Nannabakes

A quick addendum to my profile that really needs to go first if that makes sense. I am currently having some pretty serious health issues, and the medications cause my brain to be very dysfunctional at times. Please if you haven't received a swap from me, let me know as I may have inadvertently clicked sent on yours when I was actually sending someone else's. Also the pain I am in tends to make me crotchety and cranky at times, and I will rate swaps down that haven't arrived yet when I shouldn't do so without contacting you. My communication skills are at rock bottom right now, so please be the bigger person for a while and contact me if I've rated you wrongly so I can fix it.

I am 53 years old and disabled (in a wheelchair) so I pretty much live on my computer or at my table creating my artworks when my family are busy with their own lives.

I have 3 wonderful children, Brad, Matt and Caitlin. Brad's wife is Naomi and Matt's girlfriend is Jess, both are lovely girls.

I have 4 amazing grandchildren, Ethan, Leyla, Xander and Samuel :)

I have no partner, dont think anyone could put up with me anymore. I'm kinda high-maintenance nowadays lol.

I love baking, as the user name suggests, and I love my 4 cats, Sophie, Bob, Indy and Mack.

I love most animals, except snakes and mosquitoes and cockroaches. (there are reasons for each of these dislikes)

I love nature, even at her worst. She always has a new story to tell, whether it be a cyclone, a thunderstorm, a bush fire or a sunny day on the beach or in the mountains.

I live right by the Great Barrier Reef in sunny North Queensland Australia, so all in all I am blessed :)

I am not overly religious, dont go to church and would prefer not to receive anything of a religious nature unless the swap calls for it, but I am not likely to enter those swaps. I am more a spiritual person, I believe there are good and bad points in every religion, and I firmly believe in karma. I make it my creed to do unto others as I would have done unto me wherever and whenever possible. I also am a believer in paying it forward.

Follow the link to my Flickr Page -WARNING THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!

baking

scrap booking

ATC's...real ones that is.

Decoupage

egg art

cake decorating.

I always do my absolute best to create something that is not only beautiful but has an element of me in it. Whether that's a homemade biscuit, a wedding cake, a decorated egg or simply a small piece of jewelry, it will be done to the absolute best of my ability. I am still in the learning stage of so many of the crafts I love, the above list is just a portion of what I like to do, and I tend to flit from one type of art or craft to another, depending on my health and limited ability on the day. I'd love to be able to paint, really paint...but my beautiful sister who is also a member of swap-bot has the monopoly on being fabulous at painting. She has me in awe :) We argue over it sometimes and I have to remind her she is the true artist, but I try to paint. I want to personalise my work and make sure if you receive one of my creations that I've done all I can to make it something special for you. I am constantly looking for validation in my work, and am my own harshest critic. Sometimes I tend to overthink things, and have to pull myself back to keeping it simple, because keeping it simple is better than working too hard at something, only to find I have overdone it, it's harder to remove elements once you've placed them in your art piece. And now I am overthinking this and rambling lol.

Right now my favorite singer is Guy Sebastian. Wasnt impressed with him when he won Australian Idol 7 or so years back, but his music is brilliant and he's such a talented singer/songwriter with a real sense of caring about people and the need for us all to be the best we can be. The fact that he can combine his beautiful words with current charting music (including rapping) is impressive.

I guess I like most kinds of music and have tried very hard to keep up with current trending tracks and artists just so I can bear what my kids are listening to. Some of it is rubbish, yes, and a lot of it is same old same old, but there are gems still being released. Having said that, I am definitely drawn to all those favorite oldies that have us turning up the radio with an exclamation of 'OMG I havent heard this in years!'

Daughtry have a new album out and it's well worth a listen.

And if there's one thing I really love, it's hearing an older song with a new arrangement.

Of all the genres of music available, my least favorite is Jazz.

Check out The Piano Guys, 2 Cellos, Lindsay Stirling, Mike Tompkins, Rob Farnham (yes, John's son), all available on YouTube and worth the watch and listen.

A book has to grab me and draw me in within the first paragraph or I'll drop it like a hot potato. I've taught fiction writing for adults, and understand sentence construction well, and so much that gets past a publisher never should have made it to his/her desk in the first place.

