rattissia

A little note first, if I ever happen to send you the same thing twice (postcard, smashed penny, etc) please let me know and I'll send you another item to replace the duplicate.

I'm a happily divorced mother who works, goes to school (I'm majoring in mathematics education) and is starting a small business adventure with my handmade jewelry, lip balms, soaps, etc :)

I have two little girls. They are 10 and 7. Phew! Youngest just had her 7th birthday in May (2011). My oldest just turned 10! (August 2011) Wow! I dont feel old enough to have a 10 year old! :)

My oldest, Alyssa, likes all animals but her favorite are owls. She also loves red and purple. She likes to read and do math worksheets since she says she wants to be like me. (which I think is just as cute as can be! :)

My youngest, Maddy, also likes all animals but loves Giraffes! She likes pink and orange. She also likes to work on math and reading.

Both of my girls like paper punches, drawing, painting, coloring, stamping, etc :) They like to do crafts of all kinds to try new things. They LOVE! stickers as well :)

My favorite colors are black, red and purple. I love to travel and have been traveling for all of my life (got my first passport at 2 weeks old). I love all the different languages and cultures.

My favorite city in the world is New York City. After that it'd have to be a toss up between Jerusalem and Tokyo.

I love art but am terrible with a pencil and brushes. That's why I craft (look below).

I dont know how practical it is with a swap but I love nail polish! I have over 40 different colors right now.

I have a bad allergic reaction to petrolalum (aka petroleum) in lip care products. It makes my lips swell up like I've had botox then they peal for 2 weeks. Since noticing this reaction I've read up about it and found out that it's also found to be a carcinogen for breast cancer! Please do not send me anything with it in it. Breast cancer runs in my family as it is. I am also allergic to mineral oil as it's a by-product of petroleum production.

I also don't have my ears pierced anymore since I had an allergy to some of the metals and got keloids from it.

I am big into education. I love learning just about everything I can. My favorite two subjects are mathematics and science. I wanted to be a surgeon for the ER ever since I was about 9. When I got pregnant with my first child I decided that wasn't very practical though. I didn't want to miss any of her important moments due to being on call. I decided to go into mathematics instead. I figured that if I got a degree in mathematics education that it'd be almost a guarantee for job security. I figured between the teacher license and the math degree that I could be marketable in any economy in the world. Gave me a good feeling of liberation to be able to know I wouldn't be restricted to certain areas if I wanted to move at some point. :)

I pretty much like anything that's not country or religious. My favorite type of music at the moment is industrial.

However, in a typical week I'll switch around between industrial, techno, house, gothic, metal, new age, classical, r&b, dance, etc....

I like historical based fiction. My favorite book of all time is The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. I like a lot of her books. She's an excellent writer.

I like many other books but lately all I've had time to read is my Physics and Linear Algebra textbooks. Exciting! I know..lol.

I like comedies, action, horror and documentaries. I have to be in the right mood for romance movies.

My favorite movie of all time is Real Genius. Full of lots of sarcastic humor. I adore it!

Boy, where to start....

I have done many, many crafts. There are few crafts that I don't enjoy. At the moment my favorite crafts are name painting (aka leather painting), making jewelry, lanyards, all natural lip balms (I can make over 30 flavors!), and handmade soaps. If you want to get an idea of crafts I like you can take a peak at my website-http://www.handmadeheaven.info Please note the website is under construction at the moment where it's new. I have added a few new things on there though.

I think Amigurumi are SUPER cute! I'd love to get some at some point :) I have started doing some very basic ones. Here is a picture of some of my monster amigurumi :)

I love holidays! I love celebrating elements of our past in fun ways. Being able to teach my children about something significant in history tied to a fun activity is great!

