lilspotteddog

I am a reader, a friend, and mother, a step-mother, a daughter, a sister, a wife, and a teacher. I am a pet lover, an artist, and a junk collector. I love paper dolls, ATC's paper arts, and cooking. I am Virgo, and love plastic storage containers! I battle my Virgo sense of order all the time and try to keep order, but am a slob, too. Fall is my favorite time of year, and my favorite color is coral pink.

I love Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Elvis, Roy Orbison, and Queen.

Some of my favorite books are The Time Traveler's Wife, The Lovely Bones, The BFG, The Good Earth, The Secret Life of Bees, and about a million others! LOOOVE to read. As a matter of fact, I teach reading and language arts to fifth graders, and my license plates are: ILV2RD.

My Little Spotted Dogs!!! I have two miniature dappled dachshunds, a boy and a girl, litter mates. Fritz, my male, is black and silver dapple, and Freda, his sister, is chocolate and brown dapple. They are so sweet.

I have dabbled in many different arenas in the art and crafting world throughout my life. I love to draw, and contemplated becoming an art teacher before I became a reading teacher. I love to sew and have made many, many pieces of clothing through the years. Most recently, I made my oldest granddaughter's home-coming dress. I dabble in stained glass, altered books, bookmaking, scrapbooking, and many other paper arts. I love making dolls, particularly paper dolls, and have a collection of ATC's. I have a huge stash of antique buttons and jet trims, and more fabric than I will ever use in my lifetime. I love tiny little things, and love to use miniature dolls in my artwork. My work has been published in a couple of magazines and in a book. I recently won the casserole category in a local cookoff.

I love, love, love, metal embellishments, particularly old insects and filigree work. I have tons of these, also. I would love to trade for anything antique.

I make jewelry and like glass and real stone beads. I want to learn wire working.

I like many different fruits and veggies. I particularly like avocados and tomatoes. I love blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries. I recently converted from caffeinated beverages to decaf coffe, although so far I have only tried Folger's decaf because I am a coffee snob. I hate Maxwell house coffee. I stopped drinking diet Coke , too, because I am getting ready to have bariatric surgery. Therefore, I would not like to receive any kind of candy or food treats since I will be on a very restricted diet from now on. I do like the Hawaiian Punch sugar-free singles.

I like home fragrances in the vanilla, orange, and mulberry, or "green scents. I also like a scent that smells like grapes. By green I mean fresh scents. Not too musky or spicy.

Just some info about sizes in different things. I am average height, 5'6". I have lost 70 lbs. over the past few months b/c I had bariatric sugery on March 30. I have big feet and hands. I wear a size ten shoe. I wear an eight inch bracelet, and I don't like choker style necklaces. I prefer long necklaces. I have pierced ears and prefer dangly earrings over studs. I don't have an ankle bracelet but my ankle is about 9-1/2". I don't have any toe rings. I wear a size 9 ring (for now). I thought I should include this info because I have gotten in several jewelry swaps lately.