Knocked Down & Kicked Around

Life, as we all know, is a series of ups and downs with a few blissful periods that are great where we are happy, and periods that are difficult and painful and everything seems to go wrong.

Sometimes there aren't a lot of big problems in our lives and people are generally leaving us alone and on the other hand we also go through times of loss and pain and confusion.

I've been pretty fortunate in my life compared to many others and even the most difficult trials that I have recently gone through are pretty minor in the grand scheme of things, but all the same the last year or so and especially the last few months have been very difficult for me.

Last January I lost my job after six years as an Assistant Pastor. When things like that happen, a person is pretty vulnerable and fragile and it’s natural to ask yourself some serious questions about your life and your ministry.

You start to wonder if anything that you did while in the role that you were “let go” from had any meaning at all. You begin to question whether the whole thing was just one big mistake.

You wonder as you lay awake at night if you made a difference in any one’s life at all. Was it all just a waste of time? Did you work those years for a ridiculously low salary at about half of what you were making at your previous job, with nothing to show for it in the spiritual world as well as the physical world? Wouldn't that be sad!

Sometimes those little nagging voices start up in your head; you know the ones I mean. “You’re a stupid loser, a failure.” “You can’t get along with anyone, nothing you said or did made any difference what-so-ever! What were you thinking?”

I’m sure I’m not the only one who occasionally hears those nasty, lying voices!

With the amount of depression and suicide and generally unhappy people around, I’m guessing many people hear them when they’re at their most vulnerable, and unfortunately, those voices can be pretty convincing. For some reason they sometimes seem to outweigh the positive, encouraging voices from the real people around us.

Why do we listen to lies when people who love us are telling us the opposite?

I wish I knew.

So I've had my ups and downs over the past few months and I've been very fortunate to have so many wonderful, caring supportive people around me, if you are one of those people, THANK YOU!

As it happens, a week ago Rose (my wife) and I went to see some friends from Master’s Commission (a Christian discipleship school) at a Saturday night service and seeing all those excited, amazing young people worshiping God, got me thinking about some of the wonderful times that Rose and I had with M/C over the years.

It made me sad to think that when they visit Edmonton they don’t go to the church anymore that I was then a part of. So many good things happened through that relationship and the people there will miss out on being a part of that. The good news is that they have forged a new relationship with a different church and new people will get to know them and be blessed through that relationship.

The evening I am writing about was one of those moments when I started to question the meaning of my life and the time I had spent in that church. It was precisely then, that God spoke to me for the first time in a long time and it was an amazing blessing. He started to bring to my mind things that had happened that we had been a part of over the 21 years that I had spent attending and working there.

Faces flashed before my eyes, special events and different ministries, words spoken and prayers answered and lives changed and he gave me a sort of list and I’m going to lay that list out for you here (at the risk of appearing boastful). 

Trust me, I have no reason to boast, if I've been part of anything good in my life it's because I've either been led into it by God or pushed into it by my wife! 

But on this occasion I believe He wanted me to remember and He seemed to want me to also share with you some of those things that have happened over the years that have real meaning, not just here in the physical world but also for eternity in the spiritual world.

Most of these things have happened in the last 10-12 years (I’m a slow starter) as someone once told me, “You’re not a first respond-er” and it’s absolutely true.

Our faith journey was kind of a back burner one for the first few years until we became friends with a couple in the church who’s strong faith, leadership ability and heart for people led us into new things, God used them to draw us out and help us to see what our own role was.

In 2002 Rose went on a mission trip to El Salvador and I went the following year on a trip to build a church in a little village where the child scholarship program was centered.

We were already sponsors of several kids and I was able to meet one of the little girls while I was there, surprisingly I got very emotional seeing her in person and over the years since then Rose and I have personally sponsored anywhere from 2-10 kids every year since 2002.

While working at the church, one of my responsibilities was administering the scholarship project from the Canadian side and I was happy to see it steadily grow over the years. There are many generous people choosing to change the lives of kids and their families through education, some of those kids even continued on to high school and university.

Next came our involvement in the Alpha Course, an introduction to Christianity course that ran evenings over 11 weeks and includes a weekend “away”.

