Throwing out old garbage and looking forward to a fresh start

For me Bat Fit has been a lot about mind cleansing recent years. Until las autumn, I was surrounded by toxic people at a toxic job and it left me feeling completely useless. A couple of years ago, I was deeply depressed, suicidal, but during my journey back to life, a couple 

of descisions were taken:

1. Get healthy enough to get another job. If you feel useless and depressed, I can assure you that it is impossible to get hired elsewere.

2. If you don't find a proper job. Think of doing something completely different. So I started school agin at the same time I had my pissy full time job, but it worked great. Eventhough I should be more stressed, I was actually happier and felt that Im not that stupid useless crap my bosses made me think.

3. Get another profession. My goal was to become a highschool teacher in chemistry and I sended out my CV's to a couple of local schools and heard nothing fo 8 months. Last year a principal called and wanted to book an interview. I got a new job.

4. Finish my exam and do a excellent job. This is were I am right now and can admit that I haven't been a good student but a great teacher working too much. I have a couple of essays to write this week before next semester.

5. Loose weight by excersise. My dream is that I will be able to run again. But a broken knee and overweight prevents that now.

6. Eat healthier. I know what works for me and that is low carb with lots of vegetables.

These two last things are difficult as I work most of my time awake. I have to make room for exercise and to make healthy lunch boxes and stop eating in front of the tv. 

All the working, studying and bad eating have given me a stress belly. I have always been an hourglass, but now Im an barrel shaped figure. That is very dangerous because heart failures runs in my family.

During my holiday off work, I've been taken daily walks and a bit of weight lifting.

My face has become really puffy lately.

Thank godness for beautiful surroundings!

My breakfast this morning was a green smoothie. A habit I must start again, slowly. If you don't start slowly you will end up with bad headache.

If you haven't heard about Bat Fit yet, hop over to Frannys blog to read more, and join the amazing facebook group.

I usually hate shopping in town. But as I got money to spend for Christmas I made an exception. A big wool sweater, a pair of earrings, an expensive but very good deodorant and a book. 

For you Swedish speaking readers, I can really recommend Mörkersdottir förlag. The owner writes horror and supernatural fiction and herself and releasing books of other writers, like the one above. 

Sekten på Dimön (The sect on Fog Island) is based on the writers experiences of the Scientiology church were she were living and working for the inner circle. I'll post a review of it once its read.

Time to breathe

A Christmas without decorations is not a great one, I think. So even if I have lack of time I decorated the home. My zink cones got some green moss and shiny red globes

The theme of this years tree was "ordinary" silver and red colours, some antique, some new and lots of homemade ornaments.

It's not very homogenic but it's local and we also supporting a friend by buying it.

I hope your Christmas, or whatever you call it, was nice. We celebrated Christmas eve with my parents in my birthtown. Later in the evening my nephew and girlfriend joined us to the church for midnight ceremony and to listen to our cousin singing. I also met uncles and other cousins. It was a great get together.
On Christmas day, mother in law and kids arrived to eat and change gifts. Calm and pleasant.
The rest of the time has been spent cooking in the kitchen, painting in the garage and walking in the forest. I will start to take things serious again tomorrow, picking up my neglected studies and maybe correcting some mathtests.

Not dead....yet

Im sitting on my front porch, drinking coffe with only a top and trousers. Not freezing at all. Wtf. Its the same temperature like we had at summer soltice. I want snow now... :-( .

Im off from work for winter holidays so I will finally have the time to see what you've been up to. This autumn. See you..

Some more decorations for the season

A black frame on a black wall doesnt work wery well unless its not supposed to be bold. I changed the black ikea frame to a white dito on the witch photo I always hang up at Halloween. It looked much better. Besides, theres now a nice black frame to fill.

An easy way to give a home some spookyness is to wrap a piece of black lace around a tea light holder or a lamp. The tag on the candle comes from Msantopia.

We were lucky to see the blood moon a few weeks ago. It was so beautiful but very difficult to take a photo of. We set the alarm 4:30 in the morning to be able to see the full eclipse. One fascinating thing was that the usually cold black sky got a purple black hue. As we stood there gazing at the moon, a giant meteor fell. This was magical.

