9/23/24 I received a swap I am unable to rate. Is it from you? It is a plain white envelope with my address written in the top left corner (where a return address would be), it has a hummingbird stamp on it, and a Louisiana postmark. That's it. No other information, swap or personal. I don't know who to rate. Send me a message if it was from you.

Not sure what to write? Tell me about your favorite fruit-based dessert!

I'm interested in receiving teeny tiny fruit stickers, like nail decal size.

When receiving PCs, I like them wrecked! Decorate the heck out of them! Rubber stamping, washi, stickers, doodles - go wild! I prefer non-touristy to touristy PCs, and enjoy handmade PCs the most.

LAND BACK!

Entire profile updated on 07/22/2024

I'm now my mom's 24/7 caregiver. She came home December 23rd from 5 months in a nursing home. One day in late July 2023 it was like her mind fell off a cliff. She didn't understand where she was, and was hallucinating. She ran outside, fell, and broke her femur just above her knee replacement. Very precarious situation, so she was non-weight-bearing for a few months. Her leg is healing well, but her mind hasn't. She has the mental capacity of about a 2 year old. She needs to be coached through every task, including putting on clothes correctly and the order of things you do when you go to the bathroom. This is the same person who was holds two master's degrees in education, created a magnet academy high school program, and was voted who's who of America teachers. Hug your mom. She's now, since the beginning of June, going to our city senior day program a few days a week, and wow am I relieved to have some time for myself, even though said time is often spent at medical appointments.

Be the swaps you want to see in the world! I've started hosting more swaps recently, and I would like to encourage anyone who might be hesitant to host. If you don't see a swap you wish was an option to join, make it! Host it! Make it reality! Jump in!

I've officially drained my savings and am appealing my SSI disability denial. I started this disability process over three and a half years ago, and haven't had income for that time. If you have an extra stamp or two to include in a swap, that's one more swap I get to participate in! I have tons of swap materials, but can't buy new stamps to send it all out. Update 2/5/24 my friend and I both received and returned a big packet of paperwork, and a couple days ago I had a medical exam. I was told to expect an appointment for imaging soon. (Imaging done on 3/1!). Maybe I'm actually getting somewhere with disability. Got a denial on my appeal again in early April. Geesh, this is getting ridiculous. The denial essentially says that yes I am limited but wow look at that education! And so young (48)! Bootstraps! Attorney's turn to fight. Again. 5/9/2024 signing contract with attorney.

I'm an INFJ, Pisces, disabled, queer paper crafter, recently moved back to SoCal from the Pacific NW, and I love to send and receive mail. 💌

I'm quick to happy cry, proud cry, and aww cry. Water sign, indeed. 💦

I'm an early sender, and rate immediately when things arrive. I mark items as sent when I put them in the mail slot in my front door for my carrier to pick up that day, or when I drop them at the post office. ✔️

I welcome handmade items. Yes, even - or maybe especially - if you doubt your skill. I love to see what other people are making! Trying a new medium? Let me see! These are my favorite kinds of swap extras! 🎨

If you are a "heart chaser," know that handmade items made with care will almost always result in a heart rating (unless it is a stated dislike).

Do you make your own stamps, or have unique stamps that are your favorites? I'd love to receive stamped images from them! I've been making my own stickers using blank sticker seals and stamping them, maybe adding some paint or flat mixed media elements. If you make something like this I would love to see it! 🤓

I enjoy Postcrossing, mixed media art/collage, iHanna handmade postcard swaps, daisy yellow index card a day, write_on, and other postal and paper crafts. ✂️

¡Avid! postal swap participant. 📬

I have a herd of cats (5!) Three Siamese and two tabbies. Also feeding a cat my neighbors abandoned in November 2020. Update: I said goodbye to my sweet girl Lu (one of the tabbies) on Friday December 3rd, 2021. I feel like I've lost my shadow. Mouse, a 17 year old lilac point siamese, has stage 4 kidney disease. She was given 6-12 month life expectancy about two and a half years ago, so she's holding on! Over the past several weeks, Mouse has been losing a tenth of a pound a week. Mini Mouse. (July 2023) Her weight has stabilized for the past few weeks, but I'd prefer she were gaining some back for winter weight. (Oct 2023) Mouse is on blood pressure meds now and continues to lose weight, slowly. She's almost always on her heating pad and sleeping, but seems to have good quality of life still. I'm not a person to drag things out for my own sake, but she hasn't let me know yet. They increased the cost of her treatment by over 50% with no notice, so that was a fun surprise. (April 2024).

I started a ko-fi to help support Mouse's ongoing treatments for stage 4 kidney disease, at http://ko-fi.com/katkatbobat/tiers

Postal swaps bring me a lot of joy while I'm physically limited. I'm a #spoonie dealing with a lot of chronic pain - fibromyalgia, spinal stenosis and multiple other spinal and nerve problems, allergic response inflammatory arthritis, as well as a handful of other autoimmune issues including over 200 known allergies (meaning it is nearly impossible to manage my 200+ allergies and allergic response arthritis,or even anaphylaxis, if I'm out in the world). If you know me in person, you know where my epi pens are kept at all times! Unless you can relate to chronic illness and disability, I'm not terribly interested in talking about it, but wanted to acknowledge where I'm at. #spoonies

My artistic background is in super 8 and 16mm film production, photography, and paper crafting of all kinds.🎥📷

