An Easter Surprise

My husband Dan never ceases to amaze me. Even when feeling unwell after his recent stem cell transplant he has still managed to remember his family and how important it is to have relaxing, family time together.

On Easter Monday after farewelling family we were told to pack our bags as were heading down to the Gold Coast for 2 nights for a mini break! He had been planning this secret surprise and it certainly was a big surprise!

We stayed at Mantra Legends which was lovely. Great rooms, gorgeous views and lovely facilities!

http://www.mantralegends.com.au/

 

Isabella and I were in all honesty not very enthusiastic as we were both tired after hosting family for 2 days of Easter Celebrations and we both wanted some peace and quiet at home. But, Daddy knows best, so off we went and what a great break it was! Clever Daddy!

We had a lovely ocean view from our room and the hotel had lovely facilities. Isabella really enjoyed the pool and I enjoyed the Pina Coladas!

We mostly relaxed and strolled about Surfer's Paradise and the beach. It was just what the doctor ordered! Dan relaxed and forgot about all he had just been through. Which was great because not long after we got home Thursday we were off to the hospital for a check up, which went well. Yay!

Now, we have 1 more week of holidays before Isabella and I return to school. We are all relaxed and rested.

I love you Dan Bozzoli!
xxx

 

VERY indulgent breakfast at Pancakes in Paradise!

 

 

 

Having lots of fun at Timezone!

 



 

 

Enjoying the Surfers boardwalk and evening markets

 

 

Cocktails by the pool, yum!

 

 

Jazz at the beachside

 

 

Our View!

 

 

Fun on the beach!

 

 

Morning view from bed!

 

 

 

My two very favourite people in this world looking very relaxed and happy!

 

Til next time!

 

Kym

xxx



Hippity hoppity...

Happy Easter

 

I am so glad that Easter is finally here this year for a special reason.

 

In January, my husband, Dan, began a second line of treatment for Aggressive Hodgkin's Lymphoma. This treatment involved much harsher chemotherapy than the type he had last year for 6 months and it concluded with a stem cell transplant.

 

It was our hope that Dan would be completed his treatment and would feel somewhat well enough to enjoy the Easter break with Isabella and I.

 

We got our wish!

 

Although Dan is still often feeling unwell and very lethargic, and will probably continue to for some time, he has made a great recovery so far. I am so very proud of him and in fact all of us for making it through a pretty tough 3 months. I needed to take a 2 week break from my job as a Prep Teacher as the emotional and physical strain of caring and working began to take it's toll on me. Our Isabella also has had a few tough weeks as she is very close to her Dad and is always quite distressed when he is unwell.

 

We hope to get some good news when Dan has his scan in about a month from now. If all goes to plan, the cancer will be gone. We hope the spot in his lung at least will be gone. Anything more than that will be a bonus. Fingers crossed.

 

This time the toll on our family has been emotionally, physically and financially extremely difficult and continues to be so, but we know we can do it together. If not for the love and support of our wonderful family, friends and work colleagues I'm not sure we would have got there this time. Thanks and love to all of you.

 

Now Easter is here I am beginning my favourite thing to do, decorate and party plan. Although our celebrations this year will be low key it will still be very special as Dan likes to prepare most of the family lunch.

 

Please enjoy some photos of our Easter preparations.

 

Til next time

 

Kym

xxx

 

 

 Choc egg in felt sunflower, under glass cloche on footed antique, glass plate.

 

 

Bunnies from Woolworth's

 

 

Our gorgeous girl at the school Easter Hat Parade

 

 

 

My pretty Easter Wreath

 



Happy Easter to all!

 

 

 

 

Dan Update

Post Stem Cell Transplant

Gosh, it's been an age since I last posted. I apologise for my slackness however, life has been a bit hectic since Christmas.

We found out before Christmas that Dan had unfortunately not gone into remission as we so hoped for. At the end of his ABVD chemo treatment there were still 2 very small, almost negligible spots that had not gone. BUGGER!

We spoke to doctors and they told us that in the New Year Dan would begin a new regime. This one would entail 2 cycles of ESHAP chemo followed by collection of some of Dan's own blood stem cells and then a chemo treatment called BEAM which is then completed with a transfusion of the stem cells being transplanted back to his own body. This treatment would be much harsher for Dan and he would not be able to work through the duration of this treatment.

