carol

NOTE It gets hot here, and my mail goes to a metal box down the street. If I don't pick it up right when it's delivered, you can bet it's gonna "cook" in there a while, so please don't send anything that might melt!

I am a retired high school English teacher,now an actor and writer. I have always loved crafting and am trying to learn to draw and paint, although I am not sure I have the patience for that. I keep trying though! I love to play around with watercolors and acrylics.

I used to do silversmithing and still do some macrame once in a while. I like to sew and enjoy making up my own patterns for purses and stuff. I've got a bag full of old men's ties that are just waiting for inspiration and time available to get started.

Recently, I've started experimenting with block printing and paper making. I love bookbinding too.

Purple and turquoise are my favorite colors, but I love navy blue and forest green too.

Please don't send anything with fragrances as my son is allergic. Candles are out as well. They'd melt before I could get to them!

I love plants & flowers, but travel too much to keep any alive. I even managed to kill a snake plant somehow. I think it got hit in a hard freeze we had last winter.

I was born in the year of the Tiger, and they are my favorite animal: so beautiful and strong.

My sons tell me I am obsessed with boxes and containers of any kind. It's really hard for me to throw away the box something came in, especially if it's unique!

I love learning new things, so I really want to hear about your area, learn about YOU! I love surprises, that's one of the best things about swap-bot! I know what I like and I will generally just go get it if I want it enough. Surprise me with something different! I love it when swappers add personal notes about what they sent. Share a little of YOU! Thanks!

Any music that is well done is appealing, but I listen most often to rock, blues and jazz. I love making mixes and seeing what other people mix up. I'm open to hearing new groups and singers, but generally don't like rap music. Opera is okay when I'm there watching the performance, but I don't listen to it otherwise. I appreciate country music, but don't listen to it much either.

Big Fish, LA Confidential, Chinatown, Princess Bride, Neverending Story, Bringing Up Baby, Monkey Business, Animal House, Harry Potter movies, LOTR, Amelie, The Thin Man series, Memento, The Gods Must be Crazy, The Road to Singapore, Conspiracy Theory… pretty eclectic mix, I know!

Bones, Ugly Betty, Monk, Psych, Veronica Mars, Lost, Desperate Housewives,The 4400, Dead Zone, Scrubs, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Project Runway, Top Chef… lately I've gotten hooked on The Biggest Loser and Celebrity Apprentice. Lots of old ones in here. I haven't been watching much TV lately.

I liked Medium, too. If only they'd get it right about Phoenix, though! It annoys me when they make careless mistakes about the area. Very poorly researched, but I like the concept!

Photography, bookbinding, block printing, watercolor, art journals, crocheting, some knitting, used to do embroidery & crewel, but not so much anymore. I love to make collages, mixed media, colored pencil, sewing, silver-smithing, decoupage, stenciling, I'll try anything! I love to learn new crafts! I do like to scrapbook, but don't really do it much, so I can't really use materials for that.

Since I'm a former English teacher, I love to read most anything (I've been known to resort to the backs of cereal boxes and shampoo bottles!), but I adore mysteries, especially "cozy" ones (like coffeehouse, cooking, bookstore, dog lovers, handyman, they go on and on!). Sue Grafton's alphabet series is a must read, but so is Harry Potter!

I don't like overly religious books or really gory stuff, although I adore most of Dean Koontz's stuff, and some Stephen King.

I'm also not a fan a typical "women's fiction." Just not into that. I need some action, not just talk (especially the 'poor me' variety!).

I go in phases of reading. Right now, I'm enjoying cooking books, like Ruth Reichl and Peter Mayle. Past binges have included fantasy and SF, police procedurals, true adventures like Endurance (a great book and an amazing true story), Into Thin Air and Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.

Biographies and autobiographies are another favorite. If you haven't read Lance Armstrong's two, you must! Maya Angelou's are wonderful too. Gilda Radner's book, It's Always Something, Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, … I could go on and on!

I loved The Memory Keeper's Daughter, The Time Traveler's Wife, Hairstyles of the Damned, A Confederacy of Dunces, and The Historian among many others. Reading is a passion, can you tell? Check out my Shelfari site if you want more!

I usually find I can't use supplies sent to me in swaps: colors, sizes, patterns, etc. don't usually fit my needs and I don't do much mixed media stuff. I'f rather just go find what I like/need at the time. My house is way too cramped with stuff I've accumulated to use "someday" already!

Long story short, a great "surprise" for me is a great book or mix cd, or anything HANDMADE by you. I also like hearing about where you live and places you've been.

Thanks for whatever you send. If I can't use it, I'll regift it in another swap!

I really like most things, but I'm not into cutesy stuff or overtly religious materials.

I'm not into stickers, so those will just be re-gifted if sent.

Remember I live in a desert! So if it's summer and you're thinking of sending chocolate or candles, think again! Anything perishable (or that can melt) is probably not a good idea during those months (that'd be late May-September here)!