thatsnotmyname

UPDATE 07/01/16: My Mom is conscious again and is fighting strong! It is now confirmed that she has what is called a paraneoplastic encephalitis. It will be a tough battle, but one that I am confident she'll fight strongly. I am still spending most of my time in the hospital, so that I don't know when I'll find the time to get back into swapping again ♥

UPDATE 06/15/16: Due to the unexpected event that my mom is currently in a coma I am not going to participate nor host any swaps at this moment. I will be taking a short break as I don't see myself in a position to send out happy mail when there is hardly a happy thought on my mind. I hope that you can accept my apology and that you'll be understanding as of my non-swapping situation. I hope I'll be back swapping soon!

Hej! I'm Kate, I'm a 27 years old grad student & I love traveling, reading, cooking, and am a big fan of music and basically all kinds and sorts of TV shows. So far I have traveled to many places and have lived in a few different cities & countries, e.g. Bogotá, Paris, Singapore, USA, London, etc...

I joined swap bot, because I love sending snail mail. Unfortunately I don't have many people who enjoy receiving such thing, which is how I found my way here... to find people who do! :)

I would be happy to find other swappers who share these thoughts and would be happy to do private swaps as I am always happy to find a pen pal!

If you have received mail from me and are posting it on Instagram.. Would you be so kind as to tag mit with #mailandhappiness? I'd be happy to see your happy mail post!

Just a quick overview of things I like in general:

• Colors: Mint, Teal, Turquoise, Lime Green, Gold, Coral

• Scents: lavender, rose, mint, citrus, cucumber & raspberry, melon, peach

• Flowers: orchids & sunflowers

• Flamingo, Cactus & Watermelon prints

• Hearts & Anchors

• Snoopy & Moomins

• cool, geeky, retro OR colorful kitchen utensils

• Kawaii (Pusheen, Sumikkogurashi)

• Starbucks

• Target (they sadly have no store in Germany)

• Sephora, Lush & Bath & Body Works

• Flamingo & cactus things

• Washi tape !!! (esp. chevron, pastel, neon, anchor, skull, cactus & gold foiled)

• wooden stamps

• pens, gel pens & fineliners (black, purple & green are my favorite)

• airmail stickers

• road maps (new or used)

• journaling books (please NOT smaller than 4x6 inches)

• candles, wax tarts & melts are also one of the things I love the most (I don't like foody/sweet scents though)

• Tea, Coffee & Lemonades (in those little sachets)

• Basically anything vintage (for example old sepia or b/w photographs, books, letter stamps, letters, etc)

• Anything Japanese, Korean or Paris related

• ChapSticks (which are pretty hard to come by in Europe)

• hand sanitizers I love me some small travel size sanitizer! Something that is hard to come by here... :(

• face masks & under eye masks

• Make Up Remover/Face Wipes (It's a bit weird, but I collect them)

• **other beauty items I highly enjoy:

  • hand lotion
  • bath bombs
  • elf & nyx products

• I love to discover + get to know new music, artists & bands. Therefore I am esp. fond of ** playlists CDs & mixtape CDs** (e.g. such you find in Rolling Stone Magazine, etc.)

• (old band shirts (men's L & XL are my fav.)

• yellow, orange & brown
• owls & owl patterns in general
• I am afraid of clowns so please don't send me anything with clowns.
• licorice
• rhinestones
• glitter
• plush, stuffed animals
• childish patterns of any kind
• butterflies
• teddy bears
• roses (esp. red ones)
• plastic toys
• touristy postcards
• chamomile (I am allergic)
• heavy sweet scents (including vanilla)
• please don't send me anything with angels, dragons, fairies or any other fantasy character as well as anything minions related
• I don't find that this is the place to talk about religion so please DON'T send me anything christian related or with bible verses

I am a HUGE fan of tea. I am the kind of tea drinking person that is all about trying new teas and I can hardly pass a nice looking box of tea at the store. As such my tea cabinet is overflowing, but I still love to try out any new flavor/brand I can get my hands on.

My favorites are: black tea (flavored or plain), chai teas, roiboos teas, and fruit teas (peach, berry, hibiscus, raspberry, melon, citrus, pumpkin).

Brands that are hard to get by here and that I've always wanted to try are:

• Løv Tea
• Twinings
• Clipper
• Bigelow
• English Tea Shoppe
• Nordquist (esp. MOOMIN Teas)
• Harney & Sons
• The Republic of Tea
• Teavana
• Pukka
• Lipton (esp. family size tea bags)
• Good Earth
• Whittard
• Breakfast in Paris & Irish Breakfast(by Stash)
• American Tea Room
• Tim Hortons
• Karel Capek
• Fairytale Tea
• Cupcake Tea

I don't like green tea, mate tea, fennel, peppermint, licorice, caraway and anis. Also I am allergic to chamomile so please don't send those.

