feverfawn

Welcome to my profile! ~ info updated 5/19/24

5/24/24: I recently made an instagram account to post some of my art & swaps (only a few at the moment as I lost my archive of older photos when I had to replace my phone last year but more to come!), as well as just little things from my life - would love to add some swap-bot friends!

5/19/24: I'm really enjoying being back on swap-bot, even more than I expected I would. It had been over a year since my last swap and since I last had any urge or motivation to do something creative. Moving was stressful and it took that long for me to feel settled in my place and back to normal. It feels really nice to be making art and swapping again! I hope to start hosting some group swaps again very soon.

Please note that I moved last year and have a new address - it has been updated to be current on my profile! I may use an old return address label on some swaps I don't expect a reply to so as to not let them go to waste. I can still retrieve mail there and have forwarding set up so no worries if you happen to send something to it.

General stuff about me

Hello I'm Jess! In my early 30s, a part-time library employee, child-free, living with my boyfriend and our cat named Kitten - sweetest in the world! I never thought I'd have a cat before we took her in a few years ago as I was always so allergic, but over time I have adjusted and it rarely bothers me anymore. She has definitely made me a cat person! 🐈

Summer is my least favorite season. I prefer mountains to the beach and dream of someday seeing a desert in person. I appreciate solitude, quiet thoughts, and like to find beauty in strange places and small things. I don't like toxic positivity, however I try my best to focus on the good I can find and moving forward as opposed to revisiting the past or ruminating on what I can't control or change, whenever I can.

I'm an introvert and a home-body; If I'm not at work then I'm almost certainly at home alone doing my own thing. I have a tendency to collect things and I enjoy the hunt for them whether it's at thrift stores, flea markets, or online; used books, CDs, collage material and ephemera, postcards, stickers, postage stamps and banknotes, art supplies, indie perfumes and nail polish, little knick-knacks and treasures. I prefer a maximalist style to minimalism; all the things, leaving no space blank or empty. Too much space or emptiness makes me feel uncomfortable!

Some things I enjoy include books (reading + collecting), collage, drawing/sketching, journaling, jigsaw puzzles, meditation, all things related to dreams & altered states of consciousness, aliens!!!, conspiracy theories, thrifting, lifetime movies & various reality TV shows (I tend to enjoy things that could be described as "so bad they are actually good"), ambient music, indie perfume, and of course snail mail and mail art. Lately I have been having fun doing pencil/colored pencil drawings of birds and trying out neurographic art.

If you're into astrology- I am a Scorpio Sun, Capricorn Moon, Scorpio Rising, and have a 12th house stellium. My chart is heavily dominated by water and plutonian influence and I find it does describe me pretty well, though admittedly I am not so far into it as to plan my life around transits and such. I think of it more as a tool for self-discovery/understanding. I am also a metal goat in the Chinese zodiac.🐐

I'm not religious at all, but do consider myself "spiritual" - purposely leaving it vague as I don't really define it in any way. I'm very interested in altered states of consciousness, particularly astral projection and lucid dreaming as well as the in between states of sleep (hypnagogia,) all of which are spiritual experiences for me. If you happen to be similarly interested and are paired with me for a swap, feel free to share your own dreams and related experiences as I love to hear them! (To be clear, I won't make a point of talking about my spirituality unless it's relevant to a swap, something we seem to have in common, or if directly asked about it.)

Groups I Help Run!

Monsters, Myths, & Legends -- US ATC swappers

Oneironauts Only

Swapper's Paradise!

!!!ATTN swappers:

Since moving to an apartment, I now take my mail directly to the post office myself as I'm not sure how reliable the outgoing mail slot is at my complex. Before I would mark sent when I placed a swap in my mailbox, but now I'll mark sent when swaps have actually been dropped off at the PO. Swaps may be completed/dated prior to the day I am actually able to send and I may be sending closer to deadlines than I used to in order to minimize the number of trips I have to make, but I will always plan accordingly and send my swaps by the deadline!

Please, please message me if you have not received a swap from me after a reasonable amount of time! I always send my swaps, but we all know how the mail is these days and even within the US things can easily get lost or take a long time to arrive. I'm happy to resend if given the opportunity. I take photos of all my swaps so I can send the images as proof as well.

