We Celebrate International Womens Day Here in Grand Rapids. Why You Should Too

We Celebrate International Women’s Day in Grand Rapids. Why You Should Too.

To the day I die, I’ll never forget how the operating room filled with the smell of charred flesh and burnt hair.  Her dark Indian skin peeled off her body like a snake shedding its skin.  The surgeons performed an escharotomy, cutting her skin allowing for the intense swelling that occurs when a body has been burned.

As I looked at the burns covering eighty percent of her body, I caught my first glimpse of the way some women are treated in the world today.

I was seventeen...my father offered to bring me with him to work, as a consolation prize for not allowing me to attend a raging party.

I don’t know what her ‘offense’ was, but it was enough to cause her husband to bind her and light her on fire in a parking lot…a parking lot in Michigan.   In India, it’s doubtful if anyone would raise an eyebrow.  It’s the way disobedient or undervalued wives are ‘handled.'

Recently, I provided anesthesia for a woman, badly burned and it brought back the memories from more than twenty years ago. (and people wonder why I’ve made a turn in the career department towards interior design…it’s a much happier place).

It has to be a depressing thought for some Indian girls, knowing their future is not in their hands - knowing their livelihood depends on a whim of male family members.

That is assuming, they are even born.

The disparagement for females is so strong in India and China that many females are aborted- just because they’re girls.  According to Unicef, up to 50 million girls and women are missing from India’s population.  In China- same story, different country.

While the government of India has tried to curb this practice by banning gender-revealing ultrasounds and celebrating a national ‘Girl Child Day’, some just find it easier to get rid of their little girls.

Lakshmi, a 28 year old mother murdered her second baby girl by refusing to feed her.  Answering why, she stated, “Instead of her suffering the way I do, I thought it was better to get rid of her.” *

If that many little girls are being executed, it should come as no big surprise that over 5,000 women in India are burnt to death because their dowry is seen as too immodest.

This genocide can be stopped only with awareness and empowerment of the women who are at risk.  Educated women are not only able to make a living, but are able to stop the myth that says girl babies are unlucky and a drain on resources.

There are many women and men who are taking a stand for those who can’t stand for themselves.   And today, those women are being celebrated.

In a few days, it will be International Women’s Day.

Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held globally to inspire women and celebrate achievements.  Although women still lack access to education and healthcare and are on the receiving end of more violence than men, they celebrate because things are getting better.

There are female astronauts and heads of state, women rising out of poverty via microfiance loans, and women having fistulas fixed in Tanzania.

Celebrate today.  But as you celebrate, don’t forget those who are so often forgotten. 

Remember the helpless woman laying on the operating room.

Fight to make it known that burning your wife is NOT okay.  Murdering your baby girls is NOT acceptable.

And if I were you, I’d mention that in some countries, kids and husbands give their mothers and wives presents for International Women’s Day.

Today, I'm celebrating the fact that I have the freedom to own my interior design business, here in Grand Rapids, Michigan AND still work as a Nurse Anesthesiologist(CRNA).  I’m celebrating a husband who treats me with love and respect (although he probably won’t buy me a present today), and a country that allows me to write whatever I want.

What are YOU celebrating today?

How to Turn an Ugly Backyard into an Entertaining Oasis

HOW TO TURN AN UGLY BACKYARD INTO AN ENTERTAINING OASIS

We’re sort of outdoorsy people. 

We’re the “hike for a million hours to get to the bottom of a mountain that we then get to spend a million hours climbing up, and then climb down, and then another 0.5 million hours hiking down” sort of people. 

And then we had kids and we (I, mostly I…the husband still does the previous) became the “open the backdoor and walk outside and sit in a lawn chair in the sun gazing at our backyard surroundings whilst drinking a glass of wine and ignoring the children”.

All the ugliness in it’s “Before” state

  So, it goes without saying that when we left Denver to move to Grand Rapids, Michigan we needed to have an outdoor area we could enjoy and relax in. 

There were a few requirements for backyard space:

1. Yard…like with grass (seems like a gimme, but there are a lot of “yards” with just landscaping and no grass…and it seems like a waste to have all the rain and snow we have here and not have a yard to get watered for free) (I like free stuff)

2. Patio area for entertaining (bonus if it’s a pretty sweet design)

3. SUN.  This probably should’ve been number one.  Coming from Denver, land of sunshine 300 days a year, we knew the lack of sunshine would be one of the hardest things about moving to Grand Rapids. 

