DarlingDeer

The world can't be all bad if mail comes! Opening up the door and seeing the postman with a package or a letter - that's just great.

There's something amazing about giving and receiving actual mail - it's much easier to detect sarcasm in a hand-written letter, for instance. ;) Email is great, but the identical fonts and automatic features take away some of the essence of the person sending the message.

I love to craft - making something beautiful is a satisfying after a long day of doing the same chore over and over and over. Or even on days when everything isn't repetitive - creating a lasting object is a little buzz of happy. Jewelery, papercraft, needlework - love it all! And I could build a space shuttle with my glue gun. :)

Jane Austen should have been magically given more life! Only six completed novels!?! That's a crime against literature. I will gamely read any tribute literature that comes out - some are gems and some are... well, less refined, shall we say. A Jane Austen action figure even sits up on my bookshelf, though the 'action' part seems to consist of aggressively holding a quill pen.

I also love more modern romances, but the heroine really, really needs to be whine-and-randomly-angry free. Independent is great - independent at the expense of making everyone around you miserable - not cool. Supernatural romance is fun - and I love on-going romantic tension! I can be hooked into badly written books by an on-going love story that refuses to resolve.

I'm also into science and sociology books - "Guns, Germs and Steel", "The Blind Watchmaker", "The Panda's Thumb", "Life, The Universe and Everything". ;)

Terry Pratchett is my second favourite fiction author. I can't think of another series where I love the characters so much, and enjoy the bite of the satire too. He's amazing, and I cried when I found out that he had Alzheimer's. Poor guy.

BOOM! I love movies where things explode. Cheesy one-liners? Sign me up! Ridiculous, gravity defying car chases? I'm there. I'm also a huge, huge fan of science fiction and fantasy movies.

Pretty much, though, I have a 'favourite' movie in just about every genre. I love scary movies - especially the spooky, suspenseful ones. Watched all the good ones in English, and am working on the foreign films now. Torture horror makes me go 'yuck', though. Blech.

RomComs fill a perfect movie-night-in slot too, especially if you have a good craft project on the go. 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' and 'The Wedding Singer' are truly touching movies, but still funny.

However, I do have the sense of humour of a 13 year old boy. It goes with the love of explosions, I think. So, 'Happy Gilmore' is my fave comedy, followed by 'I Love You, Man' and 'The Forty Year Old Virgin'.

The BBC version of 'Pride and Prejudice' is the standard against which all other period piece/costume dramas will be judged - and found wanting. ;)

There are the important things - like family and friends. The ones that are so important they're like water to a fish.

But there are smaller things too! And they are worth a smile.

I love: *Elaborate, Baroque style anything, except - weirdly - the actual paintings themselves. Architecture, frames, boxes, papers, stickers, fabric. There's just something so beautiful to me about an intricate, detailed, elegant pattern. But the art itself just looks disordered and overcrowded.

*Conversely, I also adore simple lines. Simple, black shadowbox frames surrounding a tiny piece of art on a white canvas. A plain white porcelain water pitcher. Pablo Picasso line art.

*Beautiful colour combinations: - Traditional Wedgewood blue and white - brown and pink - brown and blue - silver and any jewel-tone colour

*Little kawaii people and animals like my avatar! I love making those.

*Cupcakes. I LOVE cupcakes. Actual cupcakes, tiny little cupcake sculptures, cupcake jewelery.

*Stickers! I love the laser-cut elaborate scrapbooking ones, but I also love the fuzzy cute ones. Little kid stickers are also great - especially little girl ones.

*Jewelery! I make jewelery for other people, and to sell, but weirdly, don't wear anything myself? Hmmm... but I do love beautiful glass beads, crystals and semi-precious stones. Most of what I make is strung with tiger tail (plastic coated beading wire).

*Paper! Is there anyone who doesn't like paper, really? Beautiful colours, nice textures, and you can make them into origami if you don't scrapbook or ATC with them. :)