I love action in fiction too, if the plot doesnt move at a decent speed then I am likely to put the book down and forget it.

Some of my favorite authors are Ian Fleming, Bryce Courtenay, Rick Riordan, Dan Brown, C.S. Lewis, Steven King, Andy McDermott, Matthew Reilly and John Marsden.

Worst book I think ever (and should NEVER have made it into print, simply because the writing style is no better than grade school ability) is 50 Shades Of Grey.

Anything with real action, decent chick flicks and all the old musicals.

I love the Pirates Of The Carribean movies, there's a soft spot in my heart for Johnny Depp and the movies are packed full of action.

Jacky Chan is a favorite action actor too, and he's given me plenty to laugh at as well.

Horror gives me absolute chills, so I never go there if I can help it, and blood and guts movies leave me cold.

I've bought or been given every single episode of CSI Miami, and sincerely wish they hadn't stopped after season ten. Moving on to NCIS next I think.

But if you really want to impress me, send me anything to do with STARGATE SG1. Stargate Atlantis was good too, but I really loved the actors who played in the original SG1 series.

I like cooking shows, but as I dont watch a lot of television, I tend to miss a lot of them. Besides which, I KNOW how to cook already, and I like to create new things in my kitchen as well as in my art. I might steal an idea and make it my own with my own twist on it, but I dont follow any particular style of cooking. I was always of the opinion that if it tastes good that's all that matters, if it looks good too well that's just the icing on the cake :)

I really enjoy watching The Amazing Race, and will wait up late to watch the next episode online as soon as they load it to the site if I haven't managed to get to the television to see it that night.

I also like watching The Mole, and shall be interested to see the next series with a new presenter, but I'll miss Grant Bowler.

I liked watching Survivor when the series first began, but the backstabbing and nastiness got to me and eventually I lost interest.

I loved Stephen King's 'The dead Zone' but cant get all the episodes, so that ticked me off.

I loathe television shows based on hospitals or medicine (House, ER etc).

I also love to watch programs that showcase new singers, so Australian Idol, The Voice and Australia's got talent are favorites. But I tend to watch these shows on catch up tv posted online, because I forget they are on tv and my son isn't interested in watching them.

I do actually own a television, it sits in the corner over there gathering dust. If there's a show I must see, I'd rather go to my son's room because he has a nice big screen and comfy amenities in there. I've turned my lounge into my craft room lol.

postcards

greeting cards

Anything cutsie (ugh!) such as kawaii, button pins, kids stuff, anime (another ugh!).

No sugary sweet papers, floral backgrounds and cutsie stuff do nothing for me, I like my papers to stand out and be interesting :)

No kids stickers please.

Not too much cat stuff please, just because I own four cats doesn't mean I want hundreds of pictures of them. I really do prefer the real thing.

Tea...I have only one love in tea, that's chai. I am a coffee girl all the way, the stronger the better.

I am a minimalist for the best part so I dont display too much in the way of pictures around my home, but I do have a beautiful display cabinet for special items, and there's still some space left in it for more :)

Anything Stargate SG1

Embellishments that can be used on ATC's

Artworks that might be useful as ATC backgrounds

Rubber or acrylic stamps

Interesting paper pieces

Textured papers

Vellum paper

Handmade paper

Anything pirate related

Free Samples (I love free samples :) )

Scrapbooking items

Small ceramic or metal animals

Trinket boxes

Trinkets

Anything you've made by hand, because these things are special!

I won't ever flake on you, so if your parcel or letter fails to arrive, please give me a chance to make it right by resending. I will do my best to send what you like, but I have a tendency to create while the juices are flowing and then hope it suits you, most of my swaps will be sent within a day or so of finding out who I am sending to.

If you are my swap partner you can be guaranteed that I will at least have put everything I can into my creation for you, I wont always send extras as postage here costs a small fortune, but I do love to receive extras if it isnt going to cost you more to send them.

Please remember that what you are receiving will be coming from Australia, if you live here you know your parcel will arrive virtually in minutes, but if you live elsewhere in the world it may take eons to reach you. I am still waiting on swaps that I sent out ages ago.