MissiveMaven

I'm a gal in her mid-30s, happily married with no kids and 2 excessively spoiled and very loved cats.

I am a little bit obsessed with letters and snail mail - you can see all my mail action on my blog, www.missivemaven.com.

I'm very into mail art or decorative mail, I like funky postcards and decorated envelopes, anything interesting, different, fun in my mailbox makes my day! I send and receive a ridiculous amount of mail, but there's always room for more.

(My previous Swap-Bot username was GreenVelvet - I am most grateful to the admins for changing it for me in June 2011!)

*cats

*bats (the amazing flying mammals!)

*mythical creatures such as dragons, unicorns, fairies, mermaids

*snails

*fountain pens and ink. I am mad crazy about fountain pens and fountain pen ink.

*Victorian, Edwardian and Art Nouveau

*postal and writing motifs

*cards with postal/mailbox/airmail themes

*anything magical (wizards, Harry Potter, etc) / fantasy artwork

*images of books, reading, writing

*The Muppets and anything by Jim Henson

*Edward Gorey

*hedgehogs, forest creatures

*reptiles and amphibians

*weird or dark humor

*spooky halloween themes

*not generally into dogs, but I love pugs

*postcards by Inkognito or Nouvelles Images

*artwork/postcards by Michael Sowa

*mid-century modern style or illustration

*anything odd, offbeat, unusual

*genuine upfront honesty

*curling up with a good book and losing myself for an hour

*sitting by a cozy fire in winter

I do not own a TV. I know that is odd and unusual but I'm very happy without it.

But - I do watch some things on DVD or streamed video, and I am absolutely devoted to old episodes of The Muppet Show.

I do stream some more current shows, too, and I am a huge fan of Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones.

I read a lot, and am partial to modern literary fiction, but I have a big fantasy streak, too.

Some of my favorite books, in no particular order (except the order I think of them): The Corrections / Jonathan Franzen

The Mists of Avalon / Marion Zimmer Bradley

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit / Jeanette Winterson

The Passion / Jeanette Winterson

(actually I love almost anything by Jeanette Winterson)

Bastard out of Carolina / Dorothy Allison

Three Junes / Julia Glass

The Perks of Being a Wallflower / Stephen Chbosky

The God of Small Things / Arundhati Roy

Middlesex / Jeffrey Eugenides

Revolutionary / Alex Myers

...I could go on and on...

but here's my LibraryThing library, which I use pretty much as a reading journal: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/GreenVelvet

*Please, please, please DON'T send me religious items or sentiments. Yes, Easter and Christmas are religious and I'm not Christian. Please save churches, crosses, bible verses for someone else.

*CHRISTMAS STUFF / anything with a Christmas theme (stickers, notecards, etc)

*FBs / friendship books

*Anything that smells like / has been near cigarette smoke. I'm very sensitive to smoke.

*I'm not a fan of general "touristy" postcards. I have more than enough already. I understand I'll get them for a sender's choice swap, but if you have the choice between something touristy and something else, choose something else and I'll be most grateful.