withlovemeg

Mom, Wife, Chef, Blogger, Knitter, Crafter, Writer.

I have a strong sense of family and a fairly good sense of humor. I'm a bit of a hippie and love anything re-usable, refillable, and non-disposable.

I'm a fan of the written letter although I have no issues with cranking out an email.

I also have a personal commitment to the environment. Most projects I send will be made from reclaimed, reused, or recycled product whenever possible. (Not all projects, just a majority.) I love how I can take something that someone deemed trash and turn it into something nice, new, and interesting.

I do collect buddhas (well, actually, my five year old son does...)

I am a bento maker and addicted to baking and cooking Asian. (Ok, I'll admit, I'm addicted to cooking and baking in general. I'm June Cleaver crossed with McGuyver with a little bit of Julia Child tossed in for the fun of it.) Even worse, I'm a displaced Texan and can't find a decent Mexican restaurant up here so I'm forced to make my own. And when anyone gets a whiff of my Mexican food, I'm stuck feeding the masses- they're apparently as starved for good Mexican food as I am.

My favorite colors are pink, pumpkin orange, robin's egg blue, chocolate brown, red, white, and other bright happy colors. I don't care for greens as much, although there are a few pretty shades of them.

I RATE! IF I HAVE NOT RATED, I HAVE NOT GOTTEN IT! (I am having issues with my gmail address. It is supposed to be fixed soon.)

IF I MARKED IT SENT, IT WAS SENT. IF YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN IT, PM ME.
IF YOU HAVE GOTTEN IT AND IT WAS BROKEN OR DAMAGED, LET ME KNOW SO I CAN RESEND. I HAVE NO ISSUES WITH RESENDING IF NEEDED!

My tastes vary. I love the hair bands from the 80s and the techno from the 90s. I also like classical music, jazz, funk, punk, skaa, decent metal, indie and foreign music. I'll even listen to good covers done by small bands. Mainly I want it to either evoke a feeling in me or make me want to dance and sing along.

I'm not a fan of rap or country, although I'll admit there is some decent stuff among the dross.

Cookbooks and Craft Books (Knitting especially) tend to top my reading list.

I'm also a big Robert Jordan fan and love fantasy books.

I like historical fiction.

I've been known to sneak off for an hour with a historical romance or two, although I'd probably deny it. : )

I'm also a huge magazine addict.

I don't read horror or most mainstream political thrillers.

Again, it depends on my mood.

I love campy comedies and romantic comedies just as much as I love a good action flick. I don't mind an R or NC-17 rating as long as the movie has a decent plot or can make me laugh. (I just watch those types of movies when the kids are already in bed for the night.)

I HATE horror and movies with gratuitous violence.

Hard to say: I love reality TV of the cooking/craft/decorating variety- so things like Project Runway, Top Chef, etc... I'm not so big on things like Idol or Dancing with the Stars, Biggest Loser, or the other reality TV shows.

I'm a Browncoat.

I'm also a fan of Star Wars and Star Trek.

I'm a big anime geek.

Knitting and Cooking are tied for things I spend the most time on. In both cases I try to use natural products.

I also sew a lot of felt items. I'm currently working on some felt veggies for my son to play with as well as I've begun working on some tree ornaments made from felt.

I've recently been introduced to shrink art and am fascinated with it.

I also draw, paint, sew, sculpt, do photography, make jewelry, spin, crochet, weave, and do a lot of kids crafts.

-Anything overly religious. If I want something religious, I'll sign up for a religion-based swap.

-Anything seafood-y.

-Loose glitter, seed beads, or other small choking hazards. If it's packaged in some method (so I can obviously see it), that's fine. I have small kids running about and one that's a crawler, so I don't want to inadvertently have something fall out of an envelope without me realizing it to land within reach of tiny hands. Please package all loose items in some sort of containment thing like a jewelry sized baggie, matchbox, rolled in plastic wrap, etc... mainly I just want to be able to feel it drop if it falls out.

-Anything too "themey". For example, my kitchen is white and red, but you won't find anything kitchsy with apples every where. I like animals and anime, but I don't decorate in cats and dogs and dolphins nor do I have a ton of "Japanese" themed items. I do tend to lean towards a minimalistic approach to my home environment rather than a theme or collection vibe.

-Recipes

-blank stationary. (I LOVE to hand-write notes.)

-Bento Supplies

-A good New Mexico green chili recipe

-Yarn, preferably natural fiber but I'm not too picky.

-General art supplies, stamps, papers, ribbons, pens, markers

-White Chocolate

-BPAL, TAL and other good smellies

-barrettes and hairpins

--------------My husband, thinking he was being helpful, opened my mail and tossed the envies in the recycle bin. By the time I found the swaps on the back of my desk, I had no clue who sent what. So... um... I'm sorting through that. If you sent something and I haven't rated, let me know. One of these items could be from you!------------

Just as a note on the postmark dates for my swaps: My house is the last stop on the route for the entire city. Some days I get lucky and the mail comes early---before the facility closes for the night and sorting stops. Other days, my mail doesn't run until late in the evening after the post office closes. Thus, if I mail an item from home (and I'm without a car often and usually do mail from home) it may be postmarked a day or even TWO (in the case of weekends) later than the send date. However, I will ALWAYS PM you if I'M the reason it's running late, rather than the unreliable postal service in this area being the cause.

I just wanted a place to keep track of the swaps that I've finished and just need an address to send out or that I'm being forced to wait for a post office run. I know it often looks like I'm in a few swaps, but normally I watch them, build my item, then join. In the case of email swaps, I tend to pre-write it and save it as a draft.

NFS: I'll Be Home for Christmas ---Waiting on a PO run. dang it all- it slipped out of the basket on my last PO run!

Felt Tree Ornament: Swing on a Star-- waiting on PO run.

Tree Ornament with a Heart Theme---Waiting on a PO run