ChezLara

hi there! i am a goofy mixed-media artist~moonlighting as a working stiff! LOL!! :D

I am the thrift store and warehouse manager for our local Salvation Army thrift store, in Danville, Illinois, and, YES, do i see a lot of neat/weird/goofy/strange stuff coming in!

i have a wonderful husband and 2 super kids, 1 girl,19, and 1 boy,17! we have 3 cats & 2 dogs~all rescues except 1!

my family and i are very involved in our church which happens to be The Salvation Army~yes! it's a church, and not just a thrift store and disaster relief!!!!

Just ask me~i'd love to tell you more about it!

But, NO, i won't try to push anything on you, EVER, as i don't like folks doing that to me~:)

my husband is a huge fan of both the tampa bay buccaneers and the florida gators~he is also a st. louis cardinals fan~anything with the bucs or the gators makes him giddy! He's also a big star wars fan~any thing sci-fi, really My daughter is a budding artist~she paints and works in oils and pastels, as well as charcoal~she is a big nut for paints, brushes, art materials, and she is also a big fan of goofy socks and she loves to wear hats of all kinds. my son loves comic books and superhero movies~he's a great fan of anime and is fascinated with the tv shows deadliest warrior, heroes, and supernatural. he loves action and sci-fi movies too! (we're actually all fond of them!) **we are all utterly addicted to AMC's new tv show The walking Dead!!

i like ANY kind of music~if it's upbeat, happy, funky or exciting!!!!
LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR SAD SONGS THAT MAKE YOU CRY!!! (in my humble opinion!) (except for the blues~BB King, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jellyroll Morton, etc....go figure!!!!)

i love stephen king, anne rice, laurell k hamilton clive barker, kim harrison, hp lovecraft and such for fiction. i read tons of non-fiction too...biographies of American Revolutionary heroes and their wives, how-to books on anything i don't know how to do, current events, economic theory, different religions, strange facts, arts and crafts, of course, classical mythology. and, strangely enough, books on string theory, universal theory and quantum mechanics (go figure)

umm...kind of all over the place but i REALLY DON'T LIKE sad movies~or really drippy romantic ones~or dramas that are all about how terrible someone's life is and how the world sucks!

faves: O Brother Where Art Thou, A Christmas Story, Any Muppet Movie, Lord of The Rings Trilogy, Midnight In the Garden Of Good & Evil, Highlander (don't judge me LOL), Dodgeball, Mothman Prophecies, Pitch Black, Army Of Darkness, Under The Tuscan Sun, Pirates of the Caribean (all 3), The Shipping News, Transformers (again, don't judge~LOL!)- (i'm all over the map)

action movies~i like most of 'em!

Sci-fi movies~Star Wars, Star Trek, just about anything science fiction i adore

Horror movies~can't get enough of 'em!!! ~even the really lame SyFy channel made-for-tv movies are great (in a sad, geeky kind of way)

i love papercrafting!~ mostly ATCs, twinchies, inchies, art dolls, chunky book pages and the occasional altered object~it's what keeps me sane! i do collage, stamping, drawing, some watercolor~i'll try any technique for fun!!

I also do crochet, knitting, i dabble in quilting, sewing and embroidery~anything i can make with my hands, i'll try at least once.

oh, yes, i am a foodie of the highest order~i love to cook, both gourmet as well as every-day simple stuff!

I am a veteran swapper on SCS (splitcoaststampers) and i am also on ATCs for all, plus have done many one-to-one individual swaps~i am looking forward to making new friends here! Just look for Chez-Lara on SCS or ChezLara on ATCS for all

well, the allergy part is easy~ almonds (in any form, except, of course artificial, LOL) i really am allergic~my mouth and throat swell up-that being said, it really IS an allergy~up until about 4 years ago, almonds were by far my favorite nut to eat :( ~ the other is bee stings (i can't imagine anyone sending me a yellow jacket...but still!)

I despise (can't tolerate even the smell of) very few edible things~licorice, butterscotch, wintergreen and okra. that's about it!

no problems with anything scented, food or drink items except for these!!

I don't like dirty or muddy colors~imagine all the appliances and decor you had in your home from the 1970s~ 'harvest gold', 'avocado green' 'rust red', 'poo brown' (you get the idea)~stay away from those if you can and you will have made me a happy gal!!!