We both took to it right away and it was a joy to see people come to faith through the course time after time. At first I was a table host, (who, me?) leading the discussion but after a couple of years I found myself, along with Rose, leading the entire venture. “I’m the director but you’re just the course administrator” we would kid each other.

Since then we've led the course something like 20 times with somewhere between 600 and 700 people taking the course and with dozens of people coming to faith and giving their lives to Jesus. Others, just like us, became table hosts and shared their faith around those Alpha tables, seeing their own lives change as they gave their time and energy to bless others.

Over the years I made plenty of mistakes, letting people volunteer to be a part of the course when I knew they weren't suited for it (it’s hard to say no!) and actually having to fire someone who just simply didn't get it. Well to be honest, it was a joint decision but Rose dropped the axe.

My big mouth got me into trouble a few times of course, saying things I shouldn't have or not knowing what to say when I should have spoken, but all in all, the courses went well and many lives were changed for the better.

Rose and I had a close connection with Moose Lake Gospel Camp over the years, going to many “work bees” and painting just about anything that didn't move out of the way. One summer we renovated “the boy’s dorm” rebuilding the wall that had a bunch of holes in it, and building shelves for storage and of course painting. We adopted a cabin, fixing it up with a fridge and table and a few amenities from home. They were good years and the camp had a profound impact on our own kids and Rose’s sister’s kids who came out to family camp with us many times.

For the past 11 years we've been involved in “connection groups” at the church, leading and/or hosting the groups in our home many times. Usually we would alternate hosting a group with leading the Alpha course because trying to do them both at the same time was just too much; we learned that the hard way!

Over the years we've been involved with leading about 12 groups, having somewhere around 100 or so people in our home (in groups of 8-12 at a time) and also leading in the homes of others.

Working at the church and being part of Alpha and small groups gave us the opportunity to visit dozens of people in hospital or at home in a crisis and Rose was always glad (or at least willing) to come along with me on many of those occasions.

Working at the church also gave me the opportunity to pray with complete strangers who would walk in off the street or who would just randomly call a church looking for help, people looking for compassion or prayer or who were simply confused about life and about God. 

Sometimes these people were obviously unbalanced, mentally ill and tormented by something, perhaps even demonized and usually those calls would somehow come to me.

I did my best to give good advice, “have you seen a doctor? Are you on any medications? I will be happy to talk to you and pray for you but……see a doctor and take your medications!” Many times I would talk to people and then refer them to a professional counselor and I still sometimes pray for particular people that I remember even now.

For many years, once a month, Rose made 20 bagged lunches at home to be delivered to the We-Care inner city ministry for the working poor and homeless people downtown. I know that those meals made a difference; they showed God’s love to people who really needed it.

There were some amazing special events or occasions over the years, I’ll never forget the Community Day we did at Evansdale where we brought the Watoto Children’s Choir in to perform in the school Gym. As the “Pastoral Intern” I had lots of time on my hands and with my connection to Evansdale School, (I was then volunteering in the Kindergarten Class Friday mornings) I was assigned with planning the whole event.

My planning chart from our Watoto Choir - Community Day

It turned out to be an amazing success and I will always remember that day fondly, seeing the unabashedly Christian choir giving their testimonies and singing about Jesus in the school gym in front of a crowd of hundreds of adults and children, many of whom were Muslim or other faiths.

The secret to getting them there was giving away several free bikes at the end of the concert, sneaky but effective (I can’t take the credit; someone else came up with that one).

Bringing Financial Peace University to the church was the brainchild of my wife Rose, talking to Kerri of M/C she heard that they had done the course in Chilliwack and when she mentioned it to me we were able to present it for the church here. It was well attended and I think understanding debt and money management helped many people, including us!

Another contribution of my wife Rose was bringing "Love and Respect" to my attention. She tried it out on me first and convinced that it is an effective marriage ministry tool, we brought it to leadership and it was decided to present it for the congregation. We really believe that God has a plan for marriages and this book/seminar presents it in an effective way. I know it has helped our own marriage and many others as well.

