catladyriot

bees.

March 26, 2019 by catladyriot, posted in plants

I am full of bee facts.
Full of them.
But more importantly, I am full of excitement and happiness when I get to see bees. Lil fluffy bumblers just having the time of their life. Bumblers bring me joy.

This weekend I took a beekeeping class, it was amazing. To think about how it might be a part of my life when we have the space is such a treat. I learned so much about bees, I met an 8 year old beekeeper (his mother was devastated that he applied, and won, 2 free nucs) who was more knowledgeable about bees than some of the grown ass dudes with bees already. The teacher was only two years older than me, and had -so- much love and experience with bees to share, it was really inspiring.

Maybe before we get honey bees, I’ll buy a box of bumblers and just love them as much as I can.

Yesterday was a bad brain day. Maybe it has a bit to do with how I had to keep my shit together all weekend to learn about bees. Or maybe that I didn’t have any medication until 4pm. Or maybe it’s because I tried to set a boundary that another person didn’t appreciate. But it was a bad day.
It’s insane how those days hit you, like physically hit you.
But it’s also great to have people who can pull you out of that sludge.

In between the badness of yesterday, I tidied up the house a bit. Repotted some plants. I made myself a plant sanctuary. It’s my little place to reflect.

Anyways, this week is going to be about catching up on stuff. Doing some tasks that need to be done, doing some sewing for a friend (making some beeswax snack baggies!), and I’ll be taking a vermaculture / worm workshop tomorrow night. Exciting times.

Except I’ve got the CatLord’s man cold, so…that’s a bummer.
Hope you’re well.

get out of my swamp

March 22, 2019 by catladyriot, posted in crafting, low waste, Thrifting

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

recapsss

March 18, 2019 by catladyriot, posted in Uncategorized

So last week was really up and down with productivity and life. On Monday I marathoned a bunch of documentaries about permaculture, homesteading, and canning. Because that’s a normal thing to do. I am crocheting a baby blanket for my co-worker’s shower this Saturday, and didn’t want to just waste time, I wanted to learn a bunch of stuff. And learn I did. I also learned that it’s really important to LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHO WRITE PATTERNS. If the crochet lady says you need a size 4mm hook, don’t assume you can use a 5mm and get the same results.
On Wednesday, I had my sewing moment, which like…exploded. Becausse on Thursday and Friday, I spent the entire day cutting and sewing lace and made a bunch more bags. Managed to sell a couple, so you know, that’s really helping my brain feel more productive (and assisting in my thrift store addiction, tyvm).
CatLord won his bid on an Occulus Virtual Reality headset. It’s pretty neat, but it only runs on my computer, which means my tower is currently sitting in the living room downstairs. I am eyeing up a VR boxing game to maybe help me get some more exercise. Just waiting for JustDance vr. Get my wiggle on.
Over the weekend CatLord and I did a bunch. We did an escape room for a friends birthday (got out with an extra 12 minutes, only used 2/4 hints). We went to their place afterwards and I tormented/brushed their fuzzy cat Tasha for a million hours. On Sunday we did a lot of running around, went to Costco, which is always a horrific experience, and then finished off our grocery shopping at our local market. After being sad about plastic for 9 years, we came home and did some cute crap. We bought a bunch of lean ground pork for Daisy from Costco ($12 for a tube the size of my calf muscle), so I threw it in the slow cooker for 8 hours. While that did it’s thing, CatLord would only let me buy the neglected fruit on the 30% off shelf if I promised we would make it that night, so we bought a bag of slightly bruised, but perfectly fine apples, and we made apple sauce! In our smaller slow cooker, a 3lbs bag of granny smiths, half a cup of water, half a cup of sugar, and a few shakes of cinnamon for 4 hours. Apples were whiskable into perfect sauce. I canned them using the upside down method (neat!) and now we have 4 jars of applesauce for the next couple months. (CatLord says he’ll eat them all right away, but whatever). Maybe I’ll sneak the applesauce cookie recipe from my mom.

After that, I watched most of season 3 of Queer Eye and cried while I cut out more bags.
NEAT. How was your week?

The magic of a zig-zag

March 13, 2019March 13, 2019 by catladyriot, posted in crafting, low waste, Thrifting

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 .

