The dangers of cross stitching

So for the past couple of weeks I’ve been trying to keep myself busy with a bunch of stuff.
I attended a free vermicomposting workshop in my city, which was really informative! They provided materials to build our own vermicompost, so – welcome Wormsteros to the catladyriot family. I’m excited to for these little guys to start getting bigger! I’m looking into purchasing some more red wigglers, as the city provided about a handful of worm, and I think we’ll likely need more based on the amount of organic material we need to compost.

My next adventure is going to be figuring out what the heck I did wrong with our outdoor compost box. I probably need to add more dirt with some bugs in it or something.

I have this thing, where I learn something new and I do that thing until I’ve done it too much. Not obsessed, but like…excited? It happened when I learned a new crochet stitch and ended up screwing up my arm. This time, I have hurt my neck…from cross stitching. I’m the world’s oldest lady. But! I’ve made 4 patterns, and have started a new one! It’s just a really fun way to pass the time. But also, my neck. *sigh*
I guess I need to learn about moderation.

Recently finished my bee geometric cross stitch from SquidBerry on Etsy.

In other news, Doppler has been a bit under the weather. I found him all drooly one day (which has happened once a year for the last 3 years). We took him to our vet friend and discovered that one of his canine teeths…tooths…tooth… is loose and may very well have a bit of an infection.

Doppler loves Dr. Kaylee, but not being at the vets office.

It looks like we will need to take him in to have his tooth removed. But in the meantime, everyone is getting a lot of soft catfood (even Daisy) and extra treats.

Welp. This week is suppose to be really pretty outside. I think CatLord and I are hoping to get some work done on the deck, and potentially the front porch.
I’m going to go…not cross stitch.

ps – i’ll probably cross stitch.

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get out of my swamp

It has been so sunny this week. Like +15. Daisy and I have gone on so many good walks and out to the park. The vitamin D life is great, but the giant firey ball of sunshine really knocks me out.
Kinda funny, that I’ve been dreaming of longer days and the bliss that is literally anything other than -30, and now that it’s here I gotta take an old lady nap to celebrate.

I’m getting pretty excited about spring. I’ve joined r/wishlist on reddit, which is a group of weirdos that get real jazzed about sending presents to strangers on the internet. I randomly won two contests this week, and have 15,000 heirloom seeds and a heat mat coming in the mail. Which is bonkers. I’m thrilled to be able to help my seeds thrive, and not get all leggy and die 2 days after I replant them. I’m more so excited about starting all these veggies so I can share them with friends. (Although this means I’ll likely have to find some new friends to give all my zucchini to.)

Now I just need my backyard to stop being disgusting.

Also, wtf. Guys, I’m getting married in less than 7 months and my brain melts every time I think about it. I feel like there’s still so much to do, but I can’t think about what needs to be done.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~

Remember last week when I taught myself how to sew? I legit have made like 50 produce bags, and have sold almost half of that. Feels good to be contributing to the reusable life, yanno? I should…figure out how to set up an etsy or something.

thrifted lace and string/ribbon/etc produce bags

CatLord and …CatRoom-mate? are both getting sick. Hopefully I can stave off catching the illness for a few more days. I hope you guys are doing well.
xx

The magic of a zig-zag

So it’s not like you literally don’t already have 5 other projects right now (crochet CatLord’s christmas present, crocheting a baby blanket, cross stitch, planting seedlings for your garden, learning macrame, becoming the entirety of pinterest, etc) but like, let’s do a thing.

Remember when you were in 8th grade, and you sat beside your super crush (and other future ex-boyfriend) and you barely learned how to sew because you were so focused on how adorable crush boy was? But somehow you managed to sew a pair of boxer shorts that you wore until you were 27 and the crotch wore out? And you swore you would never sew again?
And then you made these bad boys and it was frustrating as fuck, but you like…relearned how to sew.

Currently all are lost in the wash somewhere, but they were useful while they lasted.

WELL HOT DIGGITY. You somehow accumulated a lot of lace fabric. Because being a hoarder is in your genes. So…you better do something with it. Here’s a (non) tutorial of how to make (cheap af) produce bags out of shit you snuck into your house.

First set up the sewing machine you borrowed 7 months ago from your sister-in-law and have only used once.

Then be un-showered and model all of the lace you’ve accumulated like a habit while drinking cold coffee.

Decide on sewing the red lace you scavenged out of the Reuse centre because you’re too lazy to change the bobbin in the sewing machine from black to white.

Literally don’t measure anything but somehow make two square type pieces of lace and then pin 3 sides together. Feel pretty damn good about yourself for not fucking up the basics.

Sew that bitch together. I used a zig-zag stitch cause this fabric is a bad boy that is barely held together on a good day (aren’t we all?). Remember the wisdom of your 7th grade sewing teacher who explained how to sew the top bit. Whatever it’s called. Do that.

