Whimzies

I am creative and artistic – I like to write, draw, paint, KNIT!!!, sew, and a variety of other crafts and artistic endeavors. I love beauty and whimsy and fantasy in my life. My favorite color is yellow, but I love ALL colors, particularly ones that are rich and bright, or soft and romantic. I also love rainbow-colored things. I wear a lot of pale pink because it goes quite well with my skin.

I'm a psuedo-nerd, and I enjoy video games, science fiction, tabletop gaming, Renaissance festivals, and the like. I'm also a bit of a dork in that I love toys - Legos are my faves (my collection is huge) but I also have kind of a thing for fashion dolls (I'm always making clothes and things for them) and My Little Ponies. I love broken toys - I take them in, fix them up, and create all new personalities for them. So feel free to send broken toys my way and I will be sure that they are given lots of love!

I'm definitely a "one person's trash is another person's treasure" kind of person. I'm always trying to find new ways to re-purpose something that generally would have been tossed. I can always find a way to use paper, from phone books and old magazines, to junk mail and packaging card stock, etc. If it is paper, I can find a way to use it. But I'm good with most anything, really. If I can't think of a way to use something right away, I stash it away for later.

I love all crafts and love receiving handmade items as well as crafting supplies. I'm also a sucker for vintage and antique things, especially things from (or themed) around the 1930s or 1940s (The Great Depression and WWII).

My dogs are my sunshine and I love spoiling them and showing them off! I currently have eight dogs (four dachshunds, two beagle mixes, a blue heeler and an aussie mix) who are all inside dogs. So, as you can imagine, I also spend a lot of time cleaning up after them! I am always looking for better ways to clean using natural or green methods when I can - usually the kind that I can make myself at home (as I think it's a bit silly that a company can slap a "Green!" sticker on something just to charge ridiculous amounts for it).

I love recipes! I am better at baking than cooking, but have been known to set fire to my oven on accident! 0.o I still enjoy trying, though, and my delicious homemade bread is quickly gaining a good reputation with my family and friends. My favorite things to bake are breads and pies, but I could really use more easy cooking recipes for main dishes (both meat and vegetarian!).

I love strange and unique fashion and subcultures, like steampunk, cyberpunk, dieselpunk (most kinds of -punk, really!), lolita, Japanese street fashion, etc. Anything out of the ordinary!

I have as many interests as there are insects, and new ones are always being added. On any given day, you might find me buried in a story about Norse mythology, planting tulips in my front yard, trying to play a song by ear on my guitar or piano, playing Magic the Gathering, brewing a delicious cup of tea in my wonderful cast iron teapot, writing a letter to a friend, teaching my dogs a new trick, working on my impressive Lego collection, reading academic papers, role-playing on the Internet, hanging out at a local pub (but not drinking - I got wasted once and that experience put an end to my desire to indulge in alcohol), playing with Linux, writing complicated calculus problems in giant letters on my driveway with sidewalk chalk, flying a kite at Lake Hefner, perusing craigslist for random stuff I probably don’t need, killing zombies, baking a pie, etc. Only very rarely are there dull moments inside my head.

I LOVE getting new music recommendations (and mixed cds!)! I can often be found perusing other people's profiles simply to check out their favorite singers and bands.

While I do listen to mainstream music, I prefer pretty and unique sounds. I listen to A LOT of movie scores and soundtracks, as well as a lot of indie music, musicals (Broadway and otherwise), and jazz/big band/swing/rockabilly music, 80's rock and pop, etc.

My current singer/band favorites are Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Pomplamoose, Adele, Clockwork Quartet, Abney Park, Mumford and Sons, Iron and Wine, Girlyman, Mediaeval Baebes, Phildel, Priscilla Ahn, Joanna Newsom, Bing Crosby, They Might Be Giants, Evelyn Evelyn, The Andrew Sisters, among others. As far as mainstream stuff, my favorites are Blue October, Coldplay, and Lady Gaga.

I am a passionate reader. I love fantasy, science fiction, and magic realism, but my reading interests expand far beyond speculative fiction. Lately I've been reading a lot of young adult literature (the Percy Jackson books, the Hunger Games, etc).

A few of my favorite authors: Orson Scott Card, William Gibson, J.R.R. Tolkien, Kevin J. Anderson, J.K. Rowling, Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, Salmon Rushdie, Terry Goodkind, Robert Heinlein. etc.

My favorite books of ALL TIME are the Harry Potter books, but I also have an intense love for everything Lord of the Rings.

The main genres I don't like are crime novels (if I want to read about crimes, I'll read the newspaper!) and overly-preachy Christian fiction.

I love quality animated films, old and new. My favorite movie of ALL TIME is the original Toy Story. I also loved How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, the first Shrek, Fern Gully, and good Disney movies like Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Bambi, and Dumbo.

I'm also a fan of Hayao Miyazaki's anime films.

Aside from animation, I love The Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, Secondhand Lions, the first Pirates of the Caribbean, Stardust, Dirty Dancing, Pretty in Pink, Penelope, Big, the Star Trek movies (old and new), The Village, 300, the Harry Potter movies, Whip It and countless others.

Knitting is definitely my favorite, followed by anything paper-crafty. I also make and repair toys. I truly enjoy sewing, crocheting, hand embroidery, etc. I even do woodworking sometimes!

I definitely believe in reusing everything and love taking trash and turning it into something wonderful.

I make almost everything that my dogs need (beds, toys, winter coats, etc).

The WORST thing about swap-bot has got to be rude raters. I see them on others' walls and have encountered a few myself, and I dislike them even more than flakers.

Swap-bot is supposed to be FUN. Before I rate someone, I always take a step back and make sure I'm not taking this too seriously. This is my hobby, not my job! There's no need to be snarky or overly critical simply because the swap I received wasn't what I was expecting.

If I receive a swap from you, even if it is late, I'm going to rate a '5,' because I appreciate that you sent something at all! Flakers will be rated a '3,' and I will change it to a '5' if I do ever receive something.

Why the lenient rating system, you ask? Because think about it - if someone flakes on me, it's disappointing, but it isn't THAT big of a deal. I know for a fact that life happens - good and bad - and sometimes people can't fulfill their promises. Don't automatically assume that a flaker is just a bad person taking advantage - maybe that person couldn't send because they had a death in the family, they became quite ill, or their car broke and they had to spend all their extra money to fix it. Leaving a rude rating doesn't help that situation at all. So I pledge to be polite, courteous, and lenient in my dealings with people on swap-bot, because I feel like it is the right thing to do.

Those people who do post rude ratings on swap-bot, while they may feel justified in doing so, really need to stop taking things so seriously and learn a little forgiveness.

PLEASE NOTE: The mail in my city does occasionally run slow. Our landlord lives in the same city, and has several times received our rent checks over a month late, despite being postmarked on time. I apologize in advance if any of your swaps show up a little late due to this.

I will message you if I will be sending my swap late due to unforeseen circumstances, so if you haven't received my swap yet and haven't heard from me, please contact me and I will happily resend.