Amyteacake

I live in Marin County just over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. I own a popular British Tea Salon called Crown & Crumpet. I am married to a lovely English gentlemen and have lived back in America for 14 years now! Wow time has flown by! We have an eight year old adopted daughter who is hilarious and cheeky and can belt out some serious soul music and rap.

When I was 18 years old I moved to Switzerland to go to college then I finished my degree in England and lived and worked there for ages. I am a huge Anglophile, hence our very British Tea room. While in the UK I continued my love for all things paper, crafts, rubber stamps etc.. but it was pretty slim pickings to find things and people who got the whole "mail art" concept. When I was a kid I went to a private girls school in San Francisco and our fab art teacher, Miss Swope,who was great friends with Anna Banana and her husband and the two of them were part of the group that started the whole Mail Art movement in America in the early 70's. They also owned Stamp Francisco, one of the the original rubber stamp manafactures of art stamps. So I became obsessed with rubber stamps which were in their infancy in the 70's and mailing strange things to people all over the world to see if the post office would deliver them.. they did! I have quite an array of objects, letter, postcards, even a toilet plunger that was sent to me with a shipping tag and some stamps! So this whole swapping thing has been going on for a long time... but because of the internet I thought it had kind of died out... but hooray!! I see that it has not. That is why I am so keen to get back into again. From what I can see now... is that it is a lot more organised then years past! I love paper crafting but not really scrapbooking..I just love playing with papers, embellishments, stamps and all sorts of things to make and give to friends etc.. I love taking classes and meeting like minded folk. Here in the Bay Area we have some great shops and teachers who share their talents with us amauters and I love it!

Love paper crafting of every sort, stationery, writing with fountain pens and dip nibs.. obsessed with the 18th century and have a cool craft room in a turret that you have to bend down in half to get in.

I have traveled and lived in Europe for over twenty years and I have collected a lot of cool crafty things... time to share them with like minded folk! Thank goodness for Swap -bot!

I love just about everything... maybe I should just have a list of things I don't like!

Crafts! Just about anything to do with paper and all the things to do with creating paper crafts though I am not really a scrapbooker. I love making gift packages with my Silouette machine and all the stickers and 3-D add ons that go with paper crafting. I have over 2000 rubberstamps..been collecting since the early 70's when I was in grade school. I love anything paper goods and school supplies/office supplies from Europe and Asia, notebooks, pens, pencils, pencil bags etc...I have a scary amount of this stuff ! Here is a list of fancy goods I love:

Korean makeup ( amazing packaging) Japanese craft books Japanese fashion magazines that come with free gifts! Flow magazine, Daphane's Diary ( both Dutch) Most craft mags Rubber stamps Images of dogs Ragdoll cats Just about anything Pink, Sentimental Circus, The image of Marie Antoinette, well any 18th century French or English aristocrat I am also partial too! Fashions of the Regency Era is also a fave. Stickers, Accessories for my diary/ datebook, All Korean stationery, Laduree brand, Vintage ribbons, Historical fiction ( my secret vice is Regency Romances, but I keep it on the down-low!) English chocolate bars, Afternoon Tea and any visual references to the experience! Fortunm & Mason The National Trust (UK) The British Museum, The Ashmolean Museum (used to work there when I was at university) cabbage roses and peonies (real and images of them) Fountain Pens and dip pens, sealing wax, 18th century shoe buckles, french fabric covered boxes, Magnolia Pearl clothing (from Fredicksburg Texas) wearing bloomers, dressing up in Edwardian, Victorian clothing, right down to the corset and parasol!

I regret to say I am over Hello Kitty.. I was obsessed from when I was child, when it first entered the American market 1974/76... but having visited Japan for two weeks and on a mission to go to Puroland and see and do things Hello Kitty I totally cured myself! But I am rather keen to stay at a Hello Kitty Hotel!!

BBC America : The Graham Norton Show Downton Abbey Orange is the New Black Anything Jane Austen ( books and films) Royal Pains, Almost Royal, Rome, (Plenty more to add!!) The Paradise, Mr Selfridge, Anything Masterpiece Theatre, Upstairs Downstairs new and old, I adore BBC Radio 4 and listen to it on line whenever I can. The Archers being my favourite, then Front Row and Woman's Hour and any radio plays, read novels that are historical.

We just added a new member to the family... an adorable Ragdoll kitten named Ollie. He is just abut three months old and so adorable! Now I am officially a cat lady!! Never thought I would be crazy about a cat!!

Ive been doing Swap Bot for a few months now and I am enjoying it... I do sometimes feel like there is a lot of pressure on to get things sent out in time and I try to be on top of things but occasionally I may send out something a day or two late but I will never flake on anyone and I will always let my partner know.