xoxocat8845

Hello everyone :) My name is Catherine, or "Cat" for short. I'm 34 years old, and I live in Virginia. I'm a college educated house wife. I'm happily married to the love of my life (Phil-a tall, dark and handsome Librarian and Professor) and we are currently childless by choice. We have one awesome rescue cat named Husqvarna or "Hussie" for short and she is a tortoiseshell cat, also known as a "tortsie." We also have 1 sweet, male mixed breed dog named Mario. We have a fun, hodge-podge house on a couple acres or so of beautiful land in the mountains. Our home is surrounded by nature and decorated with goodies from thrifting, travel and friends. I prefer unique odds & ends and things with a story! I'm an eclectic, red-head, Aquarius, Neo-Pagan, hippie, nerd. I love knowledge and learning. I love, love, love snail mail! I'm a good pen-pal/swapper. Dependable person here, who likes to give as much-or more-as receive! If you don't receive something from me, it's because it was lost or tampered with and I will resend :) I NEVER flake!

I will always rate fairly. I'm easy to work with. If you're going to be late for some reason, just send me a message. I totally understand that things happen and am more than willing to work with you as long as you keep me in the loop. That being said, I do expect folks to follow the rules of a swap. Let me know if you're going to be late. If a swap is a type 3 swap, don't send a type 2. Common sense stuff. I don't expect every swap to be the most awesome swap I've ever received, but they must show effort to at least follow the swap guidelines and I will always do the same for you.

2014 WAS AN AWESOME YEAR! I HAD THE PLEASURE OF HOSTING MY LONG-TERM PEN PAL FROM TOKYO, JAPAN FOR A WHOLE WEEK! IT WAS THE FIRST TIME WE HAVE EVER MET AND WE HAD A GREAT TIME! HERE WE ARE AT AIRPLANE ROCK IN MY HOMETOWN.

Hobbies include:

1.) Thrift shopping/Flea Marketing/Yard Sales

2.) Watching trashy "reality" shows like Teen Mom, 90 Day Fiancé, My 600lb Life, etc. I can't help myself!

3.) Online shopping (my guilty pleasure!)

4.) Polishing my own nails (I love OPI, Avon, Color Club and Essie!!)

5.) Making jewelry (I'm a seller on Etsy insert shameless plug for you to check out my store link listed above).

6.) Gardening, Campfires, Cookouts, Exploring, and other outdoor activities in mild weather. I LOVE FALL! It's the perfect weather for nearly everything!

7.) Writing letters to my wonderful pen-pals!

8.) Spending time with my sweetie, my friends, my pets, and my huge extended family!

In addition to regular swaps, I love to do private swaps as well. Please feel free to message me for this :)

To follow me on Instagram: xoxocat8845

Things I like/collect are:

♥ KAWAII! (Special section on this below!)

♥ Fun socks

♥ 80's/90's Lisa Frank designs (I dream of eventually having an arm sleeve of Lisa Frank tattoos) !

♥ Earrings (not a fan of gold tones though - sorry if that's picky)

♥ Cats - I was born a cat lady from the start!

♥ Penpal supplies such as:

• Modern or kawaii stationary

• Nice pens, add such as Pentel Starburst pens!

• Washi tape

• Deco tape

• Decorative duct tape

• Cute/unusual shaped sticky notes

♥ Stickers! Flat, puffy, holographic, glitter, flakes, whatever! Just please don't send me teacher/reward or little kid cartoon stickers (unless kawaii). I prefer stickers like Stickos and similar.

♥ Rubber stamps (used ones are okay!)

♥ HALLOWEEN items!! My favorite Holiday! Vintage Halloween, Halloween items from other countries and depictions of witches would be especially appreciated, but really any Halloween is good.

♥ MOONS and other celestial things (I'm really into galaxy print right now). I seriously love the moon though. I have always felt very drawn to it. I recently got a crescent moon tattoo on my neck and I LOVE it.

♥ Stones, Crystals, Amulets and Talismans. I have a particular fondness for amethyst, onyx, moonstone, rainbow topaz, citrine and druzy agates among others :)

♥ OWLS: My spirit/power animal. My home is scattered with them :)

♥ Oher Woodland Creatures: Deer, Foxes, Wolves, Rabbits, Turtles, etc.

♥ Pandas

♥ Luna Moths

♥ Butterflies

♥ Trees of Life

♥ Mushrooms

♥ Sea glass, sand dollars, pressed flowers, feathers (washed please =p) and other beautiful, natural things from the earth. I really enjoy earth-centered things.

