Painting Exam Room #3 - part 3

I wish I had taken a photo of the mural before I put the table back, but it was 7 o'clock at night and I was too tired to even think about it. This exam table happens to be red, so painting the border the same color was a good choice. As you can see, this childlike theme is very much like an 8 or 10 year old's style of art (I hope), so getting straight lines was not what I wanted to do. When I walk by the room now, I often think of it as a larg quilt with soft fabric borders floating against that white, white wall.





Here we have the lady bug in the opposite corner. It's made of plastic and is about 3 inches around, so it is easy to see. Until I painted the tree branches and leaves, she was just hanging out there all by herself. I hope she feels a little more at home now.



As you can see, there is a lot of stuff in this corner of the room. It really does help to have a lady bug in the corner when the doctor is examining your eyes. We have a "paperless" office. Everything goes into the computer instead of paper charts. It's a nice system for us. No one has to pull files and we don't have to worry about storage. Since the office is rather small, it's kind of necessary. Also, pulling up information about a patient is only a click away and is immediately available.
Well, immmediately available as long as the Server is happy. The Server and I are on good terms most days. Most days. Some days she has me going in circles. Like people, some days are better than others, so I greet her in the morning with a smile, a pat on her plastic monitor and hope that is enough to keep her content.



To complete the helpful image trio, I painted a star on the ceiling over the exam table, so when Dr. K is pushing on soft bellies, there is something overhead to see. It's amazing how much it helps to have a known object overhead instead of just ceiling tiles. I've been a patient being wheeled about on a gurney in a hospital a few times, and nothing is as frightening as looking at the world from that most helpless angle. My eyes were always looking for a comforting symbol, something familiar. Well, yes, what I was looking for was my husband, but he couldn't always go into the O.R. with me. Sigh.



In order to protect my work from sticky hands and kicking feet, we had a large piece of Plexiglas installed over the lower portion of the wall. It extends below the table pad and runs all the way across the painting, so keeping it clean will be easy. There is another piece on the chair wall to protect the flowers. People tend to lean back and rest their head against the wall while sitting down, so that plastic is as high as the highest flower petal.

So far, everybody who has seen this little multicolored zebra has loved his arrival. I do, too.

Painting Exam Room #3 - part 2

Finally!One room painted! This is the view patients see as they peer into the room. The doorway is painted a high gloss turquoise and has previously been referred to as "the blue room". There is a Noah's Ark Mezuzah on the right hand side of the door frame, low enough for most children to touch if they wish to, before entering the room.


This wall was the easiest to do, I must say. Big flowers, a simple design and several colors of red and magenta on my brush made it easy. I just chalked simple outlines of the flowers on the wall, placed the chair to make sure they would gather around it nicely, put on my painting apron and just started.


This is the opposite wall. There are a couple of faucets jutting out of the wall used by the previous tenant, for I don't know what, so I just ignored them. Notice that the flower patals are shaped differently, but are the same color as the ones on the opposite wall. I have decided now that I really don't like the effect. The shape just seems lonely all by itself, not being like the rest of the flowers in the room. Oh well, subconcious thinking sometimes shows up in art. As I did the second and third rooms, I got more "sophisticated" and kept the flower theme tighter.


The corner over the door shows branches extending from the Tree of Life that is in the waiting room. I plan to have the branches flow through out the entire office, unifying the theme.



A closeup of the corner shows a plastic cricket hung on the wall. And, see the leaf jamming its' way into the roo? Neat, huh? My husband tells the kids to look up into the corner at the cricket when he is examining their eyes with an ophthalmascope. It gives them something to focus on when he comes at them with a bright light an inch away from their eye. We all feel a little surprised when doctors do such things.
Might as well have something interesting to see!

Painting Exam Room #3

Since the holidays are over and kids are back in school, we usually have a lull in activity at the office. I decided to use this time to do some more painting because my husband can see patients and use the other two exam rooms without getting backed up.

And besides, one of the mom's said to me, "When are you going to do something with these white walls, Adrian!? It feels so sterile in here!"

sigh.

I know, I know. Painting the walls has been on my mind all year long, but it's been so hard to get enthused about it when I have so much to do and am still learning this job: "office manager". ( is this punctuation correct?)

However, I've also been loathe to do anything because my husband doesn't want too much color on the walls. He needs to see the skin color of his little patients. Colors reflect on skin. If a newborn comes and and he's checking for jaundice, he doesn't want any yellow on the wall, that's for sure. And what about a new patient who comes in with a bad cough. That might mean wheezing and asthma or some other obstructive airway disease. Do you think a whole lot of blue would be good for that situation?
Nope.
So, the question I go over and over is, how can I add color, make it interesting and pretty, but not interfere with the whole purpose of the room, and still keep the very serious doctor happy?

The complaining mom gave me the very solution. She ended her happy tirade with, "Why don't you at least hang up some pictures?!"

"!!!!!!!"

What a great idea! As soon as she said it, I could see it on the wall. A mural. A contained splash of color. Something childlike, as the waiting room walls are. The theme of the Creation continuing on, but in a small space.

Zounds! I think I've got it!!!

Three Knitted Hats

Here we go again. A looonng tiiimmme between posts.
sigh.
Work has been busy, with the days extending into night when I do more office book work from home, leaving me too tired of looking at the computer to even think of it as a tool for fun.

Sheesh, this making a living thing gets to be a drag for those of us who love to craft.

Anyway, enough about that! I did do at least a little something each day that kept my need for color fed, if not satisfied. I decided that knitting was the best way to go as I can sit with my feet up, have mindless TV in front of me and often a kitty in my lap, too.

This rolled brim hat is so soft and easy, I just love the colors and even if I don't wear it now, I can pretend I live in Colorado near our oldest son and his family and keep in on my table ready to grab it as I go out the door into 32 degrees.

Since the colors were really lifting my spirit, I added a little fun fur and made another one to mirror it.
Now I need to find a friend to go shopping with so we can wear these hats together.
My husband wore it to bed one night, but I still think he prefers baseball caps.







And, then there were three! Another favorite color combo. I always think of irises or pansies when I use green and purple together.

These were made using Caron Simply Soft Brites! on size 10 needles, two strands. That makes a nice 4 stitches per inch gauge.

Cast on 80 stitches and knit for about 1 3/4 inches.

Change colors and increase by 10 stitiches.

Knit for about 7 1/2 or so inches from the roll (not the bottom of the knitting, the bottom of the roll) and then, decrease on the next knit row.

I decrease the 10 stitches just doing knit two together every 7th stitch.

Purl.
The next row is knit 2, knit 2 together.
Purl.
Then knit 1, knit 2 together.
Purl.
Finish up doing knit 2 together all the way across.
Purl.
Repeat the last decrease row until you have anywhere from 10 to 5 stitches left and tie it up.

Blanket stitch the back seam and add some kind of embellishment to the top.

Then, if you are like me, you can display your colorful handywork on your favorite unused space.


Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s a kitchen table. Since our youngest son moved out, we eat in front of the TV, so this table, as beautiful as it is, and yes, I painted this, too) hardly gets used as much as it should be.

Sigh.