curlygirl

I am a first grade teacher from Pennsylvania. I live in my childhood home with my cat, my brother, and his boa. In my previous career I worked in the textile industry, hence my fabric obsession. I have always loved jewelry and started making my own back in college.

I love all kinds of music. But mostly I listen to alternative, world, folk, and indie rock. I also love classical, jazz, blues, and bluegrass.

Summer is when I do most of my reading, being a teacher. But I read all the time. My book club usually reads best sellers. I read a lot of science fiction/fantasy but also just really good books. Some of my favorite authors are Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison, and Octavia Butler.

My favorite all time movie is The Dark Crystal, but I watch all kinds of movies from Action/Adventure to Chick Flicks.

I watch way too much television. Mostly I watch dramas like Law & Order. Also now addicted to Trueblood, having read the books! Though I don't consider myself a fan of "Reality TV," I do enjoy watching HGTV's design star & Project Runway (go figure)!

I guess my favorite craft is jewelry because you can make something so beautiful so quickly - like instant gratification. I love making something perfect to go with my favorite clothes. I also sew, make cards, and now ATCs. I write my own poems for my cards.

Chocolate... Periwinkle Blue... retro fabric... realistic looking stickers All things in Nature (esp tree of life images) All animals, too, but not cartoon/childlike images (get plenty of this as a teacher) Favorite animals: monkeys, insects, ancient animals (fossils),bats, sloths, platypuses, woodland animals.

I like all kinds of different ethnic styles, mostly african, asian, latin (esp Frida & day of the dead), & celtic (esp knots, trees, & beasties).

For fabric, I'm not really into primary colors or pastels, but sometimes pastels look great w/other colors.

I love prints - not so much conventional, but retro or unusual. I also stay away from anything too cartoony. My favorite prints are organic - trees, leaves, fruit, vegetables.

Favorite colors & color combinations: periwinkle blue, aqua, teal, oranges, earthtones...chocolate brown with blue, green, pink. orange, teal...just about anything w/brown.

That being said, I'm open to other ideas & look forward to being surprised.

Apron Swap Info - I'll leave it up to my partners to decide full or half, but I am a plus sized girl, so please keep this in mind - thanks! I prefer extra long ties. I also like different styles of aprons. Retro ones are really cool.

Halloween Swap Info - The creepy side of the holiday is really my favorite - vamps, weres, & zombies, but I also like retro images. I love the folk-art type crafty stuff, too. I guess the only stuff I'm not into is really commercial or kid stuff.

Paper craft - paper is always welcome. Also interesting brads or buttons are cool. I really like self adhesive ribbon!

Fabric - fq's or really cool swatches are good, wool felt is always welcome! Just got some cute stuffie books for my b-day, so...good buttons for eyes, etc.

Jewelry - interesting beads are great, too. I also like tiny pewter and silver charms. I like natural looking gemstones - my favorite is carnelian.

I really like getting handmade stuff from other people, especially something knit (since I don't know how to do that). It's just so cool to see how other people's ideas come to fruition.