NatACT

27th January 2019 - Hi Guys, Just a super quick update. I've been quite unwell and in hospital for most of the month. The baby is healthy but I've been having seizures and complications from the adhesions left behind due to Endometriosis. This weekend is a long weekend and unless my condition changes they will be giving me a c-section on the 29th of January. I've noticed that some of the parcels I sent out have taken a long time to arrive. At this point if you haven't received from me, please send me a message and let me know and I will have my teenage daughter collect up the swap requirements and get them sent out to you again. I'm likely to be in hospital for 6 weeks post delivery as the dr's hope to complete 2 more surgeries in the hopes of removing the adhesions and scaring from the endometriosis. I do trust that Meg will put together nice parcels, but I'm more worried about getting those parcels that may have gone missing sorted out as quickly as possible. Please message through Swap-bot, rather then through email as Meg won't be able to check my emails. Fingers crossed it was only 1 parcel that has not turned up yet, but in fear that I will be "out of service" for the next month or so I thought it best to write a little update - super sorry for any late arrivals, I did use the postal box at the hospital for some of the cards (not parcels) and they seem to be the one's that have taken the longest. I'm so sorry.

27th July 2018 Update. I'm going to slow down on the swaps for a little while. I'm still in and out of hospital. My husband and I had been trying IVF since the beginning of the year and with my diagnoses we thought this would end our IVF journey. But our specialist has been very encouraging that a pregnancy will improve my acute stage 4 endometriosis. With that in mind, we continued with the treatments and I'm currently pregnant. We are so very happy. At the moment the pregnancy isn't far enough along to make an impact on the endometriosis, so I am on strict bed rest. This makes swapping very difficult. But from time to time, with swaps I know 100% I will be able to get out in time I will join some :D

17th MAY 2018 Update. Hi Guys, I have been diagnosed with acute endometriosis and since March I have been in and out of hospital. This has caused a little issue in me rating my partners. As my husband or my teenagers would/do bring up your parcels to read your messages and show me the lovely things you have sent. It really helped brighten my day, unfortunately I have now got several parcels that have been merged together as my lovely family don't really understand how swapping works, nor the fact that I like to thank each person for the special things they sent me. I have now gotten many messages asking if I have received and I'm so sorry. I'm going to blanket 5's with heart for any swap that was sent more then 2 weeks ago (of course if the person has indicated they have sent). I'm so sorry I can't thank you for each item that was in the parcel you sent. But I do promise you, when I was stuck in hospital, and even now when I'm quite heavily medicated with pain killers. Seeing each little parcel has made my day brighter. I really can't thank everyone enough for the love I felt (or the love the nurses thought was being sent, lol... I think they thought I was a celebrity with the amount of international note cards and postcards my family decorated my room with, lol) Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Expensive postage and swapping with me: I love to be able to swap, I really get joy our of happy mail. So for my partners, if postage to Australia is a bit on the expensive side from your country and we are in a swap that isn't a flat mail or hand made type swap, please feel free to send me an item from my Aliexpress wish list. At the moment I'm in a few Advent swap where we are to send items worth at least $1, this wish list contains around 20 items that are $1 or $2 including postage to Australia. If you like, feel free to send me one of these items and message me. Perhaps when entering my address you could add your swapbot user name as the "middle name" on the address label so I know which one is from you and can rate :D Please don't worry about the 20 - 30 day postage, I would much rather wait an extra week for your parcel to arrive than know that you spent $10 - $15 on postage.

NEW UPDATE (OCT 2017)- I have recently found out through DNA ancestry that I'm 70% Irish, 25% English and 5% Greek, this was a huge surprise to me. I've been distant from my family for most of my adult life, I had never really felt like "one" of them and it turns out there was a reason for that - I'm not really one of them. So this has opened up a new door for me to learn about the cultures of my ancestry. I would love to hear about special recipes or holidays, customs, pretty much anything - this is so new for me (found out at the end of October in 2017)

How I Rate: Please note I rate as soon as I recieve. I do live in Australia, sometimes the mail takes a week or two longer to get to me. But my postie comes at around 6:30pm Tuesday to Sunday SWAP BOT TIME (1:30pm Monday to Saturday Sydney Time). If you are worried about your item feel free to get in touch, let me know and I'll keep an eye out or let the post office know I'm waiting on a parcel. I'm a low stress person for swaps, if you are waiting on a rating from me, its because your item is still in transit.