Welcome october, decorations for my home

Dear fellows. I'm so damn stressed, my job takes too much of my sparetime and I don't even have time for my studies. I have also missed to have a clean and decent home because I don't have time to keep it up. But today I  had to start a little. Im blogging from my phone so please excuse if the text looks weird and photos are not aligned.

The kitchen got a slight clean and curtains (havent put up curtains for a year). My only pumpkin for this year has turned orange plus some orange mini pumpkins gives the right colour for the season.

Of all places , I found this adorable pumpkin lantern at our "outsale store" Ö&B. It's very much my type and is a perfect add to my livingroom. That store is one of few who actually sells halloween stuff here in Sweden.

DIY Nailpolish shelf

I'm so sorry for not keeping up reading your blogs. I really don't have the time. I thought this semester would be easier but apart from the teaching schedule I have a large bunch of students to help them to fix old failed examinas. Plus no time for studying myself, bohoo!
A while ago, I got this great idea. I was tired of digging for the right colour in the basket where I store my nailpolishes . I thought of looking for a spice shelf but something made of acrylic would be more practical. It's easier to see the package and the colour with a transparent material, right? 
My idea took shape after som measuring and scetching. And it is easier than I thought, so I must share it with you :-)

First of all you need acrylic plastic. Check the size your supplier sells and calculate how much you need. I hung my shelves on the inside of the bathroom cupboard and the sheets with the size below were perfect. On both sides there is a plastic shield that you should leave until it's time to heat the plastic

The shelv is basically a rectangular piece that is bent two times to form the shelf. First I take a fine toothed saw (for sawing steel tubes etc) and cut of 10mm on the lenght side. This part will be sides of the shelves.

On the side that will be the upper part of the shelf, two holes for hanging is drilled. I recommend you to buy screws in the right dimension before you drill a hole.

Now is the time to remove the shielding plastic. Take a sharp needle or something and a ruler. Measure out were the bends should be placed and carve a line with the help by the ruler and needle. Use a heating gun to warm the plastic on both sides. Remember, this will need time, patience and control. If you heat the plastic to much the plastic will bubble before you even notice. Too little and the plastic will never bend. 

Note that your surface should be CLEAN. I got some spots on the acrylic while working on this bench. Anyway the steel lined work bench were perfect for this job. With some help of a scrapped steel plate I bent the front of the becoming shelf. Don't take short cuts on this, the bend must be 90 degrees.

Heat again on both sides of the plastic and bend again. 

This is how the finished shelf looks like in a closeup. A piece of acrylic is glued with super glue on the sides. The nail polish bottles slip very easy.

Shelves are ready to be filled. Well I filled them and there were half of the nailpolishes left. So I have to make some more of these. One cannot have too many nailpolishes.

A shitty summer turned to a nice autumn. No frost yet and some weird delays in natures circle like, flying ants 22 of august instead of the 8th like they always do. I'm convinced it's the pollution.

 I finally got some black hollycocks in bloom. They have a different shade depending on the light, its very nice. I got a row of large sunflowers filled with seeds. The bumblebees likes to rest in them. Some of them get slower and slower until they die hanging on the flower. Anyway the seeds will become healthy sprouts for the winter.

Styling my workspace

I got a new office. Yay! It's still a shared office but I have the fortune to sit with very nice people. We have our own entrance and a felt carpet that lower all sounds.

I use my Spooky box club bag to work, because the perfect size, sturdy and fabulous fabric.

My "dorm" goes in the colours of birch, grey, white and black and those are the colours I chosed to pimp my notebooks and calendar with. The seashellprints are made by Haeckel. If you google search the name you will find lots of amazing and detailed drawings of natural forms.

A teacher needs a calendar for all sorts of events. I tried a few weeks last year without one and missed a few appointments before I learned my lesson.

Maybe I will show you a photo of my office later.

This was supposed to be a long post with lots of photos of nature, bathing, planes, a festival etc. But I didn't have the energy to bother you with old news. The end of the summer was either way amazing. 

Now I look forward to an amazing semester with lots of new teenagers to meet.

Artful experience

Last week of my 7 weeks long vacation got more eventful than the rest. In the end, I became restless, bored and confused, so me and the boys went to my birth town to visit my mom and my siblings a few days. For once we went a little touristic. 

If you ever visit Dalarna in Sweden and pass by a small town called Avesta you should visit these two following places if you have the time. 

