I think they both work overall, but there are issues with both. To me,the first room works pretty well at first glance. But when you take a longer look, I think there are a couple of issues. It looks like a room that a 'real person' decorated, using things they had in part. The chair shape is great, but the fabric on the chair is wrong for the room. Not because of the print, but because it is done in 'dirty' colors (and actually, looks like an old chair),a fact the pillows on it highlight. Were the chair done in a white duck or a lime and turquoise stripe, it would be fine. The rug is again a 'dirty' color, more olive; a plain cream or white rug, or a colorful large scale modern print, would do more for the space. I love the READ on the wall, because I believe the framed pieces are favorite books (one is Eric Carle's "The very busy spider"). But I guess that to me would be better on another wall, near a reading chair or beanbag in a kid's room, and a bookshelf. Then again, if the child is a voracious reader, nothing wrong with celebrating that fact! The second room is fine, except for the fact that all the color weight is low in the space, and the lampshade disappears against the wall and looks awkward with the little built-in above. Instead of the lamp on the night stand, I would have hung reading lights of some kind centered above each headboard, done in brass (for the nautical feel) with lampshades in a print with deep blue (no stripes to compete with the beadboard) or a solid dark blue. It also looks like the rug is running in the wrong direction for the pattern. I would have also preferred to mix up the decorative pillows on each bed, so they weren't matching but complimentary, but that is not a big deal.

Hello all, I thought I would post an update. Casey is doing remarkably well. He is calm and happy. There still has been no sign whatsoever of aggression toward the other dogs. Today they even got chewies and spent a few hours in bliss with them. Bina and Toby came and went out of the same space that Casey and I were in while they were chewing, and there was not even a sideways glance! Three weeks ago, if I had given chewies, Casey would have been locked in his cage and still would have growled if either of the other two came into the same room. He has been on the Phenobarbital since New Years Eve. At first I did not notice anything. Now I have noticed his back end swaying on three occasions. It is hard to describe, other than that, just an unsteadiness on his feet. Casey and Bina both went to their primary care vet on Saturday. He got his thyroid panel done. They are sending it to Michigan State University Vet School and it will be back in a couple of weeks. Casey will receive no more vaccination shots anymore, due to his neurological disorder. So we did not even run a Rabies titer on him. Bina had the basic blood panel done, CBC and such. I had a titer done for her Rabies immunity. I don't want to vaccinate a dog whose immune system is already causing autoimmune rhinitis. The vet agreed and said she could write a letter for Bina so that the kennel where we take them on our rare vacations might still let them board there. Both will need Bordetella nasal spray vaccines, though, she expects. I may try to get someone to dog sit at home so we don't have to do that, either. Bina was started on Deramaxx for pain. She clenched in pain when the doc simply touched her spine. She has been limping in the evening and when she has been lying for an extended time lately. I have brought in an assortment of dog beds, but she does not seem interested in lying on a cushy bed in the evening in the family room. Tonight I have more dog beds than floor space, but she appears to either prefer the carpeted floor or she is convinced that she is not worthy of a bed. What do you do when your dog has low self-esteem? So things go on here like normal. I hope we have a significant amount of "normal" here for at least a while. My DF-in-L was seen at the cancer center today for follow-up, and his cancer is back. We are kind of hoping that he decides not to treat it this time, the only treatment left is chemo, and he is not even well enough to sit up anymore. He is 93. We use the hoyer lift anytime we have to move him. We are hoping he decides on palliative care, because we believe he will have a better quality for his remaining days. In a few days he will be rested enough to decide about that. The dogs may be suffering a big loss soon. They love their grandpa and his caregivers very much.

"I mean here she is, she's had SS since Sunday morning and DH hasn't bothered her, bugged her, harrassed her. He lets her have HER time with SS and things are calm." Things may be calm in your house because there is no interaction with her, but my gut feeling is that she may be telling SS how daddy doesn't love/care about him because he doesn't even bother to call. Based on the things she's said to your DH, I get the impression she would do that. She wants her connection with SS to be exclusive & more important. She thinks it's normal the way she shows SS how much she "loves" him by calling & reminding him of it all the time. She may interpret DH not calling constantly as a lack of daddy loving SS... that is a disturbing thought I had. I would hope she wouldn't do/say those things. Anyway, if your DH is going to wait until she takes him to court, then until then he should set the boundaries in his home & stick to them. If he bends over to all of BM's ridiculous requests & allows BM to continue to interject herself in your home/rules/routines/life... then there is no reason for BM to ever take him back to court & he (&you) need to resign yourselves to the fact that BM is in charge of everything. If he is worried about being the one in violation of the court order, then HE needs to bring it back to the Judge to get clarification of what the boundaries are so y'all can live in peace. I don't get that BM is going to ever have an epiphany and say "Oh.. this isn't good for my DS, so I will behave myself." Nope. That's not gonna happen... she thinks she is right & nobody.. not DH.. not the Judge... not even her best friend or mother is going to convince her she is wrong. But, the court may intervene to protect SS from it & limit her contact if they knew all the details. If the court hears all the details & still doesn't see a reason to limit BM's involvement, then your DH has done all he can to protect his son. Earlier when I said that DH should let BM take him to court, it wasn't meant to say drop the issue until BM makes the first move, because she may never & you may never have peace. It was meant as in: DH needs to stand up to BM & do what's in SS's best interests and if BM has a problem with it, then BM can file to go back to court & explain to the court why she thinks what she wants is more important than what DH thinks is best for SS.

Just curious about your camera settings - do you have your camera set to the highest settings? Not sure what that would translate to in Pentax syntax - but in Nikon, mine is set to Fine. I have also set the colors to "vivid". I shoot only in JPEG - I don't have the time to mess with RAW. I fiddled with it a bit, and saw no difference in what I was doing. I have both Prime and Zoom high quality Nikor lenses - the quality of the image with the prime lens is very noticable. Are your lenses new? Or are they older lenses made pre-DSLR? I know that some older lenses are compatible with the new DSLR cameras, but lack the vibration reduction of their new counterparts - and on that note - do you have the vibration (or stabilization) turned on on your lenses if applicable? Post processing makes a big difference also. I have seen some "ok" photos that had a "HDR Action" applied to them in Photoshop - and they went from OK to STUNNING!