e2java

✈ I'm married to an Englishman and I have relatives and friends in England, Switzerland, Belgium and France. I love traveling but don't love the long flights. I have two stepsons and two grandchildren.

I'm figuring out how I want to lay out a garden and greenhouse on my new property. We have about 10 acres to play with. I'm almost finished building my chicken palace for my four black Orphington chickens. I have dug up herbs and flowers at my old house to bring here.

I love transplanted plants. I have candy-striped amaryllis from an old plantation in Montmorenci, SC. I have Ginger Lilies from a coastal hideaway in McClellanville, SC. I have white irises that were growing in a ditch along the road in Washington, GA. Daffodils and snow drops from a forgotten country farm. My plants tell stories and remind me of family and friendships.

We have one dog: an English Shepherd named Abby. We took over Abby when a friend's father was diagnosed with dementia and had to move into a nursing home. She is 12 and features on my TikTok page often.

I love essential oils and use DoTerra. I've been making small roller bottles for my coworkers with Frankincense, lemon, oregano, OnGuard and Tea Tree Oil to stop passing around all the bugs and virus and yucky stuff at work. Lavender helps calm my dogs, too.

I like all colors. I really love blues and browns and colors of nature.

Unusual, thought provoking, art, architecture, foreign places, vintage, creepy, funny, animals, and recipe postcards.

Not so much into the state postcards or state map postcards.

🌠 I quilt. I am a machine quilter and I use a rotary cutter to cut my material. I typically make lap quilts or baby quilts. I have MANY unfinished projects. I haven't had a lot of time to quilt but find time to sew some small projects. I adore my serger machine I need to find more time to quilt.

I've put my quilting stash to manic mask making use in 2020. Mostly I've been giving them to my employees at work and mailing some off to friends and family. I've probably made 200+ so far but have truly lost count. My stepson set up an Etsy store for me called JavaCatCrafts and listed all of my masks.

🎨 I like to doodle. I like creating envelope art and just starting using watercolor pencils. I think it is a fabulous way to de-stress. I send pen pal letters to my toddler grandson who enjoys going to the mailbox with his dad.

✏️ I love to write and try to keep up with my blog.

📚 I'm on GoodReads.

Because I commute an hour each way to work, I listen to a lot of audio books. I listen to them on Audible, YouTube and find second hand audiobooks at thrift stores and used book stores. I'm currently enjoying "The Queen's Gambit". My sister started a travel book club on Facebook and I just finished "Anxious People" for February.

I've also started collecting Nancy Drew books - the kind that I had in the 70s and early 80s. My husband and I look through antique stores and thrift shops trying to find the ones I am missing. I would like to read them all from the first book on.

I read a few magazines when I'm looking for something different and shorter than a book. My favorites are Mary Jane's Farm, Garden & Gun and Daphne's Diary.

📌Recipes (I love to bake, cook and use the crock pot and my InstaPot). I'd be very interested in any dog food or dog treat recipes you may have found to be wonderful. We are vegetarian (not vegan but I do a lot of vegan recipes). I enjoy old family recipes, too and the ones from Church fundraising cookbooks. I'm currently translating my great-grandmother's handwritten French recipes.

📌Interesting articles from magazines or newspapers that you would like to share or even magazines (gently used is fine)

📌Local lore articles from your area.

📌Interesting Stickers or Washi tape. I love Lisa Frank stickers, Tim Holtz, Washi Stickers

📌Anything you made: art, envelopes, notecards, crochet, knitted, etc.

📌Herbal Teas / Green Teas or other teas (No loose, please and no Matcha)

📌Unusual stamps, vintage or foreign (used is fine)

📌Sample Essential Oils, cosmetic samples

📌All things Edward Gorey

📌Book or Podcast recommendations

📌A pen pal letter. I love hearing about your life.

📌A dog toy

Because I live in the South, be careful of sending things that could melt in the mail...hot months are end of April through end of September.