ejorpin

Australian currently living in the truly amazing city of Hong Kong with my hard-working husband, 2 dogs, and occasionally 2 step-sons...

The 2 step-sons are aged 9 and 11, and if you're looking at sending something they'd like, the youngest is an origami genius, also loves mazes, magic tricks, science and word play (ambigrams and such). The eldest loves Calvin & Hobbes (as do I!), Peanuts, The Far Side - comics in general really. Also Monty Python and anything to do with natural or ancient history (I think we have just about every BBC/Nat GEO documentary there is).

The 2 dogs are both mini dachshunds - one short hair (Elfi), one long hair (Ferdi - there's a billion photos of them on Flickr...). My husband wants to get a wire hair to 'complete the set'. I have long been obsessed with dachshunds so actually owning two of them is awesome. They are consistently amusing.

I love to travel; ski; get packages in the post; collect things (especially tea-related goodies & mid-century modern anything - see below for a postage wish list); sew; hang out with my two mutts; do the New York Times crossword; play around with cameras (see the link to my Flickr page above); eat delicious-ness; read and collect pretty books; sleep...oh yes, and I'm a little bit addicted to Twitter at the moment...

I like bright colours, my favourite is probably green, but it's all about the clashing combinations - purple and yellow, orange and blue...At the moment I am especially in to a jewel palette, especially for fabric - deep purples, royal blues, glossy blacks, luscious magentas - you get the drift...

Fabric wise I tend to go for small prints (I love a liberty print and pretty much anything made in Japan), and I also love stripes and gingham. This doesn't mean you shouldn't send me big bold prints, in fact, you probably should as I won't buy them for myself and I'd probably love them anyway...

A wish list of things I'd love to get in the post:

• anything (and I mean anything) hand made...softies, pencil cases, postcards, scrap book pages, stencils, photographs (especially polaroids), zines

• craft supplies (ribbons, buttons, rubber stamps, stamp pads, stencils, felt and fabric scraps, embroidery thread...)

• any kind of stationary (cards, envelopes, notepads, writing paper, stickers...the Japanese stuff is always especially good!)

• postcards of where you live, esp. vintage ones and super-tacky ones and 'Greetings From...' ones

• books...old fashioned childrens books, design books, cartoon books, dog books, old Michelin red guides (the restaurant & hotel ones), anything with a mid-century modern style jacket design...but most of all any Penguin paperback

• magazines unique to your country; especially related to craft, design, fashion; graphics, photography, art; and especially if they are beautiful (I don't even mind if they're not in English)

• anything with a dachshund or an owl on it!

Craft-wise I love to try sewing and crocheting on occasion and admire people who are actually seriously crafty. I'm just building up my crafting stash, so any bits and pieces help!

I've started making some little softies - owls mainly, and have a number of projects marked in the 'softies' book. Everything I do is hand sewn, I don't own a sewing machine yet, so it's all small scale stuff. Regardless, I very much enjoy hand sewing. STOP PRESS!!! I just bought a sewing machine! Yay!

I love playing around with naive-looking embroidery, I make it up as I go. I absolutely love Sublime Stitching (http://www.sublimestitching.com/)

Crochet wise I am an absolute beginner, just trying to get my head around the basics and get some decent looking granny squares happening. Basically I am useless!

TV shows past and present that I love include (in no particular order): Black Books, Boston Legal, Scrubs, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Fawlty Towers, Life on Mars, Underbelly, Iron Chef, Spicks and Specks, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report

Always tricky to remember my favourite movies on the spot like this, but here are some that come to mind: Talk to Her, Finding Nemo, Tell No One, Best in Show, O Brother, Where Art Thou, Code 46, Gattaga, Donnie Darko, Lost in Translation, Memento, Secretary, Thank You For Smoking, This is England, the Bourne trilogy, Love Actually, Gone Baby Gone

Did I mention I am an absolute magazine junkie? I am surrounded by piles of them that I gradually rip bits out of and stick 'em in my recipe, fashion, decor or Hong Kong scrap book.

My two monthly must-haves are Australian magazine Frankie and Australian Gourmet Traveller; but really I like anything to do with food, fashion, travel and design. Some of my other regular favourites are Russh (I'd very much like to get a copy of Japanese Russh), Vanity Fair, Empire, Purple journal, Adam & Eve, Inside Out, Vogue Living, Marie Claire Idees.

Magazines I've found on my travels and would love to see more of include Little Thing (from China I think), GUP - Guide to Unique Photography (Europe/UK), Riot and Swindle (both USA I think), and any Japanese crafting magazine (I have this amazing one all about things to do with ribbons and buttons, it's so soft and pretty)

Just wanted to say I will never sign up to a swap unless I am absolutely certain I can fulfill the swap requirements...so, if you haven't got something from me, please send me a message first so I can investigate. As always, please be patient with international postage, I try and send my swaps early to make up for the delay.

I will always take the time to read my swap partners profile to get an idea of what you like so I can make the swap experience as great as possible!

Thanks :)

Some links to some blogs that I quite like:

• Mid-century design goodness at grainedit.com I pretty much love everything posted on this site

• Chock full of delicious design and beautiful photos, plus she's my sister so I kind of had to include this one www.beciorpin.com/blog

• For sheer prettiness, crafting tips and general inspiration: creaturecomforts.typepad.com/my_weblog

loobylu.com

ohjoy.blogs.com/my_weblog

sewmamasew.com/blog2

I could go on, there are so many more, but I don't want to bore you!

ps. I tried using the Markdown codes to embed the links but I can't make it work! If you have any tips please message me!!!