Blog Archives - Anita Mae Draper

May Meeting at Keepers

5/31/2012

On May 14th, I carpooled with several other writers from the Regina area and headed north for the monthly meeting of the Saskatchewan Romance Writers. Usually the meetings are held in Saskatoon which is 1.5 hrs northwest of Regina (2.5 hrs from me). Twice a year however, the northerners come down and we meet at Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge in Davidson which is halfway between the two cities.

Keeper's is a delightful restaurant as it appeals to all tastes. You walk into a small cafe area with the lounge on the left. But straight ahead is the restaurant part where the following photos were taken. Although we walk through this area to get to our meeting room, we once had a huge crowd and ate out here among the memorabilia. I really enjoy the atmosphere in this room. It wasn't always like this, however, but I'll show you what it used to look like after I show you what it looks like now.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

To orientate yourself, where I'm standing in front of the green-clothed table, our meeting room is through the door behind the hanging quilt, and the restrooms are hidden behind the wall along with a couple privacy nooks.

Let's go for a tour starting on the far left of the above photo...

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

Enter through the gate into an eclectric world of antique and vintage memories. From 19th century hatboxes to 1950 formica tables, the room has a soothing aura of simpler times.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

The standing cream separator with its cast iron base looks off-balance due to a missing a bowl, yet still adds character in the uncrowded room.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

On the wall, a bucksaw and sock drier. A melange of goods from an axe and andiron to a coffee pot and jug sit on the shelf. And artwork showing a motorcylist and his machine on the table. What a strange mix.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

Two 6 foot pews make up this dining area. Someone with a sense of humour tucked a young boy in the corner as if he misbehaved. On the right is the green covered table we saw in the first photo.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

This interesting little nook is hidden behind the interior wall. We pass it every time we leave our meeting room on the way to the restroom. Notice the hame hanging on the left wall as I'll refer to it later.

The Legion Nook at Keeper's Restaurant & Lounge, Davidson, SK

If I turn around, I'm looking at this 2-sided nook which is located behind the military man you'll see in a bit. It's fitting that the articles on the wall - seen also in the photo below - are war memorabilia.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

If you're wondering about the article on the left in the above 2 photos, if I'm not mistaken they are aviator pants.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

In the above photo look for the hame hanging on the wall and you'll see what I mean about a nice little nook. And then there's the 'military' nook behind this uniform although I'm not sure to which airforce it belongs.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

Here's a close-up of the artistry above wall partitions. Made from sock dryers and the cast iron legs of old schooldesks, it's functional and very original.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

The quilt pattern eludes me at the moment, but I think it has something to do with a fan. I really like the way the colour of the ceiling is picked up in the quilt and the chairs.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

This table is to the right of the green covered table in the top photo, but I can see the set-up in anyone's dining room. There's also a table ensemble between this one and the quilt but it was occupied at the time I was taking photos.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

We're back at the green covered table again. The white-gated entrance is on our right and if you look ahead, more nooks. Don't mind the Christmas lights. I asked about them and other seasonal decorations and the server said the owner was too busy to take them down. Methinks the owner just likes Christmas.

'The Coal Bin' at Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

I think 'The Coal Bin' is my favourite nook of all because it's enclosed with 3.5 walls for that very private feeling. Although you can't see it here, a coal skuttle and scoop sits on the floor by my left foot.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

This nook has an outside exit, but they've closed it off and put an image behind the screen door to give you the country feeling. I actually feel like I'm on a verandah - what a great place to sit with an iced tea. And yet the things on the wall make me think of a kitchen. The Christmas lights spoil the mood, but overall, it's another great nook for a tete-a-tete.

Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK, circa 2012

And this is the final corner because to the right is the entrance with the white gate. Have you figured out yet why it's called Keeper's?

Now, if you liked what you saw, give credit to the owner because this is what it looked like when she bought the place...

Old seating area before new owner turned it into Keeper's Restaurant and Lounge, Davidson, SK.

