Updated November 5, 2019

I love the woods and mountains and the ocean. I live in Minnesota (I'm not from here) and winter is too long. My spouse is a professor and busy with research so I'm often finding adventure on my own. I don't have children 😢 and dote on my nieces and nephews.

My kitchen is my craft room and cooking and baking are my crafts. Someone said I'm fearless in the kitchen and that's true: I enjoy trying new recipes of all sorts.

I love to travel. I am fortunate to have had opportunities to travel to many parts of the world. I lived in France 🇫🇷 and worked and lived in India 🇮🇳 and Israel 🇮🇱. When I'm away from home, I try new foods, explore markets, and meet local people as well as seeing museums and UNESCO sites. With Airbnb accommodations I go on and beyond the usual tourist haunts.

• 2019: a road trip east to visit family and friends. Cape Cod; Boston; Rye, NY where I went sailing and cruising down the East River to New York Bay to watch sailboat races; New York City where I saw the revival of Oklahoma! and the Whitney Biennial; New Jersey; Philadelphia where I visited the Brandywine River Museum; Bluefield, VA; and Front Royal, VA. My route from Bluefield to Front Royal included Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park.
• 2018: National parks. I've seen more of the world than the US. UNESCO sites Chaco Canyon, Grand Canyon, Mammoth Cave, Monticello and UVA. Hoover Dam, Bryce, Arches, Voyageurs. Madison's home Montpelier. Chicago, Dallas, Boston, Cape Cod, DE, NY, NJ to visit family and friends. In all, I visited 29 states this year.
• 2017: Chicago, and Madison and Stevens Point, WI to help my in-laws. Boston, Cape Cod, New York and Morristown, NJ to meet Pattie in person.
• 2016: Dallas and Houston; Boston, Cape Cod, and New York City; Chicago
• 2015: a road trip to Texas and back with a stop to see sights in KC, MO
• 2014: Travels with my niece: Prague, Czech Republic; Weiden in der Oberpfalz, Munich and Berlin, Germany
• 2013: New York, Toronto, Chicago, Thanksgiving in Texas
• and Canada; China; France; Germany; Japan; Korea; London (with a side trip to Bath and Stonehenge); Madrid and Salamanca, Spain; Switzerland, ...
• Where I want to go: Somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere and Yellowstone

I read (mostly fiction by women) and work outside in our well-shaded garden. Alas, shade means lovely spring flowers and no vegetables. I watch films and TV programs on Netflix and Amazon.

My postcrossing profile

I swap for blank postcards in envelopes. Ages ago I sent someone a postcard they'd sent me and my partner wasn't happy. Now I set aside postcards I receive via Swap-bot and send them to family, friends and Postcrossers. Please consider this strategy because postcards that pass through several swaps become a little worn and soft. (This request doesn't include vintage postcards.) I don't mind gently bent corners; I lop them off with a corner rounder.

• Airplanes, rockets and lighter-than-air aircraft. I took flying lessons so I could fly airships. I wasn't sure how I'd raise enough money to buy an airship. Because you can't rent one. Unless someone gave me a job flying one. Except I need to log many hours flying an airship to get a job.
• Gnomes, fairies and elves
• Joseph Cornell boxes
• Maps
• Modern art like abstract expressionism & Louise Nevelson
• Royal Mail postage stamp postcards

No thank you: Postcards to color, postcards for Christian holidays and legends, and Zazzle postcards won't get hearts from me. Most others will.

My favorite kawaii has a face. I 💖 food with faces and anchovies with legs and animals in an unlikely milieu like cats serving at Starbucks. I don't care for poo and dogs' rear ends.

I am an appreciator of kawaii more than a collector. I use sheets from kawaii letter sets and memo pads for lists and notes around the house as well as the letters I send. I use lots of washi tape too. I collect sticker sheets, especially ones that tell a story. They are a little collection I tuck away.

I enjoy most characters, especially San-X. My favorite characters now are Corocoro Coronya, Gudetama lazy (or depressed or fatigued?) egg yolk, Kogepan Burnt Bread, Sentimental Circus and Sumikko Gurashi.

I'm looking for kawaii books with faces. And puffins. How could all the kawaii artists have never thought to draw puffins?

The loose sticker flakes I receive go into a bowl on my desk. I decorate outgoing envelopes with these stickers; the sticker flakes you send me may head back to you. I use bone or teflon folders to rub sticker flakes flat on envelopes and postcards so they travel safely in the mail.

• A personal note or letter
• Blank postcards, new or vintage, to send
• Cookbooks, new and used, though not for bacon (I'm Jewish)
• Facial sheet masks of all flavors
• Handmade envelopes, A4 or A6, large enough for postcards
• Kitchen towels, especially terrycloth because my spouse is our dishwasher
• Magnetic bookmarks
• Cloth napkins. See Life Without Plastic below. I'm building a one-of-a-kind pile so that I don't confuse my spouse when I use them for several meals.
• National parks: your suggestions of what to see and what to skip
• New notecards and envelopes
• Personalized swap cards printed on address labels

• Christian items and comments: I'm Jewish
• Christmas and Easter stuff: I'm Jewish
• Coffee and coffee gadgets
• Confetti and glitter (unless the swap says to)
• Disney
• Dollar store/dollar bin items
• Don't offload ugly kawaii
• DVDs and CDs: we stream everything
• Food and candy: we keep kosher
• Hello Kitty that's not Hello Kitty Original
• Kawaii pictures of poo and dogs' rear ends
• Magnets (our refrigerator is stainless steel)
• Postcards and sheets to color: I don't
• Rubber stamps (I have plenty)
• Stickers that are not kawaii
• Tatty or tacky (exception for over-the-top tacky)
• Ugly. If you think it's ugly, I probably will too.
• Washi or deco tape samples (I have lots)
• X-rated items
• zazzle postcards (no hearts, sorry)

I throw away too much plastic. This is a list of plastic that I receive in swaps and would like to avoid.

• Metallic, iridescent or holographic plastic bows, glitter, shreds, and wrapping tissue.
• Plastic ziplock bags, especially tiny ones. I can't open the tiny ones so I cut off the top to open them and throw them out.
• Deco tape and plastic shipping tape. I'm using up what I have on hand and won't buy more.
• Bubble wrap padded envelopes. I try to reuse these.

What to use:

• Paper bows, shreds, and wrapping paper.
• Furoshiki: Japanese wrapping cloth, made from any piece of cloth. Google how to wrap Furoshiki for directions. Reuse the furoshiki you receive to wrap another swap or a present, or for your next quilt.
• Reuse small envelopes and packing materials, bags, boxes and bubble mailing envelopes. Many people reuse the cellophane wrapper from stickers sacks. Pattie reuses small envelopes from bag swaps when she's the Send it home to....
• Reuse Ziplock bags.
• Using a nice piece of paper, fold it around tiny kawaii to make an informal envelope and seal it with washi tape. Or fold it the same way you'd fold parchment paper around fish to bake it.
• Paper tape. We all love washi tape. Kraft paper shipping tape is widely available now. U-Haul sells self-sticking paper tape.
• Use 100% recycled padded mailers or reuse plastic bubble mailers. In fact, reuse any padded mailer to ship a swap.