Over the six years that I worked there I preached about 50 times and I am very proud of the fact that I never knowingly said an untrue word from the pulpit, which is perhaps not always the case in the world of preaching. 

I guess it’s just my personality but it really rubs me the wrong way when I hear (or myself speak) poorly researched, glibly uttered, sloppily written sermons.

A Video that I made for a sermon a few years ago, it's kind of fun!

On the other hand I know that my own work was often too rigidly prepared and there was little room left for the Holy Spirit to get a word in edgewise.

If I had to characterize my idea of a good sermon, it would be "God's Truth" presented honestly, simply and without the taint of cynical manipulation.

Every second month for the past several years, Rose and I also had the privilege to deliver a sermon and to visit with the elderly at a local Extendicare residence. It was fun spending time with some really great people, even though a few of them snoozed through the preaching!

I think that my favourite time of the year was always the visit from the Master’s Commission team in May. One year when someone was away, I was put in charge of planning the weekend and I took it very seriously because I know how much they need and want to be challenged during their “outreach tour”.

Over the years that I was involved planning their time in Edmonton we sure kept them busy with some meaningful work. We took them to The Kid’s Kottage several times, The Mustard Seed Church, and on one memorable occasion, The House of Refuge, downtown. That is one very gritty, inner city ministry but the kids seemed to love it, they cleaned all day, organized the clothing and food stores and then made supper for 60-80 people, served it and did a worship service and testimony time.

Another time a missionary couple living in El Salvador mentioned on the phone to Rose that their rental house here in Edmonton was trashed and they didn't know what they were going to do about it. They needed to get it cleaned up and repaired so new renters could go in, but they couldn't afford to come home and look after it. It just so happened that Rose mentioned the situation to me, and I arranged to have the M/C team spend a full day working on the house, it’s amazing what 30 young people can accomplish in a day!

We loved hosting the M/C teams every year, billeting them in our house, seeing their presentations at church and trying to make their visit to Edmonton meaningful and rewarding, both for the team, our church family and the organizations that they helped out while they were here.

The list goes on and on; looking after the church building, (keeping the crawl space free of water was always fun) working on finances and budgets (those were some challenging times!), singing on the worship team and looking after the sound department, (unofficially of course). 

Other tasks kept me busy, such as administering the children’s ministry department, running a photo club, shoveling snow and helping with picnics and special events. Rose and I also loved coming up with ideas for the "Ladies Silent Auction"(remember the "secret of the sufrito"?) 

We also enjoyed many, many Sunday afternoon lunches out and dinners at our house with different people from church and the social aspect of ministry added a lot to our lives.

Even though our relationship with this particular church has abruptly ended, we will always have many fond memories of the people we came to know and love over the years. Thanks God for all of these fond memories and for bringing so many great people into the lives of our family!

It seems that God knew what I needed to remember about my time there and He also knows what I need to forget.

If you are still with me, I apologize for this rather long post and for what might seem to be a self-aggrandizing, prideful display on my part, but I honestly felt that it was something that I needed to articulate and share. 

If you have been part of a church for a while and you’re not involved in some kind of ministry, you’re missing out! We are all called on to be part of the ministry of the church, to be the hand of Jesus extended to the world, to show love and compassion and mercy.

I definitely needed a reminder that even when relationships sour, the work still has meaning, it isn't wasted just because “people are funny”.

The truth is we’re all a little funny and if we can’t take a little abuse for the team, we’re not very sincere in our faith.

Another thing that we all need to remember is that we can only do what we can do, after that it's up to God. 

We need to be willing to be used for His purposes. We can put ourselves out there, pray for guidance and direction and do what needs to be done, but in the end and especially when it comes to spiritual matters, it's God who makes it happen. 

Always remember to enjoy the journey and the people!

Update: Rose and I have found a new church to connect with and since we started attending we have led a home group several times, helped with the Alpha course 3 times now and met some lovely new people. Once again, we are truly blessed!

Renos With Rosie: This is Crazy!

A couple of weeks ago we took off for a ten day getaway to Hawaii, but as usual we did things just a little bit differently than perhaps I would like, or that might seem reasonable and sane.

Don't ask me how these things happen, I was just minding my own business, trying to keep out of trouble, (off of my wife's radar) and wham!

