Well, that was quite the intermission.

Can I blame it on the summer? I can't, can I. Well, damn.

I don't know why, but these past few months have been really lacking in creative outbursts or food-related revelations. I haven't been blogging, simply because there was nothing to blog about! I mean, I could of course tell you all about my latest fitness- and weightloss-related escapades but that's hardly fair since I am already blogging about that. More active than I am blogging over here, I'm afraid to say. I've also been rather busy with preparations first and actual work since the beginning of August for my new job! Yay! I'm a junior developer now, you guys! And I'm slightly nervous about it still because holy crap, talk about a steep learning curve, but it's exciting at the same time. It just left little time for any crafting...

I did get my green fingers out this summer though, even though I'm afraid I was ever so slightly late with the whole planting and potting and growing of my 'garden'.

I'm afraid I haven't fixed the paint job on my balcony yet, though. We thought they would fix that last year with the floors on all our balconies, but it turned out to not be included in the package deal so we need to do that ourselves. Still. And we might still, but for now, think of the rust as rustic, okay?
I bought a herb crate a few months ago and finally got round to setting it up and planting seeds a month and a half ago. There's 5 different types of herbs in there, but I'm afraid the basil and parsley have taken over completely. In the round grey pot, there's more herbs, where once again the basil and in this case the coriander have taken over the available space, leaving the chives to try and grow in what little space there was left. In the rectangular grey pot, I planted some lettuce and tomatoes. The tomatoes are growing like a weed! It's really cool to see. And finally in the two hanging pots, I've got more basil (I know, I foresee a lot of pesto in my future if all these plants are going to grow) and Moroccan mint.

After going aaaages without any crafting, I got the bug again last week and wanted to make... something, anything, really. I grabbed some yarn from my stash and got to work on, what else, a shawl, in the same pattern as the chevron scarf I made for mother's day this year, only in a thicker yarn. It's a combination of linen, cotton and bamboo, so it's weird, to say the least, and I have no idea what I am going to do with it once it's done.  I'm already working on ball number 3 in this photo, though, so it might not even make it to full-blown shawl. If not, I'll turn it into a cowl, I guess, but it's nice to make something again.

And in the spirit of my other blog, I also crafted something useful! I like to bring my MP3-player along to the gym, especially when it's slightly crowded (really, people, I don't mind talking to you when I'm not on a machine, but can't you see I'm busy right now?!), but with nowhere to stuff that thing other than down the front of my bra, it always got icky and sweaty and gross! Not only that, but I think it was actually affecting the device... So I stopped bringing it, and have had to endure tacky Eighties- and really bad contemporary music ever since. I mean, come on, those guys must have other playlists than the crap that's been playing lately, right? I had to work out to Rick Astley the other day! And the neverending mix of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Shakira gets really old, really fast too. So I made a little pouch for my MP3-player out of an old wash cloth. Roomy enough for MP3-player and headphones, with a drawstring, and if I want to I can even stuff my membership card and locker key in there. Plus, the washcloth is nice and absorbent, and I can just chuck it in the washer afterwards.

So there you go, that's basically what my summer has been about! Worry about work, work, worry about diet and health and fitness, actually doing the fitness and diet and health things, and little to no crafting! And crafting-wise, I can honestly say that I can't wait for Autumn.

Home Improvement, now with less painful comedy!

I'm sorry Tim Allen, but really, you were one of the most unfunny guys on tv in the Nineties. And I should know, I watched a hell of a lot of TV back then.

Anyway, home improvement time! I have several issues with our house that will need some serious addressing. Or have been in need of some serious addressing for some time already. I think it's time to put my shoulders under it and get some of that out of the way, and it's always fun to blog about this stuff, isn't it?

My biggest concern about my house is the lack of storage space in it. We have a small kitchen, with a small amount of available shelving space. There's odd corners and a weird layout that prevents us from getting more out of the space in the hallway. There were three built-in closets when we bought it, but we knocked the wall out between two of those to house our washer and dryer, leaving little space in closets to use for storage. There is still some spaces here and there that we could use for storage, but if I'm honest, I don't think I want to clog up what little space we have left with our stuff. We need to redo the storage spaces we have to provide us with the storage space we want. This is going to require some out-of-the-box thinking and tinkering, I expect, and I hope not too much in terms of expenses, but I am excited to get stuff going so we can make our house a better place to live in.

One of the spaces that has always bothered me, was the closet in our study. As you can see from the blurry picture below (sorry), it was a silly storage space. There was one shelf, to the top, and the rest of the closet was empty space. Not very efficient.

We had tried to build some shelving to the right of the door before for our printer and scanner and the toolbox, but they were not very accessible. The shelves were too close together for us to open the scanner on top of the printer easily, and there was no light, making actually seeing what you were doing a pain. The toolbox is a heavy beast, and heaving it in and out of the space was pretty tough.
The rest of the closet was occupied by an old server that the BF wanted to use for personal fidgeting, but the thing was enormous. The shelf you can see there, with the bottle and the Zyxel-box on top, is resting on top of the server. Just to give you an idea of its size. We had leftover crap like our old hoover, a yoga mat, my ironing board, and other bits and bobs hanging around there. This was actually taken after a thorough cleaning session, when I tossed out 6 plastic bags of crap and old shoeboxes and other nonsense. Within a week, there were backpacks, cardboard boxes and other nonsense stuffed inside on top of the piles you can now see here.

The plan was hatched to add shelving to this closet so we could make better use of the space, but it never really happened. You know how it goes. Then this Saturday, I went to an amusement park and came home to...

Surprise! Shelves!

The BF lured me into the study after I got home at midnight with an excuse ('there's something in the printer, could you get it for me?') and I think I was grinning from ear to ear when I found my new shelving. There's space in the bottom for a large crate where I can store soda bottles, empty or full, along with our old hoover and some cleaning supplies, three shelves where we've got space for crafting supplies, tools and toolboxes, and one that's still practically empty, and a new shelf where our printer now resides with enough space to open up the scanner without having to twist your neck to see if you're doing it right. There's space left to the right of the door between the wall and the shelves where my ironing board fits perfectly. I've got all sorts of plans to use this space even better, I'm going to move some stuff around and get some new boxes that fit between the shelves so I can move some more stuff around...

It's the beginning of something big, I tell you. Like the snowflake that started the avalanche.