Annaisjoyful

I am a 35-year-old stay at home mum with 4 children aged 6 and under.

I was born in London, England and moved to Paris, France when I was 5. I went to university in Edinburgh, Scotland, and now live in Belfast, Northern Ireland with my husband and children. I own a greeting cards business. I am a Christian.

• Disciplines of a Godly Woman - Hughes
• How People Change - Lane
• Crazy Love - Chan
• The Discipline of Grace - Bridges
• Second Guessing God - Jones
• Seeking Allah, FInding Jesus - Qureshi
• A Grief Observed - Lewis
• The Narnia books - Lewis
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Haddon
• This Is Ridiculous This Is Amazing: Parenthood in 71 Lists - Good

I love to journal (sometimes using typography, hand lettering, and various forms of art - ink, drawing, stickers...) and love reading back over my travel journals.

I love to scrapbook though have not done this properly in a long time, and I make cards for people regularly.

I love pottery painting.

I love modern lettering and watercolour painting.

I enjoy making and decorating things like candle holders, photo frames...

I love to knit, but am very slow at it so don't do this too often.

• reading good books
  • journaling
  • knitting
  • meeting for a cup of tea with friends (especially if there's cake or a croissant involved too!)
  • anything to do with Paris or Edinburgh - used to live in both places and they have kind of romantic connotations for me now!
  • English breakfast, Earl Grey, Lady Grey, and some red fruit teas (but these can be a bit hit or miss so maybe avoid!)
  • travelling (so far, Iceland is my favourite country)
  • the colours turquoise, mint and purple especially, but anything bright really
  • washi tape - I'm particularly looking for a mint chevron tape which I used to get from Paperchase but can now find nowhere
  • stickers, especially Jolee's Boutique
  • bunting in all forms - fabric, drawn, printed...
  • cute pegs
  • Emma Bridgewater
  • Cath Kidston
  • hand lettering and typography
  • having fresh flowers in the house
  • knitting (though I'm very slow!)
  • writing letters and cards to people - I love the cards that A Beautiful Mess make for example
  • stationary (I could spend a fortune in Paperchase!!)
  • Haribo sweets
  • Sweedish Fish
  • Lindt chocolate
  • board games
  • Woodland animals especially foxes and deer
  • polka dots
  • patterns like stripes, chevrons, stars, hearts etc
  • Instagram!
  • I collect Essie Nail polishes and the town Starbucks mugs (not the country ones)

• the taste of alcohol
  • anything grape, cinnamon or cherry flavoured
  • coffee
  • Halloween
  • Santa
  • dark stuff, things to do with witches
  • antique, used or generally old stuff, except books
  • kawaii, hello kitty etc.
  • most tv programmes, sci-fi etc
  • Fairies, Magic, Vampires, Zombies...
  • domestic animals (we used to have a tank of tropical fish and that is about all I could cope with - my husband is trying to make me agree to a puppy... nope, sorry!!!)
  • the circus
  • twitter - I just don't get it!

I will always send something for the swaps I sign up to. If I have marked as sent for a swap and within a reasonable amount of time you still have received nothing, please message me. I do hope this never happens and that all I ever send always reaches its intended destination!

I often recycle packaging, using pre-used envelopes and updating them. I hope you don't mind, I think it's sensible, and it's quite nice to receive a decorated envelope - I do try to make them look attractive and inviting to open.

Any questions, let me know!