Our dream vacation to the lovely Hawaiian island of Maui was all booked, it should have been a nice relaxing week of packing and getting those last minute things looked after before our trip.

But how did we spend the week leading up to our flight early on a Saturday morning you ask?

We decided to refinish the kitchen cabinets! Crazy huh?

My lovely wife Rose had been dropping a few subtle hints about the far in the future (I assumed) upcoming project to refinish the cabinets. My early warning radar was apparently faulty though or I would have run for the hills at the first sign of trouble.

Rose had been talking about this miraculous "Transformations" kit that her friend Stacy uses when he renovates kitchens and she had actually already purchased a kit and set it out prominently on the counter for a few weeks. I think she uses the technique of slowly moving it around the house, placing it close to things that I like, a plate of cookies, my book, my microwave beany thing, so that I eventually loose my fear and don't react quite so strongly when she finally springs the trap.

It sounded reasonable, "we have all week, it's not hard, it will look soooooo good!"

I read the instructions, I watched the video, she talked it up how Stacy does it all the time and how it just transforms the whole room, what could go wrong?

What indeed?

If you've been following the Reno's with Rosie series you know that we are in the midst of a series of minor renovations around the house. Since the new year we have:

Repainted most of the house.
Scraped the old popcorn stipple off of the kitchen ceiling. 
(Popcorn and a movie)
Rebuilt an old table that has been in the family for a long time. 
(A table's tale)
Built a "Gallery Wall" for some of my photographs from Italy. 
(Creating the curator wall)
Started on re-tiling the fireplace hearth.
Removed part of the cabinets in the kitchen to open up the room.
And now, we've re-finished the kitchen cabinets. 

It's been a lot of fun and a lot of work and when I look into my crystal ball I see a lot more work on the horizon, a lot more!

Instead of telling you all about the process, (who's got that kind of time?) I will give you quick overview and post some pictures so you can see for yourself what we've been up to.

1. Empty out all of the cabinets and drawers.
2. Remove all cabinet doors, 20 doors plus 4 drawers and remove all hardware.
3. Clean and paint the interiors of all the cabinets.
4. Wash and "de-glaze" all of the cabinet doors and surfaces.
5. Prime all of the cabinet doors and surfaces.
6. Glaze all of the cabinet doors and surfaces.
7. Protector coat on all cabinet doors and surfaces, put it all together and blah, blah blah......
I'm bored writing all of this, it was a lot of work!

We worked every night all week until at least 10 or 11 o clock except Friday night, we finished in the afternoon, had some friends over that evening and finally packed after they left for the flight the next morning at 8:30 am.

We had some friends house-sit (cat sit is more like it) so of course there was all of the preparation for that as well, but we did have a pretty good time in Maui.

Everywhere we go we attract rain but on the plus side, the hills of Maui are much greener than they usually are this time of year! And, we saw lots of rainbows!

Before-during the removal of the "floating" cabinet, with the old paint colour.

2 drawers, one with base coat, one with glaze.

The old beige "distressed look" and the new, gross grey base coat.

Cabinets painted inside and waiting for the glaze and the topcoat etc.

Putting on the glaze (in my pajamas)

Finished: except for the floor and the baseboards and the.......

Nothing to it! Next project is probably the tile floor, I can't wait for that, NOT!
But who knows, maybe I won't have to do it if I keep my wits about me or maybe I'll find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, here's hoping.

Rainbow over Lahaina, Maui.

Click this link if you want to experience all of the fun and excitement of Cabinet "Transformations" for yourself.
http://cabinets.rustoleumtransformations.ca/

Update: No, I didn't manage to avoid tiling the floor, but the good news is that I think it turned out pretty good. Check it out below.

The Value of Courage

Recently I have been thinking a lot about the value of courage. I think as a society and a culture we do value courage to some extent but I also wonder if part of that is just idealism. Perhaps we believe that we aught to value courage, that courage is admirable, that courage should be encouraged and rewarded in some way.

In the spring of 1989 after hundreds, perhaps thousands of protesters were killed by government forces in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, the world watched in fascination as one man on his own confronted what seemed like the entire Chinese military machine .

