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. ❤

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not perfect

CatLord and I went to the Farmer’s Market, on my quest for a low waste grocery shop adventure. I left the Farmer’s Market so incredibly disheartened. “Chris, there is *so* much plastic. Why are these carrots in bags?! Why would any one bother to bring their reusable produce bags to the market if everything comes pre-packaged?” We left with some leeks, some maple syrup, some broth bones for Daisy, and a real strong sense of responsibility.
Every day I get closer to opening a low waste wet/dry bulk store. It’s going to happen, I can’t keep bringing all this plastic into my house.

But I did. I brought more of it in, because there just wasn’t anyway around it during our grocery adventure.
So I started making EcoBricks. What’s an EcoBrick, Phaidra? Well, kindhearted reader, lemme tell you. EcoBricks in it’s most basic form, is a plastic bottle stuffed with more plastic. Neat right?
…
No it totally is. So on a surface level, maybe not so neat. Just garbage stuffed with garbage. But, think about plastic. Plastic will take centuries to fully breakdown. The Earth is completely plastered with it, it’s going to be around forever, and we have all this single use crap just floating around.
If we can remove the plastic from our environment, and purposefully compact it into these bricks, we have a building material that we can create cool things with, AND keep plastic waste from taking over the universe. AND it’s like…entirely reusable as more bricks if the project is demolished. (The website explains it better)
Folks across the globe have been making EcoBricks as a way to take responsibility of their plastic usage, and I think it’s really cool. Communities have come together to build houses, benches, art, walls, etc with these bricks.
But what if I don’t want to build anything with these stupid plastic bricks?
Hey that’s okay! Lots of areas have EcoBrick drop sites. Except my area. Come on Edmonton, what could we build?

ANYWAYS, I almost have completely stuffed one 710ml gingerale bottle with plastic. Plastic that I have been putting in a different can for the last 4 weeks so gauge my plastic usage. I’m not like..thrilled about the amount of plastic, but knowing that there’s this transition phase, I’m like…okay with it. The next bottle will take much longer to fill up! I’m not perfect, I’m just trying to do better each day. That’s all we can ask. 🙂

my take on the low waste “trend”

I’ve been reading/listening to some responses to the low/no waste movement becoming trendy, here’s my piece.

I’m glad. I’m glad that people are able to finally look at the waste they are creating and /make an effort/ to do something about it. If that means they’re “No Straw” campaigners and KeepCup users, I’m fucking thrilled. Every straw that’s refused, every coffee cup retained, every shopping bag not purchased, keeps it out of the landfill.

I’m a firm believer in babysteps, god knows I started nose dive into low waste living by guilt purchasing a reusable bag, and maybe that’s all it takes. Maybe it’s being confronted by the amount of straws one uses, or the amount of clothes in their closet. Maybe it doesn’t take an entire garbage audit for someone to start to make better choices.

What makes me uncomfortable about the “trendiness” is the gate keeping that leads to consumerism. I don’t think there is any “one way” to reduce your waste. I think there’s a lot to be said about plastic, it’s done some great shit. Straws are amazing for folks who might have not have full mobility. Plastic bottles are accessible to folks on a low income. If I didn’t have my CatLord here with me, you bet your ass I’d be using disposable plates when I managed to muster enough energy to eat (although I hope I’d go for something like palm leaf plates or something).

I think there are folks who forget the places of privilege that they come from. Sure, some folks on a low income, or with disabilities or illness are able to make changes to reduce their impact and I’m so fucking happy for them, but there are a lot of people who don’t have choice or the ability to make those changes.
I have privilege, I have support, and financial ability to go out of my way to try to make better choices for me and my family. And I am making the effort to make those changes because I can. I am putting the effort into upcycling, making due, and refusing, because it is something I believe in. I’m purchasing things that I think will help me and my family reduce our carbon footprint in the long run because it’s what makes sense to me.

I think that each person who joins the low/no waste movement will have to decide for themselves how it fits into their lives. If it’s just a fucking straw or reusable bag, I’ll take it. It might not be perfect, branded, or instagram worthy, but it will be their step towards a smaller carbon footprint and really, that’s all I fucking care about.

snippets

Catlord was on a quick two day business trip this week, he got back last night at 11:30. I spent a majority of my day yesterday making a rug out of t-shirt yarn, and some dog toys out of the hems of those t-shirts. Go go gadget low waste.

I also finished listening to The Year of Less by Cait Flanders, Catlord and I are interested in doing an experiment of no purchasing, but it’s not a good year for that, with our wedding going on. Maybe we could do a no purchasing except for wedding stuff month? I also started The Expanse series. And watched 6 episodes of Nightflyers. I love me some science fiction. It doesn’t sound too productive, and it wasn’t. I was in a weird funk all day yesterday, but I enjoyed getting lost for a little while.

We just got back from a non-v-day v-day dinner at our favorite ramen place in Edmonton. We’ve been going there for 5 years, we have a waiter, he knows us by name and order. Catlord and I are not -romantic- types. We talked about composting and beekeeping workshops, and about day to day stuff. We like it that way. We bought some shoes for Catlord for our wedding and came home. I was given the cutest bee sweatshirt. We do “365 Days of Valentines”, we have one card that is hidden from the other person, the hider writes a cute note in it with the date, and the other person gets clues as to where it is. Catlord has been stuck on his for 4 months now. The last time he didn’t find it, the cat just lifted the thing it was under. I like this tradition better, just knowing that there’s kindness and love tucked away in my house somewhere is helpful.

What are some of the different things or traditions you do with your sweetie? (partner, grandchild, roommate, puppy, codependent bff?)