MelissaLB

I'm dedicated to Swap-Bot and send all my swaps on time. If you haven't received a swap from me, please let me know. I'm always happy to re-send.

In a world where you can be anything....be kind.

I practice yoga, reiki, meditation and energy healing.

I love to garden. When I was a kid, I would help my little Italian Grandma with her garden every summer. We would plant tomatoes, zucchini, all kinds of peppers, watermelon, green beans and potatoes. I've scaled my garden way back as an adult. I mostly plant a large variety of tomatoes, peppers and herbs.

My favorite herbs are basil, rosemary and lavender. These are also some of my favorite scents. As for other smelly stuff, I like berry, lemon, cinnamon, patchouli and nag champa. Not a big fan of strong flowers, apple, watermelon or jasmine.

I love honey! I use it for medicine, sweetening my tea and baking.

I work full-time as a paralegal in-house for a government contractor. We build military trucks.

I am an energy healer. Energy Healing is a pleasant and powerful therapy that helps you connect to your inner source of vibrancy and life force, making it available to shift physical, emotional, and mental dysfunction to health and well-being.

https://sites.google.com/view/melissa-energy-healing/home

I consider myself spiritual. I don’t care for the dogma connected with organized religion. I love to visit sacred spaces and buildings of all types. I practice pagan traditions and holidays. I enjoy exploring the sacred feminine in many different traditions.

I'm an avid tarot/oracle card reader. I collect decks of both. I'm also interested in trading decks if anyone would like to do a private swap.

My favorite "regular" holidays: Christmas, Halloween, Easter and Thanksgiving. I also don't mind receiving holiday items all year.

Favorite Halloween icons: witches, skulls, pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, haunted houses, scary trees and cemeteries; not really into black cats or monsters or anything gory. It's fun to get out the ouija board during Halloween for some interesting conversation.

For Thanksgiving, I like traditional themes - turkeys, pumpkins, fall leaves and woodland animals. I love vintage Thanksgiving images. They are so bizzare!

Favorite Christmas themes: traditional red & green, angels, snowman, snowflakes, holly, silver – anything sparkly. Lots of glitter and sequins. Not into country or rustic themed decorations like burlap and plaid.

For Easter, I love bunnies just not too cartoon-y. I love pastel flowers & ribbon, colored eggs, carrots and Victorian looking Easter baskets.

I have a serious love for all things Starbucks; both the beverages and merchandise. I also love all types of Starbucks inspired stickers, stationary and washi tape.

I am addicted to washi tape. Some of my favorite Washi: Simply Gilded, Paper Geek Co., Inspired Life Studios, Fox and Cactus and Cookie Sticker Co. One of my favorite washi shops on Etsy is GoatGirlMH.

I'm a fan of the Cavallini stationery, journals, stickers, papers, puzzles...all of it is so beautiful.

I LOVE Star Wars! I've been a fan of Star Wars since I was 8 years old and the FIRST movie was released. (Yep! I'm old. Hahaha) It's been a life long obsession. I read all the books and watch everything - the whole Star Wars universe is amazing. Thank goodness for Disney+

I like zodiac inspired art, stickers and washi. I'm a Pisces and I collect things with Pisces symbols and imagery.

I LOVE:

• Nature – trees, flowers, birds, bugs

• Oceans and beaches

• Coffee

• Road trips

• Books

• Study of meridians and chakras

• Volunteering

• Used Book stores

• Baking

• Tarot & Oracle cards

• Gardening - herbs, vegetables and flowers

• Painting pottery

• Candle making

• Journals - love to journal daily

• Chocolate

• Peanut butter

• Chocolate & peanut butter 😉

• Wine

• Favorite color – Purple

• Dragonflies

• Bumble bees

• Essential Oils

• Shells from the ocean, Lake Michigan and local rivers

• Crystals and stones

• Sun & moon images

My favorite vacation spots: Sedona AZ, Northern California (the Redwoods!), Gulf Shores, Alabama, Northern Michigan and Lake Michigan, New Orleans and San Francisco.

