Pdxmommy

Sept. 23, 2018 Dear Penpals, I have a family emergency and am not only away from the computer, but far from my mailbox as well. I will return to letter writing when possible.

It may go without saying, but please message me if a swap seems delayed or missing so I can resend. Everyone deserves happy mail!

A little about me: I am 38 years old and live near Portland, Oregon. I love antiques and "vintage" things. My prescription glasses are a pair of 1954 cat eye frames from an antique shop.

I'm happily married for 11 years (my wedding cake topper was Link and Zelda) and a stay-at-home mom to two adventurers who keep me busy. I am vegan, perhaps a touch "hippie" but very nerdy, artistic, and a lover of science and science fiction. I'm a bit eclectic!

Interests and collections:

• poetry and tea

• arts and crafts (more mod podge anyone?)

• envelope art

• Doctor Who

• Harry Potter (Ravenclaw)

• Studio Ghibli

• Watercolor painting

• 8 byte video games

• Board games.

I collect: Memories and gray hairs. Really though, I love:

• unique postal stamps, I especially adore all things postal related (air mail, pony express, mailboxes, etc) and women (Harriet Quimby, Amelia Earhart, Sacajawea, women voting, etc)

• memo sheets (unfoldend) and writing paraphernalia

• washi tape

• fun stickers

• Anything with mermaids (sinister or seductive)

• fairies (sweet or child-like) and woodland creatures

• vintage halloween

• All history, but especially art deco (1920's) and art nouveau (1910's). I also have an affinity for mid century (1950's).

• Georges Méliès type of images:

Books: I love to read anything from true crime, non fiction history, a little mystery, fantasy and science fiction.

Lately, when my kids pickup a middle school-reader that hints at a real theme within the fiction, I explore it at "my level". Ex: Houdini was a passing character in a children's mystery, so I read his biography and learned abut his fascination with the macabre (some of it shocking) and his passion to dispute the occult. They loved a picture book about "Owney the Railway Mail mascot" and I'm suddenly on my own journey through postal history, railway history, and the use of stamps.

Some of my favorites are:

• "Stiff" by Mary Roach

• Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling

• "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

• "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende

• "Watership Down" by Richard Adams

• "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

• "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

• "The Eyes of The Dragon" by Stephen King

• "Watchmen" Alan Moore

• "Cinder House Rules" by John Irving

• "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse

• choose your own adventure series :)

Current book I am reading:

"I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives" by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda with Liz Welch

I'm also treading through the Outlander series and in book 4 at the moment. "Drums of Autumn".
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Not sure what to send?

(Check "interests and collections" in the "about me" section.) Perhaps this list will help:

• A postcard with a poem

• Envelope art

• Stamps, unused or unique and undamaged used.

• Washi Tape

• Totoro and other Studio Ghibli characters

• Smokey Bear, Woodsy Owl, or national parks. Also forests and woodland creatures (and gnomes).

• Mr. Zip or vintage postal history

• Vintage arcade gaming themes or classic video games (joust, pac man, mario, zelda, etc)

Favorite colors: sky blue and red

• Hand made items appreciated

• I love mermaids

• I love fairy art similar to Brian Froud and Margaret W Tarrant or Cicely Mary Barker.
  

• All things old and eclectic

• Bats (that fly in the night)

• Vintage Halloween images.

There aren't many things I don't like, but here is a list of things I would rather not receive:

No politics.

Nothing violent (against any living creature).

Nothing with spiders (this is my phobia).

Nothing religious. (Spiritual and/or paranormal is fine.)

No loose tea, please.

No cosmetics or things that are smelly.

Disney

Movies:

• The Fifth Element

• The Mummy (1999)

• Jim Henson's The Labyrinth

• Hugo

• Inside Out

• Up

• The General (1926 starring Buster Keaton. I love anything with Buster Keaton in it.)

• Howl's Moving Castle

• My Neighbor Totoro

• The Secret World of Arrietty

• Kiki's Delivery Service

Television:

• Doctor Who

• Mister Rogers Neighborhood

Confession I don't watch much TV but have a long list of shows to catch up on.

I'd like to steal some time to watch:

• Broadchurch

• Carnivale

• Firefly

• Call The Midwife

• Twin Peaks

• Sherlock