I love the fact that this lone man is carrying shopping bags in both hands as he steps out in front of a long line of tanks and stops them cold.

He wasn't armed, except possibly with a bag of rice and whatever else he had picked up at the grocery store, but he saw those tanks designed for war rumbling through the streets of his city and he knew it was wrong and so he stepped off the curb and did something about it.

To a tank, one person is not an obstacle, or even a speed bump, and it could have ended quite differently, but the tanks stopped and the world watched and took heart from the outrageous courage of one man who dared to oppose the powerful.

It was a small thing really.

The tanks stopped, but after a few minutes some people pulled the man away and the tanks moved forward again as though nothing had happened and the man literally disappeared from history. 

To this day his identity and fate remain unknown and perhaps it's better that way. The "tank man" could have been any one of us on any given day, when we've "had enough" or when we just happen to be the one person in a position to stand up and make a difference.

Practically, it was a small thing and lasted only for a few minutes, but as a focal point and rallying cry after the massacre of the day before, it brought the world to the edge of their seats and taught the value of courage to a whole new generation.

It should not be lost on us that the obedience that is so ingrained in military forces and that those in power, whatever their industry or level or political stripe value so highly, prevented the simple expedient of the next tank in line simply driving around the first stopped tank. 

Obedience has it's place. The chain of command has it's place. No-one wants chaos.

But the problem seems to be that courage often leads to conflict, it often makes it uncomfortable not only for the courageous but especially for those they oppose. 

Usually it is those who have the power and have either forgotten their responsibilities or just become corrupted by that same power who the courageous must oppose and often there are unfortunate consequences when the powerful react. 

When we have the power and are in the wrong and we know it, or we are simply in love with power, prestige or position, we are likely to react with anger, fear, greed, and a desire to shut down any opposition before it threatens us. When this happens we don't care about what is right and if we still do, we are very good at convincing ourselves that our position, however wrong, is actually the right one.

I admire courage. Lately I have seen firsthand the courageous opposing the powerful and it's the courageous person who sees wrong being done and opposes it, who I admire. 

It's easy to go along with the crowd, to get swept away with "group think" and to convince ourselves that we are in the right, but it takes genuine courage to step away from the "consensus" and think for ourselves. 

When all eyes are on us, whether it's just the eyes of a room full of people or the eyes of the whole world, the temptation, the pressure, is to say, "never mind" and take our bags of groceries and go home, having done nothing and having to live with that. 

And that is a tragedy.

Watch any cartoon or read any comic book or look at actual human history for that matter and you will see that except for how courage can be exploited by them, villains always value obedience over courage. It seems that those in the wrong see courage as a threat because courage combined with clear thinking will inevitably lead to confrontation.

If someone sees that wrong is being done or is being contemplated and they understand that they not only can but should intervene and they have courage, they will act. 

The alternative is unthinkable.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

Reno's With Rosie - Goodbye popcorn ceiling!

The day started out okay with a nice cup of coffee, reading a book, lounging around in my pj's, but.....little did I know.

After a while I heard the sound of busyness coming from the kitchen, a lot of busyness and not the pleasant baking or cooking sounds that foreshadow some kind of deliciousness eventually making it's way onto the table. These noises had a very different feel to them, a bit like that hollow feeling of anxiety (or outright terror) that the "dum dum, dum dum" sound from the movie "Jaws" produces.

The sound of furniture being dragged around produces a similar feeling in me and probably in many other husbands out there. I find myself thinking, "oh, oh, this is going to be expensive!" or "So much for relaxing!" or "I think I'll drive to Jasper for the day." I think it's time I started listening to that voice more carefully.

Back to this particular day - after a while Rose popped her head in and very kindly offered to make me a breakfast sandwich, "you better have breakfast, we're going to take the popcorn stipple off of the kitchen ceiling this morning."

"Huh?" was my clever reply. "Sure, I just watched a video on You-Tube about it and it looks really easy. (Curses to you, You-Tube, what did you have to go and do that for?)

