choke

choke's current status

On 3/26/2020 I lost a very close friend of mine in a very terrible way. I'm a mess... I'm sorry to let you all down and it is always on my mind that I am neglecting my responsibilities here. But I cannot find the time or energy to make this right. I hope you can understand and will forgive me. I will return when I am able to.

I found the most adorable miniature rolodex holder and cards, the cards are like 2"x3". If you're willing to make a decorated rolo for me (I'll send you the blank) please message me. In return I can make ATCs, twinchies, notecards, rolos, or some other small craft. Thanks!!

If you haven't received a swap from me please contact me before rating a 1. I always send out my swaps so if it hasn't reached you I'm happy to resend.

Please don't include extras in your swaps to me, I am overloaded so I end up tossing them in the recycling bin to avoid the clutter. I hate doing that but I never use the majority of "extras" I get.

• I am a mother, wife, and an engineer who is owned by 2 rescue pups.

• I tend to be very long winded in my writing :-)

• My son is the best thing that ever happened to me. He is my savior in life. 19 years ago I was a totally different person and may not have made it had I not gotten pregnant. So yeah, he's 19 years old and just started college in the fall of 2018. Though he's a commuter, he's rarely home unless he's hungry, stinky or needs to drop off the latest pile of laundry ;-) It's been a huge adjustment for me as I have spent the last 19 years dedicated to him and now I don't know what to do with my mind and so much free time. I craft and swap a lot more as I really don't want to be one of those moms. He loves baseball, working out, laughing, computer science and being kind to people. I am very proud of him :-)

• The story behind my husband and our pups kind of goes together. I was never the type to think I'd get married until I met Bill. We just work more perfectly than anything I've ever experienced. He understands my need for lots of alone time and doesn't nag me about anything, and same with me for him. We've been together since 2007, got married in 2014, and bought our first home together soon thereafter.

• Our first pup together was a gorgeous golden retriever named Bella. I kind of stole her from my dad, after he retired he would be off traveling the world and we'd have her for weeks at a time. Once it got to be a constant back and forth I told him either he was a world traveler or a dog owner and I wasn't giving her back until he decided. She never went back and hence became Porta Bella :-) Very soon thereafter she became Bill's dog and I was chop liver if he was around. He just has a way with animals, it's sweet and frustrating at the same time...as you'll see if you're still reading.

• I had always wanted a puppy but the house we were living in was far too small for the four of us already. As Bella got older I wanted one more and more, both to keep her more active and to help the mourning process as I knew one day we would have to say goodbye. I had been looking around online for a few months and came across a mountain cur puppy named Bruce. I fell in love with him immediately but he was ~50 miles away and my husband had recently had a falling out with a friend named Bruce so considering he wasn't all-in on the idea of getting a puppy there was probably no chance he'd be interested in this one. We moved in to our new house at the end of August and on Sep 19 a friend and I went to a local pet rescue event and guess who was there!??! - BRUCE! I picked him up and he just snuggled me and I never put him back down. I paid my adoption fee and just brought him home. Bill was livid...

• After ~30 minutes of that I finally just said "You know he's not going back because I already love him and well, his name is Bruce so he needs a new name. Would you like to name him?" And he grumbled "Ruger". I said fine and Bill finally got up to play with him. Those little suckers are inseparable now! If you see Ruger you see Bill, if you don't see Bill then Ruger pouts. This was supposed to be MY puppy dammit! I still get my puppy snuggles and playtime. I've also learned if I use his favorite blanket on my lap that is one time he will choose me over Bill :-P He's a strange pup, when we have friends over they'll say hi and give him pets and he's just kinda like "meh, whatever, where's my dad?" and goes to find him and sits on his shoe.

• We did eventually have to put Bella down due to old age, the day after my birthday in 2017. We're still heartbroken but it especially hit Ruger. That was his best friend and she was so sweet with him. So Bill started to look around at the rescue sites and came across a black mouth cur named Lucy. She was over a year old and had a tumultuous yet somewhat unknown history. She had been found with a broken yet partially healed hip so she spent the first few weeks of her rescue isolated in a cage to continue healing. Her previous owners refused to crate her and eventually returned her because she ate their couch... But she was super adorable and looked nearly identical to Ruger so we filled out the paperwork and set up the meet and greet. Fortunately for me, Bill wasn't there - he was off hunting up north for 2 weeks! It was an awkward meet, poor Lucy wouldn't let me come anywhere near her and was very skittish. All I wanted to do was love on her. But I made the plunge and said we would take her, she'll come around. I really think that 2 weeks of initial bonding with her set everything in place perfect for me because I can say Lucy is MY dog. Anytime she is scared or wants to play she comes to me and Bill is chop liver!

• TL;DR: We got each other dogs named Ruger-roo and Lucy-loo

I am primarily a papercrafter but also dabble in sewing and upcycling. I enjoy making handmade cards, ATCs, altered rolos, twinchies, art journal pages, slams and decos.

I have been having a lot of fun watching and learning from Tim Holtz. His color palette and grungy style is perfect for me. I am just now working through the Creative Chemistry classes and am glad I waited as I have a lot more Ranger products (and time!) now than when the classes were first released.

I am co-founder of a new group called Exploring Tim Holtz Products so if you're a fan be sure to check it out!

I'm not really swapping postcards on here much these days but these are my interests:

• Regular touristy storebought postcards
• Not fond of zazzle/vistaprint/freebie/ads
• Handmade cards based on a profile like are always welcome :)
• At the top of my profile you can find a link to my entire PC collection which is sorted by my favorite collection topics.
• I'd really appreciate it if you'd check my collection, which is very large, to avoid sending a duplicate.

My absolute favorite type of postcards are maps!! You can find my entire collection here. I'd love if you could find one that I don't have :)

If you'd like to do a private trade for postcards, you can find my offers here which I try to keep updated but have slacked off in the past couple of years. Some of the more expensive or particular themed cards I will only trade for similar cards, but feel free to send me a message if you see something you like!

back by popular demand

Numbers π. 7 Gypsies.
A autumn. atc. atcoins. alcohol inks. animal prints (faux).
B black. burlap.
C creepy & cute. circuits. clovers.
D diecuts. dark chocolate. decos. dotes. dogs.
E engineering. expletives. emily the strange. einstein. embossing (heat or folders).
F fairies. fine tips pens.
G gnomes. green (just regular grass green). gelli prints. gelly roll pens. geekery.
H happy bunny. hoodies. heavy metal girl stuff. halloween. handmade cards.
I iridescense. i.
J jack off jill.
K kawaii.
L large stencils. long letters.
M monkeys doing funny things that make people freak out. map postcards. math. mowed lawn (distress ink color). mark ryden. magic mesh.
N noodles.
O owls. oxide sprays. office supplies (preferred geeky/engineering related).
P perfect pearls. postcards. pinball.
Q quiet alone time. quirky.
R rustic. rub-ons. rolos. rock/riot grrl stuff. robots.
S snow. south park. snark. slams. skulls. silver. sentimental circus. stars.
T tim holtz. textures. twinchies. tesla.
U unthemed.
V very dark coffee. vellum.
W word games. winter. washi. wood.
X xkcd.com
Y
Z zentangles. zines.

• Gold.
• Puffy Stickers.
• Lime Green.
• Friendship Books.
• Girly frou-frou crap.
• Spring/Summer themes.
• Flowers.
• Big or chunky crafts or craft objects a.k.a. "bling".
• Jewelry (I hardly wear it and am pretty picky.)
• I get really aggravated when I RAK something to somebody and they don't even have the decency to say "Thanks!".