I have a dark leaning-think goth and not horror, secular hearth witch. I like somewhat grim oddities, like conjoined twins (human or animal), but not gore. 🖤 Bearded ladies, early 20th century sideshow and/or cirque du soleil type weirdos. 🖤 Emily Strange, Tim Burton (Vincent, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Alice, Nightmare Before Christmas, etc.), the old Beetlejuice animated series, Edward Gorey, Nikki McClure, CROWS!, black+red+white together (orange is my least favorite color, but it is fine in a rainbow or Halloween or something you created context), ghosts, bats, CATS!, cats in glasses, EGRETS!, coastal, nature. Alice in Wonderland, especially pre-Disney illustrations. BMO and Marceline. I also like lil Bub, grumpy cat, sea creatures like whales, narwhals, manatees, otters, seahorses, octopuses, peacock mantis shrimp, mantis and stick insects, BIOLUMINESCENT critters! Gnomes, mushrooms, botanical, ferns, redwoods, and woodland critters. I'm a big nerd for fractals in nature. 🧛🏻‍♀️🦇🐋🦦🐙🪴🍄

My flowers of choice are hellebore, ranunculus, and dahlias.

Raven Story (2021) is my favorite USPS postage stamp, and the Bugs Bunny stamps are a close runner up. 📫

Tintypes and daguerreotypes make me swoon, and postcard prints of them. I'm a big fan of unusual vintage photos or odd groupings of people and/or things, including vintage photos painted over with, say, a cheesy Halloween style bedsheet ghost. 📷

I'd love to receive Halloween themed postcards any time of year. I especially like ghosts and vampires. I'd also love to receive stamped images from your favorite (especially vintage) Halloween stamps. 🎃👻

I like coffee and coffee themed items like stickers, washi, postcards, stamps, etc. ☕

My grandma led a team that made circuit boards for the Space Shuttles, and I'd love to receive anything related to the NASA Space Shuttle programs. I especially like images of astronauts inside spacecraft or in space, real photos or any kind of art. 🚀

The Jetsons (Rosey!), mid mod futuristic space art, and mid century images of humans in space intrigue me. 🛸

I'd love to receive What We Do In The Shadows fan art. Guillermo and Nadja are my favorite characters, but Nandor in workout clothes is also up there! 🦇

One of my main aesthetics is something I call evidence of time passing. Rust, moss, smooth stone, collapsed barns, abandoned places, nature reclaiming spaces previously occupied by humans, tree roots or vines growing over buildings, side cuts of sediment layers, what time does to human skin (think images of an elderly person's hand holding a child's hand). Evidence of time passing. 🍃

My brother and sister in law are major fans of all things tiki, so if you have fun tiki stuff to pass along to make things for them I'd love to receive it. 🌺🗿

For tea swaps, I am allergic to 🚫 cardamom (chai, etc.), hibiscus, lavender, and nuts aside from almonds 🚫, but anything else is fine. Do you have a favorite roasted green tea?🫖🍵

I am not a girly girl. I'm comfortable in a dress, but i've never used cosmetics (allergic, was never an option, yes even the hypoallergenic stuff). I don't own a curling or flat iron. I am too low maintenance for that. Never liked pink things, copious frills or bling, hustle culture, or girl boss/girl power stuff. It's not my jam, not into this marketing of femininity. On that note, I'm not here for socks, keychains, jewelry, cosmetics, health & beauty items, or food, etc. I prefer silver to gold, and have metal allergies (so, sterling or stainless). I'm not interested in any sports.

🚫 I don't have a use for items geared toward very young people, parenting, reward stickers, or planner and journaling stickers. A snip of ribbon or lace or twine is nice on occasion, but I won't use yarn or fabric scraps. I don't need sticky notes or tiny memo sheets unless they match my listed interests. I have many allergies (seriously, over 200 known allergies), so I'm not interested in receiving cosmetics, pressed flowers, strongly scented items. I'm atheist/transcendentalist after basically growing up in a cult. I'm not interested in receiving anything western religious/christian/deity themed. Honoring earth, others, and self is welcome. 🚫

The Secret Garden was my first favorite book. I've read Jane Eyre several times. The Griffin and Sabine series, Marjane Satrapi and Michelle Tea graphic novels are keepers. More recently, The Night Circus and anything by Matt Haig. I read a bare minimum of at least 4 books a month and am very fond of libraries and library apps. My taste is all over the place, but I don't tend to like crime/mystery much. Memoirs often make me dislike the author, because they come across as very out of touch in most cases. Don't meet your heroes, right?

Enjoyed Bookshops & Bonedust so much that I am now reading Legends & Lattes, by Travis Baldree. Fun lighthearted queer inclusive fantasy romp about fighting for what you believe in and building community.

City of Lost Children, True Stories and Marie Antoinette are my top favorites.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Guillermo del Toro, Tim Burton, Wes Anderson, and Sophia Coppola are my favorite modern directors.

I'll watch anything with Salma Hayek, Tilda Swinton, Toni Collette, Mia Wasikowska, Winona Ryder, Christina Ricci, Melanie Lynskey, Sally Hawkins, Olivia Colman, Charlyne Yi, Lea Seydoux, Franka Potente, Natalie Portman, Kate Winslet, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, John Goodman, Crispin Glover, Joaquin Phoenix, Gael Garcia Bernal, or Vincent Price!

I studied German expressionist film, film production, photography, journalism/women in media, and literature. Double major, double minor. BA(IS)