"I left it on the computer, come and watch it." Rose called out, "I'll get things ready and we can do it together!" 
"OOOOHHHH, how fun." said my inner voice, my outside voice wisely said nothing.

But I could see the writing on the wall and actually I was excited about getting rid of the 35 year old gross, greasy, smelly popcorn stipple that should never have been sprayed onto any ceiling, let alone a kitchen!

So I surrendered gracefully and dutifully watched the video filled with some good but obvious suggestions: spray ceiling with water, but not too much! Wear a dust mask, put down a drop cloth, don't damage the ceiling, hold putty knife at 30 degree angle, catch scrapings in a paint tray, etc, etc. 

"Hey, it's not brain surgery buddy!"

4 hours later - it was all, "wow, that looks great, but I'm pooped!" It took a few tries and a little compromise to find a good system for us but we settled on this: Rose sprays the water and wipes excess off the walls, I climb up and scrape the ceiling emptying the tray into the bag that she holds for me and then I go and rest while she sprays the next section and so on.

The hanging cabinet is coming down.

The biggest conflict was trying to get her to wear a dust mask, it went something like this: Rose - "I (cough, cough) don't, (cough, cough) need one, this house is (cough, cough) only 35 years old, there's no asbestos!" Me - "you need to wear one, look, I'm wearing one, didn't you hear him in the video, there could be asbestos, at least keep out of the kitchen while I'm scraping!"

But eventually she found an old one and put it on, (the top of her head) but it finally found it's way down to her mouth and that made me happy, she looked so cute.

We ended up scraping about 20 pounds of stipple off of the ceiling and it really brightened up the room. Last week on my day off we took down a floating cabinet that hung right over the counter, blocking a lot of light and making it hard to properly make use of the counter top. That made a huge difference and really let the light in and made the kitchen look more open and modern. 

A few weeks ago we did the gallery wall in the living room and converted an old coffee table into a dining table, (see previous blog posts) and painted about half of the house. Rose also got a hold of an old leaning shelving unit at the Re-store that we mounted in the hallway and now holds some of our antique book collection and some old cameras of mine.

So all in all, the renovations and redecorating are coming along nicely.

Last week we were lucky enough to have a friend in the machine shop business make us a cool piece of decor from an old gear that came out of a big truck transmission and it looks great in the living room! It kind of matches the huge train station style clock that we mounted over the mantle. 

Another interesting, (and weird) bit of decor that we added recently is my dad's old collection of bowling pins and bowling balls, I would call them, "quirky but cool." My father Ron owned "Continental Engineered Bowling Supplies" way back in the sixties and we kept a few things from that era so it's fun to be able to display them now in a place of honor. 

Future projects: as soon as we can get a hold of a big enough tile cutter we've got a whole bunch of tiling to do on the hearth in the living room, the kitchen floor and the bathroom floor and the tub surround, so we have that to look forward to, "Yay, Not!"

But the truth is, it's kind of fun to get these things done and they're usually not as bad as my overactive imagination makes them out to be, thanks to my lovely, creative wife. 

But when she married me, little did she know...... 

Reno's With Rosie - Creating the Curator Wall (With 2024 Updates)

If it isn't decorating magazines or pinterest, it's television or just talking to someone about what they're doing that inspires my wife Rose. She's always thinking. First comes the inspiration, then the planning, then dropping little hints around the house, "running it by me" just a little bit at a time so I won't get alarmed and the "fight or flee" instinct won't become active. 
Apparently it's a delicate balance.

As for me, usually I have no idea what's going on, I'm just minding my own business and then...wham o! And I have apparently agreed to some kind of expensive renovation, decorating project, major purchase, or vacation, somehow without even being aware of the fact that a decision was in the process of being made!

Oh well, mostly it works itself out and every once in a while I do exercise my veto vote, but not without careful deliberation, at least 5 seconds anyway. Rose gets her own veto vote as well so don't worry, we are an equal partnership (mostly, with a lot of zig-zagging back and forth).

But this particular project was really an excellent idea and it took no convincing at all. I took one look at the picture of the "curator wall" in Rose's magazine and I was on board.

The finished art wall.