My favorite holiday is Halloween. I love the tolerance that it teaches. It's a day that everyone is encouraged to let loose and have fun with who they feel they want act as. It's a great creativity opportunity. Also gives a chance to teach about old superstitions and different ways of cultures and how people evolve in practices. Plus I love trick-or-treating! Even if it's not me getting the candy now (Shh-I do raid the kids candy still sometimes... lol) I also love the decor with Halloween. Call me weird but I think bats are adorable! Sooo cute!! Halloween items are welcome any time of the year! I don't care if its St Patricks day. Shoot me a Halloween card and I'm happier then a pig in mud!

After Halloween I'd most likely say my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I like it when people reflect back on the positive and don't always live in the "wouldda-couldda-shouldda" mentality. It's always good to remember that we all have things that we should be happy about. Sure there's always something we will always want. It should be that way as well-competition and ambition is what makes progression. However, there needs to be a balance. :)

Memorial Day, Independence day, Christmas, and April fools day (we gotta be a little naughty every now and again! :P) are up there too.

I am more than happy to do private swaps. I can swap for the same sort of an item or totally different. Some things that people have done private swaps with me for are:

Stickers

My handmade soaps

My handmade lip balms

Pressed (smashed) pennies

Adult items (new of course and dont be afraid to ask I'm not shy to swap these things lol)

My handmade jewelry

I am able to do the above and basically anything else that I have. I have a ton of diverse interests so the sky is the limit.

I have a (unhealthy Lol) obsession with stickers. I have way too many and don't plan on reducing (if in fact I plan on getting more and more!) any time soon. Lol Stickers are always welcome and I will do private swaps to trade some of my stickers out for other stickers or non sticker items :)

Unusual handmade monster toys. I love little monsters. I think they're super cute too! I saw someone at a craft fair that sewed on extra legs to things and thought it was a really neat idea.

Oriental items. I am in love with dragons, foo dogs, oriental god/goddess figurines, oriental money, etc. I've had a love for China and Japan since I was 9. Had the opportunity to go to Japan when I was 19. It was spectacular! Anything and everything (thats not dirty or broken) that's oriental would be cool with me. I even love oriental influenced beads!

Small rubber stamps!

I also have started collected the pressed/souvineer/smashed coins.

I also like the reusable tote bags for shopping.

Dislikes Anything with mineral oil/petrolalum. If you didn't read the section above I have allergic reactions to these items if they get by my mouth.

I am not a fan of coffee though I do like tea. Flavored black teas are preferred.

Please do not send me items from Dollar Tree as I have 3 that I shop at regularly around my house and can just get them here. No reason to pay shipping on them as well. I do not mind dollar store items (I love the dollar stores myself) that are not from dollar tree. :)

Also if I am in a craft swap with you please do not send me photo copied items. (Unless the swap is specifically for photo copied items) I create all my items by hand and they are sent to you to be enjoyed by you. I would love artwork, comics, etc as long as they are the original one. I feel that when I send my partners items I can't just photo copy what I send to them so you shouldn't do the same with me.

Ok well..not really :P Lol but I thought it was a funny heading.

I have recently gotten into doing bags. Right now I will do sticker bags, label bags and postcard bags. I am considering doing goodie bags. I have gotten some that to be honest weren't worth the postage that they took to send but I've gotten others that were ok. So if you really need to pass them on I'll take them.

If the bag type isn't listed here then go ahead and send it to me. I'll figure out something to do with it even if it's just passing it onto someone else :)

I've decided to go ahead and put in a section here for bags that I've had returned to me due to "not deliverable as addressed. Unable to forward" so that my fellow swappers dont send these bags on. These are people that I, personally, know the address that is on the bag as a bad one as they have been returned to me:

Sze-Eigh loves joey 2815 Keller Ave, Norfolk, va

I have never not sent a swap out. So please let me know if you don't get it.

I do reuse packaging if possible. It makes it so it helps the environment and so that I can afford to do even more swaps! :D

To my international swappers please note that if your swap needs a customs form I will mark it as a Gift with the value of $1.00. This does not mean the item is actually only worth $1. It's just to help avoid delays :)

I also will combine shipping of your items if you're my partner in more than one swap. I expect my partners that send to me to do the same. There is no reason to waste extra money on postage if it can be merged together by the send out time :)