isabellasnow

Hello Fellow Swappers! Crafting is my favorite pastime and I love all things handmade. My husband is on disability retirement and we work a small part-time job together. After reading the books, Good Mail Day, and Pushing the Envelope, I have become a mail art NUT. I think I enjoy making and decorating the mail as much as I enjoy creating the contents. Even if it's not a decorated envie, I love to create envies for my swaps from vintage book pages.

I haunt Dollar Tree, Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and JoAnn Fabrics. I am lucky to live close to all four. I also adore shopping for supplies online. My latest collection obsession: WASHI TAPE! For ages, I couldn't find it anywhere around here. Now it's EVERYWHERE. So I'm starting to have quite a collection. The really neat ones are still only available online.

Paper, paper, and more paper!

Cats cats and more cats

Vintage stationery sets

Postcards--this has become a major obsession lately! I am NOT a fan of touristy postcards and I prefer mine unwritten. My favorites are animal postcards, funny postcards and I just adore vintage postcards as well.

Whale anything (it's so hard to find whales)

Snail anything (especially things that say "snail mail")

Gnomes and other woodland creatures

Pink anything (my favorite color)

Halloween anything (my favorite holiday)

Tul pens (from Office Max--smoothest on the planet)

Ultra fine-point Sharpies in fun colors

Big punchies

Heart-shaped things

Vintage buttons and needle cards, or any other vintage sewing notions

Koi fish images

Bird images

Burt's Bees anything, especially foot cream!

Anything peppermint- or grapefruit-scented

Handcrafted/decorated envelopes of ANY size--especially ones that are sewn!

K & Company paper and die cuts and stickers

Anything crafted of paper

Stickers--especially cats!

Vintage ribbon or seam binding

Recommendations of good books and bookmarks

Short and sweet here since I am always a bit surprised when a swapper's list of dislikes is as long as likes!

Foam crafts or stickers

Touristy postcards

Scented products (I get a headache!)

NOTE: Unfortunately, I've been receiving a LOT of touristy postcards lately in swaps. I'm not fond of them but don't feel right about throwing them out--if anyone is interested in them (and lives in the U.S.), shoot me a message and I'll pass them along to you.

Some favorite movies: Skyfall (Daniel Craig is THE BEST Bond), Prometheus, The Talented Mr. Ripley (this is probably my favorite movie of all time), Aliens, Last of the Mohicans, Hocus Pocus, Shawshank Redemption, White Oleander, Terminator series, Blood Creek (LOVE Michael Fassbender), Stephen King's It, Venom, Fright Night, The Thing. I love well-made scary movies! Not a fan of romantic comedies.

My all-time favorite TV series is Breaking Bad...what a show! Watching Walt go from a mild-mannered chemistry teacher to a drug kingpin has been a roller coaster ride! I'm also a fan of Justified, The Walking Dead, Dexter, Homeland, Top Chef, Project Runway, Locked up Abroad, Grimm, and Game of Thrones! Also LOVE the HBO series VEEP--Julia Louis Dreyfuss is one of my favorite TV personalities. I think I watch too much TV but there is a TV in my craft room so I'm not likely to stop any time soon.

I'm really enjoying collage art right now

Mail art has become one of my new favorites as well. I especially love the postoid rubber stamps--the ones that look liike a postage stamp but say something funny. I have quite a collection!

I love paper of all kinds and, along with the beautiful papers, papercrafts. Creating envelopes is so much fun, too--I think I join every envie swap I can.

And, of course ATC's! I used to hate them and be consistently irritated at how many ATC swaps there were here on swap-bot. Now I love them! They are, truly, mini pieces of art and what fun to make. I end up looking at everything I see and wondering....hmmmm...would that make a good ATC?

I love journal swaps but I'm the world's second worst procrastinator (my son, Adam, being the first), so even though I LOVE them, I rarely join in the fun. Let's say I join one where 30 pages have to be filled in and I have 2 months. First, I let a month pass. Then I tell myself to begin and I will write 1 page/day. Next thing you know, 15 more days have passed and now I need to write 2 entries per day. And so on and so on until it's down to 5 days with 6 entries per day. Then it's 3 days to go and 10 entries per day. Or even worse! It's just nuts! But procrastination is in my genes--I do my best work under pressure.

I've recently been sewing on paper and it's so much fun! There are no raw edges to worry about, no chiffon to hose up the needle--it's just plain easy and fun.

Another new "hook" for me is typewriter letters! I worked as a secretary for many years before starting a family and typing on something other than the computer really takes me back! Remember the IBM Selectric with all those little balls of different fonts? Plan to start using a dip pen for the next dip pen swap.

The only thing I have not done too much of is needlework, although I love to receive what other people make. I wish wish wish I could join dotee doll swaps, but I think I would get GREAT ones and my partner would be disappointed. I do enjoy creating little felt things and would love to have patterns for some.

I have been a lazy reader lately. My mom passed away last December (2012) and I just couldn't concentrate on a novel. I've got a big TBR list in my nook and I'll get going again soon, I'm sure.

If you are a reader, and read anything in the suspense/thriller/horror genres, please send me a recommendation. With so many book choices available, a recommendation from an avid reader is worth its weight in gold.

I am a mom of four grown children and a granny to one sweet girl--Noelle Skye. Unfortunately, Noelle lives in San Francisco ;+(--much too far away from her granny.

My hubby is the light of my life (we met on match.com and have been married for 8 years already!). We are so lucky to be able to spend a lot of time together.

I am an only child and have always wanted a sister to share with. Since my mom passed, there's an emptiness that just won't be filled. Wish I had grown up with sibs.

My four-legged family members are: Mizzy and Junebug (2 shelter cats), and one old tomcat. He just showed up outside one day. Hubby built him a heated shelter for the winter and now he's there for mess call twice a day! I call him Beedle. My first husband was allergic to cats, so I lived without them for 25 years. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the company of cats! On September 11, 2012, I lost my beloved beagle, Blue. He was diagnosed with cancer 2 years previously and hung on as long as he could. I know he's waiting for me on the other side.

I have had a lot of big losses in my life and things that bring me joy are SO precious to me. Swap-bot is most definitely one of those joys.

I appreciate kindness in any form. One of my favorite quotes is from the Dalai Lama: "Be kind whenever possible . . . it is always possible."

I mail out many swaps per week, and try valiantly to use whatever bubble envelopes come my way in order to recycle packaging. As such, some of my packages are not the most beautiful UNTIL you open them! If you prefer new packaging, please let me know. Obviously I would never use packaging that reeked of cigarette smoke or whatever other distasteful thing might be clinging to an envelope, but I try to make good use of used packaging.

I do have two curious cats in the house and they are nearly always close by watching me. I try to be very careful NOT to send their hair out with my swaps ;+)

For me, presentation is everything. With a wonderful presentation, sometimes the most ordinary items becomes extraordinary.

I'm not a stickler about postmarks. In fact, I can say (proudly) that I have never checked a swap postmark in my life. If you're going to be late in sending a swap to me, just be courteous and let me know--even if the reason is because you just weren't feeling inspired before the swap was due. I'd much rather receive something lovely and inspired a few days late than something thrown together at the last minute to avoid a late postmark.

In a community of inspired, thoughtful, and artistic swappers, I believe we should show each other kindness, grace, and understanding. We all have enough stressors in our lives outside of swap-bot--let's not let swap-bot become one of those stressors instead of the joy it is meant to be!