I'm not a huge fan of primary colors~in LARGE amounts!

i don't like HEAVY floral scents~or stuff that smells like laundry soap (artificial chemical smell-like Irish Spring, Dial or Zest)

i intensely dislike handmade items that are badly or shoddy made~for instance~i was in an inchie swap on another site, and one of the inchies was a piece of paper glued onto cardstock. That was all. another time i received a piece of white cardstock with a yellow dot sticker on it...How in good conscience can you send that out and call that art?

i'm not a huge fan of 'cutesy-pie' stuff -mary engelbreit, stamping bella, hello kitty and house mouse, etc.-

~BUT-if that's what you are best at & we are paired in a swap: i'd much rather get your best work on something you love and are good at than crummy, terrible effort on something you don't like, know about or have no interest in...sound fair?

i am a Christian, but i DO really like being sent religious art or imagery of any kind~as a matter of fact~any religion, barring any that causes deliberate harm to another person or animal!

I don't think i have a favorite color, but i am absolutely in love with robin's egg blue (a very pale aqua-green tone~but not mint~more bluish), and i like most blues, purples, sea-greens, silvers, greys, pinks, pale colors that remind you of a shabby chic beach house along the Atlantic ocean!! i also like darker tones~rich burgundies, deep navy, hunter green, eggplant, etc.

i like sewing and knitting and crochet, so fun fabrics & yarns are always welcome!

i love all kinds of teas and flavored coffees and cocoa mixes~i always like to try new things~if it's a favorite of yours, i'd love to try it! I like healthy snacks as well as 'naughty-not-so-healthy' sugary and/or salty ones

i like: offbeat, oddball items~vintage ephemera~old stamps, found objects~unusual subject matter!!

i like old, retro stuff~vintage stuff you find at thrift stores, flea markets and rummage sales!

i adore old laces, embroidered pieces, crocheted doilies, tablecloths, curtains, hankies! I love old aprons~of all kinds-from the long pin-ons from the 1900s or older to the kitschy ones of the 1960s & 70-and everything in between!

i collect recipes and cookbooks~my faves are the retro ones from the 1930s to the 1970s~ i have over 100!

i like postcards and old photos and tintypes and all kinds of images i can use in my art: pre-stamped images, collage sheets, old newspaper clippings, paper scraps,

I LOVE my embellies, brads, eyelets, beads, charms, buttons, feathers, little shells, tiny gems, jewels and pearls, german scrap, dew drops, ....if you can glue it to or hang it from an ATC, i'd love it!!

as well as: scented items like candles, lotions, incense, bath products, etc.. ~i like most kinds of scents except for the excessively heavy flowery ones (like 'double-strength rose' might not be my favorite, but a light honeysuckle would be fine!)

i like 'girly' things~ perfume, lip balm, pretty bracelets, shiny bows and lots of bling!

~I am a big Holly Hobbie fan!!! The old 1970s version not the new one-yuk...~

I really dig birds; either vintage or victorian or~well, any birds, actually, but peacocks and brightly colored birds especially!

I like just about any kind of animal, truly~but i'm not so big on creepy-crawlies!

I collect the blue Currier & Ives dinner ware so any currier & ives theme is a good one for me too! I also like old, vintage magazines, and old books that are tattered and falling to pieces~i love ephemera of every kind~ESPECIALLY from countries all over the world!!!

i love to laugh, have a goofy sense of humor (sometimes downright silly), love a pun, and words with two meanings tickle me, or words that sound the same (beet, beat; time, thyme; berry, bury)

i am kind of hard to offend humor-wise~just as long as no person or animal is getting hurt~that's pretty much it!!

i like to laugh and i really appreciate the out-of-the-ordinary, unusual and uncommon in everything~from art to reading material to food!!!

I like to learn about new things!!! tell me or show me something i didn't know, or know very little about and i am a happy girl!!

i find people themselves are fascinating~who they are, where they come from, in what way is their life different from mine, is their culture different~and in what way....

i love beaches and islands, and anything related to them....biggest dream is to move my little family to hawaii....

Anything related to the Salvation Army is always a favorite....bell-ringing is now over for the year!! It is always a great pleasure to see how generous people are, even in the midst of economic hard-times! Our Danville corps met its goal this year, and we are so very thankful, as so many S.Army corps did not, and this is our main funding for the year for our social services and other programs!

i like to make my art style different from time to time and not stick to the same old styles or techniques~ sometimes my art is very upbeat and cheerful~sometimes it's weird and strange~sometimes it's just funny and lighthearted~sometimes the subject matter is serious and weighty~i like challenging and stretching myself...i make conscious effort to force myself outside my comfort zone so i don't get into a rut....