papercaper

Who's been an eager puppy and taken on too many swaps at once? Not me! OK, me. I apologise for my lateness with a few. My excuse isn't enough, I know, but I've really had such a terrible month - life going 'wrong' all over the place - but everything's good again and almost all my swaps are in the mail. :)

I really just wanted to thank my partners - the ones I've contacted and the ones I haven't - for being so patient. And I wanted to ask you to be just a little bit more so because these are coming from Australia. The post office usually says Air Mail takes 7-10 working days to reach the US, but even they can't say for sure.

I've been enjoying doing these swaps so much and have had most of them near completion for days; some for more than a week. But then I dropped the bundle right at the point of enveloping and addressing the finished ones. And finishing off the almost-there ones. Slack.

Btw, there is one swap of mine that looks "Unsent" but it says the same for everyone. It was an atypical swap that had no partners, but I did indeed send a sick little boy a Christmas card (and lots of stickers)....

15/11/09

OK, I'm really making headway catching up, and I'm having so much fun doing it. I'm trying not to do a rush-job because you can't get any fun anticipating late mail that then turns out to be crap! If you're expecting a parcel from me, I'm hoping it won't be very late from now on, except for the Frugal Recipes one which is going to be late-late, unfortunately.

(08/11/09)

I'M RUNNING A BIT BEHIND .... getting some of my swaps out on time. Life has been more hectic lately than I realised and my Swap-Bot notebook isn't yet the perfect system. Please rest assured that I WILL NOT FLAKE .... so if you haven't received something you're expecting from me, it's either still coming (allow up to ten days Air Mail from Oz) or it's in your letterbox right now. Really. Go and check!

Australian through and through. And an internationalist.

Paper. Stone. Swimming. Books. Wood. Zakka. Typewriters. Flowers growing right out of the ground. Lists. Piano. Cats. Dogs. Numbats. Colour. Writing. Art. Books. Animal welfare. Gardening. Paper. TV (non-commercial). Peace and quiet. My dog wagging his tail. Music. Letters on paper. Paper. Envelope art. Clay. Independent comics. Rescuing things. Animals and plants esp. Non-sharpened pencils. Sharpening pencils. Paper. Lifestyle choice. Cotton. Wrapping presents.

Where do I begin?

• Punk!
• Powerpop!
• Folk music! But only good folk music!
• AM-radio Golden Oldies!

There.

Also:

• Musicals! Broadway!
• '50s music! Most types!
• Traditional Japanese! Koto? Yes!
• Classical! But not all!
• C&W! But not most!
• Alt-country! So-called! Some!
• The right HM at the right time! And that's rare!
• The purest pop!
• Delta Blues!

Occasionally even:

• Bush Ballads? . . .

Sketching, painting, screenprinting, woodcut printing, whittling sticks, very spare + minimal collage, typography, comics, lo-fi zines, tapestry, cross-stitch on occasion, jewellery making, mosaic, photography, sticking paper things to other paper things, handmade envelopes, decorating snail mail.... just about everything except scrapbooking. I really don't like the present-day hobby that is scrapbooking. (Now, Victorian scrapbooking - that's another issue.)

Crafts I want to learn include: woodworking/carpentry/joinery, etching, pottery (we were given my mum's potting wheel today!), silversmithing, stone masonry. Many more too. One craft I can't ever remember how to do is knitting. I find it tedious but I'm sure it's not once you get good. I'd also quite like to crochet but suspect I'd be well over it before I finished my first piece. Oh, patchwork quilting - can't forget that. I love cotton fabrics with beautiful, fine printing on them. Never finished a quilt yet, but I started a Millennium Quilt (Grandmother's Flower Garden with hexagons ambitiously small) during the change in millennium.

Gardening Australia -- The Daily Show -- Australian + World News -- Collectors -- Australian Story -- Media Watch -- Can We Help? -- Rage -- The Colbert Report -- Chelsea Lately -- RocKwiz -- Late Night with Jimmy Fallon -- Fame -- The Brady Bunch -- Skippy (The Bush Kangaroo) -- Summer Heights High -- We Can Be Heroes -- Lano and Woodley -- The Sarah Silverman Program -- Q & A -- The Graham Norton Show -- QI -- Four Corners -- The Soup

This is just a list of all possible ideas I can think of, and it's long so get comfortable!

Piano sheet music.....Stickers.....Old stationery/office stock.....Paper ephemera.....Books (any).....Handmade envelopes.....Hand-drawn comics (Even if you 'can't draw'. Especially if you can't draw. Less rigid = more charming.).....Seeds for planting (but check with customs/post office first if sending from outside Australia.).....Air Mail paper + postal ephemera (Loose paper or envelopes with aeroplanes on them, or diagonal blue/red stripes).....Air Mail stamps from your country (paper stickers or rubber stamps).....Deco tape.....100% cotton fabric (or a natural blend).....Pastel colours.....vintage..... zakka.....A penpal who might like to enjoy writing via snail mail. (Is this you?.....Stationery + Writing paper.....Rubber stamps (failing that, then even inked impressions of them on paper).....Ribbon + embroidered trim.....Christmas tree ornaments.....Christmas gift tags, esp. forgotten older ones.....Found shopping lists (I'm the bozo searching empty shopping trolleys in the carpark 'cos I collect Shopping Lists).....