Arts Blog

Christmas Outtakes

2007-12-01T15:52:00.001-08:00

Warning! Nerd alert. First, a note on gear; scroll down a bit for the more interesting pics.:

Not a professional setup, but I needed lots of light

Taking pictures with dogs is a lesson in patience. In previous years, we did the Christmas pictures by:

Setting the camera on a timer shot
Walking to the camera; fast enough to make the shot, but not too fast or the dogs think it's time to play
Hope for a miracle where the dogs are looking at the camera
Repeat 20 times, take the best of the lot.

This year, we went a bit higher tech. Using some software, a new camera and an old laptop, I was able to set the camera to automagically take pictures every three seconds until we were satisfied. This easily cut the time to get a good picture in half. The winning pic was #24 out of 60.

This was just after starting the process. You can see my shoulder in the bottom left corner.

Callie is resting in preparation

I wasn't wearing a Christmas shirt; blasphemy

4/5

Callie no longer moves so much as she moseys.

This one was almost a contender. Notice who is nearest the 'naughty' stocking.

Half way in, we took a short break. Chicken had to get in one extra shot.

Prepping for round II

Pictures every three seconds means a lot of duds.

I'm not sure if I'm blinking, falling asleep or starting to sing.

Fozzy is thinking about having Chicken for lunch.

This was a close-second; everyone is actually looking

We have a winner! Everyone is looking and everyone is looking happy.

All done. I'm either doing the Macarena or trying to remove Chicken from my shoulder.

GotANewCameraWith12xZoomKTHXBYE

2007-12-01T14:43:00.001-08:00

More Paint

2007-05-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

how do you like the color?

Paint

2007-05-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

Paint decisions...

More Basement

2007-05-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

The solid door was replaced with a glass door, but the stain was darker than the rest of the main house so we had it moved to J's office in the basement. The trim in the basement will be a bit darker than the rest of the house to create a more casual feel... actually it's because the color match wasn't done right, but it sounded fancy didn't it?

The brick arrived for the fireplace on Tuesday.

Mortar

Hearth stone

Limestone mantle

On a side note... I must have planted my bulbs right-side up because they are blooming!!! Yeah me.

Our tile shower is coming along...

Our basement tile was grouted today.

Kitchenette

Bathroom

The fireplace was bricked today; not bad for two people who haven't ever designed a brick anything before (J and I).

Top

Bottom

Here is how that glass door looks in it's final resting place - J's office. Now I just need to come up with a creative way to hide J's unique decorating style as I can no longer close the door to make it go away. : )

More progress on the tile shower (hasn't been grouted yet). The dark squares will have bronze metal pieces inserted later, because silver ones arrived by mistake. Luckily I spotted them before the mortar dried and had the tilers dig them out! EEK.

Shampoo shelves

Fozzy is doing well, but doesn't like the banging. I'm getting really good at working while Foz is burried in my lap.

Callie went to the vet today for shots, but forgot all about it when J bought her a new snake toy. It's a real hit accourding to Callie. I think it's kinda creepy, because it has two heads.

That's all for now...

Our Goings On

2007-04-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

It's been a while... we are juggling our shower tiling and the basement finishing on a daily bases. Between the hours of 8 and 5 our house seems to have the revolving doors of grand central station while J and I do our best to work as productively as possible. Type, think, BANG, conference meeting, BANG... repeat. : )

The drywall arrived on a HUGE truck...

J after spraying paint on the basement ceiling. A preview of J in 40 years.

The basement stairs with art nitch at the landing..

Standing in the family room looking into the kitchenette...

The family room...

The yellow kitchenette... hope we picked the right color!!!

J's chose sage for his office...

Art nitch in hallway...

Bathroom...

J's eye... no reason for this really. : )

Trying to decide on these pictures... any thoughts? The dog and cat in the window (hard to see in picuture) was the determining factor... awww. : )

We painted our bedroom chocolate...

Decorated the front room...

J's chillin' with Foz...

Blah, blah, blah...

Callie being cute...

How about some good news... our contractor began finishing our basement on Thursday.

2007-04-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

The room with the ladder in it will be J's office and the other side will be the family room.

They opened up the staircase as they will be turned to form an 'L' on Monday

This will be the bathroom. The bathtub arrived on Thursday.

Mr. Fooz (as we call him) has been VERY noisey and is continuously making sure things are being done correctly. He also makes sure the contractors give him plenty of

back rubs.

This is our basic basement layout minus a couple of changes.

We have a bathroom layout dilema, so here are our choices. What do you think? The tub is the rectangle on the left and the sink vanity is the rectangle on the upper right. The issue is which way to swing the entry door and where to position the linen closet. Hmm. : )

More Demo

2007-04-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

Just as we suspected... water was running behind the tiles with means rusty nails and mold. Fun Fun, grrr.

Oh Oh, injury.

and blood...

I hope these are as much fun to view as it was to do...

2007-04-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

More Demolition

2007-04-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

Demolition

2007-04-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

We started demo-ing our tile shower last week...

Shannon SMASH!

Tile Shower Deco

2007-03-05T17:19:00.001-08:00

Long story short...

We're re-doing our tile shower. The million (no, the billion) dollar question is, which decorative molding should we use (Pick one):

Monster Mouse

2007-02-28T14:52:00.000-08:00

While eating dinner, we noticed a crazy mouse (it's cold outside) outside the house. Naturally, I took a picture.

2007-01-29T15:33:00.000-08:00

Our furniture for the formal living room has finally arrived! Now, time to paint.

2007-01-29T15:26:00.000-08:00

Callie making her famous snow angles.

2007-01-29T15:21:00.000-08:00

Callie dressed in her ‘favorite stuff’.

Dogs with Pancakes

2007-01-27T16:44:00.001-08:00

Artsy Picture

2007-01-27T14:18:00.000-08:00

Taken on a whim on the way to Wautoma...

Christmas Card Picture Outtakes

2006-12-03T09:37:00.000-08:00

We took pictures in front of the tree (again) for our Christmas cards this year. After taking 25 pictures, we settled on number 17. Here are some highlights:

The first pic; note that the dogs are actually looking at the camera; that was the first and the last time that happened.

Nobody's looking

We decided that the pictures didn't look very good in front of the window (plus the lighting was all off). Shannon adjusts the tree after moving it...

We tried several methods to get the dogs to look at the camera. This was a failed attempt at the "point their heads, then move your hands out of the way" technique.

Everything looks good, but something is missing...

Apparantly, there was something interesting happening over to the side.

We thought Callie would behave better if she had a tennis ball...

... but that didn't work well either.

The best technique turned out to be to take a ton of pictures and hope for the best.

The final product. Note my fancy-schmancy photoshop work with removing the outlet.

Painted Laundry Room

2006-12-01T15:17:00.000-08:00

Shannon spent all day painting the laundry room. The jury is still out on whether the color is good. What to you think?

More again...

2006-11-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

Camping fun...

2006-11-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

Happy puppies...

2006-11-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

More updates...

2006-11-09T17:53:00.000-08:00

Still more...

2006-11-09T17:10:00.000-08:00