kari

My name is Kari and I live in Milwaukee Wisconsin with my husband, 9 year old son Jamie, 2 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!

Autumn is here and it is my favorite time of year!

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 sew - I am constantly working on one project or another. I also knit, draw and paint. I have dabbled in decorative wood burning, and hope to do some on some bird house gourds I have curing.

I have been doing some quilting in the last few years, but find it hard to really take on huge projects like that with young kids and not having a dedicated room to quilt in. (I use the dining room table and the pain to take things down and put away all the time is such a pain!

My main two passions are sewing and knitting. This fall/winter I am determined to knit some wearable socks! And hats and mitten sets for my kids for Christmas. I'd better get cracking!

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

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, I like 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, fun or vintage buttons, fun and funky trims (print bias tape, rick rack etc.), fun print ribbon.

I love my coffee high-octane and my chocolate milk or semi-darkish. (But not too dark.) I love to try new and different candy from around the world! I love the soft juju candy very much.

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 would dearly love any Iron on transfers for embroidering flour sack towels. Kitchen, fruit and veggie, and the vintage kitchen images from Aunt Martha, or any patterns from Sublime Stitching would be AWESOME!!
• I collect cookie cutters, so any unusual or interesting non-run of the mill cutters would be wonderful!
• FQ's in modern style fabric like Michael Miller, Amy Butler, Sandy Gervais or the Moda Lines, Joel Dewberry
• FQ's in vintage 1920's and 1930's style prints
• Vintage pot-holders or vintage kitchen hand towels. I love the vintage look
• Patterned bias tape - it's surprisingly hard to find!
• 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, especially The Chieftains.
• Anne Taintor anything
• Vintage cook-books or local cook books to where you live. I love seeing/making what other folks love in different areas of the US and world!
• Any kind of holiday themed ribbon. Any size or colors. I love fun ribbon.
• Yarn - any color, weight or fiber as long as it is a natural fiber. Ie: 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
• Anything handmade by you! :-)

• Anything Marzipan
• Revolution brand Earl Gray Lavender tea (or any other lavender, lavender/bergamot tea)
• Anything hazelnut
• Something local to you
• Something savory
• Something typical for where you live
• Your favorite food/drink
• Your kids' favorite snack
• YOUR favorite snack :-)
• I really like biscotti
• KinderSurprise, Bueno or Maxi - YUM!
• Candy - we aren't too picky around here - we'd love to try any kind!
• Dry dip and soup mixes
• Sending anything that I can't get here in Wisconsin will make my day!

Here's a little information about my children in case you'd like to include a little something for them. My 9 year-old thinks Swap-Bot is the coolest thing!

Things my 9 year old son James (Jamie) would enjoy:

• baseball or football cards - especially Milwaukee Brewers and Green Bay Packers
• legos
• WEBKINZ!
• the color blue
• he loves KinderSurprise Eggs
• bubble gum
• just about any candy except black licorice
• cool pens/pencils or novelty erasers
• fun kids mechanical pencils
• mini notebooks
• insects
• Garfield
• Coins from around the world

Things my 2 year old daughter Katie would enjoy:

• Hair accessories: clippies, ties etc. - but think small - she's only 2 years old!
• One of those Mini soft strawberry shortcake doll.
• coloring books
• She likes all colors.
• Little girl purse, handbag.
• She really likes fire engines and police cars.
• Anything Hello Kitty
• My Little Pony Ponyville (The mini ones)
• Girl design band-aids (she thinks they are a fashion accessory)
• Stickers
• Play jewelry - gently used would be fine. I would prefer wood, but plastic would be great too.
• Anything Wow Wow Wubbzy or Wonder Pets

• honey
• anything Bratz Dolls
• chicory coffee
• decaf coffee
• Anything melon cucumber scented.
• artificial green apple/sour apple flavor
• I can't stand artificial watermelon flavor/scent, however my son loves it!
• My son intensely dislikes artificial orange flavoring
• white chocolate (unless it is covering something yum like marzipan or hazelnut fillings, then yes please!)
• lotions and bath products unless it is a swap for that type of thing
• anything strongly scented - especially floral and smoke. It gives me headaches - thank you for understanding!
• gardenia scented anything

My son attends a German Immersion school and I am always on the look out for kids books and magazines in German. Do you have access to books or DVDs in German and want to swap for some? PM me!