sharonelaine

I am a 31 year old housewife of a cowboy/ranch hand & work part time at my local quilt shop. The rest of the time I spend on the ranch with my 3 dogs and wonderful husband. We have 2 heeler mixes (Festus and Lotte) and one Corgi (Cord). They keep us occupied and entertained especially on cold wintery days. We also have one horse, named Fancy. We got her when she was 7 and she had just been a brood mare her whole life. My husband has turned her into a pretty cow-y horse, but I would love to get a colt or two out of her.

I enjoy working with my hands and am constantly learning new crafts to keep my mind sharp. I also enjoy math and logic puzzles.

My mom recently taught me how to sew, mostly out of necessity. The clothes that I can actually afford are so cheaply made and fall apart after just a few washes so I decided to make some of my own clothes. From there my sewing obsession has exploded. I've ventured into quilting, making handbags, and some housewares.

My mom also taught me counted cross stitch when I was young (I could have learned to sew when I was young too, but the machine kind of scared me). Besides the counted cross stitch I now also do embroidery.

I make wire and chain jewelry. They are basic pieces, but I try to design them to complement an outfit, not be a statement on their own.

I also braid mohair cinches and other cowboy gear. I enjoy working with paracord and yak hair although someday I would like to start working with rawhide. I try to sell these items, but usually my husband ends up stealing them for his saddle or his trade bag.

Cowboy music. I love the stories they tell, and the way they keep the West alive.

In high school I was big into ska and punk and, living in Southern California, got to see some great shows! I worked at the Hollywood Bowl for a couple summers so I really expanded my music appreciation there. I didn't care for the classical music nights, for some reason it makes me anxious, but loved the jazz, mariachi, rock and roll, and even some of the pop shows.

I love to read and am always looking for new authors. I enjoy alternate reality stories and Stephen King-type suspense. I used to read a lot of scary stories when I was young, as long as the sun was still shining at the time. :) I also enjoy historical fiction stories. I don't usually pick up "must reads," I usually pick up random books at the library. If I don't like it within 50 pages I don't finish it. Sadly, that means I didn't finish a lot of the books assigned in English class in high school. Don't mean I ain't educated. Just kidding! :P

The Dark Tower books by Stephen King..."Go then. There are other worlds than these."

Many of Mark Twain's stories.

The Hunger Games.

The Thursday Next and Nursery Crime Division books by Jasper Fforde.

I joined Swap Bot mostly to do quilting and other sewing (hand and machine) type swaps, and to meet other people around the world. I don't know what ATC's, stuffies, matchboxes, friendship books, and many other swapped items are but would love to figure it out someday.

I am a Scorpio, which is a water sign, so I love the water and need more of it around me. We live in a pretty dry part of the country, the nearest river is almost an hour away. There are a few creeks, but they are dry for most of the year. So any sort of sea life, real or fictional, will make me happy.

I am surrounded by the Old West, so although I love it I don't really need any more of it. Especially because I'm picky about my "western" stuff.

I'm not into licensed characters, but I love cartoons. I grew up on Disney and I still receive the newest Disney release DVD every year for my birthday. Toy Story 3 is awesome!!! :)

I love to doodle although since I've been out of school I haven't really had the opportunity to doodle as much anymore. I used to love creating cartoon characters. I always wished I could come up with a comic strip, but I wasn't great at creating story lines. I've recently discovered free motion quilting and am happy that it reminds me so much of doodling.

My favorite color is orange, although I prefer a coppery or peachy orange over bright. I also like autumn colors and rich purples and blues. I don't usually care for primary colors, neons, or pastels. I'm not a fan of the trend of aqua and red, but that could be because I dislike red as much as I like orange. I don't wear yellow (washes me out) or red (accentuates my pink cheeks), but I'll accessorize with most other colors.

I recently started crochet & knitting. I have fallen in love with soft wool yarns and my work now carries Brown Sheep yarn. My favorite yarn weights (so far, at least) are worsted & thicker. I don't really care for the textured or hairy yarns yet. Since I'm am still a beginner I need to be able to see my stitches & the textured yarns make that difficult. I'm working on my second cowl & have taught myself cables, ribbing, and dpns. I'm also working on fingerless gloves using the most gorgeous Malabrigo yarn! I'm looking forward to learning how to knit socks this winter.

Likes:

Cute embroidery scissors

Fun sewing/knitting notions (example: retractable measuring tape in different shapes, stitch markers, handmade needle books - hand sewing or knitting needles)

Aida cotton or linen for embroidery/cross stitch

Yarn (any weight, handpainted, handspun, anything fun & unique)

Embroidered hoops

Yarn bowl (a girl can dream, right?) ;)

Vintage buttons & trims

Russian nesting dolls (my grandfather took me to Northern Europe, Russia, & Scandinavia 12 yrs ago. I fell in love with the Eastern European culture, colors, structures)

Mermaids & sea turtles

Modern fabric charms (5" square) in bright, but not neon colors. Favorite designers Lizzy House, Heather Ross, Fig Tree, Tula Pink, American Jane, Sweetwater.

Dislike: There isn't much I dislike. It's more about the effort a swapper puts into a swap then what is actually sent.

No gift cards please. I know it's not something that will likely be sent, but my tiny western town has no brand name shops & the next nearest town in any direction is over an hour away.

I'm slowly trying to update my likes & dislikes; if you have any questions on them for a specific swap just shoot me a PM and I'll get back to you as quick as I can.

As I mentioned before I grew up on Disney flicks so many of my favorites are Disney; Meet the Robinsons is my go to. My husband and I have very different tastes in movies, but we both like SciFi and suspense; Serenity, Dune, Stargate, DaVinci Code, V for Vendetta. I love the oddness of Tim Burton's movies. I've been fascinated with stop motion animation since we got to make a short film in 5th grade.

We don't have television, but we do have a Netflix account so we do get to keep up on shows somewhat. My favorite shows are The Simpsons and Futurama, followed closely by Arrested Development and Firefly. I'm currently running through Six Feet Under and Numbers. And I try to catch Glee on Hulu whenever I can.