I keep meaning to blog, and then other things happen and 'latest news' isn't 'latest news' anymore, lol.
Well, we survived the heatwave/s (somehow). Without AC! (I'm still proud of this!)
The walls of the room have been painted - with eco-friendly lime paint! (Even though I/we were afraid it wouldn't stick to previous paint, it did!:)
Some Granny's furniture is in my room now. :) I love the shiny wardrobe/closet, though doing this also made me realize flaws and problems of old furniture. (I am also a bit afraid of the Dumbledore/martians/extraterrestrials/wild things motif that I just discovered after firmly deciding to keep the closet, and forgot about it until we set it up lol - don't laugh, this would be excellent material for a Stephen King-like story! lol!)
Oh, and I got injured by (another) piece of furniture when Dad was too much in a hurry to GO GO GO!! :) Yikes!
When arranging to move furniture, set the HOUR not just the day straight!!
So, I'm still recuperating... (Nothing's broken though, luckily!!)
The other room has been emptied, painted, furniture moved around... and now it's full of stuff again! (No fun painting in a heatwave, I tell you though!!)
This is SUCH an exercise in anti-capitalism and anti-consumerism, lol!!
It was so much FUN to be in a zen-minimalist setting, but sis then delivered all my stuff back to me, cause she wants to finish her rooms too!
It's a bit like 'get the numbers in a row' game or rubic's cube, you have to empty a room and put all that stuff elsewhere, and then bring it back, along with other things, slowly the garage is getting emptied of Granny's stuff... Hopefully by New Years the car will fit back into the garage! lol
Okay, I know the official date is sooner, there may be floods in a few months and ideally no more precious things on the groundfloor.
I still don't know where Granny's Rumtopf (rum pot) is, I wanted to make yummy fruit-in-rum goodiness this year already, but next year apparently... (You add in fruit and sugar (and rum) as you go along, strawberries as they're ripe, cherries when they're ripe etc.) Sooz of the Last Biscuit reminded me of this, hehe. :) And now I want some! lol!
Granny used to make it... (OR, the pot would be excellent for keeping cloth pads in, still haven't decided fully, but that rum pot is just too yummy!! so I think that'll win!)
My room is almost livable now, BUT the other room: home office/kitchenette/living room - is - FULL of boxes and I don't know what to do with them! LOL!
Some inspiration at NotEasytoBeGreen: on getting rid of books. Yes, I'm a book lover, and sis is even worse!! We have tons of books in the house, and those that I don't want anymore, dad doesn't want to give away, etc! It's a vicious circle! :)
At least I'm boxing some of the uni stuff, there's not much room in the storage part of the attic though, a big cleanup action would be necessary there too!
Soo... there's still lots to do, researching what is better: acrylic or silicate paint, to finish exterior of the house (the below section)! What is more eco-friendly and health-friendly? Any ideas??
Edit: mum's just shown me where the rum pot is! :) <3 <3 <3 Bless her! There are no strawberries or cherries to put in it though!! So, until next year! :)
Well, now, I'd just about given up checking over here.
ReplyDeleteIf I had any fruit, I'd be filling a jar with rum right now.
Aww, Libby, you've been checking here? :) That is soo sweet!! I didn't know... Thought people weren't interested in reading this blog anymore (and didn't know what to do with it lol)
ReplyDeleteWill post more now that I know it still exists (thought they banned me, it was a scare, lol!!)
Layla, congratulations on a successful green retrofit for this room!
ReplyDeleteI'm a new reader of your blog (and new to doing some blogging myself) but have a long-time interest in environmental issues. My name is Tamara and I'm a graduate student in Cultural Studies living in Claremont, California, USA. Recently, I’ve been thinking about how the internet - especially blogs - can be a place for telling personal stories that are also forms of environmental activism. I was hoping I could draw on your expertise in this area for a post that I’m working on for my blog. If it’s ok, I’d love to (virtually) talk with you a bit about your experience with creating and posting to this blog and then share our conversation through a link on my blog at artplaceidentity@blogspot.com. I’m hoping to gather some insights about what it means to share personal stories with an activist dimension online from people who have more expertise in this area than I do. I just started blogging recently for a Visual Research Methods class I’m taking, and I chose to pursue my interest in this topic as part of a project for this class.
One of the things that really interests me about your blog is that it is both personal, because it’s about your own life and own experiences, and political, because it advocates green living. Maybe this is a chicken-and-egg question, but I’m wondering what role each of those aspects of the blog played in your decision to start it up. Was it more a personal experiment - a way to investigate and shape your own ideas about certain environmental issues? Or, were you already committed to a certain set of environmental values and began blogging as a way to raise awareness about them? Some of both? Neither? Has this changed over time?
I also wanted to ask you about the audience for your blog. When you post, who is it you primarily write for? Is it people you know off-line, or is it mainly for an online community? Is there a particular activist community that you’ve communicated with through your blog? How does their feedback shape your experience with the blog? How does the blog form (short posts, links, pictures) shape your decisions about what to include on the blog?
Finally, what do most appreciate about the experience of blogging, personally? What influence that you hope your blog will have on others?
Thanks very much for the work you do on your blog and for considering this invitation to share your perspective on these questions. Any thoughts you have would be very greatly appreciated!
All the best,
Tamara Ramirez
Hi Tamara!
DeleteI finally managed to post some more about your questions... It was very thought-provoking... and not easy to write in short & snappy form (with pics) - at least for me!:)
So I answered in a separate blog post (and some of it on your blog already:)
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!
Some of it was just experimenting, as I went along! :)
Both shaping my thoughts and figuring out what to say or what to think about something... (through research online/elsewhere or conversation with others or writing itself...)
Oh, and sorry if it was a bit incoherent, I was almost falling asleep behind the computer (we're in a different timezone!) and then just decided to hit 'publish' anyway! :)
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