thefourthstar

Married to a touring band boy, raising three homeschooled little ones, managing my own band (www.vennamusic.com), crafting for my etsy store, writing letters, blogging, swapping stuff and being happy living small.

• Music, especially indie. I'm super active in the music community in Chicago and somewhat active in Milwaukee, but I'm really interested in what other indie/DIY music communities are like in other areas of the world.
• MIXTAPES (I have a blog dedicated to this: http://www.mixtapemakers.blogspot.com)
• TYPEWRITERS (I am OBSESSED. I have three so far.)
• Knitting
• Hedgehogs (Especially fabric with hedgehogs! Cuteness overload!)
• Anything vintage. Seriously. Anything.
• Melodicas, accordions, mandolins
• Antique pens & nibs
• Postcards (I'm an avid postcrosser.)
• Stationary & Stickers
• Used stamps (I collect them!)
• Writing Letters (I'm a member of the Letter Writers Alliance: http://16sparrows.com/LWA/membership.html)
• ZINES! Especially crafty or how-to, music zines, political & feminist issues.
• Records
• Gardening
• Bookmaking
• Journaling
• Papercrafts
• SANRIO (Oh Chococat, you are my favorite forever!)
• Sewing (and recently quilting!) I love vintage fabric and notions!
• Reading
• Coffee and Tea (I'm a caffeine addict! Ha!)

• Vampires or anything horror related. Reality is scary enough, methinks! ;)
• Pink
• Sports
• Anime
• Video games (Except Tetris and Mario Brothers)

This gets a separate box because other than my family and making things, music is really what my entire life revolves around. Bands I love are:

Hum, Sunny Day Real Estate, Jimmy Eat World, Hey Mercedes, Kevin Andrew Prchal, Kid, You'll Move Mountains, El Oso, The Meteah Strike, Fable and the World Flat, Into It Over It, Owen, Get Up Kids, Joe Pug, Mumford and Sons, Kelsey Wild, Republic of Wolves, Suns, Big Science, Andrew Bird, Bon Iver, Frightened Rabbit, Pedro the Lion, David Bazan, The Kinks, Imogen Heap, AA Bondy, American Analog Set, The Arcade Fire, Beirut, Zach Pietrini and the Broken Bones, Death Cab For Cutie, Benton Falls, Billie Holiday, Sufjan Stevens, Anathallo, Cat Power, The Casket Lottery, Small Brown Bike, Dr. Manhattan, Denali, Engine Down, Elliot, I'm Not a Pilot, Etta James, Jawbreaker, Jolie Holland, Onelinedrawing, Kind of Like Spitting, Laura Gibson, Mason Jennings, Land of Talk, Mogwai, Mewithoutyou, The National, Mew, Page France, The Notwist, Radiohead, Portishead, Say Hi, St. Vincent, The Tallest Man on Earth, Sun Kil Moon, Thrice, twothirtyeight, American Football, Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right BA Start, Why?, Further Seems Forever and probably loads others I can't think of at the moment. Safe to say that if they were part of the emo scene in the late nineties or are part of the local indie scene now I've probably heard of them and/or have shared a bill with them. I love music. Did I say that already? I really, really love music.