monsbrick

Thank you for rating me!

Please do let me know if anything I send to you snells bad or moldy. I have a horrible sense of smell but I can obtain assistance to help monitor what I am sending. I will of course try to refrain but if I miss I am happy to resend or make it right for you.

Please let me know if I send you a postage due item! I’m happy to make it up to you. My local post office has reduced hours still:(

Welcome to my profile! I am 54 years old and live in Alameda an island town in a suburb outside San Francisco, California.

A few of my favorite things: Free random things Surprises Pink, Blue, Brown, and all the exotic names for all the colors, I love all the colors of the rainbow and more colors that are in mind's eye but not in the real or material world Dreams Films Cooking channels Fixer Upper Glamping at home like a princess!

Handmade anything. Dabbling in drawing, doodling, some variation of zentangles, watercolor, gel plate printing, stamping, collage, acrylics, sewing, painting, coloring, knitting, and other fiber arts, beading, cooking, and more.

Penpal writing and journal writing are some of my favorite pastimes.

💜Bella Grace& Daphne’s Diary & Somerset Studio are magazines I read.

Here are some of the YouTube people I subscribe to: Maremi Smallarts, Nik the Booksmith, Mystele, Ana Bondu, Susanne Rose Art, The Paper Outpost, Creationsceecee, My Arty Heart, Lisa Oxley, Joie de fi, Gel Press, and Gelli Arts.

Food: Cooking and nutrition are big for me. My current big project is getting our family recipe scrapbook together. How did you plan meals? Do you do meal prep? Any recipes you recommend? Or cookbooks? Or similar like Instagram or other chefs.

Postcards: Exploring ways I can save or share my collection. What do you do with your postcards? How do you share, save, or recycle? ♻️

Paper: I love stationery and all kinds of paper.

Junk journals, funky scrapbooks. I'm not that coordinated nor designed. My style is eclectic and messy and Bohemian. But I love to save all kinds of little bits and pieces. Ribbons, book pages, washi tape, wrapping paper, home made paper, yarn, tissue, packaging, even washi tape. I secretly love stickers though they seem not that popular. I've started a mini collection of recycled stickers, like people save used postage stamps. There should be a name for us like philatelist! But for stickers. It's a mini collection because it seems to be politically or socially incorrect to confess to this love here among "serious" arts and crafters. But then, I'm not good at being serious since I'm exceedingly serious at my day job.

What are you reading or listening to? Would you recommend a book to me?

Right now I’m reading the first Sue Grafton. Why have I never read her before? I’m on A Is for Alibi.

Listening to an audiobook collection edited by John Joseph Adams: The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination.

Apocalyptic Fiction:

*Hugh Howey *Paolo Bacigalupi *John Joseph Adams

Science fiction:

*William Gibson *Neal Stephenson *Scott Sigler

Horror

*Anne Rice *Chuck Hogan *Guillermo del Toro *Scott Sigler *Edgar Allen Poe

Teen Fiction

*Annette Marie *Sarah Cameron

Travel Writing

*Paul Theroux *Henry Miller

General Fiction

*James Baldwin *Jon Steele *Francesca Lia Block *Marguerite Duras *Anais Nin *Jack Kerouac *Gabriel Garcia Marquez *Danielle Steel *George R.R. Martin *Haruki Murakami *Robert B. Parker *JD Salinger *Jim Harrison *Ursula LeGuin

General Non-Fiction

*Oliver Sacks *Jeffrey Toobin *Angela Duckworth *Malcolm Gladwell *Jack Kerouac *Esther Perel
*Gabrielle Bernstein *Eckhart Tolle *Jack Kornfield *Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner *John McPhee

Naturalist

*John Muir *Henry David Thoreau

On writing, mostly I write for myself. I've kept a journal or diary since I was a kid. Lately I’ve joined journal swaps to make and share art and words with swappers. Sometimes just a page and for other swaps a whole notebook.

For journals, I’ve been working on art experiments like drawing, doodling, painting, coloring and more. Sometimes I work with watercolor, pencils, art crayons, found objects, ribbons, yarns and fiber art. I love words and I’m looking at ways to include more words and text.

Most recently I’m putting together a personal recipe and food journal. If you have ideas and suggestions around food and cooking and food storage or organizing my pantry and fridge please let me know! I’m curious.

Swim, walk, run, yoga and dance. I keep sanity by getting outside in nature and breathing fresh air.

Outside in our back patio, we set up a table and lawn chairs outside. A big umbrella keeps us shady for hot days. I love to work outside and lounge. The bright jewel colors in my flower garden keep me inspired from lemon to purple lavender and Mexican deep purple sage blooms.

In college during my first week of classes about 40 years ago I met a cute boy on the campus green. He invited me to his film class. We never dated though we did go see a few Humphrey Bogart films, Jon was after a beautiful Russian girl who had also been on the green that day and also took film with us. He quit school to make films and I skirted with film production but never went to Hollywood I do have some silly stories. I mean I’m the sort of girl who can swim laps next to Keanu Reeves and not realize until weeks later who he is. Ohh right! He’s another very handsome guy or you know 30 years ago when we were all much younger he was not hard to look at. He did smile at me in between laps. I’m very serious when I swim my laps too.

Oh but film, I could make lists of 1000’s of favorites but I’ll just list a few. How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, Splendor in the Grass, Get Him to the Greek, The Last Emperor of China, Gladiator, The Hunger Games, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Marie Antoniette, The Seven Samurai, Hero, Mulan

A few filmmakers I like are both Tony and Ridley Scott, the Cohen Brothers, Francis Ford and Sofia Coppola, Jon Chu, Ang Lee, Spike Lee, David Lynch, Kasi Lemmons, and Godard.

Artist Trading Cards or ATC and other arts and crafts creations. Recently I started really trading artist cards and that is super fun. I'm enjoying swapping these cards, other peoples' beautiful, fantastic, creations!

Love all kinds of music, all genres. I listen to electronica, opera, soundtracks. I download all kinds of podcasts and news on YouTube or other online sources. Spoken word.

I love to change my daily playlist with my 5000+ songs in my collection.

Blooming now are sweet pea flowers after years of trying I’ve finally gotten them to bloom! Yay!!!

Hydrangeas too. They didn’t want to bloom for a few years but this winter we have them rose food and I tossed the coffee grounds which are acidic into the soil under them. They are finally going bonkers now!!

Kale is a big hit here and spicy and sweet peppers, Green onions, various herbs, blackberries, strawberries. Scented flowers like jasmine and lavender and rose. Have you ever bathed in rose petals or rose hips? You can also bathe in lavender though I'm allergic to it so I watch it from a distance. Try it you will feel like a QUEEN when You bathe in rose petals!! You can scoop them out with a mesh strainer when you are done. They are also high in vitamin C which is good for your skin.

What about you? Do you grow anything?

How are you serving these pandemic times?