The sun is out. THE SUN IS OUT.

March 11, 2019 by catladyriot, posted in doodles, mental health

This past week has been an experience.
It was quite a busy week, with appointments and friendships and doin’ stuff.
On Friday it snowed again, and everything was icy and sad. I went for a trip to Ikea with some friends and found some more produce bags. (They’re fun market bags, a bit pricey, but will help me draft my own when I finally decide to crochet again). Catlord and I went over to our friend Tyler’s for a bit and played with/were attacked by his cat Winnie. We convinced him to play The Witness and now his life is being consumed by that.

Side note: If you have not played the Witness, play it. If you have a playstation and ps+, it is currently the game of the month, and you should try it out! It’s available on most gaming platforms. It’s an amazing game. I wish I could erase my brain and play it again.

Watching Tyler play the Witness while I learn and journal about gardening.

On Saturday I went over to the library and took out some new books. (worms at work by Crystal Stevens, All you need is less by Madeleine Somerville, Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture, and Grow your food for free (well, almost) by Dave Hamilton). So far I’ve read Worms at work and am really excited about getting our worm farm up and running this spring, and I’m about half way through Grow your food for free which I am absolutely in love with. It might be a book I try to purchase. I’m using my BuJo to take notes about what I’m learning so I can reference it when it comes time to start planting.

I retain information better if it looks like an image rather than a bunch of words. Therefore my BuJo is only useful for me, typically.

I also signed up for a beekeeping class! It’s a two day course accredited by the city. Which means I can start my own apiary someday if I decide to / have space. I’m extremely excited about it, I fucking love bees. Lil bumbler bees are basically just miniature cats with wings. So, stay tuned for a whole bunch of blogs about bees.

Sunday we had a birthday brunch (dude, can I celebrate every birthday with waffles? Cause fuck yes.) and scheduled a camping trip in June. (Yes yes, while also being aware that we’re going to do our best to be there for the Father’s Day Fishing Derby, mom.) June is starting to look like every weekend is busy now.
We cleaned our house a bit, and I discovered that the corn I planted last week is going bananas. I’ll have to replant them today.

And now it’s Monday.
I’ve been feeling okay, I suppose. I’ve been getting these whole body emotion feels, and they suck, a lot. Like if you’re standing on a high dive and your whole body is screaming “hey bud, don’t do the thing”, only instead of fear I’m sad, or angry. If I could feel that way about like…cleaning or organizing, or anything, that would be greatttt.

Anyways, I hope your week is good. It’s suppose to be in the positives all week, which means the snow should be melting away! I’m excited! I planned out how my garden will look this year, and can’t wait to start growing a bunch of goodies.

Do you garden? What kind of plants do you like? What’s your favorite type?
(I love my mom’s lavender plants, so many bees!) I think we’re growing a bunch of potatoes this year, and apparently lots of corn.

This post is long. Farewell.

finding words

March 6, 2019 by catladyriot, posted in Uncategorized

It’s been a weird couple of days.
I’m fully transitioned on to new medication. I attempted to write a blog post a few days ago and discovered that “I had lost my words again” which broke my heart and sent me into a sadness spiral. I’m still a bit weird about it and am struggling to find the right words to explain things, but I’m determined to over come it.

I turned 31 on Sunday and celebrated by eating a lot of pizza with a couple friends. I’ve also been playing a lot of Stardew Valley with the online fam, and yanno. It’s fun. Not a great way to be accomplished and like…be healthy, but I at least I’m interacting with people? It’s also making me pray that spring is actually on it’s way so I can start playing out in my own garden.

Daisy and I went on a walk last week, and then I visited the library. I picked up a few books, one on preserving fruits and veg, one called Thug Kitchen: Eat like you give a fuck and one about green beauty. I’m hoping to make it over there sometime this week to take out some books on vermaculture and maybe one on cross stitch (I’m currently on my 3rd cross stitch for mah homeskillet. I’ll post once I’ve delivered it.)

Yesterday was busy. I met with my new therapist, and then went over to a friend’s place to do some crafts. It was nice to be out of the house, but I’m definitely ready to recoup some of them spoons today. I think I might be getting allergies which means spring is on it’s way, right?

Yours sneezingly,