SwedishMum

what I pledged

I will always send my swaps out in time - if you haven't recieved from me, please let me know.

When it comes to rating my partners, I do it the same day the packet arrive. If I am on vacation I will let you know and after I will rate as soon as I open the package up.

My name is Vivi, I was born 1969 and I live in a small town in Sweden together with my husband and our three teenagers. We love to spend time with friends and often have people over for a cup of coffee and tea. I don't drink coffee at all, but hubby does.

I collect postage stamps so if you are putting stamps on the envelope you will make me happy.

I love making ATC's and cards - like for birthdays or holidays. I like trying new techniques and watch YouTube for inspirations.

I haven't got many die cuts so mostly I am doing them all by hand: painting, cutting my own figures, use brads, ephemera and other stuff.

I also like to paint the envelopes to make them more personal than an ordinary white one.

I love to decorate my calendar. Love to get new washitapes or stickers to make it nice.

LIKES

• Cardmaking/ scrapping supplies
• Planner decorations
• Stickers - planner, teacher, others but not childish ones
• Washitape
• Tea- I am addicted to black flavored teas
• Pink , red, black and blue
• Angels
• Candles
• Pens
• Reading, or actually listening at audio books
• Special things from other countries
• Candy, but not dark chocolate please
• Hershey's, Reeses and Aero mint - yummy... don't exist in Sweden
• Cookies - lots of them in USA and other countries don't exist here ¨
• Crisps/chips
• Hot chocolate
• US state map postcards - have a few and would like to collect the US states.

DISLIKES

• Black currant
• Coffee
• Cigarettes - allergic

• ATC's
• Planning/ Filofax A5
• Scrapbooking
• Cardmaking
• Diamond painting
• Quilling - newbie, but it is fun
• Fuse Beads
• Embroidery

I started collecting stamps as a kid together with my father. When being a teenager and older I forgot about it, but a couple of years I decided to go on. I also got some of my fathers stamps then.

I'm not so much into stamps where there are more than 20 with same motive and different backgrounds. Have lots of those from my fathers collection.

I like most things and collect from countries from all over the world, but there are some things I like more than others:

Themes I like

• Flowers
• Animals
• Birds
• Owls
• Folklore, traditional things for a country
• Cartoons
• Musical

I started to get into swapping postcards. I love to get postcards showing the place you live in, like state och town cards with famous builidings or local ones.

I also like the US state cards. Want to collect from all the 50 states, but so far I have got:

• California
• Colorado
• Florida
• Kansas
• Louisiana
• Michigan
• Mississippi
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Texas
• Washington

Tea
I simpelt LOVE Tea! I drink Black flavored teas or Earl Grey every day. Several cups, always make a whole pot för myself at home, at work I use teastrainers.

I prefer black, flavoured teas, like black fruity teas. I mostly drink tea from loose tea leaf, but when swapping I go with the guidelines. My absolute favourite is a tea I blend myself. I buy loose Earl Grey and green jasmine tea and mix them together. Makes a very nice tea!

Likes

If you swap teas with me I prefer black teas with:

• fruits/ berries - like cherry, pear, strawberry, raspberry, mango etc.
• blended with green - we have a nice cactus tea which is both green and black (loose tea)

Dislikes

• Green teas
• Rooibos
• White teas
• Herbal and decaf teas.

If I get one of those I mix them up with earl grey, so it will still be ok for me to get them...
But I prefer black tea.

Flavours I don't like:

• Black currant
• Spicy teas, like cinnamon
• Orange, lemon

Collection of tea strainers:
Since I drink lots of loose tea I collect funny tea strainers. These are in both plastics and metal. So far I have got:

• a man taking a bath in the teacup
• a strawberry
• a swan
• a leaf
• a heart
• an owl
  and of course round ones.

Hot chocolate
I like hot chocolate, but we don't have many different brands in Sweden so I feel I can't take part in swaps for them...

Coffee
I don't drink coffee at all, but my hubby does, so if I get coffee for some reason I give it further to him...

I am a fan of criminal novels and mystery books. I read a lot and simple love to try to figure out who was the murderer.
I also like books about tragic fates. It isn't amusing, but I sometimes likes to read these serious books.

Favorite authors:
Peter James
Torey Hayden
Louise Penny
Lisa Jewell
Mikael Ressem
Cathy Glass
Agatha Christie
Peter Robinson
Michael Connelly
Ninni Schulman
Carin Gerhardsen
Mariette Lindstein
Arnaldur Indridason