Christmas Card Swaps: I've been asked to indicate any Christmas Card dislikes like Religious or non Religious cards. Personally I don't mind receiveing religious cards, I went to a Roman Catholic School through-out my schooling and while not being Roman Catholic myself, it did afford me the interest in different religions and beliefs. I do have little children, and I like to hang the cards I receive in our lounge room, please only send cards you yourself would hang knowing there are little children.

I love to crochet and bake. I recently sold our little Vegan and Gluten Free confectionery business and bakery here in Canberra, Australia. I still love to bake and I would love to see what other bakers are baking up :)

I love card swaps, and I still have all the cards from Christmas Card swaps from when I first started swapping back in the early 2000's from Craftster swap sites, each year I get them out and hang them, my front room walls are almost filled with all the cards from around the world. I love international and other language Christmas cards.

I love to make Crochet food play items, beanies, hats and toy. But the odd shawl and baby blanket comes off my hooks from time to time.

My favorite time of the year is December, I love Christmas, it brings me such joy. My birthday is on the 21st of December making Christmas time even more special.

Cheers for now, Nat

I love the classics, and when I say classics I mean Nat Kind Cole and The Andrew Sisters just to name a few - good old fashioned songs - songs that were written to be enjoyed.

Comedies - anything that can make me laugh. Life is too short not to laugh.

I love a good crime show. The CSI franchise was probably my fav set of series. Lately, I've been enjoying Lucifer, Vikings, Grimm, Ripper Street.

Baking, I used to bake so much with work and people are always asking me if I get bored of it, the answer is OMG no.... I love to bake up a storm... I also like Crochet and Photography. And I love to draw as well.

I love yarn surprises. There used to be Mystery Yarn or Magic Yarn swaps. Swaps were you would wind little surprises into the ball of yarn. I loved those. I wonder what happened to those swaps... Anywho I love yarn surprise, with or without the added trinkets, lol...

I get asked this a lot...

My husband and I owned (recently sold in 2017) a business that in the span of 9 years has moved from a standard cupcake/confectionery business to a carbon neutral, orangutan adopting and eco friendly business that sells vegan cupcakes and confectionery. We made the change and no body noticed... we won awards with our vegan goodies in run of the mill standard baking categories. It was a lot of studying, which as fate may have had it, I had plenty of time to study. But once I had veganised a few of my recipes and tested them on none vegan palettes I knew we could be a business that made a move towards a better tomorrow.

I've seen some profiles with wish lists and thought I might try and add one here too :D Coins - my husband and I are collecting coins from around the world. We have completed our collection of Cambodia and Macau. We love Asian coins and would love some older Singapore or Malaysian coins. Fat quarters - any colour but brown. Not so much kids or novelty. Bag of fabric scraps for applique. at least 1.5 inches by 3 inches. quilt blocks, any size, I think I will make a swap-bot quilt. I will need a 1/4 inch seam allowance and if the blocks could be trimed by you, that would be great :D Wool Felt pieces 4 inch square or larger. I have a few projects that could use some felt applique enhancements. Pre-made binding in plain colours.

I thought I would add this to my profile as I realise my profile is a bit bare on the likes and dislikes.

I love birthday cards, if this is a Christmas gift swap don't be afraid to send a birthday card instead, I often get a little birthday message at the base of a Christmas card so I will be over the moon to have a proper birthday card, lol...

I love Christmas ornaments that are specific to your country, beliefs or traditions.

Fav colour - The greens you find in a tropical forest is my claiming colour. I love to wear black's, gray, reds, purples. But in solid colours.

Fav Hobby - I've just started sewing and OMG I love it... I would love some easy pattern suggestions for fat quarters or more fat quarters, lol. I love to crochet, and have a collection of crochet hooks. If you want to send me a hook I would love any size above a 4mm. I love yarn, the soft against your face type yarns, think new kitten or puppy soft :D

Collectables - Lemax village type figures, even those that aren't lemax brand. But they need to fit in that size range. I would love a poodle (or 2), an owl or other woodland creatures - a moose would be great. Joann's in the States had their own brand that was really cute I saw a moose in their range and have regretted not buying it. But I guess he would also be hard to post.

