Colin 🏳️⚧️
@transplantman
He/Him // AuDHD // Cat Rescue // Plants // Amateur Photographer
I finally got confident enough with my sewing machine to make coasters out of the antique yukata I thrifted months ago.
My cats are used to having the windows open during the day and are bemoaning the fact that I have to keep the house shut tight to stay cool. So, I’m trying to bring some of the outdoors to them. Spider plants and rosemary are non-toxic, and I’ve added rocks to (hopefully) prevent them digging.
My first ever shirt from a repurposed yukata is 90% finished! (Just gotta add buttons, which will involve learning to use the button foot on my sewing machine.) I didn’t have a pattern, just dimensions from a sewing book, so the collar is too big. Otherwise it fits well!
It took a few hours to make and about ¥300 worth of hot glue sticks, but the cardboard was free from the grocery store and it’s super sturdy. I’ve always wanted to get one like this but couldn’t justify paying ¥2000 for it. This was fun and much cheaper.
Small children: Teacher, I want a snack! Teacher, I made a mess! Teacher, I have to go to the bathroom! Teacher, I drew a flower! Teacher! Teacher! Cats: Dad, I want a snack! Dad, I pooped in the litter box! Dad, I barfed a hairball! Dad, I saw a bird! Dad! Dad!
Cardboard boxes at the grocery store are free. This was 3 hours of cutting, gluing, and re-re-re-adjusting for size and sturdiness, but my cats already love it.
I am a n00b in terms of coding and app/web design but what is this. Tell me why a billion dollar company launched a software update with this design on its own web browser menu. Why are there shaded buttons with a border radius in a shaded container with a different border radius??
He’s feeling a lot better. ❤️ He ate lunch (and his kitty painkiller/anti-inflammatory pill) and actually curled up for cuddles. I can’t stress enough that Kit usually purrs at the drop of a hat, so when he didn’t purr at ALL yesterday, I knew something was very wrong.
I knew this blue yukata from the flea market would look amazing as a curtain. It’s not as wide as I’d like but if I’d had to figure out how to do that, I’d never have gotten started. And I’m glad the white thread looks so good on it.
Have grocery store prices ever pissed you off so much you began saving and drying seeds from grocery store vegetables until you could bypass capitalism entirely?
Finished! This used to be a wool and cashmere sweater from the thrift store. Now it’s a long, soft, uber warm scarf!
The woman fostering my spicy kitten from last March (pictured here in May) just sent me a video of her lightly petting the cat’s back and the cat briefly acknowledging it without freaking out. ❤️ THIS IS HUGE.
Seizing the means of production by using fabric from old clothes and stuffing from toys the cats previously destroyed to make new cloth toys for the cats for Christmas. ❤️
Hat #2! The ends roll inward because of the elastic in the yarn, so I flipped the hat inside out to make it look intentionally slouchy. It’s 100% acrylic yarn from a thrift store sweater. I want to make a matching scarf; I have a lot of yarn left.
Best thing I ever did for myself was looking for restaurant supply thrift stores. The secondhand stuff there is way more durable and less over-designed to make it grab a consumer’s attention. These IKEA jars were ¥550 each and hold a week’s worth of homemade yogurt.
Okay so it turns out that buying a secondhand, industrial-kitchen-sized pot lets me boil a ton of vegetables but then the rest of my kitchen doesn’t have the supplies to store and puree it all into soup, so this took FIVE HOURS. 🫠
I can never guess what Pexels will choose to spotlight (little star in the upper left corner), and I think that says a lot about how subjective art is. They’re all free for download and personal or commercial use. www.pexels.com/@c-m-3363041...
I forgot my pepper plants outside so they’re mad but still growing healthy bell peppers. I dried the seeds from grocery store peppers, sprouted them in plastic bags, & planted them in ¥100 trash bins I drilled holes in. If I get just two edible peppers, they’ll have paid for themselves.
A coworker (not the sick one) gave me some little bell peppers from her husband’s 畑 (kitchen garden) and they’re half the size of grocery store ones but Y’ALL the flavor is incredible. Usually I’m not a fan of strong bell pepper flavor (I add them for vitamin C) but these are GOOD.
According to YouTube videos I’ve watched on knitting, this finished yarn off the yarn winder is called a “cake.” I going to be making a lot of cake this winter. 😂
Best ¥2000 gift to myself ever. ❤️ This is a yarn winder, which does exactly what you’d think. This is faster and neater than I could ever do by hand! New yarn is expensive but thrift sweaters are cheap. I’m literally getting a sweater’s worth of cotton-blend yarn for ¥300.
