msashtree

Hello all! I am a former avian field biologist turned office manager passionate about adventure and all things crafty. I have worked on research projects in Arizona, Colorado, and Oklahoma. Currently I am in Colorado and love to hike all over the country and beyond and use geocaching as a fun way to get me outside in places I wouldn't have gone to otherwise! I have currently done 7 of our 14ers and hope to do more. When I'm not at work, I'm usually out adventuring and exploring someplace new or reading and journaling.

I like to do or try everything at least once, which has led to some pretty strange experiences, but the world is so big that it seems like a shame not to know as much about it as you can!

I once drove a gondola on our Pueblo Riverwalk, and have also been a singing nun with my best friend at the Colorado Renaissance Festival. I looked at ecotoxicology in passerines along the Fountain Creek watershed, and tracked quail through a surprising amount of hills in the Oklahoma panhandle. I've reached the highest points in 6 U.S. states (as of 9.15.19) including Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. I've been to the San Diego Zoo and the Tampa Aquarium. I've volunteered at an equine horse rescue, a library run bookstore, and the local zoo. I've been a dance extra in indie music videos, performed in several musicals with local theatre companies including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Cabaret, Once Upon a Mattress, Copacabana, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Guys and Dolls. I have been a backstage manager, assistant director, and spotlight operator. Currently I am working on different art techniques that I am using to create my first ATCs which I am very excited about, and the construction of historical garments (I've already got a pair of 1940s tap pants, my 17th century shift, a Regency dress I made out of a sheet, and a half-finished pair of 1890's combinations!).

If you have any ideas on new things that I can try, I'd be excited to learn about them!

Scrapbooking, sewing, knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, embroidery, watercolor painting, bullet journaling, drawing, and doodling.

The Scarlet Pimpernel, Dracula, Anne of Green Gables, The Truth-Teller's Tale, Harry Potter, Daddy Long Legs, Austenland, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Woman in White, Ready Player One, Digital Fortress, anything written before 1900

I currently describe my aesthetic as a vintage Ravenclaw librarian adventuress. Fashion history before 1960 is fascinating to me. Somehow, 80% of my wardrobe has become blue and grey and I love it. Suspenders, below-the-knee skirts, historical corsetry, waistcoats, jodhpurs, petticoats. But everything also needs to be functional, as you never know when you are going to be called away on an adventure and will need a sturdy shirt and pair of pants.

Likes: all washi tape or stickers, Art Nouveau, the Victorian and Edwardian eras, beautiful handwriting, collages, literature or library related material, history related items, vintage items, and I guess I'm going to start collecting postcards now :D

Dislikes (unless of course the swap is asking for these items): Most modern art, religion related material, politics related material, cartoonish items, gore, drug related references, bright pink.

Owls, blue jays, bluebirds, praying mantis, octopus, sloths, emus