♥ Interesting/Unusual home decor/knick knacks from your home country-if you're an artist this can definitely include Art by you. I love to hang unusual pieces on my walls.

♥ Spiritual Native American items, Pagan and/or Wiccan items, Hamsas, Buddhas, Lucky Cats, I love The Green Man...

♥ Unique and/or handmade jewelry (Personal preference to silver, bronze, gun metal or mixed tones over gold tones)

♥ Ornaments for my Halloween tree!

♥ Ornaments for my Yule tree! (Including round ones, or "Witch Balls" as they were referred to in the old days)! I also Looooove Santa Moons!!

♥ Michael's Dollar bin items (I live in BFE and trips there are a rare treat for me!)

♥ Target Dollar Spot items (I live in BFE and trips there are a rare treat for me!)

♥ Fun shaped plastic confetti

♥ Refrigerator Magnets

♥ Bohemian themes

♥ Laurel Burch

♥ Tie Dye and Ombre prints

♥ Pretty much anything from Earthbound Trading Co. or Gypsy Warrior

♥ Rorschach Inkblots

♥ Old Phrenology charts/models

♥ Charts, Drawings and/or Art relating to moon phases, constalations, zodiac, palmestry, etc.

♥ Orgonites! Someone recently sent me one and it was so rad! I would have never otherwise thought to add that to my list.

♥ Sugar Skulls

♥ Tarot cards

♥ Edgar Allan Poe

♥ Frida Kahlo

♥ Michael Jackson

♥ Aeromatherapy lotions, oils, scrubs, etc. I DO NOT HAVE A BATHTUB, JUST A SHOWER STALL SO PLEASE NO BATH ONLY ITEMS.

♥ Aveeno, Burt's Bees and other natural products

♥ Face masks

♥ Scarves, especially long infinity/figure 8 scarves.

♥ I'm an Aquarius, so I would love to receive anything having to do with my sign.

♥ Windchimes

♥ Cryptozoology, like Mermaids and Unicorns.

♥ Dinosaurs

♥ Super Mario Brothers

♥ Clovers/Shamrocks

♥ Fruit (designs, patterns, smells, flavors....)

♥ Fair Isle prints

♥ Playing card suits patterns (as in spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds). Not decks of playing cards, per se, as I have plenty, but I like things with that pattern.

♥ Celestial Seasonings Tea

♥ Candy & Snacks:

• Anything Willie Wonka
• Lindor, Lindt, Dove, Milky Way chocolates
• Skittles, Starburst, Twizzlers, SweetTarts
• Chips
• Cakes

• those little blue tins of butter cookies OMG

  Favorite colors in general are Green, Purple, Aqua and Black.

For nail polish, I like many colors. I tend to prefer colors that stand out as a bright or dark color. I'm fair skinned so pastels and light pearly colors don't look as good on me.

♥♥♥HALLOWEEN♥♥♥

MY HUBBY AND I AT A ZOMBIE PROM FUNDRAISER THIS LAST HALLOWEEN. WE WERE CROWNED ZOMBIE KING AND QUEEN LATER THAT NIGHT.

♥♥♥HALLOWEEN♥♥♥

~ JUNK (I don't send junk and I don't want to receive it. I put effort into all my swaps no matter how busy I am, I expect the same).

~ I DO NOT HAVE A BATHTUB, JUST A SHOWER STALL SO PLEASE NO BATH ONLY ITEMS.IT JUST MAKES ME SAD.

~ SPICY FOOD

~ STUFFED ANIMALS

~ CHRISTIAN ITEMS (I'm all for religious tolerance, but please send these to someone who will appreciate them).

~ DISNEY THINGS

~ SPORTS RELATED THINGS

~ PENCILS

~ Daiso brand memos or any Kawaii with real life pictures of people/children. DO.NOT.LIKE. Thank you.

DO NOT NEED: Things for babies/children, project life items, ATCs, items/material for sewing/knitting/crocheting, or things for scrapbooking-however scrapbooking pages are okay because I can use those for making envelopes.

Pink is not my favorite, nor are neon colors if there's another option.

Tracking down ratings! Especially because I put my heart into the swaps I send. I always rate ASAP!! If you have time to swap, you have time to rate.

My biggest dislike is bigotry. Non-denominational, spiritual, feminist, social Liberal here. I believe in everyone's right to be happy, healthy and loved!

