Dumpster diving in search of light.

Recycling is an in thing to do these days, even in the western world where I hail from. It's been a way of life in Eastern Europe for a long time. Ever since the early 90's when my colleague Joan and I arrived in Lviv we saw that. From our kitchen we had a good view of the trash can and Joan would give me the reports on what was going on out there. We got sort of partial to one she called "The Old Man"; we would even put out special stuff for him. The Old Man had class; he always had an entourage of dogs with him; they weren't Corgis, and they weren't on leashes either, but they followed him everywhere. Seems he always shared some of the good stuff with his dogs and they became his loyal followers.
There are lots of different divisions of trash picking; The Old Man was pretty much into subsistence trash picking, but a person can specialize in paper, fabric, glass, plastic, and I don't know what else.

Some are very professional in their approach, I've seen them use gloves and a mask. Others may use a stick to poke around in the trash bin and fish out their spoils. You can always hear the bottle collectors coming because of the musical clinking sound of bags of empty beer bottles. They may have a plastic sack full in each hand. With a practiced eye they walk past trash cans to scan the contents as they go by. Any bottle which is visible is fished out and added to the menagerie of vodka, wine, beer and who knows what other kinds of bottles.
Well...my latest project has been getting our apartment in Rivne livable. One thing we need there is lamps. I don't want to buy lamps, that's too boring, why not be resourceful and make lamps? There is a collection of informative sites on the web with very helpful ideas and instructions on how to use what's on hand to make your own stuff instead of buying everything you want.
So today I made my first glass bottle lamp.
I was out walking to the hardware supply store to get wiring and switches for my project when I saw some really good bottles. Some of them were just on the ground at my feet, there were several good ones in trash cans, but I resisted snatching any of them. As I gathered more bottles I noticed I was clinking musically as I went along scanning all around looking for prizes. By the time I got to the store I had a bunch of bottles in my bag. It looked kind of grungy too because the bag had holes in it and someone had written "Anita's prep things" on it, so that was kind of embarrassing as a person could well understand. I went to lock up my treasures in one of the store lockers, but this place is so up town and classy that you have to check all your bags at the wardrobe when you enter. Well, I've dealt with these kinds of wardrobe ladies before, they can be very snooty because of their high profile job. I weighed up the situation and decided not to check my bags, but to simply stash my goods outside the store by the trash can.
One thing you need for this project is a diamond tipped drill bit. I researched drilling holes in glass a good bit before I started this project; I put the bottles in a tub of water with water covering the surface I was going to work on. I managed to do 3 bottles without any accidents.
The next step is to get the light socket wired up.
And here is the finished product.
looks crooked in real life too...
I had a blast as I was making this, but collecting the bottles was almost like crossing a fine line into another cast. I walked for a half an hour to get home rather than clinking onto a bus and avoiding everyones' politely averted eyes (we don't stare at trash pickers). So for my next project (making drinking glasses by cutting the tops off of bottles) I know where to go. I'm buying 6 beautiful, empty wine and champaign bottles from the trash pickers! But for that I need one of these I wonder if Ange will bring me one?
I'm giving this lamp away to my friend, because her dad gave me some tips on drilling into bottles. You know who you are! You can pick it up at Artseulova. :)
One more thing: does anyone have any ideas for a lampshade? How to make one from scratch like?

Outside of our building

Our place is a 2 or 3 minute walk from this bus station.

We live on the 4th floor of this edifice, but our view is of the beautiful rolling hills on the other side. The little blue house in the foreground has a pigeon roost in it, is cute. No, it's NOT an outhouse.
Pictures boldly stolen from Jake's Facebook album.

progress!

We got new kitchen furniture today, I was totally surprised at that, I thought we were going to have to put up with the dissolving pressboard stuff.

Also we hauled the rotten linoleum out; it's by the dump waiting for someone to come and claim it.

in case you were wondering, this is what dissolved furniture looks like:

our apartment leaks

From the relative safety of my good friends' apartment in Lutsk I will try to post to my blog. I've been dashing around, weaving in and out of consciousness, bobbing up and down in the water and so on since my return here, so there has been no time for narrative reminiscing.
Opposition always seems to inspire me, and this evening I am inspired.


This kitchen would inspire you wouldn't it?
It's the new bache where we'll be this fall. I've been moving in for the past couple of days. Of course there are a few things a person needs when one starts up housekeeping. One thing I decided I needed today was a vacuum cleaner. The story of how I got the vacuum is a separate blog post for later maybe. So then after the whole deal of getting the vacuum cleaner, (a really good one that can do water and even clean carpets), (but do I really NEED one that good?) was the conflict I was struggling with.
This is a vacuum cleaner with an instruction manual containing directions on how to remove "dirtiness". You can put water in it and then you don't have to use the paper vacuum bag to collect the dirtiness. I was thinking I'm going to have to vacuum every day now for a while so I can get the hang of this thing.
After doing a great job of vacuuming the hall I went to do the kitchen floor. It has (had) reddish colored old style linoleoum, from hammer and sickle days. The interesting thing about linoleum in these parts is that it is just is laid on to the floor, forget about glue, moulding, or cutting it to fit. There is/was an about 12 inch overlap in the middle of the floor, so as I'm happily vacuuming my trouble away, I decided it would be good to fold back a bit of the overlap and do a good job of vacuuming. That's when my troubles began.
I neglected to mention that when I left to go shopping this morning I was stopped by the neighbor lady who shouted at me from her doorway. "you flooded my apartment last night!!!" I tried to be all polite and inocuously friendly, so she invited me in so I could look at the result of my crimes; sure enough, her ceiling and wall had water marks. Oh well, the landlord had told me that the previous residents had been careless with the water and flooded her out before I appeared on the scene, so I forgot about her. So now as I'm vacuming I discover that the concrete floor is soaked, the linoleum is black with mold, green and slimy.
To make a long story short, I got my exacto knife and my camera.
The pile of garbage is what was under the sink from the previous residents...

So I moved all the kitchen furniture, and look at all the goodies!

dead empty match boxes and other stuff behind the stove...
The moral of the story is I'm glad I got the vacuum cleaner I got, because I'll use it when I clean the mold off the concrete with bleach, after the concrete dries in a few months, I'll put down new linoleum.

Voldemort revives

reminds me of Nagini, the Dark Lord's snake...click here

organized my purse

I like my purse a lot, but is a nightmare finding my stuff. I looked online for some kind of dividers organizer and I found this idea. I decided to try:
The purse is here, and the green 3 ring binder I used.


This fishing vest served me well in the rubber inflatable kayak on Hume Lake a few days ago.



I sewed one pocket onto the outside

and these 5 pockets are sewed onto the inside of the green three ring binder. I could take the rings out, and I might, but I might leave them in there too, they could be useful.

Here is the organiser unit tucked into my purse.

This is all that's left of the vest now.
My mom said I could label the pockets for what goes where, is a good idea, because my brain rebels against order.

Plein air drawing

This was all I had time to draw, too busy hiking and kayaking and fishing! I might post more pics later, but life is getting hectic as I prepare to fly east for the next epoch.