hurleymurley

A member of Swap Bot since July 2008!

I am taking a break from swapping now until the new year. My job is just too exhausting and my financial situation is making me totally depressed, which in turn is drying up all of my creative juices! I'm up-to-date on all of my swaps for this year so no one needs to worry in that respect. See you soon!

Hi, my real name is Hayley and I live in Essex, UK, with my mum and brother. I have flown the nest three times now but am now back for the foreseeable future. I've also got a younger sister, @chickengirl , who has left for Uni and her miss her loads. At the moment I work as a warehouse operative as decent permanent work has been hard to come by in my area lately.

I will always rate my swap partners so if I do miss one and haven't rated please feel free to PM me any time! I won't be offended if anyone wants to give me a nudge.

I've now been flaked on for the first time ever and I think the worst part is not knowing. If you are going to be late please PLEASE drop me a quick PM to let me know. I'm very understanding and patient! Too much information is better than too little in my opinion!

Purple
Pink
Yellow
Green (bright greens, not dingy greens)
Frogs
Cats
Ice cream
The sea
Blankets
Pen Pals
Dotees
Matchboxes
ATC's
Amigurumi
Fishies
Books
Bookmarks
Fruit
Sepia photographs
Blogging
Being ginger
HOUSE!
The Mighty Boosh
Noel Fielding's Art
Pizza
Hot Spiced Cider from Glastonbury
Tea
Walking
Monsters
Sketching
Black & White
Doing portraits of people with interesting faces
Greek mythological creatures
Buttons
Beading
Recipes
Stationary
Reece's Peanut Butter Cups
Cookery programs (esp Masterchef, Great British Menu & Hairy Bikers/Bakers)
Tamsin Greig
Strictly Come Dancing

Although I do like these things there's nothing you can send me I won't appreciate as long as a bit of effort is gone in. I'm not allergic to anything (apart from penicillin, which I doubt you would be putting in a swap anyway) and I don't get offended by anything religious or anything like that!

I give lots of hearts but not just because of the extras. I believe the effort should be in the swap item . I appreciate something extra you think I can use but it does not automatically earn you a heart.

Oh, and when I say "extra special", I'm not even necessarily referring to extras, but just the extra effort to make it a thoughtful and personal package.

One of the main reasons I love Swap-Bot is that it lets me focus my ideas. Before I joined here I would sit down with my art supplies and think "what now?".

But that's a thing of the past and I now mainly enjoy making ATC's, but have also discovered the delights of making stuffies, dotees and matchboxes, and have rediscovered pen-palling. I didn't realise how much I missed snail-mail!

I'm now a beginner amigurumi-ist, and I've managed to make an octopus and a mouse following a pattern. Not bad considering I only just learned how to crochet.

As far as music goes I've done the one thing I always said I wouldn't, and that's only listening to the stuff I was listening to when I was a teenager (apart from a few rare exceptions).

My favourite bands are Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals, Ben Christophers, Queens of the Stoneage, Scissor Sisters, Mika, The White Stripes, The Zutons, Muse, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds... and every now and then I get nostalgic and listen to Nirvana, Green Day, Bush, Sepultura, The Birthday Party, Dinosaur Jr, GnR, The Wildhearts... the list goes on!

I love books and will read pretty much anything that stays still long enough, but my favourite authors (if I'm feeling brainy, which doesn't happen very often) are Ian McEwan and Kate Chopin, but I also like Robert Rankin and love the Harry Potter books, so much so that I've read them all many times over. I've also been getting into Philip K Dick lately who I think is awesome.

I love His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman), there is one moment in, I think, The Amber Spyglass that made me feel like my heart was breaking when I read it. I'm not talking 'oh no, so and so broke up and it was really sad', I mean real... deeply, deeply moving. I love stuff like that! And I wish I had a daemon.

I've done (and won) NaNoWriMo two years in a row now, and was a municipal liaison for my county last year, so I have two novels of my own under my belt!

I'm planning to write a Horror this year, and I want to illustrate it too this time.

Currently Reading: Imperium by Robert Harris

Crank
Snatch
Finding Neverland
Hot Fuzz
Shaun of the Dead
Chocolat
Fight Club
Bad Boys 1&2

Spaced
Green Wing
Big Train
The Mighty Boosh
The IT Crowd
House
Lost
Black Books
Neighbours (my guilty pleasure!)

Art Adventure
Creative Meanderings
Dot's Life & Art
Ro Bruhn Art
Softies Central
The Viridian Muse
While She Naps
Yummy Goods

Got this brilliant ami chick in an egg from @LavenderLizard

Love it so much I had to have a little animation of it!

On a not so nice note, I have been flaked on by @TheKawaiiBoutique for a Long Letter Pen Pal Swap #2 and @Servina for a Halloweenie ATC. The first time I've been flaked on and I get two at the same time!