cmmaldonado

Hiya, I'm Carmen! I'm 40 years old and live just outside Anchorage, Alaska. Mom to my favorite person, my 19-year-old daughter. Married to my best friend. Vintage/antique lover/seller (and, thus, addicted to thrifting, estate sales, auctions and garage sales), artist, illustrator, paper nerd, bookworm, crafter, poet, bookaholic. 💕 I work as an editor and graphic designer by day. I have an ephemera problem! I love vintage and antique paper - book pages, postcards, ads, etc.. I also like to collect little trinkets and miniature things for assemblage art and display.

I'm super into escape rooms, puzzles, ARGs, and mysteries/the unexplained. I started playing an internet mystery game called The Stone back in the late 90s when I was a teenager - it's defunct now but the puzzles are still being hosted by a fan page (if you're into that kind of thing, check it out here: Scarecrow's Field) and I'm actually still working on them lol. I'm on the Final Six (if you know, you know) - if you are a fellow Stoner, I'd love for you to reach out! It was such a once in a lifetime community and experience!

I'm into astrology, tarot, and other forms of divination. Not to be a cliche, but I'd say I am spiritual rather than religious, and lean a bit new age. I have no problem swapping with anyone from any religion or receiving religious items, though - I keep a stash on hand for when I get paired with Christian partners, and I never send anything that I think my partner would disapprove of or be upset by!

Swaps
I always send out my swaps. If for any reason I think it will be late, I will message you to let you know. If you didn't receive a swap from me, it must have been lost in the mail - please reach out to let me know and I am happy to resend!

I always rate, but I am, alas, human, and prone to occasional forgetfulness - if you haven't received a rating from me please let me know and I will get it done!

A: antique, apothecary labels, astrology (esp. Scorpio-related!), Addams Family, Adventure Time, ATCs, atlases, Ancient Egypt, anime, autumn, anatomical, astronomy, altered books, advertising (vintage/antique), Alice in Wonderland, art journals, assemblage art, ARGs

B: Beistle (esp. Halloween), bestiaries, bees, butterflies, books (reading and as a motif), birds (owls, songbirds, ravens/crows - non-tropical birds), bizarre, bicycles, Bauhaus art, bookmarks, botanical, buttons

C: chrysanthemums, cards (greeting, playing, artist trading), charts, chess, circus, cartomancy, Christmas (vintage/antique or retro), crystals, cabinet cards, cats, coffee, cemeteries, Chrono Trigger, chickens

D: Dennison (vintage, seals, labels, and gift wrap), dragons, deer, dogs (vintage or antique illustrations or photos), dictionary pages (vintage/antique), Disney (vintage), diecuts, Delia's catalogs

E: ephemera (vintage/antique), envelopes, eyes (as a motif), Egyptian mythology, escape rooms (in-person and video games), Easter (vintage/antique or retro), England, earthy colors

F: faeries, fantasy, florals (esp. poppies, chrysanthemums, lilies-of-the-valley, and peonies), frogs, France/French, forest, fall, fortune-telling (especially vintage and antique card decks), fairy tales, found object art

G: Gnomes, goblins, geocaching, game cards and pieces (vintage), gas and oil ephemera, green (favorite color), Greek mythology, Girl Scouts (esp. vintage)

H: Halloween (vintage/antique or retro), haunted houses, Harry Potter, hot air balloons, horses, horror

I: Ireland, insects, incense, irises, illustration

J: junk journals

K: knights, kitsch (esp. 60s), kawaii

L: laurel, letters, leaves, lithographs, labels (vintage/antique), lavender (color and plant), letterboxing, linocut printing

M: mushrooms, magic, moths, Magic: The Gathering, maps, mail art, masks (vintage/antique), mid-century modern, mythology (generally; Egyptian, Greek, and Roman particularly), mermaids, mysteries, Monty Python, magazines (vintage/antique), mosaic, manga

N: 90s, notecards, newspapers (vintage/antique)

O: Occult (vintage/antique), oddities, orange (color), owls, octopuses

P: paper! (vintage/antique or scrapbook paper with interesting textures/designs), postcards (vintage/antique/linen), pixies, poppies, peonies, poetry, photos (vintage/antique), puzzles (not jigsaw, more like logic, mystery, word games, etc.), punk, pinups (vintage), playing cards, pins (vintage, political, punk), postage stamps, putz houses, photography, pixel art, printmaking, physics, Pokemon card game

Q: ?

R: Roman mythology, rebuses, rabbits, railroad ephemera, Ravenclaw, rubber stamps (not cutesy or folksy), "The Room" game series, Rusty Lake games

S: snakes, Scorpio, science fiction, 60s, stamps (postage), stamps (rubber - not cutesy or folksy), space, Sailor Moon, Studio Ghibli, Silent Hill games, shabby chic, Sanrio (vintage and new), squirrels

T: tags, typography, tins (vintage/antique), tintypes, Tarot, tattoos, trees, Tim Holtz, trinkets

U: unicorns, Underwood typewriters, unexplained phenomena

V: vintage, Victorian, vines, valentines (vintage/antique)

W: winter, woodland, witchy stuff, washi tape, wax seals

XYZ: x-rays, zoology, zombie movies, zines

I love to read - fiction and poetry mostly, but some non-fiction, too. Some of my favorites:

POETRY

I've also got some nostalgic love for a few childhood movies:

I love music! I like pretty much all music except I never really got into reggae. Some faves are:

• Radiohead (OK Computer is one of my favorite albums ever.)
• Tangerine Dream
• David Sylvian
• Pink Floyd
• Björk
• Billie Eilish
• Muse
• David Bowie
• Chappell Roan
• The Smiths
• Grimes
• Counting Crows
• Deftones
• Birdy
• The Marias
• Chelsea Wolfe
• Agnes Obel

Also I need to shout out a few soundtracks:
the Twilight movies (literally, amazing soundtrack on each movie. Go listen if you haven't!), Romeo + Juliet, Suspiria (2018), The Hunger Games movies

Seriously, though, I love so much music!

• Chrono Trigger (possibly the greatest game ever in my opinion!)
• Final Fantasy III / VI
• Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Riddle of the Sphinx & The Omega Stone
• The Silent Hill series
• Any of the games put out by Rusty Lake
• Year Walk
• The House of da Vinci series
• The Room series
• The puzzle games put out by Fire Maple Games
• The Adventure Escape Mysteries by Haiku Games
• The Stone/Scarecrow's Field
• The Black Watchmen

I'm grateful for all the things! There are a few things I don't like, but I won't hold it against you if you send them. :-) They are:

• Precious Moments
• Sports
• contemporary cartoon/kids' characters (exceptions: Adventure Time, Over the Garden Wall, Gravity Falls, Steven Universe)
• Superhero/Marvel/DC movies - I do like the old comics, though.