17pansies

Parent, fangirl, storyteller, queer. Mad knitter, quilter, gardener and cook. Kids, dogs, chickens, books everywhere.

Love life, peace, coffee and cake. MA Creative Writing, pondering the insanity of doing a PhD.

I joined Swapbot many years ago, but never did any swaps because life got insane. I just used to peruse the lists of swaps and think about what I'd send if I joined this or that one.

Now life is a little calmer (basically my health is worse so I've had to slow down) and I can actually plan ahead enough to join in :) I think I'm going to dive into some recipe swaps to get going with because I do love to cook ALL the things. Recipes are some of my favourite things to receive. We eat pretty much anything and everything in this house, and as there are six of us, we tend to cook big!

I live in a rural bit of the country and my local post office, whilst accommodating, isn't the most efficient. Sometimes I drop things off to send and they don't go until the next day. Please don't judge send dates by postmarks! That saying, I can't complain because they'll happily let me post stuff on a Sunday - which is practically unheard of :)

Edited 17/7/17 - ok, maybe my post office is worse than I thought. I've had about four or five things go missing, so I'm resending things today from a different post office and crossing my fingers. If you've not received your swap from me, please let me know and I'll make sure you get your package!

The little things you can't find a use for: any scraps of fabric bigger than 4" square; the teeny balls of leftover sock yarn that you've kept because you didn't know what to do with them; the partially used packets of seed lurking in a drawer.

Lip balm. Buttons. Favourite family recipes written on scraps of paper. Pencil drawings.

The colours green & purple; wood & smooth glass, felt & wool; fountain pens, pencils, notebooks & stationery; my piano; lemon, chocolate, ginger & cinnamon; books, recipes; my garden & tea; yellow & bronze; autumn; dragons & stars; Japanese food.

I grow vegetables, so heirloom seeds of pretty much any kind will find a little corner of my garden waiting for them.

Postcards are always fun to get - I really love the ones with recipes on, or scenes/traditional artwork of your country. I'm not keen on funny or joke cards, but love history and old buildings. I'm also a sucker for a pretty airplane or classic car.

Acrylic yarn, fuzzy stuff, dolls & clowns, neon brights, almonds & marzipan, mushrooms, metal knitting needles, kawaii, manga, anime, cutesy stuff, clutter, lavender and other cloying scents, aniseed, twee & bright blue.

I don't have much use for scrapbooking supplies, but I do have teenage girls who will be more than happy to put them to use if you include them in my package!

Gosh, I love books. I have hundreds of the things and keep collecting them because you can never have too many!

I read all kinds of fiction - I especially love scif-fi and fantasy (David Eddings, Sergei Lukyanenko) and ADORE steampunk and kick-ass Victorians (George Mann, Lucy Ribchester, James Blaylock). I am a mad Sherlock Holmes fan and have read every story multiple times, and seen all the screen adaptations (Jeremy Brett is my forever Holmes, although RDJ's was even more delightfully camp if that's possible).

I collect and read an equal amount of non-fiction, especially cookbooks, gardening and self-sufficiency books. I have a growing collection of vintage (pre-1950) cookbooks, and especially love the wartime, homefront and Dig for Victory publications. I've got several binders of sheet protectors that are FULL of recipe pamphlets and newspaper cuttings, and if you want to send me a copy of your favourite family recipe, I would be utterly delighted to add it to my collection and make it for my family. I always try to make every recipe I receive at least once, and some have made it into our regular monthly menu! (Ask me about the curry roasted squash...)

I have a bit of a notebook fetish as well, I must admit, and a nice new blank notebook, of any size or thickness, will always be cooed over and cuddled.

I'm not a reader of mass market romantic fiction (unless it's a twist on the usual boring "boy meets girl" formula - I'm currently putting together a post-grad thesis proposal that deals with non traditional relationships in modern romantic fiction, so if you want to send me anything that has same-sex couples, couples with wildly different ages/races/religions/backgrounds, ones that feature an older woman and a younger guy, long distance or asexual relationships etc, I would be DELIGHTED).,

About the only things I really dislike are horror; traumatic, real-life, angst-filled monographs and biographies, and animal stories. I have enough drama with my own kids and dogs! :)

Latest reads:
The Martian
The Night Watch
The Incorruptibles
The Kabul Beauty School
Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (OMG IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS, GO GO GO NOW AND DO SO)
The Essex Serpent (just about to start!)