RECIPE SWAPS If your sending me recipes, please send them on 4x6 recipe cards (or A5/A6 letter size) as I store them in a binder. :)

FOOD SWAPS I would love to receive: snacks & food that are unique to your country!! maybe even some vanilla coffee, Starbucks Refreshers, Kool Aid, Cake Mix (Red Velvet or Cheesecake being my favorite) and chocolate/toffee morsels

I LIKE: freeze-dried fruits, salty snacks, caramel, cookies, cake, crepes, cinnamon, bagels, cereal bars, marshmallows, pretzels (esp. chocolate & yoghurt covered), fruits, lemonades, soda, fruit punches, coffee, bonbons, lolly pops, sour cream flavored things, Tea, Coffee & Lemonades, peanuts

My favorite flavors are: Pumpkin Spice (LOVE IT!), vanilla, caramel, everything fruity (esp. raspberry, peach, melon, citrus, rosehip, etc.)

PLEAE DON'T SEND: chips (the crunchy snack), pork, liquorish, raisins, eggplants & cauliflower, super sweet candy (e.g. candy corn, hostess products), peanut butter, walnuts

I'm very much into TV shows. I am mentioning this for the plain fact, that I am somewhat of a nerd, but in a really nice way. For example: Even though there's hardly a TV show I don't know about or haven't watched, I am all about Doctor Who. There's even a little Tardis tea cup decorating my room right next to my nice Lego Simpsons House. So there you have it, my little nerdom.

So some of my favorite TV shows include:

The Big Bang Theory, Rizzoli & Isles, Younger, Doctor Who, Grey's Anatomy, Bones, Scandal, Smash, Nashville, Black Box, October Road, One Tree Hill, iZombie, Friends, Gilmore Girls, Downton Abbey, Inspector Barnaby (Midsomer Murders), Sherlock (Yes, I am digging the whole London, UK & Union Flag thing!), Haven, Harry's Law, Killer Women, Mistresses, Pretty Little Liars, Eye Candy, Empire, Perception, True Detective, American Crime Story

My taste in music is pretty versatile and can hardly be limited to a certain genre. I generally enjoy classic rock as well as Indie Rock. But some of my all-time gems are:

Bloc Party, Modest Mouse, Florence + the machine, Interpol, MS MR, The XX, Alt-J, Sigur Rós, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, The Boxer Rebellion, Athlete, Bad Religion, Death Cab For Cutie, PJ Harvey, Joy Division, Foo Fighters, The Notwist, Deftones, Led Zeppelin, Fink, The Doors, David Bowie, The Cure, children, Bon Iver, Björk, Damien Rice, Travis, Mighty Oaks, Mumford & Sons, Fleetwood Mac, Muse, Incubus, Kasabian, Parov Stelar, William Fitzsimmons, Yoav, Fritz Kalkbrenner, Kendrick Lamar

In the spirit of happy swapping I feel like I should say this. I always rate the swaps I receive honestly and solemnly based on what I've received. I have been very lucky and fortunate to have met some great swappers along the way and to have received some truly amazing swaps! But unfortunately sometimes there are those who simply try to find their way around not fulfilling swap requirements by lying and by talking bad about others.

In my opinion this should be a happy place where we treat each other fairly and the way we want to be treated ourselves. So even though I don't actually want to contribute to this anymore, part of me wants to defend myself by saying that a) I have no reason to lie about a swap that I receive and b) I am rating based on if a swap met the requirement or not c) I WOULD NEVER give a bad rating based on if I like what I receive or not in order to force someone into doing something!!!

I am rather happy to leave a happy and positive rating & a heart when it calls for it as the person who sent out a swap in hopes of making someone happy should be just as happy to receive a rating in return. But we are all human and mistakes can happen so as I always appreciate a hint/message nicely letting me know about it I try to return the same kindness to others. Mistakes happen and as such it's only nice to be kind and to give someone a chance to make up for it as long as they want to do so ♥

I’m still waiting on a rating from: 

• @Tonyam83 l International Pen Pal Swap
• @Taminorris l Valentines Nail Pinterest
• @sarahmaree l Soundtrack Of My Life
• @kacka l A Sweet Letter and Some Washi
• @CraftyRonnie78 l Surprise Envelope Swap!#2