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Lifestyle

LIFESTYLE – DIY mishaps and how to avoid them *

December 12, 2016
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According to a top A&E doctor quoted in the Guardian, the home is a minefield for accidents, that eventually end up at the Accidents & Emergencies department of UK hospitals. One of the problems is when homeowners try to save a few pounds (which is fair enough), but do so without proper planning and taking all the necessary precautions.

This reminds me of an episode that happened recently in our home: my housemate and I headed to IKEA to get shelves for our respective rooms. We were so happy as this would help sort out all the junk we both have in our rooms. Living in London a lot of times involve living in a houseshare and we have to keep all our belongings in our own rooms… which can be a tough exercise in organisational skills, especially if on top of clothes and shoes (of which I have a few) one also has a pile of books and art materials. So, we bought our shelves and even got ourselves a little drill and a box of screws, planning on doing a bit of DIY over the next few days. All was set and intentions were great but we didn’t manage to finish the job. Why? We didn’t think it through properly – the drill head included with the IKEA drill was too thin for the girth of screws the shelves required. Not only that, when I tried drilling (I know how to use power tools), after a few centimetres, the drill was hitting stone. The little drill was no match for the stone walls… We ended up abandoning the project and asking the handyman to come in and do the job… Fortunately, no one got hurt, and for now, we have a few holes drilled in the wall, which I am sure is something the landlord will not appreciate. Next time, better planning will be necessary.

So, we bought our shelves and even got ourselves a little drill and a box of screws, planning on doing a bit of DIY over the next few days. All was set and intentions were great but we didn’t manage to finish the job. Why? We didn’t think it through properly – the drill head included with the IKEA drill was too thin for the girth of screws the shelves required. Not only that, when I tried drilling (I know how to use power tools), after a few centimetres, the drill was hitting stone. The little drill was no match for the stone walls… We ended up abandoning the project and asking the handyman to come in and do the job… Fortunately, no one got hurt, and for now, we have a few holes drilled in the wall, which I am sure is something the landlord will not appreciate. Next time, better planning will be necessary.

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Another very common situation is problems with asbestos – particularly in lofts. Asbestos is used as insulation in many homes and too frequently, homeowners forget that it is poisonous. I remember in one of the houses I lived in, how bits of asbestos would fall out of the trap door in the ceiling, every time we moved stuff in the loft upstairs. Definitely not an ideal situation! Asbestos is a problem even for construction professionals, who can have serious health problems in unsafe work environments, ending up seeking mesothelioma compensation from their employers. I believe this is probably one of those jobs that should be better left to the pros, to avoid asbestos-related illnesses.

These are only two episodes that happened to me in recent years. Unfortunately, there can be many other potential activities that can cause serious injury. For more details on this, check out the infography after the jump.

PS: How do you like my illustration? I am enjoying reworking magazine pages a bit too much!

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Lifestyle

Liffestyle – Christmas shopping: sorted *

November 22, 2016
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With December approaching, whether you like it or not, Christmas starts appearing everywhere, mostly in the shape of decorations and occasionally, songs playing in shops. It’s about this time that we all start worrying about doing the Christmas shopping. We’re all very busy and the las thing we want to do is to spend our precious free time in queues and that is why there has been an increase in online spending every year for UK families.

However, there have been concerns over the ethics of some of the big online retailers and their practices. Fortunately, there are online retailers whose main concern is to be environmentally friendly, socially responsible and a rewarding place to work. Such is the case of Uncommon Goods, a place where you can shop knowing that you’re in good hands.

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Lifestyle

Lifestyle – My work room, a work in progress

October 12, 2016
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Recently I moved from one opposite end of London to the other. I went from the West to the East, in a move that has long been coming as I’ve always preferred the East for a variety of reasons, one of them being the proximity to friends as well as loads more street art!

I had been looking for a place that was big enough for my stuff and affordable and had kind of left it as everything seemed to be too small and too expensive. One day while looking at Facebook, a friend posted about a room that was going to be free at her house very soon. I made inquiries, had a look and boom! Four weeks later or so, I was all the way on the other side of town. What made me decide to move? Not only this place is a lot cheaper but also has lots of shops nearby and…. I would have access to not one room, but two small rooms. My dream of having a work room would finally come true!

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But, to make it functional and useful for me, I would need a lot of storage for all the art materials as well as a reasonably sized work area. I thought a little bit about it and came up with a plan, to improve the room as it was:

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This is how I found the room when I moved in. As the window faces the side of the neighbour’s house and it’s probably the darkest room in the house, I thought that adding a splash of colour on the wall would do well to make it look happier and brighter, especially in the gloomy Winter months. So I got my bum down to Wilko, picked the colour “minted”, borrowed my friend’s ladder and painted the wall. It was super easy and quick, as the wall isn’t that big (the room is quite small).

