church, to replace the one that got broken yesterday, just on the verge of a triumphant success for Steve and me!
I had been through a couple of months of trying to upload pictures of Kriss and Marisela's wedding with poor quality originals. Between Shutterfly and Snapfish, I was finally able to get three 8 x 10's. The original plan had been to get my favorite portrait done in a 16 x 20 to cover the entire wall space I'd selected, but no dice. My photographer daughter Heather informed me that the picture's resolution was too poor to be blown up that big after she'd examined the wedding photographer's disk...bummer. A lesson learned the hard way--don't be tempted by a low price for your wedding photos! "A workman is worthy of his hire," Matthew 10:10 says.
So I found one double portriat frame at Michael's in an elegant heavy dark wood, and a single one to match, blessedly, "buy one, get one free." Then came repainting the wall, which went well, and making the measurement for the gallery: large frame on top, the smaller one centered below it.
Hanging picture frames isn't the most congenial activity a married couple can participate in, between the wife trying to communicate the vision for the wall space and the husband making sure the pictures will be level. Even though I prefer to "eyeball it," we end up using a carpenter's liquid bubble level. Then there's drilling in the bolts with plastic support where there's no stud. It's a real set-up for tension in the best of cases!
Now imagine working with Steve who still has a good grip of the mechanics of the process, but struggles with details and has to be reminded that he has those skills! We were probably not as prayerful as we should have been, either, I admit. Psalm 127:1a comes to mind here: "Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build it."
Repeatedly measuring with a tape measure--"where's the yardstick?!"-- and shifting the large frame around while we took turns holding it, 1" lines were drawn for the top, bottom and sides of the frame. Dots 3-1/2 " from the top and from each side inward were penciled in on the wall as well. Steve drilled in the bolts and we put up the first picture!
Then we made the proportionately same markings for the smaller frame below. Steve got the next bolts and began to drill while I turned my attention to something else. CRASH! We should have taken the big picture off the wall before drilling, because it bounced off Steve and crashed onto the carpet! The glass was intact, but the frame was splintered, broken apart at each corner!
Not good, not good.
We were disappointed, but made a good recovery, and consoled ourselves by thinking that at least all the bolts were in, so we might as well paint over all the pencil marks. So I touched up the wall with an art gum eraser, a brush, and Navajo White #105. It looks good.
Today at Michael's we asked the young man in the frame section about running a wire on the large frame we had placed in our basket for better stability, and he had a kit right on the endcap. By the way, the identical two-portrait frame was on clearance for $24.99!! Thank you, Lord! Steve and I had prayed for a bargain as we walked into the store.
Lesson learned.
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