dogfishsmum09

I have just been looking through my SENT items and have sadly had to archive 15 swaps which were Not received, this makes me sad and more than just a little annoyed, I take a lot of time for each swap I send and thought when I joined swap-bot that alloted partners would do the same.. this is not the case and some swaps I have received have been very much thrown together..I'm not into listing the names of these people because they know who they are, I noticed several had been suspended and one had her account closed, how sad is that? these people will have had nice items from their partners...

My flickr link doesn't seem to be responding if you want to look at my photo's my sign in name is "Mad Mummy" - I am 64 years young, widowed with 3 grown up children, a daughter two sons, two grandchildren, my partner also has two children and 3 granchildren. I'm around 5ft 6+inches..and have been a vegetarian for around 26 years,although not gone as far as being a vegan. I love all animals and I hate cruelty tot hem with a passion, my favourites are dogs, cats and fish. I had two lovely dogs a German Shepherd Kiara who has sadly just this week had to be put to sleep,29.10.09 this has left me with a broken heart I loved her so much, I also have an elderly Labrador Elly along with a stray cat Monkeycat, this combined with a lot of fish in my pond a large aquarium keep me quite busy. I work 3 days a week for a local Hospice charity. I am a widow of 13 years,living with my partner for the last 9 years..

I read a lot, talk a lot more!! love my small garden and pond. Cooking was a great interest to me I have loads of cookery books, with the family moved out I don't cook as I used to, cheesecakes fresh and baked were my speciality. I collect bears also inheriting my mothers collection when she passed away making me a very large collection now. I thoroughly enjoy photography, I'm still learning, I found from my first experience using digital I was totally won over, I upgraded my camera a year ago and carry my older camera in my handbag everywhere I go, having been introduced to flickr by my family I regularly download my photo's, flickr has helped me to improve my ideas and presentation, it has opened up a whole new world for me.on flickr my name is "mad mummy" I learned about swap-bot from trawling through art/crafts photo's on flickr, I have never looked back, it's great. Roses,pansies,daffodils and fuchsia are amongst my favourite flowers, but anything pretty and bright like trailing nasturtium to liven up my garden is good with me.

I used to have many collections, from candlesticks, pigs, porcelain and glassware, but have now been selling or giving a lot of this away, swapbot partners will no doubt receive some of my excess items when we swap, all part of my re-cycling regime..now my collections are of crafting variety.

I have a Dolls house an ebay purchase, I love collecting items for it, I'm looking into ways to make dolls house trimmings, although I'd like to change this house and buy myself a new one, maybe of a more modern era..

I wear long skirts, trousers and jeans only rarely then mainly for work, with plain or floral tops (no frills) I love hand knits most specially Aran patterns, having some still in use that I made 25+ plus years ago. I have hundreds of patterns ranging from dolls and kids clothes a few adults and piles of crochet patterns, I am sending some of these patterns to swap partners when the profiles say they love to knit or crochet, some I have sold on ebay but not with any great success. My favourite colours are red pink mauve/purple red green brown animal prints, I love to wear.. I wear earrings and have pierced ears, love wearing beads necklaces (not chains), earrings and bracelets brooches to match my clothes although nothing expensive then I can change them often, I have also handmade some fabric and bead brooches. Being new to craft work, as in altered matchboxes and ATC cards, I am having fun trying out new ideas, I have promised myself on retirement from work to buy myself a new sewing machine and try my hand at quilting again, which I did many years ago by hand in a small way, I used to do a lot of embroidery and cross stitch before family and work consumed my time, I'm loving the idea of trying new crafts, swap-bot offers a way to share my new found interest, also being such a great way to re-cycle which I am a great fan of.
I will re-cycle envelopes, packaging etc as often as I can, which means you may receive a parcel looking on the outside non too interesting, the contents are important being as good as I can make them..

Now I'm into crafting in a big way it seems, it takes up most of my time in the evenings and other times whenever I can, since starting swap-bot I have a bought so many crafting books I think I will be 150 years old before I get to try everything thats taken my fancy, I am trying to decide to just stick to what I feel more comfortable with, this seems to be mainly anything with fabrics and yarn, I don't seem to have much aptitude for paper crafting my drawing leaves a lot to be desired. I had never heard of Dotee dolls before joining swap-bot, I'm loving making these little pieces of art for partners. Now I have tried Inchies what fun they are, although I have made mine from felt because of my poor papercrafting skills.. So far I've also made a few knitted and felt toys, not having made any since the children were small it's been great to try new patterns. Who'd have thought I'd make fabric and bead brooches? not me for sure. I'm collecting fabrics yarns ribbons lace felt buttons beads embellishments for crafting, quilting and more.