Special Delivery

Today, Lauri and I received a very special delivery. Lauri's Dad (check out some of his other work here)has been working very hard on hand crafting an absolutely beautiful cradle for the baby. Ever since we'd first talked with him about the design, we both knew that it was going to be beautiful. But when we saw it today for the first time, it was more than words could describe. And listening to him describe the modifications he'd made to the plans, as he'd received them, showed just how much love went into creating this cradle. Thank you again, this is going to be one photographed cradle. Probably even more so once the baby arrives...

From Left to Right: Ebony, Mahogany, Walnut, Mahogany, and Maple

The first 3 spindles in each corner have 1/8" dowels through them to add rigidity to the overall structure. I tried to get a close up shot, but it didn't turn out with my equipment, may need to borrow some of my Dad's lenses. All of the corners use dowels through the end grain of the perpindicular rails rather than screws.

Cross members are mortised into the end stands with a wedged dovetail type of joint. The wedges are made of Ebony to accent the construction.

P.S. sorry that the shots are so noisy, that's another reason I'll need to borrow some better equipment. I was really trying to use natural light so I had to bump my ISO way up. Maybe I'll use more flash next time.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Lost...

I started Watching Lost a season after it started, it was that darn replay of the first season that hooked me. So I've been watching it ever since, and was very excited last thursday when it finally returned for it's next season. I was looking at a blog I frequent today, and came across this cool little video recapping the entire show up until now. Pretty cool. There's alot left out, but I think they do a pretty good job of hitting the major points. What do you think?

Catching Up, Happy B-Day again Tony!

So here I am playing catch up, once again. Although this time I have my reasons (see my last post).

I forgot to mention that Saturday night we'd gone out to celebrate Tony's 30th Birthday at Bath City Bistro in Downtown Mt. Clemens to do some feather bowling (for those still wondering, Tony is my brother-in-law). Here are a few pictures from both the shower, and Tony's party. If you'd like to see more pictures from the shower, head over to my Dad's Blog where he has a slideshow of "a few" of the images he shot.
I'm not sure who picked out all the baby books that went on the tables, but this one really caught my eye as my Grandparents just had to put their old little dog, "Sparky", to sleep a few weeks ago. They'd only adopted Sparky a few years ago, but he quickly stole everyone's hearts and we thank God for the joy he brought to both of my Grandparents. I think they'll be on the lookout for another small dog to keep them company very soon, but it's going to be hard to replace Sparky.I'm sure it won't be too hard to find the outfit I picked out... Thanks again to Joan, Lindsey for throwing a great shower.Then it was off to light up Downtown Mt. Clemens, one wooden disc at a time!

What exactly was in the Birthday boy's glass?


Some were better at the feather bowling than others...
She's the some, I'm the others...

If he were to take that hat off, most of you wouldn't believe your eyes... For many years, my brother had let his hair grow out, But over the last few years the haircuts have been getting shorter and shorter. When this picture was taken, his hair was shorter than mine! We're twins again!
He really is quite shy...

Well now we know who NOT to let show our child how to get dressed... Now we know what was in the glass.

Update...

The last few days have been quite a rollercoaster for us, if you hadn't already heard...

On Saturday we had a great baby shower put on by Lauri's Mom, Sister, and girlfriends. We got a lot of great gifts and had a great time. Thanks to everyone who was there. My Dad has a slideshow on his blog if you'd like to check that out.

On Sunday, Lauri asked me if we'd ever installed the Carbon Monoxide detectors in the new house. As that was one of the first things I wanted to do when we got into the new house, I'd quickly realized that I had forgotten to do that. So I immediately ran out to the nearest hardware store and picked a few up (one for upstairs, one for downstairs), and installed them as soon as I got back. Shortly thereafter both alarms (upstairs and downstairs) were going off. So, Lauri's Mom (Grandma Joan) and Sister (Aunt Lindsey) got Lauri (and Baby) out of the house while Conrad (Grandpa Z) and I waited for an HVAC contractor to check out the situation. About a half hour later it was determined that we had cracked heat exchanger and we'd need a new furnace. So we moved into Joan and Conrad's house for the following few days while we were waiting to get a new furnace installed.

We also took a precautionary measure and took Lauri into the hospital so that they could monitor the baby for a little while, just to be sure. And while we were there I felt myself getting very achey and hot. I wasn't sure if this was all a byproduct of the CO exposure, or if it were something else. When we got back to the Zabor's house I finally took my temperature... 101.something! No wonder I was so hot! So for the next few days, on top of trying to get a new furnace installed and dealing with a home warranty company who doesn't want to pay for anything, I was also working my way through whatever virus had been going around. When it rains, it pours.

The moral of the story: Don't wait, get your Carbon Monoxide Detectors, and get a flu shot every year...

Hopefully when we get caught back up at home I'll be able to post some pictures. I have a few from my brother-in-laws birthday celebration this last weekend too.

Test Slideshow

I've posted a slideshow of a few of images from various wedding events on the right hand side of the page. It's under the Jim Shields Photography heading. This will probably be a constant "work in progress", so if you keep track of my blog check it out once and a while.

And if you are a frequent visitor, thanks.

Casa de Baby Shields...

It was a pretty crazy day around our house today. We got alot accomplished in the baby's room, and around the house in general. Here's a picture I took of the baby's room today. Not very exciting, but it will be much more complete within the next two weeks. Next week we get the new carpet (baby's room) and duct cleaning (whole house), after that I'll be able to put all the furniture in the baby's room, which will include putting the crib together. That ought to be a fun time... I've heard a few war stories from other Dad's about putting those things together. Well anyways, until the next baby's room update...

Disclaimer: I have no idea if this blog title is "proper" spanish, I never took that class. oh well.

Advent by Candlelight '07 update

I was just able to wrap up the slideshow for the Advent by Candlelight event I've previously posted about. It should be on our church's website (click here)in a couple of days. As soon as it goes online I'll update this post.

UPDATE:

Well, it's been up for a few hours now, but I just remembered to update this post. So click here for a link to the slideshow