To gain control over my ever expanding, scattered-everywhere recipe collection, I finally bought an A5 ring binder to '...bring them all and in the darkness bind them'. Ahem. The black cover was not of my choice, but apparently A5 binders are quite rare so this was the only one I could find. As it looked boring and I kept confusing the front and back cover, a paper cover was swiftly made and doodled upon. Yay, problem solved.
Over the past year I've been leading a rather sedentary life with no exercise and lots of stress, which has led to my body becoming weaker and, uh, 'expanding' somewhat. Time to get back in shape, and this notebook is for keeping track of all that.
Okay, once again I'm cheating here as this was made weeks ago, but I'm very busy at the moment so surely you'll forgive me, right? Anyway, the cover of my second dummy was inspired by art nouveau lines as I've always really liked the style. Using a white gel pen on a black surface really gives a cool effect don't you think?
This holiday will probably be my last eight-weeks-long, no-obligations, I-can-do-whatever-I-want holiday as from next year onward I will be having a job (at least I hope so). Which means less vacation time and only taking weeks off if we have made holiday plans. This holiday, I want to get the most out of my time and do a loooot of things. To aid my mind in keeping track of all of this, and because it's just fun, I bought a stack of tiny notebooks, three of which have an assigned purpose now: moving plans, holiday travel plans, and overall goals for these two months.
My goals for the coming months are among other:
- travelling through the United Kingdom (which we planned to do as soon as J. would graduate, which he did just last month, whoooooooo!)
- doing some major home cleanup, following a year of household neglect ;)
- moving into our new home mid August
- learning SolidWorks and Rhino (3D modelling software)
- catch up on mechanics, manufacturing techniques, calculus and other subjects that I didn't have during my Bachelor's
- daily drawing practise
- setting up a webdesign service (I really need more income next year)
- meeting up with friends and family (finally!)
- getting fitter by having at least two ours of daily activity: walking, cycling, working out, or shopping for all I care, I really need to move after a year of leading a sedentary life with lots of stress and zero exercise
- and last but not least, going on a short hiking vacation in South-Limburg: far enough for hills, beautiful nature and the feeling of being away, but close enough to arrange a pick-up just in case ;)
So, yeah. As you can see, some planning here is justified, if not severely needed ;).
In the back of our future garden, we are planning to build a roof to place our bicycles underneath. But since I'm not too happy with a messy bicycle shed as living room view, I want to build something to close it off somewhat. I'm thinking of making a wall from cheap wooden pallets with hanging plants on it, one that can be moved away when needed, but I will first need to figure out how to attach it to the roof properly so it won't topple over with the first gust of wind.
Currently, the garden is paved completely and I'd like to make at least half of that pavement dissappear. But it would still be nice to have both a sun terrace and a shadow terrace, so the place in front of the shed might become our shadow terrace. I've always liked the classic bistro foldout table and chairs, the simple ones with a metal frame and wooden surfaces. IKEA now sells them for a rather affordable price, so who knows...
It's been incredibly hectic and stressful, but I'm finally done with everything for this academic year. Holidaaay! On the train home I have been sketching a garden plan for our new home that we will move into in August. I can't wait!
