IKEA

It’s April!

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I lost track of time a bit, and am also short on time right now. So short this will be, as well.

April first I went to see Zootopia with Gert. It’s a very good movie. Very well made, good story and a good message as well.

April 2nd, Ikea brought my shelves and Nienke’s dining set. I built mine, and Nienke’s parents picked up her set to deliver to Nienke’s house.

Then on Sunday I went to the farm where we had a work day to get material for our re-enactment camp back in good shape. We fixed existing benches and tables, and also built new ones. In the picture we’re working on the new kitchen workbench. It was a good day to spend outside, and we got a lot done.

The week after saw the voting for the Ukraine-referendum. I voted for the agreement, and am pretty bummed it didn’t pass.

Last Saturday I went to the Farm again, this time for Feije’s birthday. I got him books, as I like to do for small children. An informative book with huge pictures and fold out sheets about animals and a story book about a little kid on a farm with a goat. The kid as drawn looks quite like Feije.

Later this week we’re going to Ikea again. This time to pick up an extra dresser for my bed room. Plus there’s a movie plan for Friday and a Mom birthday this Sunday 🙂

Chairs ❤

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These first few days of my week off have gone rather fast. Did some more sorting of things around the house and such. Sunday it was Easter. So I had Easter brunch and later dinner at Nienke’s. Which was fun. And in between I wandered off to the parents to visit them.

Monday I spent watching movies (Boychoir (good!), Boyhood (quite good!) and Winter’s Tale (mediocre)) and baking a cheesecake with ‘lange vinger’ crust and topping.

Yesterday, Mom and I went to Ikea where I bought some of those ultra small Billy-like things to store my movies. We also ordered a table and chairs-set for Nienke. And of course we got small stuff, because it is impossible to go to Ikea and not buy small stuff.

The furniture will be delivered this Saturday, can’t wait to start building. *bounce*

And, this morning, my chairs came. I’m in love. I’ve been eyeing these Eames-replica chairs for quite some time now. And with having my own dining table, I have space for my own chairs. While the chairs aren’t very expensive, they were too expensive to get all six at once. So I was planning on buying them per two or three. However, when I was at the parents, last Sunday, Mom and I got to talking about the chairs. And she said they would give them to me o.0

I was flabbergasted, and very grateful. We immediately ordered them, so I could finally have a table people can sit at. They came in pieces this morning. The seat is one piece, but the legs I had to build myself. This was a pretty easy job to do, so they we’re up and running standing in no time.

 

Ikealand

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20150905_104746When you move, there’s always things you need. Or want. So today, Mom and I took a trip to Ikea.

20150905_122749I always feel like a kid in a theme park when I go to Ikea. I take the long route through the entire store.

Look at everything, play with things, try out stuff. Mom is less fond of the place, but she goes along with me. And occasionally tries out a chair.

We also always eat in the restaurant. It’s not a true Ikea trip without meat balls or chicken sate. Plus I love the parking spaces for the shopping carts.

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I got a tall black-brown vase for the front window sill and coloured sticks to put in it. Also candle sticks, a basket, two small trash bins, a poster frame and various small knick knacks.

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This trip also served as an inspiration trip for things I (might) want later on. The red flower wall sticker would match the reddish accent colour I have planned for the dining area very nicely. I don’t know if I’ll end up with the actual wall space for it. That depends on what kind of  cabinet of sideboard thing I get for that area and where I put it exactly.

The living room needs a hanging lamp to replace the current ceiling light. That one is too small for the scale of the room and has no personality. I’m looking for something that evokes nature but is still fairly smooth. I’m not looking for something to hold dust 😀

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I also want (and need) extra storage in the bathroom. I’m looking into bamboo as a main colour/material and this rack would be ideal above the toilet. Unlike the other house, the tank of the toilet hasn’t been hidden in a low wall that I can use instead.

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Blue

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PlatesBought myself some extra plates when I went to IKEA with Eva the other day. I already had four of those sets, two in purple and two in green, but I wanted two more to make it easier to set a table for more people. At first I was going to do another green and another purple, but I liked the blue a lot. And it goes with the other colours well.

I also got some christmas crafty things, a ladle and a big wooden fork. Purely because I have many wooden stirring spoons and it seemed like a fun addition to the collection 😀

I started rereading The Elenium today. I recently acquired both The Elenium and The Tamuli from a second-hand store. My Eddings collection is almost complete now. All I’m missing is the Rivan Codex. I forgot how much I liked The Elenium. The Belgariad/Malloreon are my favourites, mainly because they were the start of my dive into fantasy, but with Garion being just a boy when it starts, and not really having outgrown his boyish tendencies in the second series, it can be a bit too young sometimes. Sparhawk, in contrast is a man around forty (or at least that’s the age I always see him as*) with life experience and a clear view of what he wants and how to go about life.

