kari

My name is Kari and I live in Waukesha, Wisconsin with my husband, 11 year old son Jamie, 4 year old daughter Katie and two cats. I am a SAHM, and love being home with my kids! We enjoy many outdoor activities, and love to have fun! It's finally summer here in Wisconsin, and we are enjoying all sorts of fun, outdoor activities!

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! I am a quintessential bookworm - there are books everywhere in our home.

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. When I get a little blue, I read "Little Women" to perk me back up - I love that book so much! One of my all time favorite books is "Sirens of Titan" by Kurt Vonnegut.

I fell in love with NC Wyeth's works as a child since my copy of Treasure Island and Robin Hood had his art on the cover. I'm an equal opportunity Wyeth lover and enjoy Andrew's work as well. I also love John Waterhouse and Jessie Wilcox Smith. Their works make my heart sing!

I love to knit, sew and do hand embroidery. I also draw and paint, but really haven't done more than sketches and doodles since painting and toddlers just don't mix well.

I really love sew! I remember being about 6 or 7 and being totally in love with those cutsey little girl basic sewing machines that you'd see in the JC Penny's catalog. Santa never brought me one for Christmas, but it did spark a deep interest in the needle arts for me.

My Mom taught me the most rudimentary sewing skills and I enjoyed the sewing unit in home economics in junior high school. Then I didn't touch a sewing machine for almost 20 years, but started doing little sewing projects, and have graduated to clothing, quilts and other sewn crafts.

I have a pretty eclectic taste in things, and love so many different styles. I like modern, but really enjoy vintage things.

Colors:
I like all colors, but really like:

• blue-greens
• lime greeney
• turquoise
• aqua
• raspberry/chocolate combination
• turquoise and chocolate combination
• aqua, white and cherry red combination
• orange and pink combination

I prefer bold colors over washed out pastels. I’m pretty easy to please color wise. That being said, I don't enjoy for the color purple.

Themes:

• mushrooms/woodland
• vintage
• Foxes, hedgehogs, frogs, cupcakes, lady bugs, cutsey, Japanese juvenile prints

I love fabric from the fancy quilting stores; Moda fabrics make my heart go pitter-pat! I really like the reproduction 1930's fabrics, retro, fun and funky patterns. I like polka-dots quite a bit too. I like rick-rack, patterned bias tapes and fun print grosgrain ribbon.

I love my coffee high-octane (French or Italian Roast) and my chocolate milk or semi-darkish. (But not too dark.) I love to try new and different candy and foods from around the world!

I love to try new spices and spice blends from around the world, but I don't care for super-hot spices. A little heat is fine, just not melt your tongue and sinuses hot! Hooo-boy!

I really enjoy receiving recipes - local favorites, your family's favorite, tried-and-true comfort food, exotic - I love to try new things!

• Any color embroidery floss, or embroidery accessories.
• Patterned grosgrain ribbon in 5/8 inch, 7/8 inch or 1 inch width.
• I collect cookie cutters, so any unusual or interesting non-run of the mill cutters would be wonderful!
• Reusable shopping totes - I really like the kind that fold into themselves to make a little pouch.
• FQ's in modern style fabric like Michael Miller, Amy Butler, Sandy Gervais or the Moda Lines, Joel Dewberry, Robert Kaufman
• Mix CD that you made. I like just about any music style except for rap and hip-hop. My heart belongs to 80's music, folksy type music like Michelle Shocked, Iris DeMent and Elizabeth Mitchell and bluegrass. I also love Irish music.
• Yarn - any color, weight or fiber as long as it is a natural fiber. (Wool, cotton, linen, soy, hemp, bamboo, silk, alpaca or cashmere blends.)
• Knitting stitch markers - store bought or made by you!
• Blank note cards
• Blank recipe cards
• Recipe card with your favorite recipe
• Anything handmade by you! :-)

• I love all forms of marzipan
• German oblaten lebkuchen (I prefer the sugar glaze over the chocolate covered.)
• Anything hazelnut
• French or Italian roast coffee please (I like dark roasted, oily beans)
• Something local to you
• Something savory
• Interesting flavors of mustard - I love mustard.
• We eat popcorn almost every day. I love interesting flavors like lime, salt and cracked black pepper or local favorites.
• Something typical for where you live
• Your favorite food/drink
• Your kids' favorite snack
• YOUR favorite snack :-)
• KinderSurprise, Bueno, Hippo or Maxi - YUM!
• Candy - we aren't too picky around here - we'd love to try any kind!
• Wafer cookies
• Dry dip and soup mixes
• Sending anything that I can't get here in Wisconsin will totally make my day!

Here's a little information about my kids - they love getting Swap-Bot mail!

Things my 11 year old son James (Jamie) would enjoy:

• baseball or football cards - especially Milwaukee Brewers and Green Bay Packers
• He loves the Beatles (as in the band) pin back pins, book marks, printed art, mix CD's, things inspired by the Beatles.
• He collects stamps
• His favorite color is blue
• Harribo gummies
• bubble gum
• he likes any candy except black licorice
• cool pens/pencils or novelty erasers
• mechanical pencils
• Hot rod type car or motorcycle magazines
• Inexpensive art kits
• Things about nature and the natural sciences
• Guinness Book of World Record type factoid stuff
• he has just gotten into making models, so anything to do with or a model (car, plane, motorcycle etc.) would truly make his day!

Things my 4 year old daughter Katie would enjoy:

• She loves cute alligator things
• Hair accessories: clips, ties, headbands etc. any color/print or theme.
• Any kind of washable art supply
• inexpensive art kits
• Mini notebooks
• Fun socks like the ones in the dollar bin @ Target. Her shoe size is child size 10/11 (4T-6)
• coloring books
• She likes all colors.
• Anything Hello Kitty, Disney Faries, or Princes Tianna (from Disney's Princes and the Frog)
• My Little Pony (any kind - she's not picky)
• Stickers, on sheets. (die cut stickers are frustrating for little fingers.)
• Care Bears
• Any kind of candy - she's not picky
• Doll clothes for a 12-13 inch baby doll
• She's pretty girly, and not picky, so if it screams girl, she's all in.

• honey
• chicory coffee
• decaf coffee
• flavored coffee
• Vegemite or Marmite. I have both in my pantry already!
• artificial green apple/sour apple and watermelon flavor
• Anything melon or cucumber scented.
• Anything Bratz Dolls, Disney, Marvel Comic or other character items unless specified please.
• lotions and bath products unless it is a swap for that type of thing
• anything strongly scented - especially floral (rose, gardenia, jasmine) and cigarette smoke. It gives me headaches and makes my stomach hurt- thank you for understanding!
• acrylic, acrylic blend or nylon yarns. Ouch! It hurts my fingers.
• I don't scrapbook, so any kind of scrapbooking supplies would go to waste at my house. (This includes papers, die cut shapes, brads, phrase stickers etc.) I appreciate the thought, but I'd rather have you save them for someone that really enjoys scrapbooking. :-)

My son is fluent in German, and I am always on the look out for age appropriate books and magazines in German. Do you have access to books or DVDs in German and want to swap for some? PM me!