karikatzi

My name is Karina, I'm a mom, wifey, home maker & craftster. I'm originally from England but had lived in the US for nearly 18 years now (I've lost most of my accent and cravings for soggy chips aka fries). My two kiddos are a 9, almost 10 year old girl and a 5 year old boy. The hubby works from home as a computer nerd doing very technical things in his man cave.

In a previous incarnation I lived in New York and worked for a big graphic design company, doing huge fancy PowerPoint shows for Pepsi & Heineken (to drop a few names), so the contrast between TN & NY was a little shocking at first but now I love it... mostly - I do miss the diversity & restaurants.

Nowadays I mostly make fun stuff for my Etsy shop ( www.KariKatzi.Etsy.com ) and local gift & toy shops, but have also illustrated book covers and written content for card games.

My user name is KariKatzi as I will always have a special place in my heart for cats, (I've been called a "Cat Whisperer" by several different people on different occasions) but really love all animals. We currently have a kitty, a golden retriever and a tree frog and a big old fish tank is coming soon!

I love to knit, cross stitch, needle felt, paint and generally get in a bit sticky mess with my kids! I love funky yarn, groovy buttons & swirly bright colors that go zing together!

My main craft money makers are my knitted (hot-water-bottle covers) Kuddle Kritters, needle felted rattles & Gnome Place Like Home night lights made from home grown gourds.

I also love photography & am a compulsive graphic designer, I find it actually impossible to not re-design docs that come my way! Hee hee

Authors - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Chris Moore, Cornelia Funke & J. K. Rowling. Comedy with a touch of the dark side and some magic makes me a happy bunny

Books - Tiffany Aching Series by Terry Pratchett, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman, the Little Prince, The Never Ending Story, Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems & Frank Muir's Whattamess

Well I'm pretty easy going. The main thing I love best is to get prezzies (or swaps in this case).

LIKES

• Nature & the natural world, animals, gardening (I'm a newbie but have some veggies growing now), fresh flowers, plants & herbs

• Nature spirits, fairies, gnomes, toadstools.

• Lolcats, Totoro, snarky crosstitch

• Stars, universe, spirituality (but not organized religion see below), healing, creativity, joy, laughing, funny things, cartoons.

• Music (kinda gone a bit alt. folk in my old age, ex. Weepies, Regina Spekto, Lily Alen) but always keen to hear new music though especially from different cultures and genres.

• Giving gifts to my friends, I can always use cards, gift wrap, tags etc.

• I like fresh natural smells like freesias, rose, lavender, lilacs, green tea etc but my nose is super hypersensitive so with smelly things less is definitely more than enough.

• Recycled art, funky furniture & design, handmade stuff, non-commercialism (apart from IKEA that is! Love IKEA Hee hee).

• Knitting, painting, sculpting, photography, buttons, ribbon, natural cotton, bamboo, wool etc fabrics (especially oriental, retro, funky patterns).

• Buying from local artists, farmers etc. Buying 'fair-trade' items that aren't made in sweat shop, slave conditions.

• And last thing, incase it helps you gauge my taste... We don't have TV just rent DVDs but I absolutely LOVE Flight of the Conchords, Futurama, Heroes & Firefly (may it RIP).

• Cute funky things & toys, monsters, aliens, animals, dragons

DISLIKES

• NO FOOD! I love chocolate & goodies but am on a strict wheat-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, citrus-free, joy-free diet for a while so please don't lead me into temptation! If you must send something edible then (non-caffeinated) herbal tea is safest for now (boo hoo).

• Not keen on plasticy fabrics (polyester, nylone etc), especially chintzy, flowery patterns, hearts or animal prints etc

• Country, wood cabin, seaside etc motifs

• Not into postcards

• Icky bugs & spiders, poison ivy, wasps

• Not at all a sports person

• No religious stuff please ie. Jesus/Jehohva/Allah/etc stuff (I am a spiritual person but in my own way, so no offense intended)

• Do not like stinky candles (ie Yankee Candles) especially factory created smells like linen, rain water, vanilla pie, apple cinnamon and so on, in fact it's probably best to steer clear of smelly stuff in general.

• Don't like violence or cruelty

I have NEVER EVER EVER flaked on a swap and never will! Well unless something really really bad happens to me on the way to the post office - but I'm sure even then I'll find a way to get your swap sent out on time! Hee hee.

If you feel that I haven't sent your swap in good time, please let me know before you rate and we'll twig out what happened and of course I will do the same for you! I won't badmouth flakers publicly because hey we're all human and things happen. But I promise that I will do my very best to keep SwapBot.com fun!