BicycleUkulele

Begining Again

Returning to Active member today (4-10-22). Needed to take a leave of absence for a few months. There was only one swap I didn't send, though discovered there was part of another swap that went astray, I am completing them this week. One of my sister's got sick, pancreatic cancer, which had also taken my Mother, & it was more than I could handle. They finally let us spend her last days in the hospital with her, but she had slipped into a coma, & couldn't speak with us. Then came the final things, her death, funeral & going through her things, I was depressed & angry & grieving. We had our first holidays & my own health issues got worse, just stayed home alone week after week, until there wasn't much further in the abyss I could go & decided I had to get control of myself & start joining life again. So here I am. I hope that I will find the peace that swapping & letter writing spirit pen friends has always given me.

About Me

I'm in my retirement, & the COVID times have really alienated me from people-contact. Because of my health risks I didn't get out much. So discovering Swap-bot expanded my horizons, exploring people's hobbies enriched my life.

Like many of you, I love thrift stores, bookstores, used book stores, libraries, Hoopla, my Kindle, & bookclubs. I am an Amazon & ebay junkie.

Am a voracious reader - mostly mysteries, spirituality books, childrens books, baseball, bicycle road trips across America, ukulele history/music books, & American history. Am always researching anything & everything online on my tiny cellphone screen.

Favorite authors/series include: Donna Andrews, Meg Langlow bird title mysteries, the Aloha Chicken mysteries by Josi Avari, bicycle fudge mysteries set on Mackinac Island, by Nancy Coco & Duffy Brown, & genealogy mysteries by Rett MacPherson. Enjoy reading Dan Gutman's children's baseball card adventures & his Lincoln project series.

Interests include: bicycling, ukuleles, baseball (am a San Francisco Giants fan, birdwatching, St Francis, George Washington, the ocean/coastal towns, the moon, boardgames, haiku, & magnetic poetry. I collect calendars to reuse when the dates are right again.

I knit because it lowers my blood pressure. It really does! Am not very good at knitting, I can knit & purl. Most patterns are just various combinations of the two stitches. I don't really make things, just garter & stockinette stitch, sometimes I knit slippers (my grandmother taught me) or a scarf. I made a traveling scarf once! That would be fun again. & love the Yarn Harlot & dream of knitting socks someday.

I rubber stamp handmade cards and consider making artist trading cards & creating mail art again. Collect all the gadgetry & supplies. I create inchies, twinchies, shrink plastic, collage into mosaic-like pictures. Have newly discovered washi tape. Van Gogh is a favorite artist.

Mostly just interested in companionship & correspondence. Occassionally will join a swap from time to time. Will swap with penfriends. Years ago wanted a pen friend from every state, but that's probaby too many to keep up with these days. I'd just like to receive a letter every day.

ABCs of Me

A - Azores, Amazon, alphabet, acrostic poem

B - Bicycles, baseball, birds, books, boardgames, bookmarks, Botanical Pets, banana bread

C - cycling, children's books, collage, dark chocolate, cookies, celery, crystal

D - For Dummies books, Dollar Tree, dinosaurs1q

E - Easter, embellishments, etch-a-sketch, embroidery floss

F - family history, folding bicycle, flowers, faith, fat quarters

G - gospels, SF Giants, gardens, James Garfield, gel pens

H - Happy Mail, history, Haiku, Hawaiian Sweetbread

I - ice cream, inchies, ink pads, Independence Day

J - Jesus, Jeopardy! Jimmy Kimmel, jigsaw puzzles, John Denver

K - Kindle, Kitchen Aid, knitting

L - letters, letter writing, LEGO, librarians, labyrinths, Lonely Planet travel guides

M - Moon, MagPo, Barrel of Monkeys, mystery stories, museums, my mini sewing machines, mermaids (& mermen!)

N - nieces 2, nephews 2, news, nesting dolls, notebooks, note cards

O - orange (color), origami, origami Folding Bike, Omega 3 peanut butter

P - prayer, postcards, Portugal, playing cards, Pinterest, palindromes, Presidents Day, perpetual calendars, poppy flowers

Q - quail, quarters, questions, quotes, quests, quiet

R - rubber-stamping, recumbent bike, road trips, redwood trees, rainbows, rocks, recipes

S - seahorses, sunflowers, sudoku, spirals, scarves, Senior Center, Stamping Sisters Trio, sealing wax stamps, sewing

T - teaching, thrifting, typewriters, traveling, train songs

U - ukuleles, Uno, Upwords, unicorns, USA

V - variegated thread & yarn, voting

W - writers, watercolors, Willie Nelson, Wizard of Oz

X - xylophones, xenomania

Y - yarn, yearning, yard sales, you

Z - zinnias, zoos, zigzags

favorite colors: orange & blue, Roy G. Biv, red, white & blue

postcards :

MLB ballparks, state maps, capitol buildings, state birds/flowers, lighthouses, bicycles

Misc: bookmarks, state quarters, quotes about bicycles, baseball cards, flowers,

Am building a song collection of songs to learn to play. Someday I may want to play at open mic places. Actually, I want to but might not be brave enough. I'm currently looking for songs with color names in titles. Do you play ukulele? Would love to correspond with other ukulele players.

The last idea that interests me is collecting seal wax stamps. I probably have a dozen or more, in many of my favorite themes: bicycle, ukulele, seahorse, USA map, ... Can't wait to swap them!

Thanks for reading my Profile. Am always seeking new pen friends!

Happy Swapping!