Pelgrim

Hello, my name is Saskia. I'm in my thirties and live in Rotterdam with my boyfriend and his seven year old daughter. My health isn't all that great, so I only have a part time job. I spend quite a lot of time alone at home during the day and have a lot of hobbies to make that enjoyable for myself. My favourite hobbies are reading, cross stitching, listening to rock and metal music, writing in my journal, diamond painting, scrapbooking, watching movies and TV shows, playing games on my Nintendo 3DS, penpalling and making greeting cards and ATCs. My favourite drink is tea, on which I'll expand in a later section on my profile. When I would like to participate in type 3 swaps that require a handmade item, I always make sure to make the item first, while putting the swap on my watchlist, and only sign up for the swap once I have finished making my item. Please keep this in mind when you are wondering whether or not I should be allowed to participate in a swap you are hosting. I've noticed that it is pretty hard to find swaps whose hosts will let me play, with me being a new member and it quite often results in me being disappointed when I have my item ready to mail and I get another e-mail informing me I was dropped from a swap for being a newbie. I would also like to do private swaps, so feel free to contact me about them. You can also contact me if your kid would like to do a private ATC swap with my boyfriend's seven year old daughter. It would make her day.

I love rock and metal and really enjoy singing along while I'm in my crafting room. In my teens and twenties I went to a lot of music festivals and concerts. I still cherish those memories. Some of my favourite bands are System Of A Down, Avenged Sevenfold, Smashing Pumpkins, The Birthday Massacre, Leaves' Eyes, Nightwish, HIM, Deftones, Hole, Rammstein, Placebo, Bush, Lacuna Coil, Five Finger Death Punch, Marilyn Manson, Blue October, Skunk Anansie, The Tea Party, K's Choice, Three Days Grace, silverchair, Korn, Adelitas Way, Joshua Woods, Opeth, A Perfect Circle, Eels, Eluveitie, Staind, Type O Negative, Tool, Bullet For My Valentine, Nirvana, My Ruin, Dead Sara, VAST, Anathema, Apocalyptica, The LoveCrave, Audioslave, Slipknot, Muse, Saybia, Hellsongs, Arid, Stone Sour, 10 Years, Disturbed and Aranda.

I love reading very much. Ever since I was taught to read in school, I never quit. In my first apartment I had one wall of my living room filled with bookcases, overstuffed with books. Almost everyone who visited me in that house commented on how awesome that looked and how colourful it was. Most of my twenties I only read about vampires and witches and werewolves and other mythological creatures. The last few years I've noticed that the supernatural genre doesn't appeal too much to me anymore, since I rarely encountered fresh ideas anymore. A few years ago I was a little lost as to how to discover which books I liked. Now I don't stick to genres anymore and try a little bit of everything and I'm pleased to have discovered that I like books in most genres, depending on how well they are written. Last month I found a book club list online that looked interesting. I've purchased all the books on it and each time I need a new book I pick one randomly. So far that has helped me discover some wonderful books that I never would've tried otherwise. I intend to keep using this list for at least another few months, since I love the surprise element of it. Some of my all time favourite books are "The Witching Hour" by Anne Rice, "Body of a Girl" by Leah Stewart, "Galilee" by Clive Barker, "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer and "Fingersmith" by Sarah Waters. I know this section is called Favorite Books and I've rambled a lot and didn't mention many, but I love too many books to make a proper list.

I really enjoy making greeting cards and ATCs. I get a lot of inspiration from Craft Stamper magazines from a few years ago, so I keep wanting to learn new techniques. I am lucky enough to have a craft room to myself and I have to admit that I have insane amounts of crafting supplies. I used to sell crafting supplies and handmade cards online a few years ago and everything that was left of the shop when I quit selling was absorbed into my own collection. I think it's safe to say that my boyfriend's daughter and I will never be able to use it all in my lifetime. My all time favourite techniques are working with Distress ink and water, embossing powder and rubber stamps. I've seen videos of the new Distress Oxide ink pads and you wouldn't believe how impatient I am to get my hands on them. I've pre-ordered them ages ago and can't wait to get them, so I can finally play with them.

I am a big lover of tea and one of my reasons for registering here is that I saw there are quite a few tea swaps. I love getting all kinds of new flavours from all over the world. I like black, white and green fruit flavoured teas best. The fruit flavours I love most are banana, blackcurrant, passionfruit, cherry, peach, pineapple, pear, orange, apple and raspberry, but almost every fruit flavour or combination of fruits is fine by me. I also like chai, cinnamon and fennel tea a lot. I don't like rooibos, forest fruit, strawberry (with the exception of a strawberry-yoghurt combination; I really love those), lemon or plain tea. If you're aiming to make me happy you can also do so by sending Earl Grey (not from the brand Pickwick, since we live in the country that's from), Japanese matcha tea, Celestial Seasonings Black Cherry Berry or spicy teas for my boyfriend. Please do not send me any chamomile, English breakfast or any type of tea for healing some sort of ailment.

I prefer my postcards not written on and sent in an envelope, even if the swap says to send naked. Postcard themes I like are: flowers, animals, rude and dark humour, map cards, scenic local, dark/creepy/morbid, mythical creatures, fantasy, castles, books, mushrooms.

I pretty much like all well-made ATCs, but I also understand that some people would like to know which subjects or themes are appreciated even more, so I'll try to list some. Monochromatic (all in one colour), ancient Egypt, hearts and love, everything Halloween and creepy, mythical creatures, flowers, owls, seahorses, music, altered text (especially if the left over text makes a gramatically correct sentence, no matter how silly), vampires, castles, sewing, books, hedgehogs, fountain pens, fairies.

used postage stamps; tea (either for me or my boyfriend); scrapbooking paper (especially Halloween themed, because those are not very common here, since it's not a national holiday in the Netherlands, I also love the brands Webster's Pages and Graphic 45); everything with skulls on it; small cross-stitch kits; self-adhesive pearls or rhinestones (especially teal,black, purple or turquoise, but all colours are appreciated); fine tipped waterproof pens (especially black, teal or purple); washi tape rolls (I prefer patterns over solids); complete writing paper sets (I always write long letters); pressed pennies (or your local equivalent); handmade envelopes (made from sturdy paper, not from flimsy magazine pages); rubber stamps or clear stamps (especially creepy/Halloween, anything love-themed, flowers, writing, mythical creatures); Egyptian themed cross-stitch patterns (well, ancient Egyptian themed anything really).

food (I eat according to the paleo lifestyle, so candy and other processed food is wasted on me); personal care products (like body lotion, shower gel et cetera, because my boyfriend is very sensitive to smell); make-up;
instant coffee;
religious items; lettersets consisting of two sheets and one envelope ( I always write way more than two sheets and I don't like to use different papers in one letter, they only pile up in the writing cabinet and are never used); ribbons (I have a huge box filled with ribbons and rarely use them); washi tape samples (I do like complete rolls); sticky notes

I prefer small cross stitch kits, because I like to use the finished items on greeting cards. My favourite themes are flowers, hearts/love, anything creepy/Halloween, old Egyptian and butterflies. I also like patterns for bigger ancient Egyptian pieces (big size complete kits as well, but I'm pretty sure that is a bit too much to ask ;-) )