Saturday, January 28, 2012

New Page

You might notice a new page link at the top, Before/After.
I am trying to get all our pictures up from our house renovations & furniture but its not quite working. Only 3 pictures are pasting properly right now, so keep checking.


If you have transformed a room, furniture, light etc and are so proud and would love to share it, well I would love to share it for you. Send me pictures and I will post them!

Mason's Haven




















I realized today while in Masons room that I never showed you the finished product. No room is ever done in this house but this is the closest it is to finished at the moment. Masons humble abode where he sleeps 11 hours at night. He has always been a good sleeper in his room and I am going to say that must be because its decorated so nicely. Or it could be the nice crib, who knows?

Lets take a journey back to what it did look like.



moving gifts into place and 'retouching closet'

Closet Before
After. I roll of wallpaper, bookcase & 2 closet rods

My Patient

Patient: Brandon Kampen
Injury: Trimalleolar fracture to the ankle
Pain(out of ten, ten being the worst): 6[its not this high all the time though]

Report: Very happy to have so many visitors, phone calls and emails. Loves sitting with Mason and all the home cooked meals provided by me.

I will take your spot in hockey dad.

So happy to be with dad so much.

Lower Level

We have four levels to our home... not the best thing when you have a broken ankle. Poor Brandon but he is getting the hang of stairs with crutches.
Our basement was going to be the last project along with windows that we did because those are expensive projects. Well low and behold we are renovating our basement and our windows are being done in March. If you search around well enough, things can be done on a cheaper budget. Our basement so far has been done by friends (and we appreciate all of you) and here is the progress so far.

future tv room


Speaking of lower level, our laundry room is on its way. The brick wall I showed you previously is not real (I wish) its wallpaper. I wasn't sure at first how it would go or look but it turned out pretty good. Obviously it won't look as good as the real deal but I don't have time for the real deal. One thing if you are going to use brick wallpaper, just know it won't line up perfectly all the time. I would smile and pat myself on the back (not literally) when the bricks would line up as I started a new row but I slowly lost that smile as lower down on the same piece, they would not line up anymore. I left the laundry room a few times to calm down... wallpaper can be so frustrating! However here it is so far.


notice the wallpaper... the bricks don't match up perfectly.
 What do you think? The chandelier creates a nice romantic feel.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Nudist

We are not nudists and this post is not about nudists.
I found this print off Pinterest.


On days like these when I have piles of laundry, this is so true.
Today the laundry is piling, the dishes need to be done, the house needs to be cleaned, groceries need to be done ... however I don't want to do any of it. Maybe I will do something in the laundry room or show you what I did to Mason's closet.

Hmmmmm, what to do?

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The OR

Now that all my boys are sleeping (that consists of Brandon, Mason, Tripp & Ryder[these 2 are the dogs]) I can finally sit and write this.

I never knew how many people had surgeries every day, It was very full at 9am when we arrived and more people were arriving.

Brandon's operation was bumped from 10am to 11am, which is not bad. It gave us more time to pack up Mason's things and drop him off without being rushed. [thanks again babysitter K] It wasn't the greatest news for Brandon since he was hungry and not allowed anything, not even water... poor guy.

Before Surgery in his hospital fashion wear in his comfy chair

Before Surgery


We were told to arrive 2hours before the surgery. He was prepared for surgery with questions, weight/height check, blood pressure etc. He as put in hospital fashion wear (as per the nurse) and got a nice comfy lounge chair. We waiting about 1-2hours until the surgeon came out to tell him what she would be doing. one minute later the surgical nurse came and got him, kissed him goodbye and off he went. That was 11:30. I was told to be back in 1-2hrs.

He was gone 3 1/2 hours. I read the rest of my book, some magazines, watched tv... then I started to worry. I hadn't heard a thing and he wasn't going to be more than 2hours. Finally at 3:30 he was put in the post-op area where I could sit with him.

We weren't told much other than it went well. He has a plate and screws on one side and a large screw up the other. We got to see a picture, which I am told we will get a copy of next week. The surgeon came to see him after for about 1min. We meet with her on February 1st and that's when we find out everything. Other than getting new medication, elevating his leg and resting, we weren't told much.

After Surgery!

Peaceful Sleep


We finally got home at 6pm. Made dinner. Fed Mason. Fed the dogs. Had visitors [thanks P,K&M for coming-we loved your company] Brandon than wanted to sleep, so I helped him in bed, got Mason ready and put him in bed.... Now they are both sleeping soundly.

