Category Archives: General

I Hate Mornings

By | | ,
Leave a comment

I’m not a morning person. Or well, not early morning. I have to get up at 6.40 am every day for class, which I know it’s late for some of you, but it is early for me. My body likes to get up at 9am. And then I navigate the metro (subway, tube, underground) for 45 minutes to get to class. And here it’s what I hate:

  • People that don’t shower. Stinking of sweat at 7.30 am, in a closed space with no ventilation such as a metro is very very inconsiderate
  • People that stink of smoke and smoke in front of me. I’m a non-smoker, don’t blow your crap towards me, the city pollution is enough, thank-you-very-much
  • Smelling the parfume of a person that’s walking 10m in front of me. Parfume is for short distances. And by short I mean 20cm.
  • Speaking of parfumes, there are summer parfumes, winter parfumes, and night parfumes. In order of strenght and warmth. And when you wear a parfume always, you get used to it and don’t smell it any more. Don’t use more, dammit, it’s still the same strength for the rest of the world.
  • Your music. I don’t care what kind of music it is. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t care you’re getting deaf with your music so loud, that’s the least of my problems. I am not interested in your damn music, period.
  • You and your chatty friends. Fine if you’re a morning person, I don’t need to hear your conversation from the other side of the train.

And that’s a short list that comes to mind. I’m tired of getting sick to my stomach thanks to the lovely inhabitants of the city.

Project Finished!

By | | ,
2 Comments

It’s been a while in the works, because I postponed sanding and revarnishing for a long while. But it’s done.

Decorated Ikea Fira Decorated Ikea Fira

This is an Ikea Fira. I bought my first one some years ago, and back then, they came assembled. Now they come in flat packaging, and I sometimes wish they still had those nifty plastic nail holders, makes nailing in the right spot a lot easier. Other than that, the chest needed a sanding before the stenciling and two layers of varnish (with sanding in between layers). And it’s a lot smoother and a lot better now. It’s in the bedroom hiding odds and ends, jewelry, hairbands, makeup and other stuff.

I want a second one for my crafting items, but I’m thinking about a different technique.. Or maybe I’ll use some black and red lacquer to give it an asiatic look, with a nice golden design…. ah, the ideas keep flowing!

Five Layers Of Plaster Later…

By | |
Leave a comment

Apparently I still need to retouch some spots on the walls. Yeah, my back is so sore I’ve been waking up at around 3-4am these past two nights from the pain. After taking a painkiller to be able to sleep. Not a happy camper.

And back from the dentist, I have no wisdom any more. That was the last wisdom teeth being pulled today. Anaesthetics make me feel crappy too.

Kthnxbye.

Been Busy

By | |
Leave a comment

Yeah, I told you on the previous post. Trip to London, bathroom renovation, trip to Düsseldorf. So now I’m back and it’s time to play catch up. I’ll write an entry about the trip to London soon, meanwhile you can amuse yourself with pictures. The trip to Düsseldorf was to visit our friend Laura, her husband Christian and their daughter Lumi before they move to Finland. We had fun, and we relaxed some and didn’t take pictures because we really didn’t do much tourist stuff. If you want pics, you can check last year’s tho.

And if you want to know some about the bathroom, we also created a gallery to share our progress. First day we removed all the things from the bathroom, removed the paper and fixed the wall. Then tuesday we kept on fixing the wall because the plaster was completely fucked here and there, also masked all the stuff, and painted on some primer for the tiling and started painting the walls. Wednesday saw us tiling the shower plus the sink backsplash, and painting the rest of the colors. And thursday was spent retouching the paint and grouting all the tiling area. However we were short a handfull of grout and that will be finished today. On friday before leaving to Düsseldorf, we cleaned everything like crazies, and put some accesories and our closets back in.

And because a post without pictures seems boring to most people:

bathroom bathroom

Tag, I’m it!

By | | , , ,
4 Comments

Marr from Smelly Chick’s Online, a soapmakers’ resources website, tagged me for this six things about you me-me.

Da rulez:

  1. Link to the person who tagged you (see above).
  2. Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading).
  3. Write 6 random things about yourself (see below).
  4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them (This is only a game)
  5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
  6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up

Six Things About Me (that you couldn’t care less about)

  1. I’m a Scorpio, and it does show, sometimes, when I’m pissed.
  2. I love Linux. I loathe Windows.
  3. I’m dabbing in too many hobbies at the moment, but loving it.
  4. Paracetamol gives me trippy dreams.
  5. I lurve chocolate.
  6. I only started liking plush toys (teddies, stuffed animals and so) in my laaaate teens.

There, that’s it, Six random things about me, that you most likely don’t care about. Know me better? I doubt it :p

Da taggin’

Uhm, yes, I’m supposed to tag six people who haven’t done this lately. Lets see…Smartash, CJ, Zanne, Asa, KnittingKitty and Purlpower.

