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 love working with plants - growing them and pressing them for artwork and study. 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 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 use Amazon.com to buy my textbooks and supplies for school.

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
• 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

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  • packets of viable (not outdated) seeds to grow herbs, cacti and succulents ...I'm always looking for swapping pen pals in warm climates to exchange seeds .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

  • 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: bookmarks, unused USA postage stamps, seed packets, sandpaper, milagros

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

• I make handmade paper. I make stationery and journals from handmade paper, but I don't embellish my work with glued-on things. I don't make scrapbooks, cards, or other paper crafts, 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 and nail polish - I don't wear them.

• 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