I expect I’ll be finishing the series fairly quick 🙂

*He is described as being older. He was the Champion of the King, and then when the Princess was born, he practically raised her. Then when she was eight and her father died, Sparhawk was banished. He returns when Ehlana is 18 and becomes Queen. So, considering he must have been an adult when he took over the care of Ehlana, I picture him being around 20-25 then. Now, almost twenty years have passed which makes him 38-43.

All Over the Place

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It wasn’t very  busy at work on Friday, so when I got there a wee bit before twelve to start my shift at noon, I figured I’d ask for leave. I had some reporting stuff to do later on, so I just asked for leave until 16:00, which I got.

Then Nienke suggested we go to the movies. So she asked for leave, and then Thomas was game for movie as well. We harassed traffic for quick answers, which we got, and off we went to the cinema. We decided on Need for Speed which was actually a pretty good movie. There was a decent plot, nice actors and very pretty (and fast) cars.
Afterward we went back to work until the end of our shifts, it was hilarious seeing everyone’s faces when we showed up again after leaving earlier 😀

hemnesSaturday we went to Ikea, really early in the morning. I got the big Hemnes cabinet along with some fabric baskets to put inside it. When we got to the kitchen part, I fell for the dishes there. I’d been bored with my regular whites anyway so I got new plates and bowls in dark purple and faded green. Also two picture frames to display some of the Paul Kidby prints I got as a Kickstarter reward. After getting home I spent the rest of the day building the bloody cabinet. By nightfall it was ready so I could put stuff in it. It will probably take a little bit of getting used too, as it’s a wee bit deeper than I anticipated/remembered. But it does already look much better than before. It’s real nice to have a proper place to spread out the altar.

This morning in Pilates class we got a new series of excercises, ouch! After lunch I removed all the winter decorations still in place and put up the spring stuff. It looks nice 🙂

Grand Adventures

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Had a check-up at the hopsital this morning to test hormone levels and such. Check up was a breeze. Bit of small talk with the doctor about how I was (splendid!) and did I have any questions (nope). Then it was on to the Needle Folk to take a couple vials of blood. Results in two weeks.

Then went to the mall with mom. Bought a book about Groningen between 1780 and 1850. Then we picked up Nienke after her exam and headed for the Hema for breakfast. Then we went to Ikea to look for new sofas.

We sat on many and finally decided to go for Ektorp after all. I decided we should get two three-seaters, since our living room is so huge, as well as the comfy chair that goes with it. I also bought a night stand and a chest of drawers for my socks and stuff like that.

With that being done, we headed for the check out and made an appointment for delivery of all the stuff. We got lucky, they could come and deliver the next morning! Afterwards we headed back home. I took a little nap and then got ready for the team outing. We went for dinner at Pappa Joe, then bowling. I had a great time, and even managed a couple strikes and spares. After our time was up, we headed out to go drink some more. I tagged along, but since that is really not my thing, I left pretty soon after together with two other colleagues. Halfway to the station I realised… I had no key. Nienke had a key. I contemplated going back, but figured I could stop by the Parent’s place and get their key, it wasn’t that late. So I went on towards home, and stopped at the Parents. Where I spent 40 minutes ringing the bell and calling them before mom woke up… She hadn’t heard anything. It turned out Dad had, but thought it was the phone and doorbell of the neighbours……….

After all that time I was rather pissed and freezing so I took the key and went along home to go to bed. Only to get up fairly early the next day because…

Sofa delivery day!

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That is indeed ten packages. The  two big ones are the sofas, the smaller big one is the chair. The three on top are the sofa and chair covers. The long one on the floor is Nienke’s new Billy and the two flat ones below that, the doors for said Billy. Finally, the bigger flat one below the doors is my chest with drawers. Of course I know that Ikea is king of modular furniture and that this would also apply to sofas. But somehow I hadn’t actually thought of the fact that I would be getting lots of boxes instead of ready furniture 😀

Nienke hadn’t come home until the early morning and was still very hung over when the sofas came. So I just left her be and started building, while occasionally sending her a photo. I started with the chair, on the premise that it’s the smallest piece so probably the easiest. And that it was, indeed. The back and the seating are attached so they just folded open. Then it was only a matter of putting some screws in to attach the arms to the frame and the feet to the bottom. Then all it needed was its cover, and done. Monkey approved 😀

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The sofas had the same process, but it took a little longer because of size. Monkey approved of this, also.

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We stuffed the old sofas in the garage and then I spent the rest of the evening building the chest of drawers while re-watching Star Trek: Into Darkness. Then today I skipped Pilates, and built the night stand after which I hit relax mode for the rest of the day to finish Last of the Guardians.