Fast forward 3 months.

Dan had his stem cell transplant last Thursday and is currently home with me awaiting the crash of his bloods. The side effects of the BEAM involves ulceration of the mouth and lining of the digestive tract and gut, severe diarrhoea, nausea, fever, acne and skin irritations...you get the picture.
The doctors expect he will be re-admitted to hospital sometime this week due to fever or generally unwell. So far, he's doing ok. We have to attend 3 clinics a week so they do blood check, and then off to day care for top ups of any fluids or blood products, or possible admission. Yesterday it was a 10 hour day at the hospital, NOT FUN! It ended with him requiring some fluids and potassium. His bloods have begun to drop significantly but not dangerously, yet. Throughout all of Dan's previous chemo treatments he has been extremely lucky that he has not experienced any fever or dangerous neutropenic (low blood count) episodes. If he gets through this one he will become one of a very small number of people who have escaped.

Dan is still able to eat quite well and he is still giving me cheek, so he's not too bad, yet.

This treatment is now complete and he will have a follow up PET scan in about 6 weeks. We hope and pray for a good result this time. Fingers crossed.

I could go on about how this has affected our whole family, emotionally, physically, financially etc. It's sure not fun. I can say, it's an experience I will be glad to be at an end, however, we have done it together, all 3 of us! I'm so, so proud of my husband and daughter. Each day they inspire me to forget how tired I am and just get on with what has to be done.

I am on leave from work at the moment. I have taken 2 weeks off from my Prep teaching to concentrate on Dan's recovery. It's truly been exhausting and I'm not ashamed to admit I hit the wall a few weeks ago. Every one kept telling me how strong I had been, but I knew differently. I was crashing, and fast! I was having head spins and heart palpitations at school and was crying every 5 mins, or so it seemed. Taking leave was certainly difficult for me but it's been good for me. I am still tired but at least all I have to concentrate on at this time is my family, til next week.

All the best to you and yours.

 

Isabella enjoying some fishing while we were away for Christmas relaxing before Dan's treatment began in January.

 

 Dan and Bella enjoying the pool at Christmas!

 

 

 Christmas lunch, Queensland style.

 

We look forward to getting away again soon to our favourite family destination, Gemini Resort, Golden Beach.

A Blue Bozzoli Christmas 2012 - part 2

Hi again,
I am back to update the decorating as we have continued in the last week. Suffice to say as we have been away having a wonderful time catching up with old friends last weekend we didn't get much time to do a lot.

I have added a few more pieces to the house so I will begin with those and then add a few light pictures of Dan's outside Christmas Light display.

I have used a small scalloped cake plate stand with a small but tall cloche I bought at Sharnel Dollar's recent sale. I filled it with teal baubles.

 

 



Here I used a rectangular white ceramic dish with 3 marine coloured glass jars from Bed, Bath and Table with tealights. I filled the dish with teal coloured jingle bells. I bought the jars for $4.95 each and used 3 packs of bells each $2 from Crazy Clark's.

My Ikea cake plate stand and dome were filled with a selection of blue baubles.

Isabella's play area is beginning to get some colour also. I have used a selection of snowflakes on the wall. I bought the large blue flakes from the Dollar shop at Capalaba Park. $3.95 each. The large silver stars are from the Christmas shack, $5.95 each, and the small silver stars are coasters from a $2 pack.

The white timber glittered Christmas tree is from Crazy Clark's also. I think it was a few dollars.

 Our small tree is 4 foot high, it's decorated with blue decorations this year and tinsel and coloured lights. I'll try to get a better pic. I also tried snowflake stencils on the window. Hmm, not sure how I feel about those just yet.

 

 

Dan's Christmas Lights

I took a few pics about the front of the house but they aren't great. I'll leave these here for the moment but will come back with better ones when we get a chance.

A Blue Bozzoli Christmas 2012-part 1

It's been a while since I blogged and I apologise for that.
We have been rather busy with school etc. and we have had some good news with Dan's treatment. He has completed his chemo and we will have scan results on Dec 13th, so will update when that happens. In the meantime Dan is well and his recovery from chemo is good so far.

