sillyhoffmann

Hi! My name is Sylvia; Silly for short. I am 42 years old and proud of it! I love my friends and my family. They are the best people in the world! Like many people, I commute to the big city for my job (at Michaels Arts and Crafts). I enjoy the challenge of solving crafting dilemmas for people and I am looking forward to expanding my crafty solutions in the swap bot world!

I live in a small and wonderful country community, in a little studio apartment. My dream of owning a double bed to share with my kitty finally came true this spring! Of course, the cat still sleeps in the middle. rolls eyes. I love to swap with people who love and see beauty and humor in almost everything around them. I am a person powered by the sun, so I love sunny days and light blue skies. The greens of summer and the fiery colors of fall make up my favorite color palette. I love the summer sunshine, and a sunrise that tints the clouds white, gold, and red. I love to make people laugh. I really enjoy a good insult, if given in the right spirit, and love humor that is quirky, strange and silly. I also love cats. Crazy about them, actually. I was able to foster for MEOW Cat Rescue in Kirkland, Washington for 4 years. I worked with cats with anxiety/anger issues and depression. It was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I was catless when I first arrived at my little apartment, but I have been adopted by a sweet kitty named Pug, and my neighbor’s 2 cats, Smudge and Misty. My lovely neighbor Ruth feeds the homeless kitties in the area, and we have joined forces to catch and fix as many as we can so they don’t multiply like Tribbles. UPDATE: As of 4/27/2011, we have managed to catch and spay/neuter 19 cats! Yeah us!

A few of my favorite things: Colors: I love jewel tones and rich, bright colors. My favorite color is blue, and summer greens. Fall is my favorite seasonal palette, with it’s fiery red, orange-yellow, sky blue and sap green.

Copious spare time activities: Netflix and swap bot have been filling my time lately. I do still manage to read a little. Reads in the last year:

‘Artful Journaling’. Great magazine! ‘Alex and me’ about a scientist and her African gray Parrot, and the studies on animal behavior she has done with him. ‘Homer’s Odyssey’ by Gwen Cooper ‘Edible Wild Plants’ by John Kallas. Also took a foraging class taught by him. Good stuff! ‘Why We Buy’. A book on what makes people buy stuff. ‘Three bags full’. A flock of sheep solve the murder of their shepherd. ‘Gods Middle finger’. A journalist re accounts a year he spent in the dangerous, drug lord infested Sierra Madras. ‘Dewey; the small town library cat who touched the world.’ ‘Food plants of the interior first people’ ‘The forager’s Harvest’ Nature’s Garden’ ‘Country Living’ It’s like hitting shuffle on an iPod. I never know what I am going to get when I hit the library!

Recent netflix: I have been in TV show mode for a while now. Anything longer than and episode is to much right now. Bones Dexter Saving Grace Numbers Twin Peaks Body of Proof Scrubs Brothers and Sisters. Grey’s Anatomy Alley McBeal Lie to Me Dollhouse Farscape Babylon 5 Weeds Buffy Dead Like Me Angel

Traveling: I have done a lot of traveling in the USA, and a little in Europe. Mostly Switzerland, since my mother is from there and I have gone back to visit family. My dad and I used to do road trips to desert country. My favorite places have been the grand Canyon and Zion National Park. I could spend an entire summer hiking, taking pictures, and eating campfire food!

Postcards I love pictures of cultural festivals and traditions, towns, landscape. I really like when a person can explain why is going on in the picture and maybe why they picked it. I also like silly postcards and funny ones. I have started a 'calming' wall by my bed, and want ot hang pictures of quiet things there. Rain, ocean, beach, feilds and sky. that sort of thing. Cutesie (baby, dresses up kittens, etc) are not my thing. Creative artwork is always welcome. Really, anything other than cutesie, and it is good!

Favorite craft: I am into speed scrap booking. I paint murals for children. I long to get back to my first love of paper and acrylic collage, and recently did my first Art Journaling pages. Oh, the Fun! I have become addicted to ATC cards, and find that the inspiration from making them has seeped into my other art areas. I also enjoy the meditative quality of needle felting. It's good anger management!

Things I like: Cats. Hiking. I love being out in the sun, seeing how light plays off the water, the grass, the clouds. I can spend quite a while watching birds, and often imagine the little conversations they are having in my head. I also tend to make sound effects when watching animals that are acting making me laugh. I love to people watch almost as much as I love to nature watch. I enjoy getting my hands in the dirt and do a little gardening. I loooove yard work. It is such a different form of labor than I do the rest of the week and I love the sense of accomplishment it give me. I love watching chickens. They have the silliest run! The art I love is usually bright with a limited palette, silly funny, humorous or smile evoking in some way. I really love bookmarks, since I read a ton. I never seem to have enough of them, and improvise with whatever is handy. Funny garage sale finds are always a hit. I recently picked up a childs bed tray with the most hilarious collage of cats and dogs dressed in paper cut out clothes. I looooove flannel.

Great bumper stickers I have seen I’d tell you to go to hell, but I work there and don’t want to see you every day. Make Mac n Cheese, not war. What Would Buffy Do? Talk to me Goose! I am right 97% of the time, the other 4% I don’t care about.

List-o-likes I love the smell of lemon and of sage leaves crushed between my fingers (which smells very different than the sage scent things in stores have in them). Flowers, frogs, gardening, laughing, family, hotdogs, a good night sleep, mac n cheese, vanilla ice cream, card games, things made of glass, hotdogs,embellishments I can put on cards and paintings, candles, citrus smells (not the sweet ones but the real tangy ones), magnets, mac n cheese, painting murals in childrens’ rooms, making people laugh, the sun, sandy beaches, Christmas lights, pinwheels, the zoo, rocks, hotdogs, paisley, hand written letters, fun napkins, bird and frog song, the beach, shells, finding pennies on the street, labeling and organizing, mac n cheese, colorful store displays, wandering a new town with aimless abandon, thrift stores, garage sales, and postcards.

What I don’t like: Licorice. The smell of lavander, sandelwood, or sage. I’m not into gory, bloody and extremely scarey. Pastel colors, although they have their place. Gothic and depressing stuff. It also has it’s place, but I need all the joy I can get in my life at the moment. Profiles that start off with what that person will do to you if you don't follow their rules of craft making, mailing, and extra gifting exactly. I have noticed more and more profiles with this right at the begining, and it is a scarey and creativity-killing way to have to start a swap with some one. Not into hard core vintage. The colors tend to feel dirty to me and the images are to soft and lacy for my taste. I am not a girly girl, so lace and romance and things romantic-squishy are not my thing. If something makes me laugh, it is all good!

I have no allergies, unless you call a low tolerance for screaming babies and rude customers an allergy. :)