ZZzzz…

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Bought the two Billys I’ve been wanting for my bedroom 🙂 The space look much lighter now, especially with the old, black, bookcase banished to the attic. Put all the things back in the Billy too, so, save for getting a shoerack to sort my shoes, the bedroom is all good. Now to find time to finish the attic. This week was no good for it, way too much to do.

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at the parents since Dad had to drive me to Ikea. Tuesday morning I first went swimming with Mom and managed 45 lanes. Which equals 1.125 km, yay me 😀 Usually I swim a few lanes and then call it quits and just float about. I could, quite literally, do that all day. Floating like that feels like home.

After we did a few quick groceries before heading home to eat. The afternoon Dad and I went to Ikea. But while I could find all the small stuff I wanted (plus some small stuff of which I didn’t know beforehand I wanted it 😛 ), they were out of Billys. And I’d even checked the online storage checker to see if they still had them in stock 🙁 No fair. It all meant we had to go back Wednesday. We couldn’t go first thing in the morning ’cause Mom needed the car first, so we left pretty close to noon and thus we got late in everything else too.

I built the first Billy that day and packed it. Unearthing yet another crapload of stuff that had to be moved upstairs. Thursday and Friday I had to work so not much time for anything else. Friday evening I did build the other Billy and packed it after which I also brought the crap upstairs as well as the old bookcase. Which took some muscle, the thing is heavier than it looks 😀

Today is Saturday and I’m at the parents again. Dog-sat today while the folks were off to my aunt’s birthday. Tomorrow the three of us are off to another uncle’s birthday for the whole day. It’ll be awesome (we go every year with a whole bunch), but it does mean I won’t get anything else done this weekend.

Next week has four days working, although Tuesday is short so might be able to squeeze some stuff in then. Wednesday, my weekly day off, is taken up in the morning by the followup LifeLines test and then fooooooooood (I can’t eat anything before the test since they want my blood). Afternoon, if not so ridiculously warm and humid as last week, should be good for either attic or garden work, we’ll see. If it is the same crappy weather as we had most of this week I doubt I’ll get around to much. I don’t really handle warm, humid and oppressive very well. Gives me headaches and makes me grumpy and grumpier. I left work early on Monday because of headache and had one most of Thursday during work as well. I wanted to leave early then too, but they wouldn’t let me 🙁
Fortunately the rain of yesterday cleared the air quite a bit. I’m hoping next week will be slightly warmer, but keep the humidity and pressure away *crosses fingers and glares at sky*

Played WoW today, managed to find (and kill) King Ping, the second Northrend rare I’ve done for the Frostbitten Achievement. I decided that after getting Loremaster a week or two ago, Bloody Rare and Frostbitten are next. I found a handful of the Outland rares and now two in Northrend so far.

And now off to bed!

Weekly Four: Week 21

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Per #10 on my list, starting today, I will post my Weekly Four every Sunday identifying something in the past week I was grateful for, something that made me happy, something that made me angry, sad or otherwise gave me a negative emotional response, and something I learned.

I’m grateful for the lovely weather we had yesterday for most of the day. I tried to do some yard word, and also sat in the sun, read a book, it was all out lovely.

Having lost some weight, even if it’s just a little, made me happy. It’s a first step.

A particular customer e-mail I got on Friday during my e-mail shift kinda pissed me off. Partly because of the content of the mail, but mostly because of how the person communicated. He ended with wanting to cancel his service, and I set the end date for June 5th because he pissed me off (instead of further away allowing him time to get a new isp). An hour later there was another panicky e-mail, my co-worker picked it up and took it upon her to calm the person while I pulled the end date of his service back to July 1st. So it ended well, but lesson is to be nice to customer service people, even if you’ve had loads of issues, that will usually get you further.

I learned yesterday that my shovel works just fine for digging through already loose soil but isn’t sharp enough to cut through packed ground. Hence the trying to do yard work above, I barely managed to dig two small cuts to mark where the garden bit has to be. I’m gonna need to borrow dad’s shovel to finish the job. Wanted to do that today but the weather sucked.

Next week should be fun. Slightly busy-ish, but fun. Working full days tomorrow and Tuesday, then Wednesday is dad’s birthday. Thursday and Friday are stupid days with 3 or four hours work each day at not always convenient times. Thursday for example from 15:15 to 19:15. While that gives me time to sleep in after the birthday, it also means you don’t really get anything done because you keep going ‘I have to leave soon’. The same goes for Friday. And then it’s weekend again.

Saturday I want to go to Ikea and get the two Billy’s I’ve mentioned before. The holiday bonus got deposited so I have some leeway to get them. Then I can get rid of the pile of crap in the bed room (all the stuff that has to go in the Billy’s). And I just figured I might wanna put the old black bookcase that’s still in the bed room (one of the Billy’s is its replacement) in the attic so I can put my kid and YA books in there instead of in boxes. Makes it easier when I wanna reread something in bouts of nostalgia 😀