Blacksugar

Updated: 24 March 2018

Attention: If you live outside of Europe please always put a customs declaration on your package to me. If there is no declaration I have to pick it up at customs and they have horrible opening hours. Thanks for your understanding!

First of all thank you very much for checking out my profile! My name is Steffi and I live in a house near Cologne with my husband and my three Norwegian Forest Cats. It is quite rural here but we love the tranquility! It is perfect after a stressful day :)

I studied International Business in Aachen, Germany and Finance and Business in Dundee, Scotland, so Scotland is like a second home for me. I'm in love with its breathtaking landscape, beautiful towns and wonderful people!

At the moment I'm a Chief Financial Officer at an institute providing services regarding sustainable bio-based products/economy.

In my free time I love relaxing in my bath tube with a nice book, cooking, listening to disk records (yeah, there are still people who do that... ;) ), watching American tv shows. My two biggest passions are photography and travelling which I love to combine! My favourite travel destinations are countries with small populations and incredible nature like Scotland, Ireland or Iceland. I would love to visit the Scandinavian countries, Canada and New Zealand!

I'm very open-minded, always up for a good laugh.

I love listening to Rock n Roll music like Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis... I also like bands covering new songs in the 50s style like the German band The Baseballs.

I was born in the 80s and if I hear an 80s song in the radio it will definately make my day! :)

I think I couldn't live without books. You can find books all over my place. I have lots of travel guides and travel picture books (also for countries I haven't even visited yet but would love to) and cooking books (I usually bring back at least one traditional cooking book from my travels). I also like anything mysterious/horror/paranormal (NOT a fan of vampires, werevolves etc.) young adult (especially with dystopian themes) and chick lit. Please check out my Goodreads account (see link above) to see which books I have already read.

I have so many favourite tv shows, it is really hard to narrow it down. I think these are the ones I like most at the moment: The Big Bang Theory, The Blacklist, BBCs Sherlock, Chuck, Lucifer, Stitchers, Undateable, Young and Hungry.

• Music of the genres I like or your favourite music. I'm always keen to get to know new artists. I have a record player, a cd player and a mp3 player so I can use any format but my big love are vinyls. I love music in Rock and Roll style!

• I love everything that smells nicely. This can be a nice scented candle, body wash, bath foam, hand cream, facial cleansing wipes (I once got some called coconut care, you can't get them here, so if you can I would love to get my hands on these again!) body powder, perfume and perfume samples, scent bags... I love flowerly and fruity scents but I'm not too picky. The only scents I cannot stand is vanilla because it gives me headaches.

• Anything from my Etsy or Amazon wishlists. Please feel free to save postage and let the seller ship it directly to me. Just give me a heads up so I know for which swap the gift is :)

• One of my passions is cooking so anything to do with cooking is very much appreciated:

~ cooking books

~ cooking magazines

~ recipes (especially handwritten family recipes!)

~ cooking utensils

~ spices/seasonings: especially unusual salts, spices traditional to your country, seasonings for chicken, seasonings for seafood

~ favourite dishes: Sushi, Italian, Mexican, Spanish, Seafood

• Flower/herb/fruit/tree/vegetable seeds (for inspiration check out my etsy favorites) Unlike other countries it is allowed to import seeds to Germany as long as they are not potato seeds or seed for drug plants.

• I finally have a garden (hurray!) so I'm in need of garden decorations, solar lights, paper lanterns, gardening equipment... Pretty much everything that is not too kitschy. I would also love to hear your gardening tips/advice!

• Gardening books or magazines

• Mandala stones

• Reusable shopping bag

• Shot glass from your city, country, state...

• Jewelry: as long as it is not too glimmery I'm happy! I don't like to wear golden jewelry, it just doesn't fit my skin color. I especially like things made of synthetic leather, breads, buttons and natural things like seeds. My favourite colours are green, blue, red, purple, brown and black. I love stud earrings and earrings with buttons!

• Anything travel related like picture book, guide book, luggage tag…

• Colourful pillow case (nothing childish please)

• Chocolates/sweets/other food from your country: Chocolates: Please no coffee, vanilla, marzipan, mint flavoured chocolate, no chocolate with alcohol, no dark chocolate. I especially love chocolate with nuts, white and milk chocolate and chocolate with nougat. I'm also curious to try new and unusual tastes! I LOVE Fazer and Marabou chocolate! Sweets: I love everything but chewing gum and very sour stuff. Other food: I love to try new things and I am not very picky when it comes to food. Salty, cheesy, spicy, fruity... I like them all. I am not a big fan of marmelade though but I LOVE honey!

• I'm a big hot chocolate and tea lover so these are always welcomed. I especially love mixed herbal tea (please no plain camomile or mint) and fruit tea.

• A book in English or German (I prefer reading in English). If you like you can check out my Amazon book wishlist or my Book Depository wishlist for inspiration, the links are at the top of this page :) Please check out my Goodreads account (see link above) to see which books I have already read.

• I'm always in need for socks (I prefer sneaker socks and normal-sized socks, no knee socks please). My size is EU 40/ US 9

• Something you made yourself especially jewellery (I love creative people)

• Traditional craft items

• Local art of any kind (especially small paintings)

• Anything related to photography

• Old black & white photos of people and cemetries (the more creepy/peculiar the better!)

• Anything related to the 50s especially 50s music, jewellery, accessories, retro tin boxes

• Eye shadow (preferably dark colours) and lipstick/lipgloss (anything except brown colours)

• Any kind of scarf

• Hot-water bottle

Colours I like: blue (my favourite colour), green, dark pink, red and purple

Styles and patterns I like: 50s, polka dots, Scandinavian style, stripes, hearts, flowers, circles

Feel free to check out the links above to see what kind of styles I like. Of course these are only inspirations. :)

• Coffee or anything coffee flavoured

• anything vanilla scented or flavoured

• any clothes except for scarves and socks or swaps that have a cloth-theme

• sweets with marzipan, mint or alcohol

• stickers

• stationary (I received a lot in the last swaps that I would like to use it first before I receive new ones)