Ponder why you never went into fashion. Sewing is barely hard. This is great. Curse 8th grade sewing class and sitting next to your super crush. Decide you are going to learn how to make a shirt next because fuck, sewing is easy. It’s fine.

Weave a free-cycled piece of elastic through the top bit so you can close your avocados in the bag. (You fucking millennial) ((Also LOL millennials are 30-40 years old now. Suck on them avocados)).

Be extremely thrilled that you didn’t fuck up something simple and call your fiance over facebook chat to model the bag you made out of free shit.

Now go shower. You stink. I can smell you from here.
Love,

P.s i still havent showered but i did make 5 more produce bags .

weekend recap for my mom

The last few days have been filled with humans, and while I recharge my spoons for today, I really enjoyed seeing people.
On Friday I met with a dear friend for coffee and we chatted about opportunities and mental health. There’s this handful of people that I have in my life, they always seem to pop in right when they’re needed most. It’s amazing when people you admire hold you up and love you right back.
I then spent a few hours just kind of existing in the city. I went to Lush and purchased a bunch of naked products: two facial oils, two primer oils, a massage brick that smells like cinnamon hearts, their solid armpit powder thingy, and some toothi-tabs samples (thus far, the verdict is LOL OF COURSE OIL MAKES YOUR SKIN ANGRY, and toothi-tabs taste like Satan, but I’ll keep trying.)
After that I went to Goodwill because I just wanted to do something. I ended up coming home with an organizey thing for my pans, some rope to fix our cat scratcher, a white plant pot, and a bunch of cross-stitch floss.

$7 for all this floss. The case was from my DnD DM ❤

On Saturday, I had a DnD session with the P-BAGs (Port Brackish Adventuring Guild), snina (my big owl boy) kept getting wrecked. I’m a great liability.
I then came home, organized all my embroidery thread, and started teaching myself how to cross-stitch while we marathoned a half a season of The Expanse.

Plexiglass over a TV makes for a super handy DnD map.

Sunday was a lot. My …Cheech (SIL) moved into her own place, so we were helping her. I think I’m coming down with something and am trying real hard not to. We got home around dinner time, and finished The Expanse (3 seasons all on Amazon Prime, my dudes). My guts were extremely sad, so I ended up staying up til 3am finishing up my cross-stitch and marathoning old seasons of Roseanne.

Not 100% accurate, but I love it. Link to pattern on image. By MariBoriEmbroidery.

I’m probably going to nap soon, espresso isn’t strong enough to keep me awake.

crafts & spaceships

It was a long weekend for CatLord and I, for Family Day. I miss my family back home in BC, but enjoyed spending Family Day with my little created family of misfits.
I’m on this new medication and it’s working really well, I have a lot more energy and am extremely motivated. I have 3 business ideas that are brewing around in my brain, words for blogs that have been stewing, and am crafting like it’s going out of style.

One of the things I did this weekend was re-teach myself to use a sewing machine. I was determined to make myself some reusable cotton rounds for my toner. It took me a good 2 hours to relearn how to set up the sewing machine and figure out why it kept jamming, and another 45 minutes to cut out circles of t-shirts (left over from my t-shirt rugs and dog toys!) and a thrifted receiving blanket. Some of the pads are pretty janked up, but I got the hang of it eventually! A coworker said they looked like nursing pads, and I mean, I guess you could use them for that…lol.

I also got a hankering to make some more beeswax wraps for my bestie. I had this super cute fabric that I wanted to use, but I think it’s too thin. So I ended up using this fabric. I need to find some pinking sheers I think, but once I’ve trimmed some of the sides a bit, I’ll be mailing these over to her.

I also crocheted a bit more of CatLord’s Christmas present. I started this blanket in November, and have been working on it since. I have to take breaks, otherwise my hands and arms get all crampy and gross. I am trying to keep the pet hair from being weaved into the blanket itself but crocheting out of a plastic tub, but as you can see, it’s not working very well. I also need to go to Michael’s to get more yarn. I’ll post a full picture of this blanket once it’s completed. 🙂

Finally, I became a plant-grand-parent this weekend! My giant aloe vera plant Muyo II (after the anime Tenchi Muyo, that I never watched, but that hair tho) had a little baby aloe plant that needed to be repotted. What do you think we should name the little baby?
I also am trying to propagate some new snake plants. Plantsplantsplantsplants.

Long post is long. Other than craftin’ and plantin’, I haven’t been up to much. CatLord and I rewatched season 1 of The Expanse, I’m stoked to start season 2 this week. I think I’ll likely be decluttering and doing some more repurposing, if you’re into those kind of posts.
Have a great week my friends. ❤