bigmamabird

January 18 '24 I've just learned that amazon is no longer using ups, and all our towns mail delivery people have quit. Our mail was delivered by the PO clerk and her husband tonight. He says the PO is full of packages. This is crazy and upsetting and so sad. I'm going to miss my mailman! I expect all mail deliveries will be affected by this...

My name is Carroll. (It's nice when people spell it correctly, wink wink!)

I have been on this planet for fifty-seven years now, born in Germany and have traveled and lived a fair few places. Settled down the past 20 plus years to give my kids a more stable growing up time. We nestled into the back country of Vermont, it is nigh on the most idyllic place we could have chosen! I do miss public transportation and easy access to museums and people watching and such. I have two grown sons, which is so cool and also unbelievable! The younger is still home with us. Hubs is a supportive partner in all ways and I adore him for that as well as many other fine attributes. I do art because it is part of me, my life, my sanity, it's a thing I have always done. I have chickens and ducks for eggs and two pet geese who are so cute... Two elderly cats own us all, they are way too fluffy and could possibly add their hair to any project I undertake. So apologies to those allergic- there is no way to guarantee my sending won't have cat hair, though I do try.

I like ---- Spending a lot of time being creative such as mail art (zines, ATCs, postcards, art envelopes, etc...) wall painting, canvases, etc

Spending lots of time looking at art....

Taking care of my animals- cats, geese, chickens, ducks...

Cooking healthy foods from scratch, baking from scratch...Sometimes with recipes, mostly without, though I love reading cookbooks...

Gardens, forest trails, health food stores, art galleries, museums, second hand stores, art stores, books and book stores, coffee shops with second hand book stores, people watching!

Independent and foreign movies...

Polka dots, leaf patterns, doodles, skeletons and skulls, faces...

Pretty much all colors- reds, blues, greens, purples, yellows, oranges, turquoise, pinks, golds, silver...etc. My color heaven trifecta would be purple blue and green, highlighted with gold and glitter most likely..!

Old stuff-- ephemera, stamps, maps, letters, photos and tickets etc, icons, saints and symbols, bones, random rusty stuff, books that have been saved from being burned but have their edges singed and blackened...

Images of gods, goddesses, Buddhas, saints, holy peeps and animals of all kinds...

Book pages especially in other languages, ATCs, all postcards- handmade, old, new, tourist, quirky, art, and everything in between, artist stickers, artistamps, artist doodles and dawdles and dingles and dangles...

Drawing, painting, and collage.....

Articulated paper dolls...

Bunnehs.

mermaids, witches, weirdos, strange other beings...

Stuff which is self imagined and made rather that assembled from precrafted products...

Abandoned things...found items, bits and pieces, leaves, flowers, bark, shells, bones, pebbles, rusty things, seedpods, pine cones, butterfly wings...

Entrances into secret realms..

Interesting words and quotes...

Animals- especially hippos, elephants, owls, crows and ravens, butterflies, cats, dogs, chickens, ducks, geese...oh yes, and the fantasy creatures, mustn't forget them!

Angelled by the kind SFreer for the Merry Mushrooms swap...Many thanks Shannon, it's wonderful! Thank you to Stephanie for angelling the DIY pattern design envelope swap, I love it!

Please note that I post a lot of my mail art on instagram. I often post as stuff gets finished , so don't peek if you are my swap partner and don't want to see anything early...I took the link off as some people had a hard time resisting and then felt disappointed when the swap came and it wasn't a surprise...go figure! Send a message if you want to go there.

Scented stuff, including personal sprays, room refresher products, body products such a perfume and cologne, scratch and sniff or other scent imbued things... This is becoming more important as the years roll along. Please please, I cannot keep such things around!

Smoky stuff, I quit smoking years ago, and the smell is crazy yuck now even when sprayed with the above...

Food

Drink items, unless a swap requires them

Religious solicitations, even the gentlest are unnecessary!