Multi-faceted Abnormal /blog

Self-made patchwork lampshade

Thursday, Apr 12 2012 at 5:32 pm Evamaria No comments

Despite a lot of looking around I couldn’t find a lampshade I really liked for my living room, so I ended up buying a simple, cheap one. And then I saw this beauty in the background of the Sarah Millican Television Show:

I might buy that one at some point, but the colors don’t quite fit into my living room, and I figured I could do a simple version myself. My mom had some leftover fabrics in yellow, cream and red tones, so I bought spray-on glue, double-sided tape, one of those zig zag scissors (to cut the fabric so it won’t fray) and 2.5m of ribbon, and went to town on my existing lampshade:

The materials:

Trying out with double-sided tape:

Going to town with the spray-on glue:

Prettying it up with the ribbon (which I had to affix with tape, as the glue didn’t seem to take):

It’s obviously not perfect (I’m not good at precision work), but I like how it’s turned out – and it cost me next to nothing! (Okay, so the scissors would have cost a bit, but I was able to use points from one of those supermarket cards and got them for free.)

Life, Resources none

Not doing so good

Friday, Mar 16 2012 at 11:16 am Evamaria No comments

I’ve been fighting a bad turn of depression for a couple of months now, and it’s gotten to the point that this week my shrink (the same I went to during uni – it’s so good that I don’t have to start from scratch with a new doctor!) convinced me to go on sick leave from work for ten days. I do hope that’ll help!

In any case, my plan for this week is to do lots of stuff that’s good for my soul, and I started by visiting my school friend Sandra with her two little boys yesterday. The weather was glorious, so we took a nice little walk, caught up with each other’s lives a little, and I got to hold her brand new baby (4 weeks!) a whole lot… Best therapy ever!

Depression, Life, Photos none

Goodbye, 2011; hello, 2012!

Saturday, Dec 31 2011 at 4:29 pm Evamaria No comments

It’s been an interesting year, and I’m looking forward to the next one – the first one where I consider myself “settled”, in a job, a flat, with no massive change looming in my immediate future. On one hand this is a bit dull not to have big plans, but on the other one it’s just really nice to be able to relax and just live.

Like every year I’ve put together a mix of music I’ve been listening to this year – 25 songs I added to my iTunes Library in the past 12 months and that stand out to me, not more than one song per artist.

I actually listened to much less music this year, because my love for audiobooks took off massively, but I did go to several great concerts and saw, among others, My Chemical Romance (twice), CAKE, Panic! at the Disco (3 times!), The Cat Empire, and two days at Leeds Festival. Also, I listened to a lot of covers, even liked some of them, and a few long-time favorites released new stuff – most notably of course one of my favorite guys ever, the talented Patrick Stump! In any case, I hope you enjoy…

Life, Music none

My birthday wish

Friday, Dec 2 2011 at 8:08 pm Evamaria No comments

I’ve really enjoyed being back in Basel, having a proper home (small but lovely) and a good job with a bunch of very nice people. I think 2012 is shaping up to be a good year for me!

The only not-good thing is my dad’s health situation, which is still precarious. But we’re keeping the hope alive, praying and staying close as a family. You saw the tattoo I got – it’s healed nicely and I love it. I’ll get to show it to my family tomorrow when they’re coming to Basel for tea at my brother’s.

With the holiday season it’s also almost time for my birthday on January 5 – and this time I’ve decided to go the charity way: Instead of presents I want to try and raise enough money to sponsor a kid through Eduhaitian, which was founded by two of my fellow volunteers from Haiti.

If you want to help me reach my birthday goal, you can do so with Paypal:

You can also email me and I’ll give you my bank information here in Switzerland.

Activism, Life none

New Tattoo!

Thursday, Nov 10 2011 at 5:55 pm Evamaria No comments

New Tattoo!

Originally uploaded by Evamaria N

An owl with poppy flowers, for my dad and mom, by Dres from Popeye Tattoos Zurich.

Life none

BADD 2011: Fighting the stigma of mental illness

Sunday, May 1 2011 at 12:33 pm Evamaria 2 comments

I almost missed this, but today is Blogging Against Disablism Day, which I first took part in last year.