And for those who are wondering, I’m not dead or falleth off the internet, I’m just very busy. Last weekend (8th-10th August) we were on a city break to London. This week (11th-14th August), we’ll be renovating the bathroom. First stage done (everything removed and ready to tile and paint), more to come. And next weekend (15th-17th August) we’re on another city trip, this time to Düsseldorf. We have booked a weekend special at Relexa Rattingen City (10 minutes away from Düsseldorf), with a candle-light dinner, use of spa, breakfast buffet, and more things for a nice price. So yeah, I’m not much online at the moment. More about the London and Düsseldorf trips when I have time to write all the stuff down!

On knitting news, I “joined” the Ravelympics (Ravelry inside link, if you want to read you have to be a member. I joined cause they made me join). I’m knitting the Anastasia Socks, in Opal Neon 1934.

Samosas and Green Curry

By | |
Leave a comment

Friday night I set out to discharge my mother in law from cooking yet another meal for the family, since she’s doing so a lot more than when she’s working. I looked through my recipe books, and the recipes that kept calling me were Potato – Greenpeas Samosas, and Green Thai Curry, both from Vegan with a Vengeance.

Revised both recipes, hoped I could find everything, and did my shopping list. I did find everything, but I did substitute a couple of things. For instance, the Samosas call for green soy beans, not green peas. And that’s the one thing that I knew I wouldn’t find, however the recipe says green peas are a perfect substitute and actually make the samosas a bit more authentic. So green peas it was. Of course, the can of peas was too big, so the leftovers were added to the curry. We all know nearly everything goes well with curry. I also halved the recipe for the samosas, cause we’re only four for eating. I also used lime juice instead of lemon – I had to buy limes for the curry and the coconut mint chutney I served with the samosas.

The curry had little mods. Since the choice of hot peppers is very limited, I used four of what looks like Thai hot peppers, but I am not sure, because they’re not labeled as any special pepper. And used no jalapeños. I also used preserved lemongrass instead of fresh because I am lazy and it was cheaper. And black pepper instead of white cause I wasn’t going to buy a jar for 5 pepper corns. I added the leftovers peas from the samosas to the curry (hey, they’re green, so it matches!), and also added some 125grams (dried) basmati rice, cooked. Love me some rice to soak all the curry.

It was all served, and all devoured. I thought there’d be some leftovers, but apparently every body was starving on friday night. Also, I spend about 3 hours in the kitchen in total, so it was a looooong cooking session. But so worth it.

Samosas and coconut mint chutney Samosas and coconut mint chutney

Oh, I made eight samosas total, I just took the picture after serving four so I could put the sauce in the middle.

Good Pics vs. Not So Good Pics

By | | ,
1 Comment

Living in Belgium, I’m stuck with not much natural light. Most days are over cast, or plain down pouring, and then if by any chance the sun shines without a cloud to hide it, most of that light doesn’t make it into the house. The brightest room is the bathroom (upstairs) followed closely by the hallway (upstairs), they’re the two places blessed with roof windows. The rest of the rooms have normal wall windows, and most of them are shadowed by a huge amount of ivy. That’s another thing, the never ending ivy trimming. If it was for me, I’d just tear it down, but at this point, it might be a point in the stability of certain walls where the ivy roots show inside.

To the case in point, we all know to get good pics, you need a pretty decent lighting (amongst other things, such as a decent camera, doesn’t have to be exceptional, some artistic view, and perhaps a good item to take a pic of). The solution to take pics of most still life, food that won’t get cold cause it’s already cold, or won’t melt in the heat, yarn, toys, rubber stamps, and a long etcetera, is to make a light-box, or purchase one (if you’re in for the 50 euros or more). I searched the internet for a foldable light-box, cause I didn’t want to have it taking room, and found the expensive foldable light tents, or a DIY solution that called for foamcore cardboard, tape and vellum paper. Obviously I went for the DIY option. You of course need some lamps, but I make do with what I have at home that can be moved around.

Off I went to AVA, to get the foamcore and the vellum. Since I wanted to be able to take pics of things bigger than a moddle figure, I doubled the size. Some hard work later, I got my light box made up (although I left the “roof” unattached). I set up to find the perfect place to take pictures with the new toy, and found out that our mini dinning room table was ideal. It already has one light over it, so I only need to provide the side illumination. Wanna see my setup?

Light Box Light Box

First pic there, it’s taken with flash, so you see things clearly. The tiny camera in the mini tripod is my trusty Olympus :mju mini 5.0 mpixel. It’s so small it fits in my pocket, and I don’t mind carrying it in my purse more often than not. It also takes great pictures if you take the time to get to know all its quirks. Of course, I’d love to get a dSLR, but I can’t cough the dough for it at the moment (and probably not for a few years), so I make do with what I have. The Olympus, by the way, was a present from Jan.

You’ve already seen proof of what such a small camera and a light box can do, but in case you don’t remember, let’s post the picture again, ok?

Ball of yarn

Now, what I could do with even better tools!