Back at home after 400km bike trip!! I really love biking!

I'm still signing up only to swaps that can be sent and received as a letter (i.e. contain only paper), but now it is because I really don't want the hassle with customs.

In case you are interested, I have a list of things sent/owning on the bottom of my profile.

I'm here mostly to swap ideas (for example for handmade items), not stuff.

So, for most swaps I sign up hoping to get to try something new, and also that I get some new ideas in exchange.

That means, if you are sending to me, don't be afraid to try something new. I'd love to look on an item you made/sent and think "oh wow, what an idea! I would never have thought of it!". If it meets the swap description, no matter how unusual the interpretation, it is a fair game.

For swaps that require writing something (a note, a letter) it means that, given the content is the same, there's no real difference for me whether the letter is handwritten on pretty paper or printed on plain printer paper. There's no reason to apologize in the second case as some people have done, really! Actually, as I'm not a native English speaker, I often find printed text (especially in plain font on plain white paper) easier to read.

In general, I prefer practical over pretty. Yeah, weird.

It also means that I am not so extremely fond of receiving extras - I have lots of stuff already, and as I said, I am much more interested in the idea behind the swap items than getting more stuff. Extras do not affect how I rate you, anyway.
Also because of all the drama surrounding extras, I don't send any extras myself - I do not want to make my partners feel like they are under pressure to give a heart, and if they won't who knows where I will go and complain about rude people (not that I'd do that, but how would you know?). So - no extras, no pressure on my partners, that's the way I think. ;)

Another thing that my not caring much about stuff means is that I don't really lose any sleep if you send your swap out late or not at all. On the other side, I lose no sleep over rating accordingly, either.

I'd also rather not get angel packages, unless you allow me to angel something for you, too - I feel uncomfortable when receiving but not sending myself (or when receiving too generous packages).

I strongly disagree with the "send what you'd want to receive yourself", so don't be afraid - you will not get mathematical problems from me unless that's what you'd want to receive, too. (whew!)

My favourite kind of swap tends to be the opposite of "quick and easy", so I am aware that the swaps I create usually don't get many sign-ups, and I consider one another swapper besides myself enough to go forward with the swap.

If you are sending me for several swaps at the same time, feel absolutely welcome to combine them into one envelope (unless there are must-be-sent-naked postcards) to save on postage - just make clear what is for what! And, of course, do send both swaps on time.

I prefer to receive naked postcards truly naked not in plastic sleeve, even if it causes them some wear and tear in mail.

Work: IT.

Home: husband, four children (two young adults, two young children); no pets (unless you count free-range spiders) but a small garden.

Besides work&home: visiting local art studio on Saturdays.

I am Estonian, my husband is Latvian, our children speak both languages (well, so do we). We live in a townlet near Riga, the capital of Latvia.

About My Username

"Paha siga" in Estonian means "bad pig" - from a story of a piglet whining that he cannot burrow as either his snout is mangy or ground is frozen, resulting in a saying in Estonian said to people who complain about something and find fault with all solutions offered as well. I was often like that during my second pregnancy and to warn my fellow chatters (you know, trying to find solutions for someone just wanting to whine gets both parties angry) I changed my nickname to paha_siga on these occasions. Afterwards I stuck to it as it was far more original than previous nick.

This little pig in my avatar I crocheted specially for using as an avatar. I wondered after photographing whether I should find her now another use, for example, as a pincushion (making her therefore a porcupine - direct translation from Estonian would be "thorn-pig") but a friend told me that she looks more like a sad pig than a bad one and it is obvious from her face she knows about my cruel plan to stick needles into her. Now she lives in a tin cake that @dreamerkins made me for a swap and works occasionally as a model for my swap cards. :)

If you find spelling my username too difficult, you may just call me piggy.

But, what with my nick and avatar, pigs are actually not particularly special for me. I rather like all kinds of animals (on pictures, anyway - please do not send me actual animals).

Two crafts I feel most confident in are knitting and crocheting. But I also do now and then a bit of sewing, play around with polymer clay, and actually like to try a bit of everything.

So as to give you an idea, what I do and on what level, here's a list of what I do have and use:

• knitting needles - circular and double-pointed mostly, of 4-5 different sizes, enough for most of my projects, only I cannot run several of the same size at the same time - that's probably only good for me as it makes me to actually finish a project ;) ; two row counters; I also have some stitch markers and a truly good needle holder thanks to @AmandaLee
• crochet hooks - about 8 of them, I think I have now all sizes covered; and crochet stitch markers from @Toupti 's etsy shop
• lots of yarn, too! - both my mother and sister have brought me their leftover yarn, hoping I'll find use for it... good thing my mother gave two baskets as well!
• I also got some raw yarn... I guess I should do some knit/crochet washing-machine felted thing, or do you have some other idea? I have no spinning tools, but maybe I'll try weaving them?
• wool for felting, felting needles and felting pad
• a sewing machine, needles and threads and fabric; I also have a bunch of synthetic felt
• lots of embroidery threads
• a set of Knifty Knitters (thanks to @luvcatzzz - I wanted them for my grandmother (now deceased)
• various beads, cheap hooks (no real silver stuff etc), wire and such, and tools
• Fimo polymer clay, a roller, three cutters, a bead roller, some molds and a varnish; @dreamerkins sent me a clay machine, yay!
• two children weaving looms [one (newer!) of them rather sucks]
• glue and varnish (and napkins) for decoupage - had a course in summer 2013!
• one children DIY kit with pottery wheel (not tried out yet)
• a bit of stickers and some paper punches, although I'm not into paper crafts at all (they are mostly for my children) - I admire people who can make wonderful collages, but I just can't myself
• brads and a setter for them
• some fabric dye, fabric paints, fabric markers, candle paints, ceramic markers, Hama beads - all these tend to be seasonal hobbies and/or to be done together with children

Most probably I don't even know what I'm missing, so if you read this list and think of something I miss, you should tell me! ;)

Favourite Arts

In my art group that I attend, we can use whatever media we want for drawing or painting. I have been using mostly coal, oil pastels and dry pastels, and have tried watercolours and acrylics, but I somehow I never know how to mix paints.