Not only is the ambiance of this restaurant unique, but the food is plentiful and delicious. I really enjoy our meetings because of those 2 reasons, but the people I come here to meet - the Saskatchewan Romance Writers.

If you liked my little tour, let me know and I'll pass your comments on to the owner. I'd really like to let her know her effort is appreciated.

If you had a chance to eat at Keeper's, which table or nook would you choose?

Switching Website Hosts

5/15/2012

I should've been writing, but...

One of the my self-appointed jobs is maintaining our church website and blog. Since I created it, it makes sense that I'd be the one to keep it up. And I enjoy doing it as long as the internet is working and my laptop cooperates. When I started the website, I chose Bravenet as the host based on it's ease of use. That's if you know HTML coding. I sort of did because 3 yrs ago, I took an on-line course at a community college on the western side of the province. It taught me the basics and gave me enough confidence to start up a church website. After 2 years, however, I got tired of counting divs. One too many, not enough, or misplaced, would throw the whole page out of whack and sometimes it took hours to figure out where I went wrong.

Here's the header for the best layout I could find for our church...

Original Church on the Hill Website Header

I chose the above header and theme because it was simple and effective. What I didn't like about it was that every week when I changed the Bible verse, I had to do it on each website page, although I was using CSS programming with the HTML. Over time, I began to feel that this banner was impersonal. Yes, it showed the cross where Jesus suffered, but our church is more than that. Was grey stone giving the right message to someone looking at our website and wondering if they'd feel at home in our church?

Then I found Weebly which offers a wonderful array of choices for a website. You start with a basic layout and add elements to your heart's content. My website here is Weebly and I've had such fun creating it. You only see half the pages too, since the rest are hidden and I've only given some people the key to unlock them. The more I worked with Weebly, the faster I realized how beneficial it would be to our church.

Still, it took a lot of prayer because I needed to know what God envisioned as a banner for His church. After several passes at the Weebly layouts, I found this one...

Mock-up of new Weebly layout including banner photo taken at church

If you're not sure what you're looking at, it's the layout on a mock-up of our home page. The banner was just thrown in to see if it would work. It's a photo of the interior decor we have of the two back corners of the dias. It would need some work to fit in nicely, but was doable.

I displayed the layout at the church annual business meeting and after some discussion on the 'grunge' aspect, got the go ahead to do what I thought best. What my heart told me was that this layout - with the peeling wallpaper and broken sheetrock - was like that because the greenery was pushing through.

In John 15:1, Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so
that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you." And the verses continue talking about the vine, the fruit, and love of your fellow man.

I assumed God laid those verses on my heart because I thought of them everytime I looked at this layout. The other thing that appealed to me was that unlike the perfectly cut stonework of the original layout, this one felt warm and imperfect - just like me. The actual building we meet for services in is well-kept and clean with not a single peeling wall. The people who attend our church are clean and take care of themselves. But every single one of us is a sinner inside, and I think that's what I feel with this layout. Jesus is in our hearts and we need to feel Him bursting through to show us He still cares for us, blemishes and all.

With the help of Deb Harkness, my go-to gal for artistic endeavours, I ended up with this banner to use as the layout header:

We still display a cross, but it's an artistic iron one instead of cold, grey stone. We have a vase that looks like it's 2,000 years old which works well with the life of Jesus. And we have the vine. All this taken from the front of our church. Perhaps it's a bit too white/clean, but overall, I really like the effect.

I managed to complete the home page and a few other pertinent pages by the time our Bravenet contract expired. One day we were live with one host, the next day we were live with another, domain name and all. With so many possibilities, I'm still working on the new site, though.

Of course the drawback to changing over the site was the backlog it put on my writing activities which have their own deadlines. But I'm catching up. And although I dislike taking time away from my writing for other things, I know that if I make time for God's work, He'll bless me with more time for mine.

You can check out the new Church on the Hill website if you want. Just remember...like all things created by God and for God, it's a work in progress.

Do you have a website? What kind, and do you do the maintenance yourself?