Because my Parents aren't 'Facebook'ers' ...

Since my parents are not on Facebook, and since I am still fairly certain they read my blog (FAIRLY sure ... I think ... maybe ...) - I am reproducing a photo album I just made over there so they can see the photos. If you are on Facebook - you have already seen these and the captions since I plan on just copying everything directly over ...

(Note: now that I have completed this post I thought I would come 'up here' and mention that there are many 'asides' in parentheses in this post - nothing earth shattering, mind you - but it is different from the Facebook album ...)

*** Album on Facebook: "Finally! Gary Made Me Entry Tables ..." ***

Super excited (if you can't tell) that Gary finished my entry tables. They are made out of mahogany and Gary had to curve the wood to make them. We have lived in this house since we moved back from Norway in 2006 and have not had decent entry tables. Gary has built a lot of furniture for our house ... why it took us so long to figure out what we wanted in the entry - the first place people see ... is beyond me.

(Did move a few photos around...

I usually pick three photos that I want to display when you see my entry on the generic Facebook page - and even though this album was an 'in order' type of album - I was not willing to have Garys garage/shop and the early stages of table making showing - so I put three out of order. Threw two back in the mix and kept one here to introduce the post ....

I'm now thinking "Like anyone cares ... shut up about it already!")

Right table (OK, sounds weird to me: it is the 'table on the right side of the entry') - they really, really are beautiful!Where it all begins ...

Gary built a beautiful shop where he designs and builds stunningly beautiful furniture for our home: beautiful cabinetry, banks and banks of fluorescent lights, air conditioning, 220 power, sound system, any and all industrial strength power tools needed - and then some ... the works! He calls it his shop - Lori calls it the garage ...Bending the mahogany for the table.

Gary titled my photo: "Not Enough Clamps"

(He SHOULD have titled it: "Never Enough Clamps"!

We both make fun of the number of clamps the man has accumulated! He is seriously addicted to, of all things, clamps! Every time he goes to his favorite woodworking store he comes home with more!

He opened a box that came yesterday from a woodworking place and pulled out the hardware or whatever it was he needed and had ordered. But ... the box was not empty. With a chagrin-tinged smile on his face, I watched as he pulled out six new clamps!

The man sure does love his clamps!)Getting there - just needs the curved pieces ...Beautiful twins! In the process of being oiled.Almost ready - a few coats of polyurethane ....And voilà! New tables!Fun look at the tables now located where they will live ...'Dramatic' HDR photo of the entry ... just for funPanoramic - stitched together - photo of the entire entry area ... now complete with tables!

(This is a series of seven photographs I took upstairs of the entry. For some reason, Photoshop had a difficult time with it. I almost gave up on the program thinking it was hung in the blending phase, but it chugged away for a good 15 minutes putting this puppy together and blending the bits so there were no lines- then popped out an hour glass shaped 'photo'.

I tried with 'warp' to make it more square - my thinking being that all the photos that I took were square (OK - square'ish ...), plop them one on top of the other and you have a rectangle shaped photo, right?


Wrong.


Was totally forgetting about that little detail: 'perspective'.

Don't know why this particular seven proved to be so difficult for Photoshop - I have stitched together 20 and 22 photos at a time before and they zipped right along ...

Well, zipped at a pace of a program trying to stitch twenty photos together, lining them up perfectly and blending them!

I suppose time is sort of relative here ...


And - isn't this just the FUNKIEST, MIND BENDING photo that you have seen in a while?)Table on the left. Hmmm - the little shelf is going to have to be moved up a bit ...One more look at the entry ...One more birds eye view of the entry ...

(Yeah, yeah it looks like a lot of duplicated photos, I know. But if you look close I have done very different things to each of them.

This one has an abstract feel - everything is flattened and cartoonish ...

I made it using big 'strokes' to 'paint in' the photo. It is, well, not blurred - but un-detailed. I reduced the level of detail in the photo dramatically then put it through a routine that smooths it, leaving it with a soft, moderately detailed, abstract look.)Fun view of the entry from the upstairs walkway - soon it will be complete!

(Um, this was one of the 'first three' I explained above - the comment seems a wee bit out of order here ...)Entry in HDR ...