Ever since my diagnosis (first with SAD -Seasonal Affective Disorder- then also with “regular” depression) I was aware that people might judge me. It’s still much less acceptable to say “Sorry, can’t come, having a bad depression day” than “Sorry, can’t come, have the flu”. However, I was also very glad to finally know what the heck was wrong with me and be able to do something about it. This led me to decide right from the start to decide to always be honest about my mental health, and my experiences have mostly been positive. People usually seem surprised, because they have a skewed image of what people with mental illness are like – because it’s still a topic that one doesn’t talk about, as I discovered when people reacted to my honesty with admissions of their own. It confirmed that I wasn’t alone, that mental illnesses are much more common than most of us think.

Activism, Depression, Disability none

Want to see my flat?

Sunday, Apr 17 2011 at 11:45 am Evamaria No comments

After getting the key on Friday I made a little movie of the empty flat that will be my home soon. Moving people and Ikea furniture are scheduled for tomorrow – I’m so excited, seriously!

It’s not huge, but it’s a nicely laid-out, light space, and my furniture will fit in nicely. A world of difference from my tiny shoebox one-room flat in Zurich! *twirls*

Life, Photos none

Re-start

Friday, Apr 1 2011 at 11:58 am Evamaria No comments

It took almost four months, but after a lot of applications and a number of interviews I ended up with a job for a green/sustainable energy organisation in my hometown of Basel. They really wanted me, which was lovely, the team is very nice, and I’ll be involved in an issue close to my heart: creating a future where we only use ‘clean’ energy.

I’ll be the office administrator and also help organise guided tours through participating energy plants starting in May. That’s very soon, so I spent this week running around Basel viewing flats. Very exhausting, but hopefully one of the applications I sent in will pay off and I’ll be able to move in a few weeks. I’m just glad I’m still with my parents in April, because my dad had some bad news about his cancer and needs another operation. This way I’ll be around, visit him in hospital and support my mom.

Altogether I’m very excited about starting this new phase – in a way it feels as if my grown up life only begins now. For the past few years I’ve always been in flux, always known that my situation would change in the not-too-distant future: uni graduation, internship, New Zealand, first real job that I knew would be temporary, Haiti, back to the parents… I never allowed myself to put down roots.

Now, I can look forward to building a more stable life for myself, with a permanent job, a nice flat (two rooms!), in my home town where most of my friends still live (as does my brother).

Activism, Life none

Still job hunting

Wednesday, Mar 2 2011 at 7:08 pm Evamaria No comments

It’s been a bit over two months since I came back from Haiti and started seriously looking for a new job. After two years as Office Manager in the finance sector (yeah, I know, not where I had expected to be either *g*) and turning 30 in January it was high time to find work where I could see myself for longer. And that meant not so much changing job description (I like admin work – working in a supporting function suits me) but radically switching sectors.

I’ve always known that it was important to be involved in something I can believe in – after all, we spend so much time at work and so much of it is usually routine, that I need to know why I’m doing it in order to stay motivated and content in the longer term. Therefore I’ve been looking pretty much exclusively in the non-profit sector, both in Switzerland and in the Southern UK (because of my SAD anything further North is unfortunately out of the question) – it’s slow going, but I have a couple of interviews lined up that look promising.

Here’s where I’m looking:
- CharityJob (non-profit jobs, UK)
- CharityPeople (non-profit jobs, UK)
- Cinfo (development aid, Switzerland, paid subscription)
- ICRC (International Red Cross, international/Geneva)
- Kampagnenforum: Job-Angebote (non-profit jobs, Switzerland)
- Eidgenössisches Personalamt (government positions, Switzerland)

Activism, Life, Resources none

Another earthquake in Christchurch

Tuesday, Feb 22 2011 at 3:17 pm Evamaria No comments

Image of a bus destroyed by what looks to be a brick building

My thoughts are with my friends in New Zealand after another massive earthquake hit Christchurch, costing more than 60 lives and wreaking destructions. I don’t think any of them are directly involved, but it’s a devastating experience for the whole country, I’m sure. (Source: Stuff.co.nz)

Life, Substance none

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