I always rate and try to do so the same day I receive; sometimes it may take me a few days, but chances are if I have not rated I have not yet received. I don't mind if you want to check in with me about ratings. I'll always message before rating if I haven't received a swap and would appreciate the same courtesy. If you know you'll be late sending a swap just let me know - I appreciate communication and will try to work with you! I will also do the same should something come up on my end.

For any swaps I am hosting I will always angel if you're flaked on after you've attempted communication with your partner and also rated appropriately ~ please contact me about any issues in my hosted swaps so I can help!

Swaps I Enjoy: I like simple flat mail swaps such as postcards (blank or written, but I will be focusing more on swapping naked/written postcards for now,) and letters or penpal type swaps - one off or ongoing (though I must admit I am not the quickest with replies), international and domestic, with topics or even stream-of-consciousness. I'm hoping to do more mail art swaps this year including: ATCs, handmade postcards and bookmarks, collage, decorated envelopes, and drawings or sketches. I'm open to doing private swaps for flat-mail like written postcards and handmade art, as well as profile based/small package or wishlist item swaps (US only due to postage costs) with established users that have common interests. Feel free to PM about a private swap or even just to chat! :)

Topics to Write About: If you need ideas for letter writing swaps or something to write on a postcard here's some suggestions! Tell me about a dream or a weird/unexplainable/paranormal experience you had, your favorite poem (write it out and include the title/author if you can,) the top place you'd most like to visit in the world or favorite place you've been and why, tell me about something you collect - why you collect it, how long you've been collecting and your favorite piece in the collection, what your hobbies are and what you like to do to relax, something that really fascinates you and why, tell me about a typical day in your life/where you live (or alternately, about a very untypical day for you,) talk to me about anything we have in common based on my profile or go for stream-of-consciousness writing and just say whatever comes to your mind!

Please don't feel like you need to include "extras" or anything other than swap requirements. These are just ideas to help with personalizing swaps or for profile-based swaps.

If you happen to have any space-related stamps I would be thrilled if you use them on the swaps you send me!🪐

Favorite Things

Colors: I LOVE green in any shade - my absolute favorite color. I also like cool blues and purples (especially green/blue/purple together,) golden yellows, deep reds, black (& white together,) grayscale, and rainbows or vibrant color schemes. Holographic and glow-in-the-dark are not exactly colors, but I love that sort of thing.

Animals: I like all animals in general, but my top favorites would be ducks of any kind, loons, bears (especially grizzly or panda,) all wild cats, and any kind of ocean creatures.

Postcards:
Tourist - I enjoy cards (from anywhere) with scenic landscapes, mountains, deserts, ocean views, flora & fauna, and those that depict weather (lightning, tornadoes etc) sunsets, aurora borealis, rainbows and such. I also like cards with local culture or significant places from your location. Some specific places I particularly like are the American Southwest, Blue Ridge Mountains, Alaska and Japan.

Non-tourist - Art themed (famous works & otherwise) especially Japanese woodblock prints/+other Asian art, Hieronymus Bosch, medieval and surrealist works, realistic animals, aliens & UFOs, space/galaxy themes, weird/strange/unusual however you interpret that, mythology, Ancient Egypt, lenticular/3D, and anything else profile related.

Zazzle/store-printed are always welcome and I also love handmade cards!

Tea/Coffee etc: For tea I'm open to most anything, caffeinated or decaf and herbals. I would love to try your favorite flavors! My favorites are any kind of herbal (I actually drink far more herbal than anything else as I prefer to get my morning caffeine from coffee!) flavored green and white teas, genmaicha, and earl grey. I'm not fond of "diet" teas or artificial sweeteners. For coffee, any kind is welcome though I don't have a keurig and can't use the pods. I prefer not to receive any food items other than hard candy. Preferably all in individually sealed bags please!

Music: in no particular order... Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Iron & Wine, Emma Ruth Rundle, Queen Adreena/Ruby Throat/Katie Jane Garside, Sun Kil Moon, Red House Painters, Modest Mouse, José González, Have a Nice Life, Steve Roach, Brian Eno, and Boards of Canada. Love ambient and 90s (and early 00s) alt/rock in general.

Books/Authors: Philip K. Dick, Robert Monroe, C.G. Jung, Terence McKenna, Alan Watts, Shirley Jackson. I'm a fan of science fiction, new age/occult/esoteric weirdness, and interesting non-fiction. If you'd like to be goodreads friends, let me know! I keep that profile private, but I'm happy to add friends from swap-bot.