4. Pretty & enjoyable.  You can have the previous 3 things and have it be quite ugly, but since this was now going to quite possibly be the only outdoor experience my mom self got for a while, it needed to be pretty. 

Above was the backyard and patio when we bought the house.  It could be worse, for sure.  I don’t even have pictures of the one side of the yard that was covered in shrubbery and sloped down into the neighbors yard and was basically unusable

We got our yard. Eventually…Check out the below pics of the yard we had for a YEAR. With a white dog. (Insert crying face emoji)…

We did some extensive yard work…(by WE, I mean the people we hired- my husband would’ve loved an opportunity to buy some of that yard equipment, but it wasn’t really in the budget). 

We built a retaining wall on one side of the yard and pushed a ton of dirt into it to level the yard, enlarging our yard by about a third.  (YAY!)

We had to build a tree well for the one tree over there so the dirt didn’t kill it. 

Since our area is clay and has some water issues, and we are below our neighbors house, we also ‘tiled’ the lawn with a drain pipe that empties into the back corner of the yard to protect against future water issues.

Patio: We tore out the existing, cracked patio and poured concrete blocks on two sides of the house, connecting both of the exterior back doors.

I went back and forth on what to plant between the pavers…but that’s another blogpost

Sun: On one side of the house, there were a bunch of cedar trees right next to the house, blocking all the light into the house and sort of hanging over the roof.  It made the house itself incredibly more dark, plus took up another large portion of a potential yard.

We cut down that whole row of trees, immediately bringing more sunshine into our house, enlarging the yard, and making the yard a more sunny place.

Pretty & Enjoyable: Once the grass actually grew (which we had to have re-seeded the following year, because it wasn’t done right the first time), it wasn’t hard to call this pretty and enjoyable. 

And there it is- a quick overview on how to turn your backyard into an amazing spot to hang out. Coming soon we’ll post about what this costs to have it done when you can’t DIY the whole excavate earth and build a structurally sound retaining wall.

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How to Makeover a Kitchen on a Budget

HOW TO MAKEOVER A KITCHEN ON A BUDGET

When you’ve just finished grad school and bought your first house and you weren’t born with a trust fund…you’ve got to get creative with fixing stuff up and renovating. 

This kitchen is a perfect example of how to change the look completely, spending a minimal amount of money. 

It was dark, dreary, the lighting was bad, and it lacked functional storage and places to sit.  Wasn’t the worst kitchen, but it could get better. 

This kitchen makeover required a lot of paint and elbow grease and maybe a few trips to ikea.  Painting the kitchen cabinets was the priority.  (we’ll have a tutorial on how to paint kitchen cabinets soon)

We painted the kitchen cabinets BM White Cloud (OC 130) in a semigloss and we painted the walls the same color in Pearl (Pearl is this amazing sheen that BM offers that’s a step above eggshell in shininess and ability to clean, but a step below sheen than satin- I find that it’s the perfect paint for bathrooms and kitchens that are going to need to be getting cleaned a lot)

Because yellow is my favorite color in the world, we painted the ceiling yellow.  It took about 6 different paint samples of yellow to get the brightest rightest one….and guess what- I didn’t write it down and forgot what color yellow is.  (cue crying now).  Have no fear, because I’ve got a few options for you. 

Trust me…if you’re going to paint your kitchen ceiling yellow, you’re going to want to get a few samples and test them out first anyway. 

Next on the list…that light fixture HAD to go.  It was fluorescent lighting and made me feel like we lived in an office kitchen.  It was terrible.  The plan had always been to find a chandelier and paint it high gloss black.  I searched online forever- was contemplating buying a new cheap one because I wasn’t finding anything that would work on craigslist and finally, lo and behold…a perfect sized chandelier for $20 on craigstlist appeared and I did what any rational wife would do- sent my husband right over to buy that thing.

Next: the STORAGE issue.  The people who had lived here before us had JUST renovated the kitchen in previous few years but had almost NO kitchen cabinets.  Not sure if they were trying to save money, or they were extreme minimalists and owned one pan. 

Not only did the kitchen lack storage, it lacked seating areas.  We decided to hit two birds with one stone and use a best cabinet from ikea for storage and a bench.  We also got another tall besta cabinet that fit against the wall that we used as a pantry. 

While at Ikea buying our best cabinets, a quick run in to the As-IS section (supposed to be the cheapest section, but somehow ends up costing you the mostest money) and snagged these white bar chairs for a steal.  That little purchase was a lesson in “why not to buy something just because it’s on sale if you haven’t measured the space beforehand because you’re not going to save anymore in the long run when you have to have a table made to fit your chairs and space”. 