After our trip to Italy in 2013, I have been itching to get some of my photographs printed, mounted and displayed around the house. I had already printed a bunch of calendars that turned out pretty well and I had enjoyed some success entering some images in the St. Albert Photo Club monthly competitions in November. One image of the snail or Momo staircase from the Vatican Museum won first place in digital images and another of a woman walking through the early morning mist in Piazza San Marco won second in printed images. Pretty heady stuff, let me tell you!

So when Rose mentioned her idea for showcasing my work, I jumped at the chance. Our first task was to find a suitable piece of galvanized pipe and the mounting flanges to get it up on the wall and properly supported. I looked around and finally found a nice, 6' piece of 1/2" galvanized pipe as well as the elbows and mounting flanges.

Galvanized pipe mounted on the wall from which the artwork hangs.

Meanwhile, Rose had been working on selecting and cleaning up some frames we had recently taken down when we repainted the house. She marked out an area on the floor approximating the size of the wall area we had to work with and we laid out the frames into the most pleasing arrangement we could come up with. 

We didn't want to spend a lot of money on new frames or new mats so she re-painted some of the old mats and painted select parts of the old frames, getting rid of any gold accents and replacing it with silver or black.

Frames with old artwork laid out on the floor.

Next was the hard part for me, choosing what to print, finding good images that told a bit of a story about our trip to Italy. We had this great long narrow frame that had a space for a 12"x36" image and I decided to crop a vertical shot of a man walking up a steep lane in the rain with a bright blue umbrella. It was shot in one of our favorite places in Italy, the town of Belagio on Lake Como in Northern Italy. We both loved the pop of blue and the wet cobblestone steps leading up to the bright opening at the top of the image where there was perhaps a little sun filtering through and illuminating the yellow walls.

Hanging the Images.

Most of the other images weren't hard to decide on. We both love the image of the grand canal in Venice from the foot of the Pont del Accademia with the blue gondolas in the foreground and the sun rising over Piazza San Marco and the Santa Maria della Salute Church.

We printed it in 24"x18"  at London Drugs (along with all of our other printing) and they did a great job. We went with 2 11"x 14" images along the top, the one on the left was taken in Rome, we had just arrived after a bit of a kerfuffle at the train station and then a mix-up picking up our keys and a rude person at the gelateria. While Rose kindly waited in line for some delicious gelato, I listened to the cello playing, tuxedo wearing busker in the most picturesque little alley staircase, it was quite magical and I took a couple of quick pictures (after depositing a few euros in appreciation).

Also in the top center is another shot of Venice taken on a misty morning on one of the smaller canals that criss-cross the city. Our first morning in Venice we woke up to some gorgeous fog blanketing the city and I loved it! On the top right side is a smaller shot of the ceiling in the Pantheon with a nice little beam of light shining through the 27 foot wide oculus. What an amazing building, we visited several times at different times of the day and it was always beautiful. 

Below that is another image from Rome, this one was taken in the Capitoline Museums but I don't remember who it is. The one below it on the right is a fairly modern statue built into the hillside in the town of Monterosso al Mare, Cinque Terre, Italy. This statue called Il Gigante, was built from concrete in 1910 but rough seas and allied bombs during WW2 have left this image of Neptune holding the waves at bay looking pretty forlorn and shabby. We both loved finding the statue there at the end of the beach and we visited it several times (gelato in hand) during our 4 days in Monterosso.

The living room with the couch half finished, but the art wall complete! - 2013

A few years have passed since we put up our Italy photographs and since then we have changed them out twice. The first time we changed it in 2018 to photographs from our Eastern Canada trip that we did with our trailer.

Eastern Canada scenes except for one of the Grand Canal and one of California - 2018

Then in 2024 Rose tired of those images and in an effort to bring the forest into our living room we replaced them again with a mix of B.C. and Alberta forest scenes.

Western Canada forest scenes 2024

In the photo of the 2013 Italy photographs up above a ways, you may notice the partly reupholstered couch. Here it is in late 2024 now and Rose has just ordered fabric to once again re-cover (for the 3rd time) a very comfortable, durable and well loved sofa.

Time just keeps marching on and while some things do change, some things (like that sofa frame) still stay the same.