Spring is coming. Now that I’ve survived the exams, I get to focus on all the things I need/want to get done: planting some spring flowers on the balcony, building a new shelf for the kitchen to get more storage, and clean up this mess left by flu and exam stress.

Spring is coming, and I finally got to get my hands dirty. I also finally got to build my shelf.

It’s already pretty late. It’s almost time to go outside but I really really want to finish the shelf, so I am gonna get to it, and worst case the kitchen’s gonna be a mess tonight. But that’s okay.

Eager to get the metal shelf out of my kitchen, I got started even though it was late in the day. I made a mess of my kitchen to empty the old shelves. I’ve been so excited to take this apart for quite a while now. It’s such a bad-quality shelf.

I stuffed everything into random places. I completely forgot about this crate when I returned things. But I found it in the hallway the next day. The video light these attachments are for has been dead for months now. It was high time to take them off. But finally it was time to take the old shelves into the basement. Yay!

I’d measured, so I knew the shelves fit, but I was still happy just how well they’d fit the nook.

Either I’ve gotten better at building these shelves or this is a lot easier when you haven’t messed with one side 😉 I definitely felt less like I needed another person for this than the last time I did this.

This stupid metal cross is the part that was missing, by the way. It came in a giant cardboard box! This shelf will be free-standing, though, so I definitely need the cross to keep things together. Getting that on was the hardest part–though that might have been because my screwdriver was almost empty.

I didn’t want to lose the floor storage space, so I made sure the baskets would fit underneath.

One of the main reasons for this shelf was to get the coffee maker a good spot, so that was a priority.

The coffee maker had a spot, so I got a step stool and finished adding shelves. I am a tiny person, so for the very top shelf, even that wasn’t enough. I did some minor
climbing.

And then I got to play tetris with the jars. Yes, the coffee maker is over on the other side.

When I had finally made up my mind which side the coffee maker would be better on, my husband convinced me otherwise. So, I found a different spot for the light, and moved the coffee maker back With the essentials back in place, I made a very quick dinner.

My mom sent us her too-rarely-used air fryer when ours broke. New controls slowed me down a bit. I’m also not used to it being this fancy. Look, it holds the drawer for me. The best part: I don’t have to replace mine myself.

I hadn’t yet fully figured out the levels on the replacement stove (why does everything keep breaking?), so the pan had been a bit too hot. I’ve figured it out by now, so it’s all good.

I spent the next few days buried in study notes while the sun was out.

Now that I’ve finished the exams, I get to play with soil. Though the sun has disappeared again. A neighbor got me some tulip bulbs from their garden. They aren’t in perfect shape, but I am hopeful.

I got these planters from the former neighbors when they moved out with a too-small moving truck. I almost broke one because I’d put them up fully planted, and didn’t know how they worked. No planters were harmed in the making of this video 😉

I filled the planter with soil from different pots. The soil was still in good shape.

I still had enough bulbs to fill the second planter. Hopefully, they’ll all be happy here. Maybe, I’ll even get them to regrow next year. But before I think about how to store bulbs for next season, I need to think about this one.

We won’t be growing much on the balcony this year, so I emptied all the pots and stored them for now. Mint really is a weed. I don’t know how these are still alive after months in the greenhouse.

There is some green on our balcony! The rosemary made it through winter, the tulips are in. The neighbor’s chives are regrowing, too.

A little effort had gone a long way. Accomplished, I cleaned up after myself. And even used the momentum to swipe all rooms. The last room was my own, so I put away my bedding, shook out the carpet/blanket, and tried to ignore the chaos.

Neither me nor the apartment has fully recovered from the flu and the exam stress. Now, the exams are behind me for this semester. Time to work on that never-ending list of things to do. First things first: the apartment needs a lot of attention–and so does the garden.

Hopefully, the weather will pick up a bit, so I don’t have to do it all in this thick gray soup of fog.

So long, and thanks for watching.