MelissaLB

I'm dedicated to Swap-Bot and send all my swaps on time. If you haven't received your swap, please let me know. I will happily resend.

In a world where you can be anything....be kind

I practice yoga, reiki, meditation and energy healing. I've recently discovered forest therapy. I'm hoping to participate in a training in 2025 to receive a certificate in this interesting healing modality.

I love to garden. When I was a kid, I would help my little Italian Grandma with her garden every summer. We would plant tomatoes, zucchini, all kinds of peppers, watermelon, green beans and potatoes. I've scaled my garden way back as an adult. I mostly plant a large variety of tomatoes, peppers and herbs.

My favorite herbs are basil, rosemary and lavender. These are also some of my favorite scents. As for other smelly stuff, I like berry, lemon, cinnamon, patchouli and nag champa. Not a big fan of strong flowers, apple, watermelon or jasmine.

I love honey! I use it for medicine, sweetening my tea and baking.

I work full-time as a paralegal in-house for a government contractor. We build military trucks.

I am an energy healer. Energy Healing is a pleasant and powerful therapy that helps you connect to your inner source of vibrancy and life force, making it available to shift physical, emotional, and mental dysfunction to health and well-being.

https://sites.google.com/view/melissa-energy-healing/home

I consider myself spiritual. I don’t care for the dogma connected with organized religion. I love to visit sacred spaces and buildings of all types. I practice pagan traditions and holidays. I enjoy exploring the sacred feminine in many different traditions.

I'm an avid tarot/oracle card reader. I collect decks of both. I'm also interested in trading decks if anyone would like to do a private swap.

I was raised Catholic. What it gave me was a love for the Mother and a belief in miracles. I've always believed nature is sacred. I believe in the natural cycle of birth, growth and death and the sacredness around the cycle. I don't like labels, but identify with Pagan, Witch and Goddess. I love the idea of a kitchen witch. I enjoy nature spells and creating magic feeding others.

I am a founding board member for a charity. We are Madhukara. More information can be found here: https://www.madhukara.org/

We feed people and help out our neighbors when they are in need. Once a month, we prepare and serve dinner at the Hope Mission in downtown South Bend, Indiana. Its a wonderful and humbling experience.

I love to celebrate the festivals and holidays of the Wheel of the Year.

My favorite "regular" holidays: Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I also don't mind receiving holiday items all year.

For Easter, I love bunnies, pastel flowers & ribbon, colored eggs, carrots and Victorian looking Easter baskets.

Favorite Halloween icons: witches, skulls, pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, haunted houses, scary trees and cemeteries; not really into black cats or monsters or anything gory. I prefer spooky over gory.

For Thanksgiving, I like traditional themes - turkeys, pumpkins, fall leaves and woodland animals. I love vintage Thanksgiving images. They are so bizarre!

Favorite Christmas themes: traditional red & green, angels, snowflakes, holly, silver – anything sparkly. Lots of glitter and sequins. Not into country or rustic themed decorations like burlap and plaid.

I have a serious love for all things Starbucks; both the beverages and merchandise. I also love all types of Starbucks inspired stickers, stationary and washi tape.

I am addicted to washi tape. I love it! 💜

Some of my favorite Washi boutiques: Simply Gilded, Paper Geek Co. and Fox and Cactus.

One of my favorite washi shops on Etsy is GoatGirlMH.

My favorite washi themes: bees, purple flowers, dragonfly, coffee, whales, Star Wars and people.

I'm a fan of the Cavallini stationery, journals, stickers, papers, puzzles...all of it is so intriguing.

I LOVE Star Wars! I've been a fan of Star Wars since I was 8 years old and the FIRST movie was released. (Yep! I'm old. Hahaha) It's been a life long obsession. I read all the books and watch everything - the whole Star Wars universe is amazing. Thank goodness for Disney+

I like zodiac inspired art, stickers and washi. I'm a Pisces and I collect things with Pisces symbols and imagery.

I joined the local "senior" group when I turned 55. It's called the Owls Club and I love it! They have a whole calendar of activities. My favorites are yoga, nature walks and book club. I've also started collecting owl things - stickers, washi tape, postcards etc.

I LOVE:

• Nature – trees, flowers, birds, bugs

• Oceans and beaches

• Coffee

• Road trips

• Books

• Study of meridians and chakras

• Volunteering

• Used and independent bookstores

• Baking

• Tarot & Oracle cards

• Gardening - herbs, vegetables and flowers

• Painting pottery

• Candle making

• Journals - love to journal daily

• Chocolate

• Peanut butter

• Chocolate & peanut butter 😉

• Wine

• Favorite color – Purple

• Dragonflies

• Bumble bees

• Images and art of the Blessed Mother

• Shells from the ocean, Lake Michigan and local rivers

• Crystals and stones

• Sun & moon images

My favorite vacation spots: Sedona AZ, Northern California (the Redwoods!), Gulf Shores, Alabama, Northern Michigan and Lake Michigan, New Orleans, Lake Tahoe, Taos, NM and San Francisco

It’s a dream of mine to visit India and Nepal someday. I love to collect postcards from these countries. I’m fascinated with Mt. Everest and read a lot of non-fiction on the mountain and the people who climb it.

