staceyb

Update in August:

I try my best to rate as soon as I receive a swap. But if you feel like I should have received your swap and I haven't rated, please don't be afraid to send me a message about it. I know how it goes being worried about packages lost in the mail. I also try to wait a reasonable amount of time before sending a message asking if my partner has received my swap yet. Please don't be mad at me as I am just making sure you received my swap, not begging for ratings. :)

If I am in a profile specific swap with you, and you are just stuck on what to do, don't be afraid to message me and ask for help. I try to keep my likes list pretty open but I know how it goes when you just hit a wall for ideas. :)

Please let me know before rating a 1 as I will never not send or send late without prior notice. I will resend if anything is lost in the mail, no matter how big or small the swap was. I recently added an Etsy Fave link because I love looking at swap partner's faves to see what style of things they like, I thought I'd do my partners the same favor! I have no 'dislike' list because I am pretty much open to all types of things and don't want to limit people.

I finally added a Flickr link! It has some of my swaps sent and soon some that I received. Hope you enjoy. :)

Hi! I am 31 years old, married to my high school sweet-heart, but no kids yet. I live in Wisconsin, so that means mostly indoors 5 months out of the year. I have been here my whole life but have traveled a bit. My family used to camp and canoe when I was younger. My husband and I have lately taken vacations to Las Vegas (relatives live there) and St. Louis for the Tour of Missouri (cycling stage race). We have been to New Orleans multiple times and I can't wait to go back again some time. I cook a lot and am a better cook than baker, but I do love to try new cookie recipes.

My favorite thing about swap-bot so far is that it gives me an excuse to make things! My family and friends can only handle so much handmade love. :) Having a guideline and a deadline helps me be creative on a more regular basis.

From Johnny Cash to Franz Ferdinand to Nine Inch Nails to Alexi Murdoch I like almost everything :) GoGo Pandora radio for finding new favorites.

Most of what I am listening to now:

Gorillaz ●♫● Norah Jones ●♪● Alexi Murdoch ●♫● Patrick Watson ●♪● Modest Mouse ●♫● Feist ●♪● Dave Matthews Band ●♫● Zero 7 ●♪● The Shins ●♫● Iron & Wine ●♪● Jack Johnson ●♫● Coldplay ●♪● Paul Simon

I used to read a lot more than I have lately, but I tend to love series of books over single ones for the most part.

• George R.R. Martin has the best series ever and I really wish he would finish it! (Game of Thrones)
• Stephen Lawhead's series: The Raven King, Song of Albion.
• Garth Nix: The Old Kingdom series and I am halfway through The Seventh Tower series
• Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash is my favorite book of all time, not a series. Diamond Age.
• Neil Gaiman: American Gods, Stardust, Neverwhere.
• Tolkien: It's been a while since I've read the full series but I have read it multiple times in the past.

I watch almost every single new show and get terribly disappointed when they cancel the ones I really like 2 months into the season. I stay away from most reality shows, except for the ones on Bravo.

I've been crocheting since I was a kid (thank you Girl Scouts) I try not to start big crochet projects as I tend to not finish them. Baby blankets and scarves are the biggest I do. I have more scarves than one girl would ever need and all of my family and friends have one made by me as well.

I usually just find a ball or two of yarn that I love and the project goes from there. I have tried a few amigurumi and they have turned out adorable.

I also love to make books, block print, screen print, sew semi simple things, and dabble in any other area that intrigues me.

My like list would be pretty big if I listed everything, but I wanted to add at least a few things:

• Colors: I like them all but top on my favorite list lately (tends to change) are: wasabi green, pumpkin orange, scarlet red, baby blue, goldenrod, and of course pink!
• Cultural: I enjoy things from any and all cultures.
• Tea and Coffee: I drink both. Lots of both. I love whole leaf tea (iced in summer) and coffee with lots of creamer in it. Anything tea and coffee related or decorated is awesome.
• Anything Organizational: boxes baskets tins folders jars drawers envelopes, you name it, I use it to organize my stuff. :)
• Links to interesting projects or blogs with projects. I love free patterns and there are so many blogs out there that even make pdf patterns, yay for the internet!
  More to come later!

Updated In October la~

Here is a small list of things I would love to receive. Don't feel the need to send extras however. I rate on the thought put into what I receive, not the extra stuff with it.

• I am fascinated with other people's handwriting. Mostly because I think mine sucks (most of us do right?) Write your alphabet out on a scrap of paper as an extra, I'd love it, and it's free!
• Plastic erasers of all sizes. (I carve them to make stamps and if you wanted a private swap for them let me know!)
• I love Ribbon! Any length
• I might love Buttons more, it's a close race. Big and small.
• Any used block printing ink. I figured out the ink I have that is a decade old is way better than the stuff you can buy now. If you have some you have been wanting to toss, I will put it to good use.
• Black pens. I can't not buy a black pen/marker that I don't have when I see one. I'm trying to find "the perfect" pen/marker.
• Fabric linen tape and inkpads for fabric. It's on the top of my "next thing to buy on Etsy" list.
• Washi tape or simple looking deco tape.
• Chiyogami, unryu, or other neato decorative papers, even smaller scraps, they don't have to be perfect rectangles!
• Crochet hooks- non plastic, and not Susan Bates. Especially in size 4.5mm those are impossible to find in the States and I always seem to lose them.
• Neat looking ephemera, especially book pages in different languages.
• Local coffee or drink packets. I got some great cappuccino from Germany (thanks @Emkay) but even if they aren't from another country. My local specialty food store has great single pot ground coffee packs for example.
• I am an XL shirt size, not gonna lie!
• Retro type robots, aliens, monsters, zombies, etc.
• Zines! A new fascination, although I have only made one I plan to get into it in the Autumn when I have more time on my hands.
• Mail-Art items - Artistamps, hand carved stamps, handmade envelopes, etc. *Linen fabric scraps. Stamping on fabric is a new-found love and it is so pretty on linen.

My husband and I are pretty big gamers. We both grew up with D&D and console games. Currently we play WoW together, raiding and all. It's great to have something we both like that we can talk about and do together so I love it.
We have owned every Nintendo system ever except for the DS. I'm a little bigger on MMOs than him so I have quite the list. My first was Everquest, then EQ2. City of Heroes has the best spell effects in any MMO, too bad it had no depth. Vanguard, rushed to max level then had nothing to do. Age of Conan, Star Trek Online, Tabula Rasa, Hellgate: London, Aion were all very shortlived. Big fan of Starcraft, can't wait for Starcraft2. I'm not very good at shooters but will play an occasional one. Other games I liked: Portal, Bioshock, World of Goo, Abe's Exodus, etc. Mostly settled in WoW for the time being. :)