krissi

It happens even to the best of us. I was down for the count for a month, and it's taking me longer than I anticipated to catch up on my swaps. HOWEVER, IT IS HAPPENING!

I beg your pardon, patience and understanding. For my part, I've dropped swaps where partners have not yet been assigned, and will not sign up for new ones until I catch up. Before rating me, please contact me via e-mail.

BIG NEWS!!! My Skelekitty character is about to become immortalized in rubber (stamps, that is)! Coming in early October - subscribe to Skelekitty's blog and be notified when they're available.

I was raised by a pack of wild attorneys and a large console color television in California's San Francisco Bay Area of the 1970's.

Following college, I moved to San Francisco's Mission District (the Latin 'hood) where I masqueraded as a conservative legal secretary during the day and consumed copious amounts of sangria in the evenings while learning Spanglish at the local mercados & tiendas.

I currently live in Folsom, CA (yes - the town with the Prison) and spend my days caring for our seven adopted/rescued critters and making less than typical art quilts.

(p.s. While I LOVE Mexican religious ephemera, I'm not a Christian. Shhhh! Don't tell anyone!)

My favorite color is "vibrant." I love anything Latin or Indian/Moroccan looking and love deep shades of red, blue, purple, lime, terracotta, turquoise and magenta/pink. Put them ALL on the same project and I'm as happy as a clam!

I'm excited to see what you send!

Weird & wonderful stuff, beading supplies, Latin "flavored" goodies: little "milagros," ANYTHING Dia de los Muertos or Loteria, fabrics (silks, saris, hand-dyes, batiks, oilcloth and unusual skully or mexicana prints!), glitter, pop-art, retro kitty cats, naughty '50s housewife stuff, etc.

I've started collecting amusing and unusual playing cards (naughty, glow-in-the-dark, personalities, weird) for use in my ATCs.

I love weird ephemera (y'know, anything that's NOT your "normal" stuff).

Photographs of weird roadside stuff or signs that crack me up.

The "F" bomb. I drop it all the time.

Nature. I mean REAL nature, in all of its natural messiness.

People who use punctuation & grammar properly (and who are at least passingly familiar with the spell-check feature on their computer).

I put this together for the "Dark Hearted" group & figured I might as well add it to the ol' profile too:

• Graveyards -- old ones
• Dragons -- I have a huge collection (western only, not asian/eastern)
• 1980's industrial / goth / darkwave and the like
• Stephen King
• Tarot cards - any and all designs
• great suspense films (Hitchcock, etc.)
• Edward Gorey
• Tim Burton
• scary (read: "unedited") fairy tales
• Dia de los Muertos, skulls & skeletons
• funny or REALLY bad zombie (or monster) movies
• Bob Wilkins & Creature Features / Mr. Lobo & Cinema Insomnia (this is an Oakland/Sacramento reference)
• Bats, crows, ravens, owls (not the cutesy kind) and wolves
• true crime stories
• X Files & conspiracy theories
• haunted houses
• wicca, modern witchcraft & paganism (is that creepy?)
• anything that's traditionally taboo with a humorous twist (the "wronger" the better)

OK, let's offset that long-ass list of creepy stuff with some of my favorite cute things:

• pink of all shades
• kitty cats (especially retro 50's)
• Dia de los Muertos (I think it belongs on both lists)
• Disco and 70's schmaltz pop
• glitter!
• kitsch and over-the-top tacky
• baby animals
• J.K. Rowling & Harry Potter
• lolcats site
• cupcakes!
• stuff made by Kepi Ghoulie (tees/art) or Suzi Boneshaker
• loteria cards
• fun handmade jewelry
• general silliness
• NOT NOT NOT anything kawaii or Japanese-cutesy.

I was a literature major in college and LOVE to read! I'm a bookworm.

I enjoy writers from the American South, England and Ireland. I love writers from Mexico and China who incorporate the surreal and magical into their stories. Right now I'm working on reading everything I can get my paws on by Alice Hoffman - I'll be sad the day I hit that goal!

My somewhat guilty pleasures include Stephen King (don't you scoff - he's a master of the language), J.K. Rowling and Alice Hoffman. (As much as I enjoyed her first book, I think Anne Rice is a terrible writer -- blech.)

I'm a self-described "retired punk" (the post-punk/dark-wave version of an aging hippie!). My pal Kepi says I need a tee shirt that says "RETIRED PUNK" (but with the "RE" lined out) since I don't mosh anymore, but still rock out at home. My music collection is vast (I was a dj in college) and varied:

Sisters of Mercy, The Damned, The Cure, The Mission (UK), The Ramones, DEVO, The Groovie Ghoulies, X, yhe 'outlaws' of Honky Tonk: Hank, Waylon, Merle and Willie, The Dollyrots, Bauhaus, Foo Fighters (I ♥ Dave Grohl, sigh), The Talking Heads, Iggy Pop, Alice in Chains, Harry Belafonte, Patsy Cline, Tool, A Perfect Circle...

I also love traditional Latin music, especially anything in the rumba flamenco (gypsy flamenco) style!

The Venture Brothers, Mad Men, Doctor Who, LOST, almost anything on the Discovery or History channels, DIY Channel (if I could get it).

Please DON'T SEND ME ANYTHING WITH ANY KIND OF SCENT. I'm chemically sensitive and become queasy, headachey & asthmatic around ALL perfumes, lotions, laundry detergents & fabric softeners unless they are marked "scent-free."

This fucks* with my life on a regular basis. You see, it's not that I "don't like" your flowers & scented stuff, I just can't breathe is all -- I like to breathe.

I warned ya about the F-bomb...

Stuff that just doesn't get me hot and bothered:

Anything scented (see above)

Disney (except Nightmare Before Xmas)

kawaii & cutesy Japanesey stuff (but I love bento boxes)

Country craft (style or colors)

Red, White & Blue and/or "patriotic" stuff (unless it's Rosie the Riveter or something kitschy)

Anything even close to looking like 'precious moments' stuff (ick).

I have a real love for animals! I live with cats (three), parrots (2 macaws), a snake and a CA desert tortoise. I love cougars, wolves, otters, tigers and badgers (I volunteered at a wildlife sanctuary for several years).