Now, to important issues...Christmas decorating!

I am going to post part 1 of my Christmas decos thus far!

I decided we would be doing a 'blue, white and silver' theme this year. I love the colours, they are fresh and very summery, which is great for our hot summer climate here in Queensland, and if you live in a cold climate then they adapt to look very icy too!

I have been collecting bits and pieces now for a few weeks and have begun to decorate this weekend.
The South East of Queensland has experienced some pretty severe weather this weekend so, decorating has taken a bit of a backfoot. We were going to start our outside light display as well, but, the weather got in the way. So, that blog will come and we have some new lights for that, so I am a bit excited.

Enough chatter, on with the decorating!!!

 

This is my wreath for the front door. I bought it at 'The Christmas Shack' and decorated it with teal blue baubles.

We love the Christmas Shack and you will see some more lights we got from there when I do my blog of our outdoor lights for this year.

https://www.christmasshack.com.au/

(If you can't get to the Shack, try Crazy Clark's, I saw some plain silver wreaths similar but smaller than this one just today.)

 

 

 This display may look similar to one I did last year. I used the same apothecary jar and filled it with blue and silver baubles again. This year I placed it on a white dish and filled with blue beads.

The 'NOEL" sign was from Big W I used this last year also.

 

 

I used my 'star' hurricane vase again and filled it with blue baubles but this year I used silver snowflake coasters to give it a bit of a special touch. I got inspiration for this one from Pinterest.

 

 

Some of you will recognise my birdcage from my previous blogs. I just added some pretty baubles to my pretty birdies to give this shabby decor item a Chrismassy feel.

 

 

I love the way my paper ball display turned out. I went to a sale at Sharnel Dollar's gorgeous house some time ago and found these 6 paper balls for a bargain! I knew they would be perfect for my display. So up they went, then I realised they needed a little 'bling'. So, I added some more of the silver snowflake coasters...super cute!

http://www.sharneldollardesigns.com.au/store/pc/home.asp

 

 

 

And because they look so pretty, here's another shot.

 

Final pic for this part of my decorating blog, this beautiful glassware which I picked up from a Garage Sale site here in the Redlands. I paid $5 for this lot!!! They were a bit grubby, so, a quick rinse and scrub and they came up a treat. Filled with sparkly baubles they look so pretty all gathered together.

 

 

So, there you go, part 1 done! Just to let you know that all of the baubles were purchased from places like Crazy Clark's Discount Stores, KMart and Coles supermarkets. I try to be very frugal with my spending and keep costs to a minimum.

I hope you like what I've achieved so far. If you do, then please leave a comment below. I am happy to answer any questions because I LOVE Christmas decorating and I am happy to share any ideas.

 

For now, bye and I'll be back soon with part 2!

Our Home

I should be doing preparation for the new school term but of course like most teachers I procrastinate. I can assure you I am doing a heap of planning in my head, even as I write this blog! I promise as soon as I have posted this it's straight onto my school work!

I have been wandering this morning as I did my early morning pick up around the house. It always amazes me that even though I do a pick up before I go to bed that there are always things that find their way to spots they don't belong in by morning. Further proof that mischievious fairies do exist! :)

Whilst I wandered I smiled at all my favourite spots about the house that I just love because they contain some of my most treasured memories.

I just wanted to share a few with you. I shall add to this again later...

Oh, BTW, I am a nutter for shabby chic...if you hadn't already guessed.

Our entryway

 Our lounge

 Some drawings I did.

 My favourite nook

 I love candles

This sideboard belonged to my great Grandmother and some of the treasures inside were her's also.

My fav snuggly, from Lorraine Lea Linen

 My Dad restored this old kitchen dresser from a QLDer that was about to be demolished. I'm thinking of painting it white ot pink?

Our guest room, I'm trying out the Parisian feel.

A little nook I'm working on in my bedroom. The doll is Crumpet. A vintage 1970 doll. You can read about in a previous blog.

This rocker belonged to my darling sister. I have many happy memories of nursing my daughter Isabella in this chair. It now resides in our other guest room.

 Our front courtyard in the Winter sun.

Where I love to enjoy a glass of wine.