pianoheart

I play piano, guitar and ukulele. I recently began studying the violin. When I'm not playing music, I'm usually listening to music. My favorite music to listen to is instrumental folk music. I lead group music therapy and would like to swap for any musical instruments you may want to share with my adult group members.

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 using seeds, nuts and flowers from Hawaiian plants and trees.

I welcome pen pals who want to share friendship. 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 collect amazon gift cards. These electronic gift codes count as profile-related items in profile-based swaps. I use Amazon to buy my textbooks and supplies for school.

Some favorites and wishlist:

• the color gray and the gray scale from black to white
• nice quality below-the-ankle socks
• birds
• exercise: yoga, walking, hiking
• ethnic worry dolls and worry dolls made by you
• your original handmade bookmark - drawn, painted, stitched
• quartz crystal balls
• handmade essential oil soap
• sage, sweet grass, lavender, orange
• magnesium bath salts
• big tree forests
• international and USA pen pals
• musical instruments
• friendship bracelets
• new USB flash drives for data storage
• yellow highlighters - markers or Sharpie gel
• new, big, soft erasers
• small plant trimming snips
• roll of Parafilm nursery grafting tape
• cute new case for 9 x 13 laptop computer
• EOS or similar natural lip balm, any flavor

• high quality, pure rosemary essential oil

  Things I Use:

  • Asian bamboo paint brushes

  • Square paper envelopes for CDs

  • animation and foreign films with English subtitles on region 1 DVD or VCD... no anime or manga

  • packets of viable (not outdated) seeds to grow anything, but especially cacti, succulents, and palm trees...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, fine-line art pens, medium and fine grit sandpaper, colored pencils, mechanical pencils and lead for them, wood glue

  • sashiko thread (white, off-white, dark green)

  • strings!...for ukulele, guitar, dulcimer, banjo, violin

  • unused USA postage stamps

  • sew-on patches, especially those related to the environment

  • simple beach flip-flops, like the kind at Old Navy for 2-3 dollars or ones from where you live, size women's US 8.

  • 100% cotton T-shirts from environmental agencies where you live, size women's small

  • solar powered anything...flashlights, battery chargers, water pumping, etc.

  • large sun hats with chin straps

  • small cotton drawstring bags for adding cut herbs to bath water

  • X-acto knives and blades for them

  • For flat swaps, I like: bookmarks, unused USA postage stamps, seed packets, CDs, DVDs, sandpaper, X-acto knife blades, 5" x 7" mailing envelopes, thin cotton drawstring bags

I live in a non-smoking, pet-free home. My land is a sanctuary for birds and the trees that provide them with food and shelter. I love to watch them and listen to them. I don't feed birds because I want them to stay wild.

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

• glitter, stamped images, things cut from magazines, book pages, post-it notes, ephemera, feathers, blank recipe cards, synthetic fiber cloth, tags, used postage stamps, coloring pages, coloring cards or coloring books

• I don't make scrapbooks.

• earrings (I don't have anything pierced)

• 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.

• makeup and nail polish - I don't wear them.

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