kari

My name is Kari and I live in Milwaukee Wisconsin with my husband, 8 year old son Jamie, 15 month old daughter Katie and two cats. I am a SAHM, and love being home with the kids.

I love to read - and I will read anything and everything. I can't even remember a time when I didn't have my nose in a book! Some of my favorite books are "A Prayer for Owen Meany" and "The Son of the Circus" by John Irving, "Tai-Pan" by James Clavell, "I, Claudius" by Robert Graves. One of my all time favorite books is "Sirens of Titan" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. I could go on and on about books that float my boat....

I love to sew - I am constantly working on one project or another. I also knit, draw and paint, and love introducing the fine arts to my son. I have dabbled in decorative wood burning, and hope to do some on some bird house gourds I have curing. I also do some beading, but mostly earrings, necklaces and bracelets. I have been doing some quilting, but find it hard to really take on huge projects like that with a baby. The one thing that I don't do is scrap booking. It isn't that I don't like scrap booking, but I just don't know where to start. I also do some card making - I made all of my own wedding invitations and my sister in law's as well.

I have a pretty eclectic taste in things, and love so many different styles. I like modern, but really dig vintage things. I have really been enjoying the Martha Stewart line at Michael's.

Colors: I like all colors, but really enjoy blue-greens, lime greeney, raspberry/chocolate combination and turquoise and chocolate combo. I prefer bold colors over washed out pastels. I’m pretty easy to please color wise.

Themes: Bugs (cute and realistic) especially dragonflies, butterflies and fireflies, nature (leaves, flowers, trees), I collect chicken paraphernalia and old feed signs for my kitchen, frogs and I think hedgehogs are insanely cute. Again, if it is fun or funky, I’m all in!

I love fabric (retro, modern, funky, fun), beads, natural fiber yarn, paper (fancy, watercolor, rice, orgami etc.), buttons, fun and funky trims (print bias tape, rick rack etc.), sharpies, ribbon.

I love my coffee high-octane and my chocolate darkish. I love to try new and different candy from around the world! I love the juju candy called "Chuckles" but can never find them any more. (They are sugar crystal coated fruit gel/gumie slices.)

I’d like to learn how to: make Waldorf style dolls and lovies, paper cutting, fabric screen printing, crochet rag rugs, crochet an afghan using more than a single or double stitch. I'd also like to learn how to basic book binding.

I would really love to learn how to make sushi.

You include something for my 8 year old son. Little stickers or any little something you think a boy would like. Even interesting canceled stamps are cool esp. if they are from a non-US country. Novelty erasers and pencils are a big hit around here. Bookmarks are pretty cool too. He also collects coins from around the world, and if you threw a very small coin in there it would make his week.

I dislike honey, chicory coffee, decaf coffee, green apple and sour apple flavor and artificial watermelon flavor. My son dislikes artificial orange flavor. I'm not crazy about white chocolate, but will eat it when desperate. :-)