SuZignomeMoM

20 June

Back in early Oct 2019 I was diagnosed with Malignant Neoplasm Lung Cancer.

Since then I had brain surgery to remove cancer there.

It turns out it is ALL Uterine cancer from back in 2016. Undergoing radiation for the brain and I feel like I might be back to swapping soon

I grew up on a farm in rural Kentucky, the oldest of 6. Because we had no TV until I was 14, I spent a lot of time crafting.

Later when I was out of school I worked as an illustrator and cartographer.

While raising my children I took ceramic & woodworking classes at the local craft shop.

Now I work with paper. Making paper, marbling paper, making paste paper and creating all sorts of things from those papers. To see some of these visit my Pinterest board SuZi's Samples.

Many of my favorite books are posted on my Pinterest board, "Best Book EV-VER"

I can speed read but never bother to if I am enjoying what I call "entertainment reading".

To find most of my favorite movies check out, "Movie Magic"

Many of my favorite TV shows are just a click away, "Turn on the Telly"

Any of these things will make me when I receive them in the mail;

a. ATCs, Alphabets

b. Butterflies, Birds, Books, Blue (color), Brown (color)

c. Chocolate (I am always up for chocolate as my lack of waistline will attest), Cats, Cards

d. Dragons, Dragonflies, Doodles, Dogs (all sorts but if I was going to have one I would want a Heinz 57.)

e. Envelopes (handmade), Ephemera, Easter (anything/anytime)

f. Faeries, Foxes, Frogs, Folios, Fortune cookie fortunes

g. Gnomes, Glitter, Green (color)

h. Handcrafted anything, Halloween (cutesy, please not horrific)

i. Ice cream, Irises

j. Junk journals

k.Kittens, Kitsch, Kites, Keys

l. Long letters, Lace

m. Minions, Maps, Magpie Journals, Music

n. Nature, Note paper, Note pads

o. Origami, Owls, Orange (color)

p. PAPER (exotic or plain), Pocket letters, Postage stamps, Pen pals, Purple (color)

q. Quilts, Quilling

r. Ribbons, Recycle/Re-purposed/Reused items, Red (color)

s. Stickers (Teeny tiny to ATC size, I love em all and can find a place to use them), Skinnies, Sunflowers, Stamps (rubber), Stamps (postage), Short letters

t. TEA (all sorts) I maintain a board on Pinterest where I rate teas as I experience them. I am always looking for something new, Twinchies, Turtles

u. Unusual paper

v. Vintage things, Violet, Valentines

w. Washi, Washi, Washi

x. X-mas anything/anytime

y. Yarn, Yellow (color)

z. Zendangles (not to be confused with zentangles®)

Things that will make me ;

1. Cosmetics, bath & body items.
2. Jewelry and hair accessories
3. Food out of the original packaging
4. Heavy Metal, Death Metal, etc
5. Blood and gut images
6. Cartoons like Cow & Chicken, Beavis and Butthead, Powerpuff Girls, My Little Pony, etc.

If you happen to send something from the dislike list I promise not to hate you.

Anything else you would like to know please feel free to ask.

I belong to two art based clubs.

LAFTA "Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists".

STABA (Second Tuesday Artist Book Association) a very small group devoted to creating books that are also works of art.

I have joined several FaceBook groups to inspire my creative juices.

Junk Journals

Altered Paper Clips

Altered Rolodex Cards

And one just for fun For Gnome Guardians

Gnomes 2 Roam

Magpie Journals have now replaced both Mini albums and Pocket Letters in my heart.

I like that I can use scrapbook paper to make them and fill them with anything I happen to find.

You can still include things like a confetti packet and tags. Even add a full-fledged letter or just a note. The possibilities are endless.

Magpie Journals

My sister, Teresa, created a bunch of gnomes. She gave them to her friends in hopes that they would photograph the gnomes in their travels and send back pictures to a project she called "Gnomes2Roam".

When she made Wally (named after Crocodile Dundee's mate, Walter, because of his hat) for me, I offered to send some gnomes to my overseas pen pals. She made 6 brothers for Wally. The gnomes refer to her as "the creator".

The first brother to move out was Wiggo who went to Norway and started his own home security business and has fallen in love with the smallest Matryoshka sister living there. Wyatt moved out to live with my daughter in Ohio and practice his yoga. William went all the way to New Zealand where he had a shock shortly after arrival when it snowed. Wilson (named after the Seahawks quarterback) moved to California to quarterback his own team of Lego® football players. Finally Thor flew off to the Netherlands to live the quiet life.

After he named himself, Soren decided he liked it just fine here with Wally. He is the only gnome I know without a mustache.

Watch Wally and Soren's cousins on YouTube
pherognomes

Meet Wally's and Søren's distant cousins that now live with me.

brothers, Lars in red and Olav in grey,

friends, Sebastian (aka Elvis) with the scraggly beard and Hugo all in grey,

Patrick, created by my sister AJ,

all the way from Woodstock, Johan.

Rita, a champion skier, and Ravi, my largest gnome yet.

It seems there is no end to my gnome family because even when you are too old to have kids you can still have gnomes at home.

We had one cat, Kit, who loved putting in her 2¢ on all my creations. Once I have managed to vacuum up the last of her fur there will be no chance of bothering people with allergies.

" Hope to swap with you again." Six of the most coveted words on here. It really makes me smile to know what I gathered together has made someone happy.

I ALWAYS send. If the unforeseeable happens and I am going to be late, I will contact you.

I ALWAYS rate. My mail comes in around noon and I am down here on the computer rating as soon as possible.

I ALWAYS respond. Even if it is just a ♥. This helps me keep track of the swaps that got to their destination.

I learned several things from joining Swap-bot.

One - I have way too much .

Two - All my efforts to downsize using Swap-bot have

My partners are sending back waaaaaaaaaay too much stuff.

Three - There are a lot of lovely, talented people out there that have no idea what a gift to the world they are.