Whatever smartass proclaimed that the highest amount of caloric over indulgence occurs during the Holiday Season was wrong.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

It's the eating AFTER the Holidays that is the hazard.

Or Post Holiday Eating Disorder (PHED) as I have decided to call it. I can since I could be the only one afflicted. Then again, I highly doubt it. But I'll wager you never had a name for it before.

Well now you do.

You're welcome.

How did I make this monumental discovery? Well you see, blithely believing and simultaneously fearing the dreaded Holiday Overindulgence, I carefully controlled my portions at the many Christmas and New Year's dining experiences I attended.

I also limited the amount of scrumptious cookies and other festive baking I inhaled sampled.

I watched that I didn't get too Egg Noggy at brunchtimes.

I kept my plate from spilling over the edges on the 25th; dessert and all.

I didn't even finish my delicious meal at the local restaurant hubby and I patroned at the end of December.

Nope. That wasn't a problem at all. I survived the Holiday Season uscathed and un-heavier. Hurrah and Hallelujah!

The problem is NOW.

Now I have all these delectable gifts to devour. Oh don't get me wrong. I LOVE chocolate and sweets. Love them dearly and love getting them as gifts.

It's just that for some reason, I am NOT doing a good job at resisting temptation anymore. I am battled out.

How is it that I can avoid piling my plate at Christmas dinner, but I can't ignore a small piece of dark chocolate sweetly calling my name?

I'll just have a FEW chocolate covered cranberries....

Ooooh. English Allsorts. Yummy.

See's Famous Old Time Candies from California??? Awesome! Don't mind if I do!

After Eights? Okee dokee, even though it's only four pm.

Well, perhaps just two Brandy Beans. Nom. Nom.

I am seriously PHED Up. I need help. Take it away! No, don't take it! Hide it! Help me eat it!

Anything to keep me from violently waling on my poor defenseless bathroom scale.

In Five Easy Steps

A few weeks back I discovered a wonderful new (well, new to ME that is) art tool called Copic Sketch Markers. Made in Japan for the past 25 years or so, these refillable alcohol-based pens are incredible to shade with, come in over 300 colours and have dual tips, which is why they're the choice of anime artists the world over. Not that I do a lot of anime, but I have already used them to draw with and in my stamping / cardmaking hobby.

Because of this, of course they are freakishly expensive. Amazingly I have been uncharacteristically prudent and have allowed myself to acquire only a few at a time.

Okay, almost half.

So far.

But when I started purchasing them, I soon realized I needed a proper unit to store them horizontally at my desk to enable me to read the colour names / numbers whilst sitting down. And I didn't want to shell out hundreds of dollars for Copic's large acrylic shelves... not when I could use that same amount to buy.... more markers! Doh!

So being the cheap OCD geek that I am, I thought I would make one. I mean, how hard could it be to make a small black desktop shelving unit? It only took one lunch hour to design what I thought would suffice:

Step 1: Research.



I Googled "Copic marker storage" for ideas on what others were using. I printed off this one but since I couldn't buy it here in Canada, I made notes on its dimensions as mine had to be deep enough so the pens wouldn't fall out, with compartments to separate them by colour group.

(Go ahead. Laugh. I know you want to...)







Step 2: Initial schematics.



I drew what I wanted to create, so I could calculate (Gak! Dreaded Math!) the dimensions of all the parts.

It took a few tries, but I finally figured out what I needed (proving once again that Dreaded Math was not my strong subject in school... I was too busy doodling at the back of class).









Step 3: Create a working model.



Using graph paper, I measured and cut out all the pieces I would need, making score lines for shelves and their supports.

Now that the Dreaded Math was over, it was fun to begin creating. (It also ensured I hadn't screwed up the Dreaded Math after all).









Step 4: Assemble working model.


For the full 3D effect, I taped my creation together.

Coolness! It worked! I must admit I was proud. And quite surprised too.

All I needed now was to shop for the materials; some thin balsa wood, a bit of black paint, glue, a few nails and I could start organizing my pens in no time.

Which is half the fun.

Alright, it is 99.5% of the fun for us OCD types.




Step 5: Shop for supplies.


After work, I stopped off at Michael's for the materials that would transform my design into reality.

So I went over to the balsa wood section.

Only to find

for FIVE measly dollars

premade wooden shelves that worked PERFECTLY to hold my new markers.





Gad. All that Dreaded Math for nothing.