Walls, walls, walls ...

It's interesting how some kinds of injuries take a day or two to reach their worst. The injuries from the fall I took in Key Largo wasn't too bad  the first 24 hours or so but by Saturday my left foot in particular was suffering! It wasn't until Sunday that the bruising in the foot really showed all around the big toe joint! Anyway, I got to sit still doing little or nothing in order to stay off it and not aggravate it and that gave me time to think about ... our walls, walls, walls!

Well, when I started to write about these, I thought the whole thing about my mom's needlepoint pictures was two or three years ago ... so back checking, I found that the initial emails about them were in late 2011, more like seven and a half years ago. At that time, my cousin Cyndi contacted me about some needlepoint ship flags that my mother had done for her father, my uncle Ted, in the 1980's or 1990's.

There are eight of them and they say: Fair Wind; Fine Line; Good Sail; Snug Port; a single word to each frame. Cyndi wanted to know if I wanted them or should they just go to Goodwill or something. My mother put a great deal of time into creating these, perhaps for Ted & Allene's 50th anniversary in 1995 so yes, I needed to keep them.

Of course, then came the problem of where and how to put them up. They are each quite heavy and just hanging them on a nail was a non-starter, requiring careful placement with molly screws due to their weight. We finally decided the best way to put them up would be to use two long trim pieces, hanging the picture from one and balancing the bottom of the frame against another. We accordingly got the trim pieces and planned the installation ... sometime probably in 2012 or 2013. Well, they say Patience is a virtue and we finally got these up this year, 2019! The longest lived item ever on our to-do list!

Since soon after we moved here, I wanted to put one of my son John's kind of kites up on the walls which in some places are very high. The main problem of course was that I did not have one. It wasn't until last year that John finally designed his own kite and had them for sale. I quickly got one signed by him and his wife and son and after moving a fish I had up there, the kite is now up on the wall and on top of the bookshelf below are three of his winning awards.

Of course, the fish it displaced had a story as well. Back in late 2015 when Geoff was in the hospital recovering from his car wreck, my friend and co-worker Neda and I went down to Flagler Beach for a class that would fulfill one of the work requirements at H&R Block. We went down early to eat down there as it would be too soon to eat here in St Augustine before going down to the class. I think the restaurant we went to was called the Flagler Fish Company but what I do remember is that they had art on the walls including metal sculptures of different fish. I looked up on the wall and there was this grey fish just the coloring of the furniture was I was getting in my living room ... I had to have it. Of course then it sat for a while in the garage waiting for my living room to be done! It ended up placed above the credenza and TV where later I wanted to put the kite. I am thinking of putting it back in that empty space below the kite but then I would have to get something bigger and appropriate to put where it is now.

There has long been the problem of the empty hallway which is a relatively short stretch between the front entry and the master bedroom doorway. a dead empty space. Once or twice I spoke of putting framed pictures up but Geoff really didn't want anything to bang into so the whole concept went on the back burner but then last week was spent with my foot up and not much to do besides contemplate ... hmmmm. We now have a wall hanging, a light weight thin fabric tapestry type thing which awaits the receipt of the custom ordered wooden bar to hang it with. It won't stick out from the wall at all except way high where the bar is and if necessary we can tack the bottom edge. ... problem solved!

Several times including day before yesterday I was sitting here at my computer and a crash resounds through the wall, again. Geoff has had a continuing war with the picture that was hanging on the wall opposite the door into the toilet in the master bathroom. knocking it down and even making dings in the wall ... so, on to Amazon and checking out wall hangings just not as big as what I got for the hallway. Geoff said he wanted something with the sea and storms and such so I pulled about a dozen or so choices and we went through them, choosing the image to the left which comes in a stick on canvas that will go directly on the wall ... hmmm ... hope we can get that up nicely but at least we are being experimental in a less visible location. ... another problem solved and we're running out of walls!