heliogal

Hello, I have taken a couple years off of swap-bot, but lately I have started to really miss the fun mail, the creativity, and learning a little bit about someone's life. So I am back!

Update Jan 2022: Please let me make it right if something I send has postage due!! There is so much random subjectiveness to the new postage rates.

July 2021: Just updating some facts about my family. My daughter is now married to her partner by a ceremony, on the beach, that I got to officiate!! My son graduated SJSU with his software engineering degree this winter! Big goals achieved!!

I have been living off-grid for 14 years now!! We live in a yurt on very rural land an hour from town. It is a lot of work but we just love living like this! Being independent and being in nature is important to my psyche!

Since I live an hour from town I usually check my P.O. Box once a week and send mail at the same time. I mark my mail sent once I have dropped in the mail slot at the post office. It may be on a Sunday or holiday and will be post marked the next day.

I am married with 2 young adult children which we homeschooled/unschooled. My daughter has now graduated from University of CA, Santa Cruz and my son is in college pursuing a computer science degree. I'm super proud of them both and what we accomplished as a family with unschooling. We live in a rural area in a home we built. We are off grid using solar power. So all my computer correspondences are solar powered yeah! We lived for a year with no electricity at all before we were able to get solar power system up. It was fantastic learning experience. Doing something like that really helps you not take a lot of things for granted.

Nature is very important to me and I like arts and crafts that reflect nature.

I like stationery, sachets, fabric bags of sweet smelling potpourri or any of your spice and herbal mixtures address labels -I really need some and fancy STICKERS, LOTION, soaps ANYTHING Scented, Lip balms, Lip Shimmers, lace, ribbon, teas, homemade or store bought spice blends, candles (all kinds votive and jar candles ect...), I like Victorian style postcards/cards, Celestial (stars and moons and suns) style, Cats and all animals especially Bears (real pictures of bears not teddy bears) Not that there is anything wrong with teddy bears :)

LOVES:

People who read profiles and take the time to connect with another person

Anything Handmade- your artwork or crafts

Jewelry!! earrings I have pierced ears and like dangly earrings, necklaces, bracelets handmade or 2nd hand (thrifted or yard sales :-) I like silver, bronze and coppery metals (not too much into gold unless its "antiqued" I like bohemian styles, ethnic, Victorian, animals, nature things (flowers, birds, trees ect...)

Interesting stones, crystals, semi-precious gem stones, Nature-made beach glass, all natural things you might find on a walk: shells, pressed leaves, seed pods, dried berries, feathers, pine cones, ect...

Pen-pal letters and notes I love even a quick personal message in swaps

Owls and really all birds

Foxes and all the woodland animals!!

Bears

Trees

Botanical themes Mushrooms

Fairies, Dragons, Mermaids, Gnomes, Elves and all magical creatures.

Butterflies, Dragonflies and Bees and Luna moths

Sun and moon and stars imagery

Steampunk/Victoriana styles/Science/Art Noveau

Tea parties and all tea themed things

Mail art and decorated envelopes. Just putting a little effort with stickers ect... on an envie makes me SMILE big.

Flowers, love all flowers!!

Rubber stamps and ink pads! Most of my colors got dried up after I took a break from swapping and your stamped images please!

ALL things herbal: Dried Herbs from your part of the world, information about any herbs, pictures, recipes that use herbs for body care, cooking, cleaning, medicines, potpourri, teas ect...!!

Stickers, stickers and more stickers :-) Celestial, Flowers, Victorian style, fairies, animals, trees, leaves, snowflakes, steampunk, all magical creatures, Please no children's stickers like cartoon characters, Please no kawai

Die cut shapes I don't have any punches and I love flower, star, heart, nature, butterfly, suns, leaves, trees, ect..... I love the scalloped edged rounds shapes!!

Pretty scrapbook paper- I can always use more paper! embellishment's, prima flowers, Ephemera, Lace, Ribbon, Fabric, Buttons, Washi.

TEA I love all kinds plain black and in all its delightful flavors, I love black tea with vanilla! herb teas, chai's and pumpkin spice teas. I always appreciate decaffeinated dessert teas. I like the brands Stash, Tazo, Bigelow, Yogi, Numi, Zhenas, but I would love to try different teas too. The only kinds I don't like are roobios and all of Twinning's brand teas

Magazines! Used is wonderful! I love relaxing with a magazine to read. I like all kinds: Science, Beauty, Craft, Homemaking, Nature, Current events, Homesteading, Art. Rock my world with something new to learn and read about!

Postcards: especially handmade, flowers, Nature scenery, gardens, castles, landmarks, art, Animals of all sorts!! I don't really care for the 3-D postcards, however.

Bears :-) realistic and artistic!

Cats Big and small!

