Honouring Jack

“My friends,” he wrote, “love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”

His final words embody all the reasons I respected this man. 

With his death, Canada has lost a fierce advocate of all that has made us great - our compassion, our desire for fairness, and our decency.  It is a Canada that is being bullied out of existence by recent political processes and policies but in his person and with his passion, he made this Canada possible again.  He made me believe that we could recapture our ideals and our soul and make Canada a leader on the world stage again.

It was devastating to learn of his death this morning.  Even though he looked so ill when he took his temporary leave from leadership, I was optimistic that he would return in the fall.  After his amazing campaign and the historic NDP victory, it seemed wrong to imagine that Jack wouldn't be around to enjoy being the leader of the official opposition. 

I am thankful to his family for sharing him, especially over this past year.  Despite his illness, he lived his life fully and in that is a lesson for me and maybe for us all.

Optimism may be better than despair but today I will mourn the passing of a great Canadian. 

Thank you Jack and we will miss you.

Before and After Series: Spare Room

How crazy is it that I have a spare room!  In a world where most folks live in a fraction of the space that North Americans occupy, I am so blessed to have so much space.  Of course, the more space, the more the clutter!  I am lovingly called a pack-rat by most.  I believe I am not a hoarder (said with confidence:) but those shows certainly make me re-think holding onto House & Home and Style at Home magazines from 1998!  (I recycled them).

Before:  (I cheated a bit.  This is the mess from the renovations but it is a good foil to the after shot).

After:                                                             

Changes:  new carpet, wood blind and headboard (CL).  The quilt is from Vietnam (http://www.mekong-quilts.org/).  If you need a quilt and want to support local community development and job training, take a look.

As my sister remarked, it looks good enough to come stay in:)  I'm hoping to host as many guests as I can.

Before and After Series: Kitchen

Before:

After:

Changes:  new-to-me appliances, new lighting (CL), new hardware (CL), new flooring (from vinyl to porcelain tile) and no clutter:)

Before and After Series: Foyer

Before:

After:

Changes:  floor - from carpet to porcelain tile; stairs - changed the spindles, added the trim and added a new newel post and a few new-to-me CL finds to decorate.

Renovations Complete!

I've been in the middle of renovations for about five months.  It shouldn't have taken so long but my wonderful contractor turned out to be not so fabulous.  He disappeared (after I'd paid him in full!) with promises to come back to complete the final touches.  He didn't return calls or emails.  I heard he left the country!  I waited several weeks hoping to hear from him.  Finally my sister-in-law referred me to another contractor (thank you!) and he finished the work (poor guy, coming in and finishing work started by someone else - drove him crazy!). 

I thought it might be fun to post before and after photos of the work.  The next few posts will be part of a Before and After series.  It is nice to enjoy the results of so much chaos over such a long period of time.

Here is a video of the chaos: