tareami

2011-09-08: Hello kitties!

I'm back from the dead. Like a really friendly zombie you might say.

About the Woodland Creature with a moustache-swap that's hanging around on my dashboard like a ghoul of shame: I suck really bad for flaking on such a kick-ass swap. I want to make good on it. Before I fell of the map I contacted my partner for this, @funkylukescosmicart and told her I was running late and she replied:

"don't worry about it..iam getting off the bot..lol.. need to save to money"

So now I realize she's gone and flaked on her partner for this swap, "fine and dandy" I think to myself, "I'll send to her partner instead, @ilovetubby ", but it turns out she was a double profiler and is gone too.

I am truly sorry about flaking on this swap and I really want to make good so I can start swapping again with a clear conscience. I have contacted @babynavyblue and hope there's something grand I can do to make up for it.

My name is Ami, I'm a 28 year old crafty devil. I live with my 3 guinneapigs in a lilliputian apartment and take gender studies at the local university.

I'm devoted to d.i.y, thrifting and upcycling, and very rarely buy anything new, except for craft-material that's hard to get your hands on vintage, like wire and paint etc. I'm a total shop-o-holic so that's my creative way of not ruining my economy and saving the planet at the same time.

There's just so much good music. I will never get enough!

Good stuff:

Tom Waits, The magnetic fields, Cake, Erik Satie, Julee Cruise, Josephine Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dresden Dolls, Amanda Palmer, Morphine, Blind Melon, Madonna, Meatloaf, Joanna Newsom, The Knife, Beirut, Gillian Welch, PJ Harvey, Killers, Kings of Leon, NIN, Smashing Pumpkins, Ditty Bops, Django Reinhart, The Cure, Sinead O’Connor, Siouxie and the Banshees, dEUS, Cocorosie, Electric 6, Antony and the Johnsons, Belle and Sebastian, Dead Kennedys, Hole, L7, White Zombie, Misfits, Danzig, Korn, SOAD, NewModelArmy, Regina Spektor, Yann Thiersen, Tori Amos, Le tigre, Peaches, First Aid Kit, Florence+the machine, Soul Coughing, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Henry Fiats Open Sore.. I could go on and on. "I like a beautiful song that tells you terrible things. We all like bad news out of a pretty mouth." -Tom Waits.

I love books, they make me feel safe, warm and fuzzy. Libraries are a happy place to me, they smell nice. If I get to choose, some of the worlds greatest authors are:

Jonathan Carrol, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, G.W. Dahlquist (glassbooks, lovely) Haruki Murakami, Tove Jansson (who created the moominworld), Jonathan Safran Foer, Stephen King, Joe Hill, Walter Mosley, John Ajvide Lindqvist (author of Let the right one in) and Roald Dahl. I recently discovered Phillip Pullman, pure genius.

I collect vintage illustrated children's books and fairy tales...Alice in Wonderland, Wind in the Willows, Moomin, Where the Wild Things Are... Call me childish but the Harry Potter books moved me more than any Russian masterpiece and if I could have just one crazy wish granted I'd trade my reality for a life of adventures and teaparties in the moominvalley in a heartbeat.. I'm more of a Grimm-hugger than a happy-ending girl when it comes to fairytales. I have a big love for rewrites, like Neil Gaiman's Snow White; "Snow, Glass, Apples", deliciously twisted. Children's books about monsters, ghosts, vamps and witches has been a fav since I was a wee little bunny.

I love grown-up comics and would be delighted if anyone here would tip me about their favorites.

Some favs are:

White trash, Lobo, Vamps, Sandman, TankGirl, V for Vendetta, Watchmen and everything by Junko Mizuno.

Uh-oh, there are so many:

The Alien trilogy, Labyrinth, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Shortbus, Mysterious Skin, The Shining, Secretary, Lovely Bones, Survivestyle 5+, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, T2, Star Wars (NOT 1, 2 & 3, brrr) Coraline, Bunny and the Bull, Beetlejuice, Nightmare before Christmas, James and the giant peach, everything by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Guillermo del Toro, Studio Ghibli, Wes Anderson and Kevin Smith, zombie-movies and old pulpy horror-flicks...

I never watch TV, but I download a lot of series:

Pushing Daisies, Oddities, My name is Earl (Joy Turner is my role-model :P) Dexter, American Pickers, Grey's anatomy, True Blood, Medium, Midsomer Murders, Lost, Twin Peaks, Carnivale, Kids in the hall, Father Ted, Eerie Indiana, Ren & Stimpy, The Colbert Report, Supernatural, House, Fringe, anything based on Agatha Christie and of course TheUltimateFighter and the UFC! (gotta love me some death-wrestling)

Plushies are my addiction, I sew when my machine is in a pleasing mood, plant things from time to time, cross stitch, embroider and make jewelery out of scanned old photos, gamepieces and various trinkets. I experiment with cutting paper and hand-carving lino&rubber-stamps, and I knit & crochet. I actually can't stop crocheting, mostly amigurumis with loong heads. I upcycle anything that inspires me, and I compulsively decorate every space that I spend more than a day in.

Turquoise, gray, jade, marzipan-green & pink, bleached pastels, white and black, polkadots and stripes (aren't colors, I know, still love 'em)

Mostly handmade and old stuff, I'm soo into vintage and d.i.y. The big exception being cutsie bento and sushi-gear and kawaii-stuff, looove cute inanimate objects; who can resist food with faces?

I collect loads of stuff, old Bambi-deers, cuckoo-clocks, kokeshidolls, maps and religious kitsch for example.

Other things I like are:

Old photos, cabinet cards, handmade stuffies, thrifted trinkets, tins, tea parties, cupcakes, burlesque, owls and octopus, steampunk, dia de los muertos, vintage-style halloween, mustaches, monsters, robots and zombies, cooking cute, art deco, exotic seeds, cherry and sweet liquorice flavor, foreign candies, drinks and foods, engrish! bows, buttons and ribbons, chocolate, kewpies, doll parts, coifish, cowboys and sailors, toadstools, paper-cuts, caketoppers, Russian nesting-dolls, bones, marzipan, 50's plastic, gnomes, moths, matchboxes, lace and feathers, yarn and glue, jadeite, the morbid and bizarre, evil clowns, bearded ladies, old-school Nintendo, toys, quirky spoons, windmills, anatomical hearts, pretty card decks....

Winnie the Poo, Disney-characters, Betty Boop, Peanuts and similar characters that can be seen printed on push-up-bras in children's sizes all over the world. Not my style, sorry. Oh, and I'm a vegetarian, could be good to know.

• I have an out-of-this-world-ly craving for Cherry Ripe. I think it's the best candy I've ever had, and I've had a lot in my days.. Aussie swappers, hear my plea!