At the end of March 2018, we had to move our clinic from Clement Street to Fillmore Street in San Francisco, CA. It was a huge move. We had 7 rooms, laundry room, bathroom, big open front room, lots of sunlight in every room, good location near good cheap food. The biggest problem we had was the steep stairs that we couldn't alter-as we were on the second floor. So when we got to the new place we were ecstatic about it. Free 60min parking for patients, elevator for those who can't do stairs, quieter neighborhood.
Moving day is always stressful. We also worked the first half of the day; so we really only had half a day to move everything! We're were being cheap so we did hire movers. Luckily our lovely family members were there to help. We went back and forth between the clinics in two carloads at least 3-4 times. My brother and father who drove started to really know the neighbors. (I'm very thankful for their help :heart: ).
After 2 months of moving in, we are still decorating the place.
In our front room/reception area, we have a beautiful orchid which has survived since we moved! (no green thumbs so we try to keep plants to a min) My grandparents and parents gifted us bigger versions (not shown) we placed in the hallway but we had to move them on our balcony by week 3. (Have any plant suggestions for us that can clean the air in our clinic but requires no green thumbs?) Plants make the place you live feel better.
I finished making the room signs for our doors! Tools used: Paint boards pack of 5, Sticker pack for room numbers, paint, for the finished coating I used resin (mostly because I wanted to play around with resin).
So originally I had the sticker pack of room numbers and was going to find wood but paint boards were on sale. So I went with the paint boards. I had many ideas but the choices I came down to were to paint them single color or with border. I went with a border so looks like a frame and stands out more. (sorry forgot to take pictures to have step by step process) I did learn a lesson about making nice straight lines with paint-USE TAPE! preferably washi or painters tape if you have any.
- Step 1 Paint base color. For me, because my frame is thick I didn't need to paint the whole canvas. Just close to the line I want for the border.
- Step 2 Paint the border color close to the base. (Technically I didn't think about adding the white until the end because two-tone didn't stand out as much)
- Step 3 WAIT for the paint to dry! Otherwise, you'll have to repaint/touch up. haha Yeah, sometimes I get impatient too...
- Step 4 Add tape to make a border between the base and frame so you can paint that part. I used white so it stands out more.
- Step 5 WAIT! Again don't take the tape off until it drys!
- Step 6 Remove the tape.
- Step 7 Finish coat. Usually, I just use my spray to make a seal but because I was YouTubing resin crafts... I ended up really wanted to play around with it. With resin, you get a glossy almost mirror like finish. I also made a mess so be sure to be protected when playing with resin. Also, aerating is very important as the resin has a strong smell. (but same with a spray finish). Resin you can do an overfill pour or use a paintbrush to paint the resin on. I had a lot of trouble with it not being even because I tried to not overfill the pour in some areas. I ended up liking the paintbrush technique because I got to control the amount in the area.
Some background into how these signs came to be. As I love arts and crafts, I couldn't just put the numbers on our white doors! We luckily had 5 rooms and in Chinese Medicine, we have the 5 Elements/Branches! Each number corresponds to an element and each element has a color that represents it. (If you noticed in my logo for my clinic, I love this symbolism)
Lesson Time: In Chinese Medicine, we have the 5 element/branches: Wood, Earth, Water, Fire, Metal. Each element has a color: green, yellow, blue/black, red, white. Each element also corresponds to a number: Wood:3, Earth: 5; Water:1, Fire: 2, Metal: 4. There are many other representations that are derived from the five elements/branches. From here we can get the 12 meridians (Lung, Large Intestine, Heart, Small Intestine, Bladder, Kidney, Pericardium, San Jiao, Gall Bladder, Liver, Ren, Du). In short, these are where we find our acupuncture points- along the meridians. If you would like me to do an in-depth essay post about this let me know! I'll try to unload all the 4 years of a Masters program into one post! :grimacing: haha no really I am very passionate about this medicine and am very grateful to get to do what I enjoy as a job. :grinning:
...back to our post about our clinic!
We also started putting up things on our walls. It feels more complete now. We used to have these as room dividers but we no longer need to divide them so we put them up against the wall. Now its a nice background to our artwork.
The posters represent the 4 seasons. I believe there is a poem in Chinese. (If someone knows the poem I'll update it)
Just to finish off my post about the clinic. My lovely chalkboard! Updated monthly but not always posted on FB because you have to come in to see! :wink: Yes I did felt needle the very lovely :turtle: "eraser" and will do some future tutorials on felt needling. (Can anyone tell me how to turn the picture when posting? or if we can...)
