pianoheart

I am on swap-bot to find pen pals. Here is a little about me:

I love musical instruments and instrumental music from all over the world. For visual arts, I like watercolor painting and Chinese brush painting. I'm interested in making soap, handmade paper, artistic bookbinding and making/restoring ukulele. I make jewelry and lei using seeds, nuts and flowers from Hawaiian plants and trees.

I welcome pen pals who want to share friendship. I currently have tons of mainstream writing stationery, so no need to send more to me, unless you have written a pen pal letter to me on it. I love to travel and explore new places. I am always looking for interesting places to visit next. I would love to read about your own travel experiences rather than from a travel book. I am more interested in traveling and forming friendships than accumulating stuff. I would like to find some like-minded people.

I love to cook. I experiment with adapting recipes for use with local Hawaiian ingredients. I grow many kinds of tropical fruit and like to use them in recipes. I cook mostly vegetables, fruit and whole grains. I don't cook with dairy, eggs or meat. I have too many vegetarian cookbooks, so no need to send more to me.

My husband collects retired license plates from all over the world. They don't need to be old, just no longer on a vehicle. If you would like to add to his collection, please send me a message.

I'm more about giving than receiving, so if you are sending to me in a flat rate box destash, you have the option of sending an electronic amazon gift code to save time and postage - envelope or small box 10, medium box 20, large box 25. Hearts for this option because I use amazon.com to buy my instrument strings, music and instrument construction books. I love to experiment with handmade musical instruments.

Some favorites:

• Ocean - I love walking and swimming at the beach.
• Earth - I love being outside, hiking to waterfalls and great views, planting native trees.
• the color gray and the gray scale from black to white
• birds
• exercise: yoga, walking, hiking
• worry dolls - these are tiny handmade dolls, made by you or from their native home in central/south America.
• thin, durable bookmarks - I use them in my cookbooks, so ones that can be wiped clean are great.
• natural, plant-based essential oil soap
• Favorite scents: sweet grass, lavender, orange, ginger, fresh cut burdock root
• big tree forests
• international and USA pen pals
• musical instruments

• friendship bracelets, made by you

  Things I Use:

  • Asian bamboo paint brushes

  • packets of viable (not outdated) seeds to grow herbs, cacti and succulents...I'm always looking for swapping pen pals in warm climates to exchange seeds .

  • body part milagros and prayer beads from different countries

  • art supplies: watercolor paint, very fine-line brushes, medium and fine grit sandpaper, colored pencils, mechanical pencils and lead for them, wood glue

  • unused USA postage stamps

  • For flat swaps, I like: unused USA postage stamps, seed packets, sandpaper, milagros, origami paper

• For papercrafts, I like origami, bookbinding supplies and supplies for making handmade paper. I also use watercolor paper, watercolor paint and brushes, colored pencils, beautiful and unusual letter-writing paper and envelopes. I also use writing instruments like mechanical pencils and sketching tools. I don't use markers so much and they usually dry out before I get to use them. I like pens with colored ink, but the multipack ones from dollar stores usually don't write well or are old and dried out when still in the package.

• Things for my puppy: collar, harness (size medium - must be new due to his skin allergy), leash, chew toys that are not fiber-filled.

******** Things I Don't Need so Much: *****************

I don't make scrapbooks or greeting cards, so please do not send glitter, stamped images, embellishments from a craft store, journal cards/project life/prompts, memo paper, things cut from magazines, ATC supplies, list pad paper, book pages, post-it notes, ephemera, feathers, blank recipe cards, synthetic fabric, tags, used postage stamps, coloring pages/cards/books.

• Please don't send food or drink (this includes tea bags)..these tend to melt, get weird in the tropical heat or the gecko living in my mailbox gets to them first.

• Please don't send makeup or nail polish - I don't wear them, but I like sealed, unused packages of natural skin care samples/products, like exfoliator, face wash, moisturizer, sunscreen, essential oil perfume.

• I have more books than I can possibly read in my lifetime. Please do not send books unless they are from my Amazon.com wish list.

• Stuff from big box and chain stores. Why pay to mail something that I can find here? I would rather receive something you make or a natural product from where you live.

  It is difficult to remove plastic on an island. watch this to learn more