littlepinkflamingo4

I am a mother of 2 young adults, a boy and a girl, so I feel incredibly lucky. I live in Melbourne's green wedge, so we have an abundance of lovely birdlife around us. I adore my garden and have white orchids, bonsais, roses, and many espaliered and miniature (grafted) fruit trees as well as seasonal vegetables. I studied finished art and worked in the advertsing and printing industry which I loved, but after children I didn't return to those hectic hours and print deadlines. I now work in the optical industry, which is very interesting.

I joined Swapbot to mainly swap Atcs, which I collect and frame. I love miniature things, they just seem so gorgeous. I am definitey a quality over quantity person, especially with ATCs. They are called artist trading cards, not craft trading cards and so should contain a large artistic component, I think some people forget or don't realise what they really are. I love original artwork with a leaning toward graphic and abstract and also children's art. I love drawing, painting, sewing, embroidery, mixed media, lino printing, mandalas, knitting and have just learnt encaustic painting. I am a very tactile person, so I love encaustic, the buffed wax feels like velvet. I love velvet, silk, linen and barkcloth. I also love rayon seam binding (can't get it here), keys, millinery, tiny tins (would love small altoids tins as we don't have them in Australia). I'm collecting treasures for a curiosity cabinet, I have made Tim Holtz's configuration box. It looks amazing and is filled with treasures from swaps. I love tiny bottles, jars, vials and test tubes as I love to fill them with interesting things and make little curiosity bottles. I'm a patina type of person, I prefer when things have aged and have a lovely worn look to them, like the little grey spots on old mirrors and copper that is partly green and wood worn smooth from use. I love Tim Holtz products and his grungey style. I love jewellery, industrial chic style. I often make charms and jewellery from vintage toys and tokens, semi precious stones, beach glass, coral, old keys etc. I love black or gunmetal the most, with tiny bits of silver, copper or gold. I have pierced ears and wear medium length drops, size M in a ring, M (sz.14) in clothing, and my wrist is exactly 16cms. My favourite colors are red and teal, black and cream. Not a pastel or fluro lover. My favorite animals are flamingoes, owls, swans, peacocks, seahorses and woodland animals. I love mushrooms and acorns too. I love French things, bluebirds and cherries. I love biscornus. Vintage empherema, I just love this and am always happy to trade, I currently have a large collection of pharmecutical labels. I also love vintage gumball, crackerjack and cereal toys, good luck charms and vintage plastic charms.

I also love Alice in Wonderland (not Disney version), Tim Burton, robots, art dolls, monster dolls and frozen charlottes, Frida Kahlo and my favourite flowers are peonies and cherry blossom and last but not least I love retro, steampunk and Putz houses.

Things I'm not so fond of: Stickers, polmer clay, kawaii, sequins, glitter (although I love mica), bling stuck all over something. Things I don't need: scrapbooking supplies of any kind (although I love Tim Holtz's style I don't scrapbook), felt, foam sheet, snippetts of paper or ribbon (have way too many already).