk with hot water! Much lighter! I also LOVE cider and here it doesn't exist. About tea, well, I have 3 tons of it but if you want to drop a teabag or two in your swap package I'll surely drink it :)

CANDIES, CHOCOLATE, JUNK FOOD from other places. Luckily I am a quite reasonable person! :) Here again, nothing mint-flavored (unless it's mint candies). And here I have to say that I try to boycot multinationals like Nestle, Mars and Coke. I am quite into fair-trade and ecology (and here you must be aware that I REUSE PACKAGING)

Flavors I really don't like: mint, banana, onion, garlic, ginger, rose.

On bottom you can read a small list of my favorite things to recieve from abroad

I love reading and I dream of becoming a writer since I was a little child and I used to read Roald Dahl's books dozens of times. Growing up, I just kept on reading and reading hundreds of books. I enjoy european literature in general, and some great american authors such as Raymond Carver. Some of my favourite authors ever are Stig Dagerman, Heinrich Böll, Alberto Moravia, Marguerite Yourcenair. Being a history-lover, I also read historical books and magazines. I am a fan of Harry Potter as well! :o)

I also like comics. International comics I like are Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts and Manga, but only Shojo ones (yet not too teenager-like).

I also love children's literature even if I am not a pro. My favorite author is Roald Dahl illustrated by Quentin Blake. I also love PEF and his lovely stories about hairy monsters and kids named Adolf ("My name is Adolf" made me cry...). I also love scandinavian literature, old and recent (Selma Lagerlof, Tove Jansson and hed Moomins). About famous illustrators, I guess that, after Quentin Blake, one of my favorite illustrator is Beatrix Potter.

To name bands and singers everyone has heard about, I am a huge fan of Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Muse, Peter Gabriel, Pearl Jam and Sigur Ròs. To name a swedish band I just LOVE but that is less known, well, it's Kent.

Some of my favourite movies ever: Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Titus, Festen, Birdy, Amadeus, The big Lebowski, The Blues Brothers, Four Rooms, The Royal Tenenbaums...

I always post when I recieve a tag in the sticky recieved threads in al the groups and I always PM or drop a profile comment to thank the sender. I'd be glad if you'd do the same if you expect something from me, just to reassure me about getting your package safely.

There are few items that I tasted/recieved once and that I really enjoyed. I thought to write a little list here so that if the swap requires something specific or if you want to set a private swap, you can get few hints!

I enjoy swapping edibles and here are few things I really liked:

• Kellogg's Pop Tarts! I really like them
• Spiced Apple Cider
• Nature Valley sweet and salty nut - Dark choc, peanuts and almonds bar
• Hot Chocolate (no minty though)
• Fruit Loops! They cheer me up!
• Anything with chocolate and peanut butter!
• Sweet pop-corns
• Jell-O (my entire family loves that)
• Devil's food chocolate cake mix
• Muffin mixes
• Cereal bars (expecially with nuts, PB, chocolate and strawberry)
• Annie's bunny-shaped crackers (we all find them so cute, and very good, too)
• Cadbury's Double Decker (so wow!)
• Konnyaku Batake from Japan

About my crafting, here are few things I might need and like:

• colorful and/or shaped buttons
• Scrapbook embellishments
• rubberstamps and ink pads
• Decotapes
• Decorated ziplock bags
• Kawaii Mini letter sets
• Felt and Fabric leftovers
• Decorated/patterned papers (scrapbooking paper or not), even small pieces

Another thing I enjoy using are decorated address labels! If you can make nice ones PM me and we might set up a little flat exchange :)

Teas and Hot drinks I love and can't get in Italy:

• Tazo Vanilla Apricot White
• Miesna Icewine tea
• Celestial Seasonings' Cranberry Apple Zinger
• Teekanne/Pompadour Lemongrass+Strawberry Green tea
• Bigelow Apple Cider tea
• Bellagio's Caffè Caramella
• any flavored Hot Chocolates (but no mint please)

Thanks for reading!

First of all, THANK YOU to all the angels who angelled some flaked swaps (you know who you are! :).

Flaked on:

• Happy New Year Surprises! by @hkso
• Some days in my usual life! - 2 by @ICNTECHNICOLOR
• Tea Time with the Mad Hatter~ 2nd Go Round'! by @MegaMutant
• 10 days to Christmas by @SunBear
• Tea-bag and Tea-bookmark by @newdawnnewday

I am afraid of insect. Any kind. All of them. I have a real phobia! Nothing to do with cuteness, though, so if you send me things like a cute ladybug sticker or spider-shaped confetti for halloween I'll like them! :)

I have thought to add few lines about my family because sometimes I like to swap for them.

My husband, Sergio: he loves cinema, underground hip-hop (Beastie Boys, Gravediggaz, GangStarr...). He wears hip-hop t-shirts (size M) with small writes on it; he also collects small car models. EDIBLES: he's quite picky. He might like plain licorice or pop-corns.

My mom, Enza: she likes reading a lot and she uses journals or notebooks to write her thoughts in. She also likes travelling, french language and french culture. She doesn't understand english, though. EDIBLES: She loves Fruit Leathers, Gummy Candy and Sour Candy, Apple Cider, fruity Cereal Bars, Spices, Caramel anything (expecially puddings).

My dad, Gianguido: he loves travelling and discovering new places and new cultures. He loves bike travelling and he is member of a bike club. EDIBLES: He loves Apple Cider, too, and chocolate.

My sister Sissi: she loves reading and travelling, she's an artist and enjoys taking photos, painting, creating in general with any sort of craft. Her favorite animals are cats and rabbits. She also loves fun t-shirts such as the ones at Threadless.com. She LOVES Starbucks, that doesn't exist in italy, so anything from Starbucks would make her day. Her main passion within photography is music. Her favorite band is Radiohead EDIBLES: She enjoys Gummy Candy, Sour Candy, Caramel, Coconut, French Vanilla scented items (i.e. coffee or chocolate), toffee, and Marshmallows!