freedak

I'm a stay-at-home mom to two little girls, and I love to craft! My favorite crafts are knitting and sewing, but I dabble in some others. I'm obsessed with purple, turquoise, and rainbow motifs, and I love nature. Arts and crafts with nature themes rock my world!

I am completely engrossed in parenting, and I'm hoping to force myself into more crafting and interaction with adults through this site. That being said, I believe very strongly in the tenets of attachment parenting, unconditional parenting, and unschooling. I believe that children should be treated with respect and unconditional love and acceptance, even if that means they choose something that isn't your cup o' tea. This stance on parenting has pretty much become my identity, so please forgive me if I talk too much about it!

If you are sending any food items, please be sure that they don't contain any animal by-products such as gelatin, cochineal, etc. I am mostly vegan (only eat eggs from my pet chickens), so this stuff grosses me out! Thanks for understanding!

Ani Difranco, Adele, Fiona Apple, Damien Rice, They Might Be Giants, M.I.A., Heather Nova, Holly Cole, Pete Yorn, Tori Amos, Third Eye Blind, Sarah McLachlan, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Tom Petty

Really, I will listen to pretty much anything except hardcore rap. I love to listen to music, but I'm not nearly as "into" it as I was way back in the day.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, The Giant's House, Room, Harry Potter Series, The Hunger Games Trilogy, Pride and Prejudice, The Giver, Unconditional Parenting, Sandra Dodd's Big Book of Unschooling, Raising Our Children Raising Ourselves,

I was an English major in college, so I've done quite a bit of reading! I really like jazz-age fiction and some contemporary fiction as long as it has some substance. Non-fiction has never been my favorite, but I'm starting to use it as a reference for gardening and parenting.

Sewing, Knitting, Quilting, Kids Crafts, Woodworking

Since joining swap-bot, I've gotten the desire to do some paper crafting, even though I have NO experience!

Juno, Garden State, Pulp Fiction, Thor, Singing in the Rain, Empire Records, My Girl, The Secret of NIMH, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Closer, Amelie, 50/50

New Girl, Glee, Grey's Anatomy, Golden Girls, The Simpsons, Dirty Jobs, Survivorman, Firefly, Breaking Bad

This is by no means a wish list, just some helpful guidance!

• Yarn (all kinds except silk)
• Sewing thread (I'm forever running out!)
• Embroidery floss
• Fabric scraps (at least 5 inches square)
• Purple
• Turquoise
• Black & White
• Nature
• Woodland animals
• Gnomes
• Fairies
• Mushrooms
• Owls
• Quilts
• Letterpressed items
• Washi tape
• Deco tape
• Stationery
• Notecards
• Knitting notions (stitch markers, row counters, darning needles, etc.)
• Matryoshka dolls--I would be your very best friend if you could find me an authentic wooden one! I've just started collecting these, so absolutely anything related would be most welcome :-)
• Books (classic fiction, modern fiction, gardening non-fiction)
• Vegetarianism/Veganism
• Chickens
• Optimism
• Attachment Parenting
• Unconditional Parenting
• Unschooling
• Kindness
• Respect

It never fails that I craft for everyone except myself, so these are some of my crafted wishes that I'll probably never get around to making myself:

• Retro aprons
• Pretty pincushion
• Hand-knitted hat
• Needlebook (I really need this! I've been carrying loose sewing needles in my jacket pockets. Ouch!)

Also, I love handcrafted stuff for my kids, but I never get around to doing it. I would love to do some swapping for these types of goodies :-)

• Leather
• Meat
• Disney characters/products
• Silk
• Dairy products
• Mean people
• Pessimism
• Public Schools
• Cigarette Smoke
• Gory stuff
• Zombies (yeah, I know I'm in the minority here!)
• Overtly religious items (some religiosity is okay, just nothing over-the-top)