We have mostly still life settings, of course, but more and more do people bring in photos they want to paint or pictures they want to copy (all purely for an artistic growth), so it may easily be that everyone does her own little thing. Especially for Art Days each spring - we usually need to do Something Else depending what the theme is.

While we do generally life-like things, not posters or abstract art, I do like paintings by Navitrolla. I think a big part of it may be his picture names.

My own art pieces generally are pictures of something, not abstract combinations of suitable things. And I do have a thing with names or rather, what it boils down to - the idea behind the picture.

First of all, if you are reading this because you need to send me a flat profile surprise, any math or logic puzzle will do very well - pull it out of a magazine or print off internet, doesn't matter. Of course, if you find something else that fits the description, it is quite fine - I just thought to make this easy, as I'm not signing up to swaps for those profile surprises, so there's no point in putting too much energy into it.

Also, I don't collect unwritten postcards (except for maps and Navitrolla) or notecards, so if you are sending some of those, there's no point in making them to match my profile - but rather, the profiles of people I'm going to send them to. Which means anything (of sufficiently universal interest) goes!

Colours

Pretty colours: black, white, red, blue, yellow, green, terracota, grey, silver, beige

Ugly colours: pink, orange, purple, golden, dark brown, muddy colours

That's just my personal opinion and doesn't include things that are in their natural colour - I'd rather have pink than green pigs, thank you. ;) If you make an ATC trying to convince me that pink and brown is actually a pretty combination, it's fine! I also have no problems using "ugly" colours when making something for others.

I'm fond of...

• Mathematics (especially algebra, combinatorics, logics; not very fond of analysis).
• Logic puzzles - I try to collect as many as I can, both for my students and myself; both such that are to be solved on paper and such that can be played online. Got to admit that with pandemic, the online ones get used a lot! If it wasn't for that, I like to turn logic puzzles into board games - say, instead of writing numbers in a sudoku puzzle to put colourful blocks in correct positions on a puzzle board. Good for little kids!
• Of comics strips I follow currently only C'est la Vie, Inspector Danger's Crime Quiz, Stone Soup, Tiny Sepuku, Girl Genius and Between Failures.
• Maps and floor plans, incl fake ones.
• Playing with my garden, especially theoretically - I am not so fond of decaterpillaring; as in other things, I tend to prefer practical over beautiful, much to my husband's chagrin who hoped I will grow a nice flower garden instead of potatoes that remind him of his childhood drudging on grandmother's farm. ;)
• If you are a native German or Russian speaker, I'd love to get a note/letter from you in that language (preferably typed, for clarity) - I have learned both languages as a child, but have forgotten a lot because of seldom having to use them.
• Of books, I like classic crime stories and young/teen literature, also fantasy; I think I like these because I need my happy end - the realistic grown-up books tend to be rather depressing, and you can call catching the criminal a happy end, too. ;) In crime books, I don't care about blood and gore, but the whodunit ones - when, after reading the book, I'd go and leaf through it, looking for the clues I missed. I don't mind at all if in the end it turns out that nobody was killed!
• I enjoy dry humour, double meaning, subtlety, reading between lines, and the like. Cake-in-your-face type of jokes don't seem funny to me at all.

Wasted on me

• Extras "thrown in" "for hearts".
• Knickknacks - my son has dust mite allergy, so we don't have any place to display them.
• I don't care about souvenirs.
• I'm way too bad in papercrafts to have any use of paper scraps, ephemera, and other such things.
• Of jewellery, I wear only earrings (and my wedding ring).
• I do not use any decorative cosmetics at all.
• I don't like strong smells. I don't think covering stink with a strong smell is any replacement of proper hygiene. ;) Not allergic, though.
• My husband doesn't like food coming through mail from strangers, so please don't send me edibles (unless you have a reason to not consider yourself a stranger).
• I detest drawn moustaches and Santa's traditional mating call (that's how it sounds to me, anyway).

Do not hope to cause any warm feelings by insinuating that Estonia and/or Latvia is a part of Russia, ever.

Our village's letterbox is emptied 11:30 on workdays, so mail posted after that time will bear next day's postmark (or so I hope). But if I make it to letterbox and back before 10 am, the sent date in swap will show previous day due to time zones.

Last update: March 26

Currently in mail:

• Mar 23 - Sharp Shooters: February color: RED; Sharp Shooters: couple favorite photos -> USA
• Mar 25 - CPG: Happy [Bizarre April Holiday]! - Global -> USA

Note that Latvia uses "DD.MM.YYYY" date format, so postmark "11.10." is 11th of October not November 10th.

Non-rated swaps:

I have promised to send:

• a newbie-trial-art-journal and a couple of dragons to Loonstruck
• card to @dreamerkins

I'm waiting for:

nothing