See that pretty table?  As far as custom tables go, it was very cheap to have made, because our good friend (and neighbor) made it for us out of a huge slab of beetle kill pine that he got for free, so all we had to pay for was his time and the other materials. 

It was an extremely skinny space, but with the table, we were able to fit two people sitting in the kitchen along with a few more on the bench.  Everyone hangs out in the kitchen.  Always. 

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Master Bathroom Budget Renovation

MASTER BATHROOM BUDGET RENOVATION

Oooohhhhh here we go! The total reveal of our budget master bathroom.  It’s not really a renovation or remodel per se…we created this bathroom out of thin air.  Well technically it was air from the master bedroom and the living room we stole to create a bathroom…you get the idea.

Originally the plan was to get a really really cool black steel & glass shower enclosure so we choose budget & thrifted items for the rest of the bathroom…and then as the renovation costs increased (as they always do) and I came across a really cool shower curtain from CB2, we scrapped the glass enclosure plan and did two shower curtains. 

For the shower walls we choose simple square subway tile…about $1/square foot.  The floor tile came from Floor & Décor and was about $2.50/square foot.  We got all crazy with $7/square foot penny tile in the shower floor. 

The vanity is an Ikea Godmorgon vanity with  custom walnut fronts from Semihandmade.  The faucets are from Signature hardware and the copper pulls from schoolhouse electric. 

And the mirror…let me tell you about the mirror.  Many moons ago, I bought a dresser off a girl on craigslist, and we went to pick it up and she told me I could have the mirror that went with it for free.  I stored that thing in our garage for 3 years, and then moved it across the country waiting for the perfect place to use it. 

Here it is in all of it’s glory. 

The light fixture is from a shop on etsy. 

We splurged on two areas- I choose to have both of the walls tiled, instead of just the actual shower.  It was a little more money in labor (product itself was only about $50 more) but we went for it because it changes the whole look of the bathroom to have tiled walls. 

The second area was heated floors.  It cost about $600 or so to have the heated floors and living in Michigan is SOOO worth it.  Those tiles are FREEZING in the winter without it on, and my kids appreciate the heat on their bums when they’re getting dressed in the morning (oh you thought the master bathroom was just for us?! Ha..)

Just goes to show you don’t HAVE to spend a ton of money of items to get a really nice looking and well designed bathroom. 

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Welcome to Swatts & Co Design Studio's Blog

WELCOME TO SWATTS & CO’s BLOG

Another blog about interior design?! Does the world need another one of those? Blogs are so 2009...who reads them anyway?!

Yes. Probably not. Apparently, a lot of people.

Let’s be honest, not even I want to read solely about interior design and decorating a house and I love it enough to make it into a business.

Hence why here we plan to talk about design (mind blown, right?), fashion, family, and travel…sometimes we might be overachievers and talk about all those at once.

A lot of people wonder how someone who has spent their entire adult life in healthcare and has a masters degree in Anesthesia starts an interior design business.

One can of spray paint at a time, my friends. 

Seriously though, almost anything can be made better with a can of spray paint. 

If we aren’t counting my high school room decorating skills (which my friends loved, but won’t get me any clients now), my obsession with design started my first year in college refinishing furniture in my apartment living room.  (I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this- I am probably going to die of lung cancer).   My shtick was (and still is to an extent) finding old treasures, and re-finishing them.

Despite believing there are more things to life than a pretty house, something about design and the creative process has drawn me back toward it for the past 20 years, hence finally starting my own business and diving in two years ago.

Furniture morphed into smaller house renovations, which morphed into larger total gut job renovations for ourselves, which morphed into working with local builders and people paying me to design and coordinate their renovations and solve their design conundrums.

Somehow, I’ve accomplished everything in my life that I never wanted to…when I was in high school, I said I wanted to do anything but science.  Cough cough…and then gets a degree in anesthesia and decides everything but science is boring.

After being immersed in science for years,  I had zero interest in running a business.  Actually, I had less than zero interest.  Like negative interest, if that’s a thing.  The only business idea I’ve ever come up with was to provide in-home anesthesia services for the first post-partum poop (and while I really think there’s a market for this, the liability involved didn’t seem appealing among other things).

So now here I am running a business.  I’ve since stopped saying there are things I don’t want to do, because who knows where I’ll end up next.

Until then, I’ll just keep making clients furiously happy in their homes here in Grand Rapids and maybe putting a few people to sleep on the side.