I’m still on a quest to see all 50 states. I only have 12 left. States I'm planning to visit in 2025 to mark off my list: Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine.

I'm a big fan of art museums - especially enjoy Monet, Frida Kahlo, Picasso, Degas, Matisse and Gauguin. I also love Chihuly glass.

I'm a huge IndyCar fan. I've been attending the Indy 500 since I was a kid. I also lived in Indianapolis for 20 years. I love watching the races all season.

I can't explain it, but I have a fascination with Bigfoot. I collect postcards, playing cards, stickers,etc. of Bigfoot.

I collect all things peanut butter & jelly. The cuter the better.

THINGS I DO NOT LOVE

I do not eat beef or pork

• Color your own anything • Chocolate covered fruit • Flower flavored tea • Scraps of paper

I’m not a fan of bath bombs or anything bath related.

Extras are not necessary. I will not withhold a heart if you don't send extras

I love books! I love reading, collecting and sharing all types of books. I'm a big fan of used-book stores, small independent stores and Paperbackswap.

I like to collect old cookbooks, spiritual books (everything from Catholic saints to yoga), books of art and books on the Wheel of the Year.

I read a lot of fiction. I especially like books in a series. It's a fun way to spend more time with the characters.

I looked up book genres on Goodreads, so here's my list of favorite genres:

Fiction

Fantasy

Science Fiction

Mystery

Historical Fiction

Romance

Women's Fiction

Contemporary Fiction

Literary Fiction

Magical Realism

YA

Non Fiction

Memoir & Autobiography

Biography

Food & Drink

History

Travel

Religion & Spirituality

I enjoy paper crafts, journaling, baking, making prayer beads and rosaries, painting on all types of mediums, washi crafts, candle making, painting pottery, baking/decorating sugar cookies in holiday shapes, and drawing yantras and mandalas.

It’s been fun collecting cards for a franken-tarot deck.

I’ve collected random tarot cards for years and I never thought to create a unique deck. It’s so fun and is turning into a powerful tool.

Outside of the swaps creating my deck, my favorite tarot cards to collect are:

The High Priestess, The Wheel of Fortune, The Moon and The Sun.

My card for 2025: The High Priestess - Secrets, mystery, intuition and trust yourself.

I also enjoy using oracle cards for intuitive readings. I love the unpredictable nature of the franken-divination deck I’m slowly building. It’s been giving great information.

Currently, I’ve been doing a 6 card reading using 6 different tarot and oracle decks. Its messages from the animal kingdom, plants, yantras, Mother Mary, Healing oracle and Native American wisdom. We’ve had a lot of fun working with these decks and how the messages come together in each reading.

I enjoy all postcards, here are some of my favorites:

Star Wars

Coffeehouses, coffee mugs, people drinking coffee

Libraries, bookstores, people reading

Alice in Wonderland

Beaches

Favorite animals - bears, rhinoceros, whales, birds, tortoise, owls and rabbits

Mother nature: mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans, forests, meadows

City scenes

Trees

Flowers, fields of flowers

State map cards

Postcards of artwork, such as those bought in a museum

Touristy postcards from your town, city. state or country

Musicians from the 80's - Duran Duran, David Bowie, Prince, Michael Jackson etc.

Elvis

Recipes cards (but not recipes with meat if it is a picture of the dead carcass)

Alcoholic beverages

Pagan images

Frida Kahlo

Ive been collecting playing cards for a few years and we have made many Frankendecks. I mostly collect them now because I like the designs and art.

My favorite themes:
• Flowers/Trees/Nature • Ocean/Fish/Sharks/Shells
• Butterfly/Dragonfly
• Birds
• Places: landmarks, city, state, countries
• U.S. States; Favorites Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, New Mexico, California • Space/Moon/Sun/Planet
• Alcohol, beer, wine, liqueur
• Star Wars
• Coffee/Tea
• Elvis * Alice in Wonderland *Owls

I also collect Queens especially the Queen of hearts and the number 9 in all suits.

Favorite movies in no particular order:

*Top Gun * ALL Star Wars *Avatar movies *Tangled *Julie & Julia *all Hangover movies *A Star is Born *Elf *Field of Dreams *The Sound of Music *The Thomas Crown Affair *Dune *A Few Good Men *The Abyss *Bull Durham *Failure to Launch *Christmas with the Cranks

I am always interested in private swaps. Some ideas for swaps: washi samples, postcards, tarot/oracle decks or individual cards, playing cards and stickers.

I'm also looking for pen pals. I love to exchange newsy, chatty letters or notecards. Just for the fun of writing. (No extras need be exchanged - just words and friendship)

Music is a big part of my life and brings me great joy. I feel really blessed to live in a time when all my music fits in the palm of my hand (i.e. iPhone). Streaming services are a true blessing!

Some of my favorite genres:

Pop - some current top 40's, but always will love the 80's best! I love Duran Duran, Prince and Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Bon Jovi, too many to name.

Classic Rock - Everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Motley Crue

Classical - Mozart, Beethoven and Baroque

World - Kirtan and Liquid Mind

Oldies - I love Elvis and music from the 50's and 60's