couchbanana

I have been married since 1996 and am the mom of two crazy boys, ages 14 and 11 and a cat that acts like we never give her any attention. (It's not the truth....don't listen to her.) I have worked for our local County Sheriff's Office for 17 years as of May 26th. In my spare time I like to spend time with my family, read, cross stitch and scrapbook. I love going to antique stores and finding old and unusual things. I love thrift stores, too...salvation army, goodwill, etc...it's amazing what people get rid of! I love baking and decorating cakes and cupcakes. I would love to own a cupcake shop someday. However, I am not a fan of making dinner. My favorite color is blue but I also like dark greens, purple, and deep reds.

• I love cool pens or pencils and small, pretty notepads or note cards and envelopes, and stationary. I just think office supplies are fun.

• earrings, stud or dangly (not too big) I like sparkly!

• vintage or antique things (especially old photos!)

• I love kitchen gadgets!! also pot holders, towels, spices or spice mixes, anything really.

• TEAS! I love fruity flavors, minty, or spicy flavors like cinnamon or chai. My favorites are peach, apple or apple cinnamon, peppermint or chai, but I'm not really picky. I'll try any flavor. I've gotten some Harney and Sons tea that was really good so if you can get that in your area I would love to have some. Loose tea is fine with me as well.

• anything for my boys. They feel left out sometimes in my swaps...the poor things. So, if you feel inclined to send something for them they would both love it! ;)

• socks. women's size 9

• I LOVE receiving all sorts of scrapbook stuff. See my "favorite craft items" section below for more ideas.

• Celtic stuff like music, earrings, bookmarks, anything with Celtic knotwork designs on it.

• tote bags. I don't carry a purse but I do like to carry tote bags to work for my lunch or other little things.

• Bath & Body or Victoria's Secret lotions.

• Scented or pretty bars of soap and candles. I like clean smelling scents and I love the smell of sandalwood!

• A photograph or refrigerator magnet of cool things where you live. I don't get to travel much though I would like to. Any other kind of fridge magnets are cool, too.

• small rubber stamps with designs, anything that could be used for scrapbooking for a boy. Nothing cutesy or girly.

• flowers or flower seeds. I love snapdragons in all colors.

• high quality stickers (K&C, Tim Coffey, etc)

• KITTIES!

• catnip toys. Well, really it's my kitty that likes these but I love watching her play with them. :)

• I appreciate and love all sorts of handmade stuff. Make me something and I'll be a happy camper.

• litte trinket boxes or containers or coin purses.

• Suprises from around the world!

• I will be happy with just about anything. If you like it, then I probably will, too.

  • EDIBLES:
• CHOCOLATE! milk, dark or mint chocolate with or without nuts or caramel. I love junior mints. All is fine by me.
• fruity flavored hard candy
• love cinnamon flavored stuff
• Cheez-its (all flavors)
• mixed nuts (flavored ones, too)
• the little drink packets you add to water bottles
• coffee or flavored coffee (Starbucks via=yum!)
• hot or cold flavored tea especially chai or peach tea. I like spicy or fruity teas.
• sugar free gum
• anything interesting that is popular from your country. I like trying new things.
• Not a fan of marshmallow or jelly candies.

I like scrapbooking and cross stitching. I sew, but not much. Mostly just mending and cutting off jeans to make shorts. I love my glue gun, though and use it for other random crafts.

I love cool scrapbook paper, metal embellishments, stamps and inks, alphabet stickers, other stickers, tags, brads, eyelets, ribbon, and everything else related to scrapbooking. I find a lot of my pages end up being blue and yellow. I love that color combination. I only scrapbook about my boys so if you send my anything related to scrapbooking please don't send any pink or flowery, girly stuff.

I like cross stitch patterns of angels, landscapes, cafe scenes, or something that looks like a painting when it's finished. I love Mirabilia patterns! I don't like country themed cross stitch, animals, flowers. I usually like big cross stitch projects that take me several months to a year to complete. I mostly stitch on 18 count Aida, Even Weave and Linen cross-stitch fabrics. I wish I had more 28 count linen in my stash for future projects and more colors of Aida. I have pretty much all the DMC floss colors except many of the higher numbers.

I like watching Survivor and American Idol and most of the home improvement shows on HGTV.

I love Princess Bride, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Shawshank Redemption, The Time Travelers Wife, Steel Magnolias, most kid movies like Kung Fu Panda, Megamind, etc. I don't like scary movies. When I watch action/adventure movies with my husband I fall asleep....sometimes even before the opening credits. :)

I listen to Christian, classic rock, Beatles, Celtic, classical and pretty much anything else other than rap or jazz.