The paint was decent quality  as was the brush I also picked up from Wilko, plus there was enough for us to also add some colour to the kitchen and laundry area. All this for £15, not bad at all.

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The second step was to try and maximise storage space, by using up as much wall space as possible. To make things easier I had a look at the Ikea shelf range and found exactly what i was looking for. This means that the shelves not only looked OK but also were easy to assemble.

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As for putting them up on the wall, it is something I know how to do but not only I don’t have the appropriate tools but also time and energy is something lacking in my life these days. Bidvine came to the rescue and through the website, I was able to find someone who could come in and do the job, easy peasy.

The process is simple: you post an advert explaining what you need doing in your home, sit back and wait for handymen to apply to the job with a quote. You can then pick the cheapest quote if you like, or the professional with the best reviews. Michael was the name of the gentleman who came around to sort out my shelves and he did a great job and now i have a great set of shelves for all my arty junk (and some shoes too). Bonus: a pic of some of my Irregular Choice shoe boxes on top of the wardrobe, in the work room.

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The next step was to start filling up the shelves. That wasn’t too hard, as I had loads of boxes full of stuff. I’ve also become very adept at looking at Trash Nothing! It’s a website just like Freecycle – which allows me now to say that I am crowdsourcing some of my furniture, as well as art supplies! I picked up a drawer unit for the room from an office move, that turned out to be Tatty Devine’s…

I ended up coming back with the necklace display, a wooden tray where I now keep my markers, the folders you can see on the photo, tools, a desk lamp for my housemate, champagne glasses, rolls and rolls of vintage wallpaper which I will happily use in my future projects, cans of paint and an assortment of stationery. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure as they say, and I am enjoying this process of recycling things and giving them a new lease of life. One of the most important pieces that I brought home was the wooden ribbon you can see in the intro to this post, which was part of a Tatty Devine display at some point. I immediately visualised it as a great personalised wall piece and so it is what it became. Ta da!

(Apologies for the yellowness of the previous pics but I took them as behind the scenes photos with my phone, as I was doing things in the evenings.)

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Despite the room not being finished and not fully organised, I have already started using it to make a few pieces here and there. On the desk you can see a box full of nail polish – I am using these to glitter the round frames you see in the picture. You can also see a piece by Voxx Romana, a gift from the artist and a skull by RX Skulls, as well as a few skull stencils, also a gift from the artist himself, by occasion of the PDX-LDN exhibition at BSMT Space gallery a few weeks back. Permanent inspiration right in front of me! Also, in case anyone wants to know, the chrome desk lamp was a good bargain from Ikea.

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A detail of the wall opposite the window: a vintage embroidered frame gifted by the bf and a lovely deer plate, gifted by my friend Stacey, by occasion of my wedding. I finally got to put it up on a wall! There isn’t a lot of wall left in the room, but I had to make the most out of it.

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So there it is. This is the state of the work room as it stands at this point. There is still a lot to be done: drag the hot pink drawer unit I picked up from downstairs and put it under the desk, get a decent table top – the current one was inherited from the previous tenant and it’s too weak. I also need to spend some time bejeweling the light switch, in the same way I did to the one in my bedroom. Trust me, it’s super tacky but makes it a lot of fun!

Also, organising things properly wouldn’t be a bad idea, but for now, it’s just a repository of art materials, waiting to be transformed into something which I hope will be interesting. It doesn’t look amazing yet but it certainly has the potential to be great and all in all, didn’t have to spend a load of money as most of the furniture on here was either free or for a very good price. I can see a positive already: it’s made the process of spending more time working on art a lot easier for me, as it’s my own little studio.

What about you? Do you have a room you completely redid? Do you have any suggestions I can use to improve this space? I want to know!

PS: This post was sponsored by Bidvine –  I was offered credit to use on the platform and review the service. Words and opinions are my own.

Lifestyle

Life – Don’t be so hard on yourself

April 10, 2016
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You may have noticed that I am posting a lot less and when I do, it’s mostly photos. This is because I have been struggling with health issues (my energy levels haven’t been quite the same) but also because I’ve been making a few changed around here.

You see, when you go through a life-changing situation, you become a cliche. I know I have become one and because of that, have been re-evaluating a lot of things about my life and I have decided that I just wasn’t happy with the way things were going and the cancer was kind of the kick in the butt to actually do something about it. At least, something positive came out of it, no?

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I have just realised that the first quarter of the year is gone and because I’ve spent at least one month off work while finishing my treatments, it feels like time has flown by and not much has been accomplished, as sometimes things don’t feel like they have evolved much. That might be only on appearance as I think I have started sowing the seeds of change for the future. I started thinking about what I have been able to accomplish so far this year and realised it wasn’t so bad, after all:

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