Hello Fellow Swappers! My name is Kristy, crafting is my favorite pastime and I love all things handmade.

I love shopping online and aliexpress should get a line item in our budget ;+)

I absolutely love being a swap-bot member! I've been here 9+ years and have met so many lovely people. Crafting and swapping give me such a lift. When I'm creating, the hours just fly by!

Here are some of my favorite themes:

• Cats

• Animals (photos or illustrations--no monkeys, please ;+), especially bears, foxes, and other woodland critters

• Nature (especially vintage nature images)

• Nouvelles Images postcards

• Sumo wrestlers

• Fotofolio cards

• San Francisco postcards (especially Alcatraz!)

• Unusual images

• Zoo or Aquarium postcards

• Trolls and gnomes

• Moomin

• Birds of all kinds

• Interesting black & white photographs

• Vintage deckle-edged postcards

• Halloween

• Paper, paper, and more paper!

• Vintage stationery sets

• All vintage paper ephemera!

• Elephants

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

• Frogs

• Heart-shaped things

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

• Koi fish images

• Bird images

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

• Anything crafted of paper

• Stickers--especially cats!

• Although I am not Catholic and have my own beliefs, I adore images of the Virgin Mary and the Catholic saints. I think they are beautiful!

• Recommendations of good books and bookmarks

• Kind people

• RAK's (sending & receiving)

• Rain, snow, and cold weather

-Swappers who are here for the joy of the creative process and not the opportunity to become rule-enforcers. Sheesh . . . we have enough rules in our lives already.

Short and sweet here:

Foam crafts or stickers

Color-your-own anything (including postcards)

Scented products (I get a headache!)

I do not like user profiles with a HUGE "do not like" list--some of these are more detailed than my family's Christmas lists! haha!

Some favorite movies: The ORIGINAL Fright Night, 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 movie & tv choices might not seem to "fit" with the rest of my profile but I have always loved science fiction and scary movies!

I'm a fan of: Homeland, Top Chef, Unreal, Silicon Valley, Veep, Project Runway, The Monsters Inside Me, Game of Thrones, and more. So sad that both Penny Dreadful and Banshee have ended ;+( I'm a former fan of TWD but the story lines just became SO WEIRD so I cut the cord from The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead.

I think (ok, I know) I watch too much TV but there is a TV in my craft room so I'm not likely to stop any time soon.

Mail art is one of favorites. I love to jazz up all my envies before sending--fun, easy and what's more fun than a colorfully decorated envie in your mailbox? 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.

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! Also love twinchies and other paper crafts.

Love creating junk journals using vintage ephemera and I'm crazy for using vintage books in all my work.

I LOVE to read but am super fussy about what I choose to read. If you are an avid 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.

Hubby and I are nearly retired. I'm trained as a middle school language arts, social studies, and math teacher. I still tutor for reading comprehension. Hubby was a park ranger. In our nearly-retirement, we 'work' for my daughter and son-in-law, overseeing several of the apartment buildings/houses they own.

I am a mom of four grown children and a granny to six adorable grandchildren (Noelle, Xander, Lucas, Evan, Kristopher, and Aaliyah). Unfortunately, my sweet Noelle and Lucas live in San Francisco ;+(--much too far away from their granny.

My hubby is the light of my life (we met on match.com and have been married for 12 years already!). We are so lucky to be able to spend a lot of time together. I love my life and count my blessings every day.

I am an only child and have always wanted a sister to share with. I love that I have some crafting 'sisters' here on swap-bot!

My four-legged furbabies are: Mizzy and Junebug Mizzy was a shelter cat and my daughter found Junie abandoned in a cart in a Target parking lot in mid-December. She had a collar mark around her neck, so she was someone's pet who was just dumped. I truly enjoy the company of cats. For me, a house is not a home without a pet.

I'm not a stickler about postmarks; in fact, I've never checked a postmark in my life! I do understand the need for rules and regs within this swapping community, but if you're going to be late in sending a swap to me, just be courteous and let me know. Although I take my role as swapper and host very seriously here, I will never engage in public shaming of other swappers or have a 'Flaker List' on my profile. Let's be kind to each other!

I'm consistently puzzled when swappers say they 'hate' a specific color. I want you to be inspired to create something special for me, so use whatever color speaks to YOU. It's not my job to ban a color that might spark your creativity. I appreciate anything created with love and inspiration and if it's not one of my favorite colors? It must be one of yours and that's good enough for me.

In a community of inspired, thoughtful, and artistic swappers, I believe we should show each other kindness, grace, and understanding. I get so frustrated with those who complain, complain, complain about swap-bot in the forums. One word of advice to those folks: move on! Please allow new members to form their own opinions and (perhaps) learn to love swap-bot through their own experiences. I wonder about the intentions of those who act as a self-appointed police force on the site. Why join a site for swapping and spend all your time investigating everyone else? My thoughts on the self-appointed swap-bot detectives? More swapping . . . less snooping ;+)

I believe this should be a place for creativity, sharing, and making new friends. We all have enough stress in our lives outside of swap-bot--let's not let swap-bot become a source of stress and negativity instead of the joy it is meant to be!

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