BusyB

I'm a country girl stuck in the city!

Remember to spread kindness as we go through this challenging time.

💙KINDNESS MATTERS💙

💙Updated June 2025

💙 I was trying to figure out a new collection to pursue or something I already had to add to. One of my swap-bot pals has inspired me! This month I got out my small collection of pressed pennies so this is it! Currently I have 13 pennies from places in Oregon and the Oregon Coast. All of them in my collection, I personally was there at the places that are on my pennies. The oldest one is from 1977 when I was 16 years old! The most recent and only one I have from another state is from New York, Central Park Zoo. (a trip with my son and grandaughters in 2018) I thought it would be fun to add to my collection! Currently I'm trying to track down a pressed penny machine where I live so I can trade them with others who are interested. Long story about the machines that were here a few years ago, but hoping I will find one again soon. Wish me luck!

UPDATE: I found a machine! After research online ( which ended with a website that was out of date) and many phone calls later, I ended up on Reddit Portland (which I've never done until now) to ask my fellow "Portland nerds" where can I find a pressed penny machine? I had so many people tell me where there are machines, some far away. That experience and conversations were great fun! So, on my birthday I ended up at "Rocket Fizz Portland" an old school candy and pop store in downtown Portland. I'll be going back hopefully soon or maybe visit a new place. Paid parking, walking a lot and driving in traffic not so much fun! Still happy to find out there are still machines near me.

💙 I collect any postcards of my home state of Oregon, used or new, Vintage would be awesome!

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💙We have one cat who has our hearts. Our beautiful Yuki Maru. In Japanese it means snowball thus her white fluffy coat. It suits her. Our little 'sack 'o sugar" At her first health check years ago the vet told her that. It's true, she's the little princess in our home. We lost her sister Oni in March 2019. Our hearts are broken. RIP little one. February 17th 2024 We had to say goodbye to our cat, our beautiful Yuki Maru. 😭 She would have been 20 years old in March. A cancer mass was found in her abdomen and she was so very sick. So hard to say goodbye and we are heartbroken. 💔Now she will fly high over the rainbow bridge with her Oni Kitty and Blondie! Running in a field of daisies and chasing butterflies. ❤️❤️❤️

When growing up there were always animals in our family. I had a horse when I was 14 but I was not a good cowgirl! Lol We've had rabbits, rats, horses, chickens, an 'onery little black rooster named 'Chuckles' who would chase me all over the yard! Lol My brother had a horse named Shawnee and a 4H hog one year. I miss our little dog Blondie, One year when Christmas shopping Blondie came home with us! She was well loved by her human children and our home was hers for 17 years. Animals are amazing!

Humor is good for your soul! I love it when we can laugh and one of the things I love about my sweet husband of 42 years. He always makes me laugh, he's my best friend. ❤️

💙💙 ABC Easy as 1-2-3...OH wait that's a song..lol This is the ABCs of me. Reading these on others profiles so thought I would add one as well.

• 💙A Art by you Autumn ATCoins Art junque Alice in Wonderland my Art journals Artists (fave art journal artists, Dyan Reaveley, James Burke) Adele (singing artist) Love all animals!! Except most reptiles, snakes, bugs and ewwww spiders!! forest/woodland creatures, sea creatures, wild animals, pets, especially cats and dogs.

• 💙B Bath & Bodyworks products, love Vanillas and Lemon, Honeysuckle Peach Tea, Into the Night, Gingham, and Into the Stars scents Barbie Blackberries Blue my fave color Baking Breakfast Beaches Beatles, Boston as in the singing artists Botanicals Betty Boop Bohemian

• 💙C Claude Monet Cats Coffee Children's book illustrations COLOR, Colorful Bright happy Colors Cookbooks Christmas Collage Campfires Cookies Cooking Cross Stitching Circles especially in art Casper the Friendly Ghost Craft Warehouse store Cupcakes Cinderella COLOR (neon colors in small amounts) Some of my favorites are blue, pink, purple, aqua, and autumn colors

• 💙D Daffodils (fave flower) Vintage Dolls; Dawn Dolls and Barbie Paper Dolls Disney Dogs doTerra essential oils Dyan Reaveley Dance Drawing

• 💙E Eighties music Embroidery Elvis Estate sales, Earrings; silver, small dangles

• 💙F Fabric Foodie Forest Food preservation Flowers Fresh Fruit Farmer's Market Fussy cutting Fairies

• 💙G Garfield Grumpy Cat Glue book Gardening Gnomes Glittery Gelli prints

• 💙H (The) Hobbit Hello Kitty Halloween Handwriting History Hand drawing Humor Holly Hobbie Helen Reddy Heart, as in the singing artists Hearts (collected since I was a teenager)

• 💙I Instant Pot (got one for Christmas 2020) Iris Folding

• 💙J Jewelry I have pierced ears and like pretty dangle earrings in silver, not gaudy, necklaces and bracelets same. I have small wrists. Junk journals Johnny Cash the word JOY Julie Nutting Paper Dolls Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