Video Games: I mainly play games on Nintendo Switch, 3DS and PC, though my laptop is a bit busted right now and not fun to use. I go through phases where I play a lot to hardly at all, but when I do play games these are what I enjoy - Animal Crossing (my favorite villager is Curt, but I like all the bear and dog villagers especially,) The Sims 3, Pokemon Legends Arceus (also played red/blue back in the day - my favorite is Psyduck, and also love Abra + all evolutions, and Gengar,) Fallout (3 and New Vegas,) Skyrim, Rune Factory 4, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Sim City. I also like to play time management cooking, word, match 3 and puzzle type games while I have the TV on in the background - games that you can zone out to basically. I'm really looking forward to the new Fantasy Life coming out on Switch this year! If you want to be friends on Switch let me know!

ABC list of likes!

A - aliens, altered states of consciousness, ambient music, animals, Anubis, aquariums, art, astral projection, astrology, astronomy, aurora borealis

B - badtz-maru, banknotes, bears, bibliomancy, bioluminescent creatures, birds, black widow spiders, bookmarks

C - capricorn, cats (wild cats especially!), coffee, coins, collage, conspiracy theories, crop circles, cryptids, cults, Curt the bear (from animal crossing)

D - deep sea, deserts, documentaries, drawing, dreams/dreaming, ducks

E - eclipses, Ancient Egypt, ephemera, esoterica, ESP (extrasensory perception)

F - forests/woodlands, fractals, fridge magnets, frogs, fun facts

G - Garfield, ginkgo leaves, glow-in-the-dark things, goats/rams, green

H - haiku, handmade art, herbs, Hieronymus Bosch, history (particularly about ancient civilizations), holographic things, horror, hypnagogia

I - insects

J - jigsaw puzzles, journaling, Jupiter

K - kawaii, kelp forests, keroppi, keychains, kimono patterns

L - landscapes, letters, lifetime movies, lilies & lily-of-the-valley, liminal spaces, loons, lotus, lucid dreaming

M - mail art, maximalism, medieval art, meditation, memo sheets, mixed media, moths, mountains, Mt. Fuji, mugwort, mushrooms, mythology

N - The Nazca Lines, near death experiences (NDEs), new age topics

O - occult/esoteric topics, oceans and ocean creatures, Otagiri, ourosboros

P - paper (origami, chiyogami, yuzen, mulberry, handmade etc,) paranormal, perfume, Philip K Dick, photographs & polaroids, playing cards, Pluto, podcasts, poems/poetry, postage stamps (foreign or domestic, used or unused etc,) postcards, praying mantis, pressed pennies, psychedelic themes, psychic phenomena, psyduck, pyramids

Q - quotes

R - radios & old radio shows, reading, reality TV, reptiles, Robert Monroe, rubber stamps

S - science fiction, scorpio, scorpions, sleep paralysis, Southwestern US, space/galaxy themes, stationery, stickers, Stonehenge, sun/sunsets, surrealism

T - tarot, tea, thrifted items, tornadoes, trees, tropical fish, The Twilight Zone

U - UFOs, Ukiyo-e (woodblock prints), Unsolved Mysteries, used books

V - venus flytraps & other carnivorous plants, video games, volcanoes

W - washi tape, waterfowl, weather phenomena, weird & otherwise strange things

X - The X-files

Y - Yōkai (Japanese folklore)

Z - zener cards, zines, zodiac

Dislikes

I think I'm pretty easy to please and like many more things than I dislike, but there are some things that I don't particularly want to receive. Whenever possible I will try to pass such things on to other swappers who do enjoy them.

• loose glitter on anything
• any kind of holiday themes (even when in season - I just don't care for holidays; the exception being if you are not from the US and it's a holiday unique to your country or culture)
• religious messages such as god/jesus loves you, bible or other verses etc or anything with the intention to convert or assert one belief over another (I don't mind some religious imagery from any religion if it's particularly beautiful or historically interesting)
• patriotism or political themes/messages
• harry potter, star wars, marvel, pixar, disney, anime or similar
• children's items or crafts, teacher/reward or kiddie character stickers
• food items (aside from sealed hard candy, tea or coffee)

I don't necessarily expect this to be an issue, but I want to mention it just in case - I would very much appreciate not being sent materials, letters, or postcards with mentions of dieting or weight-loss, calories/nutrition, or any sort of body dissatisfaction or even body positivity. Thank you for respecting this!