In Brandon's words "On this medication, my sleeps are so peaceful, like really happy, I go into a peaceful dreamland"
He said this not long after coming out from surgery, so we all know as he snores here beside me, he is having a great sleep.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Delayed

I am a bit delayed on the laundry room... for a good reason.
Brandon broke his ankle at hockey on friday night, went straight to the ER, which was amazingly right across the street. I was also very close, so I met him there.

I first thought he was kidding when he called since Brandon seems to be unbreakable. The amount of 'accidents' he has had and not broken anything. But low in behold, they took an x-ray and there is no way you could miss the break.

The doctors took him into another room where they gave him propathol, which in most cases puts you out. Well not Brandon, after three doses, he was still talking away, moving his legs, saying he was hungry and making no sense at all. They did the re-set with partial consciousness (those are the words written on his chart) After they re-set it, doctors applied a cast temporarily. I say temporarily because he is booked a surgery Jan 24th @ 10am. At that point, the cast comes off, incisions are made, 1 plate a few screws will be put in, stitches and a new cast.
Brandon at 2am on Jan 21st. trimalleolar fracture


The new cast will stay on for 6-8 weeks. During these weeks he is not allowed to apply any pressure to his left foot at all and he is currently on crutches. After 6-8 weeks, that cast comes off and I believe they said he would get a air walking cast because at that point he can start to apply pressure and walk. He will build up the strength again with physio.

When he starts walking again he will return to work but only be working in the office. 4-5 months time he will return to his regular work position.

We are grateful it wasn't anything worse and he will walk in due time. It is very appreciative of all the support from his family and friends. I will update you after the surgery tomorrow.

As for the next 2 months, Mason and I will enjoy Brandon's company at home!


As per the laundry room, I will get it finished. I am determined but also very busy at the moment. Maybe those guys of mine (Brandon and Mason) will be super good for the next 2weeks and I will get it done by my original deadline of Jan 31st.

Friday, January 13, 2012

In Progress

The laundry room is in progress, I really do hope I finish by the end of the month...
I do not want to show you much along the way because I want to show you everything together.
However, here are some sneak peaks.

 



 Just a reminder of what it looked like before.









On a side note, don't you wish you could fall asleep anywhere like this.

Blankie

After finishing the curtains and it being so easy, I looked over and saw some fabric I had sewn together to make a blanket but I had yet to sew the back fabric on. I have never used the new sew tape on anything but curtains but had to try. We were up early this morning, not my idea. While Brandon made his breakfast before work and Mason played, I got out the iron.
I bought 2metres of white fleece fabric at Joanns in Florida.

Guess what, it worked and now we have a beautiful new blanket. Oh and I finished it before Brandon was done making his egg sandwich.




p.s. the pile of stuff to the bottom left of the picture is for the laundry room. I picked up the paint at Benjamin Moore yesterday. I went with CC-230 Delaware Putty

Curtain Call

Measure, Fold, Iron, Iron again and repeat.


That is all it took to make the curtain for the laundry room. The curtain area measures 41" long by 50" wide.
I used no sew iron tape. I have used it before a few times since I don't have a sewing machine and hand sewing can get sloppy and uneven.
For those who haven't used the tape, here is how it works.

Fold down the seam and place the tape right under the edge and iron. (make sure the tape is all the way under because you don't want the iron to touch the tape, only the fabric)

The fabric fuses together from the tape, easy right?
Top pocket

This is before the side seams were done but top/bottom are good.






Same instructions for the side except when folding it, tuck it under the top/bottom seam



Makes for a clean backing

All done and it took about 1hour, no more. And it was all done without sewing!


Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Laundry / First Foods

The first thing to do when decorating a room is to pick your fabric first. For some reason, I never do this and I don't know why. The laundry room is being decorated this month and I was determined to pick the fabric first. Are you wondering why I am buying fabric for a laundry room? Well there is a little 'cove' area where the dirty laundry will go but i wanted to hang fabric as a mini curtain, lets say. see below.

 I have a colour deck from Benjamin Moore and will be picking a colour based on this fabric.
while i was out I picked up a few more things...





I went to Natures Emporium next door and found this great book.
I got it because my little guy thinks food is interesting and milk is just not fully satisfying anymore.



 Well, I'm off to make those curtains.