meggles

I'm a knitter, so my previous swaps have been knitted sock swaps and I found swap-bot through Ravelry. I'm mom of 3, my daughters are ages 8 (almost 9) and 2, with my son in the middle just started kindergarten at age 5. My husband is a SAHD and I'm a grad student in evolutionary biology. I live in Michigan in a suburb of Detroit and spend a lot of time in Ann Arbor. One of the things I love about living in Michigan is the 4 seasons. I love each one dearly and look forward to the change of seasons every time it comes around. We have pets: a siberian husky, a cat, a guinea pig and a tank of community fish. I also love gardening, both food and flowers, and nature walks and bike rides. I like cooking and baking, but don't get enough time to do it lately, or at least not time to try out new recipes and enjoy the process. I'm looking forward to some swapping fun.

The Daily Show, Colbert Report, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes

Knitting is the main one, but I also like craft painting, stamping, scrapping, cross-stitch, beading, needle felting.

Favorite Colors: green and purple, but I love all colors that are bright and vibrant as well as deep mysterious colors. Favorite Animals: otters and owls. Favorite Beverage: coffee, but not flavored ones, just a nice dark roast, my favorites are Sumatra and Indonesian. I also drink tea, mostly in the winter, I like some fruity ones, like pomegranate, orange, peach. And I'm a big fan of a nice hot cocoa, too, but again, not flavors. Favorite Candy: Dark chocolate (or milk, but not white), caramel, coconut, also love peanut butter stuff. Butterfinger is my favorite candy bar.

I have a hard time picking favorite movies, as I would almost always rather see a new one than watch one I've already seen. Exceptions would be Harry Potter movies and My Fair Lady.

Harry Potter, Outlander Series (Diana Gabaldon), knitting books, children's books with beautiful art or photography.

My iPod is full of mix CD's my sister makes for me. It's an eclectic mix, but lots of indie rock, girl singer/songwriters, some dance/techno, some classical, some classic rock and some ska & old school punk and a little of the late 80's metal I loved in high school.

I don't like to dust, so I don't like little dust gatherers. I'm generally not into too much girly stuff like any kind of makeup, but bubble bath or lip balm are good. Not into floral scents, but fruity is OK. I'm also not that into "cute" stuff, kawaii or precious moments or any of that is not my style. And, I like to knit with natural fibers (wool, alpaca (my favorite), silk, cotton, bamboo), not any acrylic or other novelty yarns.

I love all things handmade or otherwise unique, especially local items from your area.

Specific items: buttons (pins), usually the small 1" diameter ones I like to collect. Project bags: small bags to hold a knitting project. Tote bags, trying not to use paper or plastic any more. :)

Thought I should add this since the 3 swaps I'm currently signed up for are all about holidays...

Halloween: I love this holiday. My favorite part is letting my kids choose anything they want to be and working with my mom and my husband to turn their costume dream into a reality. I like spooky haunted house type decor, and I like the association of autumn time and harvest as the world gets ready to rest. I like bats and spiders and vultures and jack-o-lanterns, gourds and other funky looking produce of this time of year. I like that everyone can let out their inner goth and put on black wig or some black nail polish or some crazy striped socks or a spider ring and it's all good.

Christmas: I celebrate a secular Christmas, with a tree and family gatherings and gifts and much feasting, but no Santa and no baby Jesus. Part of what I love about the holiday season is that it really is a season full of gatherings in my family. We have specific traditions with different parts of the extended family, and I cherish them all. My tree is decorated in a very eclectic mix of ornaments: some the kids made, some from when my husband and I were kids handed down from our respective families, peacock ornaments which I've been collecting for years, penguins which I've just started to collect, and assorted odd balls that I just had to have, like a mini espresso machine, a disco ball, a hummingbird, a pegasus, etc etc

Solstice: Solstice is the one part of the season that is just for me, my husband and the kids, to take a step away from the hub-bub, for one evening, have dinner by candlelight, read stories out loud and hold together on the longest night, remembering how essential the sun and the seasons are to us and our ability to live on this planet. I only wish we had a fireplace for a real yule log!