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Don't know if it's possible to pick a favorite book, but, these are my most current favorite reads/authors: Historical fiction - Tea Rose Trilogy Anything by Gillian Flynn - thrilller Kristin Hannah: Winter Garden/Nightingale -historical fiction & strong female leads Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology- YA fantasy Anything by Madiline Miller - Greek Mythology retellings The Martian/Hail Mary Project- Syfi-ish The Storied Life of A.J Fikry - sad-ish Love and other Consolation prizes - Montana author Night Circus/Starless Sea: Erin Morgenstern-beautiful imagery/magic Pratical Magic series (4) - darker than the movie 🌶😳 Den of Vipers/Immoral Confessions

Outlander obsessed!!

I am sure that this will get longer as I add other categories and remember old favorites. I have just started using storygraph (smiley24723) recently. I'm currently tracking my reads for this year. And, as I remember books I have read in the past, adding those too.

Hello New Friends - I'm excited to be here with people that also enjoy snail mail!

I'm Carly - a friend of mine once said I like to collect hobbies and that seemed like a fair assessment. I enjoy any and all new crafts or anything creative. If it involves fabric, yarn, and/or thread I have probably tried it. I dabble in painting- watercolor is my favorite . But, painting rocks is also fun! Some of my "crazier" hobbies include climbing mountains, running half marathons, and shooting guns. My sister is my hiking partner and my cousins are crazy runners too.I'm hoping the timing works out to join a ladies trap shooting league this summer. I'm also an avid reader - if you couldn't tell by my first post being all about books.

Some of the specifics about me - I'm 40+ , divorced, empty nester...mother of an almost 21 year old son and cat mom to 4 cats. Or, better known in my friend circle, the crazy cat lady starter pack. I live in Montana curtsey of the military. 10 years of active duty Air Force and 5 years guard with an 8 year break in between. Prior to Montana I've lived in Germany, Turkey & The Azores! The military further ignited my love of travel and now I can't see enough of the world. A by product of travel is that I love trying new foods. I can't get enough of Indian food and dream of food I ate in Hungary.

So, that's a little about me. I look forward getting to others here, maybe, make friends, and share crafts.

So, some of the details, hobbies within hobbies, obsessions, and quirks of the things I like.

I like unique things which I think most excites me about this site. I love art and hand made things, things not mass produced. Obviously that doesn't work for ever thing. But, when I can I prefer one of a kind items. I love shopping local and everywhere I go I look for local book and tea shops. I prefer things that I can use and beautiful practical item.

I like all tea - my preference is the baking spice flavors tho. Not so much the fruity ones but want to try them all. And, all the accessories that go with them: cute spoons, tea bag trivet, flavored honey, etc. Also, I love loose leaf tea!! It's a little harder for mail but it's more my go to than tea bags.

I have a deep love borderline obsession with flavored olive oil and vinegar. I have no food allergies, like spice, love anything lemon. Dark chocolate over milk

Squirrels are a thing - I don't collect them (yet- I do have an extensive Etsy collection of squirrel art waitingin my cart ha!) but I do send out x-mas cards with squirrels every year.

Love jewel tones- purple is my favorite (not royal purple). I do wear mostly shades of blue and scarves of all colors - Large mixed metals are my favorite accessories.

I think this is a good start...part of me wants to give an extensive list. The other part wants to keep it limited so I can see what people come up with. As I do more swaps I'm sure this list will develop.

Some of my favorite t.v. shows - Madame Secretary, Schittz Creek - I watch this on repeat and seen at least 6 times!; Ali Wong's Netflix specials Hard Knock Wife and Baby Cobra, Outlander, Good Girls, New Girl, Grace & Frankie, anything with Ryan Reynolds! The Proposal is another one that I can watch and love no matter how many times I've seen it! Stripes will always be one of my favorites too.

Michelle Wolf & Taylor Tomlinson are more of my favorite comedians. I also enjoy The Daily Show with Jon Stewart & Trevor Noah. If you know any of these comedians it should give you a pretty good sense of my type of humor. And, that I'm not offended by profanity. Although, I do prefer a clever use of profanity than just cusing for the sake of it.

Also, love the older classic Chistmas movies, It's a Wonderful Life, White Christmas, The Preacher's Wife, A Christmas Story...it's just not Christmas without watching at least one of them. The one thing I miss about not having cable is Turner Classic Movies!! ALSO, I 100% team Die Hard is a Christmas movie - so huge Bruce Willis fan and action movies in general.

My son turned me into a Marvel and Star Wars fan - don't collect much except to send to my niece who loves Captain America and Thor. My favorite thing to do is send her stuff that says "That's America's Ass" and troll her with pictures of fat Thor.

I love National Theater- Warhorse and Frankenstein are my favorites so far! I found it duing Covid when they offered free streaming and fell in love! Their productions are magical.