AnDark

Hi, my name is Anneke and I live with my boyfriend and our two charcoal Labradors in a big city in the Netherlands. Well, big for Dutch standards. My hobbies are reading, walking/playing/cuddling with my dogs, cross stitch embroidery, crochet, knitting, journal writing, collecting yarn, writing and receiving letters , paper crafting and playing board games. I love drinking tea all day long. I like creepy stuff and rude, funny and/or sarcastic postcards.

My favourite genres are metal and rock, but I also listen to some classical music. I love singing along as well, as long as no one can hear me. Usually I listen to one to three bands very intensely for a few weeks. At the moment I am madly in love with the music of Sleep Token.

I love so many books! The books I love most are usually literary novels. Some of my favourite authors are Anne Rice, Kate Morton, Meg Wolitzer, Leah Stewart, Kate Atkinson, Lionel Shriver, Sarah Waters and Barbara Vine. Sometimes I need an easy read and for those times I usually pick fast paced thrillers or a humorous book. Every now and then I read non fiction, mostly biographies or books about subjects I find interesting.

My main passions are crochet and knitting and that is also what I spend most of my crafting time on. I also like cross stitch embroidery. I am currently working on a big project, a ribcage, on black fabric. What was I thinking? I also enjoy making cards, ATCs, mixed media projects and I like scrapbooking. Other than those things I love trying new things, so it’s not strange for me to switch things up regularly. My latest new thing is blackwork embroidery. I love how pretty it looks.

Tea is my main drink. I just love it and drink it from morning until night.

Stuff I don’t like: rooibos (I hate this stuff with a passion, but “green rooibos” is fine, since it tastes very different), plain teas (any kind, black, green, white, oolong, whatever), turmeric. I cannot have anything with licorice or licoriceroot in it, so please do not send me this. I also don’t like added sugar and artificial sweeteners.

CAUTION: when you are planning to send me tea, please check the ingredients carefully. I’ve already received a bunch with licorice root and those are dangerous for me to drink.

Stuff I do like: any flavoured tea, especially fruits (all kinds) or spices or a mix of those, herbal teas are very welcome too, as are medical teas for throat and stomach issues.

If you are aiming to make me happy and are looking for flavours I love: pineapple, salted butter, caramel, hazelnut, peach, chocolate, banana, blackcurrant, passionflower, mint-chocolate, any fruit mixed with cinnamon. Brands that are commonly available to me (and thus slightly less interesting to receive) are Pickwick and Clipper/Cupper. I’m fine with bags of tea without an envelope and loose tea, provided they are wrapped in paper or in a small ziploc bag, on which is written what the tea is.

Teas I’ve tasted through swap-bot and would love to have again: Bigelow Peppermint Bark (year round, please look at the ingredients closely, because I’ve had one with and one without licorice root in it); Twinings Peppermint Cheer, Stash Christmas in Paris

Candy of any kind. Most of the year I eat keto or paleo, so anything with sugar is a big no no.

Religious items or wishes. I’ve had terrible experiences with religion and am an atheist to the core.

Anything dark and creepy (think skulls, skeletons, Halloween, witches); anything Ancient Egypt, lettersets and writing pads; stickers with creepy theme, Christmas, Easter, Halloween or mythological creatures; tea (see above for likes and dislikes), even if a swap calls for tea plus something extra, I’m fine with the extra being tea as well; rubber or clear stamps (creepy stuff, rude/funny sentences or flourishes); scrapbooking paper with skulls, skeletons, damask patterns; blackwork embroidery patterns; cross stitch embroidery patterns (skulls, skeletons, animals, flowers, rude and/or funny sentences); embroidery fabric (any kind); book pages in any language that is not Dutch, English or German.