First, the European bison park. Yes there is actually a natural existing variety of the bison in Europe. It was nearly extinction in the beginning of the 1900's but the owner of the steel plant built a park for bison breeding for rescue and at the same time the bison became the mascot for the steel products. 

Today there are 3000 oxes and a European wildlife programme has planted a new herd of 20 individuals in the Carpatic mountains i Romania. 

This bull were very curious and came forward to check us out. It was a little scary to have a wooden fence and one electrical wire between us, something that this fella would easily break through. Up to 1000 kg are the heaviest ones.

Another one that has become big. My 15 year old has now grown beyond me and his father and is very energetic and tired at the same time (like most teens).

In my opinion the best attraction in Avesta is "Verket" were a huge art exhibition take place every summer. Verket is the old steel plant owned by the bison man. It's a beautiful old industrial building and it has most of it caracter left. The building and the exhibition creates toghether a inscrutable and rough atmosphere. Very little light fixtures are used and at some spots you walk in dark rooms only lit by uplit art.

Bea Szenfeld with her 3D paper fashion stands in the entrance. She's a fashion designer and artist that made outfits for Lady Gaga and Björk, for instance.

I love this heavy paper flower collar.

The mill is built of slagstone from the steel process.

Jan Stenmark again! He had a contribution with some of the original collages and the weird humour that I love. 

Translation: While the poster hung in the kitchen, she said nothing at all - but now, she suddenly tells me I'm sick.

In one of the halls were an amazing installation of glass art by Kjell Engman. The exhibition is called The White wife. The room is very dark only lit by the glass figures and surrounded by musical compositions by the artist.

A white figure is hovering over the pipes of the blast furnace.

Icy jaws of glass...

A row of bottles containing dancing figures with a face hiding behind it....Wait thats not part of the setup! It's a visitor, Alfons. 

A row of coal barrels in furnace hall. 

Along with the art, there's also an historical exhibition telling a little about the steel process in the mill. The man on the second row, on the left corner with a heavy beard, is my grandmothers uncle. Her father also worked at the plant but is not on this photo. The boys look like they are around ten years, same age as Alfons.

In the dark stands a small figure, looking at the huge photo.

 A row of empty children. This is made by Hanna Vihriälä and is called "More boys are born after the war".

This is whats coming up in my mind:"Are you my mommy?"

  In the end of the hall of the rolling mill stands a large organ that starts to play as you approach it. I didn't try but the music it plays should interact with the visitor by a mat and a microphone connected to the organ. We ran out of time one and half hour wasn't enough. I could have walked around here for hours.

 The entrance of the mill. The building is very large and stretches out with several halls behind this one. The complete process of steel, from ore to finished steel was once represented in this building. I highly recommend you a visit.

I finish with a photo of my mothers grapes, a lot bigger than mine.

Just some random things...

As the summer passed by the hermit has become more socially interested in people and restless wich is usually positive things. But I have also become really stupid, not using the brain, does this. According to my brother who's spouse also is a teacher, this is very common. 

Today was worst: We went to an water park and I started to put my bathing suit outside in. Thankfully I started to complain to Moa (the bonus daughter) that it was very ugly and made her look at it and pointed the mistake out. Then she remarked that the key tag should be on the arm instead of the leg, for easier entrance. When I was about to go home a heavy shower made me wet when I ran to get the car. A large puddle hid a pit that made me fall and I got completely soaked including everything I was carrying. Back home I offered Moa microwaved cinnamon bun dough (it should have been baked in the owen) and when making coffe I noticed that I had made coffe on yesterdays grounds without even noticing a difference in taste.

Other days were more successful. We bought a new sofa, at last. I had a vision of a victorian antique one with lots of wood carvings and velvet, but this option was more practical, must admit that.

I made deliscious macarons for the bonus kids birthday (same birthday, different ages).

We visited an ostrich farm and I snatched me some lovely feathers that I will dye.

And visited the holy spring to dip toes and drink icy cold water. This spring supports two cities with water. 

The vegetable garden is a mess because of bad weather. But I succeded to grow cuttings from my grape wine and to get small grapes too. I've been handing out the plants to friends and family and have two left to plant. Easy peasy.

 I got beautiful flowers from a friend at visit. I want that lily!! The name is something with chocolate.

I hope your summer has been great. Mine is not completely over yet. I have a couple of weeks before work begins. I really loved to have a long summer vacation and look forward to my work even more now.