(Getting better with my HDR photography ...

Meaning that the post processing software is making a twee bit more sense and I can do things with it other than pick the defaults provided with the software.

This photograph is using a personalized group of settings that I created and can now use on any set of HDR photos in the future ...)One final shot of one of my beautiful mahogany tables ...

(So ... how observant are you?

Notice anything different between this one (and the other close up) and all the rest of the shots of the tables?

I know, I know - the photo is waaay down there! Scroll down, give it a look - I'll wait ....


....




....




....



Hmmm?


Yes?


No?


I ordered the tree sitting on the table online and it showed up this afternoon so I replaced the bowl or whatever I finally ended up with on the table with the tree. Most of my photos were taken before it arrived.

The tree is rather cute, but a little disappointing. It is the size I was looking for even though I will have to move the lower shelf on the wall up a bit, but it is light - thus feeling a bit ... 'cheap'. It is made completely out of metal so I would assume it would be heavier ... it just doesn't feel right.

It comes with a plaque that says "The Hurst Family" and on the line below: "Est. 1981". The second line was non-negotiable and not really my style. You could put what ever you wanted (in 30 letters or less) on the first line, but the second one HAD to start with 'Est.' - they even told you that you had to type it in to the entry form specifying what you wanted it to say, but either way - it was starting with 'Est.'.

Seems odd that they would care what you put on the second line? My thinking is they had a warehouse full of little gold plaques with the word 'Est.' already engraved in the second line! What do you think?

Oh, and I have not done it yet - but it came with six itty bitty metal frames on strings that you are supposed to hang on the tree. And I mean itty bitty now that I've seen them!

I also bought the extra six just in case ('in case of ...' what - I am unsure, but I ALWAYS (mostly) purchase the extras with something if they are offered based solely on the reasoning that in the future SHOULD I NEED EXTRAS ... I will have them and most likely not able to purchase them at that point - probably a bit of 'Murphy' talking there ... It feels very 'Boy Scout'ish' to me ...).

We are definitely not a 'Twelve Frame Cute Family' for sure - so maybe I will end up with landscapes or flowers in them, or nothing at all - I don't mind the tree 'naked'...


Um, the: "Twelve Frame Cute Family" means we are not cute enough to fill up twelve frames - looking at it, it sort of made sense at the time I typed it ... but now - not so much.)Like I said in the intro - it is weird that we have waited so long to get tables in the entry when it is the ONE place GUARANTEED that visitors will see. Apparently we are not that worried about visitors first impressions ... or their second or third - but I don't think that is any big secret about us now, is it?

And ... unless we do some considerable moving about of furniture ...


... or a fire breaks out and destroys a few rooms ...


... or a roving gang of 'oak loving thieves', equipped with dollies and a truck/trailer combo, break into our house and steal rooms of furniture ...


... or any number of scenarios Gary is secretly 'dreaming of the day when ...'


those tables were the VERY LAST TWO PIECES OF FURNITURE Gary can build for this house!

End tables, night stands, desks, bed frames, dressers - you name it - he has built it and there is not a nook, cranny or crevice in this house that NEEDS a piece of furniture.

Now, there might be a few nooks that will GET a piece of furniture, but that is different than 'Checked-All-The-Boxes filled'.

As in:

Family room:

TV: check.

Couches or chairs: check.

Shelves: check.

And until just recently - we couldn't 'check' the 'End Table' box ... but, alas ... now we can.

Can even check the box: 'Extraneous-Unnecessary-But-Still-Looks-Fine-And-Almost-Like-It-Was-Planned Sofa Table' box since Ryan's set didn't fit in his apartment, or something - I was not there when Gary and Ryan moved him into his apartment, but (and I am now wondering if I got this right - but I am too lazy to go upstairs and look at what furniture is up there - embarrassing that I really have no clue ...) Gary brought back the two end tables and the sofa table that he had built for him that matches our furniture also.

So ... that's all folks!



Our house is DONE!




Finished.




Full.




Complete.




Comfortable.




Lovely.




Whole.




Just right.






Which is also why Gary is - at this very minute, out in the garage building himself a miter saw bench for his shop ...