I like my sports stuff. Photos, cards, jerseys… you name it, I’ve got a few. My favourite piece for years has been an 8×10 Gerry Cheevers signed for me when he was in town for a Vancouver Giants Legends Night— dude, CHEEVERS! Two Stanley Cups, the 1974 Canada Cup, a stint in the WHA, and that iconic mask, are you kidding me? This guy is the very epitome of old timey hockey. He’s even got his own three-chord proto-punk song, for crying out loud.
Mrs Pucked in the Head isn’t so wild about having 8x10s and pucks littered about the place, however, even if they have been scribbled upon by ageing professional athletes. I have to pick and choose what goes up on the wall, and what goes into storage. (Sure, I’m a sucker for cutesy pictures of our daughter, but we’ve got plenty of those photos around the rest of the house. I can moon over her adorableness in just about any other room, at pretty much any time, so I stamp this room with my own personal clutter, thank you very much.)
Since I started running last year, for example, I’ve managed to assemble a fistful of finisher medals from 10k races, half marathons and that one bloody full marathon I did back in May. Throw a few of those on the curtain rod, and they look all right. Add some hockey memorabilia and a small collection of tribal masks acquired during various vacations, and you’ve got a cosy little office space.
I should get this out of the way: Canvas N Decor offered a 12×18 canvas to Pucked in the Head for review purposes. I chose a photo that I took at a Vancouver Giants game during the 2014-15 season for display at PITH headquarters, and BOOM! Tyler Benson now hangs betwixt Roberto Luongo and Gerry Cheevers in my home office. Whether you have some sports pics to show off, want to show off some family shots or custom print a few holiday snaps, the website currently has a 50% promotion going on. Order two or more pieces, and the price drops even more.
It’s probably good my dear wife limits me to a couple of walls in the closest thing we’ve got to a man cave — frankly, I’m somewhat of a hoarder when it comes to souvenirs and trinkets. Down in the bowels of Pucked in the Head (otherwise known as the crawlspace under our townhouse), I’ve got umpteen boxes of pictures, hockey cards, pucks, CDs, DVDs, board games and other such collectibles from my youth. And by youth, I mean I still come home with backpacks full of gak just about every time I leave the house. Let’s just say that it’s nice to pick up a few things like this that offer to do more than just gather dust. I’ll be damned if the canvas doesn’t do a bloody good job of showing off my photography.
As you can see, I’ve chosen to highlight the distant past (Cheevers), the recent past (Canucks-era Luongo) and the future (Vancouver Giants marquee forward Tyler Benson, who enters his draft year this season). I’ve yet to decide whether or not to ask Benson to throw his John Henry on this particular shot, so I can’t speak to its ability to accept or keep a Sharpie signature for any length of time.
What I can tell you is that you should use a high resolution photo to get the best results. Don’t throw a blurry iPhone picture or a Facebook profile pic at Canvas n Decor hoping for the print to look as good on the wall as it does on your computer screen.
But enough about that. You can take advantage of sale prices and free shipping at your own leisure. What I want to know is this: what memorabilia do you have in your home? Is it just sports stuff, or like me do you have a few mementos from your travels, too? What makes your space, you know, your space?
