phylvo

I try to send with adequate postage, BUT if EVER anything comes from me with postage due, let me know and I will make it right. The PO and I have a love-hate relationship, but I love YOU.

I LIKE: light coming through colored glass and my morning window sill is covered with a rainbow of glass vases - love waking up and they are first things I see!

I ALWAYS NEED ATC SUPPLIES;: magazine cutouts, realistic stickers (flowers, animals, etc. - - am not into fantasy), pieces of pretty material, buttons, lace, ribbon, anything Oriental, crocheted edging, mismatched earrings, steampunk,, rhinestones (oh yes, rhinestones, yellow if possible), you get the idea

I LIKE: horses, giraffes, elephants, gorillas (especially the silver backs - they look so wise and there is the story of a child who fell into the enclosure which agitated the younger males but the silverback went and sat by the unconscious child until the keepers came) (several occurrences of gorillas protecting human children who fall into their area), birds, all animals really, polar bears, dogs & cats, BIG cats, chipmunks, hummingbirds, raccoons, lemurs, even skunks

I LOVE: minerals (crystals), rock hunting, it's in my genes - maternal grandfather never passed a rock slide or place where road crew was tearing up the land, he would stop to check and see what was to be had there. He had a museum quality collection, where it now resides.

I LOVE: the sky, nebulae, comets, sunsets, northern lights which I saw once as a young girl in PA and I could hardly breath.

Humm, I LOVE ice cream, vanilla, real peach, orange sherbet, pineapple sherbet, milk shakes, banana splits, you name it!

NO COFFEE - love the smell. but not the taste, not even in candy

I ADORE: flowers, hydrangea, lilacs, forsythia, daffodils, tulips, dogwood, gardenia (smell sends me to another place), lilies of the valley,

THANK GOD FOR COLOR (He didn't have to, you know): blue, yellow, all shades of purple, green, red) - life in a kaleidoscope

I ENJOY: traveling, reading, the internet, writing, SwapBot, Listia, garage sales, estate sales, GoodWill Outlet stores

I COLLECT: rubber stamps, lace and ribbon, material for Barbie clothes, books & magazines, ATC embellishments (which encompasses almost everything under the sun!),

I MAKE: scrapbooks, altered books, embellishments for card makers, ATC's

NEED: scraps of unusual lace, crocheted edging, surviving earrings, ribbon, magazine cuts, words (great for ideas), steampunk (metal or paper pics), anything really, I love the challenge of unusual items

I LIKE: the sea, waves, the beach after a storm, sea glass, surfing (by other people), pretty tropical fish, nudibranch

I MUTILATE MAGAZINES: cut them up for crafts, never have enough

I LIKE: Victorian lacy stuff, I would walk a mile for a copy of the Victoria Magazine

I LOVE: orchids (I have killed more than my share with excessive love) and some do smell - at an orchid show in San Diego's Balboa Park, there was a small orange colored one that had a delicious smell which I think I used up by returning to smell it every five minutes

AGAIN I LIKE: rock hounting (new word- cross between hunting and rockhound), petrified wood (even my poodle would carry home a rock she decided was just right for her)(had to put a stop to that as she was wearing down her teeth. I don't think she could give anyone a serious bite thanks to her rocks.)

TV; THE BIG BANG (even tho' I am a creationist), MONK (I know, he's gone, but oh, I miss him), PROJECT RUNWAY, CHOPPED, THE LITTLE COUPLE, DIY shows, FRIENDS, I LOVE LUCY, (anyone remember MY LITTLE MARGIE), EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, DICK VANDYKE, oh the list is endless

I LIKE: cookies (All Hail the choc chip), pineapple upsidedown cake, schnitz & knepp (from my meat eating days), applesauce, apple pie with vanilla (comes from an orchid, you know) ice cream

I LOVE ORIENTAL THEMES; temple gardens (even the ones with only rocks), flower arrangements, architecture, clothing, Geishas, printing, koi

I love good Sci Fi; (movies, books and TV) - hate the drooling monster ones - they all pale after the original ALIEN, All Hail mother Weaver

I LOVE: the woods, wooded streams with their little waterfalls, finding delicate woodland flowers in the spring

I make Barbie clothes, tailored suits and lovely gowns with lots of bling, hatboxes, luggage, purses and hats

. . . oh, I love life, as the alternative is TOO close for my comfort, but I AM comforts me

BOOKS: THE SOURCE is my absolute all time favorite - love the Holy Land's history and all her people(s) and this is a fantastic through-the-ages story of one bubbling spring in Israel - don't let the size put you off, each time line story is complete in itself with a modern excavation theme running throughout

All of Amy Tan (finally learned to play simplified Mahjong thanks to a family friend), James Patterson, Clive Cussler, Jeffrey Deaver (but not S King or his genre), James Rollins, Orson Scott Card and of course, Isaac Asimov

I like books that make me laugh out loud - All Creatures Great & Small (and the others) fall into this category. The story of the dog who farted so much no one wanted him was a beaut.

TRAVEL: I have lived in PA, upstate NY, TN, FL, CA and for a few months each in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and for two years in Costa Rica. I have had heat exhaustion at Machu Picchu, crossed that off my bucket list, seen Niagara Falls "from both sides now", held a baby black jaguar at a big cat preserve in Oregon, seen a thunderstorm in the Grand Canyon, climbed down into a kiva at Mesa Verde, walked the avenue of the dead at the Temple of the Sun and Moon outside Mexico City, stood by a huge male lion and felt him purr (it vibrated my body, if he had roared, I would have embarrassed myself), saw a comet smeared across the night sky (cross that off my bucket list), had six children all of whom grew to be people I would not mind being stranded with on desert island, swam with dolphins on Roatan Island, Honduras (another bucket list item), hugged a redwood, had heat exhaustion in a stretch of real jungle in Costa Rica, dug for geodes at the Howser Beds and found petrified shells in the desert of CA, had a whale of an experience on Scammons Lagoon, Baja CA, and I knew a real leper.

Some of the best places to see are in our own country. The red rock country of Utah. Zion is terrific. The Oregon coast. Snorkeling off Florida. Ruby Falls inside a cave in Tennessee. Carlsbad Caverns. Petrified Forest. See America First!

I tell my kids, when I GO, do not mourn me too long because I have had a good life - seen and done things I never thought I would . . . like passing several gall stones!!! No, really, I have had a good, full life, but I ain't done yet!!!