eedwards

My name is Erika, and I am 25. I am a mother of a 5 year old boy who is obsessed with cars, a full-time art student, and a crafter. I am a spiritual person and follow teachings from many religions, especially Eastern and pagan. I struggle with anxiety disorder, a battle I am finally winning. Other than this, though, I'm very laid back and accepting. I love people (even though my anxiety sometimes makes it hard for me to connect with them), and I love to get to know people through swaps and mail.

I have renewed my interest in my stamp collection so one thing I appreciate the most is getting an envelope with an actual stamp on it!

Craft items:

Seed beads, trinkets that can be used in necklaces, any glass or gemstone beads (not plastic please!), Nymo or other beading thread, beading needles, buttons, fabric, felt, doll embellishments, fibers, charms, polymer clay (of any color), doll forms, handmade polymer clay faces and molds, sewing and sewing machine thread, 1 or 2 skeins of Janlynn brand cross-stitching thread (medium steel grey (414), very dark pewter grey (3799), and white (000)), mosaic tiles, jewelers hammer, mandrel, nylon-tipped pliers, any gauge wire, scrapbooking supplies, etc.

For My Partners for Pagan Swaps:

Things for my mini altar--small altar cloth, small candleholders, anything small! I am more into guided meditations, rituals, and visualizations than spells. They are welcome too, though.
I am interested in spiritual items from almost any religion. If it has meaning, I probably will love it. Buddha, Jesus, Ganesha, Odin related items.

Other things:

*Things from your religion. *Worry dolls *Broken jewelry *Anything related to my likes list. *Postage stamps or foreign coins. *Used PCs-written on and stamped *Compact powder bronzer or sparkly eyeshadow (can be old or crazy colors, I don't use it as makeup). *Craft or spirituality magazines--My favorites are What is Enlightenment?, Bead and Button, Somerset Studio, Art Doll Quarterly, Shambala Sun, Reiki News Magazine, and others. *Decorative items for my living room in fall colors--olive green, burgundy/red, goldenrod, and some orange. *Candy or anything else I can't get in America--I love Wunderbars from Cadbury! I would drive to Canada just to get these! *Books on overcoming social and generalized anxiety. *Liberal/Coexist bumper stickers *Old Nicktoons related stuff (Rocko, Ren and Stimpy, Rugrats, etc). Anything 90's related!

Stuff for my son:

*Anything for a 5 year old boy. *He is obsessed with cars, trains, and anything with wheels. He really likes Hotwheels and Thomas the Tank Engine. *Stickers for his sticker book *Spongebob stuff *Elmo *Shrinky Dinks *Candy!! He likes those Kinder egg candies with the toys inside the chocolate.

Stuff for my Husband (he would probably be willing to do a private swap):

*Brett Favre or football related. *Foreign cigarettes.

LIKES:

Colors: Green, Earth Tones, Purple, and Dark Jewel Tones. I also really like rainbow and pink/orange/teal color schemes. I don't really care for pink by itself.

Smells: Chocolate, coffee, or any scent based off of baked things. I also love the smells of mountainous areas, pine trees, burning wood, and thunderstorms.

Foods/drinks: I love cereal. I could eat it for every meal. And I love Mexican food. I also like pastas, my grandma's german cooking, and seafood. I adore chocolate, anything with cream cheese, candy bars, and most anything baked. I LOVE chai tea, and like most other teas as well. I like coffee flavored things, but hate straight coffee.

Other Likes: Traveling, culture (with a specific interest in India and Scandinavia), tattoos, shoes, purses (although I never actually use them), goddess or pagan related stuff, mushrooms, owls, thunderstorms, history, journaling, altered things, anything handmade, candles, incense, unusual jewelry, dreamcatchers, owls, moon motifs, buddha related stuff, asian inspired things, foreign currency, stamps, high quality stickers, kawaii stuff, tree of life, chakras, yin and yang symbols, odin, gaia, liberalism, open mindedness, sociology, philosophy (especially Ken Wilber), psychology, vampires.

DISLIKES:

I have no use for plastic beads, Americana, Christian things (except Jesus related), brads, eyelets, or girly things, but if I get them I will pass them on in another swap.

I think I have finally found the media for me...bead embroidery, beaded art dolls, and jewelry! But I will work with almost any craft or artistic media like ceramics, polymer clay, scrapbooking, knitting, sewing, cross-stitching, mosaic, drawing, altered books and other things, collage, and photography. I love to make things out of recycled stuff, especially furniture. I just love to make things, it makes me happy!

Since I've been in art school I have learned some other amazing mediums including: Ceramics, lampworked beads, enameling, stained glass, basketweaving, Batik (one of my favorites), lost wax casting (making rings, pendants, etc), and lots of other jewelry making techniques.

Favorite Craft Materials:

Felt, seed and other beads (I LOVE beads!), polymer clay, rubber stamps, fibers, Mrs. Grossman's stickers or other nice stickers, colored sharpies, sheet metal, wire, yarn, fabric, enamel, etc.

Crafts I want to try:

Precious metal clay, glass-blowing, stuffies, quilting (my great grandma did this), pretty much anything.

@sourfruit flaked on @stitchsleuth for my Art/Craft Specialty swap! Angeled on 08/21/2010!

I have to say the Lord of the Rings movies and Practical Magic. I like dark films (Donnie Darko, Tim burton), comedy movies, and the occasional cheesy old horror film. I also really like anime movies like Princess Mononoke.

My favorite fiction books are the Dark Tower series by Stephen King (these books literally changed my life!) Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I love Harry Potter and the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I also love anything by Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Gaarder and anything in the fantasy or horror genres. I actually prefer nonfiction to fiction though, and love to read any books about religion/spirituality and philosophy.

Green Day and Incubus have to be my favorite, but I also like System of a Down, and other bands of that genre. I listen to a lot of 60's and 70's bands like The Beatles, CCR, The Doors, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, etc. I also really like bagpipe music.

Love, love love True Blood right now. I am a kid at heart and love cartoons. My favorite show on TV right now is Adventure Time, and I also like Flapjack. I love demented cartoons. My favorite shows are reality competitions like Work of Art, Project Runway, Shear Genius, Top Chef, etc. I also like anything on Food Network and History Channel as well as Lost, and some other shows.