pianoheart

I am on swap-bot to make friends and have fun. Here is a little about me:

I love musical instruments and instrumental music from all over the world. I love small instruments, strings and accessories, CDs of instrumental world music, but not so much things with music themes, i.e. things with music notes or pictures of musical instruments on them. Most swaps seem to be visual rather than auditory :( But for visual arts, I like Chinese brush painting. I'm interested in making soap, handmade paper, artistic bookbinding and making/restoring ukulele. I make jewelry and lei using seeds, nuts and flowers from Hawaiian plants and trees.

I welcome pen pals who want to share friendship. I currently have tons of mainstream writing stationery, so no need to send more to me, unless you have written a pen pal letter to me on it. I love to travel and explore new places. I am always looking for interesting places to visit next. I would love to read about your own travel experiences rather than from a travel book. I am more interested in traveling and forming friendships than accumulating stuff. I would like to find some like-minded people.

I love to cook. I experiment with adapting recipes for use with local Hawaiian ingredients. I grow many kinds of tropical fruit and like to use them in recipes. I cook mostly vegetables, fruit and whole grains. I don't cook with dairy, eggs or meat. I have too many vegetarian cookbooks, so no need to send more to me.

My husband collects retired license plates from all over the world. They don't need to be old, just no longer on a vehicle. If you would like to add to his collection, please send me a message to see if he already has a plate from your area.

I'm more about giving than receiving, so if you are sending to me in a flat rate box de-stash, you have the option of sending an electronic amazon gift code to save time and postage - envelope or small box 15, medium box 25, large box 30. This is just for a de-stash swap, not a profile-based swap. Hearts for this option because I use amazon.com to buy my instrument strings, music, and instrument construction books. I love to experiment with handmade musical instruments.

Some favorites:

• Ocean - I love walking and swimming at the beach.
• Earth - I love being outside, hiking to waterfalls and great views, planting native trees.
• the color gray and the gray scale from black to white
• birds
• exercise: yoga, walking, hiking, bocce, mountain biking, pickle ball, kite flying, table tennis
• worry dolls - these are tiny handmade dolls, made by you or from their native home in central/south America.
• thin, durable bookmarks - I use them in my cookbooks, so ones that can be wiped clean are great.
• natural, plant-based essential oil soap
• Favorite scents: sweet grass, lavender, orange, ginger, fresh cut burdock root
• big tree forests
• international and USA pen pals
• musical instruments
• friendship bracelets, made by you

• For shopping and physical gift cards (not electronic), my favorite store is Lowes Home Improvement.

  Things I Use:

  • Pages of clear vinyl pockets to hold coins, banknotes and trading cards

  • Asian bamboo paint brushes

  • packets of viable (not outdated) seeds to grow herbs, cacti and succulents. I can use actual seeds, but not so much things with plant designs on them. It's too hot here for most vegetable and flower seeds. I'm always looking for swapping pen pals in warm climates to exchange seeds. Please do not send packets of wildflower seeds - these can be invasive in Hawai'i.

  • body part milagros and prayer beads from different countries

  • art supplies: medium and fine grit sandpaper, mechanical pencils and lead for them, wood glue, classic X-acto knives and blades, metal jewelry clasps and findings, any Dremel tool attachments, small drill bits, wood carving tools.

  • unused USA postage stamps

  • For flat swaps, I like: unused USA postage stamps, seed packets, sandpaper, milagros, origami paper, nice stickers without words

• For papercrafts, I like origami, bookbinding supplies and supplies for making handmade paper. I like beautiful and unusual letter-writing paper and envelopes. I also use writing instruments like mechanical pencils and sketching tools. I don't use markers so much and they usually dry out before I get to use them. I like pens with colored ink, but the multipack ones from dollar stores usually don't write well or are old and dried out when still in the package.

• Things for the puppy: collar, harness (size medium - must be new due to his skin allergy), leash, dog treats, chew toys that are not fiber-filled, glow-in-the-dark squeaky ball

• Things for the plants and the garden: sharp hand-pruners (Corona or similar), padded cloth work gloves (please no thin dollar store gloves - those don't even last a day on my farm), grafting tape, outdoor digital thermometer, solar powered anything

• Nice stickers to use on envelopes, larger (5 x 7) colorful envelopes to mail swaps, larger notecards (5x7) with matching envelopes. I have lots to share and the smaller cards and envelopes don't hold enough :)

• Sealed, unused packages of natural skin care samples/products, like exfoliator, face wash, moisturizer, sunscreen without oxybenzone and octinoxate (These are banned in Hawai'i.), essential oil perfume, magnesium bath salts, essential oil bar soap.

  Things I Don't Need So Much:

• Allergies:
  dust mites - I cannot use large pieces of fabric, stuffed toys made of fabric, pillows, knick knacks and other things that collect dust.

  skin sensitivities - parabens, preservatives, propylene glycol, sodium lauryl sulfate (common in liquid soap). Unfortunately, I cannot use products that are used, unsealed, or do not list ingredients. Please tell me ingredients of your handmade soaps.

• I don't make scrapbooks or greeting cards, so please do not send glitter, stamped images, embellishments from a craft store, journal cards/project life/prompts, memo paper, things cut from magazines, ATC supplies, list pad paper, book pages, post-it notes, ephemera, feathers, blank recipe cards, synthetic fabric, tags, used postage stamps, coloring pages/cards/books.

• Please don't send food or drink (this includes tea bags)..these tend to melt, get weird in the tropical heat or the gecko living in my mailbox gets to them first.

• Please don't send makeup or nail polish - I don't wear them. I prefer natural skin care products - see above.

• Please don't send things that smell of cigarette smoke or cigarette smoke with perfume/dryer sheet smell added to it. Thank you for understanding.

  It is difficult to remove plastic on an island. watch this to learn more