Pull yourself together, they’re just curtains.

In which I dive, possibly too deeply, into the world of drapery.

When I moved into my condo 11 years ago (I can't believe it’s been that long!), there were ugly, half-detached track rods across the windows, which I promptly removed.

Let me paint the picture: I have a West-facing unit (never the sunrise, but always the sunset, which I’m fine with), with one of those L-shaped living/dining rooms. As I’m on the top floor, I have extra-high structural ceilings (121.5" to be precise), but with dropped-ceiling tiles that bring it down to 93" (and no, I can’t remove the dropped ceilings as they cover lots of wiring and piping coming from the roof — that’s the drawback to ‘penthouse living’), which means I can’t really hang things heavier than paper from the ceiling unless I want to put a hole in a tile and hang an extra long pole/hook contraption from the concrete 28.5" farther up.

The windows along the wall go from the dropped ceiling to a windowsill a third of the way up the wall, and they span more than half of the width of wall. They’re broken into six separate panes, with three larger, almost square, panes above three smaller, rectangular, panes (the centre of which opens). All told (including framing), it’s over 472ft of light coming in — and that’s DIRECT sunlight from about 1pm until sundown, as there are no significant obstructions to the horizon for almost 5.5 kilometers (that’s over 3.3 miles*).

Love it: TaoTronics Humidifier

The heating element on my old humidifier failed last week so I bought a new one! Meet my new baby from TaoTronics:

Lockdown plumbing achievement unlocked!

I've lived in my condo for over 10 years. I had big plans to do so much before moving in, but besides having the balcony enclosure replaced I have not got around to any of it. (A raging case of executive dysfunction doesn't help!)

I'm not young, I live alone, and I have had no previous experience with plumbing or building, but I like to be as independent as possible. As my Dad's only daughter, he's always surprised by my wish to do this stuff myself and that I have my own actual tools.

Now, being here all the time, I'm finding I'm finally more inclined to make this place liveable. I've started with the smallest room, the bathroom.

Since mid-March, I have repaired a leaky toilet tank, installed a bidet attachment, swapped out the shower handles, and fixed a broken flush chain. And now...

Sad return

Finally home from vacation.

Opened my door to the disaster area I left from whirlwind packing, plus the furniture all still pulled out from the walls from when the roof leaked and the ceiling fell in mid-August, plus all the buckets and towels I'd left in case it all happened again in my absence (where it's all been for over two more months while the building management apparently fixes the roof), plus the stained ceiling tiles that have not yet been replaced, plus all the kitchen cupboard contents still stacked on the floor in the dining room from the inspection access from the week before vacation, plus another notice that my unit would need to be accessed YET AGAIN - tomorrow - for phone line upgrades throughout the building... and just started to cry.

How is it possible to have spent such a glorious 11 days and come back to this?

What an excellent/dramatic weekend!

Clothes Horse
by Wastedpapiers

It began with a closet-dive — yes, I’ve decided it’s time to do a purge. I know it’s been time for a purge for a long time, but it I am both a packrat and a clotheshorse, and the two together? Well, dangerous combination. So that means I need a good solid chunk of uninterrupted time. Pulled clothes out and did laundry for two or three hours actually, pretty good. Went to bed well-rested.

Toes need to be bright!

So after bashing my toe so hard on Friday night, I thought I should freshen up my polish!

Long weekend merriment!

Happy Day-After-Canada Day everyone! Did you all have a great weekend? I did!

Looking back on 2011

Happy new year everyone! I hope you all had a great night last night. I know I did — they say the way you spend your New Year’s Eve is the way you’ll spend your year, and if that’s true I think I’m going to have an awesome one, surrounded by good food, yummy drinks, great friends (new and old) and glittery nail polish *grin*

So let’s see, what kind of a year was 2011... 

This is me, sharing way too much (a catch-up post)

So it's been a little while since I posted about anything that wasn't about my favourite music. About three months actually. (Not that the music posts haven't been interesting, but they've sidetracked me a bit.) Here's a little rundown of what's been going on.

Hotness, the Dentist and Rugsucker Kolodny

Been pretty busy lately - darts is done for the season (I wasn't fabulous, but I held my own), T and I are caught up watching modern Dr Who (new series premieres at Easter, are you ready?), and the weather's been too beautiful to ignore!

Today is a good day

I’m having a pretty good day today. I’m not quite sure what it is, but I’m feeling positive about things and I’m much bubblier around the office than I have been for weeks (seriously, I’ve been a complete bitch here lately, stressy stressy stress). Possible reasons:

Oh pointy dart, oh pointy pointy

I can’t believe it. I truly can’t believe it.

Tonight, ladies and gents, I won EVERY ONE of my dart games. And not just best of three, either - I won all three rounds in two games each.

What can it mean? Have I improved? Well yeah, I have to a degree. Let’s just put it down to that, shall we?

The List - an updated version

Wow, looks like the last time I updated the list was two years ago. Maybe I should revisit!

I’m gonna narrow it down to five I think, in no particular order:

What does it all mean?

I’ve just had my first dream set in my new place. And it was a weird one:

Random ramblings

Okay, so I know I’m lazy. I’m still digging out from under all the moving boxes, but I’m making slow progress every day so I’m not overly disappointed in myself.

Guilty, but with an explanation...

(yes, from Bananas)

Okay, I see it’s been, um, NINETEEN WEEKS since I posted! No way am I going to do a complete update. But I’ve had my reasons.

Xmas - the final stretch!

Tomorrow is December, and I can really feel it. Everything has become so busy this month I can hardly breathe!

Okay, let me just back up a bit.