I'm living in an old house in a rainy city with my spouse and our perfect mutt, Poppy.

I'm vegetarian, but not vegan. I love chocolate, especially dark chocolate and chocolate with nuts or soft centers. And I love marzipan.

I am fascinated by spirituality and religion, and love learning about what other people believe. I'm sort of an atheistic/agnostic Pagan myself, and I am most interested in "pan-spiritual" practices, like prayer beads, shrines and altars, and labyrinth walking.

I like to shop at locally owned and independent stores and farmers' markets. I also like to shop at garage sales and thrift stores, especially to find things I can re-use and re-purpose.

It has been a few years since I last swapped here, and I remember that back when I was last active, lots of people would send extras with packages. I would respectively ask for you not to send anything extra. I have more craft materials than I can use in a lifetime, and I'm short of space for artwork and knick-knacks. I am choosing swaps carefully based on what I have the ability to receive and treasure. I would love to receive a note with your ATC about how you made it or anything else you want to share about yourself.

Please let me know when something I sent to you arrives - I worry! I always rate, email, or message when I receive things, so if you haven't heard from me, it hasn't arrived yet.

I believe in fair play and waiting my turn. I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt. I believe in magic and wonder and awe. I believe in literacy and good grammar and the power of the written word. I believe that a community is built by working together and eating together. I believe in making lists. I believe in relentless compassion.

I am passionate about accessibility. It is both my career and one of my most closely held values.

I love earth tones, especially greens, coppers, and golds (but there aren't any colours that I hate). I have a fascination with dragonflies and bees. I love spiral patterns and paisley. I collect postcards that have a lot of red on them, mini gargoyle statues, and decorative metal hooks (the kind you put on your wall to hang coats on).

I love words, grammar, punctuation, and dictionaries. English is my first language, but after eleven years of French immersion education, I can still read it, and I can write and speak it poorly, but probably passably.

I really love Keith Haring's art, and deeply regret that I didn't get myself a t-shirt when I visited New York's Pop Shop, especially now that I've learned that the Pop Shop no longer exists. I did get my partner a shirt when I was there, so I just admire his.

I love to read urban fantasy, especially Charles de Lint. He is my absolute favourite author of all time. I also enjoy Francesca Lia Block and Holly Black, magical realism (e.g., Lee Maracle), funny fantasy and science fiction (e.g., Terry Pratchett, Spider Robinson, and Tanya Huff), some darker fantasy/science fiction (especially Simon Green), and some biographical works (especially Ivan Coyote).

I love folk music and heavy metal and the soundtracks from musicals.

Shrek, Pixar movies, A Series of Unfortunate Events, What Dreams May Come, Chicago. I have a weakness for chick flicks and silly teen movies (like the "Bring It On" series). I don't enjoy gross-out humour and I cannot watch violent films. If Quentin Tarantino was involved, I can't watch it at all.

The Good Place, The Umbrella Academy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, Pushing Daisies.

Also, a lot of trashy reality television!

I watch a lot of TV for work and for fun.

Altering books (especially children's board books), making books, knitting, writing, doing laundry.

I enjoy making ATCs, which are so much fun. I've also started carving my own stamps, which has gotten me into stamping, which I never really bothered with before. I have lots of stamp pads now, and I just got a heat gun to do some embossing. And I have everything I need to deal with unmounted stamps too.

I love playing with wire, charms, beads, paints, and different papers when I make book covers.