• 💙K Kefir Kindness in many forms... Kate Greenaway Katy Keene

• 💙L Letters (from Penpals) Lace Lightening storms Lemon Lilacs Lilies I ❤️ Lucy Little Golden Books

• 💙M Mid-Century/Retro Magnets for my fridge Marjolein Bastin artist Claude Oscar Monet Mail Art Mickey Mouse Magazine cut outs Movies Matryoshka Dolls the Moon Mountains Maya Angelou Marilyn Monroe Mushrooms Mixed Medium

• 💙N Nature Netflix Notes from pals interesting Newspaper cutouts Nature walks

• 💙O Ocean "Mother Ocean" Origami

• 💙 P Paper Dolls Postcards, Playing Cards Princess:Cinderella Pink my second fave color Painting Pockets (JJ) Peanuts (comics) Pansies Poetry

• 💙Q Quilting by machine and hand stitching Quotes Quirky Quilling

• 💙R Reading Raspberries Rubberstamper for over 30 years Rain Recipes (tried and true) Retro Rock n Roll Retro Anything

• 💙S Squirrels Sewing Sea Animals Strawberries Sunshine Snoopy Scooby Doo Snowmen Suzy's Zoo Star Wars Saint Patrick's Day, my Mother was Irish

• 💙T True Crime Textiles, new and vintage Thrift stores Thomas Kinkade Tulips (was mom's favorite flower)

• 💙U Umbrellas Unicorns

• 💙V Vincent van Gogh Vintage real ephemera Vintage valentines Vintage paper dolls Vintage 1930s 40s 50s 60s 70s Vintage stickers Valentine's Day Vintage fabric & sewing Vintage textiles

• 💙W Wind Chimes Wild animals Wildflowers Whimsy Wool roving and fibers Willie Nelson Woodland animals Walks

• 💙X

• 💙Y Yard sales

• 💙Z Zoo (Oregon Zoo) and Zoo animals Zentangles Zines

I have tried a lot of art and crafts in my life. I do have an eclectic style and appreciation of art in many forms. Handmade is always appreciated and treasured.

💙 When I was ten years old I learned to machine sew on my Mom's 1958 Singer sewing machine. (which I own today) My angel mother taught me and I designed my own shirt. lol After 50+ years I still enjoy sewing. I am and always will be a "Singer girl" Although I made my own prom dress, wedding dress and clothes as a teenager, Halloween costumes for my kids and granddaughters I don't sew many clothes now.

💙Quilting, My Grandmother, my Dad's mother was an amazing quilter. Still have one of the last quilts she made for my Dad. What a treasure! I've made several quilts since 1980.

💙 LOVE true Vintage ephemera and fussy cuts! My favorites are 1970s and earlier....vintage textiles, fabrics and scraps, sewing and hand stitching items, vintage magazines, fashion and sewing magazine pages or vintage sewing books, cookbooks, children's books, readers and song books, old medical, geography or encyclopedia pages, wallpaper and wrapping paper, vintage ads and pamphlets, sewing patterns from 1970s or earlier, vintage rhinestones and costume jewelry, old type written letters and documents, forms and envelopes, old handwritten letters are a favorite

💙 I enjoy "junkin'" for art junk /vintage treasures. In spring and summer I enjoy yard and garage sales and estate sales. I frequently visit my favorite thrift stores all year. I love the hunt! lol

💙I enjoy my art/junk book journals and glue books. I started this creative journey in 2017 when I attended monthly art journal classes at a local small box store. The pandemic ended our classes in 2020. I loved it so much! I work in various sizes of books; 6x8 Dylusions art journals, 2 travelers notebooks with fabric covers I made; one is a woodland theme and the other an eclectic artsy theme, and altered composition notebooks/glue books. The composition books include 2 rainbow themed (one modern and whacky, the other vintage) a topsy-turvy (one side Autumn and the other Christmas in memory of my angel Mother) and an artsy eclectic chunky glue book with gelli prints, mixed mediums and collage. I love children's books for junk journals! Have a few Little Golden Books and Rand McNally junk journals in the works. I am currently working in "Santas Toy Shop" to document my childhood Christmas memories and a vintage sewing pattern junk book to document my sewing memories/projects. WIP to finish the covers and pages before starting to fill them; Easter/Spring "The Enchanted Egg" Halloween "Ghostbusters" and an old "Frosty the Snowman" I finished a 2021 Pandemic journal and still working in a 2020 Pandemic journal where I rant about current events and write out my frustrations.

I write in my journals, add photos of my photography and family. My style is very eclectic. I love color, fun whimsical, some weird, kitschy, retro, vintage pastels rather than grungy. I love to use genuine vintage ephemera rather than mass made, love mixed mediums, gelli prints, paint, ink, rubberstamping, hand drawing, sewing on paper is satisfying, lol textiles, fabrics and flattish textures in my journals

💙 My favorite artist is Marjolein Bastin (née uit den Bogaard) (born 1943) is a Dutch nature artist, writer, children's author and illustrator. She is the creator of the character "Vera the Mouse" I discovered her 25 years or so ago when I use to buy Hallmark cards that featured her beautiful watercolor artworks including Vera the Mouse. I have a large framed print "Nature's Sketchbook" hanging on the wall by my art desk that I love!

