about

[Last updated August 3, 2025]

I am Aimee, an indie artist and author, with a love of apex hobbies (hobbies that require you to acquire more hobbies). Below, find some of my history, current direction, and links to pages otherwise hidden on this website!

• Visit my reading page, for my favorite books to recommend!
• Visit my social page, for my identities across the web.
• Visit my tools page, for the awesome tools I use!
• Visit my favorites page, for the miscellaneous charities, people, and projects I love!

Future ☠✍︎⚘

for all is well, all will be well;
my will will will it so!
what comes, what goes— sweet time will tell;
where willing? well I go!

Present ☕︎⚖︎⛅︎

My "Year of the Witch" is under way, and I am delving into all sorts of psychology while I recover from the health traumas of the last year. Body and mind, I am in deep need of rebuilding trust in myself, as such trauma causes easy dissociation. I am re-anchoring myself with good pacing, food, and new hopes ♡

Past ⚒︎⚐⚕︎

I was raised in the rural rocky mountains of Colorado by hot air balloonists. I grew up reading, dancing, skiing, making art, and Working. I’ve done and been everything from balloon crew to cave guide, forest ranger to elementary school teacher, professional fairy princess to nematologist, water lab manager to cosplay woodworker.

I went to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, working as a resident assistant and soil lab scientist. My degree is in Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences, with concentration in Sustainable Food and Farming. I moved back to Colorado after graduation, where I started the Aimee Woodworks business, worked as a teacher, and managed a wastewater lab. I got married for the first time, bought my first home, and continued collecting jobs, as my single income had to cover everything. I have many fond memories hustling glitter as Aspen’s licensed street fairy princess.

After five years of adult life in my Rocky Mountain hometown, I traded rural for city and moved to Denver. My woodworking business continued there until the Summer of 2020, when The Unofficial Legend of Zelda Cookbook was finally published!

Around the same time, I found historical martial arts and picked up a longsword for the first time— now I perform my sword drills every morning!

Joining a local martial arts community helped me to recognize and escape an abusive ten year relationship. The divorce and isolation from friendships and community was harrowing, but the view from the other side, and the rest of my life, was worth the anguish. The three hundred hope-tempered poems borne of the experience are available in my book of poems, Merry Meet and Merry Part.

Amidst all of that, I suffered a quite egregious injury— I tore nearly everything in my knee. ACL, MCL, FCL, Meniscus— all badly torn or severed. IT band sprain, bone contusions. The surgery and recovery redefined my perception and scale of pain, but my broken lifestyle; the inability to be mobile and active in the ways I was used to, for years afterward, was quite depressing. I am still not fully recovered, but so thankful for the care and love of my cats and partner, who got me through it.

Over the last couple years (2023-2025), I have suffered from a slew of health emergencies, that I am still recovering from. I had a parotidectomy (a salivary gland tumor removed from behind my left ear), then appendicitis and surgery, then a spontaneous CSF Leak (incredibly rare, incredibly painful, took four bed-ridden months to diagnose and treat), followed by a spontaneous ectopic pregnancy, which resulted in miscarriage and an emergency surgery— praise be to Colorado’s health care, which allowed my doctors to act quickly to save my life. I’ve been diagnosed with hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, Dysautonomia, and POTS, with some autoimmune involvement. These diagnoses explain so much; my inability to even think in temperatures above 75 degrees is solved! I have retroactively forgiven myself much, and am trying to break the habit of negative self-talk “buck up!” “everyone else is fine!” “what’s wrong with you!”.

I’m catching my breath, trying to find a ‘baseline’. My ‘new normal’ is continuously reset. Thankfully, I am surrounded by trusted friends and family, and am working hard to re-cultivate that mind-body connection where feelings of safety grow.

My injuries, surgeries, and recoveries over the last few years have taught me to be more aware and proactive regarding my health and fitness; to follow up and follow through even when doctors do not, and to listen carefully to my body. I am disabled! Yet, I am still able in many ways; focus on management, physical therapy, diet, and mental health do so much for my condition.

Speaking of mental mysteries! I am neurodivergent, with ADHD, OCD, and Dyslexia. Dyslexia is poorly understood, and does not always manifest as a reading issue; I had no problems learning to read, but still use a different ‘reading circuit’. I think in pictures! May I recommend “Proust and the Squid”, all about how we’ve hacked our brains into reading; something we never evolved to do. New self-understanding helps motivate my present self, while extending grace and forgiveness to my past selves and their struggles.

All of these breakthroughs and transformations come with their own social changes; I am still learning so much about friendship, what good friends feel like, and what honest connection can be. It is a common refrain amongst folks who are disabled by their health; if you step down, people step back. You’ll lose a lot of ‘friends’, and must let them go.

I found I was surrounded by un-reciprocating friends; I was always the inviter, the host, the planner— and when I had to step back, I was met with blame and abuse. I think it is easy for over-givers to get bit in the long run; when friends get used to giving 10% to your 90%, later when you have to seek balance and boundaries, when failing health means you cannot meet their previously set expectations, their entitlement to your time and help is revealed. It is heartbreaking, when you have given friends the benefit of the doubt for years, and when it comes down to it, they will not afford you the same. As soon as I recognized the signs; lying, throwing me under the bus, then love-bombing in a vicious cycle— I knew it was time to go.

In the future, I hope to build sustainable, reciprocal friendships; not ones that are reliant on my over giving. But; now that I am through, I can recognize how much easier my life is without the constant anxiety. It reflects my experience with divorce in 2020.

With everything, my heath and the world state at large (it’s currently May, 2025), I have stepped back from the Bicolline LARP, and ceded leadership of the Magpies Guild; I wish them all the best of luck and happiness! I do not anticipate my return, but will forever cherish the memories, mischief, and incredible friends I forged up there in the Canadian wilderness. Thank you!!!

My Works have been delayed; but I am getting back into the rhythms of self employment, publishing, print runs, with hope that my 2nd Cookbook will be in backers hands before the end of this year (2025). That said, good pacing and a focus on my health recovery is paramount to everything else! I am doing my best :')