Pagan/ Wiccan things: altar items (wands, candles, decorations) God and Goddess pictures, Bells, Spells, Books, I love spell bottles and amulet bags, charms. I would love some items with pentagrams lists of magical correspondences. I am a green witch and eclectic pagan. I believe in the rule of three that anything I put out in the world come back to me times three, so I only do good magic and only on myself!

Notecards I love handmade ones and store bought too!

Stationery sheets it is very hard to find stationery where I live. I like florals, nature, artistic or just interesting designs please no Kawaii or diddle or other cartoonish styles.

Fabric bags with zippers or drawstrings for organizing stuff in my totes. Handmade always welcome and appreciated as well as clean thrift store/ yard sale finds :-)

like lotions, lip balms creams. cuticle creams, soaps, shower gels, massage oils if they are handmade or of natural ingredients.

Cotton bandanas I use them all the time for lots of different things!!

Kerchiefs for the hair a triangle cloth with ties to tie under your hair.

I love quotes printed from the computer or handwritten

Halloween things especially vintage style I figured out that I like all holiday themes that are vintage style. I don't need real vintage, I like the reproduced images.

I am always in need of kitchen towels

I love aprons handmade or thrift store finds!!

Essential oils

Incense sticks or cones or loose Your homemade blends are always appreciated Please no drug store or dollar store brands

Anything about palmistry

Here is my very short list of Dislikes:

Disney and All cartoon characters, Kawaii

Themes of shopping, princess, shoes and handbags that sort of thing.

Please no gory, bloody images or animal abuse (I needed to add this because I got something recently that was very disturbing

Camouflage or USA stuff (love my country but just don't like that color combo)

Christian stuff (I respect the religion but it is not my path)

World music especially music from Brazil, Ireland/Scotland, Cuba, and Africa. Rock from hard to Indie to oldies with a soft spot for 80's music. I also love new age music, and classical and Opera. I love the bands Fitz and the Tantrums, and Nightwish (just got to go to a concert recently that was epic!) I like danceable music with driving rhythms and inspirational melodies.

I LOVE watching all kinds of movies and shows. It is how me my family come together after a busy day and unwind. My guilty pleasures are action/ adventure films and sci-fi where the good guys always win. I also love more subtle and complex films as well. I just love Dance movies also like Strictly Ballroom and Step up. Always enjoy recommendations

We stream a lot TV shows like The Expanse, Picard, Stranger Things, The Umbrella Academy, Burn Notice, Discovery of Witches, The Wheel of Time, Shadow and Bone,

Here is a short list of favorites: "Where the Crawdads Sing" was such an exquisite movie! If you like magic rent this from Amazon "Make Believe" It is a lovely documentary!! Dune, For some fun and comedy "Unbeareable Weight of Massive Talent" and "Fire Saga Eurovision Song contest" "Guardians of the Galaxy, all X-men movies, Cloud Atlas, Avatar, Meet Joe Black, I am Legend, The Illusionist, Princess Bride, everything Star Trek, all the LOTR movies, The list could go on for a very long time

I really enjoy making notecards and postcards and FLIPBOOKS! And all the fun pockets and happy mail paper crafts. Since I am not good at drawing or painting I use rubber stamps stickers and ephemera in a what think is a very artistic way. like getting supplies for making these such as nice papers, ephemera, stamps, ink pads, brads, ribbons and lace, buttons embellishments.

gardening, growing and nature crafting (collecting wild plants) flowers and herbs for cooking, healing and crafting. I make soap and soy candles with essential oils. I love making my own herbal medicines and body care products.

Jewelry making. I have just been getting into making bead and wire earrings and necklaces. I would love to receive interesting glass, wood, stone, metal, beads and findings, chains, wire, ect...

I really enjoy reading non-fiction such as real life adventures or how-to books also books about great people. I do love engaging plot-driven books too. I love cozy mysteries like the China Bayle herbal mystery series by Susan Wittig Albert, The Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes mystery series by Laurie R. King, The book Star Girl by Jerry Spinelli is a beautiful YA book I like to recommend to everyone. I also LOVE poetry. I always enjoy good book recommendations.

I really love scented stuff and prefer things scented with natural essences. I like floral scents such as Rose, Jasmine, Violet and Honeysuckle. I like lemon, honeydew melon, herbs such as lemon verbena, lavender, rosemary, sage, Spicy scents like cinnamon, Sandalwood, cloves and pumpkin spice are fantastic too!! Wintery smells I like are pine tree, peppermint, cinnamon, apples, gingerbread, all lot of spicy smells and evergreen smells are nice.

I love all colors. Except neon brights. I'm not such a primary color person either. I love all the other shades of colors. I like earthy colors and Jewel tones. I like the combinations of Red and yellow, Blue and yellow, and turquoise and brown.You can make me happy with most colors.

I just want to say THANK YOU to all the wonderful swappers I've had the joy to swap with. It is because of the great and generous people on swap-bot that this is such a fun past time!!

Create the world you want to live in.