I love to collect the letter sets, memos, sticker flakes and stickers the most. I recently updated my kawaii favorites below! What I tend to like most about kawaii is the quirkiness factor, so I tend to like the "weird" stuff :) But if none of that or what's listed below is your thing, I do like cute animals as much as the next person, especially pandas. I'm a collector, so I already own a lot of the main stream kawaii. I especially love receiving rare or older kawaii that's hard to find. I like a lot of the things Crux, Q-lia, Kamio (especially Skyser Craper) and Mind Wave come up with. I actually prefer them to most San-x, which a lot of other collectors seem to like better so I guess I'm different in that way. I also really like Tuxedo Sam, Badtz Maru and Chococat. I will always have a special place in my heart for Sanrio! I loved it before kawaii was "cool." I like most all of it really, just please don't send me Daiso brand memos or any Kawaii with real life pictures of people/children. DO.NOT.LIKE. If you have any extra envelopes that you have left over from your letter sets, feel free to send them my way!

♥♥♥ FAVORITE KAWAII♥♥♥

♥ MIND WAVE LITTLE WITCH TOWN

♥ ANY other KAWAII WITCH related characters!! If it's wearing a witch hat, I'll love it!! :)

♥ ANY characters related to HOROSCOPE/ZODIAC including (for example): Crux 12 Star Girls, Pool Cool Zodiac Girls, Q-lia Zodiac Girls, 12 Pop’n Bears, Crux Twinkle Star Girls, Kamio Jewelry Girls, Pool Cool Birthday Stone Bunnies, etc.

♥ ANY KAWAII POO characters!!

♥ Crux Starlight Cat

♥ Q-lia Oyaji-bu Pig

♥ Kamio Soda Chan

♥ Kamio Awawa Chan

♥ ANY Kawaii Mushroom Characters!

♥ Q-lia Smile/Smile Pocket Characters

♥ San-x Sweet Face Characters

♥ Kamio Pop’n Friends

♥ Food with Faces in General, but special interest in hamburgers :)

♥ Nyanpire, Gaikotso/ Gaikotso, Kawaii Ghosts in general!!!

I love so many artists that it's hard to name just as few. I love everything from MJ (a truly misunderstood genius) to Aerosmith to really obscure stuff that you may or may not have ever heard of! I love 90's music (all genres) most of all!

Even though I say that, my top three favorite songs of all time are:

"What a Wonderful World" -Louis Armstrong, "Imagine" -John Lennon, and "The Book of Love" -Peter Gabriel

I love mostly non-fiction. I like to read about people's lives. Maybe it's the nosy in me! I am particularly interested in world religions and lifestyles. I loved the books from some of the openly polygamist families such as the Browns' "Becoming Sister Wives," and the Darger's "Love Times Three." I've also enjoyed "High on Arrival," by Mackenzie Phillips and "Dead Run: The Untold Story of Dennis Stockton and America's Only Mass Escape from Death Row," These are fascinating looks into the lives of others.

Of the few fictional books I have enjoyed: The Giver, The House of Night Series, The Twilight Series, and The Southern Vampire Mysteries

Evidently, I like something about Vampires...

Legends of the Fall, Interview with the Vampire, Hocus Pocus, The Blue Lagoon, The Terminator series, and Fight Club

I also really enjoy documentaries, keeping in mind that every single one will be biased.

Of all time: Dawson's Creek, Lost, The Office, Freaks and Geeks, Breaking Bad, The Tudors, Roseanne

Currently watch: Orange is the New Black, The Big Bang Theory, Call the Midwife, 90 Day Fiancé, , The Fosters, Sister Wives, Archer, Rick and Morty

I make jewelry. And sock snowmen during the holidays....

MISSING RATINGS FROM:

@blate for "New pen pal."

I sent her a message, but she hasn't been back online.

@momtoanimals for "Weird Kawaii #2" Swap

I sent her a message and emailed her, but she hasn't been back online.

FLAKED ON BY:

@EmmaJaneSmith93 for Necklace Swap International #1

I hosted this one and unfortunately, got flaked on. I've tried getting in touch with this person, but she hasn't logged in in awhile and currently has other late swaps on her dashboard :( 06/08/15

@smvlpn for Group: $3 Smile

Very disappointing. I sent her a message but she hasn't been back online. UPDATE 4/6/14: Her account has been deleted. I still never received any swap or response from her.

@bunnyhoney for 10/10/10 Swap Series #6

This one is particularly bad because she was not only the host of the swap, but the founder of this group. I've made multiple attempts to get in touch with her.

(Angeled by the kind and lovely @raniheartspaper ! )