Arts Blog

More of Shannons Art

It's made out of brown kraft paper.

Shannon's Art Project

Christmast Outtakes 2008

Notice that the last post is over a year ago. Don't feel bad, nothing really happened in 2008.

We used the same rig as last year. PSRemote, Canon S5, generic tripod. This time, we took 64 pictures and #45 was the winner.

Lining everything up. We started off wondering why we couldn't get the entire fireplace to fit, then we realized that we had to rotate the camera...

Shannon setting up the ottomans (ottomen?).

Callie needed some "attention" before starting.

Shannon checking if she needs a lint brush. 0012_tn

Practice shot.... something's missing.

Token butt shot.

The camera takes pictures whether or not you want to. I think I temporarily forgot what we were doing. 0020_tn

Shannon and Mr Fooz. 0022_tn

The dogs get good attention too (sometimes) 0024_tn

"real take" 1. I'm looking, Shannon's not. Fozzy's not. Callie is licking.

Losing focus... 0030_tn

The end of round 1 is marked with almost everyone leaving. 0031_tn

This was going to be the shot we sent out to everyone, but we realized that there was nothing good about it. 0032_tn

Fozzy just told Callie a joke.

Start of round 2. Notice that Chicken is actually looking in this one. 0034_tn

Moving the dogs into place.

Nobody looking.

For reference:

Shannon is looking at Chicken

Chicken is looking at Jason

Jason is looking at Callie

Fozzy is staring at Callie

Callie is staring into space

Bunny ears are so hilarious

End of round II 0056_tn

The camera never sleeps...

We're so funny 0058_tn

The end. Happy Holidays!

Christmas Outtakes

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.

0001

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

More Paint

how do you like the color?

Paint

Paint decisions...

More Basement

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

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.

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. : )