Other things I love to receive - Language workbooks or storybooks for children, beginning level for Bhasa Indonesian, Bhasa Malay, Spanish, French, Japanese and Mandarin (simplified Chinese). My children and I love to learn new words and love these beginner level activities.

Tea - I love black tea, I'm not so much into fruit teas, but I do like Lady Grey tea (Eary Grey with a twist of orange). I have two favourite teas, one is BOH Tea's Cameronian Gold, it is sold only in Malaysia, I love this tea so much that two years ago when we traveled to Malaysia with my husband's work we took a week off to spend in the Cameron Mountians, taking tours of the tea plantations, walking the hills of tea plants and eating the sweetest strawberries. If you are from Malaysia or can get any BOH branded tea I would love some more BOH tea. My other favorite is a Chinese tea called Pu'er, I generally have this when I have run out of BOH tea, lol... But it reminds me of my childhood summer holiday's at the base of Mt Kosciusko (Snowy Mountains in NSW). We would swim in the river at the base of the mountain, the water was so pure, so clean that you can drink it straight from the river. People still bring water tanks down to the river to take this water home - this tea has that mountain fresh river taste. It is not for everyone and many tea sellers seem surprised when I walk in and in my broken Mandarin I request it this tea.

I'm really open to try anything really. I love new recipes, I can read recipes in English, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin (simplified) and Bahasa Indonesian. Just though recipes, but I would love to learn enough words to really engage in these languages, lol... I love proper traditional recipes over those that have been changed for "western tastes". I live in a very multicultural area and so far the other ingredient I have struggled to get a hold of is Plantains for a Cuban dish I wanted to try.

Dislikes - - I don't like fruit teas, and some herbal teas give me tummy cramps, teas like Mint, Peppermint, Tangerine. At the moment I'm pretty much avoiding herbal teas. I also can't drink mixes that contain milk, butter etc -Face cream's and masks. I'm reacting to a lot of things lately, I'm on new medication for PCOS and Endometriosis has me in a bit of a tail spin on things as simple as shampoo. I feel so very bad when people have gone out of their way to find nice, relaxing, 'me time' type swap gifts and I can't use them. -I don't like random scrap booking things, I do make my own note cards, envelopes, etc but these all use large 12" by 12" card stock, I really don't know what to do with random small pieces. -I don't like glitter sprinkled inside an envelope without warning. If you like to send your mail with sprinkles and glitter floating inside, please put a warning on the envelope so I can open outside :D -I'm not a person for neon colours. -I love cute decorative things but I don't know what to do with them. Perhaps if you want to send me something like that you could let me know what you would do with it, or how you would display it.

In my house we have a couple of serious allergies. I joke I'm allergic to health foods, it would be funny, but unfortunately I'm allergic to Quinoa, deadly allergic to it. Even for some of the flour or grains to touch my skin will cause me troubles. I'm also allergic to walnuts, other nuts I can eat fine, but walnuts are out. As I'm asthmatic I'm sensitive to strong scents, smoke and cat hair. But for most of the swaps I'm in these things won't matter :) If your ever in doubt send me a message :)

From October until mid-December we are off on an adventure. My husband is taking long service leave from his everyday job and has set up a few little work gigs in Asia. So we are off to Malaysia, Cambodia, Macao and Hong Kong. We will have a little stopover in Singapore but the bulk of our time will be in these four countries. I have taken a Uni course since selling the business and will use the time away to work on my travel writing assignments - which couldn't have been timed more perfectly. My lovely mother in law is going to house sit while we are away, to look after our pups and my husband's aquarium. It is with her encouragement that I take my swaps on the trip with me. Every year since early 2000's I've been Christmas Card swapping, and these travels would have meant no swapping this year. But MIL is willing to try and keep track of parcels/cards received before I get home. So my plan is to send to my swap partner from whichever country I may be in at the time of send outs and have my parcels/cards sent to my home address where they can wait until I get home in the 2nd week of Dec. Please note I will rate all parcels received in by the end of the 2nd week in Dec. If you are worried about your parcel/card, send me a message and I will have my MIL open it up and send me a pic so I can rate straight away.