My husband and I watch TV together through the week but I also watch shows while he plays computer games. Lol A few of my favorites are; World's Funniest Animals, Young Sheldon, Survivor (since the beginning) NCIS, NCIS Origins, Wednesday, Dateline, 48 Hours, Netflix. Sad to say some of my favorites are no more. Old favorites; Grease, Ghost, Dirty Dancing, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Avatar, Breakfast Club, Original Ghostbusters. Old shows: I Love Lucy, That Girl, Gilligan's Island, Mork and Mindy, Welcome Back Kotter, Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days, Lassie, Bewitched, Little House on the Astroid, I mean Prairie. Sorry I had to, my hubby hated that show! Lol

My favorite music is from1970s, 80s, 90s. Also love Elvis and music from the 1950s. I like old school country; Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Easy listening, James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, Jewel, Enya, Adele, Ed Sheeran. Also love Boston, Bon Jovi, Coldplay, Jason Mraz, Peter Frampton, Heart, Sir Elton John, Alicia Keys (she is an awesome human being!) I grew up with a country music loving family, but I'm a rock n roll girl! In 1980 I met my dear hubby at an under 21 club, a disco-tech called "Fat City" in Medford Oregon. Yes I still enjoy disco music and love dance! The days of our dancing together, what magic!! I enjoy watching dance reality TV, ice skaters and ballet, hip-hop It's just wonderful live art to me!

• WISHLIST and Currently

• Pressed Pennies

• I am into thrift store, yard sales, estate sales, so I love all those found treasures! Especially mid-century and retro and 1920s-30s-40s-50s-60s-70s papers of all kinds and anything to do with textiles.

• Anything unique from a thrift store you think I will like or from the ABCs of me on my profile.

• Vintage magazines and thin craft and sewing booklets, catalogues, children's coloring books or workbooks for my junk journal creations and collage creations

• I enjoy a handwritten note or card from you when I receive a swap package. Just love reading what you want to share!

• Dolls and paper dolls, Holly Hobbie, The Ginghams, Dawn dolls, Barbie, Raggedy Ann, Strawberry Shortcake are some of my favorites

• Vintage fashion and sewing items I can use in my creations and collage

• I am looking for some vintage laundry tickets that have drawn images of clothing on them. I think they were used for repair.

• Embroidered linens, small ones are my favorites.

• Dangle earrings, silver, but no gawdy or bulky

• Bracelets, chain style, silver or gold and petite. I have a small wrist.

• Stationary, notecards, postalettes with deer, squirrels, owls, and any woodland animals.

• Seasonal small decorations (thrift store is great)

• Unique small vintage or new glass dishes to use to hold beads and small things when I craft.

• Postcards: written from you about where you travel or live, animals, animals, animals, anything from my ABCs of Me.

• I collect any postcards of my home state of Oregon. Vintage would be so fun! (Oregon new or used)

• Blank new or vintage postcards of post offices, libraries or bookstores, flowers, animals, zoos, or anything from my profile likes, ABCs of Me,

• DISLIKES

• 🚫I have sensitive skin and sensitivity to strong perfumes and fragrances so please no make up or body products unless it's Bath & Bodyworks. I use those products with no problems.

• 🚫Please don't send me anything with nuts, seeds, popcorn or peanuts. Slowly adding nuts back in my diet. The last few years has been a nightmare with intolerance to foods and other health issues. Ugh.. I am lactose intolerant. Plain dark chocolate, jelly beans or fruity candy I can have.

• NO more scrapbook papers or scraps. I do like vintage wrapping paper and wallpaper for collage in my glue books and junk journals.

• While I l love my junk journals please don't send me your everyday trash.

• pencils, erasers, reward stickers, window clings for children

• socks (someone sent me a children's size that I couldn't wear) make-up or make-up bags, mug rugs/coasters. I appreciate all the handmade coasters but we now have plenty AND I use and enjoy all of them! All around our home.

• Spiders, eeek! Bugs, snakes and lizards eek! I guess I do like a lot more reptiles than I admit. Lol I love to watch anything about the animal world on TV or Netflix. So interesting and entertaining! Bees especially honey bees are okay. :-)

I appreciate a rating from my partners when I send a swap so that I know it was received. After 6 weeks if you have not received from me, please reach out to me via pm and I will gladly resend. This applies in the USA, international could take longer.

I always send my swaps and rate promptly and say thank you. Same for wishes, tags, and RAKS. If I don't it means I didn't receive. I always communicate with my partners when needed via the swap-bot messenger system. Sometimes an occasional email message. Please do the same for me. This is suppose to be fun, not stressful. I've had my share of bad swappers too, but thankfully few. Mailing has not been the best the last few years, but let's not let it ruin something we love! Are you with me? ❤️

Tag Games:

WTA Sent:

RAKS Only USA:

RAKS Sent:

WISHES SENT:

COLLABS(homers) and Mystery Supply Swaps