I'm a big fan of art museums - especially enjoy Monet, Picasso, Degas, Matisse and Gauguin. I also love Chihuly glass.

I'm a huge IndyCar fan. I've been attending the Indy 500 since I was a kid. I also lived in Indianapolis for 20 years and its easy to become a mega-race fan in that town. I love watching the races all season.

I can't explain it, but I have a fascination with Bigfoot. I collect postcards, playing cards, stickers,etc. of Bigfoot.

I collect all things peanut butter & jelly. The cuter the better.

THINGS I DO NOT LOVE

I do not eat beef or pork

• Kiddie stickers/Dollar Tree Items • Color your own anything • Chocolate covered fruit • Flower flavored tea • Scraps of paper • Not a big fan of St. Patrick's Day. I lived in South Bend -home to the University of Notre Dame- for 18 years, so it's everything Irish all year long.

I love books! I love reading, collecting and sharing all types of books. I'm a big fan of used-book stores and Paperbackswap.

I like to collect old cookbooks, spiritual books (everything from Catholic saints to yoga) and art books.

I read a lot of fiction. I especially like books in a series. It's a fun way to spend more time with the characters.

I enjoy paper crafts, journaling, baking, making prayer beads and rosaries, painting on all types of mediums, washi crafts, candle making, painting pottery, baking/decorating sugar cookies in holiday shapes, and drawing yantras and mandalas.

Music is a big part of my life and brings me great joy. I feel really blessed to live in a time when all my music fits in the palm of my hand (i.e. iPhone). Streaming services are a true blessing!

Some of my favorite genres:

Pop - some current top 40's, but always will love the 80's best! I love Duran Duran, Prince and Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Bon Jovi, too many to name.

Classic Rock - Everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Motley Crue

Classical - Mozart, Beethoven and Baroque

World - Kirtan and Liquid Mind

Oldies - I love Elvis and music from the 50's and 60's

I grew up listening to Elvis because my Mom is a huge fan. She always put on a stack of his records when cleaning the house or cooking Sunday dinner. We've made the pilgrimage to Graceland many, many times. I took her to see the movie ELVIS over the summer and she loved it. It was such a great movie with an amazing soundtrack. I love Elvis!

I enjoy all postcards, here are some of my favorites:

Coffeehouses, coffee mugs, people drinking coffee

Libraries, bookstores, people reading

Beaches

Favorite animals - bears, rhinoceros, whales, birds, tortoise and rabbits

Mother nature: mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans, forests, meadows

City scenes

Trees

Flowers, fields of flowers

State map cards

Postcards of artwork, such as those bought in a museum

Touristy postcards from your town, city. state or country

Musicians from the 80's - Duran Duran, David Bowie, Prince, Michael Jackson etc.

Elvis

Now that I've been collecting, swapping, buying playing cards for the last year to create Frankendecks, I have an overabundance of playing cards. My nephew, sister and I have been enjoying the wide variety of cards and have created some very interesting decks.

I'm going to need to start using the cards in craft projects.

What does everyone do with the extra cards or cards you don't necessarily love???

My favorite themes:
• Flowers/Trees/Nature
• Ocean/Fish/Sharks/Shells
• Butterfly/Dragonfly
• Birds
• Places: landmarks, city, state, countries
• U.S. States; Favorites Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio
• Space/Moon/Sun/Planet
• Alcohol, beer, wine, liqueur
• Star Wars
• Coffee/Tea
• Elvis

I also collect random tarot and oracle cards for crafting and other interesting projects.

The Hangman is my card for 2023 *Wisdom; self-sacrifice; get a unique perspective

Favorite movies in no particular order:

*Top Gun * ALL Star Wars *Avatar movies *Tangled *Julie & Julia *all Hangover movies *A Star is Born *Elf *Field of Dreams *The Sound of Music *The Thomas Crown Affair *Dune *A Few Good Men *The Abyss *Bull Durham *Failure to Launch *Christmas with the Cranks